#they always had tails i never posted a version of this where i forgot their tails i don’t make mistakes

[theradicalace]

i had. a vision.

[itstimetojellyfish]

Fanning the flames of affection (Jiaoqiu x reader)

Angst/Fluff/Smut. This is gonna be a long one so please don’t complain if you lose track of time reading this.

this is my first smut post so yeah.

Btw , you can request a male version of the smut if you’d like .

MDNI

Contains: Oral(Fem!reader receiving) , penetration, basically pretty vanilla , tail stroking , tail cuddling , tail humping .

It’s too fucking spicy .

When you first came to the Xianzhou Yaoqing , you heard of the amazing Jiaoqiu , known for his extraordinary culinary and medical skills . The praises of him were practically as high as the stars above!

So , your first mission was to find his restaurant and beg him for some of his special noodles , seeing that everyone praised the wonderful and magnificent flavors it had and how healthy it was .

You wandered along the streets of the Yaoqing , talking to many of the locals questioning them where the famous Jiaoqiu was so you could eat his wonderful food .

They just chuckled and said he’s a stall vendor and that you should prepare your spice tolerance , you have a pretty good one since you grew up on the Luofu so you have nothing to worry about!

Or so you thought.

You were always a foodie , picky on how you wanted the dishes to be made and how they were supposed to be cooked , this was mainly because your taste buds were particularly sensitive .

One time your mother just handed you grilled fish and you almost cried because of how bland the flavor was compared to the other dishes your mother made for you .

You never considered the fact that she was getting tired of you and was actually leaning towards the option of putting tapeworms in your food…

But anyways !

You walked along the streets and when it became dark you would go to a nearby inn and rest there for the night .

Soon , after a whole 2 weeks of dutifully tracking down the pink-haired foxian , you finally found the stall that he lead and plopped your butt down and ordered some of the famous noodles.

He smiled at you sweetly , but it had an undertone of something dangerous that wasn’t exactly something you feared but was a bit concerning to the point you checked your food for poison and tapeworms.

You looked over them before taking a tentative sip of the broth and then devouring the noodles immediately, you couldn’t help it! But then you felt something was wrong .

Now , you did say that you had a pretty good spice tolerance, but the people failed to mention and describe how fucking spicy the food he created was .

Not even two minutes in the spice started burning your throat like a thousand wasps stinging the tender flesh of your throat and you realized that your lips and tongue were starting to go numb .

You forgot how sensitive your taste buds were after countless mornings of eating bland porridge….

The pink - haired foxian just stared at you with a cunning smile as he watched you wheeze for your life before narrowing his eyes and realizing something was terribly wrong .

He rushed over to the refrigerator and pulled out a chilled bottle of puffer goat milk before running to your side and prying your jaw open , noticing the tears streaming down your cheeks .

He coaxed your throat to relax by petting your throat where the windpipe would be and then poured the thick , sweet creamy milk down your throat.

He capped the bottle before bending over the counter and brought out a bag of ice before taking the scooper and placing a few ice cubes on your tongue and rubbing your back.

After a few minutes , your coughing fit eased and you opened your eyes a crack to see the Foxian gently pet your cheek before asking ,” Are you alright?”

You took a deep breath before telling him ,” Yeah… I’m okay now, if you’re wondering why I had such a strong reaction that was because I have some pretty sensitive taste buds.. but your food is really good!”

He eyes you up and down , his tail swaying side to side and then gently laying itself on your thigh .” That’s good to hear , thank you”

You looked at his fluffy pink tail resting itself on your leg before looking back up and the male towering over you and smiling .” You’re welcome!”

While you did find the tail on your thigh a little bit affectionate, you just thought of it as some resting time for it since it always has to rely on the foxian’s spine . You wonder whether or not it painful for their spinal cord.

You didn’t know that this was a sign of interest in you .

Then something stared to cramp in your stomach…. Did you not get rid of all the tapeworms yet?…

You quickly placed a hand in your stomach as you closed your eyes, resisting the urge to cling onto Jiaoqiu’s fluffy tail for dear life as your stomach started cramping really bad.

In the mist of pain , you could vaguely feel someone’s arms gently wrap around your shoulders and underneath your knees and lift you up into the air .

Soon you were being carried around the ship in Jiaoqiu’s arms as he rushed to his house for some herbs to treat your condition .

Soon , soft buttery linens caressed your form as you felt a warm sturdy hand rub your stomach gently as a cold sharp object cut through your flesh and a pair of tweezers gently picks through your fragile flesh and takes out things one by one.

Soon , something pierces your skin again as it sews your flesh closed again and a large warm hand rubs your stomach and pets your head as you soon begin to fall asleep.

———————🪼✨

The warm sunlight pierces your eyes as you groggily get up and rub your face as you attempt to recall last night.

As you sit up in bed , a warm hand gently pets your naked back and rubs your spine gently as you feel something soft and warm curl around your waist and rub against the flesh .

You tense up before looking down and seeing a pale pink tail rubbing against you , you immediately turn pink as you whip your head around and see the Foxian drape a soft white robe around you while giving you that signature smile.

He fully clothed behind you and you look down noticing the stitches in your stomach , his tail avoiding the spot .

You’re stunned speechless as he picks up a spoon from the table next to you and dips it into some sort of pale white pudding and then holding the spoon to your mouth .

“Open up ,” Jiaoqiu says as he gently parts your lips with the spoon , waiting for you to open your jaw and allow the somehow healthy gelatinous dessert into your mouth.

You chew for a bit , relishing the cool sensation of the pudding in your tongue as his eyes soften and his hands place the spoon down after you’re done eating .

He gives you some of his shirts , quite large actually , and then heads off to the living room proclaiming,” Take it easy for today , if you need me just yell , you wouldn’t want your stitches coming loose would you?”

You look down as he leaves and then realize, he’s the one who helped you when your cramps got bad.

Soon you end up somehow changing into the clothes he gave you and shakily walk your way into the living room where he’s lounging at looking at a recipe book.

