#there are a LOT more i could include but... we'll leave it here for now lol

[makeyoumine69]

squirting w/ patrick??

I'm so unwell about this.

NSFW

When you mentioned that you'd never experienced anything like squirting before, Patrick took it as a personal challenge, a kind of sacred duty. And he was really obsessed with this idea, so the man spent a lot of time exploring your body, catching every little reaction you made whenever he twisted, curled or scissored his fingers deep inside you. Sometimes you could get really overstimulated after the long fingering sessions Patrick gave you, but still something was missing, something that could finally turn you into a gushing, lightheaded mess.

And Bateman was more than determined to find that lost little piece of the puzzle.

One day, after the perfect dinner you had in Arcadia, he invited you to his place. Everything was pretty casual, on a high level, as Patrick always preferred, but the moment you stepped into his lavish apartment, you had the feeling that something was odd—the way he looked at you all evening with that crazy sparkle in his hazel eyes, his little sly smirks, his spontaneous touches here and there that were a little too possessive to display in public.

But the main course was waiting for you in his bedroom. 

With your eyes closed by his large palms, Patrick led you into his sanctuary, the soft, slightly chilly breeze fanning over your body as he closed the door behind the two of you, and when he finally regained your ability to see, the first thing you spotted was a lonely standing chair in the middle of the room. The same high-backed chair that had been in his living room the last time you were here.

Bateman's grin grew wider the more confused you looked, but he didn't say anything, leaving you completely bewildered and lost. The soft thud of his perfectly polished leather shoes was the only sound that filled the room.

Click, click, click.

Paralyzed, you couldn't move or think rationally as his hot breath wafted around your exposed neck—you felt like a puppet and Patrick was the one pulling the strings. Pressing a light kiss along your jawline, the man walked past you to the chair and placed a hand on its back, hiding one of his hands in his pants pockets. 

"Please, take a seat," he grinned with his classic charming smile that radiated nothing but sweetness—the kind that humans use to lure prey into a trap. "Don't stand there like you're not welcome."

It was a dangerous game you were playing, but you obeyed. However, it was not as if you had any other options. 

As soon as your shoulder blades touched the cool wooden back of the chair, you gasped and Patrick found it no less than hot and alluring as he stood behind you and gently stroked your head in an strangely soothing way. Panting, you could practically feel how cold your limbs were getting, even though the adrenaline rush was boiling your blood, but everything was working in such a fucked up way. 

Literally everything—including you.

"Do you remember telling me that you consider yourself more adventurous than not?" His sudden question took you by surprise. "Uh, I don't even know why I suddenly remembered that?"

Liar.

With a soft chuckle, he strolled over the chair to the other side of his bedroom, where a huge mirror gave a perfect view of the white walls, making everything around look like an operating room where you were a patient and he was your doctor.

Thrilled, you took a moment to clear your throat, clutching the firm edge of the chair with both hands. "Why are you bringing it up now?"

The man hummed, dragging a large technical device into the middle of the room to place it almost directly in front of you, so you could realize it was a fucking camera. "Answering a question with a question, really? Not a very polite thing to do." Patrick scoffed, adjusting the camera on its tripod before looking into it to focus on your humiliated form. "But that's okay. Tonight we'll see how adventurous you really are."

Huffing, you watched him pick up something that reminded you of duct tape—the man was absolutely cold-blooded in his movements, as if he did this every day, but maybe he really did? 

"Tell me," he murmured in your ear once he was behind your back again. "Are you my good girl?"

As he bent down to your neckline, Patrick seized the moment to draw a wet line all the way down your throat with his tongue, stopping only at your cheek. The aura this man radiated was so dark but so intoxicating that you didn't even make a sound when he possessively snaked his hand into your dress to grab your breast and tease your nipple, and of course he knew it would be so hard as your arousal could be smelled in the air.

"Yes," you looked back at him, your body shaking against the chair, he could feel it, savoring it like the most delicious meal, like the thrill of the kill. "I am."

And at that moment you knew it was over.

The sticky duct tape cuffed your hands behind the back of the chair, the hem of your dress pulled up with no underwear underneath, the red light on the camera blinking agonizingly. The fucking camera recorded it all—how Patrick abused your sopping cunt with his fingers, the cold metal of his Rolex brushing against your tender skin only adding to the wicked sensations rippling through every little fiber of you—and it was only the beginning.

"'C'mon, babydoll," Bateman drew near your face to hold it in one place and make sure you were looking directly at the camera. "If you could say that when we were alone, you could say it on camera."

Squirming in the seat, you were on the brink of bursting into fucking tears as he used his fingers with phenomenal accuracy, brushing them perfectly against your G-spot and the rhythm, goddamn it! Even the tempo he maintained was as if he was right inside your mind, knowing when to speed up and when to slow down a bit, to edge you a little, to delay the inevitable.

"Pat-Patrick!" You barely managed to say anything coherent, and Bateman seemed to enjoy doing everything he could to make it even more challenging. "Mhmh…fuck…please…t-that's too much!"

Patrick could only chuckle at your pitiful attempt to soften him up, the wide wolfish smile never leaving his face—it only grew wider the second he slapped your heavy breasts with his large palm, eliciting a loud whimper to escape your swollen lips.

"I didn't ask you to beg," the man replied, his gruff voice drawing out all the sounds around you, including the obscene squelching sound your pussy made every time he slid his fingers in and out. "I only asked you to tell the truth."

Increasing the pressure on the sensitive spot inside you, Bateman caught one of your taut nipples between his thumb and forefinger, twisting and pinching it until it was painful, the fingers of his other hand moving like clockwork at high speed, curled and buried deep. The friction against your soft inner walls was so intense that at one point you felt a strange, rising tension in your lower body—something familiar, but always frightening.

"Oh, God, Patrick!" You literally blurted out, squirming in the chair, your feet scattering mercilessly across the floor. "Fine...fine! I will...tell...I will fucking tell!" You tried to move your head, but Bateman grabbed your neck and forced you to stay still. What a fucking bastard. "I'm...I'm a dirty slut..."

Suddenly Patrick yanked your head back and sucked on your throbbing artery. "A dirty slut who...? Keep going, brat."

With that, he pressed his wet thumb against your red-hot clit, rubbing it with reckless abandon, you were ready to explode at any second, but Bateman still craved to complete his crude ritual of degrading you.

"...I'm a dirty slut who...likes her pussy to be ruined," you hiccupped at the last words. "A-ahhh...I love it...s-so much!"

Patrick let out a low groan and slid one of his fingers into your mouth to touch your wet tongue. "Ruined by who?" He asked, withdrawing his finger to suck it.

Balancing on the last semblance of a clear mind, you locked your dizzy eyes with his, feeling the wet pool forming under your ass on the chair. "By you."

Honestly, you could expect anything from this man, but not that when he finally allowed you to reach your peak, making you gush like a fucking waterfall, he would bring you closer to kiss you wildly on the lips, drinking in all your moans and never stopping to push his fingers inside you, even when the sleeve of his designer suit was soaked wet with your cum. 

He just didn't fucking care.

Bateman's mind was so far away already, imagining the nights he would watch this tape, which would surely be his favorite, and oh, he would definitely make you watch it with him, and who knew, maybe this would not be the only time he would film you in such an extravagant way.

After all, Patrick truly believed that his technique of bringing you to orgasm was nothing less than a work of art that deserved to be filmed.

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

Poppy Playtime: True Ending (all toys saved, all secrets founds)

Synopsis: Angel saved all the toys inside PlayCo, and is now sitting outside waiting for the authorities to appear. What will happen now? Warnings: Canon-typical violence. Story is in 2nd person but Angel is their own character here. THIS HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD SO THERE WILL BE ERRORS. Have fun, byeee.

You are shaking.

Granted, this is the first time in the last two weeks that you aren't trembling due to fear of being killed or due to the cold, but anxiety. You're scared, still riding off adrenaline and without any idea of what could happen now, and you are certain that in any moment, you'll end up dropping unconscious on the floor. And yet, you don't. You cannot, really, considering your situation.

You take a deep breath, the smell of smoke filling your senses. Despite your best efforts, your hands are still dirty with dried blood.

Dogday lies against you, eyes turned towards the Sun. His white pupils seem to be sparkling in amazement; this is the first time in more than a decade that he has seen the Sun. Maybe two, who knows, you're too tired to do the math. You scratch his head, but he doesn't look away from the sky. The beautiful open sky. You had taken it for granted a few times in your life. Only a few. Never again. Never again...

Kissy is on your right side, anxiously holding your arm. Poppy is on your lap, still holding your Nokia phone and telling the kind 911 operator of your situation. You wonder how anxious she would be feeling if you were the one talking there... She was at the verge of tears before speaking up. "Understood, miss", she tells the second normal human she ever interacted with in the past decade. "Please warn them to be careful, we went through a lot and don't want to deal with even more".

You scratch her head. Huggy is next to your rundown car, on the other side of the parking lot, the mini critters and wuggies running around. Some of them grab the leaves and jump at the newfound texture. Others try digging in the dirt. One of them points at the car and ask each other how they can disassemble it. Catnap, standing right next to them, shakes his head. "This belongs to our Savior".

Baba is also sitting next to you. She watches over the mini nightmares debating over something you don't fully understand, as some of them climb over Catnap. He doesn't mind the act. Doey, on the other hand...

You stare at him. Little Simon is still sleeping on his arms, too anxious to join the others. Doey adjusts his own hat, his eyes going from corner to corner, especially towards where the little ones of Safe Haven are. Marie is taking good care of them, sitting on the concrete floor as they analyze flowers. Delight is next to her, tilting her head in curiosity as a centipede crawls over her hands, eyes sparkling. "This is fascinating!", she announces, happily stimming with her feet.

"... Doey?"

You reach your hand to him. He flinches before blinking, taken out of his trance. Upon noticing your worried stare, he forces a smile on his face: "I'm okay, Angel, no need to worry about me".

"And what about the other two?", you ask again, not letting go of him.

He's once again caught off-guard. You thought that by this point, the three kids would have gotten used to being equally acknowledged. Guess there's still work to be done, but we'll be alright. We have time, now. Just enough time.

"We're fine", Kevin grunts, looking away.

"Just tell me when it's too much, alright, kiddos? Don't want the sirens to scare you guys. They sound similar to the stuff back at PlayCo."

"I said we're fine", and there goes that familiar growl. "Shoosh, leave them".

"Matthew, let Kevin speak. It's okay for him to be upset".

"We can't scare the others"

"The others would like for all three of you to speak a bit", you reply, shaking your head. "Including Jack. Is he alright?"

"...", Doey shakes, before timidly nodding and fidgeting with his hands. "... I am".

You give him a smile. Dogday bumps his head against his shoulder, and Jack relaxes, his tense body softening. He repeats the gesture towards the critter, confirming that he'll be alright.

Pianosaurus and Yarnaby then bump their heads against your legs, both of them with plants hanging out from their mouths. Poppy jumps on your lap: "Thank you for the... Bouquet", you tell them, accepting the offering. Yarnaby purrs as a response, sitting on the ground. "Ollie, ya okay, kid?"

The baby long legs stares at you with that very, very energetic look of his, wrapped around a blanket and shaking in his lone seat next to yours. "It's fucking cold", he growls, grumpy as ever.

"Language!", Dogday warns him.

"We're not inside PlayCo. anymore, we can say whatever we want now, you dingus".

"Please don't have another argument before we arrive at the hospital", you ask the duo, sighing again. "... Want another blanket, Ollie?"

"I want a warm room away from this cold, that's what I want".

"Wait an hour or two, then".

"Urgh".

"You welcome".

You close your eyes, feeling the Sun against your skin. The Prototype's words echo in your head, the promise you two made still there:

These kids shall be safe and happy.

You can still hear the mechanical sounds his legs made when he walked. A part of you swears that it can feel him watching over your bunch from inside the factory, despite the cameras outside not being functional anymore. You don't doubt he would be capable of finding a way to watch the scene, though.

You stare at the burning parts of the factory in the background, and, before you can start doubting if this will grab the authorities' attention, you hear sirens in the background.

Cop sirens, to be exact.

Poppy looks up to you, Doey jumps on his seat, and you put the doll on Kissy's lap before jumping over Yarnaby:

"KIDS!", you call the others. "EVERYBODY, GET BACK THERE, THEY'RE COMING!"

Just one word:

FUCK.

Why did it have to be the COPS the first people to pop up, and not a fucking ambulance?! Fuckfuckfuckfuck. Just. Shit. FUCK (again). You are so, SO fucking lucky sometimes, urgh. Let's hope they don't scare the kids even more.

Huggy, Catnap, Marie and Doey help you retrieve the chaos gremlins back to the group. You count: All +100 of them are there, with no exceptions. You hold Doey's face and tell him to remain strong, you tell Kissy and Huggy that they have nothing to fear with you around, you assure Marie and Catnap don't make a murder plan, and you sit back on your seat.

The first car that appears makes your stomach curl. You stare at it, unmoving. The tension is palpable. The kids are anxious, terrified and horrified when the two cops get out of the car and turn to you.

You stare at them, suddenly more aware than ever that you have visible blood stains on your clothes and you must be looking like hell, and they stare at you in silence, approaching with their mean looks. Poppy moves on your seat, clinging to you even more, her call having just ended.

You stare at the cops again.

The cops stare at you again.

You bite your tongue. They aren't approaching you anymore, instead, stopping several meters away from your group, wide-eyed, and then you realize that they aren't reaching for their guns.

Finally, you roll your eyes:

"Do we have a problem here, officer?"

The guy you think is the oldest of the duo, a pale man with sunken brown eyes, seems taken completely off-guard for a moment. Bunzo clings to your leg, anxious. PJ Pug-a-Pillar tilts his head in curiosity, and you notice that Delight is waving at the duo.

"W...", the younger man's voice fails him. "What the-"

"Don't ya finish that sentence, there's kids there", you grunt, noticing the other cars appearing. "We need as many ambulances as possible, now. The kids needs medical attention".

"What happened there?", the officer demands, and his eyes go to the very much still burning piece of factory. You glance back at it for a moment before returning your attention to him.

"Executives", you shrug, aaaand more people pop out of the cars. "Tell your friends to back off, it's been a decade since these kids saw other people, and they bite".

"This is private property. What are you doing here?"

Private property, private property my fucking ass- "get your friends to back off, or else I won't say shit to you".

"You have no right-"

"Mister Officer, please, you must listen!"

You would have laughed at the guy's face upon seeing Poppy getting up from your seat. Catnap growls as a response to his voice tone, and you don't know if it's the sound he makes or his movements, but it seems convincing enough for the asshole to actually back off, and actually and properly inform the rest of the group to not approach.

