#they're so pretty my heart can barely handle it Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[starlitmeadows]

i really wanted to draw Loop in a dress

[evieelyzabethh]

Love your work. <3 Could you write something with reader x spike where they're kinda' pining for one another, but one night he gets injured and has to stay over at her house? She patches him up and maybe offers him a bite? Doesn't have to be nsfw but +5 cool points if it is. <3

Hello, my loves, long time no see!!! I hope this is to your liking <3

Spike is so incredibly reckless. You knew this, he knew, everybody knew that Spike was a walking accident waiting to happen'. He likes to think he can handle himself. "I'm bad, baby," he'd tell you, "M' the big bad slayer killer. I can handle a few scratches." But you were never worried about what he could handle, you were worried about the fact that his blood was always staining your couch. That and the fact that his lack of self-preservation kept you up at night.

Usually, he has some decorum. He doesn't come to you with every scrape and bruise, even though you handled him with much more care than he was capable of extending to himself. It was his way of punishing himself, depriving himself of your head scratches and soft hands for bothering you too much. You scolded him for this, of course. It seems like its every other week (more like every other day) when you and he argue, most often in front of the Scoobies who waited anxiously for you take your arguments to the bedroom, about him leaving you to worry about whether or not he was ash.

"I mean, fuck Spike. Is it really that hard to just give me a call if you plan on bleeding at your place. A little 'Hi, yeah, I don't think I need my wounds treated with modern medicine, I'm gonna take my chances with old whisky and tetanus like the good ol' days'." And every time he takes his well-earned lecture with a smirk and a bowed head.

"Yes, mother, next time I'll break your door down at three in the morning for some pretty pink bandages."

"If you were so ashamed of the pretty pink bandages, maybe you should think before you run into knives!"

Spike has maybe told the truth a grand total of two times in his whole life, so his word means absolutely nothing. He continues to ignore your street like the plague unless it's an absolute emergency.

Now was an emergency.

You barely heard the faint knocks on your door from your bedroom, where you sat on your bed, music blasting from your stereo and some reality court show droning on in the background, catching your attention when someone decided to be particularly messy. You had thought it was your neighbors blind dog scratching at your door again until something large and loud hit it. Quickly arming yourself with a frying pan, you crept to your door, tearing it open for a very injured Spike to nearly fall flat on your floor before he caught himself using your doorframe.

His left hand clutched at his bleeding side and he walked with a limp over to his couch which now had a plastic cover. His dead heart was touched.

"Aw, you were waiting for me, " he croaked out. He fell on his back, one of his hands falling over the side and his eyes closing as soon as his head at the pillow. His shirt had claw marks that were lined with blood and his duster had barely escaped the carnage, a few holes separate from the preexisting moth holes sticky with some supernatural substance.

"Have to be prepared when it comes to you." You patted his cheek, thumbing over his cheekbones to try and arouse some consciousness. "Can't have you fallin' asleep on me. You might not wake up." You weren't going to leave his side until you were sure he wasn't going to die in your absence.

He babbled unintelligently, his mouth moving but having no connection to his brain to form any sort of actual thought. His eyes flit between closed and aware, his head moving to catch up with the spinning room, his mouth impossibly dry, and his head pounding. In his head, he insisted he was fine, but the words wouldn't come out right. He spat them out garbled and messy until he was too choked up to even try anymore.

He was barely conscious when he felt your wrist at his mouth. He had enough sense to shake his head and nudge away your wrist with his nose, but his lack of strength made his attempts futile. "No," he mumbled.

"You'll feel better," your voice swam around in his head until the words lost meaning and he just smiled at the sound of your voice. You swiped your thumb across one of his canines, the red contrasting with the pearly whites of his teeth swiftly wiped away by the pink of his tongue. After the taste of your blood was on his tongue, his sense was surrendered to instinct as he brought your wrist to his lips.

You didn't know what you were getting into. Vampires get their life force from blood, so it just made sense to have him feed from you to expedite the healing process. The more he drank, the louder your heartbeat grew in your ear and the closer he pulled you to him. You had only done this once before, when you were both drunk and dizzy and jokes being whispered in your ear turned into tiny nips from your neck that Buffy nearly walked in on.

In complete shock of what had happened then, you never brought it up, halfway convincing yourself that it never happened in the first place. If it did happen, he had enough sense to pull away then and you hoped he had the sense the pull away now, but now was much different. Now, there was a newfound hunger. A desperation. Like he had been starving himself for years and you were the first bite of food he had eaten. Had to have been good food to, with the way he inhaled you, indulged in you like you were some ambrosia or golden mead.

"Spike," you moaned. "I'm getting a bit light-headed." Your voice was high and thin, fearful as you made attempts to pull your arm from his lips. Through his haze, his fangs contracted back, and his tongue swiped whatever lingered on your skin.

"I'm sorry." Sorry for going too far, sorry for almost turning you into an empty Capri Sun pouch, sorry for being reckless again.

" 's ok."

You wobbled a bit as you stood, fingers wrapped around your wound as you shuffled into your kitchen in pursuit of your first aid kit. "You gonna tell me what happened?" He only groaned from the couch.

"Maybe tomorrow. I'm tired." You laughed on your way over to him, wrist already covered in gauze with an all too familiar needle and thread in hand.

"You're tired?" The smell of your blood was all too pungent, still. He turned his head towards the wall, studying the numerous music posters and paintings you had hanging.

"Going out to fight evil is a very hard job." You chuckled.

"I know. That's why I stay in here to patch you up." Your fingers were like magic. They always had a way of calming him down. Especially the way you hummed to yourself while you worked. You were never content with just silence. "I expect an answer in the morning." He smiled.

"Yes, ma'am." He fell asleep before you even finished and by the time you were done, you were too tired to walk the down the hall to your bed. You laid your head down on his chest, with no heartbeat to thrum and no breath to rock you, you still fell asleep just like that. Who knew cold bodies were so comfortable.

[iwannascreameurekaa]

I don't understand how any of the seven get so much hate. They all have amazing characteristics, designs, personalities, backgrounds, etc. 

so I'm gonna explain why they're all amazing

Yay

Percy

Percy is the main character to the first five books so he has the most information shown about him than the seven since we read from his point of view in pjo and the Olympians. His whole thing of loyalty is incredible and the things he risked to save people he barely knew made him an amazing protagonist. 

Annabeth

Hello??? I know she's smart but that's not her only characteristic. She's blinded by her own powers and doesn't know how to handle things thrown at her when she can only rely on her emotions which is amazing cause ME TOO GIRLY she's a badass who also went through so much during HOO 

Leo

Built a whole ass ship, was manipulated and controlled into KILLING HIS OWN MOTHER OMGS MY HEART, was always singled out and felt like he didn't belong, SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR HIS FRIENDS, and so much more!!!

Jason

This is where ima start defending for my life bc people who say Jason is boring don't understand his story. He was taken from his home, raised by wolves until he was around 2/3, raised the rest of his life until his was 16 in a camp where he was trained to be an actual child soldier, kidnapped and had his memory erased, watched his best friend DIE, and died for his other best friend !!! WHAT MORE DO YOU PEOPLE WANT????? OFC HES GOING TO BE BORING HE DIDNT KNOW WHO HE WAS OR WHAT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE

Piper

I will hold you by the shoulders and stare directly into your soul until you give me a good reason to hate Piper bc she did nothing wrong. She just wanted her father's love and she never got it so what happened? She was sent or a wilderness camp where she was also manipulated into believing a random boy was her bf which entirely messed her up and it took her MONTHS ALMOST A YEAR to realize that she didn't have the feelings she was lead to believe. THEN SHE SAW HER EX HER BSF DIE IN FRONT OF HER????? I WOULD BE RUINED AFTER THAT OMGS 

Hazel

Excuse me, didn't she DIE in the 1940s to prevent the world from ending, came back, only to have to save the world AGAIN??? Not to mention that fact that she was bullied and harassed all her life before and after her death. Before her death she was always treated like the devil bc of her curse, even by her own mother. Her mom even neglected Hazel which is something NO ONE SEEMS TO TALK ABOUT. Then she has an unknown brother save her from the underworld and have to completely rebuild her life from scratch. At new rome she still wasn't treated right and was left out and made out to be a weird girl just like her old life. Tbh if that was me I wouldn't be shaking crying every time I saw someone. Also she learned how to control the mist which is pretty fricking cool okay I love her 

Frank

Let's just point out the obvious first. The reason Frank is not one of the most loved characters is because he is/was chubby. I'll say it, that is the reason. If he was skinny/fit more people would love him. That's probably why Rick did the transformation thingy thing where Frank got all buff. Which sucks because Frank is incredible and having one of the only character that's not skinny or muscly or as conventionally attractive have to change to those things just to be slightly more popular is STUPID!!!! I'm not hating on Rick I'm honestly hating on the fans who didn't love Frank because of the fact that he was chubby, whether they knew that was the reason they didn't like him as much as the other seven or not. His story is incredible. His mom going to war and her dying made my heart break while reading. his entire life force being attached to a piece of wood, so easy to be burned to nothingness, is SO GOOD. His awkwardness is so refreshing to see when characters are often portrayed as nonchalant and cool when in reality we're all losers 😭 

Really, there's no real reasons to hate any of the seven. You can have favorites, I have my favorites of course, but putting the other seven down doesn't do anything. You're just an asshole. 

