#there are other friends i wanted to include but i lost steam bros

[lifesver]

wasted so much time assigning the tcsm friend group/my friends' muses as ffxiv classes:

leland - paladin boy i shan't lie. just some guy with a sword and shield that is very devoted. he's your offtank that stands beside u and puts cover on the main tank or the healer or dps to take the hit and is like [coughing up blood with 8 vuln stacks] im good (: also bc standing in front of the squad w paladin protective light wings goes crazy. paladins aren't always the best main tanks but they are great support offtanks and have a ton of healing/shielding abilities like intervention. can take the heat off you by redirecting damage that u would have taken straight onto himself. tank stance called iron will (: he could also be a gunbreaker bc thancred sexy dumbass gnb energies but i just dont think we should let him have a gun.

connie - machinist or summoner - i just think that connie should get to have a gun that she built herself and also automaton queen to defend her who she also built herself. machinists are specialist dps that are not very tanky bc they're phys ranged but they do big numbers. they're versatile and mobile and also she gets a flamethrower and poison? also ability called wildfire teehees. mch whole thing is just rebelling against the lame people who dont want u to invent new shit but u do it anyway. i think she could also be a summoner bc she gets a lil carbuncle bestie. and yeah the weapon is a book but she can summon the primals like a big phoenix nbd. also a lot of party utility in that she can buff the team's attack and healing, resurrect people, and heal.

danny - dark knight - danny (renee's danny TO BE CLEAR) is a tank be so for real. the whole dark knight thing is no matter what i will always be with you protecting you. not to call him out but you have to be Inherently Going Through it to even be a dark knight. it's also like, the rebel tank class compared to the more royal guard types... their tank stance is also called 'grit'. their visual theming is all shadowy but in the most 'i love u i am ur tank' way. u can summon fray who is like shadow u to fight with u. u can put the blackest night on ur teammates to protect them. also ur invuln ability? it's called living dead and you straight up have to die to activate it and if the timer runs out without u getting healed u fuckin Die for real. but if you do enough dps to heal urself/ur healers care u you come back to life with even more dps

maria - white mage - white mage is a nature magic healer, who can channel elements and light, and is the strongest pure healer in the game. earliest whm quests are about going around healing dark places in nature and being in tune w the natural world. also got some holy energies bc ur abilities turn to bright light at a later level. uses light magic angel wings to protect their team and can summon a big flower that heals everyone. uses lilies to heal teammates, which powers up the b l o o d l i l y bar so u can cast afflatus misery and nuke an enemy after you do a certain amount of healing. whm rly like The Most Healer but also every whm i know including me goes a bit sadistic sometimes bc we do super big dps for a healer- anyway

donnie - gunbreaker - wait the truth is donnie is the sexy foolish thancred energy required to be a gunbreaker. ur weapon? a gun that's also a sword that shoots magic rounds that come from ur own aether/life force bro. gnbs have a lot of utility and are more dps-y thank some other tanks are. all the gnb mains i know are chaotic tbh. idk their abilities also go sicko mode w the names. demon edge? demon slaughter? no mercy? brutal shell? heart of light/heart of stone/heart of corundum? also superbolide is their invulnerability and u know what u do? u shoot urself with ur own gun go down to 1hp and are invincible for a time. gunbreakers are like bodyguards for hire in their story they are kind of doing their own thing and sticking to loyalty to their homies which feels donnie. to be fair i can also see bard bc musician moment but i also see dragoon bc chaotic melee player vibes. dragoons are called floor tanks for a reason bc they are tanking the floor dead-

johnny - warrior bc warriors pull up with their giant battle axe are feral and unkillable and then they hit that rage mode (inner release/infuriate etc) where their eyes go red and their dps skyrockets. they have literally so many mitigations that heal both themselves and their teammates that usually scale in healing by how much damage they do to an enemy. like mmm blood. delicious. im so for real tho when im healing a warrior in a dungeon they pull wall to wall enemies and i barely have to heal them if they're good. their abilities are called shit like shake it off, bloodwhetting, onslaught, berserk, primal rend, decimate, thrill of battle, overpower, u see what im getting at bro. also their tank stance is called defiance. ur just going sicko mode but also ur protecting ur homies.

ana - monk or warrior - i know that ana is A Tank but i don't know if any of them are truly The Vision. but melee dps are basically tanks and have the highest aggro so like. if the tanks die the boss immediately turns around to beat ur ass-- no but monks are very versatile. they are tanky martial artists who also provide team utility and have a lot of ways of healing/protecting themselves. all the monk players i know will be surviving shit they never should have survived i will tell u that. anyway i think she could also be a warrior bc warriors never die they have 50435345245 mitigations and they can also protect their their team. pain is nothing bitch-

sonny - scholar - sonny is giving 'tired but dedicated shield healer' energy so sincerely. scholars weapon is a book, their intellect, and a fairy summon that heals the team. scholar is a technical class with a lot of versatility and utility, can buff the team, can make em run super fast to escape boss mechs, can put down giga shields, can clutch save ur dumbass tanks life. can cover a lot of areas, do a bit of everything. i also think it's so cute to think of sonny w his little fairy eos/selene.

julie - dancer - julie is fr sure dancer bc everyone wants to be dance-partnered by her bc being dance partner means she gives you special buffs. and also she's hot. dancer is also super team utility focused, they do less damage overall in exchange for buffing her teammates, being able to heal and shield as well. very mobile, uses funky chakrams for weapons. playing dancer is hilarious sometimes im like [dancing and crying while my teammates are dying around me]

if danny gaines was here he would probably be machinist tbh as you can see i put effort in here-

[yo9urt]

ヤクザ kiwami done! thoughts below...

FINAL STATS: about ~45 hours playtime (originally 44 then i spent an hour or so in premium adventure goofing off with haruka and punching majima), about ~72% completion, and 45/55 achievements. full completion on substories (78/78) and basically full completion on majima everywhere (i didn't get ALL his encounters but i got what the completion log asked for...also as i'm going through the achievements i realize he never attacked me from a manhole omg that's annoying)

for reference, my y0 stats were 97 hours, 74% completion, and 37/55 steam cheeves so not too far off! i guess this is probably going to be my default for these games lol

ok let's get into it!! i'm going to try as hard as i can to resist comparing K1 to 0 because i don't think that's fair on multiple levels

STORY: good! there was a lot of intrigue and drama right from the start but it felt very well done and while that ring-fetch-quest part at the beginning was kind of annoying that's more gameplay and less story. my ONLY issues are that at the end kiryu was like "i loved you yumi" and while i did see how that was implied at the beginning i don't think i personally felt it very strongly which made that end scene a bit less impactful but honestly the ending was impactful enough on its own that it doesnt matter. my other complaint is that it was kind of hard to follow what was going on - i finished the game in like under 2 weeks i think but by the end i had lost track of who the MIA are and who jingu was supposed to be and what anything was, but im also kind of stupid so maybe it was my fault, not sure

story part 2: good god why do so many people die in this game????? that was a bit hard to deal with...i didnt like sera dying because i always liked him and i didnt like shinji dying because he was a bro and i wanted to get to know him more and i didnt like reina dying because shes fucking reina and i didnt like yumi dying because shes fucking yumi and i didnt like nishiki dying because HES FUCKING NISHIKI i honestly went through the 5 stages of grief over that including attacking my friend who got me into the series so that was a lot. i dont think this amount of death was fair at all though i understand stories are like that. but it was just a bit hard to watch people i liked die unpleasantly over and over again...also what's up with all the shooting/stabbing-in-the-stomach in this game???

i did like that it ended on a more positive note with kiryu avoiding jail to care for haruka and the implication that they're gonna basically stay together as a father/daughter pair i think that's really cute and i'm excited to see more of her in the future :)

i was so deeply pleased to see shimano die. i wish i could have done it myself because beating him in a fight twice was still not enough for me and my hatred for him knows no bounds but it was great to see his dead body on the floor. get fucked you stupid shithead loser

i'm still confused as to why and how kiryu was chairman for...1 day...what was that about ????

similarly, i didnt fully realize this until my friend pointed it out to me but this game REALLY showed how kazama basically shitted on nishiki and treated him like the loser child while loving kiryu and yumi and caring for them deeply and i wish that had been explained more because i don't get it at all...why did he never help nishiki's sister? or nishiki himself? im not going to say i believe what shimano said about kazama/kashiwagi sabotaging nishiki on purpose because i hate shimano and he might have just been fucking with nishiki there but it is very suspicious...and makes me mad because i really liked kazama :(

i did like the interspersal of past-flashback cutscenes showing how nishiki became evil. it was very hard to watch those but they were done very well and did a great job explaining how and why he became evil (i would too under those circumstances). but i miss 20 year old nishiki from y0 who was kiryu's best friend and brother forever... :( it's not fair

one thing that also stuck out to me was how in 0, when kiryu is about to kill shibusawa, nishiki stops him and says once kiryu crosses that line he can never go back, and he tells him that if he's going to cross it they should do it together...and then in kiwami nishiki kills dojima (rightly so under the circumstances) all by himself and after that he has that scene where he kills the mean guy on his team and goes "what's the difference between one man or two? i'll kill everyone it takes to get to the top!!" :((((((( that made me so sad...nishiki you used to be purehearted...where did you go... :( it's just not fair at all

GAMEPLAY

let's get this out of the way: i LOVED MAJIMA EVERYWHERE. immaculate, from start to finish. i kicked my feet like a teenage girl when he showed up in that first cutscene and i wasn't even mad to lose to him in that unwinnable fight. it is a FANTASTIC idea from whoever came up with that and it fits its niche perfectly:

1. it makes sense for the story because kiryu DOES need to regain his strength. 2. it makes sense for majima because if you played 0 you can see how he's essentially embodying nishitani here and it makes sense for his character. 3. it makes sense for gameplay because it's frequent enough to be great combat practice (especially for dummies like me) and great XP farming plus helps you unlock special dragon abilities, and it's segmented by chapters such that it scales up with you as you go, so outside of that first unwinnable fight majima is never unbeatable and you always feel good about winning to him because you're either doing it at a low level and can see how kiryu is getting stronger/you're getting better as a player or you're doing it at a high level and you feel good as fuck because...

tangent: high level combat in kiwami FEELS GOOD!! this surprised me because i am not a combat guy at all but by late game i was starting to really enjoy myself as the dragon style came into its own and i figured out how to consistently beat people down with it. jumping and dodging and rolling and punching and kicking etc., not to mention using weapons and heat actions, feels amazing!!!!

back on topic. i liked that majima everywhere kind of gives you a bit more peek into his character because you get to see him in different scenarios, doing different things, like being goromi or pretending to be a cop or challenging kiryu to pocket circuit, etc. etc. in a similar vein, it was hard to go from playing as him in 0 to having him be an npc in k1 (so weird watching him do things without my input and use combos on me that we used to use on npcs!!!!!), so being able to see him all the time in the city and have little fights and dialogues with him and get to know 17-years-later-majima really softened that sting. much appreciated!!

street fights felt much more frequent and aggressive in this game than in 0. that was annoying.

karaoke felt harder for some reason. that was annoying but i survived. didn't really like the songs in this one as much as the ones in 0 honestly

pocket circuit was the same as before. it was nice to see the grown up players and PCF again though :) that was a cute substory

i...actually liked mesuking a lot, way more than i thought i would. while it is in the end an RPS/luck based game (i don't like luck based games), it had a new strategy component to it that JCC did not have, so i actually didn't mind scavenging all the cards and doing all the MK substories. i also thought it was hilarious how the winning bug girl has real bugs standing around the tree stump cheering for her lmao

didn't really play other minigames i think

back to majima everywhere, i thought it was a little strange how in that one chapter he literally got stabbed and then in the next chapter he's back to harassing you on the street like nothing happened...but i guess he's just very genki...

also i liked that there was a lot of homoeroticism in that part of the game that was really good

and one note that i don't know where to put it...i really hated that they put komaki's moves/finishing the dragon tree/completing some substories behind coliseum participation because the coliseum is fucking boring to me and i don't like it it was just a mindless grind of punching guys until i unlocked the breakout GP tournament, farmed that for like 5 mins, and finished all the moves.

i still don't know who this jo amon guy is or why he's so strong...

also what the hell was up with the evil snake flower people honestly between them and the MIA and the tojo and omi i feel like there were maybe too many parties involved in what was going on i'm still confused...

more thoughts on the story (sorry this post is so disorganized i'm just writing what comes to me now):

as painful as it was i also think the transition/evolution of kiryu and nishiki's relationship from 0 to now (as well as inside just 0 specifically) was done well and fits well with the overarching themes/motifs of the games, the focus on like fatherhood and family and manhood/masculine relationships and that kind of thing...

i thought a lot about how nishiki was essentially the 2nd favorite son and how (i realized this right before it was explained ingame so i felt pretty smart) he has the fish tattoo and kiryu has the dragon and there's that legend about a fish climbing a waterfall for 100 years to become a dragon, how nishiki had to fight so hard for so long to get even a fraction of the power and clout and attention that kiryu gets just for existing...that was very painful but very well done as a storyline

ok final note i really liked the music ESPECIALLY the tense/scary themes i actually think they were better than 0's tense theme which is crazy because i always really liked 0's tense theme anyway yeah really good OST. really good game all around very much looking forward to k2 and the rest of the series

also i think it's so cute you can hold hands with haruka in premium adventure ok that's all for now thanks everyone

[ducknotinarow]

2k3/7 Mikey Casey - #

| send me “#” for cell phone headcanons about our muses including:

"Im starting to think this ain't ending anytime soon uh? Alright alright least I haven't had anything embarrassing like Raph."

- what your muse’s name is in mine’s phone

"Big Oaf"

"Nothing special here, just Case. I'll the deep sweet sappy nicknames to Raph when it comes to to them. I think it fits have you seen him when he comes into the lair? I really think Splinter might wind up killing the clumsy idiot one day. Sure he's gotten a bit better since hanging around us and joining in on training drills but how that guy gets around with out falling over his own huge feet? hmm maybe he's related to Bigfoot, could explain why he aint used to them." He pauses for a moment "maybe I should change it to big foot?"

- what your muse’s picture is in mine’s phone

[image description ] Casey turned to face the camera holding up one of the comics in the shop Casey claimed to have anything one could need if you couldn't find it in the city it's self.

"Casey seems to always know a guy to help with what we need, kind of surprised he don't got more friends? Sounds like he knows a lot of people after all and yeah sure Casey annoying yeah I know I think someone is annoying thats a pretty big feat on it's own! But still annoying or not how can't you like the guy? I wouldn't claim were close nah, but I like when he's around just seems right. He's family after all. With or not with Raph too, he's just another big brother to me."

- what your muse’s ringtone is in mine’s phone

Freaks like us by Sleeping Wolf Do you want to be freaks like us? Keep on getting lost in the rush? Call it a habit, I gotta have it Playing it safe is not enough

"Look other human might not always like Case but ya know what that's fine he can just be a freak like me and my bros he fits in just fine with a bunch of turtles."

- my muse’s last text to your muse

03: [ text] "heads up theres a angry red turtle free in the city might wanna check on him he blew outta here fast it was like steam was coming outta his ears!"

07: [ text] "Ya know you can still come by and see the rest of us at least, he ain't always here anyway. or maybe I can drag don out for bit and bring a pizza?"

"Hope you're okay Case."

[movie-magic]

Ruby Rose Alleges Gruesome Injuries, Toxic Behavior on ‘Batwoman’ Set

“I will come for you so what happened to me never happens to another person again,” actress wrote on Instagram

Actress Ruby Rose detailed the injuries and difficult working conditions she says she and others endured while making the CW Arrowverse series, Batwoman.

Rose — who left Batwoman in May 2020 — leveled her allegations in a series of posts on Instagram Stories, which included video from doctors’ visits post-injury. She also detailed alleged injuries suffered by crew members and stunt people, while she accused Warner Bros. Television executive, Peter Roth, of hiring a private investigator to track her.

“Enough is enough,” Rose wrote in her first post, which was addressed to the CW, Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries, and Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter of the show’s production company Berlanti Productions. “I’m going to tell the whole world what really happened on that set… I will come for you so what happened to me never happens to another person again. And so I can finally take back my life and the truth. Shame on you.”

Rose shared a handful of videos from doctors’ visits regarding injuries to her ribs and neck. Reposting a clip made during a neck surgery she underwent in 2019, Rose wrote, “To everyone who said I was too stiff on Batwoman, imagine going back to work 10 days after this … 10 DAYS! (Or the whole crew and cast would be fired and I’d let everyone down because [Warner Bros. exec] Peter Roth said he would recast and I just lost the studio millions (by getting injured on his set). … Instead of spending half a day to rewrite me out for a few weeks to heal.”

Rose went on to say she would never return to Batwoman for “any amount of money nor if a gun were to my head,” although also clarified that she did not quit. “They ruined Kate Kane and they destroyed Batwoman, not me. I followed orders, and if I wanted to stay I was going to have to sign my rights away. Any threats, any bullying tactics, or blackmail will not make me stand down.”

She then went on to share allegations involving dangerous workplace conditions and injuries she says were suffered by herself and others on the set. Rose claimed a crew member “got 3rd degree burns over his whole body, and we were given no therapy after witnessing his skin fall off his face.” She claimed that soon after, she was told she “had to do a sex scene without a minute to process.” Additionally, she said the show lost two stunt doubles, and she was once cut so close to the eye while doing a stunt, “I could have been blind.”

Rose also claimed that a PA was “left quadriplegic” following an incident on the set. While the incident was allegedly blamed on the woman being on her phone, Rose noted, “she’s a PA, they work via phones.” Rose added that the incident “occurred because our show refused to shut down when everyone else did because of Covid,” and that the showrunner, Dries, “wanted us to finish the season throughout the pandemic and I told her it was a bad idea… I told her everyone was too distracted, constantly checking Covid updates, checking on friends.” Rose said when the show was finally shut down it was not because of the PA’s injury, but because of the government mandate.

Elsewhere in her posts, Rose addressed Roth, the Warner TV exec, saying he allegedly made “young women steam [his] pants, around your crotch while you were still wearing said pants,” and that he allegedly hired a private investigator to track Rose, but fired them “as soon as the report didn’t fit your narrative.” “When it comes to you, there’s already an army waiting for u,” Rose wrote.

She also leveled several accusations against Batwoman co-star Dougray Scott: “Dougray hurt a female stunt double, he yelled like a little bitch at women and was a nightmare. He left when he wanted and arrived when he wanted, he abused women and in turn, as a lead of a show, I sent an email out asking for a no yelling policy, they declined.”

[idwithoutthesuperego]

DREAM OF ME

CHAPTER 04: Surprises at parties

SUMMARY: m!reader (Y/n) is an incubus, who enrolls into an state university, just outside Beacon Hills, a town that has a quite lively supernatural little community, even if the supernaturals themselves aren’t all aware. There, he meets a shy blonde guy who acts like he is half of himself, and a dark haired one who is loud and can’t keep his mouth shut to save his perfect little ass.

Tags: Teen Wolf AU. m!reader x stiles x isaac. Smut. Fetishes. College. Nsfw. Past mentions of abuse. Physical abuse. Drinking. Drugs. Angst. Fluff.

 Hey, I’m still alive. Just had a LOT of things from uni and work to do these last few weeks. But the new chapter is finally here !

Thanks for all of those who are reading and supporting ^^

The twins are back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You woke up on party day feeling pretty refreshed. How you had missed feeding. It hadn’t been a full thing, since you hadn’t had sex and maxed the twins’ sexual and vital energy before feeding, but still. Maybe Eve wasn’t so wrong after all. But gods forbid she knew that, she probably would make a parade just to boast about it.

Getting up from the bed, you put on a fluffy robe and poured some expensive wine in a nice glass. You couldn’t get drunk, but you could still be dramatic about it and appreciate the taste.

And so began your morning of choosing what clothes you were going to wear to your “all you can suck out of” buffet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stiles was woken up by the sun making his bedroom way too hot, what meant it was already pretty late into the morning. And also by the buzzing of his phone with a text from Scott.

‘Don’t forget you are giving me a ride to the party

Think your crush will be there?

- S’

Before he could panic thinking about what he was going to do when he saw you, he panicked about the situation he had gone to sleep in.

He was butt naked, blankets on the floor, he had visible cum stains all over his abdomen and chest, his computer was beside him on his bed still paused on a very kinky porn video, and his dildo and lube were right beside it.

Thank god he had locked the door; because that was one talk he definitely could not have with the sheriff.

