#they cannot figure out what to say to the other; and if one takes a step forward it would be met with knives--no hesitation

[the-autistic-vulcan]

So Loud, Yet so Hushed (Thunderbolts x Mute!GN!Reader Headcanons)

Request: For a heacannoncrequet please for Thunderbolts: Being the youngest member who is mute? Really like your stories! - Anonymous

Description: Headcanons on being the youngest member of the Thunderbolts and being mute

a/n: Reader is a Thunderbolt, Reader is mute, except able to express themselves through making noises. Reader isn't a specific age, but we'll say they're between 18 - 21 I've done as much research as I could, so I hope I do this justice!

gif credit: @princesssunderworld, @scorpiovelaryon

You are an assassin, just like the rest of them, so you already ticked the box on that part. But one thing that the team wasn't really made aware of, was your mutism (which we'll say Valentina neglected to let them know that)

They appreciated the quiet, especially Yelena and Ava - they got annoyed with the men bickering over stupid stuff, but liked you were to yourself

Until they realized you were too quiet

You were sat in your room in the tower one evening, Yelena, Ava and Bob went to go crash there just to hang out

Until Bob unceremoniously asked "...hey...you're really quiet...why's that?"

Before Ava could scold him for being insensitive, Yelena stopped her and asked you herself

Hence you wrote on your notes app "I am mute. I cannot speak at all."

They were there to give you full support, and also debrief the others - with varying success

Bucky kind of went into 'parental mode' when he heard the debrief

John was...John. He just patted your shoulder and moved on - but he was going to try

Alexei, being Alexei, despite having a very chequered past, was also willing to try

Yelena likes to sit with you and listen to music together - especially if it's anything rock or metal related. Even if it isn't, she likes to see you swaying or making some sort of happy noise

Bucky likes to spar with you, offering words of encouragement and even trying to ask for criticism from you on his technique. With a little time, you both learn to communicate via signs that he used in the army back in the '40s

Ava and John help you in a more cognitive sense, in that they teach you some skills that maybe you hadn't acquired yet - they figured cooking would help with your communication skills. And when the food is burning, you three just laugh at it all, earning a few huffs of relief from you

Alexei tells you stories of his glory days, even complimenting your style of fight and comparing them to his own. Other times, he offers you a sympathetic shoulder - it's mostly for him to make up for being a bad father, so he'd thought he would try again. But you let him know in your own way that he is doing his best

Now you and Bob are the closest in age and predicament - he struggles just as much as you do - even if you both don't suffer with the same things. In his case, Bob reads with you. He'll take time to try and get to know the types of books you read - and considering he had lost so much time out in the world, he wanted to catch up on the latest books

There are days where not even a sound would leave you - whether due to high levels of stress, a mental health episode or something completely out of your control happened

Bob, Yelena and Ava are the first to notice. Bucky and John take note also, and Alexei just straight up asks you what's going on

You write in your notes app that you're just not up to socialize, no matter how much progress has been made to accommodate you

The good thing is that they understand that feeling, and give you the space you need

If you still want to be around them, you guys just watch a movie together or sit in silence

The Thunderbolts are a strange bunch, nothing in their minds would tell them otherwise

You were basically the little sibling. And they would do anything to make sure you were happy, healthy and safe.

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[pocketsizeddie]

yes okay very true!!!

the one thing you said where i somewhat disagree (and that mostly just comes down to personal preference) is about tommy being an interesting character/good antagonist. i think he could be incredibly compelling, if his writing wasn't so... let's call it muddy (tbf eddie is written pretty poorly too a lot of the time, but the reason i love eddie and not tommy is that at least he has something going on)

i think what bothers me a lot is that if i try to watch him through a 'neutral' lense, i genuinely cannot tell what the show wants me to think of him. am i supposed to like him? am i supposed to see buck's relationship with him as something that makes buck happy and is fulfilling beyond just 'i figured out i like men'? beats me.

to be clear, i don't think it's bad when there's no straight answer to questions like these. but with tommy, it feels like the writers themselves don't even know what they're doing and what they want viewers to take away from it (either that or they don't care, which is probably worse)

i think in an ideal world i'd have loved to see more of tommy's behaviour with things other than his relationship to buck (and eddie), and how he might've changed since we last saw him in season 2, so that he didn't feel like such a nothing character to me

what exemplifies his nothingness to me the most is in 8x11 when he meets buck at the bar and asks him how he's been so buck tells him what's been going on (eddie leaving, maddie kidnapped, etc) and buck goes 'what about you?' and tommy just goes 'same'

like???? really??? did nothing happen in your life at all or???? wtf do you mean 'same'

but yeah anyway as for the buddie thing being queerbait or not unfortunately we're just gonna have to wait and see i guess, fingers crossed lol

btw i just gotta say it's so refreshing to have a discussion where u can look at things from multiple different viewpoints and still get along after i literally fled to tumblr when i got cancelled on twitter for trying to do just that lmaooo

genuinely makes me laugh that some people see buck insisting that he isn't in love with eddie as the show/writers shutting down buddie bc like... have you ever watched any tv ever.

did you watch new girl and were surprised when jess and nick kissed because they had both stated that they only liked each other as friends.

did you watch friends and think ross was telling the truth when he said he wasn't in love with rachel anymore for the hundredth time.

did you watch brooklyn nine-nine and hear jake say he totally wasn't into amy and just take that at face value.

be so for fucking real.

[fanfic-obsessed]

Uncoditional Love

So I had this idea and while I was thinking about the scenes the ending split in two and now I’ve got a bigger idea with options. So I figure I better start writing it down before I end up with a choose your own adventure in the form of a Tumblr post. 

Before I start with my usual disclaimers I do want you all to know that I HIGHLY encourage people reading my ideas to run with them and write their own additions or maybe even write a full fic if they feel inspired. I adore seeing additions or ‘but what ifs’ or questions or random asks, because then I may be inspired to write more.  All I can really ask is that if you post something inspired by my ideas you tag me or share the link.  I also want it known that I would prefer my idea not be fed into anything that is related to Generative AI, feel free to send me an ask if you want my rant on that subject.  

Now for my standard warning, do not expect anything from canon here. 

Let’s get started…

It is important as part of the foundation for this ,to know that Tim Drake and Jason Todd are about 16 months apart in age.  Also Jason is adopted by Bruce not long before he turned 10 and starts being Robin before he turns 11 (this information is not as important but I wanted you to know).

They meet on Jason’s first solo patrol, just after Jason turned 13 (Tim is 11).  Jason noticed Tim’s picture taking and decides that he is going to convince Tim to stop following vigilantes into the worst parts of Gotham, or barring that at least make sure Tim makes it home as unharmed as possible.  Jason does not tell anyone about Tim (at first because he wanted to prove himself by convincing Tim to give up, then out of fear of how Bruce would react to Tim having discovered their identities -and how long Jason had known that Tim had known and kept it to himself-, then after a time because they could not figure out a way to have Jason, the civilian, meet Tim and not have it be immediately obvious that the two knew each other and well). Over time Tim and Jason begin to date and fall in love. A week before Jason (14, three weeks away from his 15th birthday) dies in Ethiopia, he proposes to Tim (age 13) who accepts. Jason gives Tim Catherine Todd’s wedding ring. They still have told no one, but figure that they have time since it would be several years before they could tie the knot.

Jason dies in Ethiopia.

As is typical for the kind of rich and famous that the Wayne’s were, there are immediately dozens of people coming from the woodwork to claim some connection to Jason. Including more than a few ‘Jason was my lover’.  If there is any good time to tell your dead, secret fiance’s family that you got engaged but cannot offer any proof (as anything Tim could offer could have been faked) it is most certainly not after the local new ran a very noticeable article about three women loudly proclaiming that Jason Wayne-Todd (forever age 14) fathered their children.

Tim says nothing about his connection to Jason. He continues to say nothing as he becomes Robin.  Tim very carefully compartmentalizes so that no one realizes his grief over Jason’s death is far more personal than it should be.  His only concession to his own grief is being entirely unavailable for a single day in April every year (the anniversary of the day that Tim first asked Jason on a date), where he locks himself away with the mementos of his time with Jason and mourns what could have been.