[hawke-jpg]

At @moominhands behest here is my game list thing! <3 Reasoning under the cut:

Favorite game of all time: If i absolutley have to pick one it'd have to be Shadow of the Colossus, tho runners up are definitely ICO, FNV, Okami, Windwaker and Twilight Princess. it's hard to choose just the one honestly there's so many more too, but this game was so influential and i sunk so many hours into just exploring the world and taking in every tiny detail, it and ICO really changed my perspective on games in general.

Favorite Series: Dragon Age, it's camp and has a lot of issues, but it gave me extreme brain rot and i love it a lot.

Best Soundtrack: ICO, this game has barely any music! But when it does, it really goes all out, the resting theme and the erie music before the final boss are my favorites.

Favorite Protagonist: Hawke, from Dragon age 2, this is surprising to absolutely no one.

Favorite Villain: Dormin from SOTC, I love this thing, is it even really a villan? who knows but it's very cool and i love the voice acting for it! runners up are the shadow creatures from ICO for similar reasons and The Master from Fallout 1.

Best Story: Night in the Woods. This was really hard to pick tbh i could've put a few in this spot but this is one of my favorite story focused walking sims and i love to revisit it.

Have not played but want to: Disco Elysium, I've attempted to play this game on console very briefly once but couldn't get used to the controls. Now that i have a PC I'm planning to play it but i need to be in the right headspace for big CRPGs as i find them hard to get into so, i just need to wait till the time is right to play it. I also want to play Hades.

You Love, Everyone Hates: The Last Guardian, everyone hated this game SO MUCH, especially at launch.. Heaps of streaming people who had only ever played Shadow all expected it to be SOTC again but when it turned out to be much closer to ICO with only some elements of Shadow people just hated it so much for what it wasn't. This game much like ICO can be frustrating at times but it's really good and had a lot of love put into it, the A I of the Creature Trico is especially cool as it learns depending on how you interact with it and becomes more responsive and easy to direct. It's certainly not a game for everyone but it didn't deserve the amount of disdain it received on release.

You Hate, Everyone Loves: (please don't kill me for these I don't actually hate them they're just not for me) Kingdom hearts, I tried multiple times to play these games and i just couldn't get into them, they're just not for me i think, i don't really find the gameplay or story elements particularly engaging. Sad! a lot of my friends really love these and seem to get a lot out of them. I never had the chance to play them as a kid though so i feel like i may have had different opinions if i'd started playing them earlier. Last of us 2, The weird opinion split when it released between bigots who hated it cause women and queer people were in it and then the other people saying it was the most profound piece of media ever was really frustrating because it kind of shut down a lot of good faith criticism. I think the main problems i have is that it came out in a really depressing time where something with such a bleak and unsatisfying ending came across as a bit gauche even though the devs couldn't have anticipated it. And that there's a bunch of good elements about it that just didn't really stick the landing for me, or were handled poorly imo. Personally the overall message it's going for via it's gameplay and story had already been done, and done better over 10 years prior (see Shadow of the Colossus; Ico was a stated main inspiration for the first last of us and i'm pretty certain Shadow was for part 2 considering the parallels), and it would've been quite ground breaking back then but now it's not so much. Again this is personal opinion of how it's just not really for me.

Best Art Style: Okami! Kind of self explanatory, even on ps2 this game's graphics still hold up because of that art style, and i love how it was incorporated into the gameplay.

Favorite Ending: Zelda: Twilight Princess, love this game, the climactic boss rush and the story conclusion is so good, it's such a long game and the characters go through so much it all really wraps up nicely even with it's melancholic tone. This was the first Zelda game i fully finished so the ending had more of an impact on me too because of that.

Favorite Boss Fight: Crimson Helm, from Okami, this guy is super fun to fight, cool design, great arena, always a good one to revisit.

Childhood Game(s): my first ever game was Duke Nukem DOS on the floppy disk on my dads old computer, it's a side scroller that's sound effects are drilled into my brain. Frogger i got later on the same computer once dad upgraded his for work, it was the first game i ever finished. and Nintendogs i got much later again with the old clunky silver DS, i played this game way too much.

Relaxing Game(s): Lil Gator Game, it's so fun and cruisey to play, really charming and great controls. Flock, I only played this recently but it's so fun, very pretty, you just fly about and spot new creatures to list in your encyclopedia! A Short Hike, really great chill vibes, i love revisiting this one every now and then. Proteus is also a good one.

Stressful Game: Mass Effect 2, I love these games but they're so stressful trying to avoid people dying from random dumb choices you make hours prior omg! 2 is especially bad for it off memory, i remember writing up a strategy sheet for that last big level so i could avoid people dying.

Game you always come back to: Drakan The Ancients Gates, I love this one, it's a bit janky but it's got a really weird and interesting world, with a weird plot and bizzare character design.

Guilty Pleasure: The Dog Island, this game is so silly but i played so much of it as a kid it was kind of ridiculous, so i really enjoy revisiting it every now and then, it's also kind of bizarre in terms of how the story is written.

Tons of Hours Played: Baldur's Gate 3, I've only played it through twice but it's stacked up a bunch of hours, really good tho! others that I've spent way too much time with is Dragon age Inquisition, Animal crossing NH and NL, and of course SOTC but i dont actually have the hour count for that one, i can only assume.

[not-poignant]

T/F:

1) In your next life you’d like to be born as a bird

2) Dicord is your favorite social media app

3) You prefer texting to calling

1) In your next life you’d like to be born as a bird

False

~

Birds being my favourite family of animal has made me realise a long time ago I don't want to be one.

They live rough lives, and the pets mostly live rough lives too. It's much much harder to give the average parrot a good quality of life comparatively to a domesticated dog or cat, and most parrots live solitary, horrible, long lives, with barely enough enrichment or stimulation, and no ability to fly freely (which I do think is important to their wellbeing).

As a result, I don't ever want to be reborn as a bird. I admire them and think they're incredible, but that's... yeah from a safe 'no I don't want to be them distance.'

2) Dicord is your favorite social media app

False

~

Don't get me wrong, I do really love it, and it's definitely in the top three. But I get social anxiety around chatting, and it's a chatting app, so... So it can't be my favourite because it can cause really intense social anxiety for me!

Tumblr is my favourite social media app, and actually, despite Instagram being a shitshow, it's pretty high up there too! I like that I can just heart react to people to show I still exist without having to commit to conversation.

But yeah I'd say it's Tumblr / Discord / Instagram. If Tumblr ever does something worse than the worse things it's already done, it'll be Discord!

3) You prefer texting to calling

True!

~

Absolutely, though unlike some people, I don't mind making professional phone calls. Personal phone calls I can only handle with my mum, lol, otherwise I want to get off the phone ASAP. I talk more 'clearly' when I'm typing, so I much much prefer texting.

[maddymoreau]

Dead Space 2 Live-Blog: COMPLETE

Chapter: Seven to Fifteen

Dead Space Complete Live-Blog: Click Here

Part 1: Click Here Part 2+3: Click Here Part 4-6: Click Here

Instead of summarizing the plot I'm going to break down my thoughts into different sections.

Horror to Action:

One big change from the original Dead Space to Dead Space 2 is that it's more of an action game than horror.

I saw someone online perfectly described it like this: Dead Space is like the movie Alien while Dead Space 2 is like Aliens.

I think the transition from horror to action was handled very well. All additions to the gameplay were EXTREMELY fun!! I especially like the hacking mini game, crawling through the vents and the multiple interactive cutscenes.

The original Dead Space is still my favorite, but Dead Space 2 is an AWESOME game!!! If you're interested in the Dead Space franchise I'd 100% recommend playing it!!!

LOOK HOW COOL THESE SCENES ARE!!!