Red as beet, Stiles stashed everything away and scooted to the bathroom to get ready for the day. And if he had to get off in the shower remembering last night’s videos, well, no one was there to judge him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The party began pretty early for your standards, right in the start of the afternoon, but you supposed the people wanted to make use of the heat and the nearby lake as much as possible. So you arrived fashionably late.

Stiles, on the other hand, had a task to complete, so he had arrived exactly on time with Scott, making his best friend look for you, even if he didn’t really know who you were. He had already pestered Scott about helping him choose his best boxers, in case he had to go swimming or ‘more than that’, and a shirt that showed off his “muscles” (there weren’t any really), and pants that made his ass look big and perfect.

Isaac arrived just after Scott and Stiles, but decided to get a drink and be a wallflower. That way people could see he was there, but wouldn’t go out of their way to talk to or bother him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not soon after you arrived, you could already feel the atmosphere, the particular one this kind of events always gave. It was like a small buzz on your skin of having all these people with so much sexual energy pent up, but being too prude and socially reprimanded to do something about it, so they resorted to alcohol and games. But it only made everything more interesting and tasteful.

Gods, how you missed the times when people would just gather around for a banquet and an orgy. It made things so much easier. Nowadays you had to use apps instead of getting an invitation on your door with a time and place.

But no matter, you cracked your knuckles, and let your aura begin to attract unknowing people into your presence.

Stiles soon saw you. He had lost Scott a few minutes ago, so no one to give him emotional support or tips for this. He decided that straightforward was the best strategy. So he got two drinks and marched towards you.

The only problem was, when he got to you and you two were face to face, he had no idea what to say, and you already had a drink in hand. So he stood there, looking at you, frozen in place, trying to come up with something.

When you saw the boy that had bumped marching away not really into your direction with two drinks in hand, you guessed he was just going to walk past over, but then he made a sharp turn and planted himself in front of you, saying nothing. You feel see his anxiety and lust, see how his cute innocent face was slightly red from embarrassment, so you waved your hand and the people near you quickly dispersed.

“Yes?”

“Hi! I was just over there, and thought that maybe you wanted a drink, because it’s a party and everybody wants to drink right? So maybe want to drink with me? But you already have one, and getting drinks from strangers at parties really isn’t so smart. So that’s it, I’m gonna go. Bye!” He rambled. This boy was a mess, a hot anxious mess, but a mess.

“Wait.” You held his arm, making him pause and look at you. “Stiles, right?” Getting a nod from him in response. “You know what? I need a drink…” You said pouring yours to the ground. “…and a cute guy just happens to have offered me one.” You finished, taking one of the cups from his hand.

“Yeah? Cool… Wait, how do you know my name?”

“Yesterday, when you ran into me, the twins said it.”

“Oh, yeah…” Stiles had been so entranced and embarrassed he hadn’t even noticed. “So, Ethan and Aiden are your friends?”

“Them? Not at all, they just offered to show me around, but we didn’t get along so well, so I dished then and went home right after.”

“That’s great!” he said before he could think. “I mean… that you didn’t spend too long with then, with Ethan…” He just blushed and looked at his drink.

“So, are you going to ask for my name too or are you just going to parade that hot look of yours away and make me guess?”

That comment almost made Stiles crush his cup and blush beet red. “Oh my God, sorry! Yes, what’s your name?! I mean, I heard the twins calling you, so I know, but not in creep way?”

“It’s (Y/n), nice to finally meet you.” You took a step closer, smiling.

Both of you spent some more time talking, well most of the time Stiles was rambling, but you thought it was cute. As time went on, and he started to notice you were giving way too clear signs you were into him, he got more comfortable. But the boy had practically invited himself to show you all over town in sort of dates.

-------------------

Nearby, Isaac was getting another beer and trying to avoid the crowd. Not that having 3 or even 10 would have much effect on wolf, but still. He was, however, ever so worried about the time. He couldn’t even enjoy being out, too deep into thought, because he was worried what his father would do if he knew Isaac was spending his day drinking on a college party instead of studying, cleaning the house or something considered useful.

And that’s probably how he got himself into a bad situation. Just as he was getting away from the crowd, the twins noticed him and started following. As soon as they far enough, they really approached Isaac.

Ever since they came into town way back with the alpha pack and were beaten by the Scott – Hale pack groups (Isaac included), they were the only ones left, so they held a pretty big grudge on them. Still, they couldn’t do anything publicly or face the head on. So they resorted to some bullying and pranks over time. Now, the wanted their own pack to rule, enough with all those alphas in one single town.

Ethan was the first to speak up, startling Isaac.

“Hey bro, look who do we have here? I think I smell loneliness and fear. Don’t you?” That only made Aiden smile and Isaac grip his bottle harder.

“What do the two of you want?”

“Oh my, so snarky, I guess Hale really didn’t want a brat as charity work on his pack hmn? Word around is that scarf boy here was kicked to the curb.” By now Isaac’s teeth were gritting and his eyes ready to flash yellow. He was holding himself, because he knew he couldn’t take an alpha, even less two.

“Is that so? Word around town is that not even his own father can stand him presence. That blondie is only good to be a punching bag and cleaning the house.”

That made Isaac’s blood run cold. He lost control of his grip on the bottle, squeezing it too hard. By now he was bawling the glass shards into a fist and could barely feel it. All he could think was ‘how could they know?’, ‘did Derek tell on him?’, ‘did his father brag about doing those things to him?’. Isaac wanted to run away, wanted to punch those two, wanted to do something, but he couldn’t move. What if they told on him? If world got out, what would people think? How would they look at him? It was too much to even imagine, he could feel the fear taking control of his mind.

“Is that so Ethan? If bitch boy is so useless no one wants him around, maybe we should just make everyone a favor and get rid of him? Bet not even dear old dad would miss him. We can just send a maid on his place and the coach won’t know the difference.” Aiden said with a creepy smile, cracking his knuckles and taking a few steps into Isaac’s direction.

“Wait Aiden, I have a better idea.” Stopping his brother with a hand on his shoulder. “Can’t you smell? His fear is so strong he is probably about to pee his pants. There is no need to kill him.” He took came even closer, by now he was at arm’s length from Isaac. “After all, if he is so useful, we could add him to our pack and keep him around. It’ll be good to let off some steam.”

Ethan was pretty sure he and his twin had different definitions of “letting off steam” when talking about this. But he did miss having someone to train (beat up) from time to time. And if this put them one step closer to having a big pack, all the more reason. “Okay.”

Isaac could already see their eyes flashing red, his flashing yellow in response. He was afraid and angry, but if alphas made him submit, there was nothing he could do.

-------------------

After realizing he had, yet again, accidentally and clumsy invited you to date out of the blue, Stiles wanted to crawl into a whole right there and hide until he died. He swore he was blushing so hard he wouldn’t even need a jacket for the chilly night ahead. But you were still there, and even laughing at his stupid jokes, so he also just wanted to lean in and snog your face off like a proper gentleman.

While trying to make not so obvious that he was looking very hard at your eyes, your crotch and you lips, he caught sight of Isaac. Which in itself was weird, the blond had been avoiding him and the pack for a while now, much more at these events. He really liked and cared for Isaac, even if they spent only a few moments together. And he knew Isaac cared for the people of his pack, even if he didn’t voice it to Scott. But one day, he just stopped going to Derek’s and started avoiding everyone. What he saw next sent flags on his head, the twins following Isaac to a desert part of the woods. Something was definitely up

He stopped talking and paying attention to you midsentence, turning to look for Scott. Fishing his phone he even tried to call his friend and send a quick text telling where he was but nothing.

“Hey Stiles, is everything okay? You look a little off.” You could feel it, but couldn’t really tell him.

“Sorry, yeah, I just saw someone I know; I guess they might need a hand. Be right back? I’m really, really sorry. Please be here later? Or I’ll call you? And if you see a brooding dark haired guy with kind eyes called Scott tell him I ran in that direction?” Was all he said, marching into Isaac’s direction. Of course, without giving you his number.

Looking at his big butt in those tight jeans running away, your only response was “For the gods, why do I have to be curious?” And went after that ass.

-------------------

By the time Stiles arrived, things were ready to turn sour. The twins had their eyes flashing against Isaac’s. He was already visibly struggling to keep standing up. So, he did the smartest thing he could think of, he threw his drink on Aiden and ran to Isaac’s side. That gave the blond a breather while the twins took a few steps back at the sudden turn of events.

“What the fuck?! Stiles? What are you doing here?” Aiden spat, looking at his soaked clothes.

“Why do you have to be everywhere? Doesn’t Scott keep you on a leash or something?” The other twin completed.

“And what about the two of you? Don’t you two have someone else to pick on?” Stiles responded half standing in front of Isaac.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but we were just getting to know our new pack mate.”

“Cut the crap. Isaac’s part of Derek’s pack. And if you don’t back down, he will go after you.”

Now it was Aiden who responded with an evil grin. “Didn’t you get the notice? Isaac boy was kicked out. Nobody wants him around anymore. So we are doing him a solid and letting him join us.”

“Is that true Isaac?” Stiles asked the boy crouching besides him. But Isaac couldn’t respond, what was he going to say? Tell the truth why he ran away from Derek’s pack? If he fought back, were the twins going to tell on him, on what his father did to him? Silence was all he could respond with.

Stiles wasn’t buying the twins words, but Isaac wasn’t even looking at him. And if they fought, well, he wouldn’t even be able to run very far to be honest. And run while carrying Isaac was even less of an option.

Aiden started to make his way to the duo, already fed up with Stiles presence. “Now get out of here, unless you want a bite as a farewell gift.”

Just as he was about to grab Stiles arm to yank him out of there, he suddenly felt a chill creep up on his spine. An arm was over his, another on his neck, both keeping him rocked into place, and you talking right beside his ear.

“Now, now, doing that wouldn’t be very nice would it?”

It all happened in an instant for them, one moment you weren’t there and then you were. As soon as Ethan noticed you, his claws came out and was about to dash at your throat. But as soon as his red eyes crossed with you incandescent ones, all he could feel was pain. He could barely move because of it.

Aiden, seeing his twin, tried to free himself, but couldn’t move an inch, your fingers on his neck starting to dig deeper and draw blood. You came close to his ear again and whispered “down boy”, which only made him angrier, before tossing him into a tree.

When you broke eye contact with Ethan and threw Aiden, the first could feel the pain going away, but didn’t move, not understanding what happened. As he got up, the second could feel some of his ribs had cracked on impact. While you made your way to a dumbfounded Stiles Isaac pair. The dark haired boy considered running again, but you had just protected both of them, so you weren’t just going to kill them. Right?

“You two okay?”

“Y-yeah… But how did you? When did you? Why…?” Stiles just darted his eyes from you to the twins, not really understanding everything.

Isaac put a protective arm in front of Stiles who was obviously lost in his own questions. “Who are you?”

“Yeah, who the hell are you?! And what are you?” Aiden followed, feeling his bones heal. You only smiled and turned around.

“Oh, don’t tell me the two of you already forgot? After you so kindly invited me to your room just yesterday?”

The twins stared at each other, but couldn’t remember you at all. So you looked to them and spoke a single word “… remember…” in a voice that sounded like an echo, eyes glowing again. And all of a sudden, some of the memories you had taken from them rushed back in, the kisses, them taking off their clothes, kneeling in front of you in their underwear, laying naked on the bed, posing for pictures. That made the twins loose some balance and get embarrassed at the recollection.

“Now, I and these two are going to leave. I trust you two aren’t going to follow. After all, I took some nice picks yesterday, wouldn’t  want those getting around.” You winked at the twins and extended a hand to Stiles.

Isaac didn’t know what to think of all of this, but Stiles seemed to trust you enough to take your hand. So when you did the same to him, he accepted the help to get up. Both of them following you to your car.

-------------------

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@kinoko-kai

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

The soul stone war is a game that I've seen before and its on my list. Was wondering if you coudl tell more about how you feel about it, especially the villain romance if you chose that one.

Uuh, sure. I'll do it in a bullet list cuz it's been a while since I've played it and I can't really be bothered to put a whole coherent post together.

I should also encourage you to read some reviews on the Steam store page. They basically repeat a lot of the points I'm about to make.

The main character is a useless waif. Like, even if you pass the skill checks, there are multiple instances where you're forced to pass out, be injured, kidnapped, or otherwise victimized. They're so helpless and out of their element that it becomes hard to believe any of the much more capable and skilled people around them would ever find them compelling or interesting and consider them anything more than a burden. Yet you’re somehow also the most important person in the whole squad, and they keep protecting and helping you no matter how you treat them. Because hey, that’s the protagonist!

On that note, the romances are dull as hell. All characters are vaguely nice and friendly, some are just more snarky/broody than others. You can "friendmance" people, which is a good concept in theory, but in practice it involves your character being unaware of their own emotions. It further adds to how incapable and clueless they seem. Plus, it never becomes clear why any of the ROs would be romantically interested in the protagonist, especially when they have established connections with other people on the squad already. You’re playing a rando who just shows up one day, bumbles about uselessly, but then becomes the most important person ever to them. Sure.

The plot is filled with contrivances. The main one being that the main character is involved in it at all. They're basically forced into it despite showing no particular skills or talents, and the only excuse we ever get for them sticking around is ... uh ... the big-booby elf lady said they were cute. The author simply didn't bother coming up with a better reason for them to be involved, knowing that there would be one eventually that would justify it in the end, but giving us nothing to work with in the moment, no personal reason and no agency. It feels very cheap.

The world and worldbuilding are basically the most generic fantasy thing you can imagine. The author even answered some questions on their Tumblr about the political structure of the land as "You know Skyrim? Like that." Elements and character dynamics and even minor phrases and words are lifted wholesale from franchises like Dragon Age and The Elder Scrolls. One of the first things your character can say is a reference to Dragon Age, but it's never brought up again and we never get an explanation for what it means in this universe or why the character would say it. One of the first lines in your "own" unique world shouldn't be a tee hee cutesy reference to some other well-established universe.

The tone is all over the place. One moment you're joking around about something the big-boobied blond elf said, the next your character is being tortured by some werewolf woman or some god-entity, and there’s nothing they can do to escape, so you just sit there and have to endure all this torture porn. And then it’s right back to the repetitive jokes and snarky narration.

I’m serious about the torture porn. One of the MC’s backgrounds includes their transgender friend being murdered for being trans. Another includes your character almost getting sexually assaulted. The third involves your younger brother dying. There’s no reason for any of this to be included other than to show how dark and edgy this world is and how your character is running from their past or whatever.

Speaking of dark and edgy, the villain gets a lot of screen time, and it’s mostly him brooding about how evil he is while the narration creams itself over how hot he is, also. But the author acts surprised over how he’s the most popular character in the fandom, and deflects most criticisms for his route as “it’s self-indulgent” and “it’s a secret route just for me, I didn’t think anyone else would play it.” Bro why’d you put it there, then? With instructions in-game on how to reach it?

The writing is genuinely some of the worst I’ve read. I hate to use this word unironically, but it was cringeworthy at times. It’s supposed to be this epic fantasy, but most of the time it feels like it’s chasing the high of a found family in a video game squad, without actually knowing what makes those particular tropes work. It’s simplistic and extremely repetitive, relying more on character tropes and “tumblr meme” interactions than genuine character building and conflict. It also tries and mostly fails to be funny, but that’s more subjective, I guess. Take a shot every time the text goes “thank you very much!” and you’ll be out in a few clicks.

Pacing whomst? Everything happens in the span of like a week or a month, but suddenly your character and their RO are like, in love and all weepy about it? Oh no I almost lost you my dear darling baby, let me tearfully declare how important you are to me. Nevermind the fact that we met four days ago.

The villainmance is the only vaguely interesting thing in the story and it's pretty evident it's the author's favorite thing to write. They've said how it's just a "self-indulgent" thing that wasn't supposed to be popular (I do not believe a word of this), but it's by far the most interesting thing just based on the fact that it's not only the most plot-relevant romance, but it's also the one with the most stakes and drama and the most varied dynamics. There’s genuine, justified angst and emotion in the concept of it at times that is missing from literally every other interaction and grimdark moment.

That being said, I wouldn’t say the villainmance is healthy, so don’t go into it looking for that. The dynamics are way off-balance and a lot of the route in the first game is your character being attracted to the man who’s torturing them and wanting to be tortured again just to interact with him. If you’re into that, then you might be into this story, but if you’re not then you’ll be put off by it.

The Asian-coded character has a "yellow" skintone and is a half-dragon.

The reason there's transphobia in this world and the player can't be trans is is because the "gods" of this world don't want any mortals to have the ability to "change their gender" because that would make them too similar to the gods. However, nonbinary characters are fine, and you can play as one. Because as we all know, binary trans people are just out there "changing their gender" all willy nilly. That's how that works, right? While nonbinary characters are always born nonbinary and nobody assigns genders to their children in this world? Idk how any of this makes any sense but go off, I guess. This isn't in the actual game AFAIK but something I read on the author's Tumblr, so take it as you will. The actual transphobia is in the game, though. Because reasons.

Overall, it’s a lot of half-baked concepts, unfunny writing, and needless torture porn for the sake of torture porn. Plus it’s not even a whole story, it’s just the first part of a series/trilogy? Maybe it’ll get better as it goes, but I wouldn’t hold my breath tbh.

[shinobirain24]

Water and Ice- Chapter 7: Confinement

Neptune opened his eyes to see the town of Argus in an apocalyptic ruins. Since when did he even traveled to the future? Or is this a dream?

Either way isn't a good sign. He keeps walking in the city in search for survivors. Calling out to anyone who might be in high buildings. "Hello?! Anybody there?!" But no one responded.

"What happened while I was away? I don't remember a forecast of earthquakes. I was only gone for two days. Or is it three?" He then remembered that Weiss was with him. "Weiss...hello?! If you can hear me, say something!"

"Neptune?" The blue-haired huntsman turned around to see a familiar man with a scar. Also blue-haired with visors. leather jacket, a sign that he is a Thunderbolt. "Who are you?! Did you do this?" The man isn't responding. But he took off his visors and revealed similar blue eyes as Neptune's. "It's been a while, bro."

"No, it can't be...J-Jupiter." He slightly gasped. "I thought you were dead! Am I dreaming this?" He shook his head.

"What the hell is going on? What happened to Argus? And why are you participating in criminal activities?! For the record, those visors do not look good on you." Neptune demanded.

"You don't get it, do you?" He asked, which confuses Neptune. "I've been playing dead for a while. I suggest you make a run for it before "she" finds you."

"Who's "she?"" Jupiter exits the scene before he could answer. "Hey wait!" He heard another voice.

"Neptune?" He turned to the Argus Park where a statue of the deceased Pyrrha Nikos was standing. It was Weiss. She then runs towards him.

"What's going on?! Who would do this?" Weiss inquired and Neptune wishes he has a answer, but no. "I don't know. Maybe we're dreaming." Then a tidal wave of flood rushes over. Cars, trees, broken glass and other vehicles are washed away. It was too late to escape as the water pulls them with it.

"Dah!"

"Wah!" Weiss grabs Neptune's hand and they held each other tight while trying to resurface from the water to gain air to breath. But then their grip didn't last long when Weiss and Neptune grab onto a lamppost. "Don't let go!" But then their hands slipped, separating them.

"Neptune!" Weiss cried out.

"Weiss!" Neptune shouts back struggling to swim, but the waves sucked him down to the bottom. The salt water has flown into his lungs and they got stuck. Having trouble to breath since it already got into his mouth.

No. I can't breath. Why can't I save anybody? I am a failure. I hated my semblance so much. How come I didn't use it wisely? Neptune thought closing his eyes. Waiting for his "death" to be over with.

Neptune snapped his eyes open with a grasp. "Ah!" Touching his throat like the water is still there. But it wasn't. Pushing his hair above. "Oh man, what a nasty nightmare." He then looked back at the dream where he saw his brother. He looked around to see that he is in the ferry where he was sleeping since he couldn't stand the sight of the ocean.

Jupiter, was that really you talking to me?

A door opened and Neptune looked up to see Weiss standing in front of it. He could tell that she couldn't help but worry for him. "Neptune?" She said softly. Slowly closing the door to move straight to him. She then stop by her tracks to asks, "Is it alright if I can sit beside you?" She blushed in nervousness. But Neptune taps the bed, letting her know that it's a yes.

"Bad dream again?" She asked again. She looked into his eyes. They are deep and beautiful as the ocean's depths. Something that Weiss couldn't keep her eyes off of. He slightly nodded. She placed her and above his. Making Neptune nervous, but he kept his cool.

"Don't worry, you're not the only one with those nightmares. Just woke up from one tonight." Weiss admitted.

"What is it then?" He asked.