During this time, Tim does make an effort to move on. He dates other people, is even content with them (including a brief romantic relationship with Kon). But there is always something missing. By the time the Red Hood attacks Titan’s Tower, Tim has accepted that he will never love anyone like he loves Jason, and does not pursue romantic relationships. 

Between the head trauma from his death, the hypoxia that came with digging himself out of his own grave, and the issues that come with being dunked in the Lazarus Pit, Jason has entirely forgotten his relationship with Tim. Has forgotten Tim entirely. So Jason goes to beat the crap out of his Replacement and reveals himself to be Jason Todd. Still Tim says nothing to the Bats about the forgotten connection (He does tell Kon, Bart, and Cassie after the incident at the tower, after that point they always treated Jason a little strangely when they crossed paths with him). Because the only worse time to tell your should-have-been in laws and not-as-dead-as -we-thought fiance about Jason’s proposal is when it became clear that Jason did not remember and the only recognizable proof you might have (Catherine’s ring), you would likely be accused of stealing. 

So Tim says nothing, not through Jason's anger and hatred. Not through his slow reconciliation or Damian’s arrival. Not even as Tim realized that he was just as in love with Jason, the Red Hood as he had been the boy who proposed all those years ago. He continues to keep silent through retrieving Bruce from the time stream.  Tim still takes his one day a year to be completely unavailable, to mourn. There was even one year where there was an Arkham breakout and Kon, Bart, and Cassie came to help in Gotham in Tim’s stead.  At no point was Tim planning to let on.

Now we get to the options, in the reveal. Let’s be honest about half the draw of this kind of idea is the reveal. Two reveals came so strongly to me that I could not just pick one. I am calling them the Magic Option and the Non Magic Option. Let’s look at the magic option first. 

MAGIC OPTION

When Jason is 21, a magic user hits him with a spell that will deage him, but only mentally (To be fair it still could work with a full deaging but I do like a mental deaging only here).  His mind reverts back to the day after he proposed to Tim. Constantine is able to determine what happened before Jason wakes up and that the spell would wear off within 12 hours but Jason would be stuck with his younger mindset until it did.  Jason wakes up and is only told that he has temporary amnesia. Once Jason is told his age, he starts to subtly look around for something. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Bats he is looking for Tim (who was out of town on a mission with the Titans). If Jason is 21 then Tim is 19 or 20, which means they should already be married. But he does not want to bring it up, in case something happened and he and Tim were trying to keep the relationship a secret (he also kind of feared the reason why he could not feel a wedding ring on his finger). 

Before Jason can gather the courage to bring it up, Tim comes in through the Zeta, his mission complete.  He takes off his mask and Jason immediately recognizes Tim.  Jason races across the cave, grinning and calling out for Tim (Timmy!!) to the absolute confusion of the other bats (as this version of Jason should not know who Tim is).  Jason stops right in front of Tim and says “Wow. You got even prettier than I thought you would…”

Tim goes “Jason, what’s wrong?” Tim is just as confused as everyone else, because Jason has not looked at Tim like that since before the other boy went to Ethiopia. This version of Jason knows how to read Tim just as well as Tim knows how to read Jason. He immediately realizes that Tim is far less comfortable with Jason than he should be.  Jason jumps to the conclusion that he (Jason) had screwed up, Tim had rightly kicked him to the curb, and starts to apologize for ‘whatever his future self did to fuck up’. 

In the background the rest of the Bats watch, very confused as Tim verifies the date of Jason's last memory and Jason asks what happened.  Tim smiles really sadly and says ‘About a week after your last memory you died, from what you’ve said you came back to life about six months later. Not all of your memories came with you’. 

This is news to all present. Because Jason tended not to want to talk about the time before his death, no one else had realized that he was missing memories (not even him). Jason puffed up, utterly offended at his post death self  ‘I FORGOT YOU!?!?’ and then starts asking why they had not gotten back together, asking in a really small voice if Tim had moved on, and was not in love with Jason any longer. Tim told him “I will be in love with you for the rest of my life, but I don’t think you’re interested this time”. 

And Tim hates himself a little. Because he is strong enough to make sure Jason is aware they are not together, he is strong enough to insist that they go no further than they did when they were together (at 14 and 13, they had gone no further than kissing and frankly going any further than that now would have some strange consent issues). He knows he should be strong enough to leave, knowing that the present day Jason does not want him in the same way the past one did. But faced with the man he has been in love with for almost half his life, looking back at him with love for the first time in years, who wants to cuddle and kiss him for the next 12 hours. Tim is only human. He stays and commits these moments to memory. Tim will accept no questions from the rest of the Bats (though he does answer the ‘why didn’t you tell us’ from Dick with a ‘and when would be a good time to mention my secret engagement to Jason have been?’), he does give some answers to Jason when Jason asks. 

Jason is more than willing to play along and not ask anything that would give the Bats more answers. Instead he spent those 12 hours trying to give Tim as much affection as he could, even asking to see Tim’s most recent photos (There is a small part of this version of Jason that also hates himself a little bit, because he knows that being there is hurting Tim but he cannot bring himself to send him away-only a touch because Jason also knows Tim would gladly face the pain if it meant being with Jason again). Jason even takes the time to record a video for himself, as they are aware that Jason will not remember these 12 hours, to wax lyrical about Tim.  

Jason’s memories come back at the 12 hour mark and the confusion of the spell breaking lets Tim slip away. He goes and sits next to the gargoyle Jason proposed at (which had always been in a camera blindspot), decked out in his vigilante costume. Though Tim is good at compartmentalizing, he had spent the last 12 hours living what was his version of Heaven and was drawn to the familiar place,

An hour later Tim is approached by Jason, sans helmet but with domino firmly in place. 

“You found me earlier than I would have guessed” Tim’s voice was quiet.

Jason shrugged even though Tim was turned away, “I left a video for myself, said you might be here, if things hadn’t changed too much” (Jason does not mention that his younger self had also said Tim was the best thing that had ever happened to him, that Jason had apparently become a moron in the intervening years, and that if the current Jason truly could not love Tim then he needed to find a way to give the other boy closure).  Jason paused for a few seconds, weighing all the questions that he could or could not ask before finally settling on “Will you tell me?” 

Tim gave a short, soft chuckle. “To this day, I have no idea when I changed from being the irritating kid you needed to keep safe to being your friend. Just one day I realized that we were coordinating your patrol routes so I could take pictures and I was helping you run lines for your drama club and you were asking me questions about my skateboard.” Tim looked over his shoulder to slant a mischievous glance at Jason, “The look on your face the first time you brought me home and realized I lived next door was almost as good as your face when you realized I knew who you were under the mask. I will always regret not getting either on film.”

Jason found himself sitting next to the other boy, not quite shoulder to shoulder. He couldn’t figure out which question to ask.  What information to ask for. 

The silence was finally broken by Tim, “I’m not going to hold you anything you said then. I know you don’t love me anymore and I have made my peace with it.”

The next words slipped from Jason’s mouth like they had been greased. “Go on a date with me?”

At that Tim’s mouth dropped into soft shock. “Wha..?”

Jason bit his lip, feeling suddenly anxious “Date me. You’re right, I’m not in love with you. Once the Pit was no longer an issue I figured any chance I had with you died a bloody death in Titan’s Tower. So I never let myself think about you like that. But we can try…and even if we can’t get back what you had, at least you won’t be wondering about what ifs?”

Jason forced himself to look directly at Tim’s face, partially covered as it was. At last Tim nodded, slowly. “Ok. On two conditions.” Both vigilantes had enough experience with the Domino masks that they could make eye contact through the white out lenses. Tim waited until Jason was making eye contact. “First, don’t force emotion that you do not feel; If you say you love me please be sure.  And second, I cannot be casual with you. If you’re not mine I can force down the pain of you being with someone else, pack it all away. But I can’t do that and let myself be with you. So it's monogamy or nothing.”

Jason agreed, and privately decided that unless Tim indicated he wanted sex they would not cross that line until Jason was sure he loved Tim. They started dating. Incidentally they decided to keep messing with the rest of the Bats by not answering any questions. It did turn out that Jason and Tim were still physically and romantically compatible and they actually had many interests in common.  They kept dating (One of their favorite dates was to be cuddled up on the sofa at one of their apartments, Tim’s head on Jason’s chest while Tim told Jason stories of their time together).