He smiles at you and invites you over , and so , this is the start of your domestic life together for the next two weeks .

~~~~~~~~~~🪼

It’s been quite awhile since you’ve been living together , he’s helped you a lot since your flesh has yet to heal and adjust, while he has taken out the stitches , your nerves still need to mend together .

You can’t move much because of that so when you need something , Jiaoqiu either gets the item for you , or he carries you .

During this time , you’ve gotten to know each other better , like how high his spice tolerance is , and he’s learned about your preferences.

Also , you’ve noticed he has favored you quite often these past few weeks .

You don’t like this pepper? Never seen in his kitchen again .

The mint is too much for you ? Thrown out the window immediately.

Too spicy? Immediately lowered while other customers still complain .

There’s also another reason, foxian ears and tails are very sensitive , and they don’t just let anyone touch it , but bring the ill-informed person you are , you ask to pet them .

He stares at you before chuckling and tilts his head towards you and sways his tail , allowing you to touch them to your heart’s content.

Now , you only realized this when you went to the library for some new recipe books ,Your wound has gotten better so Jiaoqiu allowed you to go out , when you were searching the shelves you stumbled upon an open book about Foxian customs .

Next thing you know you rush out of the library with two recipe books underneath your arm and as red as a tomato .

When you get home you quickly plop the books on the kitchen counter for Jiaoqiu to read after he’s done cooking for others .

After a few hours he’s back from work and has started to cook some stir fry for you , the spices overflowing the room with their scent .

You aren’t gonna lie , the man is extremely handsome and you wouldn’t mind if he had his way with you , but you aren’t sure if he felt the same way .

He’s been quite the lovely guy and he’s been very hospitable, so you suppose it wouldn’t hurt to give in and indulge in your fantasies…

Right?

You were brought out of your thoughts when the man you’ve been thinking of walked over to you and gently lifted your chin ,” A credit for your thoughts? I haven’t gotten the name of the woman who I’ll be working with “

You stare at him before asking ,” Wait… working with? “

As soon as those words came out of his mouth, you flushed red to the point you would’ve looked like an actual tomato . You didn’t think you could’ve gotten any redder .

You didn’t know he was courting you all this time!

Before you know it he has you pinned to a wall and is caressing your cheek ,” Oh Y/N …. My sweet darling … have you finally noticed my affections for you ?”

You look away before nodding slightly , making a wide smirk appear on his face , a chuckle escaping his lips .

“ It’s about time .” A soft tail curled loosely around your ankle and he gently tucked a piece of your hair behind your ear.

You stare at him for a few seconds before pressing your lips together and saying ,” Oh fuck it….”

He smiles at you before tugging at the hem of the shirt he let you borrow and asking ,” So you’re consenting to this?”

You nod your head before tipping his head towards you and pressing your lips to his frantically , wishing for more even though you don’t know how to get it .

You’re a bit inexperienced so you’re hoping he knows what to do …. However you do know the basics of what happens .

He gently swipes his tongue along the seam of your lips as he kisses you back with just as much force you put in , asking for your permission.

You gladly part your lips allowing him entry as he immediately thrusts his tongue into you mouth and starts to explore your mouth , caressing your tongue with his .

Mean while , his hands are busying unbuttoning your shirt while yours are clinging onto his shoulders for dear life while he ravishes your mouth .

A burning warmth is pooling in your stomach as he finally undoes the last button and starts to fondle your waist , one hand creeping up to your bra to unclasp it while the other continues to grasp at your flesh .

He pulls away from your mouth and narrows his eyes as he struggles to unclasp your bra , pouting slightly .

You giggle before reaching back and help him take your bra off , handing it to him after it’s been unclasped .

He looks at the lacy white material before throwing it to some unknown corner and lifting you up and starts walking towards the bedroom kissing you fervently while you tangle your fingers into his soft pink hair .

He gently puts you down into the bed and sits down with you , immediately fondling your breasts and pinching your cute nipples until they turn stiff , making you moan .

As he continues that his mouth is sucking your supple skin and he’s straddling your thigh and grinding his crotch against it , making you soak your panties at the scene in front of you .

He trails a line of kisses down to your midsection as his hand creeps lower and pulls down your shorts slightly to fondle your womanhood , making you squeal .

“ Hey!…” You gently pushed his hand away before curling in and flopping onto the bed .

Jiaoqiu stares at you before smiling and asks ,” Too fast my darling girl?“

You blush before nodding , before you can say anything , he gently brushes his pink tail against the fabric of your panties and the tip of it teasingly pulls on the fabric before resting against it .

He leans forward and then kisses you passionately before telling you ,” I can take it slow if you’d like…”

Before you can respond he rubs his tail against you and before you know it , your straddling his tail and humping against it as both of you moan out loud.

Your hands are tangled in the soft fur of his tail as he marks your collarbone and neck all over , your slick leaking through your panties and soaking his tail a bit.

You whine as he starts fondling your chest and whimper out ,” Jiaoqiu…. I’m close…”

He chuckles before kissing the nape of your neck and says ,” Don’t worry…. Let go , I’ll get my reward later …”

As soon as he said that , the glass broke as you came , drenching the middle of his tail with translucent liquid, slicking it up while you kept grinding against it .

After your pleasure high, you slump onto him and take deep breaths as his hand pets your back.

While you’re in a daze, you don’t realize that Jiaoqiu has lowered himself to your crotch and has pulled off your panties , you only do realize when you feel cool air against your wet folds .

You push your upper body up immediately only to find the one bedding you face to face with your fold looking like he’s ready to devour them.

“ Hey… what are you doing?…” You reach for his head but before you can pull him off , he blows warm air on your cunt and his tongue peeks out of his mouth and licks a warm, wet stripe against it while pushing your legs apart so he can get better access .

Soon you’re writhing around as Jiaoqiu thrusts his tongue into your sweet ,tight ,and warm hole as you complain ,” Jiaoqiu! It’s dirty down there! Don’t lick it- Oh!!”

Your hands tangle in his hair as you moan out loud , brushing against his long ears , making him moan against your cunt sending pleasurable vibrations against your cunt.

Your feet kick out as he starts sucking on your clit , you don’t realize he’s picked through the drawers to find some lube until you feel a cool , wet finger gently part your folds and find your small little hole and gently prod at it .

You flinch a bit and he asks , “ Is this okay with you?” His amber eyes pierce through your skin , as you press your lips together .

You nod your head and he gives you a light hum before continuing to suck on your clot and prods at your hole .” This might feel a little weird but it’s going to feel good okay?”

“ Okay…” You lied down as he gently inserted his finger in , making your fingers in his hair grip tighter .

He smiles at you before kissing your clit and holding it in his mouth as he wriggles his finger around in you , stretching you out .

As soon as you loosen up a bit and relax around his finger , he presses another finger in and sucks on your clit hard in order to distract you from the pain .

You squeal and flinch as he does that and writhe around when he continues to pump his fingers in and out of you , pressing against your insides.

Soon enough you’re taking four of his fingers , and he starts to push around to find that one spot that would make you see stars .

It didn’t take long before you start fidgeting around , moaning out constantly, and then his fingers feel a rough patch and you yell out .

He smirked and then took out his fingers , pulled down his boxers , revealing his length , which was a pretty considerable size…

He lubed it up , making him hiss a bit , and placed the head of it against your cunt, the precum on it smearing .

You held your breath as he slowly breached your hole and your warm , wet insides spasms around the length penetrating your most delicate parts.He notices this and brings his tail up to your hands and gently tangles his fur into your hands while his have a firm grip on your waist

Once Jiaoqiu felt you relax , he asked you ,” Are you ready?” In an affectionate yet strained tone.Is was very clear that he was trying to hold back from rutting into you and making you a brainless mess.

You sigh before clinging onto his tail and telling him ,” Yeah… I’m ready.”

He smiles at you softly before pulling out a bit , and then thrusting in gently, making you moan out.

His smile turns into a smirk as he pulls out a few inches, and then thrusts in a little bit harder , making your walls spasm and tighten which made his grip on your hips tighter .

You looked up to see his pretty face have sweat beading on the side of it and his amber eyes clouded with determination as he continue to gently thrust in and out , patiently waiting for you to say that he could go faster .

After you get used to the intrusion, you take a deep breath and tell him ,” Alright…. You can go faster.”

His head immediately looks up and stares at you before raising an eyebrow and asking you ,” Are you sure?”

You nod , and some enough he’s pounding into you mercilessly as you writhe around , moaning and whimpering .

You can feel the burning sensation in your stomach get hotter and hotter until it finally snaps and you attempt to warn your partner ,” Jiaoqiu!.. I’m-… Gonna cu-!”

However you only manage to get out most of the sentence before your cum seeps out of your cunt even with the object plugging it up .

The foxian feels your wall tighten and relax sporadically which leads him to thrust into your warm welcoming heat and fuck you through your orgasm .

Soon enough , he’s pulling out and hot white ropes of semen latch onto your skin , after he gets down from his pleasure high , he collapses onto you , grabs the edge of the blanket with one hand , and pulls it over you two as his other hand latches onto your waist .

You fall asleep in his arms when he gently pets you head and tangles his hands into you hair , kissing your fore head and whispering sweet nothings.

You don’t hear what exactly he says though .

You didn’t react when he said ,

“ You’re such a lovely bunny…”

[tutuandscoot]

Can we talk about the 4cc version of Kiss? I forgot how much I love that version! They just seemed like their confidence was turned up to the max! Also I know that S swings his leg up and around right before he dips T but I noticed this is the only version where he also swings his leg up *after* he dips her and it’s even higher than before 🥵idk he was just on fire there. And then I love watching the slow motion replay. Tessa especially looks so god damn majestic. Her facial expressions and attitude that she brought to that performance were so on point. What a star 🤩

DAMN STRAIGHT WE CAN.

This is probably the version of Prince (other than ACI) that I’ve watched the least (also where TF is the nationals video?????). The terrible camera work from this event doesn’t bother me so much in the FD bc the more artsy/free vibe of Latch, but Prince.. with half the NTMLSS cut off.. grrrr

But ignoring that uncomfortable watching experience it has some admirable qualities I’d forgotten to fully appreciate.

Firstly- not that I’ve seen the whole comp but I’ve seen the skate order, and seeing that it’s based off world rankings they skated earlier than they normally would’ve, so this burst of energy (and superior talent) would’ve been such a wake up for everyone.

You can definitely see them starting to amp up the energy and precision in this version- the worlds skate being supreme. In the first opening, voguing moves T is so much sharper and S has so much character and is super precise with is movements.

+ this moment from T : the pony tail whip and the sassy snap 🫰

Also in the midline step with the hip hop moves they were so in to it and really trying to feel loose and express that cool kinda hip hop (which I much prefer over the majority of the other programs that year).

Now would you believe me if I told you I never even noticed how high he kicks he is leg after the dip here!?! It’s partly the bad camera angle that’s blocking it, and he does it so quick you’ll miss it. But damn is that hot or what?!?? 🥵

God they are just so cool and casual about their amazingness! They know they are the best good, they perform with so much confidence- never look apologetic for being out there, but they also do not offend you or turn you off by there confidence. They have mastered (they always had this quality) the delicate balance of being into each other and into themselves (in these kinds of programs) as well as performing/interacting with each other and the audience. I’ve never seen another team that’s able to do that like them. So often it’s one or the other, or a mix in the one performance bc they haven’t figured it out. I really don’t know if that’s the sort of thing that can be trained- I really think VM are born performers, and they are each other’s artistic soulmate.

Moving on, their blues pattern is just soo good as well. The deepest edges, covering so much ice. The musicality- I watch every other team (I did this watching the Beijing olys as well) and I count it to VM’s timing- obs they are all doing the same tempo but no one conducts the music like VM do- it’s like they guide the music with their dancing, they are so in the music it’s scary. (Also his twizzle into the first step is m a d n e s s I’ll never shut up about it) 🥵🥵

S has a little boo boo in the middle of the in-hold pattern (which is maybe another reason I don’t watch this version much) but you so easily forget about it and you’re almost immediately right back in it with them. I will say though I think you could feel it in him a bit- like he kept the reminder of that mistake with him throughout the rest of it (I only say that as someone who has watched and studied them so much I pick up on those things) but still overall a superior performance.

I just thought about this watching the video to write this post, and you know how both they (and the fandom) have alluded to it being kind of obvious T was more of a leader this season then ever before.. I think the place that is most clear during actual skating is in the twizzles in Prince- not Latch at all for some reason.. only Prince. Now S was shaky on his twizzles all season (I’ve written before about maybe why) and it seems odd to say that one of them could be ‘leading’ in an individually executed element, but it’s just a thought that popped into my head watching it that.. idk something about the rhythm.. it feels kinda like T is guiding/setting the rhythm, or maybe it’s that hers (twizzles) were soooo solid all season that you’re confident in watching her- like she kinda covers for him in a way?? Idk.. just a thought, but it’s really fascinating to think about how that dynamic operates between them and they could share duties like that (@ VM start your podcast I need more info on this super specific shit)

And then yeah the rest of it is great. Just them being rockstars, amazing lift, crowd on its feet, me in tears, the usual.

I’ve read others say and I agree with it that often if one of them has a bad skate (but usually if it’s him that messes up) they will deprive themselves of a post-skate hug bc they feel they don’t deserve it. Here he messed up and you can tell he was mad so instead of it being ‘well T did good she deserves a hug’ it’s ‘I made a mistake I don’t deserve a hug from my kiddo’.. which lets reestablish: we do not know this for certain.. but it is the vibe I (and others obviously) get. Then there’s times where one does mess up and the other is insistent on a hug (ie worlds this year or NHK the next year when he messed up the twizzles) (also he was very insistent on always giving her hugs earlier around 2010/her injuries).

So yes this is a great performance- every time you could see them getting better and better, which still you watch stuff from 2010 and it’s like ‘how will they get better than that’ and yet they did- they were never satisfied and I love that about them!

Thank for this anon, let’s open it up to more of these- send through a specific performance of any (VM) program with a few key points (like the above ask) and I’ll elaborate- can’t promise they’ll get done straight away but I’ll work my way through them.

ALSO: go ahead and watch this entire program on mute.. double check to make sure you aren’t watching it sped up.. you’re not- they just skate THAT FAST 💨

[evanox]

Heyy love your stuff, could i please ask for sage fluff, anything just wanna cuddle the kitty merc

ooo perhaps this is the perfect chance to write that continuation of Sage and Settling Down HCs!! I wanted to add these to the original post but it didn't really fit so here's First Dates with Sage; the options are based on the second paid choices in chapter 7!

oops another one that got longer than intended.. thank u zeke for helping me brainstorm!!

m.list

The first Official Date Sage takes you on is the one you asked for he promised you when you were doing his hair that night back at Fathom, and he'd be lying if he said it's not unnerving.

Sure, it's not the first time you've been intimate or spent time alone, but Sage never really did this serious dating thing before—it all happened so quickly: one moment he and a pretty stranger are swing-dancing to a bard's merry tune, the next they're stumbling over the inn's stairs chasing quick pleasure. Sage always forgot their names within a day, if not less.

That was before you came along though, and you're the best thing to happen in his life. Sage really wants to do things right this time.

>"A candlelit dinner."

The pomp and circumstance associated with a candlelit dinner only add to the pressure; Sage is not exactly a fancy guy. However, with support from Tulsi (wingman #1) and Felix (wingman #2 and wine connoisseur), Sage shall persevere—anything to please the one he loves. Anisa suggests cooking dinner rather than going to a fancy restaurant as it would be less pressure and "feel more sentimental," so that's what Sage does. Really, he'll take up almost any advice he could. He even puts on a shirt (though it's unbuttoned well past his sternum). You know this man is committed.

Hand pressed to the small of your back, Sage leads you to the dinner table set up on the balcony where he first confessed his feelings for you, overlooking the sea as the sun melts into the shimmering waters and turns them golden.

The table is draped with a lovely embroidered tablecloth he borrowed from Anisa, its lacy hem fluttering gently with the salty breeze. The fancy silverware borrowed from Fathom's kitchen is arranged according to whatever etiquette tips Felix could remember from his lessons back at Welwreth. Last but not least is the centerpiece: an iridescent glass vase glowing pink in the fading sunlight, made complete by the flowers you picked on the way here.

Caught up in the sheer amount of effort that went into just dressing the table, you don't notice how intently Sage watches you, tail swishing left and right as he waits for your reaction.

The suspense, however, is easier on his heart than your sudden enthusiasm and kind compliments, making him feel equal parts flustered, bashful, and proud.

Soon as he recollects himself, Sage asks if you'll do him the honor of lighting up the ornate candelabras with your magic while he pours your drinks. When that is done, he pulls your chair back and waits for you to get comfortable before gently pushing you back in.

"Well, aren't you quite the gentleman!" you tease.

There's a hint of that old cockiness in the slight upturn of his lips when he gloats, "You know there's more to me than meets the eye."

Get it? Eye. A beat passes in silence, then you're both laughing at that horrible, horrible pun.

At least it got Sage to relax a little. You can't help how your chest feels warm with pride. To say he's becoming his old self again feels unfair; you never wanted Sage to feel pressured to live up to a "better" version of himself. You're just happy to watch him grow out of the walls he locked himself behind many months ago, ones even taller than those he had when you first met him.

"Wait, so you're going to be both my date and waiter?" You watch as Sage pulls two dishes from the serving cart and places one before each seat.

"And your chef," Sage adds, pulling the cloche from your plate so steam rolls off in waves, the mouth-watering aroma overwhelming your senses. There truly is more to him than meets the eyes.

"Straight to the main course? What happened to appetizers?"

"Tulsi had you walking all over town," Sage huffs, "You don't need to be appetized. Unless you do... I might have an idea—"

"No! No, I am indeed very hungry right now, thank you!" You look down at your plate, ready to dig in, only to find that the food, though nicely presented, is not something you readily recognize.

At first look, it resembles an Althtali dish Sage made you once, but with a few experimental bites, you recognize elements of a recipe from back home that you had described to (or made for) Sage many, many months ago. Somehow the combination just works; even if it differs from the original, you find this new variant is just as delectable.

Sage's ears twitch when you tell him as much, clearly unused to all this praise. "Then make sure you keep space for dessert," he tries to laugh it off. One look at his tail curled tightly against his chair tells you he is still a bundle of nerves, growing more agitated as he struggles to fill any lull in the conversation.

With a touch of your hand against his and a little teasing here and there, you can see Sage slowly but visibly relaxing. At some point, you can feel the tuft of his tail brushing against your leg before curling around it.

You carry on merrily even as the sky darkens and the candles grow shorter, though the flames still shine brightly, bathing you both in warm golden light. Silence no longer feels awkward, filled in by the cacophony of waves crashing against each other, serenading the big, bright moon up above.

The lovely view might have trapped your attention, but Sage only finds himself beholden to your beauty, so much so that he's completely caught off guard when you suddenly break the silence.

"Well, was that so bad?"

Sage, still trying to recover after you had caught him staring like a lovesick fool, almost forgets to reply, "...What?"

"Dinner with me!"

"Nothing's bad if it's with you." There it is again, that cocky smirk, not quite the old one but his all the same. You know by the twinkle in his amber eye that he does mean what he said, even though he's definitely deflecting.

"No, you terrible flirt. I meant, you looked so nervous!" As Sage struggles to find something to say—torn between denial and trying to justify himself—you shake your head fondly and continue, "It's just you and me, and this is just dinner. What's there to fear?"

"This is just dinner..." He repeats after you softly. Then he feels very silly for worrying so much in the first place. This is you, after all—the one who traversed dimensions for a washed-up merc because you still believed he was worth saving. There is no reason to act differently just to please you.

Still, Sage is glad to make your first date feel special, and he might actually want to try this again now that he doesn't worry as much about formalities.

>"A little trip."

A beach date is a heavy weight off Sage's chest. Not only is the beach his favorite place in all of Porrima (he doesn't frequent taverns as often as he did many months ago), but there are much fewer formalities to worry about

"Why are we going out so late?" you ask. "Isn't the point of the beach to cool off the summer heat?"

You're not wrong, but you see, for as much as he loved the liveliness of the city streets, Sage always found himself gravitating towards the beach, especially at night. It is pure sensory heaven, what with the cool sand sliding under his feet and the salty breeze combing through his hair. The stars are his only company, and all is quiet save the cacophony of waves crashing into the shore.

He braved these crashing waves once upon a time, and he remembers the thrill of not knowing what lurked beneath the inky waters. No matter how far they looked or how far they sailed, there seemed to be no ending to the ocean, only the eternal night sky meeting the sea by the horizon. It made him feel very, very small. If Balsam wasn't by his side, he would've felt very, very lonely too.

When they eventually made it to land, Sage only had the beach to turn to for a moment's reprieve. So whenever life bore down on him, he would go there late at night and look towards the horizon. Then he would remember how small the universe made him feel, and his worries, by extension, would also feel small—the world is far too big for his problems to be all that significant.

Even now, the beach brings his restless mind some peace, and to share that peace with someone so special to him—to embrace your warmth rather than punish himself by running away from it— means the world to Sage.

"Maybe I just want the beach all to ourselves," is what he actually answers, wiggling an eyebrow at you.