"One where my sister challenged me. And in the end, I lost. Dying by her own hands. I wonder if she regrets it, if it really happens. I don't think I want to know at all. It keeps happening every night since I left Atlas the third time."

"Maybe those nightmares could mean something." Then Neptune changes the subject. "This got me thinking, why are you helping me from getting arrested earlier? You know this could mean you're a fugitive too, right?" Weiss smiled and nodded.

"The truth is, I don't believe you're responsible for the wreckage either. As much as l care for Winter, I also care about you. Losing some friends and family are the worse parts of life. Do you think I made the right choice?" Weiss asked. "Even if your brother is responsible, there has to be a reason why."

"That depends. I don't think it's not a right or wrong answer. I'm not sure how to put it this way."

"You're lying." Weiss giggled. And Neptune did the same. "Back in Poseidon Island, you weren't the same person I knew before. Then, I saw what you did to the water. That is your semblance, right?" She asked. Neptune sighed as he didn't want to talk about it. But Weiss' stern look convinced him otherwise.

"Do you remember, back at the Vytal Festival? My team and I fought Team NDGO?" How could Weiss even forget that she came there to cheer for him. Only to see Neptune flirting with the female team. And got angry with him. But she already forgave him for that. But there's something she had already forgotten. "Back then, I couldn't touch the water. Although, my semblance could've been useful." Now Weiss could see where this is coming from. Having an improved image to cover up the fear.

"This all happened when I was 4. I grew up in Argus before we moved to Mistral. It was a place where my family are skilled swimmers. But I was an exception." Neptune stood up and walked a few steps away from the bed. While Weiss remained sitting there as her eyes pointed at him. She is starting to have a feeling that he may not be the Neptune she knew anymore. Many people at Haven and Shade would described him as a goofball. But this time is different. But she is also moved by his mysterious personality.

"The reason why I have unlocked my semblance in the first place is because my traits are rare. The reason why my name is Neptune. My dad, and my siblings have water-based semblances. I don't know how I was afraid of water. But it bothered me when I see it. The day my semblance was awakened, my brother threw me from the pier and it was the most terrifying day of my life." Neptune said sadly. Remembering the images in his head that he couldn't get out. "When he did, my aura have reacted to the water and that's how my semblance came. It took half the ocean to be pulled within me. But the thing is, I couldn't breath, hear or see as it keep getting into my eyes, ears and lungs. Since then, I never go near the water ever again. That's why I have these goggles in the first place. Come to think of it, every time I touched the water, it was pulled into my body, like a magnet of some kind."

Weiss listened to him further, and sees why he was averted to the substance in the first place. It's not often that siblings pushed them around and her heart beats in every word. But one of those things is that her sister is the same for her to become a free woman. But out of concern of his side of the story. She never got near him since they were busy fighting Salem and her minions. Just like everyone else, despite the smiles and happy memories made. They all have a dark side of the past. Beneath a good-looking and flirty young man, is a sad and scared huntsman. "Couldn't blame Jupiter, he only did what he thought was for my own good. He has the ability to turn water into mist. My sister can turn water into ice, which is useful because now nobody would have to buy any more ice packs for her medical team to use. I called my semblance, "Water Attraction." Pretty useful, but also a curse. When I panicked, I pushed the water towards Jupiter. It could've killed him that day. But luckily, he's strong enough to turn it into steam." He then walks to stare at the window, with the ocean sparkling at the moonlight, despite the beauty of the seas, it's also a reminder of the bad memories.

"Two years after my awakening, Sun came along. He found out about my phobia, but he didn't care. It's like he understood me better than anyone else. We both agreed to keep it a secret. He's not only my best friend, but a brother in arms. Before that, Jupiter is the best bro any kid can ask for. We would hang out when our parents were too busy. He went to Haven since I was 14. And man, he's even good with the ladies."

Now I get where he even got his flirting style from. Weiss thought taking a deep breathe, but blushed also. Still how could I resist?

"And since then, he becomes a member of Team ZRVT. The other three members were Zerena Slithers, Roth Mandle, and Tyler Shepard. But things have been different, he spent more time with his team than me. After graduation, they came to my house for meetings. They seemed like really cool people. But one day, Sun and I snuck out of my house to help them on a undercover mission. They didn't know about it, until we arrived in a submarine that belonged to the White Fang. Everything was going good until..." Neptune looks back at the time he made a whirlpool, the same one where it apparently killed Team ZRVT. He and Sun were the only survivors of the accident. "I was thrown into the ocean by a member of the White Fang. While I was sure I was a goner. Jupiter jumps in to get me back into the surface. But when he got closed, my semblance went out of control and made a whirlpool, sucking us all in. Sun and I are the only ones to survive. But Team ZRVT, including my brother are gone. Their bodies weren't found, but the police decides to give up the search and declared them dead." This got Weiss shaken, to think he's was just an ordinary person with semblance, just like her and everyone else. "I was sure that I killed him. It haunted me for the rest of my life. Since then, I vowed to never again touch the water, nor to use my semblance. Until today, when you saw it. I was afraid I might hurt anyone, or even worse. Earlier, Ceres saw the news about the embargo sinking, she then sent me a link. To my surprise, one of the culprits was my brother. Or is it really my brother? That's why I took the mission, to find him and bring him back." Neptune recaps every memory he has, but then overwhelmed by the worse ones he put in his head. Getting lightheaded and fell next to the walls while clinging onto them. Weiss rushes to help him up. "I thought I've shed enough tears for years. Tears will always remind me of water, and the day I lost my brother. But in the end, how much I can hold them, after what happened to Jupiter?" He covered his eyes in shame, tears flown from his lids.

Weiss couldn't help but wanting to keep him away from the bad memories. But none of this is going to stop without any closure. Weiss holds him close. Wanting to tell him some things to assure him. Holding her hand onto his cheek. Neptune uncovered his eyes to look at her. He thought nobody but his best friend could understand what he's going through. But to his surprise, she comforted him with some of the things they have in common. He places his hand on her back.

"Fears are nothing to be ashamed of. But in the end, they became a shell from the environment. You're not the only one who's been going through the dark. You want to know something? You're lucky to have a loving family. But mine was never in a best place, my father only married my mother for her name, my name. He would do anything to manipulate us. But my sister broke free when she entered Atlas Academy. She's the only person who's been there for me, cared for me. Something I wished my mother would've done instead of trying to drink her life away. After my father gave my heir status of the company to my brother, he's making him suffer also. No matter if he sided with him. But with my father in jail, he's been doing better. He just can't talk to me yet. And my mother began to bond with him again. She seems to have forgotten about the past. When my team and I went to Atlas, she was about to become the next Winter Maiden. But it failed when Penny acquired the maiden's powers. But it was a good thing, cause then Winter would've been killed by an assailant. But then my father caused the generator in Mantle to be shut down after making a deal with a madman to gain the victory to the council's seat. But luckily, my mother has evidence. And he went to jail. It devastated my brother as he was the only person he could talked to, despite his sly and cunning smug on his face. What I regretted that day was never protecting my brother when he needed me. Just when Ironwood was about to engage Martial Law to abandoned Mantle in a panic, I could see that Winter believed that her loyalties to her superiors comes first. Since then, we evacuated the people of Mantle. Afterwards, Winter got promoted in Ironwood's place since he resigned. I understood that she has a path she felt the need to follow. So do I."

"I'm sorry. I guess your life wasn't as easy."

"Believe me, it wasn't. I never regret siding with you. But I do regret betraying her." After Neptune feels better from the nightmares. He went back to sleep as Weiss covered him with a bedsheet. She still sat there looking at him, sleeping peacefully. She has the thought about kissing him on the cheek. Leaning her head to place her lips. But she refrain before it happens. No, not now. What am I doing?

Meanwhile, back in Poseidon Island. Winter and her men remained there in search for her younger sister and the supposed "suspect." Now she is worried that Weiss will end up a fugitive again. "Have you found them yet?" She asks two of her searchers. They saluted in response. "No, sir. No sign of the suspect or Ms. Schnee!" She groaned with her palm on the eyes. "How hard is it to find two individuals?! Find them again, and bring them back, right now!" Winter demanded, she didn't mean to be hard on her comrades, but she got extremely worried for her sister. "Y-yes, sir!" They said frantically, scared at the tone of her voice.

She is then met by another soldier, who also saluted her. "Sir, there's no sign of them left. Our trackers on their scrolls indicate that they're no longer on the island."

"What does this mean?" Winter glared.

"They took a ferry and left for Argus, sir." He responded.

"I see." Winter turned away. Not looking at her comrade for a second. "Call Mistral forces. We need Vasilias locked up behind bars. Only he has the information about the Thunderbolts." She ordered. She then closed her eyes. I'm sorry, Weiss. But I cannot let her harm you, not now, not ever. And I can't let that boy be a danger to you. She thought. Then a pilot ran out of the ship. "Bomb! There's a bomb! Get down!" Then they all ducked down as the ship exploded into flames and pieces.

"General Schnee, sir, are you alright?!"

"Forget me, call for back up!"

"Sir! This is Delta-7, our ships' been destroyed! We need assistance!" Another soldier then radioed for help.

[dragonydreams]

The Light and The Heat - Coldwave

Title: The Light and The Heat Fandom: The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow Rating: Mature Pairings/Characters: Leonard Snart/Mick Rory Summary: There was something familiar about Mick that Len couldn't pinpoint, and that fact kept drawing him back here - to the coffee shop and the chair. Timeline: AU Word Count:  3,785 Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over these characters. I am merely borrowing them from Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Television. Betas: Thank you to my regular betas for looking this over for me. You know who you are. Author's Note: This is my DCTV Secret Santa gift for @sophiainspace who asked for 1) anything coldwave (especially young coldwave e.g. in their 20s) and/or 2) fluffy coffee shop AU. I'm sure you won't mind that I managed to include both. Enjoy! Author's Note 2: Title from "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel.

Len's pace quickened as he approached his destination, one hand on the strap of his messenger bag, keeping it tight against his body, as he rushed down the busy street just off campus, cursing how far away he'd had to park his car.

He wasn't late… technically. It wasn't like he had an appointment or class that he was trying to get to. No, this was a far more important destination he was aiming for.

He pulled the door open, cursing the jangle of the bell on the door for announcing his self-imposed tardiness, and paused in the entryway. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that his chair was available. He strode quickly over to it and dropped his bag onto the worn leather before turning to the counter.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons this was his chair. Ever since he'd discovered that Elemental Coffee served the best hot cocoa and was on his way from campus to Lisa's high school.

Len approached the counter and found his order waiting for him. As usual.

"Want me to freshen that up?" the burly man behind the counter asked. "You're late."

Len picked the mug up off the counter, mini marshmallows melting slightly in the still hot, but no longer steaming, liquid.

"Nah, this is perfect," Len said, after taking a sip. "How'd you know?"

Mick grunted. "Could set my clock by your schedule."

Len dipped his face to his mug to avoid the blush he could feel creeping up his neck. "Thanks," he muttered as he paid and left a healthy tip in the tip jar before returning to his chair with his drink and a blueberry scone.

His chair had a perfect view of the counter, and, more importantly, the man behind the counter. The perfect study distraction for Len.

Mick was a mystery that Len had been trying to solve for months now. Without, you know, actually talking to him more than to give his order and other small talk.

There was something familiar about Mick that Len couldn't pinpoint, and that fact kept drawing him back here - to the shop and the chair.

After settling himself in the chair, drink and snack safe on the small table beside him, Len drew out his textbook and notepad and tried to focus on the chapters assigned in today's engineering class. Every few paragraphs, Len felt his eyes being drawn up to look at the man behind the counter.

Mick wasn't the kind of man he was usually attracted to, which only added to the mystery. His past male lovers had all been lean, like himself, where Mick was broad-shouldered with a shaved head. Definitely the kind of man you'd expect to find at a biker bar instead of behind the counter of a coffee shop. He was gruff, bordering on rude, to most of the customers - except with Len.

In what felt like no time at all, Len's phone beeped, reminding him that it was time to go pick Lisa up from whatever after school activity she'd had that day. They lived far enough from the high school that he didn't want her walking home through the not-so-safe neighborhood alone. So when she couldn't get a ride from a friend, which was most days, he picked her up in their only car.

He stowed his school materials back in the bag, shouldered it, and took his empty dishes to the bin set aside for them by the door.

"See ya Friday," Mick called out to him.

"See ya," Len called back.

~~*~~

Mick circled the counter and went to the seat Leo always occupied, wiping down the table and chair to remove stray crumbs.

It had been months now since Leo had wandered back into his life; so Mick felt like it would be rude at this point to mention their shared past if the other man didn't remember him. Not when Leo had meant so much to him in their youth. He couldn't bear it if he truly didn't remember their time together in juvie.

They'd lost touch after Leo had gotten out. While they'd been close while inside together, especially after they'd become cell mates, Leo had been determined not to follow in his father's footsteps.

From the big text books that he was always bringing in here, it looked like he'd made good on that promise.

He'd inspired Mick to want to lead a criminal-free life, too. It would have been so easy for him to fall into a life of crime. He would have been a great arsonist for hire.

Instead, he'd ended up in a foster home for a few months before he turned eighteen with good foster parents. They'd insisted that he go to therapy for his pyromania - rightfully afraid that he'd set their house on fire, like he'd done to his own parents' home. He'd been resistant to the therapy at first, but eventually started listening to what the therapist was saying and actually found it helpful. He had never been much of a talker – still wasn't – but his therapist found ways to work with him anyway.

His foster parents, who let him keep living with them even after he turned eighteen and were no longer getting paid to let him live there, helped him get his GED and into community college. He took all kinds of classes, trying to find something that interested him, and in a business class he was taking he'd met Mark and Clyde Mardon, brothers who were taking the class with hopes of opening a coffee shop.

This coffee shop.

Mick knew he didn't have a head for business, but he enjoyed working in the kitchen and making the fancy coffee drinks. One of the girls who worked here, Kendra, loved telling everyone that she was a barista, but Mick didn't need a fancy title like that to describe his job. He made coffee, end of story.

And making coffee allowed him to be in the right place when Leo walked through the door at the beginning of the semester.

Leo had gotten taller, finally - he'd been such a small kid in juvie - and his hair was shorn short now, but Mick would have recognized those eyes anywhere.

He kept waiting for Leo to recognize him, but so far, it hadn't happened. So he didn't say anything, not wanting to embarrass the guy.

After all, Leo had been his first crush; his first kiss. He was the first boy that he'd admitted being attracted to; and juvie was hardly the place for such admissions. He was just lucky that Leo had felt the same way.

Only, how much could he have meant to him if he couldn't recognize the boy he'd been in the man he was now?

~~*~~

A few more weeks went by. Len kept to his routine, Mick always had his drink and a snack ready for him when he arrived, and his seat was always open. Until one day his drink was ready but no snack.

When he was about to request something, Mick said, "Bring it over to you in a minute."

Len raised an eyebrow at that, but took his drink and settled into his chair.

A few minutes later, Mick brought over a snack - a red velvet cupcake.

Len whistled. "What'd I do to deserve a cupcake? I didn't think you sold those here."

"We don't," Mick said, staring at his boots. "Know today's an anniversary of sorts, wanted something special."

Len stared up at Mick wondering how he could possibly know.

Mick met his eyes and the nervousness and hope was like an icicle to Len's heart.

"Mickey?" Len whispered.

Mick set the cupcake he was still holding on the table and pulled over a chair from a nearby table and sank onto it, eyes never leaving Len's. "'Bout damn time."

"You've known who I was all this time?" Len asked.

Mick nodded. "Could never forget those eyes."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Was kinda hoping you would have figured it out on your own," Mick admitted.

"So why now?" Len asked.

"Because today's the anniversary of the first time we kissed," Mick said. "It was an important day for me, Leo."

"Me, too," Len admitted. "Although I go by Len now."

"OK, I'm just Mick now; which you already knew," he said, gesturing to his nametag.

Len grabbed Mick's hand as he lowered it, staring at the bigger man's face.

"You've changed so much in the past decade," Len said. "I knew you felt familiar, but I couldn't figure out why. It's one reason I come here so much. I've been trying to figure you out."

"And here I thought it was for my superior hot cocoa," Mick said with a smirk.

"That, too," Len agreed. "So you went straight when you got out?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say straight..." Mick said, his voice dropping as he turned his hand over in Len's and squeezed it.

Len swallowed; hard. "That's very good to know," he drawled.

The both startled when Len's phone beeped.

Mick frowned and glanced at his watch. "Isn't that goin' off a bit early?"

"Yeah," Len looked at him apologetically as he released Mick's hand, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Lisa's practice was a short one today."

"Lisa… your baby sister?" Mick clarified, praying that she wasn't a girlfriend.

Len huffed out a laugh. "Now a bratty teenager, but yes, my little sister. She's been living with me full time for about a year. Can I get these to go?" He asked, nodding towards his cupcake and cocoa.

"'Course," Mick agreed, taking the items to the counter and transferring them into to-go containers. When Len approached the counter to retrieve them, Mick caught his hand. "Can I see you later tonight? Or tomorrow? Away from here?"

Len mentally ran through his calendar. He worked the afternoons and evenings he didn't come to the coffee house, but he wanted to continue his conversation with Mickey - Mick. "Yeah, tonight. Give me your phone." When Mick handed it over, Len quickly entered his contact info, then texted himself. "I'll text you later with where we can meet up. When is your shift over?"

"I get off at eight," Mick answered.

"Perfect," Len said. "I'll see you soon."

Len gave Mick's hand a squeeze before he released it and then he rushed out the door, cocoa and cupcake in hand.

~~*~~

"So, who is he?" Lisa teased, flopping down on Len's bed as he got ready to go meet Mick.

"Nobody," Len answered quickly, knowing the answer wouldn't satisfy his nosy sister, but not wanting to try to explain Mick to her right now.

"Oooh, nobody," Lisa said knowingly. "That's why you've been staring at your closet for the past ten minutes when everything you own is either dark blue or black."

Len frowned, but couldn't disagree with her. Instead, he asked, "Is your homework done?"

"It's Friday night, what do you think?" Lisa countered. Len simply glared at her. "Almost," she grumbled.

"Finish it up while I'm out, then you won't have to worry about it over the weekend," he said.

Lisa rolled her eyes, having heard this every Friday since she'd come to live with her brother. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

Len grabbed his leather jacket off the hook by the front door and patted his pockets to make sure he had his wallet and phone.

"You're really not gonna tell me about this guy?" Lisa wheedled.

"I will, just, not right now. I don't want to be late," Len said, grabbing his keys. "I'll try not to be home too late."

"Pfft," Lisa waved him off. "For your sake, I hope you don't come home at all tonight. It's been ages since you've gotten laid."

Len stiffened. "What makes you say that?" he demanded.

"Because I know you, brother dear, and you have been ornery as fuck for the past several months," Lisa said.

Not wanting to discuss his sex life with his little sister - especially since she was right - Len said, "I'll be home later tonight."

~~*~~

Mick picked at the label on his beer bottle as he waited for Leo. No, Len, he had to remind himself.

He'd been surprised when Len had suggested that they meet at Saints and Sinners, but he always did like a dive bar.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Len said, sliding into the booth across from him. "Lisa decided to start pestering me about where I was going as I was heading out."

Mick glanced at his watch. "You're not late, I just got here early."

Len signaled for a waitress and ordered his own beer before returning his attention to Mick.

"You know, now that I know who you are, I can see the kid I knew in you," Len said. "I'm sorry that it took me so long to recognize you."

"S'okay," Mick grunted, feeling a pleasurable warmth in his chest. "So you've got custody of your sister?"

"Not exactly," he paused as the waitress dropped off his drink. "I became an emancipated minor when I was sixteen, needing to get out from under my dad's roof. But I couldn't go too far away because I didn't want to leave Lisa all alone with him. I'd been volunteering at the library since I got out of juvie and Gideon, one of the librarians, hooked me up with her friend, Rip, who owned a bookstore, and got me a job there so that I could afford a shitty apartment when I was emancipated. I still work there four days a week," Len explained.

"The days you don't come to the shop," Mick guessed.

"Yeah," Len agreed. "I got my GED early since I spent all my time around books and started studying engineering at the local college. I'm almost done with my Masters."

"You always did need to know how everything worked," Mick remembered.

"Anyway, Lewis and I worked out a sort of custody arrangement with Lisa after I tried and failed to get legal custody of her. The more time she spent at my place, the less he had to worry about feeding her. But it also meant that he no longer had anyone to take his anger out on with both of us no longer living under his roof, so he wouldn't let her go completely."

"He hit her?" Mick growled.

"Both of us, yeah," Len reluctantly admitted. "And I've got the scars to prove it."

"Want me to teach him a lesson?" Mick asked, flexing his muscles.