Warning: Jumpscare

Characters:

Ellie Langford:

I think she's a great parallel to Isaac. Both being CEC workers who lost the people they cared about thanks to Necromorphs. I enjoyed her character, I felt bad when Nolan stabbed her eye out and I liked that she didn't let Isaac sacrifice himself.

I thought the callback to the original ending was great!

Dead Space Ending:

Dead Space 2 Ending:

Dead Space 3 Spoiler: I heard there’s a romance between Isaac and Ellie which is fineee. Don’t love the ship, but it's whatever.

Nolan Stross:

Nolan was my favorite new character and the one I have the most thoughts on. He is also a great parallel to Isaac. Both are victims of the Marker and EarthGov.

The entire game I was wondering why they experimented on Nolan, but it turns out you have to watch the animated movie Dead Space: Aftermath for that answer!

The reason EarthGov experimented on Nolan was because he had come in contact with a shard of the Red Marker. It's frustrating that information wasn't clearly explained in the game.

MORE IMPORTANTLY WHY DO I HAVE TO LEARN THROUGH A MOVIE THAT HE KILLED HIS WIFE AND CHILD BECAUSE THE MARKER MADE HIM HALLUCINATE THEY WERE NECROMORPHS!?!?!?

This line from a video log makes sense now:

Nolan: “ . . . it was just a shard -it was just a shard . . . but it put so much stuff in my head . . . so much . . . shit in my head . . . There's no more room . . . for anything. I can't remember what she looks like . . . Why can't I remember what she looks like?"

I feel like that's pretty relevant information to the story!!! Especially since it would've made the scene where Isaac kills Nolan in self defense hit WAYYY harder. Isaac understands how terrifying and realistic the hallucinations can be.

There's also the detail that the Marker amplifies violent thoughts. Explaining some of Nolan's behavior and why Isaac ended up killing Nolan when defending himself. I found it tragic that Nolan's death was how Isaac later figured out the final step.

One issue I have with Dead Space 2 is that the EarthGov experimented on them for over three years, but there's barely any data and text logs in the game about that.

I WANT MORE LOOK HOW SCARY THIS SHIT IS!!!

Shoutout to this reddit post for helping me understand: Click Here

I'm dying to know how Isaac reacted to his first session 👀 Look how terrified Nolan was just remembering them:

When I played the original Dead Space I took SO MANY notes after reading text and audio logs. However in Dead Space 2 they're severely underused.

The Marker:

Throughout Dead Space 2 the Marker is making Isaac experience horrific hallucinations. Constantly playing mind games with him in order to push Isaac into being able to finish the four steps.

Something we've seen Nolan discuss:

There's four steps:

Step One: Crawl inside the dark machine.

Step Two: The screws go tight all around.

Step Three: Cross my heart and hope to die . . . stick a needle in your eye.

Step Four: Acceptance

Nolan was unable to accept what he had done making reaching step four impossible. Also Nolan tried stabbing Isaac and Ellie in the eye so they could accomplish step three.

Isaac was able to reach step four by accepting Nicole's death and letting go of his guilt.

He laters stops the Convergence from happening. I'm still unsure what that exactly is . . . Dead Space 3 is suppose to explain that more. In the process Isaac destroys the Sprawl and new Marker.

Hans Tiedemann:

He's the main antagonist throughout Dead Space 2. Constantly trying to prevent Isaac from destroying the new Marker. I think he's a very weak villain. His goal is to preserve the Marker, because he believes humans are so close to figuring out how to control it. Tiedemann oversaw the experiments happening to Isaac.

Tiedmann: "I knew you were trouble from the start but they told me you were necessary. That your mind was the purest. I've spent years sifting through your demented brain this was not the way it was suppose to happen."

It's a huge shame though that there's no reports about this or flashbacks! Tiedemann feels like an obstacle not a threat.

I liked the detail that the Marker burned into his flesh the word PAIN:

Also Tiedemann reported to someone called the Overseer 👀

Daina:

She felt very pointless. I learned chapter five, which is the chapter she dies, is where the demo originally ended. It almost feels like they shoehorned her in for the demo. The first five chapter felt very separated from the rest of the story.

The Story:

I think Dead Space 2 is a wonderful game!!

The story is solid however I must admit I could care less about the EarthGov in Dead Space. It's a currupt government . . . nothing special. The most interesting aspect of the EarthGov is its conflict with the Church of Unitology. The Church sections were so beautiful and interesting. I want more of that and MORE LORE PLEASEEE I LOVE CORRUPT CHURCHES IN STORIES!!!!!

The Church of Unitology was so pretty look at these photos I got off the steam community page <3

Ranking: Gameplay 9/10, Horror 6/10, Story 7.5/10 and enjoyment 8.5/10.

I couldn't fit it into the review but it was super cool we got to go onto the Ishimaru again! Also that the EarthGov lied about what happened, claiming it was a terrorist attack.

[27dragons]

Since I'm trying to get back into the second draft of the Safe Harbor sequel, I'm going to take you at your word and ask about the Sandbridge series. Do you have a favourite moment from the series? And are there anything you can tell us about that happened but we didn't see onscreen? ❤️❤️❤️

First, let me say that I am utterly delighted that you're continuing the Safe Harber story; I loved it so much!

Favorite moment? Oh, holy heck, that's a difficult one. I'll just stream-of-consciousness a handful of them, shall I? :D

Tony and Bucky's dance and first kiss in Safe and (the) Sound, the one that gets interrupted by the fire. I'm a little weird about sex scenes; they're really intense for me the first time I write (or read) them but they lose most of their punch on subsequent re-reads. But that kiss never fails to make my heart beat a little faster.

In Lord of the Swings, Bucky standing in line for beer and dealing with a bunch of homophobic asshats. Tisfan wrote that scene pretty much in its entirety (I only edited it) and it is for me a perfect encapsulation of how queer people experience that sort of aggression.

In Howard's End, the moment where Tony thinks Howard is actually going to apologize, but then realizes that Howard still doesn't get it, and his line there: "You regret driving me away because of what I might have become. It still doesn't occur to you to regret hurting me because I was a child." This is the heartbreak at the core of Tony and Howard - that Howard can never really see Tony as anything but his heir, even when they're on good terms.

The bachelor parties in Zen and the Art of Family Maintenance. Because they're so delightful and absolutely perfect for them both.

The scene in From the Ukraine with Love where Steve gets a call from Bucky and has to go collect his sad drunk ass. That's the beating heart of their friendship, right there. Also, Natasha fretting over her sundress when Steve introduces her to Winifred is utterly adorable, because we don't get many chances to see Natasha as anything but supremely self-confident.

Tony dealing with Billie's tantrums in High Noon in Sandbridge, because so many kidfics have the new parents struggling comically or barely struggling at all, and Tony starts out as, frankly, a really TERRIBLE parent. He has NO idea what he's doing, and it shows very clearly in those scenes.

In That Someone Special, I have 2 moments: When Scott first shows up and Steve is chasing him to try to punch him and Tony steps between them until he finds out exactly who Scott is, and then steps back and says "oh, carry on" -- that was, to me, a perfect moment of almost gallows humor. And then the turnaround scene, when Tony, Steve, and Sam show up at Luis' apartment to help Scott after he's been beaten up. That scene is a special kind of funny and touching.

In My Three Dads, the scene where Billie is in the hospital with a broken leg. Loki being jealous over Tony's rapport with Billie and then proud that she picks him to stay with her for the x-rays; and Bucky stepping in to make Tony leave when he can't handle seeing Billie in pain. Family dynamics at their best. <3

And finally, in Stem the Tide, which is not technically a Sandbridge 'verse story at all, but a "What If" side novel, I really like the scene where Bucky stands up to Alex and tells him to fuck off.

Stuff that happens that you didn't see onscreen... I have a couple of chapters that we cut out of My Three Dads, including Tony meeting with Grant Ward that we rejected because it steered the plot wrong, and one with Tony and Bucky going to Ty's apartment to pick up his stuff, which we allude to and consider as having actually happened, but didn't include because it screwed up our pacing for the story. I actually sometimes forget that we never posted the scene at Ty's apartment, because I really liked it. I might someday clean it up and throw it into the Jetsam and Flotsam bits-and-pieces collection.

But if there's something specific you were wondering about in the background, feel free to shoot me a DM and ask; I'm always happy to talk about my Sandbridge boys. <3

[abominable-space-they]

@empty-altars called Hannibal Lecter a wife guy last night & I can't stop thinking about how completely right she is.