You arrive just as the sun starts hanging low in the sky, no longer overbearing with its heat, and the number of people on the beach dwindles. Sage spreads the blanket and sets down the wicker basket, then he watches as you rush to the water. "I wonder if seashells look any different on Astraea," you call out, "We should try to find some while the sun's still out."

So he trails after you as you follow the shoreline. Every few steps, you'd crouch down to comb through the wet sand while Sage gets distracted by the cool sea foam washing at his feet, its push and pull mesmerizing. His attention is drawn back to you when you show off the shells you find, then he carries them for you in a bucket and offers a hand to help you up before you move on to the next spot.

The sun finally kisses the sky goodbye, and the sky turns a lovely rosy color, so you rush to find your spot back on the beach before it goes dark. Guided by the last rays of light peeking over the horizon, you pour out the bottle you packed in the basket into two glasses and snack on pastries as you watch the first stars dot the sky.

With the sun's warmth gone and night's darkness taking over, you remain vulnerable to the biting cold, so Sage holds you closer and drapes his cape around the both of you, shielding you with his own warmth. Then he lies back, pulling you along so you're facing the stars, and presses a kiss to your hair. You hear him smack his lips and hum to himself, "Salty."

"Shut up."

Ask Sage about the stars, and you'll find that he's a sea of knowledge when it comes to navigating by celestial bodies and recounting stories about the constellations, many of which he had learned from sailors who humored the wharf rats by the docks. Tell him you don't get to see as many stars back on earth, and he'll promise to bring you here more often.

When you look down to the shore, you find these stars perfectly reflected on the waters. No, literally; there are clusters upon clusters of what seems to be bioluminescent creatures dotting the shoreline. Sage doesn't seem half as surprised as you are. "'Tis the season," he shrugs, "They like the weather here."

Dip your feet into the sea foam, and he'll hold your hand as you toe the line between land and sea. Before you venture into the water, Sage tucks your clothes into his cape so yours don't collect sand where you leave them back on shore.

Waist-deep in, the little creatures form shiny halos around you. Just as Sage had promised, they're pretty harmless, only lightly tickling you as they bounce off and away the further you wade through.

As the waves push against you, Sage remains your firm anchor, guiding you deeper and deeper until you float, and the shore grows smaller and smaller until you can barely make out the city lights.

There, held between inky waters and glittering sky, you understand what an otherworldly experience the beach is at night. You hold on even more tightly to Sage, your only source of warmth in this endless dark, and press a long kiss to his lips.

When you pull apart for air, though only for a mere inch, you softly hum against his lips, "Salty."

He bites down on your bottom lip, hard, but only for a quick moment before he lets go.

Whatever else happens in the water is only for the two of you to tell.

As you make your way to shore, Sage carries you on his back, and you stay like that with his cape keeping you warm all the way back home, where he tucks you into bed and kisses you goodnight.

taglist: @aaapplepie @asfucromper @bananacockatiel @bugfoil @crabbarts @de-dodox @fenista13 @mknight0000 @monstercherry @sweet-milky-tea705

[shameonmeeguiltypleasure]

Seducing Mr Bridgerton Chapter 4 Progress update:

Hello everyone! I am currently a little on the intoxicated side, but I just had to let you all know chapter 4 is finally flowing!!!!!!

I'm so happy, I could cry from relief, excitement etc. I really thought I wouldn't make the deadline I set myself. But I'm so glad I didn't give up and kept pushing myself to keep working on it. I have..... Two? I think, alt/deleted scenes that are of no use so I thought I'd share it with you all on Tumblr.

The official chapter 4 is going in a direction I honestly didn't plan. It was as if that's what my version of the characters wanted to take things and so.... That's where it went.

I'm very excited to post the chapter in three days time. Of only so I can see who else agrees with me 😂

Anyway, .enjoy and thank you very much for the continued support 💕💕

Chapter Four: Alt/Deleted Scene 1 :

Between the ages of six and nine – Eloise rather fancied the idea of ruling the world. She had done the research and strategy for it too. But eventually, she realised that society was not ready for a world of her making. It would take far too long and see her courting death much too closely and she had her family to protect. So, she made the wise decision to temper her dream and settle for fighting the oppression of women’s rights in what little ways she could.

But she never forgot the many strategies she’d created to dominate her enemies. And for her unfortunate brothers, who tended to forget her once-upon-a-dream, Eloise never hesitated to use her learned methods against them when seeking vengeance. Still steaming with anger over her quarrel with Colin during breakfast, Eloise was mentally sorting through her options. It was nearing lunch and she still had yet to settle on a decision. Should she rage into a mental war or a physical altercation? To what extent did she wish to see him suffer? And for how long?

“Grr! The problem with brilliance… far too many options…” she muttered before scooping more of her soup.

She ignored Hyacinth’s pointed groaning and avoided her mother’s stare.

“Eloise. Surely you’ve calmed down by now, you’re twenty-eight.” Violet Bridgerton sighed. “I had hoped you’re vengeful plotting would have stopped by now”

Hyacinth scoffed. “In what world Mama?” she asked with a shake of her head.

“Hush you, don’t think I’d forgotten that you’d broken a plate to get your siblings to stop.”

Hyacinth sat up with indignant disbelief. “I had no choice! Consider this, would you rather a broken plate or a bloody son?”

“Hyacinth!” Violet scolded, but while her youngest apologized her expression showed no regret.

“Don’t defend him, Mama! If you had witnessed his actions yourself, you’d be just as insulted and angered as I am.” Eloise sharply voiced.

Hyacinth rather thought she could see the fire in her sister’s eyes. Violet hesitated to sip at her tea at seeing Eloise’s temper. Her second-born daughter had always been passionate and feisty, but much like Colin, her true temper tantrums were hard to weather.

“What on earth could he have said that’s pushed you to this point?” she absently wondered.

“He called her, and I quote: ‘ an ignorant child with no understanding of true hardship and pain.’ Do you see now why I had no choice, Mama?” Hyacinth announced with a solemn demeanour that was almost comical. But Violet was too stunned to comment. Eloise, however, was not and the reminder of Colin’s angrily spoken words infuriated her even further.

“Can you believe his audacity Mama!? To call me childish when it is him who turns tail and runs away from commitments,” Hyacinth opened her mouth to comment but a sharp look from Violet had her hastily keeping her words to herself. Eloise was too busy venting her rage to notice. And she might have continued for longer if not for the arrival of her Viscount brother and his family.

“I’m sorry but what the devil are you yelling about?” Anthony interrupted with a concerned frown.

“ANTHONY!” Hyacinth cried with joy before jumping from her seat and rushing to hug him tight. The youngest Bridgerton turned to the side to cover her whispering lips and quickly informed the oldest Bridgerton of the situation.

“Eloise and Colin are fighting. I had to break a plate to stop the bloodshed. As you can see, Eloise is still raging.” Hyacinth hastily spoke. When the Viscount’s eyes widened with understanding, the tension Hyacinth had been ignoring eased and her brother returned her hug with a tight squeeze.

“Well done, Hyacinth. Do me a favour and see that my sons don’t go antagonising their little sister like their idiot Uncle.” Anthony warmly encouraged. Hyacinth happily abandoned the company of her older siblings in favour of her adorable nephews and niece. As she did, she couldn’t help but be thankful for Anthony’s timely arrival. No part of her felt any sympathy for whatever retribution Colin might suffer, as she thought he rightly deserved it.

********

Anthony had prepared himself for a rather chaotic day. For whatever reason, his sons had insisted they spend the day following after him. And while he loved his children with every ounce of his being, he worried about being able to balance his workload while minding his sons. Edmund and Miles were nine and seven. And having helped raise his seven younger siblings, Anthony vividly remembered the unpredictable wildness children were capable of.

Apparently, at thirty-three and twenty-eight, Colin and Eloise were still capable of being such chaotic hellions.

“Colin said what?” Anthony repeated. 

“How rude!” Kate added with disapproval from her seat beside him.

After convincing Eloise to explain the situation to the both of them so they may help, her temper seemed to cool. Anthony knew Eloise’s cool temper was nothing to feel relief over. As Benedict once accurately described, Eloise was the water to Colin’s fire and when incensed with each other, she was an icy tornado to his fiery inferno.

“And he did not mention anything about the cause of his moody disposition?” Kate questioned.

Anthony glanced at his wife and could tell she was entertained by the dramatic nature of his siblings. Feeling righteously assured, Eloise responded exuberantly to Kate’s consoling inquires. It was clear Eloise felt as if she was in the right. Anthony would argue both his siblings shared the blame for their ridiculous quarrel. He was dragged out of his musing when Eloise said something most intriguing.

“I’d excused his brooding demeanour after last night’s party, but this morning was far too much,” Eloise added with a huff. Anthony laughed which gained him the attention of both women.

“I’m sorry, but did you just describe our brother as brooding?” Anthony repeated with another chuckle.

“It is the only word fit to use.” Eloise hissed.

“Yes, but this is Colin. In what world would he be described as brooding? He’s no dark hero in the making, Eloise. Call him the temperamental idiot he is and leave it at that.” Anthony said while still feeling amused.

“Although hard to imagine, aren’t you a little too confident about your brother’s character? He has been travelling for so long, perhaps his experiences across the oceans have changed him?” Kate voiced thoughtfully.

Her suggestion caused both Anthony and Eloise to frown with disagreement. What experiences could Colin possibly come across to prompt him down the route of a dark brooding hero? Anthony sighed and looked at his wife with a sympathetic sort of smile.

“I love you, but surely you give Colin too much credit. As impulsive and thoughtless as my brother can be, his is a character that’s not easily swayed.”

Kate arched a brow in taunt and Anthony clenched his fist to stop himself from wanting to kiss her.

“Men can be swayed.” She announced with a knowing smirk on her lips.

Anthony swallowed and cleared his throat pointedly to change the topic. “Regardless, something is obviously plaguing him. Do you remember anything specific occurring after last night?” he prompted.

Eloise’s frown deepened before she spoke out with obvious frustration. “Nothing! Beyond Lady Danbury’s challenge and the talk of Penelope’s dare to suspect her, there was nothing else!”

“Ah…” the Viscount and Viscountess said in unison.

Eloise straightened and peered at the sudden knowing in Kate’s expression as well as Anthony’s furrowed brow. “What? What is it? You know something I don’t, so tell me now.” She pestered like a bloodhound who’d caught the scent of prey.

Kate sipped at her tea and gave an easy wave to show her thoughts were nothing of importance. But Anthony was too busy contemplating the wonderings in his mind about Lady Whistledown and his brother. Perhaps it was the hunt for Lady Whistledown that’s got him so out of sorts?

“Why would Colin care for Lady Whistledown?” Eloise demanded.

Anthony blinked, having not realized he’d spoken his musing out loud. Faced with his wife’s intrigued and expectant stare, as well as Eloise’s demanding glare, he had no choice but to answer.

“He’s not exactly fond of the gossip of the ton, and her writings about him have… annoyed him over the years.” Anthony carefully explained.

He carefully observed Eloise’s reaction to his words. He suddenly remembered the earlier years following Whistledown’s debut and Eloise’s obsession with discovering her identity. At some point, she seemed to lose interest in her hunt, but Anthony had been too relieved over the matter to question it. Now, his worries for his sister returned with full force.

“You’re not Lady Whistledown, are you?” he decided to check.

The groan of disappointment from his wife and the annoying disbelief from his sister was completely unwarranted. Eloise levelled a sarcastic grin towards him and spoke in a tone one would use while gutting fish.

“Anthony, if I were Lady Whistledown, I would not waste precious ink and time in writing about my idiot brother. Nor would I ever use adjectives such as ‘charming’ to describe him.”

“Exactly as I thought.” He nodded. But the look in Eloise’s eyes made him suspicious. He could visibly see the cogs in her brain turning with thought.

[duuhrayliegh]

A Friend of Yours - pt. 2

pairing: bucky x reader

summary: reader meets up with Bucky, Sam and Zemo to figure out this Flag Smasher drama

word count: 6386

warnings: canon lvl violence? SPOILERS FOR TFATWS, (it’s the episodes with yn in it, like rlly) language throughout the whole thing, i think that’s it.

a/n: i’m actually really proud of this guys. there is a part three that has WAY more Bucky x YN content that’ll be posted in a few days <3 i hope y’all love this!!

i just want to remind y’all that this started out as a request from @dramaticwittch it won’t let me tag you for some reasons babes :((

be sure to read A Friend of Yours - pt 1

A Friend of Yours - pt. 3 is up too!!!

p.s.: my requests and tag lists are open!!

check out my other writing here!

xoxo ray <3

You had the same contacts as Sharon, so finding the Three Musketeers was no problem. It baffled you that Sharon had access to satellites. Makes you wonder what she was doing during those five years you were gone. When you got to their safehouse, you were impressed to say the least. It was nice, cute little pillars next to the dining area, some couches, just enough to make it livable. One thing that struck you as strange was that it was also empty, they weren’t there.

“Fuck it.” You dropped your bag onto the dining table and walked over to the kitchen area. You opened several cabinets, searching for alcohol that you could drown your frustrations in. You found an unopened wine bottle, releasing a little cheer, you popped the cork and brought the bottle to your nose. A sweet plum scent invaded your senses, grabbing a glass and pouring it full for yourself before re-corking the bottle. You grasped the cup walking to the stained glass windows on the opposite side of the room. You could hear footsteps approaching the doorway, then the door being forced open. Muffled conversations were taking place during their entrance.

“Well, I got nothin’. No one’s talkin’ about Donya.” Bucky said as he waltzed into the room. Sam followed closely behind him, Zemo immediately going to the kitchen.

“Yeah, Karli’s the only one who’s fighting for them.” You said, startling the pair of men who were now lounging on the couches. “Aren’t you supposed to be good at this?” You dropped next to Bucky, offering him a sip of your plum flavored wine.

“She’s not wrong.” Bucky shot Sam a look, questioning his thought process. “Look, for five years these people were welcomed into countries that have kept them out using barbed wire. There were houses and jobs.” Sam sighed, “Folks were happy to have people around to help them rebuild.” You stopped listening halfway through Sam’s speech, thinking of Sharon. You only refocused when Bucky placed his metal hand on your knee, giving you a look, asking if you were okay.

“That little girl. What’d she tell you?” Bucky asked after you nodded at him. His face never left yours, until Zemo approached the three of you on the couch. He was holding a tray with a clear teapot and cups. He placed it on the coffee table, stepping back and clutching a cup for himself.

“The funeral is this afternoon.” Zemo was always one for the dramatics, so you’re sure that he had something else up his sleeve. Bucky squeezed your knee and you knew he was trying to calm himself.

“You know the Dora’s coming for you any minute. In fact, they’re probably lurking outside right now. Keep talking.”

“Leaving you to turn on me once we get to Karli.” He made a noise of acknowledgement, “I prefer to keep my leverage.” Bucky hauled himself off the couch to stand in front of the Baron. You gaze flicked to Sam’s, unsure of what Bucky was going to do. Bucky puffed his chest out, clenching his jaw as he gripped Zemo’s teacup and chunked it at the concrete wall behind him. Zemo flinched as Bucky began talking to him.

“You wanna see what someone can do with leverage?” Sam stood quickly, trying to diffuse the situation before it escalated.

“Take it easy, Buck. Don’t engage him.” You were taking a drink of your wine, as you observed Zemo’s actions.

“Watch out, he’s going to extort you and do that idiotic head tilt thing.” Zemo’s eyes darted to your figure on the couch as he straightened his head. Sam left to make a call, you assumed Sharon and Bucky followed closely behind him. Zemo offered you cherry blossom tea to which you declined by holding up your wine glass. As Bucky left the room, the Baron released a sigh of relief causing you to laugh at his actions.

“You’re really scared of him, aren’t you?” You teased the man who was now glaring at you.

“If you have made him as angry as I have then you would be too.” You shrugged your agreement. You hadn’t made Bucky mad, and you definitely hadn’t been a part of reactivating him as the Winter Soldier to reach your goals.

“Yeah, well you’re a dumbass, so.” You got up and walked to where Bucky and Sam were gathered. Sam’s phone was still pressed to his ear, but you could tell you were catching the tail-end of his conversation. You could hear Sharon’s voice over the phone talking about the Power Broker. In all your years of living and conducting business in Madripoor, you never tangled with the Power Broker. That didn’t mean anything, it was just suspicious because of how successful your operation with Sharon was.

“What’s the plan?” You asked, dumping the rest of your wine in the sink, casting a glance at an appalled Zemo. “It was shit wine.”

“Zemo has a contact that can show us where the funeral is, and that’s all we got.” You nodded before looking at Bucky and Sam.

“Well, what are we waiting for?”

**********************************

You were walking down the cobblestone roadway with the Three Musketeers when a voice shouted at you from the stairway before you. “Karli Morgenthau is too dangerous for you guys to be pulling this shit!” A scruffy looking man approached you. Both him and his partner were clad in tactical gear, the scruffy one’s resembling a Walmart version of Steve’s Cap suit. Bucky spread his arms out.

“How’d you find us now?” The man’s partner responded to Bucky with equal annoyance.

“Come on, man. You really think two Avengers can walk around Latvia without drawing attention?” As he got closer you could read Hoskins on his vest.

“No more keeping us in the dark.” Scruff said before anyone else could fire back. He stopped walking in front of Zemo, effectively stopping your forward motion. “You can start by telling us why you broke him out of prison.” You were walking just behind Bucky to his right and you watched him cock his head back, his voice taking on a sarcastic tone.

“He did that himself, technically.” Scruff’s face contorted as Bucky talked.

“This better be an unbelievable explana--” Scruff’s voice was cut off by Sam’s hand bumping into his chest.

“Hey, take it easy before it gets weird.” Zemo began talking over the group around him, explaining what was going on. You remained quiet, observing the interaction between Scruff and the Three Musketeers. Clearly, the Three Musketeers did not like him and so you assumed he was the ‘new Cap,’ whatever that means. The group began walking again with Zemo leading the pack.

“Alright good, we’ll move in fast. Take her by surprise.”

“No, I wanna talk to her alone.”

“I’m not losing her again.” Scruff was insistent but so was Sam.

“Look, the person closest to her just died, she’s vulnerable.” The group had stopped walking again, focusing on the conversation. You could see the wheels turning in Hoskin’s head as Sam spoke. Scruff was not having any part of what Sam was suggesting.

“What? No. Wait, no! No. Stop. Hold on. Stop, okay?” Scruff ran ahead in front of the others, stopping the forward motion, once again. “I think we’re way past reasoning with her, unless you forgot the fact that she blew up a building with people still in it.” This was news to you, deciding to stay offline in hopes of remaining under the radar. The back and forth continued until Scruff turned to Bucky.

“You gonna let him do this?” Bucky tilted his head at the man. “Are you gonna let your partner walk into a room with a Super Soldier alone?”

“He’s dealt with worse. And he’s not my partner.” You knew Bucky was referring to himself in Winter Soldier mode. Your heart hurt for him to have to go through this again with some clueless nobody.

“And last I checked, he’s a grown ass man who makes his own decisions, Scruff.” Your arms crossed over your chest. This had been the first time you spoke since Scruff and Hoskin’s had arrived.

“Who the hell is this?” Scruff pointed at you. “You break her out of prison too?” Sam interjected before you could sass back.

“I used to counsel soldiers dealing with trauma, okay? This is right in my wheelhouse.” Scruff’s gaze hadn’t left your face. He continued staring at you as he countered Sam’s claim.

“Yeah, I know. And I know those soldiers, which is why I know this is a bad idea.” Hoskin’s hand came up to rest on Scruff’s shoulder.

“Wait, John. If he can talk her down, it might be worth a try.” Scruff was not happy with Hoskin's agreement to the situation. Scruff said something to Zemo, who mostly ignored him, acknowledging the little girl waiting under an archway. The group began moving toward her and you focused on Bucky.

“Hey, you okay?” He just nodded at you, denying you the pleasure of a verbal response. You’ll take what you can get. Bringing up the rear of the group, you entered the factory type building last. The little girl pointed up some stairs, and Zemo translated. Sam walked up behind the girl, making him way up the stairs as Scruff handcuffed Zemo to a metal contraption.

“You got ten minutes. Then we’re doing things my way.” Scruff yelled after Sam, who darted his eyes at you and Bucky, a silent instruction to the both of you. Scruff rested his weight against a table, holding Steve’s shield in front of him. His breathing became increasingly worrisome, an ode to how stable he was in the moment.

“You aren’t looking so hot over there, Scruff.” Bucky shot you a warning look, but it didn’t deter you. “The government is really harping on you to get this shit contained, aren’t they?” Scruff pushed off the table, bringing the shield around his back. You were leaning against a pillar near Zemo and Scruff made his way over to you. His face was about six inches from yours as he spoke.

“Do you know who I am?” He was trying to intimidate you, which clearly wasn’t working.

“Do I look like I give a shit?” Scruff’s eyes darted over your frame, a look of recognition washing over his features.

“I know who you are.” He glanced at the clock across the room before looking back at you. “I could arrest you right now. Enemy of the State, standing before me right here.”

“We’re not in that state, dumbass. Technically, you don’t have jurisdiction.” The corner of your mouth raised in a smirk as Bucky called your name. You pushed off the pillar behind you to stand next to Bucky, who was leaning against the railing of the stairs.

“Don’t antagonize him, Y/N.” Bucky berated you, to which you shrugged a shoulder. Scruff began pacing back and forth, frustration getting the better of him.

“It hasn’t been ten minutes, John. Just sit tight.” Hoskin’s tried to calm Scruff down.

“Don’t do that. Don’t patronize me.” He shot a look at Hoskins, then the clock, then Bucky, making a decision in his head. “I’m goin’ in.” Bucky rose to his full height, not allowing Scruff to get by him. “This is all really easy for you, isn’t it? All that serum runnin’ through your veins.” You watched Bucky’s jaw clench, you could see the anger bottling up. “Barnes, your partner needs backup in there.” Bucky was an immovable fortress of solitude. “Do you really want his blood on your hands?” Oh shit.

You watched as Bucky’s resolve faded, allowing Scruff to step around him. Bucky was tired of being the cause of other people’s deaths. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust that Sam could take care of himself, he just didn’t want the burden any longer. He was finally free of being a murder machine, finally able to rinse his hands clean. Scruff knew just which buttons to push to get what he wanted.

Scruff busted into the memorial site, guns blazing. You trailed behind Bucky who was fighting against Hoskin’s to try to reach Scruff. Karli and Sam were previously engaged in peaceful conversation, until Scruff announced that Karli was under arrest. Betrayal laced her features as she looked at Sam, defending herself against Scruff advances. She threw Scruff’s weight into Sam, launching them both into the table behind. Bucky took off after her, chasing her through the halls. You crouched next to Sam, making sure he was okay.

Sam recovered quickly, racing down a different corridor leading to another stairway. You followed close behind, allowing Sam to attempt to navigate the area around you. The two of you eventually went down enough of the wrong corridors, that you met up with an equally confused Bucky. You head perked up at the sound of gunshots somewhere in the building. Not sure who the culprit was you turned to Bucky and Sam, who looked just as panicked.