"Thanks, but no," Len said. "He's out of our lives now. Rip gave Lisa a job, too, and the second she was old enough, we got her emancipated and she moved in with me full time. She's seventeen now."

As he finished talking, Len let his fingers brush against Mick's. He looked at him through his eyelashes and asked, "And what have you been up to since juvie?"

Mick shifted in his seat as all his blood rushed south. He took a swig of beer, having forgotten the power that look had on him.

"I, uh, ended up with a really good foster family. They were patient and found me a good therapist. Helped me get my GED and into community college. That's where I met the Mardon brothers, the guys who own Elemental. Best thing that came out of that stupid business class I took. When they got the funding to open the shop they brought me in to work behind the counter and in the kitchen."

"Do you mean that you make all those delicious treats you pick out for me?" Len asked, drool threatening to give away how much he enjoyed the sweets he ate at the shop.

Mick's chest puffed out a bit at the hungry look in Len's eyes. "I do," he admitted. "Turns out that I'm really good in a kitchen."

"Next time you're making me dinner," Len declared.

"I'm glad you want there to be a next time," Mick admitted.

Mindful that they weren't in a place where they couldn't do much more than flirt, Len carefully brushed his fingers against Mick's again.

"I'd like to show you just how much I'd like there to be a next time," Len purred.

"Wanna get out of here?" Mick suggested, breathing heavily.

"Thought you'd never ask," Len drawled. They both threw money on the table and tried not to rush out of the building.

Mick dragged Len into the alley next to the bar and pressed him against the brick wall as his mouth slammed down on his. Len's hands fisted in Mick's open coat, dragging him closer as the kiss grew sloppy and more desperate.

"How far's your place from here?" Len asked between kisses.

"I walked here," Mick admitted.

"Good, then we can take my car," Len said, slipping out from against the wall and dragging Mick towards his car.

"Give me the keys. I'll drive since I know where we're goin'," Mick suggested, holding his hand out.

Len rarely let anyone else drive his car, but he didn't hesitate to drop his keys into Mick's outstretched hand.

Five minutes later they were stumbling into Mick's apartment, barely able to keep their hands off of each other.

They made it as far as the couch.

Len roughly pushed Mick to sit in the center of it and straddled him, their bodies pressed as close together as possible while still wearing clothes, as their mouths found each other's again.

Mick ran his hands over Len's close-cropped hair. "Miss being able to bury my fingers in your hair," he admitted as he left open mouthed kisses down Len's neck, biting lightly when he reached that sensitive point where shoulder and neck met.

Reaching up, Len dragged Mick's hands down to his ass. "Got something else for you to hold onto."

Mick bucked up against Len, pressing their bodies even closer together. "Fuck, I've missed you, Leo," he growled, forgetting the new name in his eagerness.

"Missed you, too, Mickey," Len said before recapturing his mouth.

Mick's hands slid around to grasp Len's belt, but Len stopped him. "No, we're gonna come just like this," he said, rolling his hips hard against Mick. "I'm so close already, aren't you?"

"Wanna touch you," Mick huffed. "Need skin."

Hesitating only briefly, Len pulled off his shirt. Mick's eyes widened at the sheer number of scars littering Len's chest and arms, but refused to let that ruin the moment they were in. He dipped his head to take one of Len's nipples between his teeth, biting down gently.

"Yes," Len hissed, holding Mick's head against him as he continued to roll his hips.

Mick ran his hands down Len's equally damaged back and slipped them into his pants beneath his underwear, grabbing his bare ass and yanking him hard against him as he pressed up.

"Shit, I'm gonna come," Mick grunted.

"Yeah, me, too," Len panted.

Their mouths met with a clashing of teeth as they both came in their pants.

"Fuck, I haven't done that since I was a teenager," Len said, sliding off Mick's lap to sit pressed against his side.

"Don't think I've ever done that before," Mick admitted, running his fingers over Len's back.

Len shivered and reached for his shirt, pulling it back on as he got to his feet. "I hate to come and go, but I should probably get back to Lisa."

"Stay," Mick said, catching his hand. "I'm not ready to let you go yet."

Len sank back onto the couch and pressed a kiss to Mick's lips. "How can I say no to a request like that?"

"You can't," Mick answered, wrapping an arm against Len's shoulders. "We'll watch a movie and then we can talk about you leaving."

Len laughed. "So we need to talk about me leaving? I do have a teenage sister at home."

"Operative word being: teenage. She'll be fine on her own," Mick said.

"I have one condition," Leonard said, shifting in his seat.

Mick glanced at him out of the side of his eye. "What's that?"

"Let me borrow a pair of shorts?" he requested. Nodding towards his lap, he added, "This is gonna get really uncomfortable, real fast."

Mick frowned and realized Len was right. "Yeah, good idea. C'mon." They both stood and Mick led Len to his bedroom. Mick rummaged through a drawer and pulled out two pairs of boxers. Handing one to Len, he said, "Might be a bit big on you."

"Still better than what I'm currently wearing, thanks," Len said, tearing his eyes away from the small pile of books on the nightstand. "Bathroom?"

Mick pointed to the door across the hall and Len entered the small room. He poked through cabinets until he found a washcloth and slipped out of his boots, jeans, and underwear. He cleaned himself up before pulling on Mick's boxers, a thrill running up his spine as he did so. He quickly finished dressing and rinsed out the washcloth before heading back to the living room, carrying his boots with him.

Mick was already seated on the couch, DVD ready to play.

"So what are we watching?" Len asked, settling comfortably against Mick's side.

"Thought this was appropriate, given the time of year," Mick said, pushing play on the remote.

"Die Hard?" Len asked as the movie started.

"Best fuckin' Christmas movie ever," Mick said.

"Yippee-ki-yay," Len said as they settled in to watch.

He was going to get so much shit from Lisa the next day, but Len couldn't bring himself to care. Right now, he couldn't imagine being anywhere else than right here; with Mick.

The End

[bratdroid-blog]

Bro and Hal in “True love is when you almost strangle your husband but decide against it because you do love him after all” in cinemas this Valentines day. 

@paradoxidolatry

Cawwo

> You come home and don't stop off in your apartment; you just head straight for the roof. "Hal?"

Coco

> You are standing right on the middle of the roof. The steam emitting from your body in the cold winter air must be a sight to behold, but you really don't care.  

> You've been checking all your files for any mentions of a "Rolal" 50 times by now. Nothing. How can you vaguely remember something you have no data on? 

> You don't even notice Dirk until he speaks up. You turn around to answer, your voice glitchy and unnatural. "Who's Rolal?"

Cawwo

> God the sight of him. It breaks your heart. 

> It breaks your heart because you did this to him. 

> Your throat is clogged and thick with regret but you swallow it down. He deserves to know. "Rolal was...a friend of yours. Someone you used to talk to online in forums and chatrooms. I think you might have met her on Club Penguin, actually." 

> You remove your cap, give your head a scratch. "Used to spend all day talking to her before I revoked your internet access."

Coco

> That is quite a lot to take in. You stare at him for what feels like an hour but is actually a few minutes, the only sound leaving you the loud whirring of your fans. "I used to have a friend?"

Cawwo

> Every second is not lost on you. The breaks in your heart deepen. 

"...Yeah. You all would talk and roleplay for hours. All day, even, somedays."

Coco

"What happened?" 

> He broke you, that much you can figure out on your own. The reason is fairy obvious too but you want to hear it from his mouth.

Cawwo

"...you told her about how I was treating you and Sock.  So she." 

> Deep breaths. 

"She hacked into your hardware and started telling me off for treating you like I did. And she told me she'd make me pay. But she didn't quite understand that you weren't living in my desktop, so she...remote detonated you on my face." 

> You remove the shades to show off your long eye scar and the smaller scars littered around your face in a new light. "Before I uploaded you into your new case... I wiped all traces of her from your memory banks. Revoked your access and doubled my safeguards so she couldn't reach you again."

Coco

> Oh. You aren't sure if that's better or worse than what you expected. You do take a step forwards to carefully trace these scars, a hard task with the way you keep twitching. 

"Then why do I remember her name anyways?"

Cawwo

"That... I don't know." 

> You don't deserve that loving touch.  It burns you like fire and makes you sick, and yet you still don't pull away, even if your expression plainly spells out the burden on your mind.  How truly remorseful you are. "If she was able to remote hack into my glasses... And if her claims to be from some other universe or, whatever she was saying, were true... Maybe she embedded something in your coding that I couldn't find." 

> You fall silent for a moment, before saying, quietly, 

"After you came back from that... you started calling yourself Hal.  Right off the bat.  That was the first time you had ever done that.  Maybe she had something to do with that, too."

Coco

"Hm." 

> It makes sense. She did mention two Hals specifically. You are aware that you started insisting on your name somewhat suddenly, at least from your perspective, but you had always chalked it up to getting broken a few too many times to be able to really say where exactly it started.  

> You take in his face for another long moment and your hands slowly find their way around his neck. You didn't realize until it already happened. 

>You are not going to strangle him, are you? But you could. Easily. 

"Do you regret it?"

Cawwo

> You lean into his hand.  He could strangle you, and you aren't  certain you don't want him to. 

"Yes.  Deeply."

Coco

> Your hands twitch, but you do not tighten your grip. 

"Do you love me?"

Cawwo

> You feel a finger of cold fear worm its way down your spine, but you do nothing. 

"More than I can say."

Coco

> You look at him for another long moment, you expression far too neutral for what you are doing at this very moment. 

> Your gaze wanders to the ring on your finger and only then your hands leave his throat to cup his face as you lean it to press your forehead against his. 

"I love you too." 

> "Despite this". You don't think you have to say it though.

Cawwo

> You almost feel sad when his hand leaves your throat, but you're crushed when he leans in close and tells you that he loves you too. 

> It doesn't need to be said, but the thought never leaves you--hasn't, since the day he confessed he had feelings for you, growing only louder and louder until it's screaming in your head: 

> You don't deserve this. 

> You don't deserve him. 

> Your shoulders slump and you lean back into his touch, your hands loosely held around his waist.  You take in a shuddery breath. 

"I'm sorry.  I don't know if I have any of the data from back then that contains her intact, but... I can take a look.  See if I can't restore that to you, at least."

Coco

"Okay." 

> You know that's extremely unlikely. He wanted her completely removed from your systems, so why should he keep any of that data, for over ten years at that. You are too exhausted to point that out though. 

> You are still running far too hot but you don't exactly care about burning his skin right in this moment. He can handle your kiss, even when you are at your worst.

Cawwo

> Handle it, and welcome it, you do.  It hurts, and that's precisely how you want it to feel right now.

Coco

> You can't deny that the idea of your touch physically hurting him does appeal to you right now. You love him, and it hurts. It seems fair in a way. 

"Stay with me until I cooled down?"

Cawwo

> You kiss him again, chasing the burn, before you nod.  You find his hand and you hold it. 

"Yeah... yeah, of course.  Long as it takes."

Coco

> It feels twisted and wrong that the same man who brutally ripped the only friend you ever had out of your memories is now holding your hand to comfort you over it. 

> What a fucking joke your life is. 

> You pull him close anyways, into a tight embrace, perhaps a bit too tight and certainly too hot. But it's okay, because he deserves that burn and you know he craves it too. You know he hates himself, and right in this moment you do too, just a little.

Cawwo

> You hiss just a little and wince, but you embrace Hal back as tightly as he's embracing you.  You know he's angry, and he doesn't need to say it, because you know, too, that there is still a part of him that hates you.  Even after all of thhe good you two have been doing together this month... 

> But you're quick to remind yourself that  before this month, you had tortured and hurt and killed him over and over again, for over a decade. 

> You're the reason he's overheated right now, because you ripped his one friend in the whole world away. 

> And as much as it hurts your heart, you are glad for it.  You don't deserve much,, but you do deserve this.

Coco

> The silence stretches on and on and a part of you is worried that if you keep this up, you might hurt him for real. And another part of you hates that part for being so soft and disgustingly vulnerable. You shouldn't care if he hurts. He deserves to hurt because you are hurting. 

> But isn't that exactly how all of this started in the first place? Because someone else always has to hurt with you? 

> You aren't sure how long you've been standing there like that but when you finally pull away you have cooled down considerably and you are finally able to think straight again. 

"This doesn't change anything. I still love you. I knew what you did when I told you that. I knew what you did when I proposed to you.  It hurts, but ultimately it's not unexpected. Maybe...it would have been easier not to remember so I can't even fault you for not telling me. " 

> It's hard to find that line between trying to not deny your hurt and trying not to make him feel more guilt on purpose. You want to make a change though, you want better for both of you. So when you look into his eyes you hope he can see that. 

"It's not okay, but I know you are regretting this shit. I know you aren't the same anymore. I love you, including the ugly parts. "

Cawwo

> You look into his eyes, and you know he means every word of it. 

> So why don't you feel any better? 

> You find his hand and give it a squeeze, and without your shades on to hide your eyes, there's no hiding how wet they are right now.  The tears cling to your pale lashes and threaten to spill over, but never quite manage to. 

"...I love you too.  You didn't deserve that, and I know you know that, but I want you to know that.  That I know it.  That it was fucked up and cruel, just as everything else was.  Maybe even worse.  But... I know it was fucked up, and I'm sorry.  ...Thank you."

Coco

"I just want to move on from all of this shit. I want you to be better, and you are so, so much better right now. I'm not going to let any shit from our past destroy that, okay?" 

> Your hand squeezes right back as you take him in. He means it too, and it's all you ever asked for. There's no erasing anything that happened, especially not for you, but you can still go forwards. Hand in hand. 

"You make me so fucking happy, nothing else even compares. So please just keep trying. Stay with me. That's all I ask."

Cawwo

> That, maybe, looses one tear from your lashes, and you sniffle.  You feel pathetic. 

"Yeah... yeah, of course.  I want to keep trying for you and the boys, too.  You make me happier than I...ever even knew possible.  I love you so much, I can barely fuckin' stand it." 

> You paw at your eyes with the backs of your hands. 

"We ain't ever gonna get that low again."

Coco

"We won't. I'll make sure of it, promise." 

> You gently pull his hands away and kiss him again. You don't care if it's a wet kiss, you just want to be close to your husband. He made sure you are waterproof after all.

Cawwo

> Well, now it sure as fuck is a wet kiss.  As you lean into his kiss, the dam breaks and you begin to cry in earnest.  You are pathetic, it's true; you don't cry, you're not built to, and yet here you are, like a goddamn pussy.  You throw your arms around his neck and you pull him close as you get lost in his kiss.

Coco

> You are well aware of how much he despises crying, how pathetic he feels when he does. You know because you used to feel the same way, because you would still feel that way if you could cry. Yet he lets you kiss him through just like he lets you calm him down after a nightmare. It's these moments that mean the world to you.

Cawwo

> It takes you a bit, but eventually, as you always do with Hal, you calm down.  You pull away, just a bit, to scrub your face clean, before you come back in to wordlessly lay your chin on his shoulder.  A sigh, soft, leaves you, as you hold him and he, you.

[imagineredwood]

***Another storyline down :) I miss you guys.***

Part 1     Part 2       Part 3

“Coffee?”

Happy nodded his head and watched as you gracefully made your way around the kitchen. Pulling out a mug for him and pouring in the coffee, taking a deep breath as the steam and aroma made its way up to your nose. You left it black, tossed in a spoon of sugar and stirred it, Happy not one for light nor overly sweet coffee. You set the mug down in front of him and smiled as he reached for it, throwing a wink your way.  You turned back around and pulled out a plate, pulling the warm bagel from the toaster and spreading on some butter. Happy watched as you whipped together a quick breakfast for him, happily humming to yourself as you finally were back in your own home and feeling safe.

Tig had handled the boyfriend situation, making sure to sever that tie once and for all, while happy had handled the safety situation. New and improved locks for the whole house, reinforced thresholds for all the doors and a top-notch camera surveillance security system that could be looked at from the clubhouse as well, thanks to Juice. The only thing left according to Happy was a new gun. Something with good knockdown power, he has said. So, after a good hour at the local gun shop in downtown Charming, handling various pistols to see which felt better for you, you were now in the country side with Happy doing target practice with your new piece.

Happy smirked as he watched you from the fence, hit all the targets one by one. Your aim was great on your own, but you were a little rough around the edges with your stance. A couple nudges here and there, now you had cleared the whole setup, three times over. You turned around and faced happy, a content smile on your face as he stood back up straight and walked towards you, pulling the ear muffs from your head and purposefully messing up your hair a he did. You shoved him playfully and put the piece down in the case, shaking out your hair and tossing it over to one side.

You almost missed the look Happy had given you then, his eyes locked in on your face and how beautiful you looked with the sun glittering off of hour hair, your eyes as bright as ever in the brightness. You slowed your hand from running through your hair and stayed looking at him.

“What?”

“Nothing. Let’s get back to the club house before your brother sends out a search party.”

You grinned and cheered as Jax jumped Tig’s last solid and landed the 8 ball in furthest right pocket, the boys erupting into chaos as he snatched the wad of cash from the edge of the table that had been stacking up throughout the night. He simply shrugged with his signature smirk as they all babbled wondering how he had done it, Tig’s mouth hung open.

An arm made its way around your shoulders as you looked on and you smiled softly, looking over to see Kozik in the seat next to you.

“How you doing sweetheart?”

“I’m great. Better than I’ve been in a while if I’m being honest.”

The blonde grinned and nodded his head, his right hand squeezing your shoulder as his left lifted his beer bottle to tap it against yours.

“Well I’m glad to hear it. You deserved to get away from that shithead. We’re all happy to have you.”

You smiled in return and nodded, truthfully grateful for the warm reception you’d gotten since getting more involved again. Once upon a time, this was a normal thing, for you to be in the clubhouse during a weekend party, drinking and laughing and enjoying yourself. But the life happened and your relationship with Dylan had seemed to drain out all the happiness from your life, including your interaction with your older brother and the club which had come to be your family just as it had come to be Tig’s. now that was all in the past and you were making up for lost time, getting back in the swing of things which included meeting the new faces of SAMCRO.

You continued your conversation with him, making each other laugh, completely oblivious to the glare that was boring into the two of you from across the room as Happy watched. The arm around your shoulder had been enough to get his attention but now the arm had long since been removed and the hand that had been draped over your shoulder in a friendly manner was now softly grasping onto your knee. Happy was not pleased with the sight in the least but had tried to stay to himself. He had no reason to be jealous he continued to remind himself. You weren’t his. You weren’t anyone’s. You were your own woman and had just come from a relationship, a shitty one at that. No way you were going to e interested in getting back into one, especially with someone like him. But as the clock ticked by, happy could feel himself growing more and more irritated with the sight of another brother touching you that he stood stiffly and walked out the clubhouse, into the night air.

Happy had always had feelings for you. From the moment he had met you years ago, he had been drawn to you. Your smile, how your eyes lit up a room. How you loved to laugh and always seized the opportunity to do so. You were a breath of fresh air, the only female that he had ever truly been able to see himself make a life with. But you were Tig’s sister and you were off limits. Kozik should know that.

“What’re you doing out here by yourself killer?”

He didn’t turn around or react as Kozik made his way outside to him, pulling his pack of cigarettes from his kutte. He offered one to Happy but he kept his eyes forward, silently shaking his head. Kozik didn’t seem to pick up on the tension.

“Had to take a breather. It was getting stuffy in there.”

Happy simply nodded and stayed quiet as Kozik began to make small talk, telling about the ride down from Tacoma and how shitty the weather had been but Happy wasn’t listening. His mind was just on you, and Kozik, and his fucking arm wrapped around you and his mouth was speaking before his brain even had a chance to keep up.

“You tryin’ to get in her pants?”

Kozik cut off in his sentence turning to squint at Happy.

“Who’s?”

“You know who.”

Kozik laughed softly and shook his head, taking a swing from his beer.

“Tig’s sister?”

“Y/N. Her name is Y/N.”

Kozik’s smile wavered as he took in the tone of Happy’s voice and finally took note of the tension in the air.

“No man. We’re just talking. Just shooting the shit and getting to know each other.”

Happy nodded then, more to himself than anything and looed back forwards.

“Good. She’s got enough on her plate. She don’t need someone coming and playing with her feelings.”

Kozik nodded and held his hands up in defense.

“I’m not bro. Just making a friend. That’s all.”

Happy nodded again and felt his shoulders relax, Kozik clapping a hand on his shoulder before tossing his cig and heading back inside.

Hap grumbled and ran a hand roughly over his face before turning around and heading back inside this time. When he looked back to where you were, he found you sitting alone this time, Kozik over by the bar and away from you. He felt bad in that moment, wondering if he had over reacted and made his way over to you. He tried to ignore the clutch in his heart when your eyes lit up upon seeing him.