However Jason was not sure he was in love with Tim and could not bear the thought of hurting Tim by saying those words before he was sure (Roy, to whom Jason talked about this frequently, was sure. He was distressingly sure and wanted Jason to say the words so Roy did not have to hear Jason overthinking things any more).  The irony is that Tim knows what Jason’s eyes look like when he is in love. Tim knows what Jason’s eyes look like when he is in love with Tim. So Tim is well aware that Jason has fallen back in love with him, however Tim can also tell Jason is having a bit of a crisis around it so is content to wait. 

Jason’s crisis then resolves in the worst way possible. 

Kon, Tim, Bart, and Cassie leave for a last minute mission, technically a follow up to a mission from their Young Justice days.  This mission (which I have made up wholesale) saw them being accidentally dumped into a side dimension via magic where they had to play in a high stakes game resembling checkers to gain a treaty that would protect their home dimension from being destroyed. Now on the anniversary (which happens at random times because time runs differently in this dimension) they are brought back to the dimension to celebrate and resign the treaty.  Due to the nature of the inhabitants of this dimension, and their paranoia, they are not allowed to tell anyone where they are going and the portal will pick them up from a random location with about half an hour notice. 

They get the notice, rearrange their plans to be ‘unavailable/incommunicado until further notice’ and get picked up from an abandoned building in Metropolis.  Mere moments after the portal whisks them away, a robot stolen from Lex Luthor vaporizes the building (The robot is built in such a way that it is capable of vaporizing a Kryptonian, an Amazonian, and a Speedster).  In the aftermath, Oracle is doing routine cleanup and sees video of the four of them entering the building that is now simply a hole in the ground.  Concerned, she checks the tracking data for Red Robin. Tim’s trackers as well as the bio data tracked by the suits, all of them, go offline simultaneously (due to not being in the dimension any longer) at what appears to be the exact moment the building he was in ceases to exist. 

Oracle calls the Justice League. By every measure that they have Red Robin, Superboy the first, Impulse, and Wonder Girl were in the building as it was being vaporized and can only be dead.

They are considered dead to all that knew them for twelve days.

Distantly Jason feels the realization of ‘Oh, I am in love with Tim’ which is overshadowed by the screaming in his head going ‘Tim is dead, gone forever, I will never hold him again’. An even more distant part is going ‘This is what Tim felt’. 

Jason contains multitudes. Jason’s mind also shuts down all unnecessary systems in the face of Tim’s death. Looking back later, Jason barely remembers anything of those twelve days, there is little record of Jason doing anything but sitting in his apartment. 

Ten days after Tim and co hop dimensions, they are deposited via a magical portal on the Watchtower (for them it had been fifteen hours). Several newer members of the Justice League assume that they are imposters trying to assume the lives of the recently lost and much mourned Young Justice and they are locked in a Justice League cell until Green Arrow makes his way to the Watch tower two days later (Normally there would be at least one major JL member on the watch tower at all times, but the recent loss has left them all reeling). 

After they have proven their identities, Young Jsutices’s various mentors are called (I just want you to know that Clark collects Kon and actually takes him to visit Lex. Lex had not reacted to his robot killing his son well, and Clark and Lex had really talked for the first time since they were teenagers. Not friends again precisely, but accepting that the other cares for Kon, at least).

It is Dick that shoves Jason into a shower and drags him to the cave. This is where Jason finds out that Tim is actually alive. Jason pulls time into a hug that would rival Dick and tells Tim he loves him. Jason absolutely needs Tim to fall asleep. 

Jason also starts planning a real identity. He owes Tim a wedding after all. 

NON MAGIC OPTION

This starts when Tim is 21.  He had never intended for anyone to know of his relationship with Jason. That Tim does not date because he cannot convince himself that he is not still engaged. That he wears Catherine Todd’s ring around his neck and that once a year he lets himself think about the could have been and cry.  

As part of the Wayne family, his dating or lack thereof is noticed and rumors abound. 

If Tim had been any less tired, up for 60 hours and miles to go before his sleep, he would have deflated the interviewer's question.  As it was, Tim was just tired enough to answer, to a point, when asked about his love life. He managed to avoid naming names or even gender when talking about a childhood sweetheart who he had thought he would marry but had died unexpectedly. Tim said that any attempts to date had ended with comparisons to his sweetheart, which was not fair to anyone. 

Some part of Tim had hoped that the uncommonly open answer would quench the fire and stop people hitting on him.  Sleep deprived Tim was naive. This tragic backstory adds fuel to the flame (men and women dreamed of being the one to ‘heal’ Tim Wayne-Drake’s heartbreak).  

At first most of the family think that Tim was making something up, or hallucinating.  However it becomes rapidly obvious that this was not the case (Tim apologizes to Steph, because part of the issues he had while they were dating stem from the loss of his sweetheart). Tim refuses to give any information, save that his sweetheart died before Tim became Robin. 

There is no record to find, no one to interrogate, and Tim is not giving any information. The only one who does not ask Tim directly is Jason (ironically the only one whose questions Tim would have answered). Jason simply mentally marks it as another reason he and Tim were never going to happen and moved on. At some point the entire family, sans Tim, discusses Tim’s one day off in April but no one can find the significance. 

This goes on for another two or so years. Then, on a weekend that Tim happened to be on a mission with his Team, Jason decides it is finally time for him to clean out his pre-death bedroom, which had not been entered by anyone but Alfred since Jason left for Ethiopia. It had been almost a decade, after all. He drags the rest of his siblings into it.  They throw out the old homework and make plans to donate the old clothes. Jason looks at his old keepsakes and realizes that he does not remember all of them(as Tim was not the only memories he lost).  In Jason’s old nightstand there was a lockbox that they decided to bring down to the dining room to open. 

The very top item was a picture, looking to be a polaroid. The photo was framed a little strangely, like the earliest selfies. It was very clearly a picture of Jason in the Robin costume, without the mask, crowded in next to what was also very clearly Timothy Drake. They were both grinning and Tim was holding up his hand to show off a loose ring on his finger. Across the bottom, in bold letters, were the words ‘HE SAID YES!!!’  Underneath the picture was a pair of ticket stubs (an out of the way theater in the bowery where they went to see a play for one of their dates), tokens from an arcade (Where Tim and Jason had gone on their first date), several picture of Jason’s Robin (all lovingly taken by Tim, with annotations on the back that were practically conversations between Tim and Jason) including one where Jason was being scolded by Batman with a cackling Nightwing in the background (Bruce was scolding Jason for showing off-which he only did because Jason knew Tim was taking pictures) and other such keepsakes. 

Even without the context for the majority of the keepsakes it was clear that Tim had known Jason for much longer than anyone had realized. Each of the Bat Children makes the connection between Tim saying he was engaged and the picture, and everyone looks at each other a bit awkwardly, realizing that it meant that Jason was the one that Tim was in love with.  When Tim gets back from his mission, they decide to confront Tim about it. 

Dick is not the only one who expected Tim to be defensive when Jason brought out the lockbox. Tim is not. He looks fondly at the contents, adding context when Jason asks.  Tim speaks fondly of their time together and, before Jason could work himself up into the idea that Tim only loved the person he was, outright states that he loved Jason (the Red Hood who shot a pimp in the knee last week for trying to buy a fourteen year old girl, and a her businessman father in the shoulder and the groin for trying to sell her) as he is now just as much as he loved the boy Jason once was.  Tim also points out that Jason is not as different as Bruce would like to think he was (though he is more different than Dick would ever admit).

Jason asks Tim on a date and falls back in love with Tim quickly. Once they get to the point where Jason is sure, Tim starts making plans to resurrect Jason Todd specifically. Bruce gets irate about it but Tim makes a good point that anyone Tim dates will be under extra scrutiny, after the interview. They might as well bring Jason back to life, because they would have to put the same level of work into any alias of Jason’s. Particularly since Tim was very open about the fact that his childhood sweetheart had died. 

Eventually they fall back on the good old faithful, the abducted with amnesia. The story was Jason had never died, but instead had amnesia from the head wound. The corpse Bruce brought back and buried had not been Jason.  A random series of events had brought the amnesiac Jason into contact with Tim, his childhood sweetheart and fiance, which sparked the return of his memories. 