The three of you retraced your steps to find Scruff standing over a knocked-out Zemo with crushed vials wetting the floor. Scruff tossed a glance back at Hoskins and then one to the three of you on the staircase landing. “What did we miss?” Sam directed his question at Scruff, who didn’t dignify him with an answer. Scruff nodded to Hoskins before walking away from the rest of you.

“Thanks for your help, asshole!” You shouted after him.

*******************************

Hauling Zemo’s deadweight back to the safehouse was a job that you and Sam decided Bucky was fit for, being a super soldier and all. Through much complaining and whining on Bucky’s part, he did get him to the safehouse relatively injury free, dumping his body on the couch, jostling Zemo just enough to wake him up. Bucky promptly left the apartment after dropping Zemo off, going to clear his head was the explanation you got as he left.

You huffed, discontent with everything that was going on. You walked to the kitchen, wetting a rag and tossing it at Zemo. “For your head, cover your eyes, it’ll help.” You then popped a few cubes of ice in a glass and poured whiskey over it, handing it to Zemo as well, tapping your temple at him. You went back to the kitchen, jumping onto the counter, letting your legs dangle over the edge. Sam had pulled out a laptop and was typing furiously.

“Were you ever offered it?” You knew Zemo wasn’t talking to you, but to Sam, who hadn’t looked up from the laptop screen. You zoned out of their conversation, trying to decide what Sam was sending Sharon now. “Sam, you can’t hold out hope for Karli.” This made Sam pause and turn to face Zemo, who continued talking. “No matter what you saw in her, she’s gone. And we cannot allow that she and her acolytes become yet another faction of gods amongst real people.” Zemo removed the rag from his eyes, locking gazes with Sam. “Super Soldiers cannot be allowed to exist.”

“Isn’t that how god’s talk?” You interjected, then you asked quietly, “And if that’s how you feel, what about Bucky?” It was a valid concern. “Blood isn’t always the solution.” Bucky waltzed into the apartment, stripping his jacket from his shoulders, giving a perfect view of his two contrasting arms.

“Something’s not right about Walker.”

“You don’t say.” Sam quipped, closing his laptop and facing Bucky.

“Well, I know a crazy when I see one. Because I am crazy.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“Shouldn’t have given him the shield.” Bucky jabbed at Sam, sticking to his guns on this.

“I didn’t give him the shield.” Sam was exasperated in his delivery.

“Well, Steve definitely didn’t.” You turned to Bucky.

“Hey. Back off, Buck.” Bucky was going to say something in reply when the door burst open again. In walked Scruff and Hoskins, all gung-ho about something.

“Alright. That’s it. Let’s go.” He pointed a finger at a now standing Zemo. The whole room began shifting, Sam in front of Scruff, Zemo to the side out of direct view, and Bucky to your other side, glass in hand. “I’m now ordering you to turn him over.” Sam stopped before Scruff, annoyed.

“Let’s be clear, shield or no shield, the only thing you’re runnin’ in here is your mouth.” You added from your spot on the countertop. Scruff pointed his finger at you.

“And I’m taking her too.” Bucky stepped in front of you, blocking Scruff’s view of you. You placed your hand on his left shoulder, letting him know you were still there.

“I had Karli and you overstepped. He’s actually proven himself useful today. We’re gonna need all hands on deck for whatever’s comin’ next.” Scruff puffed out his chest, attempting to intimidate Sam.

“How do you want this conversation to go Sam, huh?” He stepped back slightly, “Should I put down the shield? Make it fair?” Taking on a condescending tone with Sam, making your brows raise. Suddenly a spear lodged itself in the pillar next to Scruff’s face, all eyes darted towards the woman across the room. Two more warriors walked in, holding spears by their sides and Bucky looked resigned. This was new territory for you, who the fuck are these people? One of the women stepped forward near Scruff. She spoke at Bucky in a language that sounded vaguely familiar to you.

“Release him to us now.” Scruff ignored her instruction, deciding to step towards her, holding his hand out for her to shake.

“Hi. John Walker. Captain America.” You scoffed loudly.

“No, you’re not!” You received a look from Sam at your comment.

“Let’s put down the pointy sticks and we can talk through this, huh?” Sam stepped forward, warning Scruff against tangling with the Dora Milaje.

“The Dora Milaje don’t have jurisdiction here.”

“The Dora Milaje have jurisdiction wherever the Dora Milaje find themselves to be.” Your hand balled into a fist, quickly covering your mouth.

“That’s a burn, Scruff!” You yelled like the little shit you are.

“Y/N! Cut it out.” Sam snapped. Scruff, for some reason, thought it was a good idea to place hands on the Dora he was speaking to. She quickly brought her spear up to force his hand off her shoulder, then bringing it downward into the back of his knee and finally bouncing it off of the front of his helmet. She launched her foot into his chest while he was dazed, sending him backward into the spear behind him and face planting on the ground below. Scruff recovered quickly, sliding his arm into the straps of the shield to protect himself from the spear coming at his body.

The three warriors began fighting with Scruff and Hoskins, much to yours and Bucky’s delight. Sam backed up to stand next to Bucky, who crossed his arms over his chest. Sam looked at Bucky.

“We should do something.” You had just barely heard Sam say it when you and Bucky yelled at the same time.

“Looking strong, John!” “You’re doing great, sweetie!” Bucky gave you a look at your term of endearment, not understanding that it was a patronizing use of the word. The warrior battling Scruff was about to drive her spear into him, until Bucky gripped the handle, stopping her attack.

“Ayo!” Bucky yelled at her. “Ayo! Let’s talk about this!” Ayo had effectively yanked Bucky towards her body, then throwing him backwards. Sam stopped another warriors spear before it drove into a downed Hoskins. The last warrior threw her spear at Scruff, trapping the shield against the table. She began her approach to him and Sam yelled your name to help him.

You got down with a groan, unhappy that you had to save this asshat. All movement was stopped when you heard a metallic thud against the floor. Your head snapped to a now one armed Bucky, his vibranium arm laying on the ground. You released an audible gasp as Ayo walked away from Bucky, his blue eyes wide. Everything around you faded as you watched a broken Bucky, kneel to pick up his metal appendage. Your eyes flicked to Sam, who was just as shocked as you.

“Did you know they could do that?” Sam gestured to Bucky’s immobile arm.

“No.” He swung his arm around once to restart the systems. You heard Hoskins checking on Scruff’s wounded ego, but that didn’t matter to you.

“Bucky. Are you okay?” He avoided your question, grabbing his jacket and telling Sam that Zemo had gotten away. You held your arms out in front of you, what the fuck? Are you the enemy now? You followed after them, not sure where you were going. You got closer to Bucky, grabbing his left arm and yanking him back to you, making his attention be on you for a second or two. “I’m talking to you, dickwad.” His eyes hardened as you continued. “I don’t know what the fuck just happened back there, I’m assuming that has to do with you not being the Soldier anymore. I don’t really care. What I care about is if you’re okay or not.” You stopped walking, still holding his arm.

“What do you want from me, Y/N?” Bucky inquired.

“I want you to fucking talk to me. I’m here for you to unload on.” His brows scrunched and you realized what you said. “Oh my god, not like that, sicko. Well, I mean--”

“Y/N.” Bucky smiled at your humor.

“There, see? How hard was it for you to smile. Just talk to me. I’m making sure you’re okay. Don’t shut down, I hate it when people do that.” Bucky went to say something else when the both of your attentions shifted to a concerned Sam.

“She said what?” A pause, “Right. Hold on, hold on. I know, I know.” He sighed loudly, “Listen, pack an overnight bag and take the boys.” He tried to calm the other person down. You began walking again, Bucky asking quietly.

“What happened?” Sam dropped the phone to his collarbone.

“Karli called Sarah. She threatened my nephews.” Bringing it back up to his ear, he continued. “Go somewhere safe. Only pay cash, alright? Let me know when you get there.” You turned your attention to your surroundings. The bland streets offered little to no security, but they did give too many vantage points to count. “She wants me to come alone.”

“I’m coming with you.” Bucky fired back, not changing his mind about this one.

“Yay, more friends. She’ll love that. Where we going now?”

*********************************************

You’ve never seen Sam as mad as he was when he walked into that building. Although you weren’t sure if it was anger or if it was betrayal that he was displaying as he climbed the stairs to the second floor. “You called my sister? That’s how we’re gonna play this?”

“Sam, I would never hurt her. I just wanted to understand you better.” Her accent shone through with every word. You could tell that she didn’t want to hurt you. Her demeanor was relaxed, her guard was up, but she was being civil, almost like a politician. You were good at analyzing the people around you, so when Karli mentioned Sam and Bucky just being tools she really meant it. She wasn’t interested in hurting people she deemed innocent.

“Hey, Sam, new Cap is moving, looks like he’s found them, or maybe they found him.” Sharon’s voice snapped you back to reality. The two of you hadn’t spoken since you left Madripoor.

“Scruff’s coming, guys and you know it’s not going to be pretty when he does.” Bucky jumped over the ledge and Karli followed suit. Jumping into Bucky, slamming his body into the post. You ran alongside Bucky to the location Sam had sent to your phone. By the time that you had gotten to the building where Scruff was, you had lost Bucky. Taking an entrance that was already knocked open you heard gunshots from a few floors above you. With your gun raised, you scanned the room for any friendlies.

“Y/N, you’re about to come up on Hoskins. He’s not moving, may need an assist.” Your brows furrowed as you entered the room cautiously.

“How the hell do you know that, Shar? How did you get access to satellites?” You questioned as you approached a tied-up Hoskins. “Need some help, Battlestar?”

“I totally had that.” He said as your knife snapped the zip tie around his wrists.

“Yeah, yeah.” You held your hand out, hauling him to his feet. “It’s okay to be the damsel, ya know?” He shook his head at you, not engaging in your hilarious banter. “Jeez, who pissed in your Cheerios.” You shoved your knife back into your thigh holster, leading the way to where the others were.

When you walked in, Bucky had just caught a knife that Scruff had so deflected. He twirled the object in his right hand, ready to defend against the Flag Smasher attacking him. Their fight was quick and ended with the Smasher on their back, the knife Bucky was holding embedded in the floor inches away from their face. You jumped in, helping Sam fend off another Smasher when suddenly Bucky’s fist flew by your face.

“You’re welcome.” He darted off to deal with the others. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Scruff being held by a Smasher and Karli coming with a knife in hand. You started towards her to stop her, until you saw Hoskins attack from her other side. He tackled her to the ground, Karli bounced back quicker than Hoskins, allowing her to throw a punch at Hoskins. Your jaw dropped as you watched his body fly into the concrete mainstay behind him. His whole body slackened and Karli stood in shock.

Scruff was struggling in his captors hold, thrashing about to get to Hoskins. Once he was free, he shook Hoskins and pushed his fingers against his neck, checking for a pulse. “Hey, hey. Hey. Lemar!” You stood silent in between Bucky and Sam, unsure of what to do. It wasn’t until Scruff stood again that you knew what he was going to do. He had a half-second head start, but it was long enough that he was able to reach the Samsher that was holding him back before you could reach Scruff.

You had to push through the crowd to see what was happening. The Smasher had his hands protecting his face against the slam of the Captain America shield that was being hammered into him. You gasped and had to turn your face into Bucky’s shoulder. This is not happening, but it was.

And the whole world saw it too.

***********************************

The next time you saw Scruff was in an abandoned warehouse. He was talking to himself, yelling about different things. If you weren’t sure before, you definitely were now. John Walker had taken the serum and it was enhancing all the wrong things. Scruff was kneeling, resting his hands on the bloodied shield before him. You were on Sam’s right when Scruff walked up to you.

“You guys should see a medic. You don’t look too good.” He paced in front of the three of you. “You saw what happened. You know what I had to do. I killed him because I had to! He killed Lemar!”

“He didn’t kill Lemar, John.” Bucky’s voice remained calm. “Don’t go down that road. Believe me, it doesn’t end well.” Scruff sent Bucky a disgusted look.

“I’m not like you.”

“You convincing yourself or us, Scruff?” You recognize that this probably isn’t the time to pull his strings but he wasn’t thinking clearly anyway.

“Listen, it was the heat of battle. Okay? If you explain what happened, they may consider your record. We don’t want anyone else to get hurt.” Scruff never stopped pacing, his hand flexing in the shield.

“You gotta give Sam the shield, Scruff.” He stopped pacing and turned to you, getting a little close for comfort.

“Oh, so that’s what this is.” He leaned forward, “You almost got me.” His index finger jabbed into your chest then rested there as he spoke. “You don’t wanna do this.”

“Yeah, we do.” Came Bucky’s reply before all hell broke loose. Bucky and Sam rushed Scruff, fighting for a way to get the shield from him. Scruff sent Sam flying backwards with a swift kick to the stomach. This gave you the room you needed to launch yourself onto his shoulders, attempting to flip him using his own body weight and your momentum. Your move distracted him enough that Bucky got a few decent hits in, but it really just served to piss him off further. He whipped one arm around, gripping the waistband of your jeans and dumping your weight off his shoulders. He threw you into a wooden shipping container, knocking all of the air out of your lungs.

You watch, as you lay there gasping, Bucky get beat to his knees by Scruff and Scruff’s attention is turned by Sam flipping in the air, kicking the shield to the side. You rose to your feet, readying yourself for the opportune moment. Once you found it, you flung yourself at Scruff, sending the both of you to the ground and the shield away from the both of you. You resituated yourself to straddle his stomach, this position didn’t last long because he flipped the both of you. Slamming your back against the ground, he gripped your wrists, yanking them way up high causing you to groan out at the stretch. He released you but not before delivering a swift punch to your cheek.

Your vision blurred, but you could make out Bucky going head to head with Scruff again. Scruff threw the shield at Bucky after kicking him into a lift. Luckily, Bucky was able to catch the shield and shift it to his own arm before Scruff attacked him again. Scruff pressed the shield tight against Bucky’s body, then began speaking to him.

“Why are you making me do this?” You and Sam shared a look then watched as Scruff tossed Bucky clear across the room into an electrical outlet, short circuiting his arm. Sam flew at Scruff, trying to catch him off guard. He was unsuccessful in his efforts, ending with Sam facing Scruff as you crouched in Scruff’s six.

“This isn’t you, John.” Sam began trying to reason with him. He is who is way past reasoning, not Karli. Scruff’s head tilted as he spoke in that condescending tone again.

“We could’ve been a team.” Sam didn’t say anything. He deployed his wings, flying past Scruff and sending a small grappling hook to try and take the shield. Scruff flipped through the air, then braced himself against one of the lifts. You came up from behind him and tackled him off the lift, sending Sam to the ground as well. As you landed, you hit your head on a piece of broken concrete, disorienting you. The shield was out of Scruff’s hands, and he wasn’t happy about that. They both dove for the shield but Scruff managed to get to Sam first, landing on top of Sam.

“I am Captain America.” Scruff grunted out as he ripped Sam’s wings from his suit. You watch in horror as Scruff holds the shield, ready to give Sam a face lift. Bucky knocked Scruff off just before he could land his hit. Scruff had pinned Bucky to the ground after driving Bucky’s head into the side of the shield. You hauled yourself to your feet again, wrapping your arm around Scruff’s neck, hindering his movement. Sam came from the front, delivering a harsh blow to Scruff’s face. You continued to hold your chokehold as Bucky and Sam pried the shield off his arm. You heard a sickening crack as Sam withdrew from the hoe down. Bucky rose to his feet and spit out the blood collecting in his mouth, reaching out his hand for you to take.

You walked over to Sam, you hoped that would be the end of it all. Lo and behold though, Scruff got up yet again. “It’s mine.” He growled possessively, starting towards Bucky again. Bucky ducked lifting Scruff over his shoulder and Sam threw his whole body weight into Scruff who was dangling off to the side of Bucky. The three of them laid on the floor, bloodied and sweaty as you stood over them.

Bucky rose to his knees, the shield in front of him and he used the leverage of it to stand fully. He dropped it next to Sam, pausing for a few seconds and then walking away completely. You stood next to Scruff, in disbelief. “This just got a whole lot more complicated didn’t it, Sam?” He didn’t reply to you, but you watched as he tried to wipe the blood off the outer rings of the shield.

***********************************

You stood outside the building where Donya’s funeral was held, listening to Sam talk to someone else named Torres. Bucky had walked right past you, not a word said. He was shutting down and running away, at least that’s what it looked like. You wouldn’t know because the whore wouldn’t talk to you. You sat down on the stairs, head in your hands frustrated about what was going on. Your phone began buzzing in your pocket, so you took it out ready to deny the call, until you saw who it was.

“Shar.” You sighed into the phone speaker.

“Y/N. How’s it going?” You could hear the smugness lacing her tone.

“Alright, just get it over with. Tell me that you told me so, just make it quick.” She scoffed.

“I mean, I did tell you so, but now I don’t want to tell you that I did.” You laughed at her.

“You realize you just did, though?” You sense that she was smiling.

“What happened?” Her tone switched into a serious one on a dime.

“Walker took the serum, went batshit, killed a Flag Smasher, and then beat the shit out of Sam, Bucky and me in order to keep his precious shield because he ‘is Captain America.’” Your voice morphed to imitate Scruff.

“Well, that was bound to happen sometime. He’s all over the place.” You nodded, pulling the phone away from your ear and switching to speakerphone so you could talk and scroll through Twitter.

“He’s already trending. Captain America Kills Innocent Man, what a great headline. You know the worst part about all of this, Shar?” You switched the speakerphone off, bringing it back to your ear. “I don’t even think that Karli is in the wrong here. She’s doing what she’s doing for good reason, she’s just doing a shit job of getting her point across.”

“Yeah, well she’s becoming a pain in everyone’s asses, so that puts her on everyone’s shit list.” Sharon took a deep breath before continuing. “You need to get out of there. I know you’re not technically in the States, or alive, but you know how the government is. They’ll find a way to get you, if they want you.” She was lecturing you out of love, you knew, but it was frustrating for you still.

“Can you not trust that I know what I’m doing?” A grunt released from her end of the phone. “No, seriously Shar. We grew up the same, went through all the same training, what makes you know so much better than me?” Deep down, you knew that wasn’t what she meant, but you had always felt second best when it came to Sharon.

“It’s not that you don’t know what you’re doing.” She sighed heavily. “It’s that you were gone for five years and things have changed. Governments have become stricter and you don’t understand that they aren’t the same as they were.” You remained quiet, expecting her to say something else. “That’s why it’s good you have me because I know how they work.”

“You know how they work, do you?” You were fed up with her. “Then explain to me how you have access to satellites, Sharon. That’s not something that you just happen upon.” Your tone was accusatory. “Are you working for the Power Broker behind my back?” You heard a sharp intake of air on her end. “I swear to God, Sharon. We promised each other we wouldn’t work for that asswipe. He’s involved in too much bad shit. If the US government were to ever find out that we were working for the Power Broker, they wouldn’t grant us pardons, Shar. Did you fuck this up for us?”

“I didn’t fuck anything up and you need to check your tone when you’re talking to me.” Your brows shot to your hairline.

“The fuck did you just say to me?”

“You heard me. We need to work this shit out. I didn’t fuck anything up and neither will you if you come back to Madripoor right now.” You were shocked, Sharon had never talked like this to you.

“I really don’t think I would be comfortable being somewhere that I’m clearly not welcome anymore, so I’m going to stick with what I know.” Sharon began backtracking as you resigned yourself to being on your own for the first time in forever. “Goodbye, Sharon.” You ended the call and shoved your phone into the pocket of your jeans.

You dropped your head into your hands in defeat. Being on your own was daunting and you weren’t sure how Sharon survived without you well enough to grow your business all on her own. You tried to think of your next move, deciding that sticking with Sam would be your best bet. He’s the easiest to guess where he’s going since Bucky has been mentally MIA towards you.

You recalled Sam mentioning his sister and nephews, thinking he would go there to check on them. You hauled yourself out of your slump and to Zemo’s apartment to collect your things before going. You were going all in if you were going to do this, so why the fuck not?

*************************

@londonalozzy @marvelofwitch @dramaticwittch @hellmoonsin @jn-wolf @youcancallmeishita @iabrokengirl @veroxloki @liveloudwriteloud @lainternettuale @angelofthetrenchcoats @rosiahills22 @peachymichu @sj-ficrecs @learisa @itsyagirl01 @simply-me-xoxo @ghoststudyy @taina-eny @japanrecs @sinfulhun-collapsedheart @isaordora @shutupstevie @sprsoldierfics @beachbabe925

[thesupersaiyanprincess]

So yeah, here we go again, a highly slightly revised version of Splits' Chapter 1

It's set in some kinda AU where you're a saiyan and there are other saiyans alive and on earth, as if more than just Gokus parents sent them off to earth as babies to start a better life not just to destroy it. Perhaps part of the resistance against Frieza?

I'm expecting this to top out at like 10 ish chapters, if anything probably less, i don't want it to stray to far from the plot or spend another 6 months on it lmao

Warnings include: violence, emotional abuse, very dark Vegeta, sexual themes, choking but not in a good way

Word count: ~1,600

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

                      Chapter 1                      

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

You’re sitting in the living room, bored, surfing the channels on the TV when you hear the front door click. Your face lights up at the sound that you know means your boyfriend is home, and you run to the hallway to greet him. 

“Hey 'Geta,” you say with a smile as you plant a kiss on his cheek. You know he hates it when you’re cutesy like that, but you like riling him up. Little did you know, today was not the day for it.

“Get off of me, woman.” Vegeta shoved you away from him harshly and made his way to the bathroom after taking off his shoes at the door, he didn’t even look at you as he barged his way down the hall. There was definitely something wrong, even if he didn’t like kisses he never reacted like that. Something was up, and today you were feeling especially brave so you decided to follow him down the hall and grab his tail. Bad move. He swung around in an instant pinning you by your throat to the wall.

“Don’t. Touch me.” he said with a growl in his voice before throwing you to the ground and continuing down the hall. 

“'Geta that hurt, what’s the deal with you today Mr. grumpy pants?” you said in a huff as you picked yourself up from the ground, patting down your jeans. “I thought we talked about this; no aggressive wall pinning unless I ask for it.” He didn't stop or turn around to look at you. “Oh, so you're just going to ignore me then, that's great, I guess I'll just go back to watching TV since you’re being a big grump.” you waited a second longer to see if you'd get a reaction, but no, he just kept walking and eventually made his way to the bathroom, locking himself inside as you walked back to the living room.