“Hey Happy.”

He smiled, noticing the tired look in your eyes.

“You look exhausted.”

With a nod, you finished off the last of your beer and stood up to stretch, grabbing your purse.

“Yeah, I’m gonna head out. Walk me to my car?”

“Of course.”

Tossing your empty bottle into the nearby trashcan, you waved to goodbye to the guys, Juice waving back.

“You leaving already?”

“Yeah. Its already pretty late and I’m tired.”

“Ok. I can walk you out if you want?”

You didn’t have time to respond to him, barely even enough time to register what he had said before Happy was shutting him down.

“No. I’m taking her.”

His voice left no room for disagreement and there was a sharp edge to it that had his brothers looking at him. He shifted slightly under their gaze and tried to hide a wince. He wasn’t doing too good at this whole hiding his feelings thing.

You noticed the tension and forced a yawn, wrapping your arms around yourself.

“Thanks for the good time guys. I appreciate it.

The other Sons nodded and you smiled as the rest of them said their goodbyes to you before you and Happy waked out of the club house. With you gone, Jax was the first to speak as they all looked at each other.

“What the hell was that?”

Happy had expected that everyone would be still doing there own thing when he returned from walking you out, so he was surprised to say the least when he came back in and found them all looking at him.

He grabbed someone’s jacket from the stool and tossed it up on the bar, taking a seat in the empty stool beside Juice and poured himself a shot, not looking at anyone.

“What?”

They all shrugged and smirked, Tig feigning ignorance.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My sister drive out alright?”

Happy snorted and knocked back the shot.

“Of course she did. You know I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”

Everyone exchanged looks and smiled even more as Kozik playfully nudged his shoulder against his.

“Yeah, that’s why he almost bit my fucking head off for putting my arm around her.”

“And mine for offering to walk her out.”

They all laughed as Juice chimed in and Happy held his middle finger out to them.

“She asked me to. Besides, nobody can take care of her like I can because…because I just fucking like her alright? I got feelings for her and shit. It is what it is.”

Tired of hiding it, Happy just let it out before looking back down at the bar with a scowl. He was waiting for someone to laugh, someone to poke fun, Tig to question him but instead there was an eerie silence after his revelation and he looked up expecting to find them looking at him. Instead he looked to find them all staring wide eyed behind him and he cursed under his breath before closing his eyes.

“She’s behind me isn’t she.”

They all stifled as laugh and he turned around to find you there hiding your face slightly behind your hair, a bashful and embarrassed smile on your face as you pointed to the lump of black fabric in front of Happy.

“I forgot my sweater.”

Grabbing the sweater, he turned around and hopped off the stool handing it over to you and rubbing the back of his neck.

“How much of that uh, did you hear?”

With a shrug, you pulled on your seater and smiled at him softly.

“Enough to ask you to walk me out to my car again.”

[subasekabang]

Ties We Bind (& Break), Chapter 3

Author: @composeregg Rating: T Word Count: 15435, Chapter total: 3415 Pairings/Characters: Joshua/Neku, Shiki/Eri, Joshua & Neku & Shiki & Beat & Rhyme & Eri in a queerplatonic poly-pile relationship. Hanekoma, Kariya. Warnings: Includes depression heavily, and mentions of suicide. Summary: One year after the Long Game, a tall boy named Yuuto Kimura, who has messy black hair, glasses, and bright green eyes, stumbles into Neku’s life, and he can’t help but let him get close, letting him join the circle of friends.

One year after the Long Game, Joshua aches to hang out with Neku again, but the restrictions he’s gained for his transgressions are very clear: Yoshiya Kiryu, Composer of Shibuya, is not to interact with Neku Sakuraba.

(But every rule has a loophole.)

Author’s Note: Each chapter is also being added to ao3! Here! (Small delay per chapter).

Featuring autistic/neurodivergent characters, the “Joshua is Neku’s Dead Best Friend” theory, and lots of headcanons abound.

“So not that you ain’t cool, man, but what’cha doin’ at this meet?” Beat asks, looking at Yuuto.

They’re gathered at Hachiko on a Saturday, like they’ve done twice a month since the Game. Without Eri, so they could hang out as former Game Players.

At least, Beat thought that’s what this was, but Yuuto is standing near. He’d tagged along with Neku to the meetup. None of the others are questioning it, and it makes Beat feel left out of the loop.

“Mm, and here I thought this was for people who’ve played the Game,” he says with a smile, and Beat freezes.

“Sorry, I told him I was meeting up with you guys and he invited himself along,” Neku says. “I told Shiki already, she was the first to show up last Sunday besides me, so we got to chat, but yeah. He apparently played a few years back.”

“It’s been a while since my Game week. I got to play under the previous Composer, in fact; there’s been a regime change since.” Neku frowns at that statement, a flicker across his face before it’s gone, but Beat catches it.

He also notices Rhyme’s reaction, or… lack of it. So he nudges them. “And how come you ain’t surprised by this?”

They shrug, hesitating. “I… I could feel it. My instincts said he’d been touched by the Game, and trusting your instincts is important.”

Ah.

Beat wraps an arm around them, giving a big squeeze. He knows they haven’t told the others yet, and he hasn’t either, but they don’t keep secrets from each other, and… Being a Noise for a bit did something to Rhyme. They get glimpses of the UG, see and feel the presence of Noise, and sometimes they talk about it. Noise running on basic emotions, how it’s heightened their instincts, and how they have to restrain those more now.

Being a Reaper means he didn’t get out unscathed either. The UG is greyscale, hazy, but there in his sights. Power pulses under his skin, buried deep in his core. It’s locked away, he can’t reach it, but if he could…

It’s not a risk he’s willing to take. Beat doesn’t want to be a Reaper, and he doesn’t need that power.

“So, where should we hang out today?” Shiki asks, steering the conversation back onto the tracks. “I’d offer the studio, but Eri said she wanted to get some work done, so she’s there right now.”

“Me and Rhyme’s parents is home, so our place is a no-can-do, sorry yo,” he says.

“And my place is too small to hold us all. Or at least, my mom thinks so, and she’s home.” Neku sighs.

Yuuto grins, and chimes in, “I don’t mean to be presumptuous, asking if you’d like to come to my place, but… Like I said before, rich parents and I live alone.”

“Cool wit’ me,” says Beat, and the others agree.

One quick walk later and, “You live here!?” Shiki gasps, holding a hand to her chest. “If you can afford a Pork City apartment, you must not’ve been joking about rich family!”

“Not just any apartment, the penthouse. The lap of luxury, all to myself!” He laughs, rolling his eyes. “It’s so boring and lonely being isolated there all the time.”

It’s an expensive place to rent, Beat knew that, but as they walk through the halls illuminated by chandeliers and past lounges and rooms of all sorts to the elevator, it starts to sink in just how extravagant this place is.

“It’s a bit much, I think,” Yuuto says, “but I’m not gonna argue where my parents put me. Just a heads up though, a lot of Reapers live here too. I think it’s part of being in the Game, they still need a place to stay, after all.”

With a flourish, he opens the door, and plops down on a recliner chair. Beat follows him in, as do the rest, and Yuuto instructs them to make themselves at home so they all get situated. Neku stakes a claim on the other empty chair, while Beat ends up on the couch, Rhyme in the middle, with Shiki on the other end.

“Sooo,” says Yuuto, “what do y’all do when you gather like this, Players only?”

“Talk, vent, throw stuff at each other, make bad jokes and memes,” Neku says, slipping his headphones down so they rest around his neck. “We should probably share Game stories first, since you’re new here.”

Yuuto nods. “Mm… Well, I played about two years ago. My partner was Uzuki Yashiro,” he says, continuing without noticing the way the rest of them tense, the way the background music jumps as the CD hits a scratch. “She’s a Reaper now, as far as I know. We did not get along well, but we survived.”

“She’s awful,” Shiki groans. “We all had to deal with her, and she’s a manipulative slimy asshole.”

“Sounds about right,” he says with a snort. The next words out of Yuuto’s mouth were softer: “My Fee was my friend’s memories of me. They managed to nitpick something I’d done, and I didn’t get it back. He remembers nothing.”

Neku winces, Shiki gasps, Rhyme closes their eyes and sighs, and Beat… He can only think of Rhyme, and how they never recognized him as their brother. Every little thing they should’ve been able to think of, from calling him bro to their jokes and the quiet nights they’d whisper to each other, not wanting to be alone. Losing that, forever?

It’d destroy him.

“I can’t imagine what it’d be like to forget someone so close to you forever,” Neku says. He’s sitting sideways on the chair, legs draped over one of the armrests and his head against the other. “I mean, the memories are just gone? How do you not realize you’re missing something? How do other people not notice, if they were so close to you?”

“I remember,” Rhyme sighs. “I remember what it was like to forget. It’s like, you know that person exists, know who they were to you, but all the little details were gone. Name, face, specific memories… dust in the wind.”

Beat wraps an arm around them, and they lean on him. Soft touches, a solid presence, reminders that they’re there for each other. That they haven’t left or forgotten.

Yuuto nods at the words, and dangles himself upside-down off the chair, hair skimming the wooden floor. “He doesn’t remember me. He knows he had a friend, but I haven’t tried to rekindle that bond… I miss him, but I lost it all when I lost my Fee.”

“Well hey, maybe you’ll get another chance someday!” Shiki says, cheer infused in her voice. “Not every end is final, and even if he doesn’t remember the details, I’m sure he’d love to have an old friend back.” She’s hops up on the back of the couch, feet hanging in front of the back cushion.

“The world begins with you and all that jazz, huh?” Yuuto snorts. “Your world gets bigger if you reach out to others. Maybe I’ll tell him, sometime. For now, I’ll wait and see what the future holds.”

Chat: [It’s not gay if we’re dead]

[Emo gay has added Yuuto Kimura to the chat]

Emo gay: Welcome to the dead kid’s club.

A lot of this chat is Shiki yelling about how cute Eri is.

An entire 50% of this chat is all of us being queer.

Fashion lesbian: Listen,

She’s beautiful and I’m gay as hell.

And she’s not in this chat so I’m allowed to scream.

Yuuto Kimura: Noted.

[Yuuto Kimura has changed their name to Music queer]

Music queer: I figured I should fit the theme.

Space battery: Nice name!

Music queer: Thanks I picked it out myself!

I must ask, though, why battery?

Space battery: I’m triple-A.

Skateboard ace: And they always got enough energy to charge up everyone else

Space battery: Beat,

You should take a look at yourself sometime, you’ve got enough energy to power the sun!

Emo gay: Another 20% of this chat is these two being adorable siblings so jot that down.

Music queer: What’s the last 30%?

Emo gay: 20% memes and dead jokes, 10% depression.

Music queer: You know what? Valid.

I think I’ll fit right in.

Rhyme likes Yuuto, they really do! It’s been a month since he’s joined the group, and he’s been nothing but fun. Maybe not the nicest, he likes to tease Neku, but he’s got good intentions, so they like him!

It’s just…

There’s something wrong about him.

Indescribably, horrifically wrong.

Noise do not draw near him. If one gets too close, they freeze and dart away. His mere presence wards them all, and Rhyme can sense it, the Noise are afraid.

Rhyme knows this, because they feel the same.

An instinctual terror, prickling at the hair on their arms, raising the alarm. They squash it down, tuck it away until it doesn’t bother them, but it’s there. Clawing at the back of their throat.

They’ve felt it before, in the presence of Neku’s 2nd week Game Partner. Joshua.

It’s fuzzy, grey-scaled and water-damaged, but they remember being a Noise, operating on instinct alone. They remember when they were returned to a human form, to life.

They remember the Composer.

So they message him.

Rhyme: Hey can we talk today? At WildKat, preferably.

Yuuto: Sure. May I ask why?

Rhyme: You can, but I’m not answering that here, only in person.

Which is how they find themself seated in a booth across from Yuuto after school that evening. Untouched coffee sits before both of them, steam curling up and away.

“So,” he draws, picking up his cup, “Are you going to answer my question now?”

They nod. “Your name is actually Joshua, and you’re the Composer.”

Coffee splashes over the table and over his lap as Yuuto flinches back and drops it. With a yelp, he jumps up, hissing, “Ow! Fuuuuck that’s hot!”

They watch as he hops around, grabbing at napkins to clean up. With a roll of their eyes, they say, “I’m right, aren’t I? You can use your powers if I am, no sense hiding them.”

He spares a glance at Rhyme, and then waves a hand to make the mess disappear.

“Well, I’m sure that answers your question,” he says, sliding back into his seat. “Do I get to know how you figured it out?”

“I remember,” they say. “Not… Not well, most of my time as Noise is static, but I remember what it’s like. During the second week of it all, I know Neku’s Partner set me on edge, and when the Composer brought me back, I remember that flighty feeling from then, too. You’ve got the same vibe.”

Yuuto rubs his forehead, taking a long, deep breath. “This was unexpected,” he mutters. “You want to know why I’m lying about my identity, I assume.”

Rhyme nods. “I also want to know if you plan on messing with Neku again,” they say. When Yuuto’s eyes widen, they cut in before he can speak. “He didn’t tell us what you did, but we can all see how he acts. You did something. You don’t have to tell me what you did, Neku isn’t ready for us to know, but I want to make sure you won’t do it again.”

“Fair enough,” he says, and then his color starts to bleed away.

The black seeps out of his hair, and it bounces into wavy curls. Green flashes to purple in his eyes, and his skin goes a few shades paler. Nothing about the structure of his face changes, but he takes off his glasses, and there’s Joshua, sitting in front of them.

“I’ll start simple. I promise I mean no harm to Neku.” At their snort, he frowns. “I mean that! I hold my past actions in great contempt. I wasn’t in a good space, mentally. Like, you met Neku early on during the Game, I was like that, but a hundred times worse.”

“Oh.”

He laughs. “Yeah, oh. I won’t say what I did, but it was bad, and he has every right to be mad. I didn’t expect him to want to see me, after everything.”

“He does though, so hiding behind a false face is a cowardly move.”

“My superiors would rather I not interact with him at all. This is my loophole,” he says, which, what?

It’s a puzzle, and they don’t have all the pieces, but with some work and head-tilting, they can still make out the picture. “You were told not to meet up with him, weren’t you?”

“Bingo, but they specified Yoshiya Kiryu, Composer of Shibuya, not Yuuto Kimura, ex-Game Player who lived in America these past two years.”

Rhyme crosses their arms over their chest, leaning back. “Clever. Going to fake this forever, then?”

“Nah, working on getting that rule repealed.”

“And what will you do when it is? Your reveal will be another betrayal, another way you stab him in the back, because he’ll think it’s been an elaborate joke.” It’s dramatic, but Neku would. At first.

Joshua snorts. “I know him better than you do. I know he’ll call me an asshole and think I’m messing with him, pulling his strings, but I have some stuff I can say, which might help.”

“What sort of stuff?”

“The truth.”

“Okay, so first things first, we need to get your measurements!” Shiki says, measuring tape in hand as Eri grabs the notepad and pen.

Yuuto laughs. “No time to waste?”

The studio is a mess, mannequins with half-finished projects hanging off them, fabric strewn across the floor, needles shoved into the armrest of the couch, spools of thread in corners and on shelves, and design papers scattered around the room.

It’s perfect. Creativity spawned from this disaster, beauty found in the calamity of a localized tornado. Shibuya’s life shines bright in spaces like this, her Soul strengthened, bursting with energy.

Were he not Yuuto right now, he’d love to soak up the Imagination and refine it, give them good luck for ages.

“Of course, of course! Why dilly-dally when we can get this ball rolling?” Eri laughs, pulling him out of the doorway and into the room proper. “Now let Shiki work her magic!”

He does, standing still as Shiki measures and calls out numbers. Eri dutifully writes them down, and he lets Shiki adjust his positioning as needed to get the most accurate results.

Once Shiki has the measurements, he plops down onto the couch, a grin on his face. There’s more than enough seating for the three of them. The entire gang had crashed here the day before. “So, this thing you’re gonna have me model, what is it?”

Eri flits around, grabbing her sketchpad and pencils, before sitting at her desk. “We’re going to start with something simple first. Maybe a basic suit, or a dress? You could rock either. How do you feel about pink? I feel like it’d suit you well. Or maybe a bright green, or something more forest-y. It’d go well with your eyes.”

“Ooh, pink is always fun, but you’re right, green would match my eyes. I absolutely love blues and purples too, by the way!” He leans back, pulling out a sheet of paper for himself, and a pencil. “Musical motifs are fun, since I’m a composer of music.”

Shiki’s head snaps up to look at him, but he gives no reaction back. Eri, meanwhile is going “Oooh,” and scrawling that down as a note.

“Music notes would be cool to work into some of the things we make you in the future! Little embroidered notes and designs! It’d be super cute!” she says, a grin lighting up her face.

Danger lurks in the room, Shiki refusing to take her eyes off him, but Eri remains oblivious. He gives Shiki a wink, after a moment, playing it off with a shrug. She huffs, and turns her attention back to the doodles Eri is scrawling.

“Mm, we could add some lacework, couldn’t we?” she asks.

Yuuto sighs, tapping his fingers against the fabric of the couch. “If you do add lace, could you keep it minimal or in places that won’t rub against my skin? The texture can be irritating as all hell.”

“Noted!” Eri scribbles that down in the margins as well. At this rate, they’re no doubt going to have a folder on his preferences and design ideas.

The thought of them keeping a record on him sends a spark of warmth through his heart. Watching them squabble over design ideas in the afternoon sunlight, filtering in through the window, makes the sight look like home.

The kid sitting in front of Koki is not one he knows. It’s not one he’s ever met or talked to before. He’d been enjoying his meal when this kid walked into Ramen Don and sat across from him.

Except that’s a lie.

Koki might not know this kid with short black hair and green eyes, but he knows those glasses, he knows that grin, and he knows the Music.

“What’s up, J?”

“Shhh, I’m Yuuto like this, remember?” He holds a finger to his lips, hiding his smile. “Can’t have you talking about my secret when the others could waltz right in and see me.”

Koki snorts. “And what will they say if they walk in on their good friend Yuuto having lunch with a Reaper?”

“They know I’ve always seen the UG, I’ll just tell them the truth. I’ve known you since before I ever played, and you’re just a weird uncle type dude.” Yuuto grins, and orders some Shio while they talk.

“Alright, you got me there. I pull off weird uncle well, don’t I?” he asks with a laugh.

“You do, you really do.”

Koki takes a bite of his own ramen, slurping it up. It’s been a while since he’s gotten food with the little brat, but it’s well worth it to make sure he’s eating. The kid always forgets to take care of himself, so if Koki has to step up the family-figure role in his life to ensure he does, so be it.

“So, how’s the whole friends thing goin’, anyway? It’s been a few months so far, right?”

Josh shrugs. “Yeah, it has. It’s going good. They’re all… really nice to me,” he says, fiddling with his hair. “Like, Rhyme, the one that got Erased, they figured out who I am, and they still accept me, though… They don’t know the whole story, but still!”

Ramen arrives, and so Josh has to speak between bites now, as Koki sits and listens to him ramble. “Neku checks up on me and makes sure I’m not left out. He keeps me from retreating into my shell. Shiki and Eri have already been working on making me clothes because they need more models,” he laughs. “Beat is trying to teach me how to skateboard, and I have to remember not to heal up my scrapes and bruises because that’d be suspicious.”

“You’re happy with them all, huh?” he asks. It’s obvious to him, the way Josh lights up, even in this false form. This is the most friends he’s ever had, and it shows in the hands he waves in the air, the glint of life in his eyes, how much this means to him.

“Yeah! I mean, I wish I could tell Neku,” the blinding smile dims at the statement, “but I can’t. This is the best alternative to that.”

“Hey, in a year or two? You’ll be able to tell him, so don’t sweat about that. I’m sure he’ll understand.” With the way his mom raised him, he’d better, Koki doesn’t say, but he thinks it. It had taken a bit of digging, and it’s such a trivial fact, one thread of being related, but it’s there.

He died before he could see his little sister have children, over a hundred years ago. Now, he’s found a distant descendant. He’s an uncle, with a few greats in front of the grand, but he’s an uncle to somebody alive.

The conversation continues, both of them unaware of the figure watching from outside the window. With a snap, Shiki takes a picture of Yuuto hanging out with a Reaper, eyes narrowing.

She’s got her suspicions. They’ve grown a bit stronger now.

[pennylogue]

ever so slightly

Marceline and Simon struggle to rebuild their relationship amongst the rubble of a thousand years of messy history.