Will Graham came home after work 2-3 years before the show started, giggling & kicking his feet like BABY I HAVE 2 THINGS TO TELL YOU, WELL THREE BUT THEY'RE RELATED

1) this part's Serious Hannibal, I can't spend the rest of my life waiting for the cops to break our door down. I can't go back to a life without you. If you die, I die.

Hannibal: William my beloved, I could never do that to you. We can leave immediately, go to Cuba? Or Eastern Europe? I know so many languages & no one knows we're even involved here, much less murder husbands.

Will: you didn't listen to the rest of my things

Hannibal: my apologies my heart please continue

Will: 2) I'm ready to lead a hunt. No more Master & Apprentice bullshit. I know you worry about my welfare. But I can do it Hannibal

Hannibal: of course you can do it Beloved

Will: ok good, then you'll love my five year plan.

Hannibal: *concerned* five year plan?

Will: yes, to fake our deaths

Hannibal: ... Five years? I'm afraid I don't understand, my love. We could fake our deaths, in ummm three months to make sure we tied up all the loose ends. Tonight if it was an emergency.

Will: So you don't want to participate in my hunt?

Hannibal: Of course I do. A five year hunt? That does sound sexy, please tell me more

Will: ok first of all, you know I told you about Miriam? She's a trainee? She's a nice girl babe, she's got good instincts, she's a hunter, and Jack doesn't appreciate her at all. So first we're going to lead her to you. No wait hear me out!

Hannibal: ... Will... Please go on

Will: okay so we send Miriam to you, then we kidnap her but be real nice to her you know, and she can stay here with us at the beach house. You taunt Jack about it like you do, I'll make sure to accuse him of being irresponsible with his responsibilities.

Ok, then I'll switch back to teaching sighting severe trauma, then a couple years from now we start escalating all these people to increasingly arcane, artistic Tarot inspired serial murders. It will be perfect. The first ones will be young women to really trigger Jack.

Hannibal: ... and you...

Will: *stares daggers at him* I can handle it. ANYWAY, Jack will come and get me as soon as he sees the pattern though we might have to knock their heads together a bit for that right? So slow. We'll need to find a couple people for the plan. Umm an intelligent psychopath in medicine to escalate nowish, we'll need to have him on ice to muddy the water later, another psychiatrist, a woman, pretty, controllable... Mmm maybe two? No Three total psychiatrists, just to cover all our bases, so people really believe. They need to be arrogant, a little greedy for money, power, status, whatever. Self involved enough to not question their own judgement.

Hannibal: I see

Will: What I don't like psychiatrists

Hannibal: I

Will: you don't count, you switched fields for me. I don't count for obvious reasons, or maybe I hate myself haha

Hannibal: William

Will: oh I was joking, mostly, anyway I didn't get to the part where we do copycat murders of our own murders we did with other people, then accuse each other for the crimes, you fake frame me which will make sure any evidence of my actually being there will be disregarded. Then after you get me out of prison, we fight some more. I "try" to arrest you. You stab me non fatally, just a little in the stomach you know it'll be fine. Barely a hospital stay

Hannibal: *more concerned* Will...

Will: what you can't do it?

Hannibal: of course I can, but why would I want to?

Will: because after I heal, I'll chase you to Europe, we'll have a big show down, that's so crazy I could never possibly forgive you. Then you'll turn yourself in bc you're obsessed with me- what I don't get a "William" for that one?

Hannibal: my going to prison to keep you safe is the least worrisome part of this plan thus far.

Will: I am so in love with you. Which is why I'll retire from the trauma again and... I'll marry a woman while you're in prison. We'll manipulate the psychiatrists into moving you to a mental hospital so they can lord over you. I'll tell my wife I'm impotent, let her have my government health insurance and lfe insurance pay out, for services rendered. Pick someone with a kid that's like I was, you know.

Then, we'll find the perfect potential, push him over the edge. They'll beg me back, we'll set up a really fucking crazy situation, that they will be totally desperate to stop.

I'll tell them the only way to end it is to fake a break out and let you guys kill each other, and then I'll kill you

Hannibal: why would they ever believe that?

Will: Neurotypicals honey, why ask why? They'll believe we're nemesis, that I'm a tortured little meow meow. So anyway we'll kill him together and fake our deaths, right out there, off the cliff... We'll need to set up some sort of... Non obvious, escape? A ledge? A secret tunnel? We have time to figure it out. Did I mention tons of murder threesomes

Hannibal: William, you have parental abuse trauma, daddy issues, jack issues, trauma around women, institutionalization, childhood poverty trauma, Neurotypical bullshit, and my fucking with other people, which has never bothered me by the way. I'd rather have one of you then a million of them. But my love, this is... Gonna be traumatic... For both of us.

Will: we can handle it

Hannibal: of course we can. This is what you want?

Will: you said you wanted to get married, for us to be forever. This is what I need to have forever.

Hannibal: you know that has a lot of unecessary moving parts right my love?

Will: ... Yeah but baby, it's gonna be so fucking hot.

Hannibal: lots of murder threesomes?

Will: SOOO MANY

Hannibal: William, I would rather have one you then a million of them. Of course I want to do this with you.

Will: *already dreading sleeping alone* I'm gonna miss you so much

Hannibal: thank goodness we haven't started yet, I have time to fill you full of good memories they can't take away during your brilliant vicious plan

Will: *horny cry laughs* Thank God

[ashplayz]

(Short)

Treasure planet characters react to: accidentally hurting S/O in an argument and she runs and locks a door and the character begs her to let them in and her response is "... So you can hurt me again..?" (How I think they'd react at least)

Warnings: Pretty self explanatory- angst and fluff I guess..

Characters included: Captain Amelia, Dr. Delbert Doppler (separately, although I do love those two together) Jim Hawkins, John Silver (cyborg) (S/O goes by Y/n, she you and they)

Captain Amelia:

The beginning of the movie I thought she was a bit stuck up/uptight, full of herself so I think she would think y/n was just trying to make her feel bad so they could win the argument

and that she didn't actually hurt her

But when y/n says that she realizes and her heart SINKS she doesn't really know how to handle emotions well in my opinion (I envy those who can)

She wouldn't know what to do, she'd feel defeated and doesn't make another move towards you.

I think She'd probably make Jim talk to y/n for her and would keep her distance until y/n is comfortable, then grab y/ns hands and give her a very lengthy apology

She'd be rambling and would look stupid because you already forgave her 😂

Dr. Delbert Doppler:

Doesn'tt normally argue with you. (Personally I think he's a kiss up)

I don't think y/n would normally care because he's very clumsy and he's probably accidentally hit her before (like barely) when they're not even arguing, just a total accident.

But it was the way he flipped out about it is what scared her and why she ran and he already had teary eyes when she runs

(the only reason she'd say that is if she was having a panic attack)

but when she says that he just starts crying silently and just sits by the door and waits until she calms down.

I feel like once she calms down a few hours later she finally opens the door and sees him still by the door struggling to stay awake.

She'd ask him to cuddle and neither of them would talk until morning.

He'd probably try to make her favorite breakfast and would feel awful about what happened for the rest of the week

like days after it happens he keeps apologizing and she's just like "babe. I love you, but stop" 🤣

Jim Hawkins:

(I know he's literally the main character but I have no clue how to write him, still tried tho)

He wouldn't fully comprehend what just happened at first but once he does his hands start shaking.

He let out a sad apology then just leaves

He comes back to fix things after the cyborg guy (John Silver) gave him a pep talk

when she finally lets him hug her he starts crying and rambling Apologies while burying his face in the crook of her neck holding her tightly

I feel like he bottles a lot of things up so something tipping his emotions over the edge like this causes an overflow, you've never seen him look so fragile before.. 🥺

John Silver:

He's a big softy so the thought of hurting his S/O is his worst nightmare

The second it happens his eyes well up and he's like a deer In the headlights

when y/n tries to run he goes to grab her hand apologizing swearing to make it up to her but he scared her more

When she said that he just leaves her alone probably leaves for like 3 days

but when he comes back he has a

crap ton of treasure he stole jewelry/gems you name it just to make it up to her but she'd already forgiven him and was just really worried when he didn't come back

He'd definitely spoil his S/O on a regular day so something like this makes him go a bit overboard 🤏

(Just watched this movie for the first time and I'm bummed there's not a whole lot of fanfiction worthy characters, I considered doing Scroop (scorpion guy) but I'm pretty sure that character would genuinely be abusive so, No. I could have done the robot guy B. E. N, But I figured that might be awkward especially if it's before he got his brain pice back, it's really hard to envision him In a relationship as well unless she's also a robot, he is a sweetheart tho I really like his character..