"Thank you", Poppy mutters.

"Don't thank him", you scratch her head. "I am in private property because the owner of this frickin' place invited me in because he and these kids were stuck in there for the past decade. I need a dang ambulance for once".

"And who is the owner?"

You almost say Elliot Ludwig, but even your own tolerance for absurdity isn't high enough to buy that one. So you bite your tongue, you stay on your seat, and you hear more sirens echoing in the background.

"Long ass story", you mutter, before getting up, bag on one hand, Poppy in another.

You have no idea how or why, but the officer almost doesn't react when you approach him. His friend places a hand on his gun, but you don't react either, merely giving him the heavy bag.

"These are the documents", you tell him, watching the ambulances arrive.

"Did you steal these documents?"

"They were given to me", you half-lie, half-tell the truth.

"I'll have to ask you to follow me, ma'am, and tell me why there's a fire happening in an abandoned factory".

"W-wait, no!", Poppy desperately stares at you, wide-eyed. "T-they can't go, we need them!"

You merely unzip your jacket, exposing your very much still bleeding out shoulder and your very much still soaked in blood torso, and shrug.

You see people coming out of the ambulances. Bunzo runs to you, grabbing your leg as he stares at the officer, wide-eyed. "I-I won't let you take mama away!"

Well, there goes the cop's control of the situation, because now some of the minis also approach you, clinging to both your legs and back, and you know they look too realistic and move too naturally for them to be animatronics or robots. Other cops start moving to approach you, and you...

Yawn.

Damn, you're tired as hell-

A guy presents himself as the lieutenant, and another as the deputy chief. You tilt your head. Looks like your way of grabbing attention may have worked too well...

Marie's hand grabs your good shoulder. You don't react to her staring at the group, merely waiting for your permission to probably kill them or something worse. Despite what you wish you can do, you merely hold her hand. The deputy chief grabs the bag, and stares at the nurses who just got out of the ambulance before petting the shoulders of the first officer.

"Looks like we got big fish in our hands", he tells the guy. Uhm. Okay. "Go take these things to the ambulance. Let us handle the rest".

You blink, remembering what the Prototype told you about many people knowing about what PlayCo. was doing, but never doing anything about it. You stare at the man's eyes, and you aren't very good with judging people by looks but your stomach curls around itself, and you know one damn thing.

He stares at you with a certain disdain and hatred in his eyes. You smile. You hear a helicopter approaching, alongside a van from a news report. Your smile widens, a shit eating grin that goes from ear to ear as you realize who has the power over the situation.

"Looks like the mess you ignored finally caught up to you, eh, officer?"

You turn your back to the group, unafraid. "W-what's going on, Angel?", Dogday asks on his seat, terrified, as you put Poppy on his lap.

"Oh, a lot", you now grab your actual backpack, reaching for your water bottle as the kids stare at you, anxious. "A whole, whooole lot".

"What are they going to do?", Marie asks in a whisper. "Should we...?"

"Nope. We aren't killing anyone, pirralhada", you take a generous sip of water. "We just hit the jackpot".

You hear the number of people growing in the background. Good thing you told the kids to keep themselves quiet, and even better thing that they are listening.

"We're going to take whatever remains of PlayCo. down. And, most importantly, we'll make sure the people who didn't help you guys pay. But, right now?"

You turn towards the humans again.

"Right now, we gotta go to the hospital".

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

Could we get the Claymore Queens (and anyone else of your choice) reacting to their SO trying to be tough for their sake, not saying anything, not wincing (or trying not to), not complaining, although they're not in the best condition?

(Genshin Impact) Clorinde, Eula, Dehya, Beidou, Navia, Noelle, Furina and Xinyan's S/O trying to tough out their injuries

"Nah, I'd win." - Me at 1hp to my friends after getting hit by a boss's move dead on.

Clorinde has been in so many duels to the point where she can tell someone is bluffing, simply by their body language alone.

S/O was heavily injured: their legs were slightly trembling, breathing heavy, and weapon shaking.

And she's only glanced at them for a few seconds. They were in no condition to keep going, even if they insisted otherwise.

(Clorinde) "You need to rest, S/O. If we get into another fight, you've already lost."

She rests a firm but affectionate hand onto their shoulders in an attempt to get them to relax.

(Clorinde) "Getting yourself killed will not prove to me that you are strong."

Eula frowns the moment she hears her S/O say they're fine.

She doesn't even need to look at them, Eula immediately turns around and tells them what they need to hear.

(Eula) "You are not fine. Tend to your wounds, I won't be the one dragging your unconscious body back to Mondstadt."

Though her words are harsh, it comes from a place of concern and love.

She'd prefer not to have S/O injured at all and be the one in their shoes instead, but it'd at least make her heart rest easier knowing they were out of harm's way and recovering.

(Eula) "At the very least, just wrap the bandages around yourself."

Dehya scoffs and crosses her arms, shoulders sagging as she raises a single eyebrow.

(Dehya) "Psh, yeah right. I'm sure that blood dripping down your arms means you're completely rarin' to go, right?"

She shakes her head as she forces them to sit down, and with her arm strength and S/O's injuries, it is very easy to do.

(Dehya) "Sit still for a sec, you're not fooling anyone."

Dehya knows they weren't trying to worry her, but if anything this was doing the opposite.

...Then again, she can't exactly blame them. She'd probably do the same right now.

Beidou lightly punches their arm, and when S/O yelps out, that solidifies her decision.

(Beidou) "Thought so. You're sitting this one out for now."

Beidou's top priority is always the safety of her crew, S/O was no exception.

She doesn't take no for an answer easily, and Beidou does not care how much S/O tries to convince her otherwise.

(Beidou) "You'd convince me a lot more if you weren't hissing every single time my hand brushed against you, y'know."

Navia isn't even listening to S/O try to insist that they're fine.

Navia, along with some bodyguards that appeared out of nowhere, are already tending to their injuries.

(Navia) "We'll get you fixed up in no time, you leave everything to me!"

Her heart is pounding when she's looking at their injuries, trying her best to block the unpleasant thoughts out of her head.

What matters the most right now is that S/O not push themselves anymore for her sake.

Navia needed them to be okay.

(Navia) "No more of that talk, S/O! You're resting here and that's final! Gentlemen, S/O does not move an inch from this spot, understood?"

(Bodguards) "Yes. ma'am!"

Noelle pouts when she sees S/O trying to walk beside her.

Absolutely not! They weren't even in the condition to help her clean.

Granted, not a lot of people can clean an entire wagon just by lifting it with one arm, S/O included, but her point still stands.

(Noelle) "I do not think so! S/O, I ask you leave this work to me! You sit here and rest, I'll clean the rest of this mess up!"

Noelle is twice as determined to ensure not a single enemy gets through her. Her goal was to make S/O not worry, not the other way around!

As a dutiful maid should!

Plus, S/O knows if they try to protest, Noelle is using that superhuman strength to make them stay put.

Furina's fists clench when she sees S/O try to smile despite the heavy hits on their body.

...No. Enough was enough.

S/O would not get themselves hurt anymore for someone like her.

(Furina) "Do you take me for a fool, S/O?! I demand that you take a seat this instant!"

Her expression is angry, angrier than S/O had ever seen Furina.

But it quickly simmers down once her voice starts shaking.

(Furina) "I'd never forgive myself if you tried to keep going simply to not make me worry...Just be honest and tell me you have to rest!"

The irony of being honest was not lost on her, but they already knew the truth about her.

It's only fair that they didn't lie about how they were either.

Xinyan walks in front of S/O, hands on her hips.

(Xinyan) "Heck no, ya ain't fine! Ya look like yer about to keel over!"

She rushes to them and ushers for them to sit on the ground, while getting a few bandages out.

(Xinyan) "'Fine' my butt! You're lookin awful! Please just take a rest!"

A sigh of relief leaves her body once S/O complies, allowing her to tend to all their bruises.

It pained her to even see them this injured, but if anything, they won't strain themselves any further for her.

[theanimeroom]

BOMBSHELL | TEASER

synopsis: five men, five women, one villa. with hearts and a $50,000 cash prize on the line, who will win the race to find love?

warnings: love island au featuring: tokyo revengers, blue lock, and jujutsu kaisen, lots of kissing, smut, multi characters × reader, lots of mixed pairings, very random challenges, fluff, slow burns, mentions of cheating, drama, angst, plenty of tears, multi fandom, and playlists included!

a/n: content warnings will be posted with each chapter, so be sure to read thoroughly before indulging! i haven't written a full fic in a while, so any beta readers would be appreciated to make sure that the story comes out as best as it could <3 the story will progress through my own discretion as well as voting at the end of each chapter, so make sure to cast your votes to see how the plot will unfold!

BOMBSHELL MASTERLIST

your heartbeat was erratic as you stood in front of the fire pit and your host, eyes scanning the expanse of the large, beautiful villa that you'd been staying at for the past four weeks.

you still remember the first day that you walked in here; a plethora of pretty faces greeting you with happy smiles and intrigued expressions. you reminisced the way that you were almost as nervous as you are now, eyes wide and palms clammy as you tried to ignore the growing anxiety surging through you. you thought about all the experiences you'd had up until this point, all the friends you made, all the things you learned about yourself, and most importantly, him.

out of everything that you had been through in your time at the villa, one thing that made the whole experience worth it was finally meeting the person of your dreams. you came onto the show thinking that it would be something fun, maybe slightly embarrassing, but fun nonetheless. you never thought that you would come out the end with someone that you could call your own, someone who understood you seemingly better than you knew yourself. despite all the fights, all the tears, and everything in between, you managed to come out the other end okay. happy even.

and you weren't the only one.

your gaze fluttered to your best friend, who stood two people away from you, a proud smile crossing your lips even with your nerves consuming you. you weren't the only person who came into the villa with baggage on their shoulders, yet none of you let it stop you. a brief image of you holding her as she cried into your arms flashed through your mind, the sadness and betrayal leaving her a wreck in your makeup room. you'd thought for a moment that it would be the end of your time together, yet you were happy to see her pull through and find happiness in the end.

everyone here had done their absolute best, even with their rights and wrongs, and that thought alone was enough to quell the queasy feeling building up in your stomach.

"alright islanders, it is officially time," the hosts' voice chopped through the nerve-wracking silence with ease, her calm expression giving no hints as to how the end of the night would go. a long sigh escaped your flared nostrils as you closed your eyes, teeth grazing your bottom lip as you forced your emotions to stay in check.

a soft hand turned your attention to your left, air escaping you as you looked up at the man you could truly say you were starting to love. he smirked at you, his own expression laced with playfulness as he tried his best to calm you down. a large grin spread across your face when you felt fingers interlocking with yours, a gentle squeeze giving you all the reassurance you needed to keep yourself grounded for the time being. your breath halted as he leaned down, lips just barely touching the shell of your ear as he whispered to you softly. "we'll be fine, baby."

you pulled away so you could glance into his eyes, a small nod giving him confirmation that you heard what he said. you trust him, probably more than you should.

"it has been a long, hard journey for those of you remaining," your host started, giving a soft smile to each of the islanders standing on the other side of the firepit. "yet, each of you has managed to find a connection here in the villa. although some of you have been through more struggles than others," you could feel the heat rising onto your face when your eyes made direct contact with hers, a snort escaping you as you laughed with the rest of the islanders that you could now call your best friends. "you all have made it to the finals, and are now in the running for the 50,000 dollar prize on the line."

you subconsciously tightened your grip on his hand at the mention of the prize, your body weight shifting from one foot to the other. you wanted to win, wanted that 50,000 so badly so you could finish your schooling without issues. yet, you were content with whatever outcome was prepared for you. in the end, as long as you had him next to you, you would give up the money in a heartbeat.

"since the start of the show, the country has been voting for their favorite love island couple," each word she spoke left your anxiety spiking, your mind begging her to just hurry up and give the results before your heart exploded from suspense. "but now, they have voted for their official love island winner."

you held your breath as you stared at the host, silence taking over the villa as she picked up a small envelope from the couch behind her. you eyed the paper with angst as she peeled it open slowly, reading the results before looking up at the lot of you behind the fire pit.

you watched as her jaw flexed, a breath getting sucked into your mouth as your heart started to beat so fast you thought it would jump out of your chest.

her mouth opened, eyes scanning the crowd before the first words left her lips. "and the winner... of love island is..."

[confuzing]

could we hear more abt ur super secret au/transmigrated apartment building au? 🥺 i'm a big fan of these sorts of AUs, and i can never get enough of them

The apartment building is 5 stories, 4 apartments per floor. Initial headcount is 34 people, 4 dogs, 6 cats, 2 turtles, a snake and a tank of goldfish.

The apartment transmigrated in the middle of the night when everyone was home so most people just suddenly woke up Elsewhere. (Some people were not asleep.)

Specifically they're in PIDW post worlds merging, so the mountain they're at the foot of is Bai Lu Mountain, and the river they're on the banks of is the Luo, but the closest human settlement is HHP and it's several days away. (Far enough away no one at HHP immediately notices the building).

(Why yes, this Luo Binghe has gone on a weird thought provoking trip to another universe- but we'll worry about him later.)

Airplane and Cucumber Bro are the only two who've read PIDW (some more people read it later but most of them wait for the version SY makes where he strips out the story and just leaves a glossary of plants, animals and such). That plus Airplane's natural aptitude for logistics and SY's ability to figure out problems not involving his own emotions quickly puts the pair of them in a semi-leadership position. There's lots of little apartment meetings while they figure out what exactly to do. Which is start a tea room- they need money-get some animals to raise, start growing food, figure out securing their water and electricity, and let the med students help out the occasional traveler in need.

They figure out the mountain is Bai Lu when a few of the adults, including Airplane, investigate the little girl who loves snakes' report of a "nice weird snake guy" in the woods. This culminates in Airplane and Cucumber Bro sitting around an extremely confused Tianlang Jun trying to figure out how to un-trap him when they only got spiritual veins two weeks ago.

Tianlang Jun: ...Why?

Shen Yuan: What you think we can just go home knowing you're here? Sounds like something assholes would do and we aren't assholes. *pats his head*

Tianlang Jun: ...huh. All desires for vengeance against humanity have suddenly left my body.

They do eventually get him out and Tianlang Jun and Zhuzhi-lang move into one of the empty apartments in the building. Tianlang Jun is in Rough shape but luckily the med students are very eager and have a great time testing things out on the Heavenly Demons (Zhuzhi-lang volunteered for it, it's fiiiine. And look! Now they know giving heavenly demons blood thinners is a bad idea! Science!)

The Heavenly Demons get attached to the apartment residents pretty quickly and wind up acting as bouncers and guards for the building once they're on their feet.