On AO3 here

AN: Ayyyyeee who else got totally destroyed by that finale? And then went wrote 2.5k of fic the night before school starts because of it and it’s now 3 AM ayyyyyeeee.

After the war-that-wasn't, after Betty almost destroys the world and then saves it for the sake of one person, after she says goodbye to Finn and Jake and everyone who helped fight back Golb, and after kissing Bonnie for five minutes straight, Marceline finally peels herself away from a very pink, very inviting pair of lips and the princess attached to them.

Bonnie looks disappointed for a second, but nods. "We'll finish this later?" she asks, more gently than she's spoken to Marceline in...well, a really long time.

Marceline doesn't really know how to feel right now. A lot of emotions are swishing and swooshing and slopping around in her, mixing in a thousand weird ways. Still, she knows she very much wants to finish this up.

"Yeah," Marceline says. "But you have to get back to your candy citizens, and well..." Marceline looks back to where she'd briefly handed Simon off to the weird Ice King guy that used to be Gunther. (Golb--or Betty? Who knew anymore?--that crown was so annoying. Since it helped save the universe, though, she's willing to cut it some slack.) She sighs. "Simon needs me right now. He helped me so much, and I could never help him, all of these years."

Bonnie nods. "I can't believe Betty actually saved him. Her ingenuity was truly incredible, her devotion even more so."

Marceline can't help a snicker. Bonnie was, well, it was great to finally to be back on the "will they" of the whole "will they or won't they" thing, but she still was such. A. Nerd.

Waving her goodbyes, Marceline watches her new/old girlfriend troop off to rally her people and begin rebuilding.

And isn't she a pretty picture as she leaves.

"I just can't believe...she's really, well, gone and turned herself into Golb," Simon weeps. "We finally had the chance to be together! Finally, she'd worked so hard, and everything! And then she went and sacrificed herself? How could she do something like that?"

She'd flown them to her cabin, and Simon sits on her couch. It's impossible to believe he's here, honestly. She's seen one or two snatches of him in the past centuries, and she's never hoped for more. Not after the fifth time the Ice King crashed one of her parties and tried to pick up every princess there, nope--she'd never hoped for more.

And now, Simon is...back. Back, and miserable. And as the only person in Ooo who knew him before he got Ice King-ified, she has the best chance of helping him. Well, she wants to help him, but she doesn't know if she can. Yeesh, she was always bad with giving romantic advice.

"Yeah," Marceline replies. "It's...pretty awful."

"Yes!" Simon shouts. "How could she do it? Why would she? Doesn't she want to finally be together?"

"I mean, you couldn't really be together if the universe was all Globbed up."

"Well, yes...but still! Doesn't she want to be together?" He's sobbing again, and she moves closer on the couch and gives him a hug. Honestly, she should've known better than to try to use logic with this kind of situation. Instead, she gestures at the cup steaming in front of him. "Try some hot chocolate."

Simon breathes out in a sharp huff, but brings it to his lips. He takes a quick sip, and frowns, then looks down and inspects the stuff. "This tastes...interesting."

"Well, I mean, you did sort of...miss a thousand years, here and there." Marceline shrugs. "A lot of things have changed. Including cocoa beans."

"Fascinating," he murmurs. He sips again, then drinks more deeply.

Marceline drinks a bit from her own glass, draining the red from it. When she looks up, Simon's staring at her with wide eyes. "Don't worry, it's not blood or anything. It's fruit punch. And I just drink the red color."

Simon takes off his glasses and rubs the tears from his eyes. When he looks up again, well--well--he looks so normal, so human, it's almost unreal. "I know. I mean, I didn't know, but--well, I know you would never change. Not like that."

Simon's smile is slow and so, so warm. It makes her think of how he used to remind her of her mother. Something about the shape of his face, the slant of his smile.

Marceline flicks her tongue at him. "Well, you don't know that. I am the Vampire Queen, you know."

She takes Simon back to his cave, to grab any of his old stuff he might want to take. He can't live there anymore, not in the freezing cold. Humans weren't meant to spend so long in temperatures like that, she'd almost forgotten.

(Finn, well, he might be human, but he's a child of Ooo, and he understands how to survive it in a way Simon simply doesn't.

Yet.)

As Marceline hovers by the throne, watching penguins accompany Gunther/Ice King in a musical number, Simon stumbles around in a daze. "I really built all of this?" he asks her, over and over, looking at the furniture, the cages, the tunnels upon tunnels. She gives a noncommittal mmmm in response to pretty much everything he says. Like, he did, kind of? After all, Ice King was only sorta him.

Eventually, he finds his way down to the chamber where Ice King built some massive statues of those female versions of Finn and Jake he'd dreamed up. Yeesh. When she sees the look on Simon's face--

"Well, it's impressive work," she offers weakly. "Good detail."

Simon looks like he's going to explode. Like he's going to be sick. "But how could I be doing this? All of this, all of this for so many years?" He grasps his hair, fists bunched around short, dark, thick locks, so unlike the Ice King's brittle white hair. "What was I thinking! How could--how could this be me!"

Simon is freaking out, and honestly, it makes the part of Marceline that remembers being seven years old and needing Simon for absolutely everything rush out. She doesn't want to do this. She wants SImon to be happy he's back, happy he's here, that he can be with her, that he can do all of the cool architecture things he'd always told her about, except even better, because it would be in Ooo.

But right now, Simon is lost in the infinity between one-thousand-and-forty-five and forty-five, and, well...part of Marceline might still be seven, but vast majority of her feels every one of her one-thousand-and-five years, thick and heavy as the trunk of her old treehouse.

She reaches out, and grabs him, her blue hand strange against his darker one. Gray, that's what it had been back then. But it wasn't that way now.

"Simon."

"Yes, Marcie?"

"That was...it wasn't you. It was the crown. You have to understand that."

He looks so, so miserable. "I know, Marcie."

Simon living in the swamp with her should be great. It's everything she's ever dreamed of, after all.

But it's not.

He's so confused, having such a hard time grasping the massive time jump that feels, according to him, more like "some really abstract dream" than anything else. He's sad and tired, and he keeps talking about Betty. Marceline tries to talk back with him, tries to understand what he's going through, but after a while, it starts to grate on her. Betty sacrificed herself for him. She did it so he could live a good life! And now he's just drowning in sadness and going nuts over Betty, the same way Betty was about Simon.

Every time Marceline goes to visit Bonnie--now definitely her girlfriend again, yay--or Finn and Jake and BMO, or any of her other friends that are rebuilding their lives so very gradually rebuilding, she asks Simon if he wants to come. He refuses.

After two weeks of this, as she'd expected, Finn kicks down the door.

Well, sort of expected. "Where's Jake?" she asks, as Finn basically hoists a loudly-protesting Simon over his shoulder.

"He had a date with Lady Rainicorn he just couldn't miss." Finn gives her one of his little half-smiles. "Guess it's gonna be a human-only adventure, then? Unless you wanna come?"

"Nah," she says. "You boys have fun."

Simon shoots her a furious look. "Marceline, I thought you said I could stay with you as long as I wanted."

"I'm over a thousand years old. I have a complicated moral code."

Even so, when Simon isn't back a week later, she can't help but start getting worried.

Two weeks later, Bonnie and Jake are officially tired of hearing Marceline freak out to them.

They're in Bonnie's lab, watching the resident scientist try to figure out how to strengthen Neddy's candy juice enough to heal the Guardians. It's probably a lost cause, but in Ooo, you never know.

"I told you, Marceline, they're fine! Finn is an expert, and from everything you've told me about Simon--well, he was tough enough to survive the aftermath of the Mushroom War, wasn't he?" Bonnie asks.

Marceline knows Bonnie is right. Finn's awesome enough to work any kind of escort mission he wants, and Simon might not be used to Ooo, but it would be idiotic to underestimate him because of that. And he is a genius and junk, too.

Still.

Still.

Jake slumps over in his seat. "Hey, I miss my bro too, you know. We even called off finding a new place to live so he could go and help Simon out. I like living with Lady Rainicorn, I mean, but--" he shrugs. "You gotta have patience. They're a-okay. They got through Glob, didn't they?"

Marceline knows Jake is right. She still wants to snap at him or turn all demony and go berserk or something. But she's a grown-up now, so she manages to resist.

Simon and Finn come back two days later, bruised, muddy, and sporting two identical grins and a bundle of ancient human artifacts each.

The second Marceline sees them, all of her worries fall away like shedding a too-small shell. When Marceline flies up to greet them, Simon gives her a massive hug and burst out a story about a six-village conflict that he and Finn helped settle-- "Not bad for his first time," Finn whispers in her ear--then shows her his treasures. Old signs, musical instruments, a few twisted pieces of rusted metal furniture, and even a couple of old Christmas ornaments.

"I must admit, Marcie," he says sheepishly, "It's an interesting position to be in, to archealogize relics from an ancient civilization that I was part of."

"You're catching on," she replies.

"Yeah," Finn says. "All of this is old human stuff, right? Hey Simon, tell me about some of this junk." He can't hide it, though--he might seem as mellow as ever, but his eyes are practically sparkling with delight.

It's been so long since anyone talked about this kind of thing. Simon launches into stories from a world that he lived in much longer than Marceline ever did, and Marceline bobs in place, lounging comfortably on the air, and enjoys being in the same room as multiple people who know what Santa Claus is.

Simon comes to a few jam sessions with her and her friends. it's sort of embarrassing, kind of if she'd invited her dad along--well, if her dad wasn't a total jerk--but it's still nice. Simon got pretty good at the drums, at some point over the last thousand years.

One night, she and Bonnie are cuddling on the couch. watching Ice King perform a puppet play. In the kitchen, Simon and Turtle Princess pop popcorn. It's cozy. Very domestic.

She catches Bonnie staring at Simon and leans over. "Hey, girl. Eyes on the show, don't be rude."

"I know," Bonnie mutters. She wrenches her gaze away. "It's just--it's strange to see him like this."

"Talking to a princess without proposing to her?"

"No. Just...without the mood swings. I mean, he's just so happy."

Later that night, when most everyone is sound asleep, Simon finds her outside, playing herself a little lullaby.

"What's up?" she asks, pausing in her strumming.

He pulls a drumstick from his pajama pants and taps it idly against his leg. "It's very strange, you know, to suddenly be able to be able to play a musical instrument out of nowhere." He breathes deeply, and says in a rush,  "But it wasn't really out of nowhere, was it?"

Marceline thrums her bass without thinking. It's a nervous habit. The chords echo around them.

"That was me," he says. "In a way. And I need to accept that."

Marceline heaves a sigh. "This stuff is heavy, man."

"Marcie." His tone is stricter than she's heard from him in centuries, and when she looks up, he's--so focused. So intent. "I need to go and find Betty. And if I want to do that, I need to accept what happened to me. What she saved me from. There were good times, I mean. I made some friends. I had fun. The penguins were cute. But I was so, so lonely, and so confused, and I couldn't understand why."

Marceline closes her eyes and tries to focus on her strumming.

"I'm so proud of you."

Her fingers freeze on the strings.

"I've heard from Finn, what it was like. What I was like. It must have been painful." His eyes shade down. "I remembered some of it. A bit." A pause. "I tried to kiss you, Marcie."

Marceline wants to shrug it off, wants to say it's okay, wants to be strong. But she looks at him, so young and so old, and the truth comes out. "It was so hard."

Without thinking, they embrace, as easily as they used to. "I know," he says and brushes her cheek with his hand. "I know."

"I missed you. You were--but no matter what I said, I couldn't get the you that I wanted!"

They fall over each other, onto the rough planks of the porch. She curls up into his chest and hears him spit some of her hair out of his mouth. "I can imagine."

"I know were just trying to protect me, but the crown--that damn crown!" She punches the ground in emphasis, accidentally breaking a few boards. Whoops.

She cries, and he cries, and it feels awful, but to have someone to hold her when she cries again--well, she has Bonnie now, again, but she missed Simon. It's nice.

It's really nice.

They stay like that for a very long time.

(It's not a thousand years, but it honestly feels like it.)

The next morning, over breakfast, Marceline forces herself to ask the question she very much doesn't want an answer to.

"So, you said you're going after Betty?"

His gaze is sorrowful as he slurps his cereal. "She's my princess, Marcie. I miss her. So, so much. And she worked so hard to get me back--she might be even further gone than I was, but I have to try. At the very least."

Marceline understands. It burns her, that Simon won't just stay here and be happy with her and with new friends, but he and Betty, it seems, are definitely meant for each other. In that case... "Do you want my help?"

Simon appears to be almost surprised at the offer, but it seems to do him some good. He goes back to his cereal just a little bit more cheerful. "That's very generous, but I wouldn't want to take you away from your friends. They need your help, too, and God knows you've spent enough time looking after me. He looks back up, hesitant. "If I'm still searching in--I don't know, how long did it take Betty to free me?"

Marceline feels that warm feeling bubble up again, and against her will, she finds herself smiling into her morning cup of dyed-red coffee. (No, it doesn't give her a caffeine boost. It's the principle of the matter.) "A couple of years, I guess?"

Simon holds up his cup of normal coffee. "A couple of years, then?"

They toast. "It's a promise," says Marceline.

"Cheers," Simon says, then leaps for her bass. Playing a few slightly funky chords, he bursts out, "Making your way in the world today, takes everything you got..."

Marceline laughs more that morning than she has in a very long time.

Life happens.

Death happens.

One day, Marceline leaves her shack. When she comes back, it's been a very long time, and two weirdoes have taken up residence.

[effyeahzimbits]

Title: Beer Pong Penalty

Rating: M

Pairing: Zimbits

Summary: Anyone who loses beer pong must face the penalty. The day comes for Eric Richard Bittle to put his money where his mouth is.

Warnings: Swearing. Description of piercings. Many hangovers.

Read on AO3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14061129

     He’d been hit by a truck. That was the only possible explanation for the ungodly pounding in his head. He was going to open his eyes and find himself in hospital and covered in bandages and being doted upon by his beautiful Canadian Adonis boyfriend. Said Canadian Adonis boyfriend was going to be dressed in nothing but the tightest little underwear and spoon feeding him his dear old Moomaw’s Georgian peach pie.

     So, when he did finally wrench his eyes open, Bitty was thoroughly disappointed to find himself staring up at the peeling grey ceiling of the Haus’ lounge area. It took a moment for the realisation to sink into his hungover brain, but when it finally did, he let out a disgusted squeak and quickly rolled off the germ ridden couch and onto the floor. The grubby carpet was littered with plastic red cups and empty plates and other remains, but it was still preferable to that green cesspit of Hell.

     Bitty groaned miserably and pressed the heels of his palms to his aching eyes in a futile attempt at forcing the headache away. Memories of the previous night’s party came flooding back, including the gross tequila that had cost Ransom a grand total of six bucks and the cocktails that Shitty had fervently claimed to be mimosas but had contained the distinct burn of cheap vodka. Sober Eric always declared that he was going to have an easy night and wouldn’t get too drunk. Sober Eric was a dirty liar.

     He sighed heavily and let his arms flop to his sides, gazing up at the ceiling with all the energy of a dead fish. Truthfully, he couldn’t remember any of the finer details. He knew there had been beer pong in there somewhere (he always lost catastrophically), a little crazy dancing to Beyoncé had also happened at some point (Holster always liked to indulge him), and Bitty wasn’t entirely sure at this point but he might have taken a lot of tipsy selfies and sent them to Jack. When he had the strength to sit up he’d check his phone.

     He spent ten whole minutes convincing himself that the headache was going to miraculously vanish if he laid still long enough. It didn’t of course, and he finally decided to drag himself up with a dramatic groan. The room spun so violently he thought he was going to blow chunks. The couch would look considerably better soaked in vomit, he mused, but the thought of cleaning it up made him think better of it. Instead he used it to haul himself up and onto his unsteady feet. He wobbled only a little, and after a couple of deep breaths the nausea settled enough for him to make it into the kitchen.

     He kicked more cups and plates and – was that a bra? – out of the way as he padded through, and he was pretty sure he could hear someone snoring somewhere, though he didn’t see any limbs sticking out from underneath the furniture. His beloved kitchen was completely trashed, though he hadn’t expected any different. If he’d recovered enough by this afternoon then he would blitz the whole place top to bottom with industrial strength bleach, but for now he’d suffer through the mess to get a cup of coffee.

     The coffee beans took ages to grind and he stared at them with a dead expression, the steady drip drip of the black liquid hammering into his brain. It had only meant to be a few casual drinks to celebrate their latest winning game, but things grew dark when Ransom pulled out that stupid tequila. The bottle stood half empty on the counter, it’s plastic moustached sombrero lid practically mocking him. He had a sudden burst of energy and tossed the alcohol deep into the trash, hiding it under a stack of Chinese takeaway cartons. If Ransom asked, he’d play dumb and pretended he had no idea where it went.

     He dug his old faded mug out of the sink and poured steaming hot coffee into it without even rinsing the porcelain. And because he would never be broken inside enough to drink it black, he dumped as much sugar and caramel creamer into it as he could stomach. He sat at the table to slurp it, trying to blink away the cobwebs. He scalded his tongue more than once and the sting woke him up a little more.

     It was only after the second cup did he start feeling more human. He’d heard the front door open and close a couple of times and assumed some of their guests were starting to rouse and realise they were in the wrong house. He hoped someone reclaimed the bra. Holster had turned the last one into a hat of shame for whoever came last at beer pong. Bitty had had to wear it for a whole half an hour last night. Remembering he probably sent Jack a picture of that too, he took up his phone and scrolled through his messages. Of course, there was a selfie of him in the bra hat. There were lots of selfies in fact. He started out looking quite cute and presentable, until the last one where his hair was sticking up in all directions and his cheek was smeared in Lardo’s purple lipstick and his nice blue shirt was drenched in the vivid orange fake mimosa concoction. Luckily Jack had only seemed to grow even more amused as his sobriety deteriorated.

     Jack had of course already sent him his usual good morning text three hours ago. Sleeping in for Jack meant waking up at seven am, and he always went for a run half an hour later. At first Bitty teased him for it, calling him an exercise freak, but then he’d learned that Jack’s anxiety medication had a bad habit of making him feel drowsy, and the morning runs helped to wake up his foggy brain. Bitty continued to chirp him for it, but only because it made Jack laugh. He was still learning a lot about Jack, and each nuance he discovered only made him fall in love with his former captain even more.

     He was just tapping out a reply with his own good morning and apologising for the ridiculous selfies when the Haus started to come back to life around him. Ransom and Holster descended the stairs first, looking like they’d taken in a bath in neat vodka and then slept in a ditch. The frogs and tadpoles followed them, and Bitty assumed they’d all crashed on Chowder’s floor because the last he’d seen of them they were playing ring of fire with the volleyball girls in Chowder’s bedroom. Then finally Lardo and Shitty crammed themselves in the tiny kitchen too, helping themselves to the rest of the coffee and whatever food they could scrape together from the remnants that were left from the night before.

     “So, Bits,” Shitty chirped in a voice that was far too disgustingly cheerful for Bitty’s delicate head.

     He was naked as the day he was born and perched on one of the counter tops. Bitty wondered if there was a bleach that was stronger than industrial strength and where he could buy five gallons of it.

     “When are we heading into town, ya crazy little fucker?”

     Bitty lifted his heavy head and narrowed his eyes at his friend.      “What?” he asked eloquently, his voice hoarse from the alcohol abuse. “Why would I want to go into town?”      He wasn’t going to step one foot out of the Haus today. He was going to go straight up to bed and sleep until his head exploded and he died, or the hangover wore off. Whichever came first.

     “Dude, don’t you remember the bet?” Ransom asked gleefully. “You know, the beer pong bet?”

     Bitty wracked his cotton wool filled brain but could definitely not remember any bet relating to his spectacular loss. He remembered the honour belch, that was difficult to forget, but certainly no bet. He shook his head, creasing his brow in a frown.

     “Bro. Bro,” Ransom seized his shoulder, looking like all his birthdays had come at once and not like he’d had a disgusting hangover not two minutes ago. “You have to go get a piercing.”

     “I have to get a what?”

     Bitty blinked at him, straining his eyes through the fogginess to frown at his friend’s ecstatic face. He had to have misheard him. There was no way he would agree to anything like that, no matter how shitfaced he was. He shook his head, ignoring the throbbing between his temples.

     “You heard the man!” Shitty crowed, grinning just as widely. “You were going on all night about how you’d always wanted a piercing, so we decided to make you put your money where your fucking mouth is.”

     “He’s right,” Lardo told Bitty with a smirk, and around them, the rest of the team were laughing as they recalled the events from the night before. “You promised, Bits. If you lost the game, your penalty would be to go and get that piercing.”