Attention tumblr writers!!

Please make your own stories with this prompt: "accidentally hurting S/O in an argument and she runs and locks a door and the character begs her to let them in and her response is "... So you can hurt me again..?" Please somebody besides me let's make this prompt a thing! 🙏

[rainbowtvz]

Fire and balance for the self ship Wizard101 ask game!!!

@pr0minenceburn

fire;

sal: music! and art. both listening to/looking at and making it. we've made plans to have a jam session together when we can. and I also found a nice violin that i'd love to get my hands on and i think he wants to gift it to me. and for art, he's not the best at drawing but he definitely loves watching me do so, and paint. it feels like i'm bearing my soul to him and he takes extra care of it for me when i do :3

absynthe: definitely art, food, and gardening, more so the latter two. absynthe and i are both artists so we take turns showing each other what we've drawn, but we definitely connect more over gardening and our love of food :3. she has a big green thumb and while i'm not an expert i'm pretty good at growing stuff myself. i'm always in awe at how simple and easy she makes it all look lol. and as for food, well we're both foodies and the way to someones heart is through their stomach, supposedly.

johnny: music as well as punk culture and sticking it to the man. the way we approach this has similarities as well as differences, since he's more selfish and in it for revenge, as well as just being anti-corpo in general. wheras i am more concerned about fighting for the underdog, serving justice, and the environment and the future of the planet. we get into arguments about it sometimes because of how strongly we feel about our stances.

eddie: eddie and i are practically twinsies in the things we're both passionate about, ranging from music, alt culture, nerd culture, to both being queer in the 80s. like we have so much in common that sometimes we finish each others jokes.

john: john and i are still getting to know each other and learning how to navigate our relationship but we are both extremely passionate in our own ways, just in very different directions. we both care so much about doing the right thing. the way it manifests in our words and actions couldn't be more night and day though. it makes it tough to compromise and meet each other half way but true love isn't overnight and it takes work.

balance ;

sal: sal is the introvert and down to earth go with the flow guy to me ambivert head in the clouds worrier self. where my weaknesses lie he steps in to provide strength and vice versa. of course i don't have to go it alone and neither does he because i am also dating absynthe. and while he's not, they're still good friends.

absynthe: she and i are definitely two peas in a pod! it's hard to find differences between us in a way that we balance each other out. i guess it's more her energy in general vs mine? or the way we approach and handle things. she's more shy and introverted than i am, but not exactly like sal is. sal is way more reserved and harder to open up to others. so i guess i'm sort of a bridge between them and that world since i'm an ambivert. i love being social when i am in my comfort zone, but i have to go home and recharge too. and i always know that she's my safe person. i can be around her even when i'm low on social battery.

johnny: johnny has energy for days. like he is just. so extremely extroverted. and he's an asshole. but he takes care of the social and people aspect when i can't and he barely complains about it because he knows that i need breaks from dealing with others. it's more of a snarky complaint anyway because he likes to tease me and get me riled up. it's fun for him. he fills in gaps that i have, knowingly or not, and i keep him grounded and level headed. i guess it's sort of a moirailegence (or however u spell that) in terms of what a pale relationship is from h.omestuck lol. but definitely not platonic. far from it. when he's out of line i bring him back down to earth and calm him and he does the same for me when i end up splitting. he knows he can't get this kind of care and compassion anywhere else and while things can be tumultuous between us, what we feel for each other is real and worth all the headaches, and the heart palpitations.

eddie: eddie is also extroverted! but in a fake it til you make it way. and he's so good at it. it has me in awe. he's my inspiration and muse and my safe person, my home away from home. and i'm his safe space, the keeper of all his secrets and worries, and his voice of reason. i'm also his idea guy and second opinion that he goes for when he wants to pen up a new song or bring something new to the dnd table. the relationship between us is very easy going and light hearted, which is something we both need what with everything going on in hawkins :3. no matter where he goes or what trouble he gets into he can always come back home to me, and that's only part of why he loves me.

john: john is the business man. whether it's clean or dirty. whether it's his profession, past, or how he engages in relationships. his love language is acts of devotion and domesticity. he takes care of the spiders, of the things i can't engage with without becoming squeamish or nauseated, he takes care of me when i am fatigued, in pain, and/or sick. he takes care of me when i break down and he does it without complaint, because his love is unconditional, and it is never transactional between us, at least on his end. i always feel guilty that he does so much for me without even having to ask him and try to give back as much as i can, and he tries to tell me it's not necessary but i do it anyway. my love language is acts of generosity and physical affection. so i get him gifts that make me think of him or remind me of him, whether it's bought, free, or handmade. i make sure he's taken care of as well when he needs it. whether it's learning how to patch him or massage him when he's sore and hurting, or forcing him to take a break and let me take care of him. i remind him that i'm there for him every time i kiss him or run a hand through his hair, when i hold him, when we listen to each other's heart beat. we're sort of a shaky team when it comes to matters not heart related, but we're still a team.

[seelifethroughmyeyesyear3099]

tell us what happy moment shaped who you are or gave you strength in difficult times.

I remember I was the light of a lot of people's lives. I got told daily that I was like sunshine. Crazy unpredictable but cared about everyone more than myself. I remember thinking about the world we live in and how a lot of people bring you down or get angry at you for nothing (The man that gets mad about his order in the drive thru that takes too long or the old lady yelling at you about not taking her expired coupons) they're not mad at you. They're mad at themselves. I wanted to do the exact opposite I wanted to make everyone's life for the better and bring them up to be their best selves. I started taking nothing to heart and thinking about them. They are probably never going to see me again. Before I wore my heart on my wrist...that quickly changed. Three different life altering times in my life, I may only be only 22 but I feel like I've lived five lives.

I remember I bought a book of kindness every single day for a year; I made sure to do one of the pages of the book and if I ran out of pages I would look for a 30-day challenge of kindness. I didn't let anybody know but I even got five of my friends for our senior project to do it on humanity. We went down to the homeless shelter and passed out sandwiches that took us hours to make and talked to families. We asked how they got there and what they needed. I completed all those tasks and I understood how hard life can really be in a moment with the wrong people or having not having any support.

Another time I remember I was 15 and a half at the time and I'd barely gotten my license and an owner of a business wanted me to be the face in the front. (I was dating his son at the time and said business partner or dump my son) (I learned personal and business never mix) I left that company for more opportunities. Later on I became a driving instructor at 21 at the same company teaching 1,500 students how to drive in California, probably one of the most impactful things I've done in my life.

In between that job and going back I was a caregiver in 2020 when COVID hit, I was with a lot of elderly and most of them were in hospice only a week or two. I got to hear stories about their entire life, what they regretted, and got to be there even if their family wasn't there; I held their hand until their end of days. This went on for almost a year until my own father passed away in 2020. I couldn't handle anymore death after that.

Every stage of my life has been impactful, important, and beautiful even if I did not see it in that moment.

What gives me strength is knowing that I can be anything that I choose to be. People might think these are far-fetched dreams but they are not. I believe you are who you believe you are, but as long as your actions match up. That is who you are. All the things that I've done have led me to who I am and where I am and I'm pretty happy with that now. Of course there's always room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy.

Everything that you thought was going to break you down will actually build you up. It felt like my world died when my dad died and I felt like I lost myself. This was for 3 years and even though I was helping others, I wasn't helping myself out of the situation. Until I realize nobody's going to come and save me but myself. It is crazy how you can mentally be struggling for so long, your brain can still pull you mentally out of that. That takes a lot of support from others that are positive. You just have to rebuild yourself. Listen to podcasts and things that you want to be and start making daily habits of them until you become the person you want to be again.

[rharyx]

I've been going through all the mainline Final Fantasy games (and such side games as well) since I've never really played that many growing up and felt like getting into them all. Doubt I'll ever play all of the main 16, since not all of them look interesting to me, but we'll see.

Final Fantasy X This was the first one I played, back in 2014. I wanted to have at least one FF under my belt before XV came out, and X looked the most appealing. Played it and loved it. Definitely a 10/10 game for me, and I think the Sphere Grid is one of the most fun leveling systems I've seen. The story is so good, the cutscenes go hard, and the characters are really well-designed and memorable. I think one of the most important aspects of FF is a good main party, and X is one of the best in that regard.

Final Fantasy X-2 I've tried twice to get into this game, and I couldn't do it either time. I love Yuna's development from X to here, and I love the aesthetic and vibe of the game, but I couldn't get into the gameplay or how the story was paced and broken up. Maybe I'll get back to it for a 3rd time someday...