You wondered what could've happened today to make him so irritable. When he left this morning he wasn't mad, so something must've happened while he was out training with Goku. Maybe Goku reached a new form and Vegeta was jealous? No, that's happened before and all he did was rant about how it should be him who gets to unlock new forms, not that stupid, low class, pathetic excuse of a Saiyan, Kakarot. He was the prince of all Saiyans after all, and he should be the one with all the power. No, this was something else entirely, and you were starting to worry what could have made the mighty Vegeta so angry. 

Against your better judgement, you decide to go knock on the bathroom door. “Vegeta! Open up! What's the matter?” you shout through the door, hoping he can hear you over the running water of the shower.

“Go away! Go make yourself useful and cook me something, woman” of course that's all he would say. Damn these Saiyans and their insatiable appetites. 

“No, I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why you’re mad.” you plant your feet outside the door as you hear the water shut off. After a moment he unlocks and opens the door with a towel around his waist. He always looked so good right after a shower, silky hair wet, tangles framing his face, water droplets glistening across his gorgeously broad Saiyan chest. He truly was a sight to behold. 

“Get out of my way” he said to you as he tried to emerge from the bathroom, you were blocking his way and he really didn't like that. “Move now, or I’ll move you myself.”

“And what if I don't, what’re you going to do to me?” you said with a smirk on your lips as you stared seductively into his eyes. Usually when he was mad you could make him forget about it for a while with sex. Today was different however, and instead of pinning you to the wall and devouring your mouth with his, he gave a blow straight to your stomach, instantly knocking the wind out of you and making you crumple to the floor. He stepped over you and headed to the bedroom to get dressed. 

“Food woman. Now. Don’t give me more reason to be mad at you.” he called over his shoulder as he entered the bedroom. As you were curled up on the floor, clutching your stomach and gasping for air to finally reach your lungs, you couldn’t help the thought that maybe he didn’t love you anymore from crossing your mind. A thought that threatened to bring tears to your eyes. But you were stronger than that. You stood up shakily clutching your stomach for a moment before straightening up and walking after him into the bedroom.

“What the fuck 'Geta!? What's wrong with you? Why’d you punch me in the gut like that!?” you yell at him with an anger that made the air crackle with energy. “I thought you loved me 'Geta! How could you hurt me like that? What did I ever do to you?” You hated to admit it, but you're an angry crier, and the hot tears came spilling from your eyes as your hair flickered flecks of blond. Even though you had reached Super Saiyan form yourself, Vegeta was still 100x stronger than you on a good day, let alone when he was angry.

He ignored you completely, dropping his towel and putting on a fresh pair of briefs. He acted like you weren’t even there at all actually as he picked out some clothes to wear. Taking his time to sift through his messy chest of drawers to find his favourite shirt. Black and skin tight with Shenron and the DragonBalls printed on the back, it hugged his muscles in all the right places. It was your favourite on him too and for a split second you forgot your anger and stared at how the fabric clung to his still dewy skin. It all came flooding back when he turned to face you.

“Did you not hear me? I said food. Now.” he snarled through gritted teeth. He hated it when you didn't follow his commands, but right now he wasn't your master, and it was so not sexy of him to treat you like this. 

“If you want food you'll have to make it yourself. I'm not cooking for you until you tell me what's wrong.” you say back to him, with the same amount of force, trying to make your voice sound as demanding as his to no avail. No matter how hard you try, you'll never get his aggressive tone of voice down pat, you just sound like a pissed off chew toy and it makes you even angrier. 

“Whatever.” He grumbles just loud enough for you to hear as he continued to search for some pants. 

“Whatever?! That's all you're going to say?” you yell as you stare at him in disbelief, one more dismissive or demanding word from him and you were going to snap. “What about an apology? For shoving me, then throwing me, then straight up punching me!? Are you even listening to me, Vegeta?” You pause for a long second to see if he’ll say anything, and when he pulls up his pants and heads for the door, that's it. You power up to Super Saiyan and block the doorway, glaring at Vegeta, daring him to step closer. 

“Silly woman. You think that just because you're a Super Saiyan, you can stop me? How pathetic.” he said, his voice hollow and cold as he goes Super Saiyan Blue and picks you up with one hand by the throat and holds you off the ground. “You couldn't stop me with both my hands tied behind my back,” he sneered at you before throwing you into the wall outside the bedroom door, almost knocking you unconscious as your head hit the wall at full force, leaving the plaster cracked. Your energy faded and your hair returned to its regular dark colour as your vision blurred and your ears rang from the impact. 

He walked over to stand above you, laughing menacingly. “You're weak and pathetic. The only reason I kept you around was so that you'd cook and clean for me. Oh, and so that I can fuck that tight little pussy of yours.” The edges of your vision started to go dark as he picked you up against the wall by your throat again. “You are nothing but a toy for me, a sorry excuse for a Saiyan. So low class I wouldn't let you shine my shoes with your spit. But you cook good and don’t complain whenever I want to fuck, so you’re not completely useless.” he squeezed your throat tighter, “I want you to know that I don’t want you anymore. I never loved you, not one bit. I was only using you for my own satisfaction. And now that I don’t want you, there's no reason for you to keep breathing.” as he said this, he was gradually squeezing your throat tighter in his grip. You didn't understand what was going on, Vegeta had never been what you'd call affectionate, but he was never so mean. The Vegeta you love would never say such harsh things to you, or hurt you in any way what so ever unless you were fucking and asked for it. In fact, he put several higher ranking Saiyan's in the med pods because they were antagonizing you for being the weakest Super Saiyan. The sudden change in him had tears pouring from your eyes as you tried harder to keep from passing out. “Now be a good little weakling and go to sleep for me.”

“'Geta… p-please… d-don’t… hurt… m-m…” You managed to spit out between desperate gasps as you faded from consciousness. 

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

So whatcha think? Please leave comments and likes, I'll also be posting this over on my AO3 when i can figure that out haha

Always remember, reblogs>likes <3

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: F Boy (again)

Debut: Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins

It feels so strange to look back on my very first post for this blog! It’s so... dry! Where’s the passion? Back then I really had no idea what I was doing and was just kind of imitating Mod Chikako hoping nobody would notice... but thanks to all the love this blog has received, I think I can write with a lot more confidence now! Not to get all sappy on the first paragraph, but I really appreciate everyone who reads this blog with all of my heart. And that includes You!

But if I’d known I’d spend several years using the moniker “Mod F Boy”, I probably would’ve put more thought into the name I picked, huh? I’m not even sure I’m a boy anymore! I just thought the name was funny and that was that! But given how indecisive I can be, maybe it’s a good thing it was so spontaneous... Like it or not though, I am more attached to the concept of “F Boy” then I was three and a half years ago, so it’s only fair I give F Boy the post he deserves and write a whole lot more about him! 

Believe it or not, F Boy is a fire enemy! A single flame with dot eyes, the classic design they’ve been using since Fire! I’ve expressed love for them in the past, but this little dude is a little different... it isn’t found in a lava or castle stage like you might expect, but the spoooky scaaary stages, AKA Pumpkin Zone! Why’s that?

Enter the hitodama! Literally using the characters for “human soul”, these ghostly wisps of fire from Japanese folklore are probably something you’re familiar with even if you don’t know it! The Litwick Pokémon line, the flames on Jibanyan’s tail, the little flames around the boy from the toilet anime, or even the Embers from Paper Mario... that’s really just a couple of specific examples off the top of my head, but they are in basically anything associated with Japanese ghosts! 

Though... all this time I’ve always called them hitodama, but I should probably specify they aren’t the only kind of ghostly fireballs! Onibi (demon fire) are often described similarly, and I’m not totally sure what the difference is! I suppose they would be more demonic hence the name, and probably less of a good idea to get close to. Also, if they're made by fox demons, they’re kitsunebi (fox fire)! Isn’t that neat! But there are no foxes to be found here, so F Boy definitely isn’t that (Unless it stands for Fox Boy...?).

However, you might be more familiar with the concept of will-o’-the-wisps, a similiar kind of legend from Europe- in fact, a whole number of cultures around the world have stories of ghostly lights and flames! There’s two explanations for this, either that it is a misunderstanding caused by some chemical reaction (boring, lame) or that hitodama are real and really exist for real (fun, exciting)! I encourage everyone to go outside with a net and catch as many as they can. 

Even though hitodama can be red or orange in some traditional accounts, they’re mostly described as blue and most modern media sticks with that! Which makes it quite weird that F Boy... isn’t! He is a rather fetching orange of course, and without the added context of spooky old Pumpkin Land you wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking he is a lava enemy that just got lost or something! 

Now, moving on to a completely different topic, something else that is great about F Boy is his little cheeks. Have you seen them? Here is the picture one more time in case you forgot after all that. He doesn’t have one in the sprite, so isn’t it quite weird to give a fireball enemy such distinct little cheeks? I want to squeeze them, even if they are probably intangible. 

And finally, we come to the part we’ve all been waiting for- the name! You were thinking it, I was thinking it, it’s probably the only reason I chose to write about him in the first place! Because F Boy is a funny name for an enemy! I think it’s just quite silly to describe a fireball as a “boy” in the first place, as a term of endearment. It is just a boy! A little guy! He’s not hurting anyone! 

But then they add to that name- one letter. That one letter, F. It changes everything. All of a sudden, there’s a question floating in the air- what, pray tell, does the F in F Boy stand for? 

If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you might remember we added an addendum to the original F Boy post, saying the mystery had finally been solved- the English version of the Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia lists his name as Fireball Boy, which is a pretty definitive answer right?

But since then, it’s been more or less exposed that this translation took a bunch of unsourced and conjectural names from the Mario Wiki, leading to something of a controversy and a Mario Wiki page that is essentially just roasting the whole thing! If even the Wiki doesn’t accept this book as an official source, I wonder if there’s any merit to the name Fireball Boy at all! Either way it’s odd how this is the ONLY name they changed... do they know something we don’t? I dunno! 

My next evidence to present to the court is something that isn’t really related to F Boy at all! Rather, in Super Paper Mario, the Lava Bubble enemy has a tattle that reads the following:

It's a Lava Bubble. This fiery magma boy loves the heat... Max HP is 1 and Attack is 4. Obviously, it's quite immune to fire... It pops out from below when people approach, so take care when jumping over lava...

Fiery magma boy! The chances of this bit of text being intended as a reference are very very slim, but what if, you see? What if? It’s still a fun coincidence, but what if though??

But of course, my favourite possibility is that it isn’t a word related to fire at all and is actually something completely different! I looked up a list of adjectives beginning with F and I’d like to highlight ones I want F Boy to have. Fabulous! Friendly! Faithful. Fantastic. Fascinating! French? Fresh! Fun, and Funky! Faultless. Fetching. Feminist! Festive. Formidable. All these and more describe the complex soul that is F Boy. 

After all is said and done, that is F Boy! Who would’ve thought that a little monochrome fireball enemy from a Game Boy game could have kicked off so many months of writing for this blog? I said in the first paragraph that I would not get too sappy, but now we are in the last one I can be as sappy as I dang well please! This blog has brought me such incredible joy and friendship that you can’t even imagine, and my only hope is that I can convey these feelings to even one person who reads these silly posts. If you are reading this? I hope you have a wonderful day! I hope you have a wonderful life! I hope you never forget to be passionate about the things that really don’t matter at all, because no one else can decide for you what is worth caring about! Mwah! A kiss goodbye. I’m not sure how to end this post. 

[pencilofawesomeness]

Fics I Absolutely Adore and Would Recommend to Anyone

I’ve been meaning to do this for a long, long time, because I love reading fanworks and they deserve a lot of love and I love sharing things that I love. 

Obviously this isn’t everything, and if it’s not on this list that doesn’t mean I don’t love it, it just means I forgot at this moment. I will be adding to the list and I remember things or come across it again. (Trying to sort through my bookmarks and subscriptions is like trying to catch a fish bare-handed.) I’m also gonna shy away from the one-shots, even though I adore fun one-shots, just for the sake of organization. The list would be super long otherwise, and those are best sorted by fandom. Here... Here are just some brilliant works I want to rant about. 

Disclaimer: I say “recommend” because I would recommend these works, any time any place, but do keep in mind the story’s rating and tags and stuff. Not everything is kid-friendly.

There is absolutely no hierarchy to the list below. They are added as I add.

Fairy Dance of Death

by Catsy ( @fairydanceofdeath​ )

Fandom: Sword Art Online Word Count: 660,282 Status: ongoing

「AU reboot of the entire SAO storyline, beginning from the premise that Kayaba Akihiko was obsessed with magic and Norse Mythology rather than swords and pure melee. As a result, he created the Death Game of Alfheim Online rather than the floating castle of Aincrad—a world in which player-killing is not a crime, and the nine player races are in competition with each other to reach the top of the World Tree. Multi-POV epic following the stories of multiple canon characters throughout the game.」

If Catsy wrote the SAO light novels and anime, SAO would be among the legendary series. Fairy Dance of Death has this amazingly simple premise of making Alfheim Online, the video game from the original series’ less-than-stellar second part, the game that the main cast becomes trapped in. However, it’s so much more. They took the characters and made them characters, and everyone gets ample spotlight—even background characters that normally wouldn’t receive a second thought. It’s masterful work, and to boot, there is a lovely frame of in-game mystery and player conflict. The organization is phenomenal and I aspire to world-build the way they did. Not to mention that stakes are so much higher and this series has ripped my heart to shreds more than once. 

It has also brought me great joy, and even when I was in the dumps and didn’t want to read anything, a FDOD update made me pick up my phone and read when I otherwise wouldn’t have. It has a really special place in my heart. It updates once in a blue moon, but that’s okay. 

Even if you have never seen a single piece of Sword Art Online, Fairy Dance of Death is still a great read. In fact, it’s the Better Version of SAO, if we’re all being honest, so I would especially recommend it if you hadn’t seen the original. Or if you have. The characters are given so much love and detail, to the point where Fairy Dance of Death’s characterizations are More Canon to me than Kawahara Reki’s work. It is just a beautiful piece of fiction, and it makes you question the depravity of man on levels that SAO shied away from. 

Poisoned Dreams

by StrangeDiamond

Fandom: Genshin Impact Word Count: 82,852 Status: Complete, with a complete sequel and more to come

「 Every night now, Diluc dreams of death. Usually Kaeya's. In between these nightmares his life is falling apart. It doesn't take Kaeya long to realize that this is something much more insidious than simple bad dreams. His brother's life and sanity are on the line and there is nothing Kaeya won't do to save him. Bonus chapter added.」

In a growing fandom from a new game, StrangeDiamond swooped in and characterized these bad boys so well I think it’s canon. It really breathes life into the video game lore, and it’s an A+ depiction of awkward sibling re-bonding post-Terrible-Happenings. Poisoned Dreams can be read alone with a basic understanding of Genshin storybuilding, but StrangeDiamond has an entire group of fics and oneshots set in the same headcanon, and they integrate them really well and subtly together. Not to mention that the narrative style is really clever with making you question what is real and what is dream (a big point in this story) and the inner voices of the point-of-view characters are very compelling. 

One Word to Change the World

by AgentMalkere 

Fandom: Fairy Tail Collective Word Count: 43,988 (30 parts) Status: probably never coming back

「 In just one universe, Ultear called out to her mother instead of turning away and the fate of Fairy Tail and the world was irrevocably altered. These are glimpses of a world where a single word made all the difference.

In other words, welcome to the Butterfly Effect - Fairy Tail style. 」

It’s a really cute canon-divergent, and while the series makes no attempt to re-write Fairy Tail, it addresses the major events and just snippets in between. It does a good job at giving the vast cast ample spotlight, but it’s also an easy read. It’s special to me because it was the series that made me really pay attention to Bickslow in particular, and I respect that.

Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis

by aradian_nights 

Fandom: Attack on Titan Word Count: 399,226 Status: Complete

「 Five years ago, an accident freed Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlelt from an experiment that forced the most extraordinary powers onto them. After five years of separation, of being raised apart to be heroes by a set of three very different adults, they meet again. As they uncover the truth behind their captivity they realize being free and being heroes are sadly nothing but an illusion. 」

This wrecked me.

I still remember when I read it. It was the beginning of 2018, and I had the flu and a lot of time on my hands, so I binge-read this. It was simultaneously the best and the worst thing I have ever done, because I resonated with it so deeply there were times I was just staring up at the ceiling wondering what was real. I empathized with the characters to a level I rarely achieve, and I empathize easily. I laughed. I cried. It was amazing.

I refer to this story in conversation to this day. It handled themes published authors have only dreamed of achieving. Heck, if Dani (the author) took out the names of the AoT cast and replaced it with new ones, it could be its own stand alone novel. It is worldbuilding from the ground up, and any fandom knowledge you take in with you is used against you like a knife leveraged against your throat. Yet, no one is out of character. It’s phenomenal. I would say more, but this is something I daren’t spoil for anybody, because you must be as wrecked as I was. Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis is a level of writing I achieve to gain as a writer myself. It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

Life in Glass Houses

by blueskyscribe ( @blueskyscribe​ )

Fandom: Transformers (Transformers Prime, Transformers: Shattered Glass) Word Count: 119,900 Status: Ongoing (maybe, I hope)

「 No one would have thought Bumblebee and Knock Out were capable of getting along, but when they're stuck in a strange new world and their only hope of survival is cooperation . . . Yeah, they're probably doomed. 」

I could be biased because Knock Out and Bumblebee are two of my favorite characters, but it really is brilliant. Two enemies, stuck together—but not in an overly cliché way. It’s the right amount of cliché, with heaps moral conflict and inner conflict and sometimes just beating each other with a broom when no one is looking. It’s also a fascinating look into what makes a character the way they are in relation to the morals they possess, and how stalwart those morals can be. I can’t help but think of this story whenever I see or write a “role reverse” or mirror-verse AU. It does an excellent job at making all of the characters engaging and their own character, despite being in a mirror-verse.

Yesterday Upon the Stair

by PitViperOfDoom ( @pitviperofdoom​ )

Fandom: My Hero Academia Word Count: 424,070 Status: Complete

「 Midoriya Izuku has always been written off as weird. As if it's not bad enough to be the quirkless weakling, he has to be the weird quirkless weakling on top of it.

But truthfully, the "weird" part is the only part that's accurate. He's determined not to be a weakling, and in spite of what it says on paper, he's not actually quirkless. Even before meeting All-Might and taking on the power of One For All, Izuku isn't quirkless.

Not that anyone would believe it if he told them. 」

As a person who normally doesn’t read these kind of minor canon divergences, especially at the time of reading, I frickin’ love this fic. In fact, I think YUTS gave me a deep appreciation for canon divergence fics. It’s MHA in all of its glory but it’s so much more, and even the parts that rehash canon give new light to the characters and their points of view. 

I had read Viper’s work before and saw Yesterday Upon the Stair filling my inbox, and then I finally watched My Hero Academia. It was one of the first MHA fics I read and it still has a very special place in my heart. I recommend this series to people who don’t even watch MHA; in fact, there are some who might prefer the darker tones and themes of heroism vs apathy to the main series. Not to mention the writing style is phenomenal, and I aspire to be that good. It made me laugh. It made me cry. Yes, tears streaming down my face crying. It is the best ghost story I have ever read.

the Vantage Point Universe

by Aggie2011 ( @aggie2011whoop​ )

Fandom: The Avengers (MCU) Collective Word Count: 1,032,651 (35 parts) Status: Ongoing (just slowed down)

「 Six months after the Loki incident, Clint isn't adjusting well. When an enemy from his days in the Army comes back to haunt him, he'll be forced to face a part of his past - and to move past Loki, if he has a hope of finding his place with the Avengers. (First of a universe created to center around Clint Barton) 」

// description taken from first installment

Have you enjoyed the MCU, especially the first-era Avengers phase, but like me, were disappointed in the fact that Hawkeye was barely there? The VP universe is for you. 

I honestly have a hard time remembering what was canon and what was VP. And if it’s not canon, it should be. The VP universe gave so much life to Clint and to Natasha and to all of SHIELD and even the rest of the Avengers. It’s just...so good. It’s completely immersive. It focuses a lot on Hawkeye and Black Widow from before the Avengers team-up, as well as after, and it all flows together so beautifully. Not to mention that I can be reading a mission that happened pre-series, so I know that they are going to live with all of their limbs, and I still sit there on the edge of my seat the whole time.

The OCs, minor as they are, that are created for this are also wonderfully done. I can’t believe Dan and Phil don’t exist in canon. Every character, canon or no, is engaging and dynamic, it is a pleasure to follow each point of view. The emotional turmoil is also handled very well, and the VP universe carries the MCU trend of humanizing its heroes and takes it so much further. 

Ghosts of the Future

by Evan Stanley ( @evanstanleyportfolio​ )

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog Word Count: comic (18 issues) Status: ongoing

「 About 200 years in the future, Silver the Hedgehog is an average kid living in San Francisco... except for his strange and terrible dreams of a dying Blue Hedgehog, a Black Hedgehog, and mysterious gems called "Chaos Emeralds". What will he do, when these "figments of his imagination" appear before him in his real life? 」

// description taken from first installment

Okay so this is the only one that isn’t an Ao3 story, but rather a comic on DeviantArt. However, it is still one of my favorite stories. Even though it takes the commonalities of Sonic canon and turns them on its head, GotF really treats the characters well. There are enough familiar world elements to create intrigue, but it is set in a completely different take of the future, so there is ample opportunity for world building and being able to engage with a completely new thing. I wish SEGA put as much love in the series (namely the games, because the comics are *chef’s kiss*) and all of its possibilities as creators like Evan Stanley do.