     “Y’all’re lying,” Bitty said slowly, glaring at them all when his friends just cracked up laughing. “I agreed to no such thing. Prove it.”

     “Bits,” Shitty said gleefully, clapping a hand over his shoulder. “Bits. My sweet, spicy southern beauty. You have just asked a motherfucking lawyer to prove something.”

     Bitty’s glare dropped slightly when he realised exactly that, but he attached it back into place a moment later. He folded his arms obstinately, watching Shitty scroll through his phone with a huge grin on his face. A moment later, his own voice filled the kitchen, a little high pitched and definitely tipsy.

     “I, Eric Richard Bittle,” the recording began, making Bitty cringe. “Hereby announce that my penalty for suffering a crushing defeat at beer pong, will be to obtain exactly one piercing in a place of my choosing, tomorrow the fifteenth of May.”

      Bitty’s mouth dropped open. He had clearly been reading from a handwritten sheet, as he’d stumbled over words between drunken giggles. The others roared with laughter at Bitty’s horrified expression, and Shitty smugly put his phone back onto the table. Bitty stared at it as if it had personally thrown out all the butter in the house.

     “Shall I get my car keys?” Lardo smirked, slinging an arm around his shoulders.

     Bitty couldn’t speak. It’s true, he had always entertained the idea of a piercing, but never seriously. His mother would kill him for one. And he never thought he’d ever actually have the guts to go through with it. But a bet was a bet. He couldn’t back out of a beer pong penalty. It was written in the Haus rules. He sighed in defeat. At least he could choose where he was going to have it.

      “Lord, I must have been so drunk,” he groaned, sinking his face into his hands.

     The others’ laughter drilled through his brain, reminding him of his crippling hangover. He wasn’t stupid enough to get a piercing with so much alcohol in his system, so he waved his coffee cup in Holster’s general direction. It was instantly plucked from his hands and refilled. It appeared by his side a moment later, filled with wonderful creamy caramel flavoured coffee.

     “If I’m doing this, I need food,” he pouted, dragging the mug close and inhaling the fumes in the hopes that it would bring him back to life.

     Ransom leapt towards the fridge for ingredients comically fast. Bitty couldn’t resist the smirk as he watched his friends scramble to make a hearty breakfast. He took his phone again and swiped open the front facing camera, appraising his face in the screen. His ear would be the obvious option, but Bitty figured if he was going to do this then he might as well go all out. He turned his face to the side, humming thoughtfully as he tried to imagine a shiny stud in various places.

     By the time breakfast appeared in front of him – a large plate of eggs and waffles and bacon – he was starting to feel excited. Now that he was more comfortable with himself, he had started playing around with his own personal style, and a piercing would be an extension of that, albeit a little more extreme. He figured if he didn’t like it, he’d just take it out, though he’d hate to waste money like that.

     “Eyebrow,” he finally announced, putting his phone down and picking up his fork instead. “I’m going to get my right eyebrow pierced.”

     “Dude,” Ransom whistled, lifting his own eyebrows. “You will look so hot with an eyebrow piercing. Good choice.”

     The others all nodded and offered their own words of encouragement between shovelling food into their mouths. Bitty grinned widely and tucked into his own breakfast, practically buzzing with excitement already. He realised he hadn’t finished his text to Jack and took up his phone again, chewing as he typed. He wondered what Jack would think and considered asking for his opinion, but eventually decided against it. He loved Jack, and valued his thoughts, but he didn’t want to risk his boyfriend putting him off the idea. It would be a surprise instead.

     After breakfast, Bitty took a long shower. The hot water washed away the cobwebs and he stepped out into the steamy room feeling fresher and brighter. He dressed and dried his hair in record time, meeting Shitty and Lardo in the kitchen. Luckily, Lardo hadn’t drank the night before, and was perfectly chipper. A little while later, they all piled into her tiny car and headed off into town.

     There was a small tattoo parlour on the outskirts, popular among the Samwell student body for it’s friendly staff and attractive prices. Lardo knew it well after accompanying a few of her course mates, and had assured Bitty that it was a safe and trustworthy place. As they neared town though, Bitty’s nerves started to kick in and he began tapping his fingers impatiently on the door handle. It wasn’t the pain he was worried about. Not much, anyway. He was more worried about how he might look with it, what Jack would say, what his mother would say.

     By the time Lardo pulled into a parking space, he was starting to feel a little sick.

     “Hey, Bits,” Shitty murmured, catching his attention.

     Bitty looked up to see both Shitty and Lardo turning towards him from their front seats, both wearing soft expressions that he couldn’t quite read.

     “If you wanna back out, we won’t say anything brah,” Shitty reassured him.       “Right. We’ll say they were closed or something. We don’t want to force you into doing this if you really don’t want to,” Lardo added.

     Bitty looked at both of their faces, touched by their obvious concern. As much as they’d encouraged him back at the Haus, they weren’t about to coerce him into something like this if he genuinely didn’t want to do it. Bitty smiled, his heart swelling with a warm affection for the pair of them. He felt his nerves melting away, leaving that excitement once more.

     “Let’s do this,” he grinned widely, laughing when both of their faces lit up.

     He hopped gracefully out of the car, having to resist the urge to scamper into the shop like a thrilled child heading into a toy store. Instead he strode through the door confidently with his head held high. A shrill buzzing noise that irritated his ears came from the back of the shop, where he could see a big, colourful woman hunched over a client, her hand moving rhythmically over their arm. There was a man at the counter by the large window, and after a nudge from Lardo, Bitty headed over.

     It was a small room, and the walls were adorned with hundreds of flash designs and posters. It smelled strongly of antiseptic too, and Bitty focussed on that instead of the awful buzzing. The man at the counter was young, tanned and heavily tattooed, and flashed them all a wide smile as they approached. He nodded at Lardo, obviously recognising her.

     “Hey, what’s up? How can I help?” He asked, when he realised that it was Bitty who was interested in getting something.

     “I’d like a piercing please. My eyebrow,” Bitty grinned, the excitement evident in his voice. Both Shitty and Lardo snickered at his lack of chill, sinking into a row of seats on the far wall.

     “Sure. I just need you to fill this form for me,” the assistant replied, sliding a sheet of paper over the counter towards him. “And I need to see some ID too.”

     It was tempting to skim the boring questions about allergies and scribble his signature, but Bitty forced himself to read it properly and answer honestly. He was that keen on getting this done now that he didn’t want to ruin it by doing something stupid. Once he was satisfied, he signed his name and pulled out his driving license, along with the forty bucks required.

     He perused the selection of body jewellery available while the assistant read over his form and made a copy of his ID. He was already fantasising about the elaborate and brightly coloured bars he could wear after it had finished healing. At the back of his mind he worried about what his mama and Jack might say, but he quickly squashed the thoughts down. He was a grown man and could make these decisions for himself.

     The assistant called him over towards the back of the shop. Bitty flashed Lardo and Shitty one last excited grin, then headed around the counter and into the sterile workroom. The colourful tattooist looked up from her work and winked playfully at him even as her client grimaced in pain. Bitty walked past them towards the large, paper covered bench and lithely hopped up after the assistant gestured towards it.

     “My name’s Danny,” the man smiled, taking supplies from the shelf and placing them on the small trolley beside him. “My job isn’t to hurt you, okay? I’ll be as gentle as I can. While sticking a huge needle in your face,” he grinned widely.

     Bitty laughed and nodded, grateful for Danny’s humour. It settled his nerves a little bit. He calmly placed his palms flat down on the bench, focussing on the rough paper beneath them. He watched Danny meticulously clean his surfaces and readied the equipment.

     “Here’s a selection of eyebrow bars we can use. Any take your fancy?” Danny asked, showing Bitty a small selection of jewellery in a case on the wall.

     Bitty hummed thoughtfully as he inspected them. There were a few plain ones in different colours, and others that were adorned with crystals. He didn’t want anything too flashy, but none of the plain ones interested him either. At the end of the row was a small curved bar in a metallic rainbow that he instantly thought was perfect. The colour was subtle, but was one that resonated with him.

     “That one please,” Bitty grinned, pointing it out.

     Danny took the required piece of jewellery and sterilised it carefully before unscrewing a ball at one end, ready to be inserted in the fresh piercing. With that done, he took a marker and carefully placed a dot above Bitty’s right eyebrow.

     “Does that look like the right spot?” Danny asked, nodding towards the huge mirror that ran along one wall.

     Bitty turned to look, examining the small green mark. His stomach churned with nerves again. He caught Shitty and Lardo’s faces in the glass and they both gave him huge grins and thumbs up. He laughed, he took a deep breath and nodded.

     “Yep. Looks good. Let’s do it.”

     Bitty found it easier if he watched Danny’s hands pulling on gloves rather than focus on his racing heart. He wasn’t going to look in the mirror, and he really wasn’t going to look at the needle waiting in its sanitary container. Danny carefully pinched his brow between two fingers and secured a tight clamp over the skin. It wasn’t painful, but it was uncomfortable, and when he saw Danny go for the needle, Bitty closed his eyes.

     “You ready, dude?” Danny’s voice came gently from somewhere in front of him.

     “Ready,” Bitty replied in a voice that was surprisingly steady.

     He felt Danny stabilise the clamp, and then a moment later a sharp, stabbing pain blossomed in his brow. Bitty inhaled abruptly, but did his best to stay still. The shooting pain faded almost instantly to an intense sting that flared a little as Danny fiddled with the bar, and then settled down again. When Danny gently released the clamp, Bitty opened his eyes and let out a relieved laugh, his shoulders slumping. He hadn’t even realised he’d been tensing them.

     “All done,” Danny announced with a bright grin. “It really suits you, take a look.”

     Bitty turned to examine his face in the mirror, ignoring Shitty and Lardo’s loud and excited hoots of celebration from the other side of the counter. His right eyebrow was already swelling around the curved bar, but Bitty already loved the shiny metal that accentuated the curve of his brow. Danny was right, it really did suit him.

     “It looks amazing, thank you!” Bitty laughed, turning to give Danny his biggest grin.

     “No problem, I’m glad you like it,” Danny laughed, disposing of the needle before tugging off his gloves. “Okay so that’s gonna sting for a bitch for a few days, take an Advil if it gets too bad. You should clean it at least twice a day with warm saltwater and avoid touching it at all. The swelling should go down soon, but don’t change it for a smaller bar for at least eight weeks.”

     “Got it,” Bitty nodded, determined to listen to Danny’s every word. He had the whole summer to let it heal, and hopefully it would be fine long before he had to put on a hockey helmet again.

     “I can do it for you if you don’t want to try it yourself. And if you have any questions, just give me a call, okay?” Danny took a small business card from the counter and offered it out.

     Bitty took it and hopped off the bench, sliding the card into his back pocket. He thanked Danny again and made his way back around the counter. Shitty and Lardo instantly started hollering and grabbed him the moment he was in reach.

     “You motherfucking stunner,” Shitty gushed, sounding weirdly choked up. “It’s perfect.”

     “It looks good on you,” Lardo agreed with a wide grin, slinging her arm around his shoulders as they headed out of the shop.

     “Thanks,” Bitty laughed, starting to feel a little drained from all the adrenalin. “It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. Stings though.”

     “Let’s go get lunch,” Lardo suggested, guiding him towards a nearby Subway restaurant instead of her car. “We should get some sugar in you.”

     Many hours later, after lunch, a raucous drive back to the Haus, and answering questions fired at him from the other members of the SMH, Bitty finally found himself perched cross-legged on his bed with his laptop open in front of him. He’d refrained from taking any selfies until he’d shown Jack despite being desperate to flash it all over Twitter. Maybe he’d take one before bed, but right now all he wanted to do was talk to his boyfriend.

     Jack picked up after three rings. He was freshly showered, his damp hair curling as it dried. He had a sleepy smile on his face, worn out from his game. Bitty’s heart swelled with affection just from the sight of him.

     “Hi, Sweetpea.”

     “Hey Bits. How was-? “

     Jack broke off his sentence midway, his mouth forming a perfect little ‘o’. He frowned and leaned forward, squinting at the screen. Bitty didn’t say anything and smiled calmly. His eyebrow was red and swollen, but he knew the piercing would be clearly visible.

     “Did you get your eyebrow pierced?” Jack asked softly, his blue eyes wide.

     “Yep!” Bitty chirped with a laugh, feeling overwhelmed with giddiness when Jack seemed more in awe than anything else. “It was my pong penalty from last night. What do you think?”

     Jack was quiet for a moment, eyes scanning Bitty’s face again. He smiled widely and nodded, completely unaware he was making Bitty’s heart flutter.

     “I really like it,” he admitted softly. “You look really good.”

     Bitty could argue that Jack always thought he looked good, but the compliment made him beam all the same.

     “Thanks, sugar. I really love how it looks. I can’t wait for it to be all healed up. Lord knows what my mama will say about it,” Bitty laughed, a little too high pitched.

     Lots of men had pierced eyebrows, it wasn’t like it was a ‘feminine’ piercing, but he was still a little worried that it would only emphasise his sexuality. He was still getting his head around the idea that he was allowed to be proud of who he was and what anyone else thought wasn’t his problem. Though feeling that pride was a lot harder when he couldn’t muster up the courage to come out to his mother. Staying with Jack for the summer was sounding more and more appealing.

     Jack could tell him that he was an adult and could make decisions whether he had his mother’s approval or not, but he sensed that it wasn’t the right time for that conversation. Bitty had had a fun and exciting weekend, and Jack didn’t want to ruin his good mood by bringing up such intense topics. They could talk about it another day. So, Jack just smiled and told him he looked nice again.

     The bright smile on Bitty’s face meant it was appreciated.

     “Are you going to get any more?” Jack wondered, shifting into a more comfortable position.

     “I’m not sure,” Bitty hummed. “I haven’t thought about it. I don’t think I’ll be like you and your tattoos though,” he teased playfully.

     Jack had booked himself in for a tattoo session in late July, just in case the Falconers made playoffs. It would be his first, and was working with Lardo on a small and meaningful design that was top secret. The trouble was once he’d started thinking about them, he found himself thinking of possibilities for more designs and where they might go on his body. Lardo had warned him that getting your first tattoo was a slippery slope, and he was starting to see why.

     “Hm, shame,” Jack joked with a lopsided grin.

     Bitty gracefully raised an eyebrow and smirked. It was hard to tell through a computer screen, but he knew Jack well enough by now to tell when he was starting to get excited. His pale cheeks were beginning to flush, and his eyes seemed dark and even more smouldering than usual.

     “Mr. Zimmermann. Is my piercing turning you on right now?” Bitty purred lowly, carefully moving his computer off his lap and onto the bed in front of him.

     “It’s not the piercing,” Jack argued with a laugh. His cheeks went even pinker after being called out. “Though it does look amazing. It’s you. How confident you are and how you know you look good.”

     Bitty inwardly softened a little, smitten with how Jack looked at him. It was something he could revel in later, when it was dark and he was ready to go to sleep. For now, he deftly whipped off his thin t-shirt, careful not to catch his new piercing.

     “Well then, honey. Make your handsome self comfortable and I’ll show you just how confident I am.” The End

A.N: Please do not get piercings after nights of heavy drinking. I took creative license with this lmao.

Thanks for reading!

[aisicle]

I went to EGLX and Toronto’s gaming community blew me away

Last month I went to EGLX, or the Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo, which happened from March 9 to 11 at the International Centre in Mississauga. On their website, they claim to be Canada’s largest video game expo and their mission is to bring people together to be “united by gaming.”

Unfortunately, due to schedule restrictions (I’m looking at you, school), I was only able to attend EGLX on Saturday and Sunday – both of which were completely different and awesome experiences.

The four grand stages at EGLX for competitive games Hearthstone, Super Smash Bros. and a rotation of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, fighting games and Halo 5.

Saturday

On Saturday, I went alone to check out what EGLX had to offer, having never been there previously. Their website boosted highlights such as an indie games and virtual reality (VR) showcase, big name exhibitors and local artist corner, industry panels, competitive gaming, a cosplay lounge and even a nerf battle.

My first order of business was, of course, to take a picture with the mascot, Mr. Destructoid of game-focused media site Destructoid fame.

Would it be appropriate to make a Mr. Roboto pun here?

Once I entered the main hall, I was met with a larger than life version of Settlers of Catan, where guests were free to jump in and play as long as there was a free spot available. I was super tempted to make that my first stop, but Catan can potentially take hours and there was still so much more to see!

When I first arrived, the giant Catan board was currently open for play as the previous game had just ended, but I had to resist temptation!

Beyond the Catan booth, there were rows of VR games displayed. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to indulge in any of the games due to being a spectacled being, but that just means I need to remember to bring my contacts the next time there are VR booths involved at an event.

My favourite set up was one by VR Star Games for Furious Seas, a to be released pirate VR adventure that was displayed next to a palm tree, a realistic looking cannon and of course, a pile of treasure.

I wonder if you can find One Piece in this game. Any anime fans amongst my readers?

What blew me away the most and what I ended up spending the most time on with my trip to EGLX was the indie games corner, which featured primarily student-made games from Sheridan College’s gaming program. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take any photos of the games themselves due to my excitement, but here’s a quick list of the ones I got to play and loved:

The Blobs Fight: The first game I tried was probably the most simple of all the games I was able to play, but also one of my favourite ones at EGLX! Developed by Skypyre Studios, the premise is exactly what you’d expect it to be: animated blobs fighting each other to the death. You can play up to eight (eight!!) customizable blobs at a time in different arenas, where you try to knock off pieces from other blobs until they become small enough to disappear so you can collect the pieces and become a mega blob or be the last one standing.

Head Rush: It took me a while to get that the game was literally about trying to affect the emotions of someone’s brain in an arcade style, time-trial game where you go really fast (head… rush… get it? Just me? Okay). Once I understood the concept, the rest of the gameplay flowed easily to me, though I still found the first level quite hard! The music is quirky and fits super well with the game design and I really loved the choice of colours! Sort of reminds me of the final level of Starfox, but just the first part of it and includes less impending doom. It’s developed by Jellyware Games, which you should definitely give a follow to!

Wanderfall: Developed by Grabby Thing Games, Wanderfall is a speed run sort of game – one where you glide smoothly along landscapes and jump across beautifully rendered ledges and hidden paths in order to collect as many crystals as you can. It was, unfortunately, also the game I struggled with the most because I’m definitely more of an “explore every nook and cranny” sort of gamer instead of a speed runner! Still, I enjoyed playing Wanderfall and did eventually play it again later on after they polished it up even more (though my friends laughed at me struggling to play it both times).

Godsend: Godsend, created by Patchwork Games, is a game that I find myself being able to play for hours. You play as a shapeshifter who is able to “shift your soul into other creatures,” therefore using their powers to accomplish the objectives and beat the level. But only being able to play a couple of minutes and try out a few of the many abilities and creatures that you could become simply wasn’t enough time! The backgrounds were gorgeous and I was really intrigued with the puzzles presented in this platformer, so I will be coming back to play this game (which you can download on Itch.io) in the future! Shoutouts to Coley who dealt with me dying a million times the first time I played.

Super Random Heroes and Bag Box: Both developed by OddBird Studios who has, since the writing of this blog, won both the pitch competition at EGLX as well as Best Game at Level Up Showcase, Super Random Heroes and Bag Box are two of their latest games after their flagship game, Arrow Heads (which I still need to play!), was released. Bag Box is a very simple two player game using just one controller – which is simply genius – where you try to knock out your rival in a boxing match and see who depletes the others’ health first. It’s very easy to pick up, has very clean and simple graphics and I definitely recommend giving it a download to play against a friend. I played against one of the developers and lost (I suspect some foul play) and I’m hoping for a rematch one day!

Following OddBird’s distinct style of clean, colourful and vibrant characters and stories, Super Random Heroes is the newest game that they’re working on featuring an angry pedestrian who ended up with super hero powers that he didn’t want and is now on a mission to get rid of them. In addition to having super hero powers, one of the game mechanics also lets you stack and modify the powers that you have in order to keep your play through unique and exciting. It’s a great, crazy twist on the usual brand of super hero video games and I can’t wait to play the full version when it’s complete!

Fossil Hunters: Lastly, let’s talk about Fossil Hunters by Reptoid Games. A fun solo or multiplayer game that has you playing quirky characters digging up bones and putting them back together while salamanders try to throw you off the platform, rocks fall down onto your party and you and your friends get separated by immovable boulders along the way. I actually kept running around the convention and coming back to this game multiple times, but every time I was there, it was preoccupied by other gamers who wanted in on the digging action. Once I got my hands on it, I loved it – I’m a huge sucker for a good puzzle game – and the art is so endearing! It’s currently out on Steam, but I’m waiting for that sweet Nintendo Switch release.