Tianlang Jun looooves movies, and modern music and books and the building has a lot of them. The token white guy James has been cataloguing everyone's movies, books and such so they can set up an inter- apartment lending system. And also it's a good idea for everyone to know that the single Mom on the top floor has all the books about gardening you could ever want. (She's the one who starts propagating the tomatoes and such).

One last fun thing, Airplane is taller than Cucumber Bro in this AU. Shen Yuan is borderline short thanks to the lifetime of medical issues. He's not salty about it.

[ckret2]

Chapter 45 of human Bill Cipher would give anything to be trapped in the Mystery Shack again; The Eclipse, part 3.

Whatever's making gravity disappear in Gravity Falls is accelerating; Bill continues to insist he knows exactly what it is but won't say what; Ford's getting pretty fed up with him; and poor Dipper's just got to put up with them.

Oh, and totality arrives.

Bill woke up before full dawn with his cheek in half an inch of water.

He sat up with a gasp. The movement flung his bedsheet off; it floated gently in the air. Bill's exhalations moved it faster than gravity did. The lake was flooding the tent.

He was collapsed halfway out of his tent. He crawled the rest of the way out, dry heaved, splashed some water on his face, forced himself to his feet, and looked at the golden sky.

He didn't like what he saw.

####

Ford and Dipper were woken up by "Reveille" playing on a kazoo. "Rise and shine, puppets, the situation's gotten worse!"

Ford sat up with a groan. "The devil's going..." He lifted his hand to rub his eyes, and instead splashed himself with water. He gasped. "What?"

Bill kicked at the zipped tent flap. "You're flooding, and that's the least of your bad news."

When Ford got out of the tent, Bill was pacing back and forth on top of the water, wringing water out of his bedsheet. "My estimate was wrong. Totality's happening today," he said. "The eclipse must have accelerated."

"Oh, that's ridiculous," Ford said. "How can an eclipse accelerate?"

"You don't know everything! You study the paranormal, you should be used to the inexplicable!"

"My job is to explain the inexplicable."

"Split hairs later!" Bill pointed toward Tate & Backle's Bait & Tackle shop at the far end of the lake. From that distance, it seemed to be sitting on the surface of the water as well. "The closest shelter's the bait shop. We can wait out totality there—"

"No," Ford said.

Bill stared at him. "What do you mean no. You don't still plan on hiking up to Gravity Peak—"

"I do."

"Are you insane!"

"That's an interesting question out of you."

"It's going to be here in hours! And you want to be at the highest point in Gravity Falls?!"

Dipper shuffled out of the tent, blinking groggily. "Why do you have a kazoo?"

"Not! Important! Now!" Bill resumed pacing. "What'll it take to convince you to take this seriously and stay low?"

"You could start with a proper explanation."

"I've explained as much as you need to—" Bill abruptly fell silent and stopped walking, eyes wide with horror.

Dipper and Ford turned to see what he was looking at.

There was nothing. Just a few pine trees in front of a line of gray rocks still tall enough to stick up out of the shallow water in front of the sheer cliff face below Gravity Peak. Dipper turned to Bill. "What?"

Bill didn't answer. He just took off his backpack and started stuffing his damp bedsheet inside. "With gravity so low, the climb through the tunnel to the peak should be a lot faster than humans can usually go," Bill muttered. "If we can get up there in an hour or two, do your stupid scans, and at least get back to the cave before totality..." He looked worriedly at the sky, then slung his backpack back on. "But we need to leave now."

Ford said, "I suppose we could have breakfast on the go. As soon as we pack our tents and change into dry clothes..."

"No time," Bill said. "You can change in the cave, you'll just get your clothes wet again if you do it here. We'll come back for the tents later."

Dryly, Ford said, "Who put you in charge of this expedition?"

"If we waste any more time, the lake will rise higher than the cave opening and we won't be able to get in."

Ford mentally measured how high the lake had risen already. "We'll come back for the tents later."

The survival equipment Ford kept in his backpack included a self-inflating raft with two collapsible paddles, which was well worth the slightly-unstable magic he'd used to get it to fit without being too heavy to carry. He inflated the raft, everyone climbed in, Ford gave Dipper the second paddle, and they set out across the lake in the pinkish early morning light.

Bill looked back over his shoulder one last time at the the line of sharp, gray rocks, and the beforeimage of brilliant red blood drying on their points, such a dramatic and permanent change to their appearance that even hours beforehand he could see it; and then he forced himself to turn away. The only way they were avoiding that was if they were off the cliff before totality.

####

As they crossed the lake, Bill ran his hands beneath the surface next to the inflatable raft and scooped up a handful of water. With the water came eight small, wriggly, ghostly axolotls, clear as glass and shining in the thin rays of dawn.

Dipper gasped. "What are those?"

Bill gave him a sharp look. "You can see them?"

"See what?" Ford asked, leaning over to peer at Bill's hands.

Dipper said, "The—the axolotls?" At Ford's frown, Dipper asked, "Can't you see them?"

"He can't see them," Bill said.

Uncertainly, glancing over the side of the boat, Ford asked, "In the water? Where?"

"No, in Bill's hands."

"He can't see them," Bill repeated. "You shouldn't be able to see them, either." He spilled the axolotls back into the lake. They melted into the water as though they'd never existed. "You really, really need to get inside."

Dipper did not like the sound of that. He swallowed hard.

"What exactly did you see?" Ford asked.

"Bill just... scooped a bunch of tiny axolotls out of the water," Dipper said. "Like the one in the fish tank, but smaller. And they were completely clear, like they were made out of ice."

"Were they alive?"

"Yeah, they were wiggling around. They disappeared when he dropped them back in the water."

"At least they're still transparent," Bill muttered. "And I suppose you won't take this as proof that I've been right about everything."

"Wh—" Ford lowered his paddle and gestured at the lake, "How do invisible axolotls that only some people can see prove anything about 'gravitational eclipses'! If anything, that sounds like the exact kind of weirdness that would come from the Nightmare Realm ripping open!"

"Oh, I wish it was the Nightmare Realm, I would love for it to be the Nightmare Realm," Bill snapped. "You know what, never mind! I changed my mind! Keep saying your thing about the sky ripping open and pouring all my friends into town! Maybe if you say it enough times I'll be wrong and it'll happen, that'd be great!"

"It at least makes more sense than your story! What in the world are a bunch of invisible axolotls doing in the lake, anyway!"

"Migrating."

"Axolotls don't migrate to Oregon, their native range is in Mexico!"

"Fine. Harbinging. They're harbingers."

"Of what?"

"The eclipse."

Ford dropped his oar, made a gesture like he was fighting himself not to strangle Bill, and finally dragged his hands down his face. "Why. Are invisible axolotls the harbingers of an eclipse."

"I don't know, it's just one of those things! Are we going to the cave or not?!"

Ford furiously started rowing again. Dipper had to hurry to keep up. 

As he paddled, Ford snapped, "And for as often as you've told us not to look up, now that this 'eclipse' of yours is nearly at 'totality,' I still don't see anything out of the ordinary in the sky!"

"Of course you don't," Bill snapped back, "it's not in the sky."

"Then why can't we look up?!"

"I don't mean up, I mean up-up."

Ford stared at Bill like he'd grown a second head. "WHAT?!"

"I mean... ahhh," Bill made a frustrated noise, snapping his fingers, "English doesn't have a word for— upward-but-not-skyward! You know what I mean!"

Ford almost snapped at Bill again; but then paused. "Hold on," he said slowly. "That's from..."

"Who cares what it's from, you at least know what it means—"

"Flatworld," Ford said. "That was the name of it, right?"

A brief grimace flashed across Bill's face. "Yes, that."

Dipper looked between them, confused. "What?"

Ford said, "It's a novella that explains the concept of higher dimensions by using a metaphor about lower dimensions. A sphere visits the second dimension to teach a square about the third—but where the sphere intersects the second dimension, all the square can see is a circle."

Bill muttered, "Would you drop the wise mentor schtick for five minutes—"

Ford raised his voice. "The sphere tries to explain that the rest of its body is above the second dimension—but having never seen the third dimension, in the square's language 'up' and 'above' mean the same thing as 'north.' The sphere resorts to calling the third dimension up-but-not-north to indicate that it's a different, unseen dimension."

Dipper nodded slowly. "So, if the eclipse is upward-but-not-skyward, then... what, you're telling us not to look in the fourth dimension?"

"Finally!" Bill sighed. "It's not exclusively in the fourth, but—it's close enough, you get the idea!"

Ford said, "But we can't see the fourth dimension."

Bill gave Dipper a dubious look that Dipper didn't like at all; but Bill only said, "Then you've got nothing to worry about, just like I've been saying! Keep your eyes shut just in case."

"Convenient that your proof is only visible in a dimension we can't see," Ford said wryly.

Dipper looked up, squinting at the sky. Bill shoved his head back down.

####

The waterfall was more of a waterfloat. Large orbs of water gently descended from the cliff high above, catching the early morning light. Ford and Dipper stopped paddling to watch in wonder. Bill muttered a spell under his breath, and a foot over their heads the waterfall landed on an invisible umbrella and rolled to the sides rather than land in their raft.

The water level had risen so high they had to lay nearly flat in the raft to get through the cave entrance; rather than paddling, Ford pushed them through with his hands on the tunnel's ceiling. Bill was out of the raft and walking across the water to the shore while Ford and Dipper were still getting their paddles positioned again. 

"Gravity's currently—what, about twenty-five percent?" Bill tugged off a shoe, dropped it, and observed how fast it fell. "Twenty to twenty-five percent." He took off his other shoe, rung out his socks over the lake, and stuffed them in his backpack, preparing to climb barefoot. "And it's only going lower. You should be able to just jump up most of the way to the top of Gravity Peak. So if you waste my time trying to climb..."

"Would you relax?" Dipper said irritably. "You should be glad we got up at the crack of dawn for you at all." He climbed out of the raft, copied Bill's attempt to dry out his socks and shoes, and then rung out his wet hat.

"You should be grateful I warned you totality's getting closer! Weren't you the ones convinced the world's going to end if you don't chuck a glue bomb at the sky?"

Ford muttered, "I'm surprised you didn't just have us waste time until the cave was inaccessible."

Bill processed that. He pressed his lips together, squeezed his eyes shut, and his face contorted in an expression of exquisite pain and regret. Through gritted teeth, he muttered, "Happy to help."

Ford reeled out a few feet of cable from his infinity belt, looped it around Dipper's waist, and tied it securely. An infinitely-long cable wouldn't be very helpful on a real climb—if Dipper lost his grip, it would just keep unreeling rather than stop his fall—but this wasn't much of a real climb, and at least it would ensure they couldn't get separated. Dipper took out a flashlight, Ford lit his antique lantern—instead of rising up, the flame inside looked nearly like a ball—and Bill hurried ahead of them, not bothering with any light source, eyes occasionally flashing like a cat's in the dark when he glanced back to check the humans' progress.

This was the fastest Ford had ever climbed the tunnel path up to the top of the mountain, easily leaping nearly twice his height to grab handholds that would previously have taken several minutes to climb to; and before long, he was all but ignoring basic spelunking safety to keep up with Bill. Losing his footing simply meant a slow, gentle fall back to the nearest level ground to try again. The only thing holding Bill back—who, Ford suspected, was now simply flying through the shadows—was Dipper, who was also climbing as fast as he could.

The only time Ford even came close to catching up was when Bill paused to look down the path that, if Ford remembered right, led to the thousand-year-old cave paintings where Ford first learned about his "muse"; but then Bill was gone again, rushing ahead into the dark. 

While Bill was at the furthest end of his tether, Ford dropped back to keep pace with Dipper. "Keep your voice low," he said, "but—Dipper, are you absolutely positive that what you saw in the lake were axolotls?"

"Pretty sure. They had the frills and everything, I don't know what else they'd be," Dipper said. "Do you think that's important? In your third journal..."

"That's just what I was thinking."

When Ford had documented his interdimensional travels in Journal 3, he'd included a few strange references to axolotls he'd heard over the years: refugees in the Nightmare Realm who'd cried "praise the Axolotl" when Ford had said he would kill Bill; an oracle who mentioned Bill's history and prophesied his defeat, whose temple was filled with tapestries and paintings of axolotls.

"Maybe they're connected?" Dipper asked. "Maybe the axolotl they're talking about is some kind of... ancient enemy of Bill?"

"I think it's more complicated than that," Ford said. "I was only able to describe a few of my travels in Journal 3—but I heard 'the Axolotl' mentioned in multiple dimensions."

Dipper processed that. "What, so... do you think they're all talking about the same god or something?"

"Yes and no. Some societies referred to this Axolotl as a divinity—although not a creator god. But nobody seems to agree on what its domain is. I heard some say it's the god of goodness. Other, the god of justice. The god of luck. The god of second chances. I've rarely seen the same label twice." Ford shrugged. "But then sometimes it was described like a vast animal or a force of nature—something that travels between stars and watches astronautical travelers, like a curious dolphin watching a boat. I never learned if they were all describing the same being, a group of beings—or if it was a simple translation error for some other term like 'demigod.'"

Dipper scrunched his nose. "'Translation error,' what? Across multiple civilizations?"

"The dimensional translator I received was somewhat buggy," Ford said. "From time to time it would offer wildly incorrect translations for individual words. For instance, it consistently replaced the word 'soccer ball' with soccer ball, of all things. You can only imagine what kind of trouble that got me into."

Dipper blinked in bafflement, opened his mouth, decided maybe this was a can of worms best opened later, and shut his mouth.

"And on top of all that, not all the cultures I encountered respect this 'Axolotl.' In some places, it was called the god of injustice, inequality, or cruelty. The patron deity of criminals and tyrants. Sometimes it's a villain in folklore—a legendary thief, mercenary, liar, or thug. I don't know why the stories vary so wildly," Ford said. "But that Axolotl certainly doesn't sound like someone who would be Bill's enemy."

"I guess not." But how could one being be the god of both justice and injustice? Second chances and cruelty? Either some of the stories had to be wrong, or else they were about different axolotls.

"So in the end, I have no idea what the Axolotl is. But," Ford said, "I wouldn't be surprised if it has something to do with whatever Bill's hiding."

####

When they reached the tunnel's exit, Bill was standing beneath a tree, staring fixedly at something unseen in the sky. "I think it's still speeding up," he muttered. "Not that either of you care. I suppose I'm just talking to myself."

Ford elected to ignore Bill as he untied the infinity belt's cable from around Dipper's waist and reeled it in. He started the walk to the highest point along the cliff's edge. Dipper followed, and reluctantly Bill did too.