The friendship and family relationships in GotF are so diverse and all so fantastic to witness. It’s a keynote example of the new hero and the old veterans, and both parties are active and trying their best.

Do not be alarmed by the starting art style. Sure, it’s rough around the edges at first, but then it gets better, and then it gets gorgeous, and then you’re left there so stunned that it looks like just life canon art. And then you could be like me, blinking slowly as my small brain finally connected that this Evan Stanley is in fact the Evan Stanley. GotF is an amazing fanwork, but she also draws and writes for the Official Canon comics (the IDW ones now) and that work is also phenomenal and should be supported. 

Whirlwind

by Lynse ( @ladylynse​ )

Fandom: Danny Phantom, American Dragon: Jake Long, Miraculous Ladybug, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja Word Count: 75,556 Status: Complete

「 Jake should be used to ominous predictions by now. Randy should know better than to blindly follow McFist. Adrien should think twice before sneaking away. And Danny really should've expected something like this when he got that phone call from Jake. (Secret Quartet fic) 」

I have to start by saying that I adore all of Lynse’s fics, and I chose this one simply because it is one of my favorites. But it’s all fantastic, one hundred percent. I also love Mirrored, the sort-of prequel to this fic, but Whirlwind just has the chaotic pure bean energy that each of the shows bring and it foils against each other so perfectly. This is the epitome of the Secret Quartet crossover, truly.

All fandoms and all characters get ample love, and the way the reader gets to see just how badly the characters’ assumptions are going is positively wonderful. It’s so easy to fall into the “I know what’s happening and so do the characters” trap, but Lynse leaps over it gracefully and lands in greatness. The fic had me smiling like a maniac one minute, and feeling sorry for my babies the next. Wonderful. Simply fantastic!

[popculturebuffet]

Star Vs Tom Luictor Retrospective Detour: Skooled!

                                         Dedicated to Jessica Walter                                                     1941- 2021

Welcome back all you still mourning people to Prince of Wishful Thinking, my Tom Lucitor Retrospective... or at least a detour from it as I need to cover the Meteora arc to cover Divide/Conquer properly. When we last left off with Star she and Tom were going closer, but both are taking a break this time. We’ll get back to them in April... oh will we get back to them in april.  For now we’re back to Meteora who I forgot was ABSENT for a while. not forever, but while her parantege, the cover up related to her and all of that has been vitally important, Meteora herself vanished after Monster Party and hasn’t been seen till now. But i’ts a good storytelling engine.. it ratchets up tension for her inevitable return, and gives us time to find out what happened with her and let that sink in.. granted i’td also be the last time it sunk in but I can dunk on the series decline later... I still have season 4 episodes to cover after all. So join me under the cut as we get the welcomed Return of Henious, an unexpected hero.. and Ponyhead because this series clearly hasn’t hurt me enough. And as usual for my Star Vs Reviews, i’d like to thank one of my Best Friends @jess-the-vampire for her insight on this episode. It’s always welcome and she always manages to find something I didn’t think of . 

So we open at Saint O’s with Ponyhead returning to the school, having previously run it post rebellion before leaving because.. I don’t know. She probably got tired of being a leader, and out of universe they needed her to be around star more. Look the series has far more important things it never explained and never will, not explaining why a recklessly irresponsible asshole left a position of authority and responsibility I can let slide. 

She’s come for brunch but things have changed... the school is still a warm, free environment for princesses to better themselves and party hardy, no longer an oppressive brainwashing gulag run by someone who as it turned out was horribly brainwashed herself.. it’s just now it actually has rules and structure. 

It now also has an actual leader, Princess Patty Arms who showed up in the school’s previous appearance this season here and.. that’s it. I think she showed up in the background of the original st o’s episode. And it’s a shame because she’s a really fascinating character. No really she’s calm, dosen’t take Pony’s shit, and while a brunch exam SEEMS like a waste of time... it really isn’t. A good meal can loosen up a dignitary and some rulers have sticks up their keisters about things like this, so being able to do it just right can win them over. It’s still a touch ridiculous but given the world of star is a touch ridiculous to start with, it works. 

Pony naturally leaves in a rage over this especially when no one backs her up.. but soon the School has bigger issues and we get to why we’re actually here: Meteora is back. And while she has changed, now having grown larger and stronger, easily scaling the wall, she still wants payback and we get a damn fine battle sequence as the princesses all unite against their former tormentor. It’s also sad in hindsight.. because as Jess pointed out to me almost NONE of these characters show up again. And I only added the almost because Penelope is in there. They all seem interesting, the setting of ST O’s itself is interesting, and the idea of a school for princesses of various types is a cool idea. I’ts something the show could’ve come back to to see how they bounce back from this attack.. but like most cool background elements in the show they forget about it. It was intresting to see the schools slow evolution from horrible nightmare to princess ran utopia and like many things coming up it feels like a lost opportunity. 

That being said the fight is awesome, with Meteora proving to be a juggernaut in strength and outplanning her enimies, having brought an overide switch for the robots (Patty reprogrammed them to work for the school) and having them throw their hearts/ power sources as bombs. It’s a damn fine sequence as she finds way after way to keep going, with a now restored rasticore helping them simply portal in.

Pony meanwhile.. is hiding , as Patty find sout when she finds her, and Pony assumes this is about her... though for once i’ts not JUST ego.. but because she was one of the two who started the uprising at the school in the first place and THE person who tossed her out. We also get a nice character moment as while Pony tells patti she still hates her.. she puts the princess behind her when Meteora approaches. She may be a selfish twit whose massively unlikeable.. but she has a good heart.. and not just the one she keeps in a jar she got from one of her boyfriends. 

But Meteora has more important buisness and finds her way to the depths of St. O’s.. where we meet the Schools namesake and her adopted mother a robot played by tress macneile.. another thing the series never bothered to care about as where did these robots come from and why? 

Turns out Meteora came to find out her own personal history, with the remote from before used to find the real dirt.. and what we find .. is heartbreaking as we slowly journey back through Meteora’s childhoods as Henious.. and it’s fucking heart breaking with Tress voicing her younger versions, hence why I didn’t use this as the jessica tribute as while walter’s good in the episode, she isn’t given much. 

We see her as a teen, forced to hide her tail and insulted over it by her mother.. and it only gets worse as when her cheeks glow as a kid St. O tries to wash them off and we get the poor child desperately begging that “she can be better”

We do finally get the answers Meteora saught as we see Shastacan dropping off the baby meteora, calling her “Henious”.. which St. O took as her name. Proving the spiderbites minus penelope’s dickishness is indeed genetic and why I have no sympathy for the prick getting eaten later... and hopefully globgor will do an encor with penepople’s parents. Here’s hoping. 

So Meteora now knows she’s the rightful queen, and decides to go take it back.. though Pony does try to stand up for her friends... and while we don’t see it hte next episode confirms she got her horn ripped the fuck off. And this horribly traumatic injury.. is magically fixed via 3d printing next time we see her after an episode grappling iwth it instead of having pony deal with not having a horn, or her prostetic not giving her magic powers again. Because this show again really likes to leave good ideas out to rot in the sun like that  package of hamburger I left out in the sun yesterday. And I actually had a reason there: I need a lot of Racoons for an elaborate scheme involving a map to tex cruz’s house, a used apache helicopter and a bulk order of tiny parachutes. 

We do get some payoff to things though, as Henious comes on to rasticore who not so politely rejects her for being nuts.. before it’s revealed Gemini, her loyal servant is also a robot and she uses his heart to blow up rasticore and take the arm with her... which is ALSO never brought up again. Seriously this episode is so full of loose ends i’m suprised it just dosen’t end with Zuko asking his dad about his mother. Gemini’s death is genuinely tragic as his last words are “If you wanted my heart.. all you had to do.. was assssskkkkk”. God damn. So with that Meteora heads out to reclaim her birthright.. no matter the cost. 

Final Thoughts on Skooled!: This one is decent.. but like the last episode I covered, the lack of payoff off for almost anything here, excluding the Meteora plotline and the Pony thing which instead got a BAD payoff, is really starting to rear it’s ugly head as the series greatest weakness. Yes bigger than the romance plot. And given that romance plot after this season can be best discribed as...

The show just.. forgets a good chunk of things happened to keeep things chugging along. It sets UP plots, what happens to st o’s from here, buff frog and a small caravan of monsters leaving forever, the message from shastacan, who built the st o’s robots, and on and on.. but it never PAYS them off. It dosen’t care to. It just does things so the plot can move but never bothers to think about the fucking consequences. It just gets more and more irrtating to think about as other shows throughly DO: Amphibia has the fact the characters get into shenanigans become a commented on running gag and something they grow past, and everything that happens matters. Every episode of Owl House builds on the foundation of the previous episodes. OK Ko dosen’t forget one episode had the characters not be able to turn back into humans and implies their wearing human costumes for the rest of the series. Which is fucking weird, but it was their memory. My point is other shows around the same time or right after didn’t magically forget things happened for convience sake. While it’s OKAY to loose some things in the shuffle, it happens to the best of us, it’s not okay to do it SO fucking often and with no clear care for the audiences desire for payoff. The show just ignores what plot points, like the huge cliffhanger of Star telling marco how she felt at the end of season 2, it dosen’t care about till it needs them and ignores the ones it never does. You can’t just.. bring shit up like it’s important and then try and forget it ever happened. People remember stuff, we are NOT stupid. KIDS are not stupid. When I was younger I REMEMBERED things that happened on KND, Danny Phantom, Xiaolin Showdown, TMNT 2003, because those shows, which are from decades ago, knew I would and trusted even if I missed something and was thrown off i’d tune in for the quality. 

And in an age of streaming and more story based tv you can’t just.. ask kids to act like something they saw didn’t happen because your fucking lazy and frankly YOU never should have. Kids deserve better, my niblings deserve better and frankly the adults your clearly also writing for.. deserve better. This episode is eh, but the problems it represents are so fucking worse. 

Next time on tom. If you thought I got angry towards the end of this one, just you wait. Next time i’ts Booth Buddies. Yeah.. yeah that one. Stay tuned.

[theradicalace]

i accidentally deleted the ask of the anon who requested crystals/gems with shifty, but i did draw it!! and had a blast doing it!!

[im-hqlover]

Imagine Owen Grady proposing.

(No image used belongs to me)

A/n - Okay, maybe I got a little excited while writing this, but I have to say, I don't regret anything, because I loved writing it, and I hope you like reading it as much as I did. For context this happens more or less in February / March 2015, a few months before the I-Rex incident, and it also kind of happens in the DT universe, buuut, maybe when I'm writing on the series, I'll do a second version of it, but in the dinosaur paddock where y/n trains, idk. 

This was requested by an anon, and I thank them again for making this request, it made me very happy, really. Thank you very, very much for that, and I hope you like it.

Enjoy~

Requested? Yes, by a wonderful Anon~ 

Summary: Imagine Owen doing a very romantic date with several surprises and asking you to marry him.

Warnings: You can die (of cuteness of course). Sex suggestion, and maybe it can trigger if you are like me and feel anxious when you can't see. Possible English errors. 

Pairing: Owen Grady x Reader 

Things you might find useful to know:

- The reader is female.

- The reader is 26 years old and Owen 31. 

- This takes place a few months before the events of the movie Jurassic World 1 

- Owen and y/n have been together for about 2 years. 

- This somehow happens in the same universe as Dinosaur Trainer (maybe it's part of the official, or is like an alternative timeline, i have to decide yet).

Y/n = Your name

L/n = Last name

F/c = Favorite color

F/fw = Favorite flower

Words count: 5377

Taglist:  If you want to be part of my taglist, please let me know!

(I hope I have put all the information, let me know if I forgot something)

After a long day at work, I finally arrived at my bungalow, where my faithful friend Kodi was waiting for me and came to greet me as soon as I opened the door. 

- Hi buddy, how was your day? - He grunted and I pet him behind his ears. - Mine was the same, as always. 

I put my bag on the couch and went straight to my room, and I was surprised to find a gift box on my bed, I was sure it wasn’t mine and it wasn’t here before, but I soon thought Owen left it there, since he is the only one who has the key to my house. 

I approached the box and picked it up, there was a post-it note with something written by hand that said the following: 

"I'll be there at 20:00, and if you can, dress in that f/c dress that looks very sexy on you ;)"

I smile when I read and a little laugh comes out of my nostrils, I open the box and feel my heart speed up when I see that there was my Polaroid camera that had been damaged and was now brand new, and in the box there was one of the first photos I took with Owen, where we were having a picnic outside his bungalow, in the photo we were both kissing while we both held the camera with one hand, and between us was Kodi and Red, I still didn't know how the hell we managed to get that picture. I looked at the small image for a few minutes with a smile and a tear escaped my eyes as I remembered that day. 

I left the camera and photo on the nightstand and went to the bathroom to shower, I had a cold one because it was still hot and I wanted to cool off from a long day exposed to the heat of Central America. 

After I dried my hair completely I did a high bun, and I wondered if I did makeup or not, and in the end I decided to do light makeup after brushing my teeth, I put on my favorite f/c dress which I can say was probably also my boyfriend’s favorite, and I put on my flat sandals that matched the dress. I looked at myself in the mirror for a few long minutes before I turned to Kodi who was lying on the bedroom floor. 

- Hey buddy, how am I? - He replied with a small bark and wagged his tail which made a noise when it hit the ground. - Thank you Kodi. 

I petted him and went back to the bathroom to keep all the things I had used, I organized the mess around my house a little bit and saw that it was still 10 minutes before Owen arrived to pick me up, I sighed deeply thinking about what I would do to wait for him. I looked at the camera on the nightstand and picked it up, analyzing it carefully. It was certainly the same camera, but I wondered how it had been repaired, looking almost like it was new.  I put the Polaroid where it was before and I took the photo, I had several photos that I had taken with that camera, but this was definitely one of my favorites, and because of that I had left it with Owen. I also observed Red, he unfortunately left us a few months ago, and I couldn't help feeling a little sad to remember that, he was Owen's dog, but I had become attached to him too.

I left my thoughts when I heard the sound of the wheels of a car making noise on the gravel, and Kodi barks towards the door and goes over there, I immediately leave the photo on the nightstand and go towards the door and wait for the sound of the knock on the door, which didn’t take long to happen. 

- Who is it? - I ask, but of course I already knew who it was.

- Hello miss, sorry to bother you this simple night, but could you tell me if y/n l/n is home? - I bit my lip to keep from laughing and thought about what I would answer.  

- Hmm, I don't know, she has been very busy with work lately, I don't know if she is available. - I leaned against the door waiting for Owen to answer. 

- And wouldn't she have some time on her busy schedule, even to go on a date with her amazing boyfriend? - I held back a small laugh in his pity and needy way, and took a deep breath before answering him.   

- Hmm, let me see. - I got off the door and opened it, revealing Owen, who surprised me because he was wearing a gray coat with matching pants, and wearing a black shirt, and he rarely dressed like that. I crossed my arms before answering. - Well, I think she does have a little time. 

Owen open a smile that melted my heart and showed his perfect teeth, that even after two years together it still made my legs look like gelatin. 

- You're beautiful as always. - - I smile at him and feel my blood boil on my face, he then removes the arms that were behind his back revealing a beautiful bouquet of f/fw flowers,  handing them over to me, which I picked up and smelled. 

- They are beautiful Owen, thank you. - I approach him, grabbing the collar of his shirt so that he bends down and then I could kiss him, I feel him put his hands on my hips, bringing me even closer to him, crushing the flowers a little bit. It was a deep and long kiss, a kiss to kill the longing since it was a week since the last time we saw each other, even if it was little, I already missed him and his lips,  but unfortunately we had to separate as soon as we needed air, he rested his forehead on mine and then I let go of his shirt I was holding up to that moment and put my hand around his neck.

- I missed you. - Owen whispered, still holding my hips, not allowing me to move away from him. 

- I miss you too. - - He kissed me again, it was a smoother kiss and it didn't take long because Kodi interrupted us with a bark, making me jump with fright, which made Owen laugh. 

- I think he wants us to go to our date soon. - Owen said and I laughed with him. 

- I'll put the flowers in there, I'll be right back. - I give him a quick kiss on the cheek and enter my bungalow, leaving the flowers in a vase that I had in the kitchen, and when I leave I close the door saying goodbye to Kodi, and Owen takes my hand and guides me to the car. 

- Can you tell me what the occasion is? - I asked Owen, and he turned to face me. 

- Hum? 

- The suit, you never wear it unless it is a very special occasion. 

- Our date is something special. - I laugh at his speech, and shake my head. 

- You know you don't need to dress up like that for our date, do you? I imagine wearing a suit must be hell, especially with the heat here on the island. You know I never cared about you wearing casual T-shirts and shorts. If we were on a date with you shirtless I wouldn't complain. - He laughed and scratched the back of his neck, was he nervous? He only did this when he was nervous, and it was difficult for him to do that. 

- I know, but I wanted to do something special. - I stop and look at his green eyes and think for a few seconds. 

- Am I forgetting something? What day is today? - He laughed softly before answering.

- No, you're not forgetting anything. 

- Then why something so fancy? I think the only time I saw you dressed like that was at your sister's wedding. You know I don't care about simple things. 

- I know baby, I just felt I should do something special for you. - He smiled and I looked at him suspiciously. - Oh, and you better use that. 

He took a black fabric from his pocket when he finished speaking. 

- What's that for? 

- I want it to be a surprise. 

- You are full of surprises today, aren't you Owen? - I cross my arms to him, which only makes his smile open even more. 

- Come on, turn around. - He gestured for me to turn around, so I did and he put the blindfold over my eyes, preventing me from seeing anything in front of me. - Can you see anything?

- I don't think so.

- It's too tight? - He asked as soon as I touched the fabric, and I shook my head. 

- No, that's fine. But where are you? - I look for him and then I feel him take my hand. 

- Come on, I'll help you. - I hear the car door opening, and with Owen's help I get in and sit on the seat,  and then the door closes, and a few seconds the sound of the other door opens and closes with the sound of the car starting. 

- Where are we going? - I ask as soon as the car starts to move, I shake my head trying to look at something, but I didn't see anything, so I decide to turn my head to "look" at Owen. 

- You'll already know. 

- Hm… - I cross my arms and turn my head forward, leaning against the seat. - You know I don't like not being able to see, right?

- I know baby, but it won't be long, and I promise that nothing will happen, and if you stumble I'll catch you. - Owen placed one of his warm hands on my knee, stroking it gently to try to make me comfortable, I laugh at the last part he said and keep "looking" forward, not being able to see anything beyond the darkness was scary, and left me feeling very vulnerable, my vision was everything to me, and being unable to see, even for a few minutes, terrified me and made me panic.

- Can you turn on the radio? - I ask him and hear him murmur in agreement, he removed his hand from my leg for a few seconds and then the sound of the radio invades the car, the song was over and I didn't recognize it, but the next one that started playing I already knew, and it was one of the songs that I've been listening to a lot lately, it was Am I wrong, by Nico and Vinz, and I started humming along with the song. Other songs I didn't know played , and then I finally heard the car stop and Owen saying.

- We're here. - I mumbled an ok, and waited for him to open my door and help me out of the car, I couldn’t see exactly where I was, but I could see something luminous, Owen took my hand and guided me to the brightest place, and when he stopped he withdrew my blindfold revealing the big tree that was next to his bungalow, its branches were lit with several yellow lights, and right below the tree there was the picnic table with a red towel, where there was a small vase with some flowers, the same as the bouquet he gave me, and there were two small candles beside them. My mouth was open, impressed by all that.

- So, what do you think? - Owen asked me as he put one of his arms around my waist. 

- Owen… this is… this is… beautiful, it's incredible. - I felt the air in my lungs leave me, that was so romantic and cute. I turn to face him and see him smiling. - Did you do all this? For me? 

- Well, I had a little help. - He shrugged and continued smiling, which made me smile.

- Thank you Owen.

- No need to thank me, not yet, because this is just the beginning. - Owen removes his arms from me and guides me to the table, I sat down and he did the same sitting in front of me. 

- Just the beginning? What else do you have to surprise me? - I raise my eyebrows in surprise and then look at him questioningly. 

- Calm down, you'll see. - He winked at me which made me smile and made my heart melt. - Waiter!  

- Wait, did you hire a waiter? - I was impressed, but when I turn to see the waiter my smile gets even bigger when I see my boyfriend's best friend.  - Barry!  

- Good night lady y/n, Mr. Owen, I am at your disposal tonight, what would you like to ask?

I looked at Owen who was also smiling, I realized that Barry was also wearing a suit, but it was a black suit with a white shirt, along with a bow tie, in addition he had grown his mustache and had a notepad, he really looked like the waiter.

- I thought of asking for the chef's special tonight. - Owen replied to the friend who nodded, I bit my lip trying to hold my little laugh, while looking at my boyfriend who didn't break eye contact with me and his smile had never disappeared.

- Uhum, it's a great request sir, it should be here in a few minutes. Want a drink to go with it?  

- Champagne, please. - I raised my eyebrows at the choice of drink, I saw Barry nod again and write on his pad. 

- I deliver immediately, sir. - As soon as he said that he went to Owen's bungalow. 

- Champagne, huh? - Owen nodded, and continued with that smile of melting my heart and making my legs weak. - I still think I'm forgetting something and you don't want to tell me. 

- Don't worry, you're not forgetting anything. - He put his hand over mine and drew small circles on my skin and I kept looking at his pretty eyes until Barry came with two glasses and a cold bottle of champagne, placing them on the table and opening the bottle and then pouring the liquid into the containers.  

- The food should come in a few minutes. - Barry announces and Owen and I agree, and then the waiter enters the bungalow again, I take a sip of champagne and realize that Owen is still looking at me.  