This time Tim gets to be the one to propose.

[kings-highway]

i just finished reading floor 4 (delightful, by the way), and I was so tickled by the scene in chapter 1 after Suga's phone call. Where everyone's teasing Daichi about Suga being in love with him and Ushijima joins in, thinking its a fact because Tendou told him and clearly? Tendou's guesses are good enough to be taken as fact unless something suggests otherwise. on top of being hilarious, I think it's so fun to consider how it got to this point. especially with ushijima being bothered by baseless confidence. before going to highschool, ushiwaka was already at shiratorizawa's middle school, having its methodology drilled into his head. He is the culmination of everything the school stands for. Straightforward strength and brutality. then, first year in highschool, he meets tendou. tendou is clearly here by merit, and no one can deny how he embodies brute strength while smashing down spikes. Yet, his method is much more unorthodox. Ushijima is here to be ready to take any ball tossed his way and to blast it past anything standing in his way; that's both his job and technique. Tendou is supposed to block spikes. here he is, running around the court seemingly at random, sometimes losing the team points because the choice he locked himself into before the setter even tossed the ball. Despite that, he Does get it miraculously correct more times than not, and its Weird. the whole team thinks its weird, so its not just like ushijima is the only one for once. and when you ask this first year blocker how he knew to be exactly at the right place to smash the spike down? he shrugs. "vibes" or "gut feeling", sometimes he even says he can Smell It? What???? so it must be random, it has to be random. Ushiwaka has to contend that this boy was let into his prestigious school and volleyball team, he's making decisions that almost no once can predict, and his guesses affect the whole team based on whatever Vibes are. worse, tendou is confident in his "skill" and is resistant to playing volleyball any other way, and SOMEHOW, the coach seems fine with this??? no one gets tendou, but I feel like tendou's playstyle would be so difficult for ushiwaka to wrap his head around. so how long did it take? how many guesses on and off the court did it take for ushijima-- annoyed and baffled by the lack of sense all this makes-- to give in and accept that somehow, some way, tendou just Knows things more often than not. Tendou's guesses are enough to assume that sugawara and daichi are into each other, without ushiwaka even questioning it as a fact. and how far does ushijima believe it goes???? when they hang out off campus and tendou starts guessing the life stories of strangers walking by, there's no way to prove tendou Isn't right unless they ask. which they don't. could tendou guess winning lottery numbers if he wanted to? and if he can, does tendou know and is just deciding not to? the supernatural isn't real, but if they were, that'd explain a lot about his freaky best friend. if ANYONE is psychic, its probably tendou. SORRY FOR THE RAMBLE, I don't have any haikyu friends but I have a lot of Thoughts. no pressure to even reply I just needed to dump my thoughts somewhere

This is actually really interesting because I've had it as my headcanon for a while (and wrote it into a few wips I never finished, even) that Ushijima's play style is because of Tendou.

Tendou is, more than anyone else, best suited for kill-blocking Ushiwaka. In their first year, during training, he does this a lot. Ushijima cannot figure out why he can't get past Tendou's block, and Tendou ends up explaining how his "guess" blocking works - how he can read every detail of Ushijima posture and eyes and figure out exactly where the ball will go.

Ushijima struggles with theatre of the mind, but he does his very best to do what Tendou says. To change how his body is held, to fake him out... And Tendou still stuffs him. He can't figure out what he's doing wrong. Tendou explains that once he's explained how it worked, and Ushijima was going to try and mislead him, he'd started blocking where it didn't look like he was going to hit.

He tries to explain the mind game of blocking to him, the way it's a complicated dance between everyone on the court... And Ushijima hates it. He doesn't want to play volleyball if it requires complicated, PhD level analysis for every spike.

So the next time Tendou jumps for one of his blocks, he just hits it as hard as he fucking can and blows past Tendou's hands. Then he hits harder. Then he hits harder. Hey, it doesn't matter how well Tendou can predict his spike's path if the ball is too powerful to kill block.

By their third year Tendou is still the only person on the Shiratorizawa team that can kill-block Ushiwaka but that's because he sort of revels in the pain and likes feeling Ushijima's power like that. He does have to finish every block with his hands curled against his chest, fighting through the sting.

"I need to be more physically powerful that Tendou's intuition is efficient" is a terrifying way to play the game and I imagine when Tsukki gets that infamous block on him, Tendou is wincing and shaking his hands out in sympathy because yes it's a great feeling but christ at what cost? And then that's also why, later, Ushiwaka ends up hitting the ball so hard the power tears the skin on Tsukishima's hand. His response to a new blocker that could stop him was simply to hit harder.

Anyway I also entirely agree that he 100% has a frankly illogical amount of faith in Tendou. I think he thinks Tendou is a genius. Like sincerely. Where this is the smartest person in the world (he can read people so well its amazing!!) so anything he says Ushijima trusts implicitly. I also think that once Tendou realizes this not even he has the heart to take advantage of it. On the other hand this kindness might be because he's learned Ushijima's response to being bamboozled by his wit is to hit harder and Tendou does not want to see how that translates outside of volleyball.

Thank you for the ask I love any excuse to ramble about these two ☺️☺️ and love the mental image of them hanging out guessing life stories. I bet Tendou is really catty about it and Ushijima has to defend strangers from his best friend's mean judgement even though he doesn't really care it's just on principal.

"dont call strangers a bitch."

"she's wearing hot pink high heels; she's a bitch."

"no."

[youweregreatinthere]

It's for the better

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Summary:

It takes a few rooms, but Bucky knows where he is now. The void. Looking for those he loves.

Out of all of the possible rooms he could've stumbled into, he didn't expect to find the one he loves like this.

Warning/tags: angst, no comfort, short one shot, Bucy's POV

A/N: I have not written anything in years but I cannot stop thinking about Thunderbolts so here I am, feeling very stable and normal, crossposted to ao3

Fic:

It's dark...Okay, Bucky was expecting that. What he didn't expect was the quiet. None of his top 10 in the "shameful memories" category starts with this level of silence, so he starts poking into those memories that even he doesn't want to delve into trying to figure out where he is - and more importantly how to get out.

Then he hears it, that sniffle - no amount of drinks or "heroic missions" could wipe it from his memory. It sinks in, he knows where he is, he knows what he's about to hear. He's shoved back into the mindset of that day and steels himself for the inevitable.

"What do you mean it's for the better? That's absolute bullshit, and you know it too!" God, he had managed to hide the break in her voice in his memories, but he couldn't shrink away from it now, not here. He knows what's coming next, and even he is hoping that this Bucky says something different, something less painful.

"I meant what I said, whatever happens to me, I know it's for the better. None of this is important to me, it never was! I'm wasting my own time; I have more important things to do." That cruel past Bucky says in his cold, metal voice he swore would never be used again. He wants to jump out from his hidden alcove, wants to scream that he was lying and regrets every second of this conversation, but even now he knows this was the only option. He had too much on the line, too many people coming after him. It was scary to have something - no someone - mean so much to him and leave him so vulnerable; more importantly, it was dangerous. If anyone ever found out about her, she would only become a pawn in their games, just like he was. He had long accepted his fate, he knew the part he played and the outcome that awaited him, but he would destroy the galaxies before he forced her into the same outcome. She had an entire life ahead of her, and he knew she was destined for big things, amazing things.

"I know you think you're doing the right thing. I know in your head this is the only way to keep me away from you. I know you think the only way your story ends is young and fiery. But that's not true, none of it has ever been true! I am my own person, and I make my own decisions - you are my decision! Why won't you listen to me? You can't treat me like this and believe that you're the party wronged by the universe here. Everyone is wronged by the universe! I don't know if my story ends badly or if it ends when I'm 103 years old, I only care that you are in it until then. I wish you would listen and let yourself believe... I can wish all that I want, but it won't bring us together, will it?" And that monologue has stuck with Bucky since that day so long ago. It haunts him in his nightmares and invades his mind when he's awake. He's never been able to get away from it, because he knows. He knows he took the easy way out. Never seeing her smile or seeing her grow old was the easy way out because the only other option was to see her suffer at HIS expense. There are so many things he regrets, but he can't bring himself to regret this. It was hard, and he'll always feel the shame of lying and selfishness, but none of that compares to how it would feel to lose her.