The tunnel had meandered sideways as it rose through the mountain; the stream that fed the waterfall they'd passed under was far to their left side, and the cliff looked out not over the lake, but over what used to be the shore, which was now submerged in several inches of water.

Dipper followed Ford to the edge so he could look over at the waterfall. For a moment, he couldn't figure out why the lake below looked wrong; but then he realized that the sun had risen high enough that the sky had changed from pink to pale blue. Which meant the lake should have been reflecting blue. "Why's the lake pink?" 

When Ford just gave him a puzzled look—"It doesn't look pink to me."—Dipper turned to Bill.

Bill didn't even glance toward the lake. "Congratulations on being able to fully see the axolotls."

"There can't be enough to turn the lake pink," Ford protested, a tad irritably. "Leucistic axolotls are rare in the wild, they usually come in shades of brown and black."

"Oh you'll find anything to—" Bill pointed toward Dipper. "If you don't like their coloration, take it up with him! I'm not the one that told you how they look! If there weren't an independent witness here, you wouldn't have even believed me if I said there were axolotls."

"If there weren't an independent witness here, you wouldn't have told us there were axolotls." Ford slung off his backpack to rummage through it for the micro-rip scanner.

"Why am I seeing axolotls?" Dipper asked. "I mean, why... just me?"

Bill didn't answer for a second. He was still staring at the sky, watching something. He finally muttered, "Good question."

Dipper wasn't reassured by the fact that Bill wasn't even interested in pretending he knew the answer.

Bill said, "Remember when I told you that meeting some things—even just looking at them—will drive you mad? And that you almost met one?" He finally lowered his gaze to give Dipper a cruel smile. "Well, lucky you, you don't even need to build a portal. One's coming here."

Dipper swallowed hard. "So, don't look up?"

"Look who's finally catching on." Bill's gaze drifted away from Dipper's face and back to the sky.

"If just looking at it can drive you crazy, why are you looking?"

Bill laughed bitterly. "I've already taken as much damage as I can." With considerable effort, he tore his eyes from the sky. He floated to the edge of the cliff and peered over the edge.

Below were the sharp gray rocks near last night's campsite. Even from this high up, the future bloodstains were visible, bright red. They looked soon. Bill suppressed a shudder; his feet settled back on the ground and he backed away. "We're running out of time," he said. "You're as high as you can get, and you're still hundreds of feet below where the rift was. What now, smart guy?"

"I'm working on it." Ford was tying the end of his infinity belt's cable around the scanner. He gave the cable several feet of slack; twirled it in the air a few times to build up speed; and then let it go, sending it soaring into the sky. With gravity practically non-existent, the act of throwing it knocked Ford back a few inches, and the scanner simply kept on flying into the air.

Bill watched with his hands on his hips and a sour look. "Yeah, okay, all right, I guess that works."

"If anywhere is likely to have enough micro-rips to threaten reality, it'll be here," Ford said. "Here, we may need this." He took out the glue grenade, poured in his remaining adhesive, and handed the grenade to Dipper.

When the scanner reached its apex and began slowly falling, Ford pressed a button on his belt to retract the cable. He caught the scanner, examined the numbers, and frowned.

"Well?" Bill asked. He'd backed under the protective shade of a tree and was leaning on it with his arms crossed.

"Twenty-seven thousand micro-rips," Ford muttered. "The highest number so far. Nearly double the amount by Mabel's Fault."

Bill cupped a hand around his ear. "Sorry, did I hear you say 'a quarter of the danger threshold'?"

Ford didn't answer, still glaring at the numbers.

"So can we go now?" Bill asked. "Totality could be here any minute, and I do not want to be exposed on the highest spot in town."

Ford twirled the scanner over his head and chucked it again at another spot.

Bill let out a very quiet, very long, very high-pitched scream.

Ford whirled around. "Would you stop complaining!"

"SORRY! I've been seized by the FATAL HUMAN DELUSION that my actions might have an IMPACT on my FUTURE!" His face flushed with rage and his feet lifted several inches off the ground with the force of his screaming. "Or that MAKING SOUNDS with my MOUTH will COMMUNICATE MESSAGES that the HUMANS AROUND ME CAN COMPREHEND! But don't worry! I'm QUICKLY being proven wrong!" 

Ford actually bared his teeth at Bill, and immediately felt stupid for it. He turned away and reeled in the scanner. Catching it bounced him into the air; it took him several seconds to settle back on the ground. "Twenty-five thousand."

"Great!" Bill snapped. "Let's go!"

"So... does that mean we don't need this?" Dipper asked, holding up the glue grenade.

Ford hesitated, looking out over the town. Maybe the danger threshold was lower than Fiddleford had calculated. Or maybe Ford hadn't thrown the scanner at the right spot. Or maybe the problem was dozens and dozens of sites that didn't reach the danger threshold alone, but compounded on each other to destabilize the whole region. Maybe throwing the glue grenade and dispersing it over town was still necessary to stop all this. Bill was right about one thing: "totality," whatever it really was—the full disappearance of gravity—was close. Every movement seemed to knock him minutely off the ground, and he could see his clothes floating.

But he had no evidence the glue grenade would do anything but wreck the environment. Plus, axolotls were endangered; he couldn't imagine invisible leucistic ones were doing much better. He sighed, stuffing his scanner away in his backpack. "I suppose not." Dipper nodded and stored the glue grenade in his own backpack.

"Great," Bill said. "Let's go."

"The micro-rip theory doesn't look likely," Ford said. "But that means something else is going on. And we don't have any backup explanation." He turned and gestured impatiently at Bill. "Except your stupid eclipse story, which is too vague to explain anything and probably riddled with lies."

"GREAT! Let's GO!"

"I came up here to find out what's going on. So what's going on?"

Bill's worried gaze flicked from Ford's face to the sky, back to Ford, over to Dipper. "Your uncle's gonna get himself killed, kid. We don't have to join him. Get over here, at least we can get back in the cave."

Dipper glanced at Ford, crossed his arms, glared at Bill, and stood his ground.

"Hsgd—Fffss—shhk." Bill covered his face, whimpered, and dragged his hands down his face so hard his nails left red lines. "I hate you both so much."

They weren't getting anywhere unless Ford caught Bill off-guard enough to accidentally reveal something. "Bill, what's the Axolotl."

Bill's gaze shot to Ford's face. He pointed past him toward the lake. "Kid saw as much as I did, he can tell you—"

"No, Bill. What is the Axolotl," Ford said. "Friend of yours?"

All the blood drained out of Bill's face.

Ford had struck a nerve. "What does it have to do with all this?"

"How much do you know."

Ford laughed harshly. "And give you an opportunity to mold your lies around my knowledge? Tell us what it is!"

"It's—a curse," Bill said. "It's a curse in living form."

"No. Tell the truth."

"What do you want to hear! He's my defense attorney, okay?!"

"I said the truth, Cipher!"

"WHY?! How would you know the truth if I told it?!" He flung his arms wide in defeat, voice climbing toward a desperate shriek, "I haven't lied once since the eclipse began! What else can I do?! Should I start making up plausible stories again?! Why are you pumping me for information you don't even believe! How can I tell you the truth if you won't give me any trust!"

Ford didn't have an answer.

Bill didn't deserve trust. Offering him even a sliver of trust could be fatal. Ford was 100% certain of that. And if Ford never trusted a single word out of Bill, then they'd never be able to hold a conversation, about anything, ever. Which was fine. He didn't want a conversation. That bridge burned over thirty years ago. Don't trust him.

So then why was Ford trying to hold a conversation with Bill? If Ford didn't believe him, why did he keep trying? What was he hoping for?

What did Ford want to hear?

He didn't have a chance to figure it out. Bill's gaze flicked behind Ford, he screamed, "Anchor yourselves!" and he flung his arms around the tree.

"Wh—" Ford dropped to one knee as he turned to look where Bill was looking, and Dipper tried to fling himself to the ground; but neither had a chance to get a grip in the grass before the last little bit of gravity disappeared—and was replaced by something new.

The waterfalls stopped flowing, then curled up into the sky. The grass and trees tilted toward the center of Gravity Falls, as though blown by an unfelt breeze. Water slowly rose up out of the lake. The Island Head Beast was lifted into the air, eyes frantically rolling around and groaning in alarm.

And an unseen force pulled Dipper and Ford over the edge of the cliff and into the sky.

Dipper only made it five feet before the bracelet's invisible thread pulled taut. It took him another second to realize he wasn't moving and stop screaming. Bill was still clinging to the tree. The bracelets' thread could pass through objects when it was invisible, but if you tried to grab onto it, you could; could Dipper use it to climb back to land?

"Don't let go! I'm gonna reel myself in!"

Bill laughed hysterically. "Do anything you want, I'm not going anywhere."

Dipper groped blindly around his braceleted wrist with his free hand; caught the thread; and started dragging himself, hand over hand, down toward Bill. But even as Dipper tried to reel himself in, the unseen force continued to pull him back—in more dimensions and planes than he could see.

Something poorly attached tugged loose.

His vision swam and the world went gray.

And his soul popped out of his body.

Dipper's ghost looked at Bill. Bill looked at Dipper's ghost. They both looked at Dipper's dead body. They started screaming.

"What happened?!" Dipper groped at his ghostly torso—and through it—and then flailed his arms in a desperate attempt to make them more corporeal. "Ohmigosh what happened to me!"

"It's not me!" Bill shouted. "I didn't do it, you saw me, I wasn't even touching your body, I'm innocent!"

"I'm in the mindscape," Dipper said, "this is the mindscape, right?" It was unmistakeable; the world was cool and gray and muffled, just like last year, just like in all his nightmares. "Why am I in the mindscape! What am I doing here!"

And then the gray landscape fell beneath a reddish-pink shadow.

Dipper turned around.

A massive shape, winding slowly through the air as though it were swimming, descended over Gravity Falls, sunlight filtering through its translucent pink body. So massive that Dipper couldn't see both ends of it at once. So massive that even though only a tiny cross section of its body passed through the third dimension's mindscape at once, the full mass of its unseen higher-dimensional body was vast enough to eclipse Earth's gravity—and cause every loose object in town to slowly fall skyward toward its body.

It was awe-inspiring and terrifying and majestic; and Dipper was sure he'd seen it before.

The Axolotl twisted back on itself, doing a loop in the sky that carried it halfway to the moon, to position itself to look down at the peak over Gravity Falls with one huge, black eye. Bill looked at the ground. Dipper looked at its face. 

As Dipper made eye contact, the world froze. Everything slowed down. A hole in time and space opened where only the two of them existed; no one else could hear them and they could hear no one else. The Axolotl was so massive that Dipper could feel its thoughts like the static charge in a lightning storm and hear them like the echo of thunder. It thought—thunderously, apocalyptically, infinitely kindly—"Ah, yes. Hello again."

Dipper swallowed hard. "Hey," he croaked. "Have—we met?"

"Yes," the Axolotl said. "I'm afraid that's the only question I have time to answer. Tell your sister I said hello." Its world-making gaze moved off of Dipper, and he was back in the mindscape.

And the Axolotl turned his attention to Bill.

####

(Congratulations to the three people who saw it coming. Hope y'all enjoyed, would LOVE to hear what you think, and next week Things Get Worse, Again!!)

[whateversawesome]

Spy x Family Chapter 98: An Explosion

Let's start with the most important thing and we'll go from there. Ready? This panel:

Blink and you'll miss that insignificant comment from someone we don't even know their name. Nevertheless, given the implications of Project Apple, this panel is huge! Because, even if back then it was just a rumor, there's a chance it could also be true. Project Apple could have started during the first conflict. This leads me to the following theory:

Anya's biological parents were prisoners of war.

The story about Twilight as a soldier, Martha and Henry, as well as Millie, Franky, and even the Lady Patriots Society tell us about the dehumanization of the enemy. So yeah, it's very possible that it was acceptable for either side to do anything they wanted with captured enemies, that includes experimentation.

And by prisoners of war, I'm not only referring to soldiers and medical personnel, but also spies. Wouldn't it be funny if Anya's birth parents were also spies? It's too soon to tell, but it's so much fun to speculate 😆

At the beginning, it's stated that Anya was created by accident:

Maybe she was "an accident" between two prisoners of war or between a prisoner of war being experimented on and a scientist 🤔

So here's another crazy idea: Everyone thinks that Anya learned Classical Language because it was used in the lab by scientists, but what if it was her biological parents the ones who taught her that language in order to be able to communicate with each other?

At some point, I thought that even if we learned about Anya's past there was a possibility we would never know about her parents, now I think we will.

About the Chapter

Clearly, SXF is an anti-war story that wants to show us how terrible war is for EVERYONE. That's why big and small characters, side or main, have been affected greatly by war.

I'm sure plenty of people will talk about Martha and Henry's love story. After this chapter, I think it's clear that they probably were separated by war and that Henry had to marry to save himself, leaving Martha up in the air. (I know I am a fool, but I keep hoping she's the one he married, but I don't think so 😭)

Anyways, leaving the cautionary semi-tragic love story aside (Ahem, watch out Twilight and Yor)...I see what the author is trying to do: The story shows us very clearly what happens to every person when pushed to their limits, when they and their families are in danger. It's a story about loss, loss, and more loss.

The story is trying to make the readers root for peace and be very adamant against war. This is a masterclass on "Show, don't tell." So even if a lot of these stories seem insignificant because it's about side characters, they are meant to influence the readers' point of view about war, so when it reaches the main characters, we all know what could happen to them. These stories are meant to raise the stakes for the main characters.

Now, I've said it before: It's very possible that close to the climax of the story, Ostania and Westalis will be at the verge of a third conflict. By then, we'll know much more about the main characters' background as well as many other stories of side characters affected by war (don't be surprised if The Garden was created as a consequence of it). So when we're close to the end, when war is about to happen, we'll know exactly what could happen to the Forgers, because it has already happened to so many people: loss.

Something to Keep in Mind

The more the story moves forward, the more curious I am about the Desmonds. Since all of the characters were affected by war, I'm wondering how were the Desmond affected? Melinda certainly has issues (did this happen during and because of the war?) and Donovan Desmond is still a BIG question mark. It easy to relate to what normal characters feel. If any of us were going through something similar, we would be terrified too. However, how is it for someone in charge? How did Desmond see and suffer war? I really want to know.

One Last Thing

If in two chapters focusing on two side characters Endo has managed to create such a beautiful love story, can you image what he plans to do with Twiyor, which is the main couple of the story??

I know I say this a lot, but after seeing this my expectations are high and I am convinced it'll be worth the wait.

Food for thought.

[littlewriters-posts]

Stranger - CooperHoward/TheGhoul x reader

Plot: Cooper finds himself in a bit of a pickle with the settlement he stumbled into, only for you to help him out

Warnings: Mentions of Sexual Assault

Being a Ghoul did have its advantages, including the quick healing and being on the brink of immortality.