- What's it? Is there something on my face? - I say laughing because he is looking at me like that, and he laughed too. 

- The only thing on your face is the most incredible beauty I've ever seen. - He puts his free hand on my cheek, caressing it, I give a small nervous laugh and look away, I feel my face heat up. His compliments still made me feel like it was the first time I heard it and because of that I didn't know how to answer it, but I think Owen knew that I was grateful for that, even though I couldn't say it in words, or I at least expected him to know that. 

- Dinner is served. - Barry reappears with two plates in his hands, mine being my favorite food of all time, and Owen's was his favorite dish of course, steak with potatoes. - Enjoy the night, and anything just call me.  

- Thanks Barry. - Owen and I talk at the same time and Barry leaves with a smile and sits in a chair by the lake. 

- Jinx. - I speak at the same time as Owen again, causing us to laugh. 

- Jinx! - The same thing occurs and causes us more laughter. 

- Buttercup! - The fourth time happens, and I start laughing a lot about it, and Owen too, and when I calm down I hear the sound of a song start playing and look at my boyfriend, who was still smiling. 

- Come and get your love? - I ask Owen and he nods. 

- How about we eat our food before it gets cold? - I nodded, and so we started eating, we were silent, just the sound of music resonating, along with the rustling of the leaves on the trees and the sound of the water. 

- Did Barry do it? - I asked, referring to the food. 

- No. It was me. I just asked him to leave the food warm until we arrived. - Owen replied, and I mumbled an "hmm". - Is it bad? 

- What? No, this is wonderful. - I speak as soon as I realize he looked worried and I put my hand over his and look him in the eye. - Seriously, this is amazing, and I don't have enough words to thank you. 

His worried face disappeared as soon as I said that, and a smile returned to his face. 

- Well, I'm glad you liked it. - He paused for a few seconds before looking at me in that malicious way. - And I think I know a way for you to thank me.

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and I bit my lip smiling. 

- Better hold your pants Owen! - I hear Barry scream what made me laugh and Owen chuckled. 

We continue to eat and drink, and when we're done and the song Dancing in the Moonlight starts playing Owen offers his hand and says. 

- Wanna Dance? 

- I would love to. 

I accept his hand smiling and we both get up, Owen takes me a little farther from the table so that we have space to dance and not occasionally hit there. He put one of his arms around my waist, and with the other he held my hand and we started to dance, even if it wasn't exactly a slow song, but we danced anyway. One of the things that made me even happier is that today was a full moon, so it was very visible and bright, mainly because the only lights that were there were on the tree, so we were both literally dancing in the moonlight. I hummed softly when the chorus came, and I was surprised when Owen did the same, and about halfway through the song when the instrumental part came Owen spin me around and when we came back to the previous position he bends over pressing our lips sweetly, and when we split up we continued to dance slowly, the song ended and was replaced by December 1963. We danced for several minutes, listening to Hooked on a feeling, Sugar Sugar, Burning Love and Endless Love, the last of which Owen was humming softly close to my ear, which was making me shiver, but he stopped singing in the middle of music and then whispered. 

- I want to take you to another place. - I look at him silently questioning where he intended to take me, and then he pulls the blindfold out of his pocket. 

- Is this really necessary? - I ask, pointing to the black fabric in his hands. 

- Yes. - I raise my eyebrows and he smiles. - Trust me. 

I sighed and turned around so that he would put the blindfold over my eyes, and as soon as he checked that it wasn't too tight he took my hand guiding me to the car again, it took him a long time to get in the car and I suspected he was talking to Barry. 

- Where are we going? - I asked as soon as he got in the car, and he gave a little laugh.

- If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise. - He started the car and I crossed my arms. 

- I'm curious, I need to know. 

- You'll have to wait baby. - I rolled my eyes, not that he could see, I didn't really like to have to wait, and curiosity was eating away at me, along with that anxiety of not being able to see anything. Owen turned on the radio in the car where it was playing songs I didn't know, he also left his hand on my leg, making small circles on my skin. The drive took several minutes, and every second I was more curious to know where the hell we were, especially when he stopped the car.  

- We're here. - Owen commented as soon as he helped me out of the car and withdrew my blindfold, and I came across the velociraptors paddock. 

- Why are we here? - I asked as soon as we started climbing the stairs to get to the walkway. 

- I thought you would like to see the girls, since it's been a while since you saw them, and I think they miss you. - He answered me as we continued up the metal steps. 

- Of course I want to, but shouldn't they be asleep by now? 

- I think they don't mind staying awake to see their mother. - I chuckled when he said "mom", it was an internal joke since I mentioned one day that he was Papa Raptor, so he started saying that I was the mother of the velociraptors. 

- If you say. - We arrived on the walkway, I leaned on the railing and Owen put his arm around me and whistled, but nothing happened, I looked at him who whistled again. 

- Come on girls, don't you want to see your mother? - He speaks with his Alpha tone, but at the same time begging for them to appear, which made me laugh when none of them did.   

- Leave it to me. - I put my fingers on my lips to amplify the sound of the whistle, and in a few seconds I see Echo, who tried to imitate my sound, then Blue, Delta and finally Charlie appears. - Did you see? 

- Traitors. - He murmured more to himself, but I managed to hear what he said, what made me laugh, he was still a little jealous when I managed to get them to pay more attention to me than to him. 

- Hey, we are their parents, I'm sure they love us equally. - I caress his back and he looks at me. - And aren't you going to tell me that you didn't obey your mother just before your father?

- Yes, you are right. - He laughed and looked in the direction of the raptor squad, Delta and Charlie were making noises to each other as if they were going to attack each other, but nothing really happened, already Echo was still trying to reproduce the sound of my whistle, and Blue was attentively looking at Owen and me. - Delta, Charlie, stop it! 

He had to snap his fingers a few times and whistle until they stopped and looked at him. I rested my elbows on the rail and started talking to them.  

- Hey girls, how are you? Did you miss me? - They make some sounds that make me smile. - I missed you too. 

Owen changes position and stands behind me, putting his strong arms around my waist, pressing his chest against my back, and resting your chin on top of my head.

- Did dad fight you a lot this week? - I feel Owen's chest quiver with his muffled laugh and the velociraptors make more sounds. I was sure Owen would say something, but he said nothing, and we were like that in silence, with the occasional sound that the raptors made, I looked up watching the beautiful starry sky with the big, bright full moon. 

- The sky is so beautiful today. - I comment and Owen bends to stand at my ear.  

- Not as beautiful as you. - I open a smile and close my eyes, enjoying the cool breeze that hit my skin, and after a few minutes in silence I say. 

- Thank you Owen, for everything, it was an amazing night and I loved everything. - I turn to face him and put a hand on his cheek. - I love you. 

- I love you too. - Our lips are moving in a deep and passionate kiss, those kisses that I wish would never end, but that unfortunately we had to stop at some point, but this time it wasn't because of the air, but because Owen slid one of his hands up to my ass.

- Owen! - I tap him on the shoulder as he laughs and smiles innocently. 

- What?

- Not in front of the kids. - I speak laughing, putting his hand on my hip again and I hear the sound of the velociraptors.

- I think they want us to continue. - Owen said while lowering his voice with each word getting closer to my ear and slowly lowering his hand but I stop him from getting to where he wanted to go.

- I think they're saying, "Eww, mommy and daddy are kissing, how disgusting, stop it." - I tuned my voice to try to imitate a child which made Owen laugh. 

- Okay, maybe you're right. 

- But... If Barry has already left... we could go back to your bungalow ... - I suggest while playing with the collar of his shirt.

- I like that idea, however, I still have one last surprise. - I turn my attention away from his shirt so I can meet his eyes. 

- One more? First you surprise me with my camera that had broken and was now fixed, in addition to my favorite photo, then you surprises me being dressed like this all stylish along with a bouquet of my favorite flowers, and then take me to your bungalow where there was incredible decor, with my favorite food and champagne, with background music and Barry as a waiter, sooo you decided to bring me here to see the girls. What else would you have to surprise me?

- Well, I can make a huge list of things that I could surprise you with, but… I was talking to all our daughters and son about this for a while, and I think we all came to a consensus. - Of course he was referring to the velociraptors, the dinosaurs I trained and Kodi, for us it is as if they were somehow our "children". 

- Oh yes? A consensus among them all? - I ask curiously, it should have been funny that he kept talking to all of them to reach a consensus on something. 

- Shh, don't ruin the moment, I'm trying to be serious here. - I looked closely at his face, and by his expression he was really serious, and then my smile fell becoming serious too, paying attention to what he was going to say. 

- Y/n, I never thought in my life that I would have a serious relationship with anyone, I never thought that I would meet such a wonderful, beautiful, intelligent, funny, courageous, kind, loving woman who could have stolen my heart like you, and after thinking about it a lot I made the decision that I want you forever in my life, that you are mine and that I am yours. - He knelt down and took a black velvet box from his coat, and when he opened a ring it was inside, I put my hands on my mouth and I could feel the tears starting to form on my face. - So, y/n l/n, I want to ask you if you would like to become Mrs Grady. 

My voice was gone for a few seconds and my tears kept falling, so in the midst of sobs I managed to speak. 

- Yes, oh my god, yes of course. - I hugged him so fast and tightly, that he almost lost his balance and fell.

- Hey! Careful, it almost made the ring fall off. - He spoke with a little laugh and put his arm around my waist, I move my head so I could face Owen and he had a big smile, we stared at each other for a few brief seconds when we slowly approached our faces and sealed our lips in a passionate, deep, full of affection and breathtaking kiss, I don't know how long that moment lasted, but I wish it would never end. 

When we separated our lips, Owen gently took my left hand, sliding the ring on my finger, after he put away the small velvet box our lips met again, until we were interrupted by the sounds of raptors below us. 

- Yeah girls, now it's official. - Owen told the squad what made me smile even more, and I looked at my finger to see the ring, it was silver and had small details carved into it, but what I found strange was that I had a familiar feeling about that ring, I was sure I had seen it somewhere before.

- I know you don't have a jewel like most engagement rings, but I know that you would like perhaps something more simple and sentimental than something extravagant. 

- Wait... I recognize that ring, it... it is my great-grandmother's engagement ring... how did you get it? - I look at him and he scratches the back of his neck before answering me. 

- When I was looking for a perfect ring, I called your mom to get a suggestion of what you would like, and she said I could use the ring that your dad used to ask her in an engagement that belonged to your great-grandmother. We all know you like these sentimental things, so I accepted her suggestion, and she sent me the ring. Not you… - I shut his mouth by sealing our lips, and I could feel him smiling during the kiss. 

- Oh Owen… that… is perfect. I love you very very very much. - I say as soon as we split up, his smile couldn't be bigger, and of course I return him with a smile too. - Thank you. 

- I love you too. And you're welcome, I just do what's best for my girl. - Our lips meet again, and again the velociraptors make a noise from below. - I love you too, I love all my girls. 

He said, addressing the dinosaurs below us who were still watching us closely.

- And boy, don't forget Kodi.

- And boy. Even though he's kind of disobedient to me and…

- Hey! - I playfully punch him in the chest making him laugh. 

- You didn't let me finish, I was going to say that I love him too. - We both continue to smile like two idiots that we are, and without realizing it we started to dance slowly there on the walkway, even without any music. 

- We didn't even get married and we already have 8 daughters and 1 son. - I laugh at the thought of our dinosaurs and dog as our children, which in some ways wasn't wrong, since they were like children. 

- Well, not that I want to have a real baby now, but we could do the process of one, you know… - Owen moved his eyebrows suggestively making me laugh, he ran his fingers through the zipper of my dress, threatening to open it. 

- First let's put the children to bed, and then we go back to your bungalow and... we can see what can happen ... - I ran my fingers over the collar of his shirt. 

- I can't wait for that. - He smirked and before I could stop him he hit my ass. 

- Owen! - He left my side and started walking quickly down the walkway.

- Let's go girls! Time to sleep! - He gestured for them to go to the cage where they slept, he didn't need to repeat the command and soon they went. - And you come with me. 

He gestured towards me and I bit my lip and crossed my arms. 

- Oh I don't know... should I? - I teased him and didn't move from the place I was, but Owen approached me slowly with that look of "Do you dare disobey my orders?". 

- Are you disobeying the orders of Alpha, miss? - He stood a few centimeters from me, with his arms crossed and looking "serious", I forced myself to look serious, but that was very difficult.

- Who said you are Alpha? - I asked him, not breaking eye contact for even a second, and before I could regret what I said he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. - Owen! Put me down! 

- Since you doubt my authority as Alpha, I think I should show my domain over here. 

I start to laugh and hear his muffled chuckle and he starts down the metal stairs, heading towards the car. 

I think today would be a long night. 

A/n - Hey, here we are again! I hope you liked it and that this is good. As always if you find an english error or find something confusing please let me know so I can fix it.

Until the next post! 

- Ina - 

Masterlist

[ask-the-barkerverse]

MLP Headcanon Dump

Just realized that I never bothered to post this on here. Heads up, this is a VERY long post.

Svengallop's parents are Charity Kindheart and Bracer Britches. The two had a brief affair, but never officially dated and Sven was an accident. Charity loved her son, but passed away due to illness when he was a teenager, so Sven was sent to live with his father who never wanted him. This has a lot to do with Svengallop's attitude as an adult.

All pure blooded draconequui are able to become pregnant or impregnate a partner, regardless of gender.

Wind Rider is a womanizer and serial adulterer with several illegitimate children, including Helia, Lighting Dust and Cloudy Daze among others.

There are some ponies who eat meat, such as fish, pork and chicken (eating beef and venison would be considered immoral since bovines and deer in Equestria are sentient). It's not particularly common and is actually considered gross by the majority, not unlike humans who eat insects. Equestria also has plenty of vegan alternatives that exist in our world, such as tofu and artificial meat.

The comic arc "Siege of the Crystal Empire" was actually just a fanfic written by Mina the dragon.

Tree Hugger is a member of the Hooffield Family. She ran away from home as a teen because she was sick of the constant fighting with the McColts. After running away she ended up joining a hippie commune, which is how she became the mare she is today.

Ocellus is the daughter of Queen Chrysalis. She will be queen of Thorax's hive after he is gone.

It is a tradition in Equestria for nurses to add 'heart' to the end of their names once they graduate nursing school. For example, Nurse Redheart's birth name is Redlove and Nurse Sweetheart is Sweetcream. This is in honor of Nurse Cureheart, the nurse credited for curing Celestia's broken heart after Luna's banishment.

The baby brother Hoops mentions in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" is actually Spiral Notepad, who is now a trans filly.

Yaks speak Equestrian (aka English) so badly only because they have their own language and Equestrian is foreign to them.

The Kirin are thought to be the result of Asian unicorns interbreeding with dragons, but this has never been proven.

Derpy Hooves and Dinky Doo are mother and daughter, with Dinky having been born to Derpy when she was still in her teens. (I know it's an old headcanon, but I'll always have a soft spot for it.)

Quibble Pants is a natural blonde.

Derpy Hooves' real name is Ditzy Doo. "Derpy" was a childhood nickname that just kinda stuck.

Derpy has an eye condition called strabismus, hence the crooked eyes.

Crackle is a pseudodragon, a species of lizard that disguise themselves as dragons. Despite having twice as many limbs and gems growing out of them, they are accepted by dragons as one of their own.

Flash Sentry and Spearhead are brothers and are both descended from a pony that escaped the Crystal Empire during King Sombra's reign.

Sunset Shimmer and Sunburst are cousins.

Discord created Poison Joke.

Toe Tapper and Torch Song are the parents of Coco Pommel.

Hoity Toity is part mule, hence the long ears.

Celestia was born with an all-pink mane and tail and would have gained more shades of orange and yellow as she grew, but she instead gained hues of green and blue when she took over Luna's duty of raising the moon after Nightmare Moon's banishment.

Wind Sprint's original father died in a sports-related accident, which is why Clear Sky found comfort and common ground with Quibble Pants who was able to distract her from sports for a while. Unfortunately, as we all know from the episode, this had no effect on Wind Sprint's persistent love for sports.

Celestia was technically the first pony who managed to pull off a sonic rainboom, but it wasn't the same as Rainbow Dash's since she lacked the colors of a proper rainbow. Over time it was forgotten, but Celestia's "rainboom" was the basis of the sonic rainboom being a myth in the first place.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack's respective families are both descended from the children of Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie.

Orchard Blossom is an actual Apple family member that Big Mac was impersonating in "Brotherhooves Social".

Rainbow Blaze (the rainbow-maned stallion from "Games Ponies Play" who was confirmed is not Rainbow Dash's father) is Rainbow Dash's older brother.

The final alternate future seen in "The Cutie Remark-Part 2" where Equestria is nothing but an apocalyptic wasteland is a result of Daybreaker coming to life and burning everything to the ground into pure ash. It got so bad that it ultimately left Daybreaker with no kingdom to rule anymore. (As horrifying as it sounds, the dirt that Twilight and Starlight were standing on in that scene included the ashes of hundreds of dead ponies.)

Pear Butter and Bright Mac were killed by Timberwolves on a day trip. Sadly, Granny Smith considers herself responsible for this as she forgot to warn them about the Timberwolves that day. As a result, this is also why Applejack is so good at fighting them off.

Due to their godlike status, Celestia and Luna are the only immortal alicorns. Ordinary royalty like Twilight Sparkle, Cadance, and Flurry Heart have longer lifespans than normal ponies but can still die of old age.

Screwball is the daughter of Nurse Sweetheart and her eyes only become swirly when she's exposed to Poison Joke. The effect it has on her is that it makes her see weird stuff and she used to be addicted to it, but ended up quitting altogether as the last time she used it (around the time Discord returned) caused her to see some pretty nightmarish imagery.

The episode "Yakety Sax" was just a bad fever dream Pinkie Pie had after eating too much Yak cuisine one day.

All the changelings in Thorax's hive are siblings born from the same queen. Changelings do not interbreed with members of their own hive, though they may form family units with their siblings and adopt grubs to raise, hence the family of changelings Ocellus was seen with in "Hearths Warming Club".

Whoa Nelly's real name is Jelly Nelly Bean. Her large size is the result of a very rare pituitary disorder.

Fluttershy's human world counterpart is a vegan.

Aunt and Uncle Orange are both parental figures to Babs Seed. Whether they're her biological or adoptive parents in still unknown.

The hippocampus (aka the seaponies from the 2017 movie) once existed as a separate race, but are believed to have been driven to extinction because of the Sirens, who destroyed their homes, depleted their food sources, and even directly preyed on them. This was of course before Queen Novo fled into the sea and formed the seaponies we know from the 2017 movie.

Snap Shutter and Mane Allgood had Scootaloo later in life as they didn't really plan to have a foal, hence why they're such thoughtless parents.

Mane Allgood is actually a cousin of Daring Do.

Bulk Biceps is Featherweight's biological father. He was formerly married to an abusive, neglectful, and alcoholic wife, resulting in a divorce and Bulk and Featherweight moving to Ponyville and leaving her for good.

Cheese Sandwich is the younger brother of Marine Sandwich. The real reason he ran away from home and stumbled into Ponyville by chance is because he wanted to get away from his psychotic older sister. (Based off of this.)

Cheese Sandwich and Mudbriar are cousins.

Limestone Pie's talent is mixing drinks.

Burnt Oak is the father of the pony versions of Timber Spruce and Gloriosa Daisy.

Rumble is a trans colt.

Granny Smith's real name is Maria Ann Smith, or "Annie Smith" for short.

Fluttershy is the oldest of the Man Six, while Pinkie Pie is the youngest.

Trixie's full name is actually Bellatrix Lulamoon. She prefers to go by Trixie as it's easier to remember.

Tempest Shadow didn't receive her cutie mark until she was an adult, AFTER the events of the MLP movie where she started using her horn to make fireworks.

The draconequus were once a race of creatures that went to war against ponykind after their prince (aka Discord) was turned to stone. The war resulted in many of them being wiped out and it's currently unknown if any besides Discord still exist today.

Kirin shed and regrow their horns once a year, similar to deer antlers. Shed kirin horns make a powerful ingredient in potions.

[maskeraith]

big eldar scrolls on line post about what i thought about it

may have some spoilers for the morrowind storyline and sidequests idk also I am inevitably gonna compare it to ffxiv a lot as it’s the only other mmorpg I’ve played good luck

Writing this after finishing writing the rest wow this got too long there is a tldr though haha

so the first thing I will say is that eso’s overworld exploration and sidequesting blows ffxiv away completely, there is so much to do and fun to be had in eso simply by exploring around! the enemies feel cool to fight, there are delves and solo dungeons to just stumble across with quests in there, skill points just lying around if you look hard enough, gathering spots that you can just gather from without having to be a specific profession or something, WORLD bosses that you need a group to battle just OUT there it’s really cool! Ffxiv does have some really beautiful environments but in terms of actual stuff to do, there’s literally just fates and they’re pretty shit to be honest, and i guess the sightseeing log??

and sidequests! all my time in the game was spent in the morrowind area (vvardenfall I think? my eso lore is zero watch out) and every sidequest I did had a really engaging storyline. They do mostly amount to fetch quests and slay monster quests in terms of gameplay with some puzzle moments sometimes, but the storylines were captivating enough to justify most of what you had to do. compared to ffxiv which is BLOATED with boring fetch quests with uninteresting storylines eso has it figured out. the characters you meet and their dialogue is great and sometimes you can even make choices which affect the final outcome of the quest which is always fun (your character having the personality of a brick aside). I actually think I enjoyed certain sidequests more than the main story of morrowind they’re that involved

Also there are world events but I didn’t really get into them, there was like a huge tornado which spawned some enemies that give you massive exp, but my horsey was too slow and I only got there at the tail end because they’re great for farming so every player in the world goes there and kills them instantly they seem cool though