Final Fantasy Type-0 I only got this because it came with the demo for FFXV, and I dropped it pretty quickly back in 2015. I only came back to it a couple months ago (2023) and played it to completion. It was definitely a chore. The gameplay itself can be fun/addicting, but everything else is just outright boring or done in a way that makes things as joyless as possible. Especially the story, which is handled super choppily. The cast was mostly one-note (which I get was intentional, in-universe, but still...) and I only really played as Ace and Cater. Machina is probably my least favorite FF protag I can think of while writing this up. I only did one playthrough, and I know there's more in NG+, but I just have no energy to go through it again. Overall, it's like a 4/10.

Final Fantasy XV To say I was disappointed is an understatement. Not really a hot take, shitting on XV, but I mean...it is what it is. I knew it was never going to be the game I was looking forward to back in 2006, but the final product was just so far removed from anything resembling a coherent thought. The combat isn't fun, the skill tree is so boring, and the "open world" is mostly lifeless. Noct and the boys had potential, but they're barely developed or given much to do -- and don't even get me started on Luna and the rest of the side cast. There's a really good story and setting somewhere underneath all the issues, and it's impressive they released anything at all, all things considered. But man, is it just disappointing. 6/10.

Final Fantasy VIII As someone who really loved Leon in Kingdom Hearts, I was always interested in seeing the origin of the character, but just like Type-0, I could just not get into this game. I tried it in 2019, after Kingdom Hearts 3 came out and let me down -- I wanted to pivot to something in the same ball park of Square Enix, so I tried seeing if other Final Fantasy games were up my alley instead. But unfortunately, I didn't click with the gameplay, and the writing felt all over the place. From the bits of it I did play, I did enjoy Squall, Rinoa, and Selphie at least. I plan on getting back to it later, but for now I just don't see myself completing it. And after dropping X-2 and Type-0, and being let down by XV, this was the moment that made me go, "Oh, maybe Final Fantasy just isn't for me."

Final Fantasy XIV The game that made me love Final Fantasy. I've never played an MMO in my life before, but I remembered watching Ray Chase (Noct's VA) stream FFXIV once or twice before and thought it looked cool. In 2020, I got Covid and was pretty much bedridden for the next nine months, so I figured then was as good a time as any to invest myself in an MMO world to whittle away the days. "If I can't live in this world, I way as well live in another," my thought process basically was. And it ended up being a great decision. I love so much about this game, from the stories, to the characters, to the world building, to the music, etc. It's just magical through and through, and I can't wait to see where the next story arc takes us. 11/10.

Stranger of Paradise Jack Garland is an amazing protagonist, and this entire game is so fucking cool. Anyone who hates it doesn't like fun. Chaos/10. The DLC is some of the worst DLC I've ever had the displeasure of paying for, though -- never managed to finish it.

Final Fantasy XVI After XV, I was reasonably hesitant to expect much from XVI, and I remember being turned off by the aesthetic and general art direction from the first trailer. But I was really surprised by how good the game ended up being. It does feel like they're sometimes overcompensating for what they got criticized on with XV -- like having so many cutscenes to the point it feels like a movie, as opposed to how chopped up and bare boned the story in XV was, for example. But the cast is likeable, the gameplay is fun, and boy howdy some of those boss fights will live rent free in my head for the rest of time. Also, the voice acting is on another level. I really didn't enjoy the ending, though, but overall it felt like a step in the right direction for future entries. 7/10.

Final Fantasy VI Man, I just love this game. It was after XVI that I decided to play the older games and finish as many as I could, and I started with VI. I didn't expect a game from 1994 to win me over so badly, but everything about it is so fantastic. I love the whole opera vibe where it's almost like the characters are actors performing a stag play, and it has some of my favorite characters in the franchise. I love Cyan, Terra, and Celes so much. I love the scene at the opera house, the phantom train sequence, the dream world, how some dungeons and parts of the game have you split up and utilize multiple parties in tandem. The music is great. I love Kefka. And dude, the ending is my favorite ending to a Final Fantasy game that I've played so far. It basically took everything I hated about XVI's ending, but did the opposite, and it was beautiful. It was exactly the kind of ending that I needed to see after all the previous games I'd been playing. 10/10.

Final Fantasy IX Another masterpiece. If VI was like an Italian opera, XI felt to me more like a post-renaissance Disney movie. The art direction is so good, and the story is really well written. That said, I don't really care for a good chunk of the main party (Quina and Amarant especially), and like I said above, a good party is one of the most important aspects of a FF game. Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi are all amazing, and I really like Freya as well, but beyond that...meh? I wish Beatrix was a party member. I will admit though, I cheesed it by using the handicaps on the Pixel Remaster version (dealing 9999 damage by default), so I can't actually say if I like the gameplay or not, but it seemed like standard FF gameplay, and the Trance system looked cool at least. But I was just super invested in the story, and didn't want to spend a lot of time fighting. The locations and cities in this game were noticeably good, I do want to say. Overall, a solid 8/10 for me.

Final Fantasy VII I almost didn't want to play this one. It's by far the most popular one and I already knew so much about it through two decades of cultural osmosis and Kingdom Hearts, I was almost content just continuing to be the guy who could say, "Yeah, nah, I've never played FF7" just to be a hipster or whatever. But I did play it. And I can see why it's so loved. The story is so good, and unlike with IX, I actually didn't use handicaps (besides the 3x speed for grinding), and I really enjoyed the gameplay. Probably one of the more addicting gameplay loops from a FF game. The main cast is really good, even if it does have its weaker links (Cait, Yuffie, Vincent). My only real complaint is the translation felt really stiff, like even the translators didn't know what they were reading sometimes. It's probably just because it was the 90s. Still, not a big enough nitpick to not give the game a 9/10.

And that's where I am now.

I want to play Crisis Core and the 7 Remake now, since I have context for what's going on due to playing the OG 7.

And then I think IV is the pixel game I'll tackle next.

I really want to play the XIII series, since I don't believe it's as bad as I remember people claiming it was back in high school. But they're not on PS5, so that'll have to wait.

[sortofanobsession]

I’m Begging you to be my Escape - Ch. 9

Author’s Note: Penultimate update. Technically the last chapter, next part is time skip epilogue. 9 & 10 are short but I think they're still good.

Content warning: mostly fluff, mentions of pregnancy, mpreg, typical abo endgame stuff.

Tag list: diazbuckleysworld, chitownwolf

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 , Chapter 10

AO3

Chapter 9: And I'm begging you to be my escape

"Hey! Take it easy," Eddie said as he took the box out of his mate's hands. 

"The stitches have been out for days." Buck rolled his eyes. 

"Yeah, well, humor me," the alpha grumbled. "Some asshole stabbed my mate a few weeks ago."

"And your mate was already cleared by medical professionals, so as much as I love your undivided attention, I think I can carry a box that isn't even full," Buck stated.

"Just be careful," the alpha urges him.

"I will do my best," Buck grinned, leaning in to steal a kiss.

"You two done being mushy and help with the bookcase. Maddie's stuff won't move itself," Chimney said as he set down a box of books in the living room of Maddie's new apartment. 

"I will be right there," Eddie stated. "You can-" 

"He can go pick up the pizza. How does that sound?" Maddie interrupted to suggest. 

"Sounds good to me," Eddie grinned.

Buck rolled his eyes but accepted the cash his sister was handing him. "Fine," he shook his head. "But I'm taking Chris to keep me company."

"Works for me," Eddie nodded. 

Most of the furniture and boxes had been moved in by the time Buck and Christopher returned. Chim was handing out drinks when they walked in. He went to hand Buck a beer, but Maddie swiped it. 

"Not for him," Maddie said, earning an eye roll from Buck. 

"My bad," Chim said, "Still not used to that."

"I would have just handed it back, Mads," Buck stated. 

"That's what big sisters do," Maddie grinned. 

"Give little brothers grief. It is pretty much an older sibling's job," Chim nodded. "I'm sure Christopher will catch on real quick, right bud?"

Christopher shook his head and laughed as he went to find his dad. 

"What?" Chim asked.

"He's excited to be a big brother, already gearing up to teach the pup everything," Buck said, smiling proudly. 

"You aren't even showing yet," Chim said. 

"Doesn't need to be. Being a sibling starts when you hear those words. Everything changes, and he is handling it like a Champ," Maddie said. 

The rest of the day goes by quickly. The pack gets everything moved into Maddie’s apartment, and by nightfall, she is assuring them that she can handle the rest. Her brother insists they will all come back in a few days to celebrate once she is settled in. Buck is just beyond happy that is sister is just a phone call away and that their lives are finally on track for being everything they ever wanted them to be. 