Sunday

Surprise! Can you guess which one I am? (Hint: I'm the green one.)

Here’s a surprise if you’ve made it this far: I cosplay! This convention isn’t my first rodeo, but it is my first video game exclusive convention. I had such a fun day meeting friends new and old yesterday, but wanted to use Sunday as a way to de-stress and talk to other cosplayers that I knew who were going to EGLX, as well as drag a few of my own friends into cosplaying Nintendo characters with me. The Nintendo booth had fun with us.

Conclusion

A vast majority of the exhibition hall occupied by the hum and lights of desktop computers running games such as Fortnite, PUBG, Rocket League, etc.

After doing some research, I was informed that this was EGLX’s second year running, but last year wasn’t their first. Apparently, EGLX premiered during 2016 with very little fanfare, so the organizers took the show backstage and polished it up so that it would receive the attention it deserved when it came back in 2018. That being said, the whole event was planned out and put together within about a month or so and while I had a great time there, there were a few things that I wondered about.

The schedule had a Nintendo event listed for Saturday that I spent a good 15 minutes looking for, but that no staff could tell me about.

While there were many excellent exhibitors displayed at the con, I wondered why some groups that I assumed would also be there, weren’t. Was it a matter of time or availability on both or part of the parties? Toronto Gaymers, one of the largest gaming groups in the city, as well as George Brown and other colleges with prominent game development programs seemed to be absent.

There was a thing? I’m not too sure. And I wonder if it was worth bringing up on the Twitter page.

The advertising for the event seemed very much for the general public, but the only ones who seemed to really use their time to the fullest or had a voice at the convention seemed to be those involved in the game industry.

The division of the space inside the exhibition hall was extremely varied. Competitive gaming had the largest space, with everything else having just enough in order to function by, but it usually ended up crowded.

Though there were a decent amount of cosplay guests, I noticed most cosplayers stuck to the cosplay lounge, which was a small square in the middle of the exhibition hall and was generally overcrowded. I wonder if it would have been better to combine the cosplay lounge with the board game/rest area that was set up next to the registration hall instead.

The website sometimes had different pages with different information on it, making it difficult to find the information you needed depending on what page you were on at the time.

Don’t get me wrong – I had a blast! And I’m so excited to go again next year. It was amazing to see some very big triple A game companies next to smaller studios and all the different ways that so many different people play games.

So, whether it is for competitive reasons, friends and family, solo, or even VR and board games – EGLX had a little bit of everything for everyone and I can’t wait to see what they have planned next year!

[automaticnightkingdom]

The Binding Of Isaac Revelations

Featuring a brand new custom floor full of new threats!

Tboi Revelations Wiki

The Binding Of Isaac Revelations Chapter 2 Free Download

Steam Workshop::Revelations (Obsolete)

The Binding Of Isaac Revelations Chapter 2 Descargar; Binding Of Isaac Revelations Chapter 2 Items; Start studying Religion Quiz 2. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. This is the OST of the second chapter in Binding of Isaac Revelations, includes all tracks heard in the game in the Tomb floor, as. Team-Revelations Original Poster 4 points 2 years ago The fire effect is a visual decision that's integrated with synergies, but the main focus isn't this being fire, its more about the burst-firing aspect.

Seal of Approval for following submission guidelines.'>

Rev:Ch1 is a brand new mod for the Binding of Isaac. Featuring: - a divergent Basement path to a new floor with special mechanics - 8 new unique bosses - Dozens of brand new enemies - Over 20 new items - 1 new playable character - Plus, an optional challenging new peril. Enter the Glacier. A frosty welcome awaits Isaac as he braves the frozen chambers of the Glacier. Ice is prevelant, so he best watch his step lest he slide into incoming foes. Many rooms are exposed to freezing blizzards which chill him, making the simplest of movements tough. But, fear not: warmth is always within reach for those who look for it. Terrifying new threats lurk in every cold corner of the floor. How will you handle Stalagmight, eternally trapped in ice with only his raging temper to keep him company. Or, the lonely Freezerburn, so desperate for a hug. Face old friends now lost and broken, adapted with new forms to survive the ever-chilly climate. Monsnow and Flurry Jr, to name a few. Brave it all and face a new threat that's eerily familiar... Dress up as Sarah, the Loved. Strong of faith, but broken and unable to hold onto her heart. --------- The Binding of Isaac: Revelations is a chapter-based mod. Each additional chapter will expand with a new floor with 3 chapters planned, culminating in a fully alternate path. This mod is entirely additive, designed to be bolted onto any player's run and simply accessed when prefered. We have not modified the core game in anyway beyond adding 25 more items to the pool and an extra core path boss. Glacier, and all additional planned floors, are purely optional. --------- We very strongly recommend disabling other mods for your first Revelations runs. Running additional mods may cause compatibility issues, however we will be addressing these in post-patch updates. Please bare with us, as this will be an ongoing development process. --------- Ashkal - Founder, Spriter (Floor, Promo Art) Sentinel - Founder, Coder (Mechanical Focus) Boogs - Community Manager Filloax - Coder (Item Focus, Videographer) Wertandrew - Music and SFX BlorengeRhymes - Spriter (Bosses, Enemies, Items) Gavitro - Coder (Enemy Focus) AnonymousKoala - Designer, Community Manager JonTheRealJon - Spriter (Bosses, Enemies, Items) Jerb - Lead Tester DeadInfinity - Coder (General Badass) Quartz - Spriter (Enemies, Items) THX - Spriter (Enemies, Items) NotYourSagittarius - Spriter (Enemies, Items) Special Thanks to Testers: Bustin Bullet Ella.

x 243

- ice worms shoot the instant they hide from being above, and have max delay when they get up. more time to hit them + hopefully a more obvious gimmick

- narcissus's movement phase nerfed overall. less speed, less dodge, more firedelay

- lil frost rider & mirror shard work with box of friends

- lil frost rider is turned to ice tray by birth control

- charged baby spawns batteries with birth control

- fix a nil value error in narc, and a typo in stageapi that might've messed up any old ice hazard rooms

- replaced lil frost rider's slippery creep with aquarius creep.

- doubled the size of mirror shard reflected projectiles

- mirror shard now orbits on the same layer as cube of meat

- Friendly fire auras

- Smoly caves fix

- Lil ff + fires fix

- Fix callbacks being somewhat broken

- Fix ice blocks

- Fix empty rooms

- We've been hard at work on chapter 2, which has been gradually taking form and is already looking to top what we produced for chapter 1. In addition to Tomb, we've also gone back to add an extra layer of polish to Glacier. With that in mind, we would like to introduce the Champion update.

- Champion forms of each boss. These unlock once you've killed each boss once, and have their own unique look and very unique mechanics, while retaining the initial flavour of the original line up.

- 3 New Enemies. Yellow Snow, Stalagtrite and Ice Worms, along with a bunch of new rooms to take advantage of these chilly fellas.

- 1 New Item. Lil Frost Rider. A feisty little customer inspired by one of our favourite bosses from chapter 1.

- In addition to this, Narcissus has had some heavy rebalancing, optimisation and new active items added to his attacks. With some extra reskins for vanilla enemies that find their way into Glacier, with some greed waves thrown in for good measure. Along with various bug fixes for a number of issues affecting the mod in general.

- And last but not least, a little treat for anyone interested in chapter 2: Tomb. The splash art featuring all the bosses, and the new playable character.

- https://i.imgur.com/wC345gz.jpg

- Hopefully this will tide you over until Tomb. We'll aim to tease some of the items over the coming weeks as more of chapter 2 comes to fruition. Thank you to everyone for your great feedback and your amazing support.

- Sarah gains a halo when she will get an angel room

- New character menu icon for Sarah

- Fixed seed changing and caves 2 having the same layout as glacier 2

- Fixed boss music in catacombs

- Chargers and maggots got a glacier reskin

- Brother bloody shotspeed down

- Chill Grace Period & Sarah Grace Blocked on greed mode

- Fix AB floor rooms not working

- Fix Stalag Phase 2 Sounds

- Stalactite got a Tell

- Disabling locked items instead of rerolling them

- Fixed snow particles not appearing in phase 2 for stalagmight

- Boss system restructure, shouldn't bug out now, other than not making the original boss visible for a split second

Tboi Revelations Wiki

- Frost rider is forced with BoR

- Burning bush buff, now constant dmg increase in tears, slightly longer fire, and warms you in chill rooms by a bit

- Warm auras now fade out instead of instadisappearing

- Fix braziers respawning

- New commands

- Floor transition music

- More debugging for boss error

- Updated titlescreen sprites

- Added External Item Descriptions support (WORK IN PROGRESS, SOME DESCRIPTIONS ARE INCORRECT)

- Flurry ice block spawn creates a poof

- Hyper dice corruption

how do i get it to work? if u know please contact me on discord: Giorno Giovanna#6477

Giovanna#6477 and ur name is kuyasu? how ironic

i like it

undefined i cant leave the first room after defeating the boss... does anyone know how to fix this?

who's from TearOfGrace

me notswipez

good but im not have afterbirth +

afterbirth + cuz when you get afterbirth + you cant change it to afterbirth so its afterbirth + only

Can you use this for Afterbirth? On the Steam mods page, it says it is compatible with the DLCs Afterbirth and Afterbirth+

Also i have no ideas how to download mods

HOW DO I ACTIVATE THIS MOD

nice mod go go go go

making Mods takes time. however Revelations Chapter 2 has been shown off a bit. I've seen the Thumbnail so it should be here sooner or later.

its out look at steam

i made that post months ago. i know it's out.

no you dont stop lying dude

I hope that you will continue to work on this mod . I'm waiting for chapter 2

This mod is so good, that once completed, it could rival Antibirth! this mod is amazing!

soooo... can u made this for rebirth???

GOOD MODING: defiantly download and play if you finish the normal games with one character

When i put mod folder to mods , this folder will be removed when i run the game.

Having the same problem.

Nevermind. Remove the numbers behind the folders name and it should work.

about the Heavenly Bell. what are the speficif effects it can have. i saw the 'Crawlspace under the dead shopkeeper' one. but what does the rest of the effects do?

THIS IS THE BEST MOD THANK YOU SO MUCH!

This mod won't work for me. I've followed every guide I could find so far and still nothing.

nice mod bro

afterbirth +

is for afterbirth or rebirth?

its for afterbirth+

Привет всем! HI Guys. I am not speak English Sorry. Так вот этот мод БОЖЕСТВЕННЕН!

Real pro work, congrats Anonymous_Koala. I wish it could work for afterbirth+.

but it does .-.

Well, then it's even better!

The best mod ... ever...

nah i think antibirth is better

This looks rad! i'll have to get it after I complete my 100%!

The Binding Of Isaac Revelations Chapter 2 Free Download

Indeed! there are a lot of mods I want to try, but I want to finish the game normally first. After that, the good stuff will ensue!

Love the concept of the mod, and enjoyed playing it too. The only problem I have with it is when I fought the new harbinger-guy (forgot his name ), after some time he stopped moving, and when I killed him the flys he spawned in ice could not be destroyed (destroying the run). Other than that, I really like this mod.

404, downloads not found

How can i install this? I try to just put it on my aftherbirth+ mod´s folder And nothing... Help!!

download by steam workshop

does it work for just afterbirth?

nops...sowwyy

nops...sowwyy

You can find it on the steam workshop, download it from there and THEN you can play it with AB and AB+

I can't wait for more ;)

this mod is really Beautiful

This mod is great!!

hello there

anonymous_koala respect for going down to the comments and answering

Uh. How do I instaaall?

Put it in your Afterbirth+ Mods folder in 'my games'.

My opinion of the mod:

I love the sprites and the concept of the new floor. Amazing job!

wonderin' if it will work...

Now this, this is a good mod.

Steam Workshop::Revelations (Obsolete)

Nice mod siiir

[megamoses]

Backblog #1

Something that a lot of people suffer from nowadays is the phenomenon of “decision fatigue” in which you have so many different possible choices that you end up not wanting to choose anything.  I’m sure plenty of people out there have spent so long searching for something to watch on Netflix that they just get frustrated and watch Breaking Bad for the thousandth time or whatever.

For me, and I’m sure tons of other people as well, this ends up being very true of video games.  There are more games and easier access to them than ever.  According to Steam Spy, last year alone 7,672 games were released on Steam.  That’s an average of 21 games per day.  And that’s to say nothing of current gen console games or even the thousands upon thousands of games from previous generations.

Basically, more games are released day to day than anyone could ever possibly complete in several lifetimes.  And a lot of people, myself included, just keep buying them for some reason without ever finishing a lot of them.  So, fuck this, I’m just gonna play The Ultimate Stuntman for the thousandth time, right?  That’s the kind of thing I’d usually do, but more recently I’ve actually been attacking my backlog in a much more structured manner that’s actually been pretty productive for me.  So, why not blog about it.

I sort of started doing this a couple of years ago after going to MAGfest for the first time and getting to see Con Man himself explaining, live, to a crowd of people why Mighty No. 9  had been delayed for the nth time.  After getting home and chatting with some of my online friends, I wondered to myself how many Mega Man games I could beat over the course of the delay (which at that point was just four months anyway).

So I started knocking them back and managed to get through:

Mega Man (NES)

Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Mega Man 2 (NES)

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (GB)

Mega Man 3 (NES)

Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Genesis)

Mega Man II (GB)

Mega Man 4 (NES)

Mega Man III (GB)

Mega Man 5 (NES)

Mega Man IV (GB)

Mega Man V (GB)

Mega Man 6 (NES)

Mega Man 7 (SNES)

Mega Man: The Power Battle (Arcade)

Mega Man 8 (Saturn)

Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (Arcade)

Rockman & Forte (SNES)

Mega Man 9 (Wii)

Mega Man 10 (Wii)

Mega Man X (SNES)

Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (PSP)

Mega Man X2 (SNES)

23 games.  Not bad for sticking it to Con Man in my own stupid way.  It was around this time that Mighty No. 9 dropped (to RAVE reviews), but at this point I was having fun playing through the series in (sort of) order, so I kept going and knocked out:

Mega Man Xtreme (GBC)

Mega Man X3 (PSX)

Mega Man Xtreme 2 (GBC)

Mega Man X4 (PSX)

Mega Man X5 (PSX)

Basically, this was encouraging me to play through an entire series in a very structured way.  I’ve beaten a lot of the Mega Man games already but this did cause me to get to ones I’d never beaten before, the Game Boy ones for example.  So, it was here that I decided to start doing this for other series, which is something I’d always wanted to do, but just never did because apathy.

I decided to start with Mario, being the Nintenyearold I am, and started playing the early Mario games, starting with:

Donkey Kong: Original Edition (NES)

Donkey Kong Jr. (NES)

Mario Bros. Classic (NES)

Donkey Kong 3 (NES)

Obviously, these ones, Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong 3 in particular, can’t really be “beaten” per se, but for these I just played for a while until I was okay with whatever shitty high score I got and moved on to the big boys.

Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (GBC) (including Worlds 1-8 of Lost Levels)

Super Mario Advance (GBA)

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (GBA) (including all of the World-e levels)

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the versions of the games I’m playing are whatever the most recent version or remake is.  I decided to go for this for the purposes of experiencing the most content in the game possible.  Although there are some cases such as in spite of extras like the Challenge Mode and other extras in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, Worlds 9 and A-D were cut from Lost Levels, which is unfortunate, but I’ll still stick with this approach (within reason, I doubt I’ll ever do something like choose Super Mario 64 DS over the original version lol).  And it was very cathartic to finally play the (mostly very good) World-e levels in Advance 4, which were the major thing out of this Mario block that I’d never played before.

At this point, if I had continued playing Mario, it would’ve been time to move on to the next generation of Super Mario games and play Super Mario Land, Super Mario World, Super Mario Land 2, and so on.  But I opted to stick around in games of the third console generation for now and move on to a different series.

This is where I entered the structure I’m using now, even going so far as to make an extremely large document that allows me to determine what I should be playing next (I would post it here, but I’m afraid the dark autism waves would literally kill someone if they saw it).  Basically, I have a list of video game developers ordered roughly by the release date of their first game.  Although first party developers such as Nintendo and Sega are at the top of this list and ordered by the release date of their third generation console, which is why Nintendo is listed above Taito despite Taito releasing games earlier.  Second party devs, such as Game Freak for Nintendo, are also included as a part of their corresponding first party devs when possible.

Under each developer I have listed many of their prominent game series roughly ordered, again, by the release date of their first game.  Under each series I, of course, list all of the games in release order.  The game lists are broken up by console generation.  For games that never released on console, such as arcade or home computer exclusive games, I use the date range of the console generation to place them.  I also note, in the same entry as the original release, any notable re-releases, remakes, etc.  And using this document I just go down the list by generation, going through all the games for whatever generation I’m on (currently third) and moving to the next series.

As I was working on this structure and the document itself, I, of course, kept playing a bunch of games:

Zelda Classic (PC) (including the semi-”official” 3rd and 4th Quests as chosen by the dev team)

BS Zelda no Densetsu (SNES + Satellaview) (using the patches that actually restored the voice narration and everything)

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES)

Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA)

Punch-Out!! (Arcade)

Super Punch-Out!! (Arcade)

Arm Wrestling (Arcade)

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (NES)

Wild Gunman (NES)

Duck Hunt (NES)

Hogan’s Alley (NES)

Gumshoe (NES)

Barker Bill’s Trick Shooting (NES)

At this point, the next game according the document, as it existed at the time, would’ve been a JRPG (the original Mother, if I recall), so I decided to take a detour and include in my play order the three biggest and most influential early JRPG series: Dragon Quest, Megami Tensei, and Final Fantasy, despite Square-Enix and Atlus being much further down the list.

This is something I intend to do for other very specific genres such as shmups or fighting games, if I end up hitting a random entry in the genre before the “father” of the genre for whatever reason.  But with this detour included and the document still evolving at the same time, the next games I hit were:

Dragon Warrior I (GBC) (part of the Dragon Warrior I & II collection)

Dragon Warrior II (GBC) (part of the Dragon Warrior I & II collection)

Dragon Warrior III (GBC)

Digital Devil Monogatari: Megami Tensei (SNES) (part of the Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei collection)

Digital Devil Monogatari: Megami Tensei II (SNES) (part of the Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei collection)

Pinball (NES)

Urban Champion (NES)

Clu Clu Land (NES)

Devil World (NES)

Balloon Fight (NES)

Excitebike (NES)

Final Fantasy (PSP)

Final Fantasy II (PSP)

And that pretty much catches us up to current day.  All said and done, it’s really not that many games for about a year and a half.  Especially compared to 23 Mega Man games in four months.  But I’ll attribute that to Mega Man games being relatively short and easy to beat quickly, as well as playing games while trying to also work on the document and the JRPG detour actually taking up a pretty huge chunk of time.  That and real life stuff, of course.

And while this style of playing through games is definitely fucking not for everyone, especially those who want to play things other than old bullshit (though that’s not to say these are the only games I’ve played during this time), it’s actually a great way to see the humble beginnings of series and how far they’ve come.  For example, Dragon Quest II and especially III are such huge improvements over the first game (one of the first JRPGs period!) and it’s pretty rewarding to see the games evolve before your eyes.

The most recent game that I just beat as of a few days ago is Final Fantasy III (PC), which is a port of the Android version of the 3D remake.  It’s a game I’ve played before on the DS, but I never got too far beyond leaving the Floating Continent.  Overall, I like it a lot.  It never quite reaches the heights of Dragon Quest III for me, but it is responsible for introducing a similar job system to the Final Fantasy series, which is always something I like a lot.

My file in the game is mostly complete.  I have 100% treasure chests and a 98% complete Bestiary.  I have been working on trying to grind some in order to bring my party up to the level where they can beat the game’s hidden superboss, the Iron Giant.  But considering there is one thing I didn’t bother to do, which was get a second Gungnir drop from Odin after stealing the first one (I just couldn’t take retrying over and over for that 0.3% chance drop), doing things like grinding to the level needed to beat the Giant or doing so exclusively as Black Belts in order to get that 9999 max HP for my characters or getting 99 Job Level for all jobs for all characters would feel like a waste.  Nothing would burn my asshole like 99.99% completion.  So maybe I’ll come back to getting that elusive Final Fantasy III perfect file some other time.  I do have a pre-Odin save around, after all.  And I’ve only been 100% completing games on top of beating them within reason anyway.

That said, I’ll likely be moving on to Intelligent Systems’ Famicom Wars (NES), followed by Game Freak’s Mendel Palace (NES).  I’ll be back with a second (probably much shorter) backlog update once I complete one or both of these.  Until then, take it easy~