This next part was the final nail in the coffin, "Fine Bucky, who am I to ask for more? You want to make your choice? Go ahead! I'll leave, meet someone new eventually, and be happier than I can imagine, but only if you can say it again while actually looking me in the eye." The silence says more than Bucky ever could, "Yeah, that's what I thought," she spoke with finality between quiet sniffles.

He knows he can't see her face like that or hear the last thing she says to Bucky - not if he wants to finish the mission, if he wants to find the ones he has to hold onto now.

He can only think to whisper a final "I'm sorry" before he has to burst through her door that he never thought he'd see again and experience the next horror that awaits him.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The Yiling Band Tour!

[cybertron-smash-or-pass]

TF One Orion Pax

[captain-sunshine-11]

jesus ow ouch why ow

I want "Neil died in Baltimore" Andrew and "The Moriyamas killed Andrew as a warning" Neil to meet

[awionetka]

today’s outfit. captain of my childhood best friend’s racing team during the final race of the season

[gu6chan]

i fucking hate american """left-wingers""" man

[leifyposting]

*appears as if summoned* did someone say fic recs?

first off, op: really really great points on diluc and the diluc&kaeya relationship. i'll do some rambling about diluc characterization in the tags but for now, here are four fics i think might fit what you're looking for!

this work, from @chidorinnnnn, is THE diluc&kaeya fic in my mind. like, no fic has ever topped this one as a study of their dynamic (and probably no fic ever will). the strange muted understanding. carefully finding your footing. the way things could have been and maybe should have been but aren't, and maybe that's okay too. bonus points for the parallel between their fathers, which you mentioned too

moving on to a more diluc-centric piece, from @dandelion-wings. it is so so hard to find good diluc fic because he is such a strange and contradictory character, but this diluc makes the most sense in my head. featuring genuinely gut-wrenching interactions between the boys (one line in particular tears me up every time) and a build-up to tragedy that rivals macbeth

bit of a different piece here: a modern au in which diluc and kaeya reconcile at the end of the world (tw major character death). i cry every time i read this one. their dynamic in this fic is similar to the first one but more messy - you know, finding your footing with the person who used to be your everything now that you are different people than you used to be, and also the world is ending

i read this more than a year ago and have not stopped thinking about it since. it's a longer read but so worth it. the worldbuilding is so intricate and every character and relationship in here is so beautifully fleshed out - not just diluc and kaeya but also the people of mondstadt and how they relate to one another. this author also has an amazing (and shorter) crepus&kaeya fic that i think you might enjoy

anyway! hope that was helpful. these are my four favourite diluc&kaeya fics ever so i hope you enjoy them! thank you for sharing your thoughts with us as well!

The Genshin Impact fandom is fascinating to me when it comes to fanfics, because I feel like I struggle to find any fics that really *get* the characterization of certain characters and I'm loathed to write my own because dammit I just want to read the specific itch I crave without resorting to creating it. Give me three more months and I'll cave in.

For example, Diluc is one of my favorites and I find his backstory fascinating in terms of his father Crepus possibly being more morally ambiguous than most fans are willing to admit and how little we know of Diluc's murder spree in Snezhnaya.

For example which Harbinger(s) did he have a run-in with? Will we find out more about the secret intelligence network that took him in, that he apparently had a high position in? Did he ever find the answers he was searching for? The list goes on.

It's hard for me to find the specific characterization of him I crave for in fics because I think his platonic relationship with Kaeya is incredibly nuanced and complex but I feel like his character often gets assassinated for Kaeya angst but like, the man had the worst birthday ever?

Imagine being Diluc, living through a literal worst nightmare. Your dad is dead after you failed to protect him yourself. Not only is your dad dead but he died after wielding a delusion--you dont even know what a delusion is but its clearly bad news. Why the fuck did your father have it and how?

On top of this, the Favonius Knights--the organization you proudly served and the very organization that your father heavily encouraged you to serve--insists on covering up the truth because it makes them look bad. The Favonius Knights, who are supposed to be honorable and uphold integrity, are anything but that.

Then your adoptive brother, who you've known for years and trust with your life, shows up and tells you he's been spying for a foreign nation since you were kids with the intent of harming Mondstadt and everything about your relationship is possibly all one big lie and well--how do you not snap??

Now, I'm also incredibly fond of Kaeya and he was just as traumatized by Crepus's death. He was wracked with guilt for *feeling* relieved that he didn't have to worry about betraying his birth father for his adoptive father since Crepus was dead. He anticipated Diluc's anger and felt like their duel was a punishment for his lies.

To me, it hints that Kaeya probably didn't reveal the truth expecting Diluc's understanding, but rather he knew how he would react and perhaps he wanted Diluc to strike him down in that duel. Or at the very least, he wanted to distance himself from Diluc and cut off ties in order to avoid emotional attachment stopping him from his mission.

I personally head-canon that Diluc withdrew upon seeing Kaeya's vision because well--why would the gods bless Kaeya with a vision if he truly had the intent to harm Mondstadt? So in spite of what Kaeya revealed, he isn't a threat. But there's still a lot of hurt there to navigate through.

I think it's fascinating seeing where they stand in present game because Kaeya obviously has the ideology of working the system from within. He stayed in the knights (even taking over his brother's position) and with Jean rooted out the Inspector and his cronies.

Meanwhile Diluc just isn't that type of person. He doesn't settle, he refuses to work in a system he views corrupt, he rather accomplish what he can outside of it. Curiously, he doesn't challenge the status quo beyond being vocal of his distaste of the Knights.

This is head-canon fantasyland, but I like to envision Kaeya and Diluc do use a lot of the same informants and collaborate on intel relating to the safety of Mondstadt (especially since Diluc can move in ways against the Fatui that the Knights can't due to political reasons) but they struggle to have the same connection as before.

For example, Diluc's story quest--Kaeya was essentially giving Diluc an alibi with the Knights. Even if Jean damn well knows who it is, they still have to have official documentation stating otherwise.

Kaeya is good at reading people, he has to be given how he was raised to be a child spy. But I like to think he struggles to read Diluc like before. Diluc is much more jaded, pessimistic, quieter than before. He prefers to work on his own as much as possible. From Kaeya's pov, the only person he's seen Diluc willing to fully trust enough to work alongside with is the Traveler, and he states as much.

The opposite is true of Diluc. Kaeya was his shadow, a quiet but inquisitive, witty observer. Cavalry Captain Kaeya is much more outgoing and friendly, his charm on full display. Did he ever really truly know Kaeya or did he only show Diluc what he wanted him to see? Is Kaeya happier this way?

Fanon often depicts Kaeya as essentially being barred from the dawn winery from the duel by Diluc himself, but I don't think that's quite the case. Much rather, given the reason he told Diluc that night, I think he views himself as undeserving due to unresolved guilt.

Canon seems to hint at all of this through his hangout and Hidden Strife, the latter of which is unfortunately a time-limited event that occurred before I even played (hoyo please stop having heavy lore drops occur in time limited events).

I think the two want to trust each other again, but both are afraid of destroying the tentative truce they have so they leave all of it unaddressed. Kaeya refuses to be completely truthful ever again and Diluc acknowledges the past but refuses to discuss it. The tragedy in their relationship that neither is at fault for what happened--it's a twisted emotional mess of grief and heartbreak.

The last point I'd like to touch on is the parallels between Kaeya and Diluc both being essentially child soldiers for their fathers' causes.

For Kaeya, being abandoned in Mondstadt to be a child spy is the most overt. For Diluc? Despite Crepus's strong ambition to be a Favonius Knight and to have a vision--neither happened for him. In Diluc's vision story, it states that he views his vision being a result of their "shared" ambition, hinting that his vision was granted after Diluc's strong resolve to achieve his father's dreams for him.

We know Crepus heavily encouraged Diluc down this path at very young age, given Diluc received his vision at age 10 and became the youngest Captain at age 14. In some ways, I'm sure Kaeya was a bit jealous of Diluc for having a loving father present in his life that was overtly proud of him.

I am not saying Crepus wasn't a good father, I think he cared immensely for Kaeya and Diluc both, but I do think he did some morally grey shit.