But it did have its disadvantages, like how a lot of normal people or 'smoothies' as he liked to call them, hated them.

Which is how cooper found himself in a bit of a pickle.

One of the bullets had lodged its way uncomfortably close to his spine, and no matter how he twisted, he just couldn't get it out. He knew he needed to, and fast or his granted immortality would be no more.

But when you're as well known as he was, enemies were everywhere.

He thought he's found a quiet place, a little alleyway down the side of a bar, to recuperate. As he wracked his brain on what to do next, the sound of a sweet voice caught his attention.

Was that music?

It couldn't be, there was no music in the wasteland, there just simply wasn't the recourses to do anything like that. But it was what he could hear. The sound of a sweet voice singing a melody he couldn't quite make out.

He sat up straighter, trying to gain his strength in order to stand.

"And where do you think you're going Ghoulie?" a sneering voice snapped him back out of his thoughts. He tried to stand, the sharp pain in his spine bringing him back down again, heavy to the ground.

He moved anymore that bullet was going to render his legs useless.

So there he sat, down the side of an old bar, as three men approached him with sickening grins on their faces.

He couldn't reach his gun, and silently cursed himself for dropping it where he did, just out of reach and unable to use.

"Now boys, don't do something you regret," he drawled, the fake confidence oozing off of him. But that was all it was, fake.

"Sorry, we don't listen to your kind," The shortest of the three men laughed as they approached.

Cooper sighed, faintly realising that the music in the bar had stopped.

How poetic that it should, if this is where he was supposed to die then so be it. He'd killed enough to know that there wasn't anything stopping death when the time came to it.

One of them men struck his face with something sharp, and Cooper hissed in pain. It felt different, the pain not subsiding like it usually did.

He wasn't healing.

So maybe it was his time to die, maybe this was the end.

"Maybe we'll have some fun with you before we kill you," One of the man laughed maliciously "Always wanted to see what's underneath a ghoulie's skin," he said raising his short blade and licking his foul lips.

"What the FUCK do you think you're doing?" Came a voice.

Cooper turned, squinting slightly as he saw you. You were stood, hands on hips, glaring at the three men. Cooper sighed, you had no chance against these guys, which meant, he had no chance.

But to his surprise, the three men coward slightly, as if being scolded by their mother.

"He was stealing Miss. Honest!" One of the men said. You eyed him suspiciously, walking over to examine the poor ghoul.

"And were you Mister? You stealing?" You asked him.

Cooper was perplexed. The way of the wasteland was that fear was the main ruler, and from the looks of it, you weren't something to be feared.

"No Ma'am," he said truthfully "I make enough caps not to have to be a thief," he said glowering at the other men.

You turned to the three others, your eyes icy. "Get lost - and give me that damn blade Adrian, you clearly don't know how to use it,"

The man, Adrien, gave the blade up that he cut Cooper's face with, sighing heavily as he did so.

"Now fuck off, before I tell the boss" you commanded waving your hand.

"What about him?" The short man said, eyeing Cooper distastefully. The Ghoul grinned at him, making the other man step backwards "We don't allow ghouls here,"

"Leave him to me," You waved them off, and watched silently as they retreated, muttering to themselves.

Cooper watched you, not quite knowing what to do. Of course there wasn't a lot he could do, apart from accept what was going to happen.

You turned back around, expression softening.

"It's alright honey, I aint gonna hurt you. Now tell me, where does it hurt most?"

Cooper opened and shut his mouth in slight shock. Kindness was not something you came across in the wasteland, and it had been years since someone directed that kindness at him alone.

He didn't quite know how to respond.

You sighed, crouching down to his level and brushing your fingers along the slice down the side of his face. He shivered slightly at your touch, your skin was warm and smooth and brought back a warm comfort he wasn't even aware he missed.

"I'm here to help honey, I might just be a singer, but I'm also the town Doctor. Best one you'll get for miles so you tell me what's wrong and I'll fix you right up," you promised, looking at him with wide eyes.

He stared back, as if trying to determine whether or not you could be trusted. But your eyes looked so innocent, and your skin was so soft, it was almost difficult not to trust you.

"My back, got shot a couple yards back," he said gruffly after a pause "And that man of yours did this to my face," he added.

You grimace "My fault you're not healing I'm afraid. Town got overrun with Ghoulies, rabid ones, not like you mister. No matter what we did they were hard to take down. I found that dipping blades in Iodine stops the wound from closing up - I don't know why,"

Cooper groaned "So you gonna get me killed sweetheart, that what you're tryna tell me," he coughed, retching as he did so slightly.

You shook your head "Not at all Mister, just gotta clean your wound, that's all, and you'll be fine - can you walk? Stand?"

Cooper shook his head.

"No matter," You said "I guess that'll be the bullet doing that. I'll get it out for you now, and take you up to my place to get you properly cleaned up. That sound good to you cowboy?"

Cooper eyed you suspiciously "And how do I know you ain't gonna kill me?"

You frown "You don't I guess. But I ain't killed you yet, and I have a feeling you're quite the cowboy when you're on form, I doubt I'd be able to leave a scratch on you,"

Cooper snorted "You're certainly healing my ego sweetheart, even if you are just tryna butter me up,"

"Do you know who shot ya?" You asked, helping him scooch forward so you could examine his back.

"Do I fuck," he grumbled "Some guy down near that butcher's place you got going. Didn't even do anything,"

You hum "Yeah, a lotta people here got something against your kind. Luckily for you, I think he makes his bullets out of magnetic metal,"

"Why is that good for - OW!" Cooper yelped as he felt himself jolt upwards from the pain.

You smile sheepishly holding a magnet in your hand. "Safer than digging round in there. Lemme know when you can walk honey, then I'll take you upstairs,"

"So what's a pretty thing like you doing, helping out a ghoulie like me then?" Cooper asked, rubbing his back slightly. It was healing, thank god, and the pain was slowly easing.

You shrug "Ghoulies are just people that drank the wrong thing ain't they? Still deserve to live,"

Cooper frowned, he's never met anyone who didn't want anything, but there wasn't any giveaway for you. It was like you were actually doing something out the goodness of your heart.

"You gotta be careful, caring about people like that. You'll get hurt," he said shortly, before using the wall to get to his feet.

You smile "Maybe Mister, but doesn't it get lonely all be your self?"

Cooper didn't say anything, but allowed you to take his arm and lead him into one of the buildings, helping him up the stairs, and into a large empty room. Save a couple of bottles on shelves, and a mattress at the bottom corner, it was completely empty.

"What's this then?" he asked.

"Where I perform most surgeries," you say "Being empty helps to keep it clean,"

"Well I don't need surgery do I?" Cooper said, his guard suddenly up again. If this was another trap he'd kick himself for falling for it just because you were pretty.

"No," you says looking at the floor. "But if the boss finds out I was helping a ghoulie I don't want to think what he'll do to me,"

It was then that Cooper noticed the patterns of bruises on your arms and legs, but especially on your thighs.

"Those men ain't scared of you, they're scared of your boss," he realised. "Or husband?" he asked, glancing at the marks on your neck.

You shrug "I endure what I gotta to keep me alive. I give him what he wants, in return I don't have to endure it from every man that comes my way," you say bitterly.

Cooper relaxed slightly, he couldn't trust you when you were leading the lie of your perfect life. Nobody had one, it didn't make sense. But this, this made sense.

"So what am I doing here?" he asked as you sat down cross legged on the mattress.

"That Iodine won't clean itself, and even then it'll take a while to heal. You'll need stitches," you said, holding a needle in a bottle of alcohol.

"And if your boss walks in?" Cooper asked.

"You've got your gun," you say sullenly "I doubt you'll let him kill you,"

You patted you lap slightly "Come lay here honey, it ain't ideal but it's the easier than sitting up,"

Cooper hesitated for a moment, staring at you. He wasn't about to go all soft just because a pretty girl looked at him gently, or showed him any ounce of kindness.

But it didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it whilst it lasted.

He complied, taking his hat off and collapsing onto the Mattress, with his head resting on your knee. He kept one hand on his gun, the thought of you turning out to be one big trap not quite leaving his mind.

"You try anything, I'll shoot ya dead sweetheart, got that?" he warned, an attempt to be threatning.

His harsh words fell on deaf ears as you smiled gently at him. "It might sting a little honey, but I promise I won't hurt you okay" the way you were talking to him made his stomach lurch a little, the reassurence in your voice was like honey over glass.

He closed his eyes as he felt your soft touch on his face, wiping away at the cut as gently as you could. He listened to your slight humming as you did so, the noise ever so soothing as you tended to him.

You couldn't help but stare at him a little as you cleaned the wound. You'd helped a dozen or so ghoulies in the past, but there was something about this one that caught your eye. Something about him that made him stick in your mind.

"So what brings you down here honey?" you ask.

"Non of yor business," he grumbles.

You didn't say anything. Maybe that was it - most Ghoulies were itching to talk to someone, many poured out their whole life story just to anyone who will listen. They were lonely, you realised, cursed to live forever alone.

But this Ghoul was different, closed off.

"You didn't tell me your name Mister," you say, threading the needle.

"I didn't," he replied, not even wincing as you threaded his skin.

You chuckle "Well what am I supposed to call you then?"

Cooper sighed. He wasn't used to people just talking to him for small talk. Usually they wanted something.

It felt Alien.

"Cooper." he eventually said.

"Well Cooper," you smiled, stroking the cut gently to sooth it. "You're all done and dusted. You'll feel a little sore but after a day I'll be ready to take those stitches out and you'll be brand new again,"

Cooper sat up quickly, the warmth of your skin on his not quite leaving.

"I ain't got a day sweetheart," he said gruffly "I can take em out myself,"

You bite your lip, you didn't want him to go, not just yet.

"I wouldn't recommend-" you started but Cooper was over to you like a flash, pinning you against the wall with the gun to your head. You stared at him in surprise.

"And why you tryna keep me here?" he growled "So you can go and wake the boss up?"

"No!" you cried indignantly "I just told ya I didn't want to hurt ya!"

"Great," Cooper said, drawing back from you. "I'll be off then,"

He turned to go and you felt your heart tug slightly. He couldn't leave, not yet. You still had more time.

"Please Mister," you say urgently, crossing in-front of him "You can't go yet,"

Cooper raised his eyebrow, and his gun "And why's that missy? Thankyou for patching me up, but that don't mean we're friends," he said. Your face drops and you realise what you've been holding onto, a dream. A dream to just have a friend, to not have to endure your stupid husband and his stupid friends who just viewed you as a fancy fleshlight to do what they wanted to.

"You're right Mister, I'm sorry," you say, your head dropping. "Try not to be seen on your way out,"

Cooper didn't stop looking at you as he walked past, the cogs in his head whirring.

You did want something. He realised, as everybody does. You wanted a friend.

That very thought almost made him turn around and accept, but he didn't. He couldn't. In the long run he couldn't stay here, he'd have to leave you eventually. Better to not get attached.

But something in him couldn't leave you completly. So after he left, he hid, watching as you came out of one building and into the next. So he followed you. Followed you and hid as he saw other people coming towards you.

"You're back late," a fat man spat at you.

"Sorry Max," you mutter "I was helping one of the townspeople. Their kid was ill,"

The fat man, Max grumbled a bit before turning to his friend who let out a booming laugh.

"Sweety, I was just telling my friend here, how good you've been recently. He wanted a go," Max laughed and you flinched. You knew it was useless to run - where would you go? And protesting only made him angrier, which would leave you bleeding and bruised for days.

"Now you sit down mate, my wife here will see you're satisfied," he sneered at her "Now get on your knees girl, and show my friend how good you can be,"

From his hiding spot in the next room Cooper snarled. He could see your tears even from here, and your shaking hands didn't fool anyone.

"Actually Max," the other man said "It's not her mouth I want,"

Max let out another laugh "Well that's gonna cost you extra I'm afraid my friend. And extra if you want me to leave,"

To your horror, the man drew out several extra caps, his hungry eyes never leaving your scared ones. This is what you were being reduced to, an object.

"Don't damage her too much my friend, nobody want's damaged goods," Max said with a hearty laugh, getting out of his seat. He pulled your hair, making you squeak from the pain "And be good," he warned, letting you go as you rubbed your scalp.

He left from one of the other exits as Cooper decided what to do. On the one hand, it was all good and well shooting the guy in the face, but what of you? There were many other men out there who would do exactly what this man was about to do to you, if not worse.

A whimper caught his attention as he watched the man grab you by the arms and forcibly bend you over the desk. He watched your pained and fear stricken face scrunch up as you tried to brace yourself for what was about to come.

He couldn't take it anymore.

Bursting through the doors, he shot the man dead in the face and you jumped. You shot up, almost falling backwards as you did so, and let one of the tears fall freely down your face.

"I ain't your friend sweetheart," Cooper said, lowering his gun "But I owed you one,"

You glance at the man on the floor, to Cooper with a a fearful expression. "Thankyou Mister, but I'm afraid you've caused more trouble than it was worth,"

Cooper frowned "I stopped him raping you, what's worse than that?"

You let out a humourless laugh "And what do you think the boss does when he gets angry? He ain't gentle Mister, and this guy would have been a real treat compared to him,"

"Ah hell," Cooper said scratching his head with his gun. He saw your point, and even killing the boss would not get you out of trouble. There would always be men like him. "Alright come with me,"

You blink, you hadn't been expecting that. "What?" you ask.

Cooper beckoned you over "Don't worry sweetheart, I may not be a real gentleman but I ain't gonna hurt ya. I'll kill ya, if you get on my nerves, but I'd never do what these would,"

You nod slightly, not quite believing your luck. You stepped over the body, pulling your dress back down where it was riding up, and looked at Cooper with doubt in your eyes.

"Why you looking out for me if we ain't friends?" you ask as you walked besides him.

"Maybe I'm lonely," he said in a lazy drawl.

You freeze "Look your handsome Mister, but I don't want to fuck you. I've never found it anything but painful, and I never want to do it again," you say, your voice shaking a bit.

Cooper looked at you with an unreadable expression. "I just said I'd never get you to do that sweetheart. Conversation does wonders for loneliness too you know,"

You relax a lot, walking besides him once more.

"Besides, if it's hurting they ain't doing it right," Cooper added "It's not supposed to hurt, it's supposed to feel good,"

You scrunch your nose up "Well it feels anything but that - but boss always said I did a great job," you frown at the floor.

Cooper sighed, handing you a canteen of water "Drink up," he said "There's a place I can get more from down the road, after that we ration it,"

"What about you?" you ask with a twinge in your lip. He said nothing, but refused to take the canteen back, so you did as you were told.