in terms of lore, I’m not someone who is super interested in the lore of the elder scrolls universe but I found myself learning a whole lot of very crazy stuff from the friends I was playing with who DO know all about it, and I will say that if the lore of the elder scrolls universe interests you in any way you’ll love this game! so I learned that there are Eras in this universe, and eso takes place in the second era I believe. The other main series games all take place in the third or fourth I think, so eso is able to like set the groundwork for those games and explain the history behind stuff going on in all the main games, which I think is a really good idea, perfect for fans of the lore and stuff. Like I remember the funny talking dog from skyrim and he’s like the primary antagonist of the morrowind main story like woah

The combat is where I think the game started to fall off for me, again with the ffxiv comparison but it just wasn’t reaching levels nearly as interesting as the combat in that game for me.

Firstly, there’s no tab targetting (unless there’s a setting in the menu somewhere i missed?) you actually aim all your attacks, single target, aoe, whatever. for me this made it harder to be able to gain a situational awareness, and I have to keep my camera aimed at the boss and I’m not able to move it around to see if there was anything else going on. I do see how aiming your attacks could actually make the game more appealing to some people, though, as it does give a sense that you are more actively participating in the battle and not just standing there pressing buttons, but for me this sort of thing doesn’t make any difference

The second thing was the amount of abilities you have at any one time - you have 10 abilities and 2 ultimates slotted at any one time. Five and one ult are active at a time, and you have to swap weapons (it’s as easy as the press of a button) to switch to your second bar with the other 5 and 1 ult. This does make the game a lot more accessible I think, but it also means the stuff you get to do is just gonna be a lot more straightforward and spammy compared to the interesting and involved rotations you get in ffxiv. as a tank, I set myself up to put three dots and a debuff on the enemy and then spam my one damaging attack, until I had to reapply the stuff again, and that was basically it. I had some tank cooldowns too like a shield, heal, a grab and so on. I did look up the Most Complicated Rotation to see how hard it could get, which seemed to be stamina nightblade, and even that has “Ability x11″ or something in its rotation

Simple rotations would be fine for me if the bosses themselves were more difficult or complicated to compensate, but honestly nothing was any more difficult or involved than ffxiv. On youtube I’ve watched like 5 dungeons and a trial on the hardest Veteran difficulty, and the dungeons don’t look like anything more than what you would get in other mmos. The trials looks like really great content honestly, but there’s no party finder for them as far as I know so you have to manually gather 11 other people which is never something I enjoy trying to do in multiplayer games lol

i also didn’t super appreciate that the game wanted to like hide a bunch of info from me by default? like a few hours in I complained that it was impossible to know when my dots and self buffs ran out because all I had was like little particle effects on the enemy/myself to go off, and my friends were like “oh yeah you need to turn on these tooltips in the options” like huh?? I need to know this stuff come on

There is some really cool stuff in the combat though! Every player has like a basic bash attack, which can interrupt certain attacks, and then a basic heavy attack, which can knock down staggered enemies (they get staggered if you interrupt them) so there is more to do than just your abilities.

One thing I will mention though, is that I think a huge part of the combat is resource management - you spend stamina/mana on your abilities and if you’re not careful it’s easy to run out. As a tank, blocking takes up stamina, and sometimes I would not manage it correctly and run out and be unable to use my anything for a bit. You get it back by doing heavy attacks (contrary to every game ever) and other like passives unique to whatever build you might have going on. A lot of the game’s difficulty in harder content might come from this, but I didn’t get that deep into any of that sort of thing

I think the way you pick your abilities is really cool - you level up a whole bunch of different skill trees at a time, and you can slot any ability from any tree at any time (other than weapon skills specifically, you must be weilding that weapon) into your 10 slots. Your class has three unique trees, then there’s like a tree for every weapon type, for mage and fighter’s guild, this weird guild called the undaunted, werewolf and vampire, probably more I forgot about. All of them have 5 skills that you unlock as you level that tree, and all of those skills can be morphed into one of two “strong” versions of that skill once you level that specific skill. So there is a huge amount of player choice in how you build your character! I remember getting loads of advice from my friends but also just thinking to myself “but this skill though...” (i am so sorry). There are loads of passives too but they’re kind of lame and you just sort of put your excess skill points in them to make yourself passively stronger. I am sure there are Optimal builds, but playing casually you can literally just do anything

I do think levelling them can sometimes be a pain though because like, if you want the fifth ability in Skill Tree 1 but you don’t really use any of the first four, well actually you do have to start using a bunch of those skills you don’t want because you gain more exp for that skill tree the more of its skills you use, sort of a minor thing I guess

Finally I will talk about how I really do not like the execution of the loot system... So you get armour sets in this game and if you wear 5 of them you get a very significant passive, like whenever you crit you summon a big ghoul to shoot acid, or all of your aoe abilities also taunt. I think this is a super cool idea in theory, and it allows for even further personal customisation of the kind of character you want to play. However..

So the max level is 50, but the real max level is like 180 or something because at 50, you continue to level up but each level just gives you a point to put into these big huge bonus passive skill trees which continue to increase your stats up to the 180th point or something like that. In eso, though, you can go anywhere and do anything and all the enemies are scaled to you. But, it’s actually that you are scaled to the enemies - while below level 50, you get an invisible buff that makes you as strong as a level 50 character. This means that every level you gain, you actually get slightly weaker, if you’re not updating your armour.

Armour drops at whatever level you are, up to the cap of 180 where you are the strongest you can be. So ultimately what this means is every piece of armour you get up until you reach the level cap will quickly become obsolete. Every time I collected 5 pieces of a set and got a cool passive, all I could think was “this will be fun for about 4 levels” because I knew I’d need to swap it all out for stronger stuff. Essentially I felt locked out of seriously farming for the gear sets I wanted until I reached Max Max level, which made everything I collected seem pretty pointless to me.

Also, always being as strong as a level 50 character did kind of make it feel like I wasn’t really levelling up at all? It’s why I broke my rule of “I will get to level 50 before stopping” because I actually was level 50 all along, I got all the abilities from my skill trees that I wanted and ran a bunch of dungeons with them and I was in the 30s, but there were no other skills I could really see myself swapping out so I was essentially “max level”, as far as I was concerned.

so yeah tl;dr these are my two main opinions:

This game is an awesome time running around and exploring the environment, doing quests and running dungeons! If you’re a fan of the elder scrolls world and lore it is absolutely a must play!

Customising your character’s skills and armour sets is a lot of fun, but I do think it comes at the expense of not having a really finely tuned, coherant combat style, it feels a lot like I’m Just Hitting All The Buttons.

The end lol

[littleeyesofpallas]

Bleach - Snake Name Games

Still mulling over where exactly I want to take this series of posts [1][2] after being asked about interesting zanpakutou names.  I was just gonna do a short blurb about Sarugaki Hiyori’s Shikai at first, but there are a lot of weird vaguely adjacent characters, so this one’s going to be kind of aimless...

Her sword is Kubikiri Orochi[馘大蛇], written with the kanji for 馘:“Decapitation,” 大: “Great”/“Big,” and 蛇:“Snake.”  Viz translates it as “Head-Slicing Serpent” which is kind of a weird choice, but other than missing a specific reference, it’s not technically that big a mistranslation.  But of course there is a reference, because Orochi [大蛇] isn’t just the words “Big Snake” it’s a reference to the mythological creature, Yamato-no-Orochi[八岐大蛇].

The Yamato-no-Orochi sees a lot of exposure in pop media.  It’s an enormous snake with 8 tails and 8 heads spanning the length of 8 hills and valleys, red eyes, and moss and cypress trees growing on it enormous back, and a belly that is constantly bleeding and inflamed.  The Orochi would annually devour the daughters of a village, until it was defeated by the god, Susanoo.  It was tricked into drinking itself to sleep and then beheaded eight times.  From its corpse, Susanoo retrieved the legendary sword, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. 

The fact that the kanji 馘 isn’t commonly used makes it kind of confusing to parse as part of a name at a glance.  But I do recognize the more common, Kubikiri[首斬り] which is the noun “Beheading” (as in the act there of, not the verb) or just “Decapitation.”  But I’ve also seen it translated (granted with some liberties based on context) as “Executioner.”  Alternatively, Kubikiri[首切り] also means “Beheading”/“Decapitation” but apparently can refer to “a small samurai sword used for decapitation.”  So, I think the meaning that the name was supposed to convey was,

“Sword-for-Decapitating Giant[8-Headed]Snake”

...and not, “A Serpent that Slices Heads” the way Viz wrote it out.  Which makes sense given that the sword itself is a giant serrated cleaver/saw, appropriately sized for cutting off the head of a giant snake.  While the mistranslation would suggest her spirit to be the Orochi, this reading makes it sound more like her spirit is Susanoo himself?  Which is a curious idea...

But there's a little more going on here...  Because at some point or another, there became kind of a recurring trend of the Orochi being depicted as a white snake, which has vague associations with the Lady White Snake myth, from China.  In fact Hakujaden[白蛇伝]:“White Snake Story” (Arbitrarily localized in English as, “Panda and the Magic Serpent”) has a particular special place in Japanese pop culture as it was the first ever full color anime film, in 1958.  It was a big influence on an early generation of animators, including Miyazaki Hayao.

In it a young boy is accidentally involved with a magic snake being fed immortality granting medicine, which amplifies her existing magic by multiple lifetimes.  She is grateful to the boy for it, and after he grows up the two meet again, the snake being in the guise of a woman, and they fall in love. (That’s the real REAL short version anyway...)

And this is just me going out on a bit of a limb, but I feel like the random intersection of these two myths is where a lot of Orochi characters who are also shapeshifting humans comes from, because the actual Orochi never had this association with being a white snake, having magic powers, or taking on human form, yet it seems to be the prevailing role of Orochi characters in pop fiction.

Also, equally unrelated to the actual Orochi myth and the Lady White Snake myth, some renditions of the Orochi make it a fullblown dragon rather than just a monstrous snake.  I don’t know that this comes from anything in particular, other than just wanting to amp up the threat factor of the Orochi to make Susanoo look more triumphant as a hero...  There’s some possibility that it’s a conflation of the Nine-headed Dragon God, Kuuzuryuushin[九頭龍神].  Funny enough, I’ve seen Kuuzuryuushin drawn as a nine headed snake instead of a dragon as well...

In fact Kubo’s already has one character who seems to be associated with the Lady White Snake myth: Cyan Sung Sun.  Her Resurreccion, Anaconda is written with the kanji [白蛇姫]: “White Snake Princess,” which is a conspicuous name for anyone familiar with the very well known myth.  But I think we all remember someone else who is associated with White Snake imagery...  Ichimaru Gin.

There’s not actually a lot of word play with Gin and snakes.  His name is a homonym for “silver” like his white/silver hair, and his “fox-eyed” look is actually leverage to be more snake-like a lot of the time, so those two bits together kind of orbit around the idea of a White Snake theme.  And of course he spends most of the series living up to his cold-blooded, treacherous, viper-waiting-to-strike kind of persona.  But it’s not like he or his sword have any snake themes in their names.

Whether or not Kubo had plans for Hiyori to have a more substantial confrontation with Gin, we’ll never really know.  Sadly the one we got didn’t last long and wasn’t particularly exciting or satisfying.  But it was an interesting brief moment during the weekly publications.  And if anyone’s in need of some fanfic prompt, I’ve always been kind of fascinated by the idea that there could have been a parallel between Gin’s relationship with Rangiku and the boy and Lady White Snake of myth, with Gin in the role of powerful snake indebted to and in love with the normal mortal who unknowingly helped them gain great powers.

But while we’re on the subject...  There’s another white snake loitering around the Bleach franchise: One half of Zabimaru...  sort of...

This one is weird, because by all rights it was the anime, not Kubo, that set the precedent of Zabimaru having white fur and a white snake tail.  Zabimaru, btw, is a mythical creature called a Nue, which is supposed to have the head of a monkey, the legs of a tiger, body of a dog, and a snake for a tail.  Zabimaru doesn’t quite fit that full description, as it’s predominantly just a baboon with a snake tail, and Renji’s tribal tattoo pattern substituted in for tiger stripes.

But the one time Kubo actually colored in Zabimaru himself was part of a joke omake comic (where Renji and Hisagi find out, in the aftermath of Renji’s fight with Byakuya, that Mayuri can apparently perform cosmetic surgery to zanpakutou) and even though they’re only imagining a busty Zabimar as a punchline, Kubo made the fur what I think was supposed to be an olive green/grey, which matches the description of the Olive Baboon’s fur.  The anime sort of took that and drifted more green when they adapted the omake, and then drifted it even further when the Zanpakutou Rebellion filler arc brought zabimaru back...  In the end her fur looks both nothing like the original color and nothing like the anime’s white furred Zabimaru.

So, hand-in-hand with that, it seems kind of arbitrary that they made snake boy white, apart from the previously mentioned associations of Snakes-in-Human-Form as a trope and Lady White Snake.  But I figured if I didn’t mention it someone might ask, and oddly enough it is more of a coincidence than anything else, at least as far as I can tell.

Correction: I totally forgot, when Renji gets his True Name Bankai from Ichibe he appears to have a “mode” where the snake spine that is normally looped around his waist like a belt unfurls to the call, Orochi-ou[オロチ王]: “Orochi King.”  So there is a direct reference to the Orochi, although weirdly it’s only in kana and not kanji?  But I have no idea for what reason. And in any case, the second bankai came after the anime created snake boy, so it’s entirely possible it was just Kubo riffing off their continuity rather than something he’d had in mind when he made Zabimaru the first time.

Funny thing: Hiyori’s surname, Sarugaki[猿柿] is written with the kanji for monkey[猿], something she points out herself when she’s first introduced. (I did a whole rambling thing on the Visored’s names too, naturally...)  So she and Renji both have associations with monkey and orochi imagery.  It’s kind of a shame Hiyori and Renji never even got to be in the same room for their wild type routines to interact.

[tenshindon]

*waves* Hi, I'm Silver. I want to write Yamcha more accurately (he seems really nice?), but I haven't the time or money to buy the manga or episodes, so... any tips, I guess? Can you help me? Thank you 🌻💜

hiya !! i’m always happy to talk about yamcha and The Character Of yamcha :) gonna put my thoughts under a read more cause this Might be long:

I havent watched Z or Super in a while but I do watch and read through the original Dragon Ball often so accuracy May Vary due to my trash memory. I’m also going to try to keep the games’ depictions of him out of this since accuracy varies among those.

The first thing I wanna touch on is Yamcha’s ego- especially how it evolves over the series. The main thing to keep in mind is that while he is generally cocky about his fighting abilities (which is a major weakness of his as he underestimates his opponents often and gets in trouble because of that), he’s never overly confidant with himself as a person; he seldom tries to paint himself as a better person in comparison to others and rather keeps realistic skepticism about himself. It’s also worth noting that, depending on how old Yamcha is in your depiction, his awareness for his fighting inadequacy compared to his friends varies (the older he is obviously the more conscious he is).

Next thing I’ma talk bout is something that i see kind of treated inconsistently; Yamcha’s relationship with women and his love life. I feel like a lot of people forget that Yamcha’s defining character trait in Dragon Ball was his gynophobia- he chased Goku and his friends so long for the dragon balls so he could remedy his fear of women. Of course, he eventually does date Bulma as they realize dating each other would resolve their mutual wishes for Shenron (Bulma’s being getting a boyfriend and as mentioned before Yamcha’s fear of women). As we’re all aware though, nearly a decade later Yamcha and Bulma mysteriously separate, and the reason for doing so is never explicitly made clear in canon (I could honestly make a whole separate post on Bulma and Yamcha’s break up- there’s a lot to discuss with it so if anyone wants that let me know lmao). The majority believe that Yamcha was unfaithful which, in review of his whole character, makes literally no sense- even just subtracting his fear of women (though I’ll elaborate on that later). But back on track and in regards to his fear of women, it never fully goes away. It just so happens that he’s most comfortable around Bulma, and since Bulma’s the most prominent female character of the series we tend to forget his fear in the first place. When around other female characters, he’s subtlety more anxious- or at the very least he isn’t so much of a playboy as fanon interprets him to be. One final thing to note is- unless I remember the series wrong (and anyone’s free to correct me on this)- Yamcha’s never implied to have gotten another girlfriend or even a lover at any point. Of course it’s hard to track the intricacies of Yamcha’s life- this is a shonen anime where slice-of-life episodes are limited, and even then Yamcha is far from being a prominent character anymore (post Dragon Ball).

Up next is his loyalty/friendships, methods of handling conflict, and overall courage because in my rat brain these all go hand in hand. Nevertheless, Yamcha’s a devoted friend- he’s shown time and time again to be supportive of his pals and, even in spite of his shortcomings, always does his best to help the gang out. Like i touched on before, as Yamcha gets older, he’s more and more aware just how far behind in training he is in compared to his peers. But that doesn’t stop him from trying to fight off whatever threat’s present. So with that we can infer that even if Yamcha can’t be the absolute best, that’s not going to stop him from at least trying if it means helping his friends or making them feel better. Additionally, he’s quick to stand up for others, even if he doesn’t know them too well or even at all and he’s shown not to hold onto grudges. One thing to remember is that, presumably for 16 years, Yamcha’s only companion was Puar (that’s not even considering his life before meeting her) and most interactions he has with people involve robbing them. His social skills might not be the best (though that doesn’t mean he can’t act socially capable- he clearly has no issue trying to make Beerus feel comfortable and like a friend at Bulma’s party) but again, his social skills varies with age and the situation. But again, referring back to his readiness to defend others, he isn’t afraid of getting into conflict if it means helping someone else.

Last few topics I’m going to talk about are his relationships with property, finances, and goals- they seem like a small topics but I still want to talk about it. Now hopefully we’re all familiar with Yamcha’s beginnings of being a desert bandit- and seeing his methods of obtaining items, he didn’t try to charm his victims into giving him their stuff. He just took it if he could if he couldn’t intimidate them and retreated if he couldn’t get what he wanted (which is also noteworthy of Yamcha’s awareness of his limits- a bit contradictory to his fighting ego but it seems that if Yamcha’s certain he isn’t able to win something, then he’ll save himself if it means delaying a goal or staying alive). He doesn’t seem to mind playing the long game either, as he’s willing to tail Goku and co. for months as he waits for them to gather the dragon balls without ever letting his true intentions slip. When it comes to finances, Yamcha doesn’t seem to care to heavily about them: back in the desert, Puar mentions to Yamcha that he should wish for money to which Yamcha dismisses it quickly, stating he could just steal money if he really needed it. It’s also worth noting that despite being a successful baseball player by Super, Yamcha chooses to live in a modest apartment. Either he’s very paranoid with money and, despite having enough to buy a full house, chooses to live in a cheaper apartment building or he’s more comfortable with smaller living spaces- which makes sense since he’d lived nearly two decades in a desert cave and had to scavenge for supplies (plus he seems to still think fondly of the desert as he has a painting of such in his apartment).

For the TL;DR version of this post, here’s essentially what you should keep in mind when portraying yamcha:

He’s generally a very lax, simple, and sociable person when he wants to be- though a bit socially awkward when he isn’t prepared

He’s not egotistical, but he has a bad habit of underestimating his enemies at times. this changes over time of course.

While he’s not itching for conflict, he is loyal and quick to stand up for friends and strangers alike

He acknowledges he isn’t the best, but that doesn’t stop him from trying

He’s ambitious and seldom gives up on his goals

He cares little for huge amounts of wealth or property and generally is just trying to get by in life comfortably

While not cripplingly petrified of women post DB, he still maintains a mild anxiety around women he doesn’t know- even around women he does know pardon Bulma he’s still a bit on edge

I’m done with my character study using the anime and manga, but I like talking about Yamcha so below this little buffer I’m going to get into how the games portray him. I might’ve forgot something or got some things wrong so feel free to talk to me about that if you want to. Anyways, you can stop reading if the above is all you’re concerned with- regardless if you keep reading or not, I wish you the best of luck in writing Yamcha ! :)

If you’re still reading, join me in my continuous ramble of the Rubix cube of Yamcha’s character because Toei and Toriyama can’t be consistent.

Something that seems to be portrayed a significant amount is that Yamcha’s aware of his charm and that he uses this to advantage to smooth talk his way out of situations- not that he just so happens to be good looking and endearing and his panicked socialization just happens to work out for him. In regards to his way of talking out of situations, that’s honestly something I could see if Yamcha acknowledges he’s against a threat much greater than his fighting abilities will allow him to handle- and it’s not like he doesn’t consider himself attractive, if we’re to take his reaction to losing his tooth as anything (in case you aren’t aware, he curses Goku for ruining his “beautiful” face). An example of this is most prominent is his interaction with Frieza in FighterZ, where Frieza remarks that Yamcha is both “handsome and sensible”, to which Yamcha attempts to keep the conversation casual so as to not have to fight (which he later points out to Goku once the latter urges that the three of them should just start fighting already). Though I’m sure his first reaction isn’t to talk his way out of something- he’ll just do it if the opportunity presents itself.

I obviously take huge issue with Yamcha’s portrayal of being a womanizer- his major goal was to settle down, get married, and live out the rest of his life with someone. So for him to be portrayed as having to juggle girlfriends is a bit strange to say the least. You could maybe argue that Yamcha hypes himself up to be a lady’s man as a way to cope with his anxiety (fake it til you make it y’know) but I have little faith in the characterization in Dragon Ball games and for them to think that complexly- plus, again, it contradicts with his humble and awkward personality.

Aside from these two notes, that’s all I have to say. so I’m done- forreal this time.