Diluc abandoning his vision is fascinating and it's almost never explored in fics. He is the only vision holder we know of (aside from the Inazumauns whose visions were taken by force) that had their ambition for their vision shaken in such a way that they voluntarily discarded their vision for a time and only took it back after reigniting a new ambition to have it (and as far we know the only allogene that faced no negative setbacks from using a delusion long-term without their vision present).

I don't know where to end all of this, except if you have ragbros fic recommendations that you believe cover it in a more nuanced way, let me know!

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

Do you have any tips on doing accurate research for people without access to formal education

Sure! This can't be one size fits all for every field, but I can give some starting points for history.

If you're reading a book, here's what to consider:

1. Are there footnotes or endnotes? In academia this is our way of being transparent with each other about where you got information. If a book doesn't have them, they're more interested in telling a good story than being accountable to their peers. That's a red flag.

2. Don't trust claims that seem very specific but don't have a source. Broad claims can be the author's analysis. But specific things "so and so said this" "there was a rumor that (x)" should be coming from somewhere and it is the author's job to tell you where.

3. Look out for choppy quoting. Even if someone has a source, they may not be using it well. If someone is paraphrasing a lot and only uses bits and pieces of the text while also using a lot of ellipses, you will want to try to find the whole text to make sure it's being quoted fairly.

4. Look at the publication date. Knowledge changes with time and old books tend to be outdated. You don't have to stick to the academic rule of thumb of "25 years is the threshold for new scholarship" but do be aware that if something is over 50 years old, many many people have likely revisited and revised what it's saying. Not that new books can't also be bad and incorrect, but they tend to be working with better tools generally.

5. Look up the author. I cannot stress this one enough. The author's background and political convictions can matter a lot to how they interpret things. For example, one of the biographies people tend to pick up about my dissertation topic is from the late 1920s by a man who later applied to join the NSDAP. That fact really can't be separated from his interpretations no matter how hard people try.

6. Stop reading if someone is making a lot of moral or personal judgements on a historical figure. I'm talking about the "Elizabeth I was a frigid hag and men found her ugly"-esque takes, not things like calling historical atrocities morally bad. Does it feel like bitchy gossip? That sort of thing is unprofessional, uninformative, and means someone has an axe to grind. Spite can be motivation for research, but axe grinding shouldn't show up clearly in published work.

These are things to keep in mind to make sure you're getting better information. Others are free to add on for their field or if there's something I forgot.

One very important thing to add: professors and academics like people emailing them about their research. You can do that! You can ask for copies of pay walled articles. You just have to go through the mortifying ordeal of expressing interest in an email.

[navydoves]

Mermaid!Rafayel and his strange habits while in heat.

❥ He has a lot of cycles… all of which you have to suffer through.

✎ᝰ a/n. alright, rafayel is our starter for this sister series! i hope people enjoy this series as much as they did the “affectionate habits” one. if you want to be tagged in the next updates for this series, pls lmk i will be happy to. the other lis are:

- bunny xavier, cat zayne, dragon sylus, and cyborg/puppy caleb (i have to choose for caleb)

enjoy!

affectionate habits ver.

࣪𖤐

❥ he hisses! no more chirps or chitters, rafayel cannot stop hissing at everything around him. it’s not even just other men or women, it’s also like… coral reefs and amoebas. the hissing is rather loud and a bit scary, but he never does it to you. no, rafayel’s hisses are a way to ward off others in order to protect you. even if those “others” are passing crabs.

the first time rafayel started doing this you thought he was mad at you and this was his way of expressing it. you would recoil at the sound and then try and comfort him so you could figure out what you did wrong. but as soon as rafayel notices you’re upset, he immediately brings you into an embrace and reassures you that it’s not you. it’s the seaweed next to you, babe.

although when it comes to actual people, rafayel will get even louder in his hisses. he genuinely hates the idea of others being with you when he needs the most attention now. he thinks everyone’s out to get a piece of you and his anger only tells you he would never hesitate to hurt or kill those who get too close.

❥ he pins you constantly. it’s no secret rafayel is concerningly strong, but his muscle mass and strength become more prominent during his heat. by no joke, he will pin you with an index finger and leave you helpless writhing. but that’s precisely why he likes doing it. he really enjoys seeing you submissive and struggling underneath him, even if he’s not gonna do anything.

but most of the time… he is gonna do something. the whole point of his pinning is so he can keep you still as he going ramming into you from every position. his thrusts are deep and strong, so you need to be kept still or else you’re gonna go flying out the sea. he’s rough when he’s in heat and he’s practically training you to take his force because… well who else is gonna help him? only you can, no matter how much smaller and weaker you are.

❥ he speaks in lemurian. about half of the time rafayel spends in his heat he spends speaking to you in tongues. his heat is so instinctual that he can’t help be speak his native tongue even if you can’t understand him. he’s pawing at you, growling and begging right up in your ear until the entire tone of his voice changes. suddenly you’re hearing words you can’t make out in low pitches that make you shudder.

knowing he needs you is hot enough. but not knowing what he’s gonna do to you is even hotter. all the dirty talk he’s probably saying in your ear as he bend you over a rock and presses his 12 foot form against you gets you going. overtime you’ve learned a few words here and there… kind of. you know the words he says when he’s satisfied and or about to come, but you don’t actually know what they mean. you know the words he uses when he’s threatens you (not actually, just sexually) to come help him.

he’ll switch back and forth between his two languages unconsciously, especially in the heat of the moment. but if you’re being honest… you kinda want him to swoon you in lemurian all the time.

❥ he cries a lot. i think it’s well known that rafayel can have major mood swings sometimes, and his heat makes this a lot worse. while he is rough and claiming a good decent amount of the time, he’s also super emotional when you’re not around. he’ll curl into seaweed beds or alcoves to sob and whimper because he doesn’t have his darling with him. he’ll especially throw a fit if his heat becomes painful and there’s no outlet for him to use.

it’s a very sad sight to see. pearls come floating out of his eyes because he feels so lonely. his biology is telling him to give his body to his beloved, but if she’s not here or can’t, then it physically pains him. he’s physically bonded with you and can’t even think about using anything or anyone else to help him with his heat. the best he can do is stimulate his two cocks in private to best simulate what you might feel like, but it’s never ever enough.

❥ his cocks are always out. usually there’s a slit on the forefront of his tail where they retract and hide away until necessary but during his heat… well they’re just kinda always there. and it’s not because rafayel can’t put them away, it’s just that he doesn’t want to. at first you though maybe it was just a biology thing. cocks always out? right makes sense, he needs them constantly. but you learned from him that no… he just likes having them out with you around.

it’s for convenience sake. any sudden surge of horny he gets, no time is wasted getting those things out. he’ll immediately have you on your back with his floater friends ready to penetrate. they’re never soft either… they’re always just kinda hard and slick. while the sight is maybe a little bit amusing, it’s also impractical. you can’t sleep next to him without having to make room for his long schlongs. you can’t graze against them accidentally unless you want to be spurted with strange lemurian liquid. you can’t look at them for too long without rafayel getting incredibly horny and wanting to fuck you.

at some point you asked him why he doesn’t just put them away until they’re needed, but he insists on having you admire impressive his assets.

❥ he’s really obsessed with baby-talk. give him the benefit of the doubt, he’s in heat. while regular, normal rafayel isn’t too keen on the idea of babies, lemurian, in heat rafayel loves them. he massages your tummy and imagines his little seedlings in there. he doesn’t let himself come anywhere else but inside you in hopes of getting you pregnant. he’s constantly playing with your breasts in hopes that you’ll magically start milking.

the biology won’t allow it and rafayel knows that, but his brain is too muddled with ideas of you becoming a mother to his children. while he is no doubt aggressive in his heat, the heat itself is a biological purpose used for only mating. and lemurians mate for life. there’s no one else. so be honored <3

࣪𖤐

[sttoru]

Trueform sukuna who never kisses his concubines. EXCEPT he only kisses his favorite concubine aka reader 😞🎀

𝝑𝑒 synopsis. you’re the only one deserving of lord sukuna’s.. direct affection.

tags. true form!sukuna x concubine!reader. fluff, suggestive at most. uhh exhibitionism ? kinda but nothing crazy sexual happens, so pda. size difference. reader gets called ‘doll.’

you’re standing at the entrance of the estate, along with some other concubines. four of them. uraume is there with you as well. you’re all awaiting the one person you’re serving; ryomen sukuna.

it’s silent. the women don’t dare to speak up nor do they dare address you in a menacing manner because of uraume’s presence. you’re thankful for them. you really don’t want to have another petty fight with the concubines. not before your little trip to the village nearby.

you’re all accompanying sukuna to meet up with an infamous clan leader. it’s official business, but you’re needed as a sign of your lord’s high status. you’re basically his trophies that he likes to show off.