"You have anything you need to get? When we leave, we ain't coming back, you get that right? Anyone you wanna say goodbye too?" he asked once they left the building.

You pause "My chems, I got Radway if you need it. And some medicine,"

He nodded "Show me where then little lady, I'll make sure no-one gets ya,"

You give him a smile, the first genuine smile you felt in years, and you could swear the the corners of his mouth twitched as well.

"Thankyou Mister," you said honestly before scampering to get your things. They weren't far, in fact you had already packed them all.

Cooper raised his eyebrow "You wanted to leave for a while?"

You nod "First time Max-" you shudder, thinking of the memory "The first time hurt the worst, so I ran away. When Max found me I thought he'd be angry, but he was so gentle...until he wasn't. It was a viscous cycle I could never get out of," you hum slightly as you tie up your bag, tossing him a vial of yellow liquid.

"I only got eleven of those mister, so use them sparingly." You warned. "But I'm good at making money,"

Cooper nodded at you in thanks, before opening the door and beckoning you to follow him back down the road.

"Your boss hasn't noticed then," he said, noticing the distinct lack of commotion from down the road.

You nod "You won't. He likes to give each guy that pays him around two hours with me," you yawn slightly.

Cooper tries not to let his disgust show. It wasn't that he didn't find you attractive, you were certainly pretty, you were an easy target for things like that. But he couldn't imagine doing something like that to anyone, much less you.

"Well like I said sweetheart, I'll kill you if you get on my nerves, but I ain't gonna hurt you,"

[glitterjay]

— staring contest

⠀⭒ paring heeseung x afab!reader. friends to lovers(?, makeout, pet names, drabble, mention of alcohol(?, short, semi suggestive content under the cut (minors DNI)

parties like this were often in this side of town. big houses, loud music, it was what you and your friends called the rich kids neighborhood as kids. and here you were now, walking into one of those big houses for a party you were invited.

you had met jake in one of your classes and you had both hit it off instantly. it would be too fast to call him your best friend, but he was definitely making his way up to that title.

you heard about this big party invitation going around, to which jake gladly filled you in. it was lee heeseung's party. ironically, he and jake were really good friends, which made the latter earn a plus one to the invitation he had received.

jake had told you before that heeseung limits a lot who he hangs out with, which just makes him even more popular for his "mysterious" reputation. you weren't going to lie, he was handsome, but you wouldn't try to get to know him if he didn't want to.

once you both made it into the house, jake grabbed your hand to lead you to his group of friends (which included the host of such party) who seemed to already be playing around with each other. "damn jake, i didn't know you had a girlfriend" one of the boys teased.

"she's not my girlfriend, jay. but at least i have a pretty girl to accompany me." the comments made you blush furiously, coughing as if that would make the redness leave your face. "we'll see about that" a voice called. it was the only face you could put a name to besides jake. it was heeseung.

"you're just in time, yun. we were just about to play some games."

-

it had been 3 hours since you arrived at the party. cans of beers flooded the table where you guys had originally started playing beer pong. "i know! why don't we have a staring contest?" the one who you had learned was named sunghoon suggested.

"i think thats a great idea!" jay exclaimed. "jake can hardly look at anything without giggling anymore, this should be easy." as the other two kept pestering jake for his clumsy and drunk behavior, you had felt someone else starting the staring contest.

heeseung's eyes were locked on you. it was as if a lion had just seen the perfect pray. he looked hot. you turned around nervously, trying to find the one who brought you here in the first place.

"jake is long gone. probably playing around with hoon and jay." he said.

your body tensed a little after hearing his voice. it was much deeper and heavier for some reason. "yeah, i guess you're right." you could see heeseung eyeing you up and down, licking his lips. it made you feel insecure for a moment, until you realized how close he had gotten. "i could kiss you right now."

"so do it." you said, feeling bold. heeseung didnt think twice, rapdily grabbing your face and slamming his lips into yours. it was quick at first, but then it turned more romantic. your hands rested on his broad shoulders while his held your face steady.

"your pretty dress kept calling me all night. it wants me to take it off."

i feel like this is sooo bad... | © glitterjay | tumblr

[lazyneonrabbitt]

Mommy?

Single dad!Carmen x reader

Carmen's daughter likes you and doesn't know the meaning of the word 'no'.

~~☆☆☆~~

You stepped into the sandwich place, your laptop bag slung around your shoulder as something collided with your leg and clinging to it.

"Oh shit, sorry I- she slipped away from me." A man apologises for the little child around your leg, lowering himself to her level and tiredly begging her to let you go.

You took a better look at the toddler at your side. She had the man's curly hair and wore a fluffy teddybear onesie.

The man in front of you was tired. No question about it and his attire told you he worked here.

"Hey, you know what?" His focus moves from the child up to you. "How about I watch her for a bit? I'm planning on getting some work done here anyways and I'll probably be around when your shift ends." You shrugged at your own suggestion, placing a hand on the child's curls making her giggle at you.

"I uh- my shift ends a couple hours after we close." He wasn't declining your offer, he just didn't want you to waste your whole day here. He had gotten up again by now to talk to you at eye level. "I'm Carmen." He extends a hand to you to shake. "I own this place. And this here's Alex," he motions at the babbling todddler who was now casually hanging from your hand. "She's my kid. Daycare wouldn't take her cus she sneezed one too many times on drop off this morning." A tired hand runs over his face as he recalls why she's here.

"Hey, I'll watch her for you. Just come say hi a couple of times and we'll be good." You shoo'd him off and he went back to the kitchen. But not before making sure he got your food order and saying goodbye to his daughter.

Over the course of the day he swung by your table to watch you type away on your laptop while Alex was no doubt ruining your highlighters and scribbling on the back of your notepad. During food breaks she was in your lap and you'd watch some kids videos on Youtube with the sound low enough to not bother anyone.

Little Alex had been an absolute sweetheart the whole time, clinging to you and showing off her artworks that had rendered your notepad entirely useless.

Around dinnertime Carmen had come back again, insisting he'd be fine watching her himself now, but you assured him you were good and didn't mind staying the few extra hours. He accepted reluctantly and rought you two dinner on the house, dessert included.

When the placed closed down and Carmen was finished cleaning everything he came by one last time, to pick up his daughter and thank you again for watching her. You exchanged phone numbers in case he ever needed a babysitter.

Leaving was a lot more difficult than you had thought. Alex threw the biggest fit the second you turned to the door, running up to you and clamping herself around your leg, sniffling No's leaving her lips as she sat down on your foot with her arms around your calf. Tears staining your jeans.

Carmen stood there, a hand on his hip, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing deeply. "Come on, teddybear. She's tired too, we're all going to our homes and sleep, okay?" He tried bribing, any and all promises he could think of, even physically prying her off your leg resulted in the biggest drama he had ever seen her make.

You felt bad for Carmen. The permanent bags under his gorgeous blue eyes and the mess of curls you wanted to run you-- "what if I tag along and put her in bed?" The suggestion seemingly came out of nowhere amd it took Carmen a moment to register your words.

His place was an even bigger mess than he was and he'd be ashamed if she saw Alex's living situation. But then again, he was a single dad with an extremely demanding job, so the mess did explain itself that way..

"Yeah, okay." A simple, soft answer that had Alex screech with joy.

The three of you made your way over to his car. Since Alex wouldn't let go of you, you carried her while Carmen carried your bag for you as well as his own.

His place wasn't big. But it was big enough for him and Alex. On your way through the livingroom you had to watch your step and not trip over the large amount of toys on the floor. The coffeetable held day old mugs and coffee circles permanently staining the wood. The dinnertable was covered in paperwork but the kitchen looked decent enough, besides the dishes in the sink.

Carmen could feel you judging him, trying to speed up the whole going to bed ritual Alex had so you could stop being grossed out by the mess.

After watching Carmen struggle with the currently very difficult child you stepped in and offered assistence.

Carmen stepped aside and mimiced his steps but in your own way. Suddenly she was the sweetest child ever and did everything you told her to.

"Are you serious? Now you can listen?" The soft complaint didn't go unnoticed and made you giggle as you tucked her in and wished her sweet dreams. Besides you Carmen leaned over to give her kisses and said goodnight as well.

"Why does she listen so well to you?" The question wasn't meant in a bad way, even though it sounded like jealousy. "Guess she just wants a mom." You answered from across the kitchen island. Carmen insisted you stayed for a drink and talk about your day with her. "Neither you or her ever uttered anything mom-related so I guessed it's just you two." You sounded like a prying therapist right now, but you meant it in a kind way.

Clearly both of you sucked when it came to words.

"Her mom was a drunken mistake." He downs half of his drink and decided right there he was gonna talk about it. If you deleted his number and walked out afterwards, so be it.

"I didn't even know she had a kid until kne day she stopped by the restaurant. I barely recognised her but she still made a whole scene about some mistake, dropped the carrier with a crying baby at my feet and shoved a stack of paperwork in my hands." He downed the other half of his drink, not liking how recalling those memories felt. "I barely knew her, only saw her twice before moving back here from New York and found me all the way here to drop the baby and all her papers stating I was the one responsible for her on me and leave after screaming at me amd blaming me for leaving."

Carmen's story shocked you. You sat in silence after he finished, not sure how to respond to such a confession, so you offered your help once more.

After a while babysitting Alex at work and tucking her into bed turned into babysitting, tucking her into bed and moving into the next one together with Carmen. His early shifts really messed up Alex's sleep scedule so he suggested you staying the night and working from his apartment and do Alex's morning routine at a more acceptable hour than 6am, when he's kiss you goodmorning, wish you some good few more hours of sleep and went off to work.

Carmen was enjoying your time together so much, and Alex was almost permanently attached to you when you were around so his only thought was how he was going to ask you to move in with him. You already had a spare key so giving you one of those in a fancy little box wouldn't work.

Eventually he thoight of an idea that just had to work.

He wrote a note from Alex's point of view, rolled it up and tied a little bow around it and handed it to his daughter. "Can you go give this to her, please? It's a gift."

Alex immediately ran over to you, waving the paper roll at you and smacking it against your leg. She mumbled a quick "foyou" before waving it up at you again.

You accepted the gift with a grand display of thanks, with kisses and a hug, a whole scene amd read the note in silence. You recognised Carmen's handwriting immediately and smiled your way throigh the creatively written sentences.

"So, you want me to be mommy, huh?" You asked Alex, but not without moving your stare up to meet Carmen's, who looked away quickly to hide his blush.

A string of Yes and Please and happy giggles were all the convincing you needed before agreeing to move into Carmen's apartment officially.

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

In which I cling to the last vestiges of two of my favorite shows of the year, write a eulogy for one of the most disappointing, and rejoice over the entry of a new fav. These shows are available for weekly streaming on Gaga unless otherwise noted.

Mr. Mitsuya's Planned Feeding

Farewell to a wonderful show. @isaksbestpillow has posted all seven episodes as of last week, so if you've been waiting for a binge, now is your chance. I already said a lot about why I loved this one, so I'll just use this space to urge you again to watch! This show is a goddamn delight.

Takara's Treasure

The main narrative ended last week, but this week we got a sweet little epilogue and one more visit with Takara and Taishin. I enjoyed the brief glimpse into their near future and getting to see Taishin turn 20 with his very first fuzzy navel, though I was a bit sad we got a repeat of the finale's themes rather than treading new ground for their relationship (I could not have cared less about the fujoshi writing RPF). This was a lovely show and I will miss these characters.

Happy of the End

CWs: Assault, child abandonment, child molestation, childhood sexual slavery, dubcon (including between the main characters), human trafficking, rape, sexual coercion and exploitation, suicidal ideation/possible attempt, unsafe S&M practices, violence

A very rough week for this show in terms of the content--please mind the triggers above because these are explicit depictions and it can be hard to stomach. I am waiting to see where this show is going with its themes before I make a final judgment, but watching the fourth episode in particular, some parts felt like crossing the line into gratuitous trauma porn that provided little additional illumination. We'll see how it shakes out in the end, but please take care with this one. I continue to find the characters and relationship dynamics compelling, and I am invested in Haoren and Chihiro's attempt to have a relationship despite the metric ton of baggage they are shouldering between them. Neither is equipped to even have any idea what a healthy relationship looks like, but they see something in each other and they want to try. That tiny bit of hopeful but likely doomed thinking may be all we have to cling to in this story.

I Hear the Sunspot

Sigh. I am sad about what this show could have been. For me, the finale definitely did not succeed at sticking the landing and making the last six weeks of wheel spinning feel worth it, and this show is going down as one of the big disappointments of the year for me. As you know if you've been keeping up with this weekly post, I loved the first half of this show, and Taichi's original characterization, so much. And I don't understand what happened here. The second half has felt like a completely different, confused, demonstrably worse show. Taichi hasn't felt like himself in weeks, the plots with Maya and the job at Sign were poorly grounded, inconsistently executed, and offered little pay off either thematically or in terms of character development, and the romance writing was a complete failure. It was actually painful to see Kohei run after Taichi and confess to him again, and the directing and editing of that sequence was so muddled that I had no idea what I was supposed to understand about Taichi's emotional journey or why this was the moment he was suddenly able to reciprocate. After all that brooding and his big speech about communication, he did not communicate much of anything to Kohei in the end. And I'm supposed to be content with leaving them here? Deeply unsatisfying on just about every level.

I understand from @twig-tea that while the story followed the beats of the manga's first two volumes at a high level, this production chose to remove many of the contextual details that actually made sense of the characters' behavior. It also seems they didn't understand they were setting up character arcs that did not get resolved until a later volume the show will not cover, thus ensuring the story would end at the wrong place. Just a baffling set of adaptation choices, and so much wasted potential. It's a shame.

Love is Like a Poison

But at least we have a new favorite coming in hot a week sooner than expected! I absolutely loved this first episode, in which we meet Shiba, our cold-hearted lawyer with delusions of grandeur and a sexually charged fixation on his house plants, and Haruto, our flirty scammer who has his number. This show is really well written and packed a ton of story, comedy, and deep characterization into its first episode. It's a promising start! For now it’s only available grey outside of Japan; I am hoping it will get picked up for proper international distribution soon.

Tagging @bengiyo to add this week's anime update.

[quiet-cabin]

Omamori PostMortem!

Here it is folks! The final Omamori devlog 🥹. In it we'll be taking a look at how everything began, some of the ups and downs we had along the way, including some looks at behind the scenes work, and finally, what's next for the studio!

I'm going to try something a little different here. Normally I link back to the devlog on itch so you can read it there, but I'm wondering if people might be more inclined to read the full thing if they don't have to leave to another tab lol (Although I also worry that tumblr just isn't really great for really long post reading..) But! I shall put the choice in your hands. Here's the link to it on itch.io! Or you can click the read more below to see it here!