It’s late by the time the Diaz family makes it back to their home. Buck quietly opens the door and holds it open for Eddie to bring a heavily sleeping Christopher inside.

Eddie places the sleeping boy on the bed while Buck goes to grab their son's pajamas. 

With practiced ease, Eddie removes Christopher's shoes, and without a word, Buck takes them and hands him the pajamas. It is a routine they both know by now. Buck sets the shoes off to the side and moves to carefully remove Christopher's glasses. The sleeping figure barely mumbles as they swap out his day clothes for his pajamas. Buck gives in to the urge to fix his son's ruffled hair as they finish tucking him in and gives him a kiss on the forehead. The omega feels like his heart might explode with how normal and happy he feels. 

The alpha beside him basks in the love he can feel through his bond. No matter how many times they do this little routine, it never gets old. Eddie could spend the rest of his life trapped in these little moments with his family, and he would die the happiest man in the world. The way his omega adores their son, their pup, and they have another on the way. This moment is one Eddie doesn't want to forget. Have there been ones just like it? Sure. Will there be more practically identical ones? God, he hopes they have millions of them. And he plans on cherishing every single one of them. The alpha is pulled from his thoughts by a brush of fingers against his hand as Buck's fingers find Eddie's. With a gentle pull, the omega guides him from the room.

Buck starts to lead them toward the living room, but Eddie has other plans. With a grin, he pulls his mate to him and holds him close. Taking in the all-encompassing sense of comfort and home that he gets from being surrounded by the scent of his omega. The omega practically melts in his arms. Their bond practically sings with adoration and love. But there is something else there. A hint of something that makes Eddie's inner alpha growl, his hand moving to the omega's stomach where he knows a tiny pup is safe and growing. It brings out a prideful and possessive side of the alpha he never thought he'd feel again. It was never this strong. Never so sure of anything more than it was now. This was everything. This was his pack to protect. His family to love and care for. His mate. His pup. His entire world is just beyond his fingertips. The only missing piece sleeps peacefully tucked safe and sound in his room just steps away. This was all Eddie could have dreamed his life would be. And he would do anything he could to keep it this way. To stay in the happy, beautiful bubble they have right now. He isn't naive enough to think nothing bad will ever happen to them again. No, he knows shit always goes sideways eventually, but they will handle it as a family. Their pack will be there. They have their whole lives to sort through everything that has and will happen. But right now, there is just his omega, the love of his life, the other half of his soul. His partner is willing to help him bring their pup into the world and protect them all with his life. The alpha would give him no less than anything and everything he has. That is all Eddie needs right now. All he needs is his Buck.

Eddie nips at the long-healed mark on his mate's neck. Earning a soft moan from the omega. 

"Don't start something you don't intend to finish," the omega teases. 

With a chuckle, the alpha repeats his actions with a little more teeth. 

"Eddie…Alpha, please," the omega says. He probably should be embarrassed by the hint of whining in his tone, but he isn't because the alpha growls, scoops him up, and heads to their shared bedroom. Buck grins because everything is as it should be. The omega feels something he never really let himself feel before he met the alpha named Eddie Diaz. He feels true and unhindered hope. His life is filled with love and happiness. And it hopes they can stay that way forever.

[will-you-pick-me]

(happy 2 provide interaction by sending asks :) i dont do it often enough but im rlly intrigued and it is. 3:39 am and we r both awake lol) Ulrich begrudgingly getting a little shelf for display would actually save me because I dont really snuggle my lil guys (i toss and turn and get WAY too warm if they are in my tiny twin sized bed with me) so like <3 <3 thank u king ur saving us both oohh, if they had to pick something to fight with, be it physical or intangible, what would they pick?

3:42 here as I recieved this lmao, so we must be in similar timezones! Don't worry though, I did have a little nap and just woke up a little bit before midnight. I'm also eating right now too, so nobody yell!

We stan our emotionally constipated king tbh <3 But he still needs laxatives injected directly into his heart istg---

Mikey fights pretty regularly, actually, due to him really putting the "crimes" part in "be gay do crimes", and his "little helper" that's been referenced before in a blurb is a steel bat with nails driven into it. He can still handle a gun pretty competently if he needs to, though, but he just prefers the more visceral feeling of wielding the bat.

Ulrich, despite working out, prefers to not get into fights himself - why bother when he can pay someone else to do it for him? But, on the off chance that a fight is imminent and he doesn't have the time to call a lackey to come handle it for him, then, well - you know what they say, the pen is mightier than the sword. And he'll make good on that, jabbing it's sharp metal end into necks and eyes and anything else he can reach, gouging deep tears until either backup arrives or his enemy decides it's not actually worth it.

Zach doesn't like fighting. They hate being reminded of how squishy and delicate you humans are, how finite mortality is. But to protect you... They'll fight, if they have to. Burn them from the inside out with divine fire, as they hold you close and shield your eyes so you don't go blind. They'll apologize profusely, horrified that you had to witness that in any way shape or form, and they're taking you back to their place immediately to bundle you in blankets and brew you some tea, putting you first even though there's a deep discomfort crawling in their bones at what they just did.

Jessica, despite the traditional femininity she's thrown herself into, didn't disavow everything she grew up with, being raised as a boy. She still has a respectable gun cabinet, a few pistols and a couple rifles and shotguns locked up with their safety's on and fully unloaded - she's responsible. But this means that if she's killing someone with those, she's thought it through first, and still decided it was worth it.

Jack is an animal - sometimes more so than he is human. In the heat of the moment, his teeth and his claws are all that he needs, easily ripping out a jugular with either. Premeditated, though, he'll hunt and herd his target into traps in the woods, causing them fear and torment before he eventually rips into them.

Narrator isn't the biggest fan of fighting, either, but unlike Zach, he'll have no post-adrenaline-rush guilt over protecting you. Ultimately, you're the most important thing in his existence, and if you weren't here, then it wouldn't be an existence worth living. That being said, he'll beat someone down with his bare fists and nothing else if he has to, but he's also capable of getting creative with it - the leg of a chair can be a club, a small table a shield, a cup can be shattered into shards that stab and cut. When it's you, he's willing to do whatever it takes.

[andreabandrea]

whoops, a week has passed since I sent this, sorry. with that said, I feel pretty similarly. I've played it for-- I just checked, 320 hours so far. with that said, I start to get bored and even a little lonely/down in a way I can't really describe if I play it without a few mods. when I'm not playing it, it doesn't take up any real space in my mind unlike other dormant interests, and I think this is due to the general weakness of the writing and characters overall.

I'm going to put more thoughts/criticism of the game below the cut for my followers who might not want to see it, and also because it's long, but I want to emphasize I like Stardew Valley overall more than I dislike it, if that makes sense.

like you said, I have a huge amount of respect for the creator for still updating the game with new content, and how much there is to do for the price. I like the fishing system and the quest system, and I think that the customization is really fun.

My first and biggest criticism is how the game handles diversity. Granted, Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons has never been great about this but I still think it's fair to criticize SDV for how it drops the ball on this.

I'm grateful that ConcernedApe added gay marriage at all and lets you date anyone you want, and there's even some lines acknowledging queerness, like, "I've never felt this way about another guy/girl before". George is also homophobic if you date Alex as a man which is... interesting.

With that said, it feels a bit like a bare minimum. The game doesn't acknowledge queerness at all if you don't intentionally seek it out.

I think that this video expresses my thoughts a lot better on this topic. It talks about bisexuality and polyamory in video games (not just SDV) and how its often equated with promiscuity, cheating, insanity, among others. One point that's made is that all the characters in SDV aren't really bisexual, they're straight unless you date them as the same gender, in which case they 'become' bisexual.

In essence, they don't show interest in people of the same gender outside of the player. If you're dating Leah as a guy for example, she never mentions queerness at all, and her ex (from her heart events) will always match the player character's gender-- in this case, her ex will be a guy and not a girl since you're romancing her as a guy. All queer content is hidden away if you don't explicitly seek it out. A homophobe could play SDV and have no complaints at all.

Compare this to Baldur's Gate 3, where you can romance any of your companion characters, making them all bi/pan-- but they also flirt with each other, and have romantic history with people of various genders, and so on. While at the end of the day it is very likely just a way of making all the characters available to the player rather than a non-profit-driven attempt at representation, it still allows the characters an agency that the bachelor/ettes in SDV don't have.