“interesting choice of clothing,” sukuna finally shows up. you all bow, showing respect. you look up and only then realise that he’s addressing you. his eyes wander over your figure, “who’s chosen that for you?”

you glance down at your kimono. it’s a beautiful red—suiting the color of sukuna’s eyes. your hair is put up in a neat bun, with a matching crimson hairpin that represented who you belong to.

him.

“my lady-in-waiting, my lord,” you say quietly. you cannot see it, yet can easily feel it; the jealous glares from the four women. they’re dressed in the exact same color red, yet their lord hasn’t paid them any mind. not even a glance.

sukuna just hums in response and makes a mental note of your answer. at least his human servants are good for something. he continues to shamelessly check you out.

“lord sukuna,” uraume interrupts carefully. they bow their head once the king of curses looks their way with a stoic expression, “we’ll have to leave now if we wish to make it there at dawn.”

it’s a gentle reminder, but there’s some urgency in their voice. sukuna rolls his eyes—he may have some official business, but he’s not attending that. not before taking care of other more important stuff first. “silence,” he comments to uraume, heavy steps heading your way afterwards.

your eyes meet his. you blink in confusion, eyelashes fluttering. the sight makes sukuna’s hands twitch at his sides. the way you stare up at him with such naïveté is making him want to destroy it.

you’re unsure what sukuna wants from you. as he orders, everyone stays quiet. you watch as his big hands wrap around your body—your waist engulfed by his warm palms. your eyes widen, but before you can question his actions, your lips are sealed by his.

it’s rare that he does this. kissing sukuna is a privilege. one that no one has ever gotten the honour of having, except for you.

you’ve tasted him. you’ve felt his tongue slither against yours. you’ve had his saliva mix with yours. you’ve had him grunting in your mouth.

you’ve had it all.

no one says a thing. even as your feet are lifted from the ground by the sheer strength of sukuna’s grip on your small body. to reach his lips properly, he has to pick you up and hold you against his chest. it’s his favorite thing to do.

“pretty thing,” sukuna coos with a grin. you can feel his lips curling up menacingly against your mouth. it makes you whine. you instantly shut up once you realise that you’re still outside and surrounded by others—who are basically waiting on you two to be done.

you’re embarrassed to the point that you want nothing more than to hide your face against sukuna’s chest. but he will not let you until he’s had his fill. your tongues swirl around each other passionately, followed by him sucking on your bottom lip and biting it with his sharp fangs.

“my lord,” you whine quietly. you know this’ll end up like that one time in the garden. where he shamelessly took you in front of his servants. you’re unsure if it’s a smart thing to do right now. sukuna has an appointment to go to after all.

his mouth doesn’t stop interlocking with yours. his thick fingers tug at the hairs on the back of your neck, causing you to part your lips in surprise. the king of curses takes his chance and explores your warm little mouth. the one that he’s claimed as his the moment you became his concubine.

you tug at his sleeve as a reminder. sukuna grumbles in annoyance, but he knows you’re right; he should let go. his bottom set of eyes dart over to uraume for a second and upon seeing their expressionless yet determined face, he sighs.

all that official business can suck his dick.

sukuna finally detaches his lips from your now wet and swollen ones. you’re breathing hard, trying to catch your breath. you’re flustered to the point you actually bury your face into sukuna’s chiseled chest. you’re sure this’ll be the only talk around the estate for the upcoming week. you’ll become the victim of some more. . . bullying.

the king of curses notices that you don’t let go of him at all. he grins at the sight of you so desperately clinging onto him. he tries to undo the little mess he made of your once neat hair in the meantime.

“what? want me to carry you all the way there, doll?” sukuna raises an eyebrow, teasing you as per usual. you don’t let go of him since you’re still cooling off. you’ve never really kissed outside of the bedroom. it always happens behind closed doors, so this one time took you by surprise.

you shake your head and plop down on your feet again. “no, my apologies, my lord,” you straighten the material of your kimono and don’t even dare to look at the others. uraume would understand, since they’re used to their lord’s antics, but the concubines will cause big trouble once you’re back home.

sukuna nods in acknowledgment. he still got that evil smirk on his face. his thumb brushes the smudged lipstick from the corner of your mouth, cleaning up his mess once again. he’s nice enough to do so today.

“heh.” sukuna lets out an amused chuckle before walking away and ahead of you—the others silently following, as do you. you’re right behind him, on his right side, as he turns his head to yours, “just so y’know, i’m not done with you.”

you know sukuna isn’t. you can easily tell by the way that he didn’t even bother to wipe the lipstick from his own lips. he’s wearing that stain like it’s a medal of sorts. evidence that you’re the only one he’s ever going to show such affection to.

either way; you’re in for one hell of a ride once you’re back from your little business trip.

[gaysindistress]

Things that I feel like would happen when you’re in a relationship with Simon Riley.

Simon Riley masterlist

1. First off he hates the word ‘boyfriend’.

Maybe it’s because he’s in his mid thirties or something but he can’t stand being called your boyfriend. He’s more than that but also not at the same time. You live together, have access to each other’s bank accounts (which is only because he hates it when you try to fight him about him giving you money), and you’re each others emergency contact. He thinks of himself as your husband. The man wears a silicone ring when he’s home and a necklace with the ring that’s totally not a wedding band when he’s working. Price has seen the chain once or twice and smirks, shooting him a knowing look but never says a word.

Simon cannot stand it when people get nosy and want to know what your relationship status is. You’re together and that’s all that matters. No one needs to know that you’re the beneficiary of his will and life insurance policy or that he’s put you on all of his accounts. No one needs to know that he buys you anything you want but has only ever bought you two rings; a thin gold band with a flower engraved on it and its twin a matching emerald ring. No one needs to know that when he gifted them to you, there were tears and promises of safety, love, and happiness whispered against feverish skin. No one needs to know that he has your name woven into his chest tattoo.

No one needs to know any of that because your relationship is between him and you only.

2. You are not some submissive little house wife. You are a strong independent woman and he prefers it that way.

I know this one goes against what most people say but hear me out on this. Simon has been independent since birth practically. He’s only had himself to count on for years. Even in the military, he’s only been able to rely himself. Sure the others watch out for him but if it came down to it, he’s the only one who’s going to get himself out alive.

The thought of someone else relying on him in that way is terrifying. He can’t even fathom what it would be like to look at another person and fully trust them in that way. Half the time he feels like he can’t even be trusted to take care of himself let alone another human. In theory a sweet docile housewife is great with the meals and clean house but not for him. He needs to know that you can hold your own. He needs to know that you can be independent and carry on without him if something happened while he was working. He needs to know that you will be okay if he doesn’t come back.

You have to be okay without him no matter how much it pains him to think about it.

Like I said before, he’s made you the beneficiary of everything so he knows you’ll be set financially but that’s not enough. He’s made Price promise to keep an eye out for you. He’s made you promise to let Price do that and you agreed because it’s Simon who’s asking but you’d tell anyone else to fuck off.

In addition to all of that, he’s installed the best security system the government has to offer in your house. You have a very expensive and large safe in your shared closet that he’s instructed you to only open if you feel unsafe. While you might not like it, you agree to go shooting with him so he can sleep at night knowing that you could protect yourself if he’s not home. He’s gone as far as to make sure you have all of the licenses and certificates that are needed to legally own firearms in the UK.

He’s not leaving any opportunity for you to be vulnerable or have your ‘safety checks’, as he calls them, taken away.

3. Simon Riley is a godless man…until he meets you.

Now this is entirely my own headcannon with no evidence to support it so bear with me.