I'd be really interested to know what Y'ALL are interested in seeing next 👀

Hello everyone!!

It’s been one month since Omamori released which sounds incredibly fake but here we are! As of posting this, Omamori is sitting at 454 downloads!! Which is really, REALLY exciting and so much more than I ever thought to hope for. Thank you so much!

Today we’re going to be talking a little bit about the process, how things went, what we learned, and what’s next! This is going to be a bit of a longer post but some of you have been with us since the very beginning, and it might be nice to look back, and some of you are new, and have no idea how it all went!

HOW IT STARTED

(The original mock up I made to help Rob visualize what I was thinking for the main menu screen.)

In the beginning of April 2023 I started telling Rob about a 'totally not real' idea I had for a serirei dating sim. It was very much in the 'haha jk wouldn't that be fun, but it'll totally never happen' category. Then I thought, since it won't ever happen, it could be fun to do a little mock-up. Just a fake screenshot of a character and some dialogue. Then I thought, maybe I could try to animate it to show some additional dialogue. THEN I thought, well if I'm going to do all of that, I might as well just put together a slice in a game engine and just do a screen recording.

So I sat down and installed an entire game engine, learned how to navigate its interface and how to use its visual scripting language, how to create & use variables so that you could enter your character name, how to put in a dialogue choice screen, even made a tiny pixel art takoyaki... all to create a 20 second screen recording of a game that was totally not going to exist.

Totally.

I even shared it on Tumblr! It uh, as of typing this, still only has 3 notes lol. You can see the original post here, but here's a screenshot of it.

I won't lie, it was actually really disheartening to see basically no engagement with it. I know there wasn't much info on the concept itself, since the game wasn't going to be real (I thought), and maybe that would have helped, but it definitely did a blow to the ol' self esteem. (Although I can say, looking at it now, I really like this! I'm really insecure about my visual art and style, but y'know what, this is pretty cool! )

I didn't let that deter me though. I was really excited about this game and the story, and at the end of the day, it was a silly little project with my silly little blorbos. So I kept thinking about it and poking the idea and pretty soon the fixation was churning full blast. I was developing the plot, I had snippets of dialogue in mind, I was thinking about GUI elements. And all the while I was yelling all of this at Rob. Eventually I worked up the courage to ask him if he wanted to do the art, only to discover he was working up the nerve to ask if he could help out! After that, it was just a lot of excited yelling about this project.

Looking back at this original mock-up, I think it's really great to see how Rob took my original concepts for layout and design and breathed some actual life into them. At some point I'd done some additional iterations on the dialogue boxes:

And from there we got:

Which ultimately gave us:

HOW IT WENT

There were definitely some ups and down on this, for sure. Getting the demo out was a huge accomplishment and we were both eager to just keep working on it. In fact, the original plan, after releasing the demo October 2023, had been to release the full game by the coming March, for Serizawa's birthday. Ambitious? Without a doubt lol. Obviously that didn't happen, and our next hope was to release it for Reigen's birthday 2024. This way it'd be full circle. Then we hoped to release it for Valentine's day maybe. (This is why we didn't announce a release date until it was well and truly DONE.)

Some of you may remember that Rob injured his hand in early 2024 and so we took quite a bit of time off to let him heal. We're not about that crunch life. Even if this wasn't entirely a passion project, there's absolutely no reason to crunch. So we took a step back so he could heal up. While that was happening.. we had the Great Engine Switch.

The demo for Omamori was originally made in GDevelop. An open-source, no-code engine. And it worked great for the demo! But once I started adding in features that people would come to expect in a visual novel, like saving and loading, or a history of the text, things got a little more complicated. It reached a point where I was essentially building a visual novel engine within the Gdevelop engine. Which, while incredibly fascinating and a great mental challenge, wasn't exactly the best use of my time. Not when there are engines specifically made for creating visual novels, like Ren'py. Which has things like saving & loading, dialogue history, text size options and dyslexic font options, all ready to go out of the box. So, I changed engines.

Changing engines was a long process, partly because it took me some time to finally come to terms with the fact that I just needed to do it, and partly because while some things did come out of the box, I did still have to re-do other things all over again, like entering all of the dialogue and choice options for the prologue and part of chapter one that was used for the demo. I was also learning a whole new engine, which isn't no-code (although it IS really streamlined), and I had to find my way around.

We had a lot of plans for some things that ultimately had to get cut. Early on we planned to have more splash screen images for pivotal moments, which would also be accessible from a Gallery page on the main menu. We even toyed with the idea of reaching out to other artists in the community to see if they would be interested in doing guest art to be featured in the gallery! But as we made progress we had to decide what was essential to the game, to telling the story, and what was a Nice To Have. Learning how to nip that scope creep early is an essential skill in gamedev!

Still, all things considered, as a team of two people we made an entire game in only two years, even with the obstacles we faced. And I think that's pretty damn impressive.

Q&A

What was your favorite part?

ROB:

Getting to work on a passion project with Jace! Getting to see this through to the end with them was very rewarding. Like, did you know you can just make cool things with your friends?? It's awesome and makes for a unique blend of cheerleading, flexing, and teamwork. Definitely recommended.

For the art, I got a kick out of trying to develop a visual identity that was as much our own game as it was a Mob Psycho fangame. The first season opening sequence was my main touchpoint. This poster was a source of inspiration too, notably for the paper cut out look for the sprites. It was fun and a nice way to appreciate the series from a different perspective.

JACE:

This is actually a tough one lol! Part of what I love about being an indie dev are all the different roles you play. Jumping from writing to programming to creating mockups to resource sourcing for background music or sound effects, I think that's the part I enjoy most. It's hard to get bored when you're wearing so many hats and that really appeals to me.

If I had to pick a favorite part, I would say sharing the original drafts of the script with Rob and getting to see his reactions to Reigen's impressive levels of fumbling was a lot of fun. Also, figuring out a piece of code that had me stumped for days is nothing short of euphoric.

What was the most challenging?

ROB:

Mostly mental hurdles. Like, accepting that “good enough” IS actually good enough was sometimes a challenge. On top of wanting to tweak old sprites (we started this two years ago after all!) I had wanted to make more splash art and character poses, and add silly details like giving the face on Reigen’s pj outfit different expressions. But as it turns out, if you want to finish something then at some point you have to stop working on it. Great lessons for battling perfectionism.

JACE:

Changing engines and learning an entire new one was definitely a challenge. I'd dabbled with Ren'py before so I wasn't completely in the dark, but I hadn't done more than dialogue and some choices. With this I had to learn how to navigate Ren'py's screen language so I could build my own screens, I had to learn how to create and manipulate variables in the engine, I watched a LOT of youtube tutorials and got real familiar with the Ren'py subreddit lol.

Something that was really, really challenging for me was learning, and re-learning, how to start. I would work on the game for weeks and be doing great, really have a nice groove, and then Life would happen and  I wouldn't touch it for a little while and suddenly the thought of opening up the code was terrifying. I was convinced I couldn't do it, I had no idea what I was doing, and that I was going to get stuck. And it got harder and harder to just start. Even when all signs pointed to that I maybe DO know what I'm doing!

What helped a lot was that I kept a mini-devlog. Every day that I did gamedev work I journaled about what I worked on, how long I spent on it, and what my next steps were. This helped in SO many ways. For one, it was just really nice to see a calendar view of my productivity. Time is fake and its easy for me to think I haven't been productive "enough". Then I look at my calendar and see this:

Not every month looked like this of course. There's a couple where it's pretty damn barren. But that's where the other data points came to help. It was really helpful to see how long I worked on something as well.  For example:

It took me literally twenty minutes to create all of the idle and hover images for the icons on the corkboard. I remember I did this quickly before running out to work. And this became a point of constant reference for me. Every time I felt myself getting caught in the swirl of, I can't do this, opening the engine feels scary and overwhelming, or I only have .. two hours... three hours... before I have to go to work or go to an appointment or go to bed, what could I get done in that time, I would think of how much I got done in just twenty minutes. Because ultimately, any time spent on the project is productive! But having these little reminders helped a lot. And each mini devlog also had a section for my reflections and what I hoped to work on next. So if it was a few days, or a month or two, before I was able to get back to it, I could reread the most recent devlog to see what Past Me was planning to do!

What might you do differently?

ROB:

Oh man. Organization. I frequently moved the working files between tablet and desktop and ended up with duplicates all over the place. It was a pain after we came back from that long break for my hand injury because I had different expressions and sprites spread over a mess of nearly identical files.

The worst part is this was not the first or last time this happened. Why? Don't live like me.

JACE:

Well, if we're talking about Omamori specifically, knowing what I know now, I'd of course just start working in Ren'py from the start. I'd had the thought that I could learn one engine (to rule them all). Because I have ideas and plans for other games, and had hoped to find one engine that could do everything, and I wouldn't have to jump around, potentially learning a bunch of different coding languages. But, there's something to be said for using the right tool for the job, and in this case it was definitely Ren'py.

If we're talking about future projects and what I might do differently, that's a toughie. I think every project is going to require different set up and preparation. If I were to do another visual novel, I think I'd start tackling any special screens or gameplay mechanics as early as possible. Writing is one of my strengths and I know I can do that. And I'm familiar enough with the engine that I know entering in my writing and dialogue is pretty straightforward. But making those custom screens and troubleshooting them always takes much longer than I think it will.

In terms of organization, I have a Notion template I created for my game projects, and Omamori largely served as the trial run for what I would and wouldn't need. The mini devlog calendar is absolutely a keeper. But the way I organized the programming vs writing task lists definitely got reworked in the final month of Omamori, and I've already started updating my template and other already existing projects to reflect the new workflow!

I think with every new project I'm going to do things a little differently and, for me, that's part of the fun!

Do you think you'd work on a game again?

ROB:

Yes! I'm currently taking time off from commission work, but I really enjoy creative collaboration in general, so I would definitely work on a game again in the future.

JACE:

Oh honey, I already am 😏.

What's next for you?

ROB:

I’m looking forward to diving in to some original work this summer. Not sure where it will take me yet, but I've been itching to get back into making comics, so that might be next! If you'd like to keep up with my work, I update my Tumblr most frequently.

JACE:

I'm so glad you asked! While Rob moves toward exploring comics, Quiet Cabin is also going to shift gears. I'm going to focus on games with original characters and stories. I don't have any plans to make another fangame but I do have a LOT of other ideas! (Some of which were hinted at in Omamori 👀 .)

So what can you expect? Stylistically, I've always had a love for pixel art so there will be some of that going forward. Depending on the project I might seek out another artist to collaborate with for things like backgrounds or character sprites, especially if I do another visual novel. So if you're an artist and have read this far and would be interested in collaborating on a future project, definitely reach out! I have a lot of ideas, a lot of different vibes and genres, so don't worry if your style is different from what you see in Omamori! And who knows, I'm finally reaching a point where I'm happier with my artistic abilities so maybe for one of these projects I'll attempt the art myself!

As far as genres go, I've got more romance, some horror, some fantasy, maybe some monsters you can date.. 👀

I know we all came here for the blorbos but I truly hope you'll stick around for my next projects, I've already started writing one of them and I'm really excited about it!

Up-Coming Projects include (in no particular order):

Garage Sale Skull: A short, in-browser text game where you find a weird skull at a garage sale. It’s fine, it’s not real, it’s just some weird art project. …right? (Romance with a sprinkle of horror.)

Untitled Dating Sim(?): A visual novel dating sim. Maybe. The dating part is up in the air. It's VERY fresh conceptually and I'm still ironing things out so I don't want to say too much but I will say: time loops. Sorry. Wait. Maybe you didn't hear me. Time 👏🏾 Loop 👏🏾 Visual Novel👏🏾

Apartment 102 : There is something wrong with your apartment.. A very short top-down pixel horror game.

Reyna's Remedies: As a young potion and remedy maker, you open up a new shop on the side of a busy road in the kingdom. There's a lot going on, there's a monster in the Deep Woods, a monster the Princess went missing trying to hunt, there's a constant flow of adventurers in need of healing potions and everyday townspeople with mundane needs. With the help of your animal assistant, you have one month to raise enough money to secure another month of rent, to prove you can do this, and in the process help the different people that knock on your door. (A time & resource management game with an overarching plot. Queer romance with a bit of horror.)

My hope is to release Garage Sale Skull this summer. Untitled Dating Sim(?) is new and uncooked, but rattling around my head pretty loudly. Meanwhile Reyna's Remedies and Apt 102 are games I've been brainstorming on for literally years..  Either way, there are two more steam next fests this year and I'd really love to submit a demo for ✨ something ✨for at least one of them. We'll see!

Once a new project launches I will of course be posting devlogs here on its project page. I'll also be sharing quick updates & general gamedev thoughts on ko-fi, bsky, and tumblr. At the end of the day I'm still just one person, and I may forget to crosspost to a platform, but itch.io will always be the first place to get updates. I'm also considering making video devlogs in the future that will showcase more art and gameplay, especially as I shift toward games that have more action, so you can also follow the YouTube channel!

Again, I cannot thank everyone enough for their continued support and enthusiasm!! I'm really grateful to Rob for jumping into the abyss with me on this one. The game wouldn't be what it is without his help! All the cheerleading from followers as we worked on it and now, all of the comments about how the game has touched or inspired folks has been so, so amazing to hear. Thank you everyone!!

Finally, one last Ekubo for the road.

Thank you everyone, see you next time!

[castingspellsanddaisies]

Kylian Mbappé's future spouse: personality, job, how they will meet, age, where's the person from... And is he romantic in bed? 👀 | Tarot Reading

DISCLAIMER: Take everything with a grain of salt and let's pray for this man to start playing for real soon 🙏

*This is a ''future reading'', meaning we'll be looking into the most likely outcome considering his present energy. Remember: people have free will.

Hey, folks! Missed me? I missed you!

What's Kylian Mbappé's future wife's personality?

tree + ship + house + fox + clouds + snake | back of the deck: bear

9 of pentacles + king of wands + the tower + 2 of swords + 6 of cups + 3 of cups reversed | back of the deck: 7 of pentacles reversed

She's very impatient and kinda bossy. She wants everything for yesterday lol

Another constant in her life is this struggle between impatience and going with the flow. Because I see she can be very loving, caring, stable person in her life affairs and in relationships, BUT at the same time she has a temper that may clash with other sometimes and things can get pretty ugly. This lady has THE self-steem, so independant and self-assured... I'm impressed.