Also regarding queerness, you still can't play as nonbinary even now, several huge content updates and years post-release. I don't know how hard it would be to just find & replace "grandson/daughter" with "grandchild", "husband/wife" with "spouse", and 'farmer boy/girl' with just… "farmer". The little player sprites are already pretty androgynous.

In addition, the only platonic partner who can live with you is Krobus. while I love Krobus, and I think a lot of people share this opinion, i think it sucks a little that the only aro/ace character that can be a platonic partner to you is a monster. Aro/ace people deserve to see themselves represented in humans, too.

I also wish we had some more racial diversity. we have Maru and Demetrius, but Pelican Town is overwhelmingly white (and cis). Concept art also had Maru with natural/coily hair, but in the final game, her hair was straightened out in a way that I think is both a huge downgrade and honestly reflecting misogynoir to an extent.

While SDV is a classic and I think always will be a touchstone which changed the genre, other farming games are outpacing SDV in this matter. I don't think farming games should only be judged on romance options, don't get me wrong, but the life sim element has become a big appeal to a lot of people and so I think it's fair to judge that portion of it.

Regarding the writing. I personally find all the love interests to be pretty bland and pretty… young-feeling. Alex is a football-obsessed jock, Sam is a band kid, Abigail is a cool girl who hates her dad. Maybe a lot of farming game fans are teens so they feel like this suits them, but I don't want to date and eventually marry someone who feels like they're 19-22 at oldest. You do have 'older' LIs like Emily, Harvey, Shane, (Emily and Shane were only added in a patch), etc but like. Your selection is still limited.

And don't get me wrong, these characters do try to reveal some interesting traits and twists to the tropes they're based on in their heart events, but none of them really stick with me at all. I don't think all the arcs really land, either. Shane never stops drinking beer and having beer cans littered in his spouse room even after his recovery arc, as far as I know. I like Penny, but I feel too much like I'm "saving" her. I found out the other day if you marry Sam that he never even attempts to help you with any of the farm chores in a way that's refusal to learn and care about your spouse's work & life at best and weaponized incompetence at worst.

I find the characters visually bland too? Like. Emily is supposed to be a cool alt hippie girl who's a fashion designer and yes shes got choppy blue hair (and pronouns) but she's just wearing a red dress and has no accessories or real spice to her. Give that woman a septum piercing for the love of god. A lot of the art just doesn't really feel amazing, in general, to me.

Also this is a minor gripe compared to everything else, but in regards to the blandess of the LIs-- they're all just available to you, with none of them being particularly more 'difficult' than others. A fun part of some Harvest Moon games in my opinion was being able to unlock new marriage candidates as you went on and/or having 'secret' characters. SDV could never have a Kiera or a Woofio. I think you should be able to marry the Wizard if you're past year 2 and cleared the Skull Cavern 10 times or something. Remember Nami and Kai leaving town periodically, too?

The anti-capitalism/anti-Joja Corporation plot also is pretty toothless. Save the Homeland had you in a race against time versus the theme park company, and Magical Melody gave you a farmer rival (even if Jamie can't really threaten you in a meaningful way). I don't really feel like going into this more right now, though. I know the game is meant to be #cozy, and so they don't let your animals die or let you "lose" to Joja, and that's fine. I know my tastes are unusual. I think that a little bit of stress makes games feel more satisfying in the long run.

The combat system is genuinely irredeemable. I don't have anything else to say on it.

What else. There's always one optimal way to progress your farm, which is to turn it into a giant Ancient Fruit monoculture and sell a shitload of aged Ancient Fruit Wine while selling 999999 Blueberries every Summer, etc. There's a very clear "optimal" perk progression system as well (always going with 'Farmer -> Artisan' path to supplement your Ancient Fruit Winery income). Having static prices with "best" crops to grow isn't exactly a gripe original to SDV, but I think that it's maybe just more apparent to me with this game. Maybe I've just played it too much.

But, its just really easy to get uber-rich, automate away all your farm work, and then have nothing left to do.

With that said, I'm still playing the 1.6 update so just imagine me in full clown makeup as I type all this.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to ramble about all this, and thanks if you read it all, haha.

hi! sorry for the random question, but i was playing sdv 1.6 and i was wondering what your thoughts are on stardew valley (as a whole) as a fan of the harvest moon aka story of seasons games, particularly the older games in the series. i grew up with harvest moon 64 and friends of mineral town among other titles and i have my own answer to this question, but i dont want to potentially influence your answer so i'll withhold them for now. if you already answered this please excuse me haha

nah i've never talked about this. i have... perhaps too many thoughts on stardew to even attempt to put into words. someday i plan to write about it the way i'm writing about all the other harvest moon games, but it's kind of hard for me to do that for two reasons

i hate it

its the best farming sim

well maybe i dont hate it, but it irritates the hell out of me lmao. your progression is built around automating farming away. you're instead incentivized to spend your time in the mines getting materials so you can build the things that let you not farm, but the whole time you're in the mines, you have to contend with an onslaught of monsters attacking you with what might be the worst feeling combat system I have ever used. i also think the writing is flat, uncompelling, and there isn't a single character I like

it is the best farming sim because it has the best quality of life features i've seen in any of these games, the most customization and replayability, a great quest system, and tons of content by nature of being a game that's still fairly regularly updated (in its endless miyazaki style "this is the last one i swear" kind of way).

there's also the fact that I have a lot of nostalgia for old harvest moon, and i'm sick of stardew from playing it too much. but other than the writing gripe, i think this is a pretty objective critique.

[terry-perry]

Could you write a single mum/plus sized reader with the moon boys, meeting for the first time and she has low self esteem? I’d very much appreciate it ^^ I love how you write them :3

Steven came to work as he normally did. Keeping a good pace to lower the risk of Donna getting at him for being late again. He really needed to find something to help with his sleepwalking. He's basically become more zombie than human as he mindlessly wanders about to who knows where doing who knows what. The chain wasn't being much help either, it seemed. He still wound up somewhere somehow.

After sharing his usual pleasantries with J.B., he was welcomed by someone else. This was a new change of pace as he looked down to found a young toddler boy seated on the floor in the middle of the museum. Sweet little thing in his own little world as patrons paid him no mind. Steven jogged over to him right away.

"Hey little man! What are you doing on the floor there?"

He was about to pick the kid up until he saw someone approach them. He froze, staring at a distraught woman on the verge of tears coming their way. She was a pretty one, even in such a distressed state. The young boy caught sight of her and held his arms up, his way of asking her to pick him up.

"Gregory! I'm so sorry! Oh my god!"

Right away, she lifted him off the floor and gave him a good snuggle. Something to soothe them both. She was too invested in having her boy back in her arms to notice Steven. He couldn't look away, for some reason. He offered her a sympathetic smile.

"I take it he's yours," he told her.

"Yeah, he's a little explorer. Likes to wander off. Have to keep a close eye on him."

"I can imagine," he turned his attention to the toddler, back in his mother's arms. "Like to give your mother a fright, don't you?"

"Keeps me on my toes," she giggled. She returned Steven's smile as she looked back at him. Making full eye contact with her got his heart beating a bit. She was very pretty. Where was her partner?

"Sure you and your husband do what you can to try to keep this guy out of trouble, huh?"

Smooth, Steven. Smooth.

"No husband," she responded. "Gregory's dad isn't really in the picture."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to imply anything."

Real smooth, Steven.

But she kept on smiling, not seeming affected by what he said.

"No need to apologize. It wasn't anything bad. Expected. It's just us, and that's how we like it."

Steven smiled back then, offering it to both her and her little one who gave him a small wave as he babbled. Friendly little guy.

"Thank you for stopping for him," she said then.

"No problem," he smiled back at her.

Their eyes connected again as they kept smiling. She broke it then.

"Well, bye," she quickly walked away in the opposite direction, much to Steven's disappointment. He didn't want to think he came on too strong or felt it had been too inappropriate to inquire about the kid's dad. At least they're in the museum, so maybe he'll be able to see them again when they leave.

----

Y/N turned her head back to check out the guy she talked to. She's so stupid, she didn't even bother to get his name or tell him hers. It's just as well. No guy that cute would want to bother with a single mom, let alone one like her.

He must've thought she was a train wreck with how she could barely handle her son. Probably also thought she wasn't in the best shape to take care of him. It was one of the reasons Zach left her, after all. She never got her figure back after Gregory was born, and he felt neglected when she placed more focus on their boy.

Well, she didn't need a man like him anyway. But she couldn't help but look back at the other guy. He was at the gift shop now, working the register. She shouldn't try to start anything, but there wouldn't be any harm stopping by before leaving. Gregory might life a Taweret plushie or some chocolate that looked like scarab beetles.