Simon had a shitty childhood where his mom would pray to a god who never listened and his dad would shout verses at him when he was drunk. God was a mythical figure that he was told stories off with nothing to show for it. He did believe at one point but then his dad never got better, his mom wore bruises of every shade, and his brother found comfort in drugs.

He found himself praying when he was being tortured by the Mexican cartel. Between the flashbacks of his abusive past, he prayed to a god who had failed him so many times before to help him. He prayed again as he dug himself out of that Texas grave with the major’s jaw bone. He wailed his prayers when he found his family executed after Sparks tried to kill him.

After that he deemed himself a Godless man. Years of praying had passed with nothing. This god had decided that Simon was not worthy of a miracle so why would he continue to worship him?

That was until he met you. He finds himself praying before every mission, every time he has to leave you, every time he’s on his way home, and just about any other time he thinks of you. He doesn’t know what exactly he’s praying for other than for you to be there when he gets back.

He whispers his prayers to an absent god against your skin as he worships your body, soul, and heart. He promises to be devoted to you until his last breath and vows to find you again in whatever afterlife awaits you. He pledges to find solace in you and only you when his haunting nightmares return. He makes an oath to your heart that it will never weather another storm alone again for his will take whatever beating that comes your way. He shows you that he will love you in the same manner as a Hozier song; putting you above all else because you have become his religion, his faith, his beliefs, his life.

You have become all that he is and he thanks the god he once believed in for you. He prays again but to you, his heart, his love, and his beacon through the enteral storm of life.

[beloveds-embrace]

(more of fae poly 141 x human queen reader || Masterlist)

It begins, as all fae things do, with something half-whispered and half-willed into being.

The Queen Mother watches from her high balcony, swathed in robes stitched from starlight and spider-silk, a goblet of elderflower wine in hand, and eyes like knives turned on her sons- indeed, only John may be her son of her own blood, but the other three have been married to him long enough she sees them all the same. Now, she is not subtle in her disappointment, but subtlety is not what’s needed now.

She wants a grandchild.

You are the wife, thus you are the womb. You are also- unfortunately- entirely unconvinced.

Which is a problem.

So the court changes. Just a little. Just enough- and all by the Queen Mother’s hand.

You notice it in the morning, when your tea no longer arrives lukewarm but steaming gently in a mug carved with delicate runes for comfort and staying warm. In the way the wind, once cruel and clawing, now stirs only to brush your hair back like a mother’s hand.

You find moss blooming along the path you take to the greenhouse- soft, lush, easier on your feet when you leave your shoes behind, as you often do. Glowy flits at your shoulder, a small sun in a kingdom that loves its shadows. Thrain trails behind with his antlers lowered, his hooves never once clicking on the stone, for the castle shifts beneath him now. Quiet, respectful for the being its Queen finds comfort in.

You don’t understand the change. You assume it’s the Queen Mother’s doing, for it certainly could not be your husbands’.

And you are not wrong- but you do not see the rest of it, nor do you understand why.

You do not see Johnny kneeling in your study after you’ve gone to sleep, trying to decipher the new system you’ve carved into court documentation like sacred text. He is muttering under his breath, muttering your name, because he can’t figure out how the taxes flow this smoothly without magic.

“Bloody hell,” he mutters, frowning at a sheet full of overlapping glyphs and sigils. “How does she even- ?”

He runs a hand through his hair and exhales, defeated. “Nae way queenie’s human. No way.”

He cannot do what you do, and it terrifies him as much as it excites him.

You do not see Simon standing outside your window at dusk, his silhouette caught in the trembling light of a fae firefly swarm. He doesn’t knock. Just watches. He thinks about the way your shoulders sag when no one’s looking. He doesn’t know how to help without breaking something, yet he doesn’t acknowledge that his inaction might be just as cruel.

“She’s always tired,” he says quietly, to no one but the trees that stare at him in silent judgement and accusation. “Don’t think we’ve ever asked why.”

You do not see Kyle trimming the hedge maze into gentler curves he’s the one who shapes the new garden path into a spiral, the human symbol of devotion. You won’t recognize it, not right away, but he hopes that someday you’ll walk it barefoot and feel safe, and the thorns will no longer prick your fingers or get tangled in your dresses.

“Be nice,” he murmurs to the leaves. “If she had something made for her. Not for show. Just… hers.”

And John… he leaves you a book. Not a weapon, nor a command, but a book; a soft, leather-bound thing from the human realm, tucked into your pillow. One you’d spoken about months ago in passing when you were trying to strike up small talk, the kind of memory no one was supposed to hold on to.

But he remembered, and he knows well enough not to tell you it was him who got that book for you, because he knows you wouldn’t believe it the same way you don’t believe any of them.

“She won’t believe it’s from me,” he says to the mothlight above your bed, and Glowy sharpens its light at him, unimpressed. “But maybe she’ll enjoy the story anyways.”

Their attempts feel like guilt wrapped in ribbons, like pity painted gold, so you wear your silence like armor. Your glamours grow sharper and darker, and become even more of what they always wanted you to be: untouchable, mysterious, other. Anything except human.

Not because you want to, but because it is safer.

And they- gods, they don’t know how to undo it.

They, the fearsome four. Masters of strategy, of illusion, of war. A beloved, respected King and his beloved, respected advisors.

They are helpless in the face of your doubt. Fools, all four of them.

Which is why the Queen Mother begins to meddle in earnest.

She speaks in circles at court dinners, drops names of fertility rites and lucky moons. She gives you gowns lined with moonstone and roses that only bloom when kissed by love. She leaves baby shoes- handwoven from frost-leaves- on your writing desk like a curse you make no mention of because acknowledging it is terrifying.

And still, she does not pressure you. Not directly, anyways.

Only… makes space. Opens doors. Makes them walk through them until one by one, they begin showing up.

Johnny brings pastries he says were “extra” but are clearly from the bakery in the fae city you once mentioned yoy liked. He never stays long, just drops them off, scratches Thrain’s fur for the five seconds the great stag lets him before it tries to bite his hand and head cleanly off, and mumbles about going.

“Don’t read into it,” he says, ears flushed, hands in his pockets and away from Thrain’s hungry maw. “Jus’ thought you’d like the wee apple ones. You always looked happier w’ apple.”

Kyle hums near your bath, not entering, but talking idly through the steam about human songs you’d once sung with the will-o-wisps. He doesn’t ask to join. He just exists nearby- even less than the time Johnny had kept you company.

“Remember the one with the moon and the river?” he asks, softly. “They still echo it down the west wing.”

Simon sits on the couch of your office and watches you. Never interrupts. Just… listens. Like he’s learning you all over again, but this time he is paying attention.

“You breathe differently when you’re upset,” he murmurs one day, not looking at you. “Didn’t know that before. I do now. Let me look at that ledger.”

John brings Glowy closer to your chair when you read. Doesn’t speak. Just adjusts the wings so the glow warms your feet, and then he watches in amusement as Glowy hisses at him for his audacity to reposition it like that- yet it eagerly stays in that spot to provide warmth for you.

You glance up, and his eyes catch yours.

“Light-… Glowy was too far,” he says simply. “Can’t have you freezing.”

It is not much- but it is more than nothing.

And still, you do not trust it; love should not come only after loss; love should not bloom only when you have nothing left to give.

But the court begins to whisper. Softer now. Not prey, not little queen.

Yours, perhaps, after all.

And when you wake one morning to find your glamours replaced by simple fabric, soft and real- no magic, no sharpness, no enchanted jewellery, just skin and breath and linen- and none of them flinch, none of them turn away, not even when you catch their stares and look back, unadorned…

You wonder, just a little, if something has begun to change.

You wonder if they see you now.

Thrain noses your wrist, grumbling deep from his belly, the sound happy. Glowy settles into your collar with a delicate fwmp of its wings. The wind, the fae wind, brings you petals instead of thorns.

And beside your pillow- tucked gently against the spine of your beloved book- is a letter, penned in four distinct hands, tied with gold thread and sealed with wax.

You open it with trembling fingers, and inside it reads:

We’d like to take you to dinner. No court. No masks. Just us. At the gazebo. Say yes, and wear whatever you like. We’ll be waiting.

Yours- if you’ll still have us.