She sometimes plays dumb to get what she wants. And she is very ambitious and she's always working hard to achieve what she wants for fear of ''not being good enough''. She likes to travel a lot, but most importantly, she has some loose ends back at home, some family problems that she prefers to ignore instead of facing them.

This woman hides parts of herself to others. Different people may ask her the same question as she will answer a different thing to each one of them - she won't be necessarily lying, but she'll tell the truth in parts, depends how much she trusts and likes you. I sense strong scorpio placements here...

What's her current job?

The emperor

She's in a leadership position currently. Her job includes being in a hierarchical place, or working for the government, in a company, a job where her decision-making is important.

What will she be doing when they meet each other?

King of cups reversed

Considering her current job being in a very structured environment, when she meets Kylian she may be undergoing some burn-out. She could be ready to leave and start somewhere else but she'll be staying for a while at that place and she'll be staying with a fake facade of ''I love my job''.

How will they meet?

key + man + scynthe | back of the deck: books

That's kinda funny. They could meet unexpectly after one of them had broken up with a partner. A third acquainted may present them to each other and they will right off start talking and realize they think alike and have the same tastes.

I also see them both trying to impress each other with how much they know about a certain topic - a light competitive banter.

Is she older, same age, younger than him?

star + lily + books

Hm. She's older but not THAT older. The difference could be months, so people would often say ''they're the same age''.

Where's she from?

rider + sun + tower

She's from a country that used to be very powerful in worldwide affairs, but not anymore, or from a country that's beginning to become very powerful. The country's influence is getting bigger and bigger, that's what I see - like culture influence.

Is Kylian Mbappé a romantic man in bed? Currently?

3 of swords + ace of cups + 5 of cups + 2 of swords reversed

Interesting. Very interesting.

So, no, Kylian is not a romantic guy during sex, at least not so far. On the contrary, I see him being very intense and dominating during it, really hard stuff. Kylian likes to make his partners surrender to him in a very ''power dynamic/power play'' style. No lovey-dovey here.

I see people here creating expectations over their sexual encounters, and they ending up disappointed for the lack of ''romantic passion'' but at the same time they already knew this was going to happen but they still keep coming back for more? Weird.

That's it for now, folks! I hope you enjoyed the reading! <3

[eulaliasims]

Round 6: Midwife 2 / 6

Elmet's task is to befriend Willow, because she's the only wolf that actually comes when he does the 'summon wolves' thing. Willow loves to get almost to the friend stage and then leave the lot entirely.

Elmet: Hey. What are you doing up?

Helenet: I woke up and there was absolutely no one else at all in my bed. Such a travesty.

Elmet: Well, clearly we'd better correct that.

Helenet: Oooh—

Elmet: What? What?

Helenet: Well, apparently my mother was right when she said sex can bring on labor—

Welcome, Fiona! I couldn't think of a moon-related name for you, I hope that's okay. Also, this is the sixth female baby in a row born in Veridia. This is gonna be a girl-heavy cohort I guess.

Helenet: So this is one strike against the magical werewolf sense theory… unless you were deliberately telling me the opposite answer to prove my theory wrong.

Elmet: Helenet, dear one, my love: why the fuck would I do that?

Helenet: No, sorry, you wouldn't.

Elmet: I think you need more sleep.

Helenet: It's just, if werewolves could really sense the sex of a baby before they're born, imagine what other things we could learn about them! And then what if you could smell other things about people, like health conditions? So many possibilities!

Elmet: Sleep. Naptime for Netty. Give me the baby and go to sleep.

Elmet isn't letting Arturo get out of holding this baby and just plonks Fiona into his arms before he can protest.

But Arturo is rather fond of all the children (including Angus). Now that he lives here, he often swoops in autonomously to take care of the babies before either Elmet or Helenet can get there.

Eisu: Isn't she precious? Hello, darling.

Arturo: I admit to being very fond of this one as well.

Eisu: So any chance we'll be seeing a little Arturo too in the future?

Arturo: What? Oh, you mean progeny of my own. I am not capable of such things, as far as I know. More importantly, I think everyone agrees that two babies and one teenager is plenty.

I thought Helenet deserved to go out and have some fun on her own, so she left the boys to hold down the fort and went to visit the market, where she ran into Diseta.

Helenet: Everything alright? You look a bit down.

Diseta: It's... things I am not going to talk about with one of the kids nearby.

Helenet: Oh. D'you want to come by later and talk?

Diseta: Not really. Thanks, though.

She also stops to chat with one of her current patients, Aífe.

Aífe: Have you heard the latest rumor? I don't believe it, personally.

Helenet: What, did Brigid Salter fight another teenager?

Aífe: Everyone would believe that rumor, Helenet.

This seems like a safe spot to play with your toddler.

Oh, a lullaby for Lune. Thanks.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Bro, you forgot that Nathalie is weakened and sick because overused broken miraculous. Her condition is terrible that even make her paralyzed, always cough and become more paler

(Post this is in response to)

Bro, you forgot that Nathalie is really active in season five and perfectly capable of working around her disability until her condition reaches its final phase.

Evolution takes place the same day as Risk and Strikeback, meaning that season five starts with Nathalie well enough to leave the country and order Adrien around. Yes, she coughs a lot and needs a mobility aid at this point, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to be part of the action:

Gabriel: (on-call) Nathalie, Ladybug has finally faulted! Taking risks has paid off! I have nearly all of the Miraculous, including the one of Evolution, granting the power of time travel! Nathalie: (on the train) Gabriel, wait for me. As soon as I'm home, we'll—

And coming up with plots:

Nathalie: There is another way to use the Miraculous of the Rabbit. (Gabriel gasps.) You could go back to a time before Emilie used the damaged Peacock Miraculous. You can save your wife, Gabriel! (presents a flash drive) This holds the information on how to repair the magic jewel so that Emilie never becomes ill using it. You would just need to give the drive to yourself. (hands Gabriel the drive) Make the right choice. It's not too late!

And in Multiplication - which takes place weeks later - she's still well enough to plot with the villains and play door guard:

Scene: Interior, the Agreste mansion, in Gabriel's atelier. Gabriel is discussing something with Tomoe, in presence of Nathalie. While Tomoe is examining an Alliance ring, Adrien enters the room and interrupts them. Adrien: Father. Nathalie: (blocking the door) It’s not the time, Adrien.

And in Passion - which takes place even later- she's well enough to pin Gabriel to the freaking kitchen table:

Nathalie:(grabs Gabriel's hand, twists it behind his back and pushes him onto the table) Don't ever do that again! I came to this house to hunt magical artifacts for you and Emilie. I became your bodyguard, your right hand woman, your friend, and even more. But this is all over. You used to do this out of love for Emilie, but now, you're only doing it out of madness, and the only reason I'm still here is to protect Adrien from you!

She then comes up with a plan to have Gabriel akumatize her so that she can go out and get the miraculous for herself in order to make her own wish because akumas are magical healers that remove disabilities for as long as they're in effect:

Scene 1:

Emilie:(from the video) I'm counting on you, Nathalie. I know he's as stubborn as they come and, it won't be easy to convince him to stop chasing the Miraculous. (coughs) But you have to, for Adrien. He's going to need you both and I know you'll take care of him like a mother. Nathalie: (crying) I'm sorry, I failed you. But I promise you, I will get the Miraculous before he does. I won't let him recreate the world in the image of his madness!

Scene 2:

Gabriel:(sighs) Emilie, I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know how to go on alone. Nathalie: You're not alone. (walks up to him) Gabriel: Nathalie. Nathalie: A long time ago, I promised I'd bring you all the magical items you would need, but I was never able to bring you Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous. It's time I truly delivered on my promise. Gabriel: No, Nathalie, you've already risked too much! Nathalie: It's time to risk it all. Akumatize me.

And in Revelation - the 20th episode of the season! - she's well enough to go around the Agreste mansion and send pictures to Lila so that our new big bad knows everything while the heroes' stay in the dark. (I don't blame Nathalie for this, btw. Akuma powers and all that. I'm just pointing out that she was still well enough to get into the basement without Gabriel noticing during an akuma fight.)

So what argument are you trying to make here? That Nathalie was too disabled to be a good person, but being evil in spite of her disability was fine? That feels really insulting to the disabled.

Nathalie's condition worsens as the season goes on. Only in the final does she reach a point where she's too weak to do anything and only in the final does she actually try to stop Gabriel, which is why I called her actions pathetic fan service. It's not Nathalie that's pathetic, it's her writing, which waited until she couldn't actually do anything to let her "try" to stop the plot that she's known about and actively supported all season long. Somehow, people actually bought it, too, which blows my mind!

Her going crossbow hunting isn't the culmination of a season where Nathalie desperately tried to stop Gabriel and free Adrien. It's her one good deed after a season spent supporting Gabriel in every meaningful way in spite of her supposed turn to the side of good. Nathalie is smart, powerful, and clever. If she's really turned to the good side, then Gabriel would have been doomed. But she didn't actually turn to the good side, the writers wouldn't let her, which is why I cannot stand her character in season five. They should have just let her stay a villain and removed the senti complication. If they did that, then literally nothing about her writing would need to change. She could still be nice to Adrien while keeping all of Gabriel's secrets. Those are actions that fit a villain way better than whatever Nathalie was supposed to be in season five.

[mysteryshoptls]

R Leona Kingscholar - Outdoor Wear Vignette

"Beside myself with worry"

To the requestor: Outdoor Wear voice lines can be found here.

[Dwarfs' Mine – Campsite]

―First Day of Vargas Camp

Epel: Woah, here come the fairies again for our campfire! Everyone, be on your guard so it doesn't blow out…!

Spelldrive Club Members: YEAH!

Leona: ….Tch. Yer all so noisy.

Epel: Oh…? Leona-san, you're out of your tent already?

Epel: It was only 20 minutes ago that you said you were gonna take a nap…

Leona: This time of day's got sun so bright it's even lighting up the inside of my tent.

Leona: And right whenever I feel like I could get to sleep, there's you lot all yappin' about them fairies every time they show up...

Leona: There's no way I can grab a few z's like this.

Epel: I'm sorry… Oh, what about heading to the mine, then?

Epel: Just a bit ago, Ruggie-san said something to that regard as he was leaving the campsite.

Epel: He said, if you were to wake up saying it was impossible to sleep here…

Epel: That a "secluded, quiet, and dark mine would be the best place for a nap."

Leona: Ugh… I'm betting Ruggie's planning on roping me into something annoying.

Epel: Huh…? Something annoying?

Leona: Whatever, I guess I'll bite.

Leona: I'm heading to the mine. Don't let those fairies run you ragged.

Epel: Yessir, we'll definitely protect our campfire!

[Dwarfs' Mine – Interior]

[clank, clank, clank!]

Jack: Whew… I can't find a single magestone… What about you, Deuce?

Deuce: I've tried picking all over the place, but… No luck here.

Deuce: Looks like the Spelldrive Club down the way is having trouble too… Guess collecting magestones is actually pretty difficult.

Leona: Can't believe you're all getting tripped up by something this easy. You're all so pathetic, huh.

Spelldrive Club Member A: Oh, Leona-senpai! Did you come to check up on your club members?

Leona: Oh, yeah, sure. I was just so beside myself with worry, 'cause it was taking you all too long to get back.

Leona: …Hey! Listen up, each and every single one of you here! I'll teach you all the trick to finding magestones.

Jack: Eh, you are…?

Deuce: Every one of us…? Does that include all us other clubs too?

Leona: It's just a waste of time if you're just randomly swinging your pickaxes at the rock wall.

Leona: Don't you guys even know how magestones are made?

Leona: Basically, gemstones absorb power from its surroundings and become magestones.

Leona: When you're mining for 'em, you want to locate the faint traces of magical output from those magestones, and start digging in that general area…

Jack: Oh, right. Now that you mention it, we learned that in class. Guess I didn't look over it enough to remember to do that.

Deuce: I see!! Then, I'll get down to it…!

Leona: …Buuut, that's just what they say in the textbooks. That's just what inflexible blockheads would do.

Leona: If you just use your brain, you can get it done faster and easier.

Deuce: Huh? Faster and easier…?

Leona: Just think about what kind of "power" turned those gems into magestones.

Leona: For the Dwarf Mine here, that's "volcanic activity." You shoulda learned that in history of magic.

Leona: So, you just gotta look for tuff in the walls that show evidence of volcanic activity.

Deuce: Tuff?

Leona: It's a type of rock that's built up from an accumulation of volcanic ash. It'll look whitish here.

Deuce: Uhh… So basically… If we can find some white bits in the wall and dig, we should find some magestones!?

Leona: Sure, that's probably the simplest way to put it. It's probably more of a reliable method to find the locations to dig, than to ask some untrained novice to try and trace magical energy.

Leona: I'll even show you how as an example. Hey, you, Spelldrive guy. Come dig where I tell you.

Spelldrive Club Member A: Yes, sir!

[clank, clank, clank…]

[…thunk!]

Leona: …See, there it is. A piece of a magestone.

Deuce: He found one in 5 minutes, even though we had been digging for 2, 3 hours and didn't find anything…!

Deuce: Hey, Jack! Your Housewarden's amazing.

Deuce: Plus, he helped all of us, not just the Spelldrive Club guys. He's a real nice guy.

Jack: Y-Yeah.

Deuce: Hm? Something wrong? You're looking grim.

Jack: No, I mean, I know that Leona-senpai is a amazing, but…

Jack: I always thought he wasn't the type to just proactively help others out, so I was just a little surprised.

Jack: But yeah, you're right. He really is someone worth looking up to!

Deuce: Yeah! Alllright, I'm gonna try looking for a magestone using the method he taught us!

Deuce: Kingscholar-senpai, I successfully found a magestone.

Deuce: THANK YOU VERY MUCH, SIR!

Leona: Well, ain't that good for you.

Deuce: Yes, sir! We're going to head out to receive our badge from Vargas-sensei now. Excuse us.

[Deuce and Jack leave]

Spelldrive Club Member A: Leona-senpai～ Why'd you help out those guys when they're not even a part of our club?

Leona: Don't be stupid. It's not like we're competing against each other or anything. Ain't worth gettin' all heated for nothing.

Leona: No one wants to see their club get abolished. Doesn't that mean we're all on the same team?

Spelldrive Club Member A: You're thinking on a completely different level, Leona-senpai! I should've been as compassionate as you!!

Leona: Hmph… If you've gotten your hand on a magestone, go and collect our badge already.

Spelldrive Club Member A: Yes, sir!

[Spelldrive Club Member leaves]

Leona: …Finally, they're all gone. Ugh, what a pain having to help out all those dunderheads.

Leona: Yaaaawn......… Now I can get some quiet shut eye, at last.

Leona: …Zzz…Zzz…

Requested by Anonymous.