#this ended up way longer than I originally intended oops

[bonny-kookoo]

Jungkook

𝐕𝖊𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖊 | Teaser

He's a slave to his desires.

Tags/Warnings: Monster Hunter!Jungkook x ???Reader, Angst, Violence and murder, Romance, Strangers/Enemies to lovers, Fluff, Some comedy?, NSFW, Werewolf AU, Vampire AU, Magic AU

Wordcount: ??

A/N: This was originally meant to be a Halloween Special, but ended up growing way longer than just a 1k drabble as intended, oops. I hope you'll still like reading it- I'll attempt to write the chapters more 'stand-alone' so they can be read without an open ending, while still making you look forward to more.

-> Masterlist

⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅

The smell of blood is clear in the air. The sight of it is even more obvious.

Amongst the snow, his wounded prey tries to run from him, leaving drops of crimson against the white, a clear trail to follow. The gun in his hand is still warm, nozzle hot from the most recent firing, bullet most likely still lodged into skin and muscle. It was deserved, long coming, a fate decided, a task completed.

So why is he chasing you?

Because you were not his target.

The bullet in your body isn’t even his.

Jungkook is said to be cruel, unforgiving, ruthless and without mercy- but Namjoon, the only leader he respects enough to follow blindly, would deny that any day. Jungkook has a strong sense of justice, believes what he does is for the better, something that has to be done. So it wasn’t surprising that when he’d used the phone at the hideout of the guy, and called his leader, there had been a faint stutter in his words as he gives him the info he needs.

“He’s dead. I’ll leave him in the container for his people to find.” Jungkook says, well aware that this connection must be a hidden one- meaning that no one can tap into it and potentially listen in on what's said. If he wasn't sure of that, he would've never uttered his next words. “There’s.. the situation wasn’t what I expected, but it’s done.”

“how so?” namjoon asks over the phone. “You sound distracted.”

“I am.” Jungkook admits openly, though his voice stays rather monotonous. He knows he couldn’t lie even if he wanted to. “There’s been.. an uninvolved victim. I don’t think she belongs to his group- she was collared.”

“is she dead?” namjoon asks.

“I don’t know.” The younger man responds. “wounded. I’m not sure how badly, but there's a significant amount of blood.” He explains, as he looks from the red splotches on the floor in front of him, to outside the container into the woods, where you’ve run off.

Instinct, most likely. Lycans, Hybrids and Familiars alike tend to seek solitude when wounded badly, their minds controlled by instincts written in their DNA- and Jungkook has a good eye for determining one’s species just by a short moment of observation. What exactly you are he can't yet say for sure- but the tingling in the air and the bulky collar you wore were clear indications of you not being of the average human kind.

He'll find out soon enough.

“Do what you must.” Is what Namjoon tells him- and it's a gentle order, given to him with the freedom of choice. Jungkook has to now figure out if you're a threat- and if so, what your fate shall be. But no matter how friendly his leader's tone has been, it's an order to act nonetheless-

So he does as he's told, and hangs up the phone before he begins walking out the container into the wintery woods, following your trail of red.

[sukunasweetheart]

can i just say i love your fics SMMMM my serotonin boost fr!!! what do we think abt him with an s/o who has a lot of admirers 👁

THANK YOUU here is a treat 4 u <3

sorry i ended up doing too much and also going off-topic a bit oops

it ended up becoming modern au!sukuna 😭 forgive me (gender neutral reader)

sukuna is so used to being the one overshadowing the others - he's used to being the one admired, revered, respected, for his power and intelligence. it's safe to say he'd also be used to seeing people fight each other just for a lick of his attention - desiring for even just a glance from his way. so it's a given that he's not used to feelings of possessiveness or jealousy.

but now that he has you, someone who always has others admiring you from both closeby and afar, he's beginning to understand those petty sensations and thoughts. he's obviously never one to be insecure about your popularity, on most occasions, he even likes to make a show of it - he enjoys seeing them gnashing their teeth with envy as he flaunts his relationship with you in front of their faces - "see this? all mine," he seems to say, as he openly kisses you in public.

but when it catches him on a bad day, perhaps following a bad argument, he sees you with someone who is obviously interested in being more than just a friend to you (which you're not aware of, frustratingly so), and he starts feeling sick to his stomach. with everyone else who came before you, sukuna would simply tell them "don't like it? then leave," whenever they voiced complaints to him about their relationship... but now it's the opposite of what he wants. just the thought of you being with someone that isn't him gets his heart dropping to the ground, making him feel restless.

he knows he isn't the best at being soft. nor at using the kindest words when he gets heated. he'll always be more selfish than selfless, and he's not the most emotionally intelligent. it's unlike him to use words like 'i'm sorry' or 'i love you' so he's uneasy for the moment where you might find someone who'll be everything that he isn't amongst your sea of admirers, and that you'll leave him and never look back.

it's simply so humiliating, feeling this way... he's not sure what to do about it. you seem to be seriously upset this time around, and he knows brushing past it or glossing over it using his usual charm (which is a bad habit that he has) isn't going to work. you're not acknowledging him or responding to his texts properly or saying good morning or goodnight and it's driving him insane because he misses it... you're not looking at him. he's the one gazing at you, longingly.

sukuna will pin you down eventually, somewhere, somehow, and trap you so that you're not able to avoid him any longer. he'll drag you away from your stupid little crowd of spectators and talk to you in private, where'll spend ten minutes trying to apologise in a strange, roundabout and aggressive way because he knows it's his own damn fault. you know him, so you're able to recognise that he's trying to say sorry. your gaze is still elsewhere, looking off to the side instead of him. and that bothers him immensely.

"why won't you look at me?" god, he sounds so sad and pathetic.

truth is, sukuna now simply withers out and dies a little without your attention. what can he do to have that spotlight upon him once again? why are your eyes on anybody, anything, that isn't him? pay attention to me, and me only.

when you finally spare him a glance, he feels like breathing again. and he'll fight tooth and nail to keep that gaze of yours on him. fuck your insignificant and measly admirers. he's all you need, and sukuna's going to make sure of it. (he'll compromise for you, if he has to.)

he's definitely overstimming you in bed that night, in order to catch up on all the lost pride and attention that you'd deprived him of.

tagging; @gojos-thot-patrol <3 hope its to your liking.. even tho its not as angsty as i originally intended it to be haha

Masterlist

[tj-dragonblade]

I SEE YOU HAVE A TAKE ON MER HOB MAY I HEAR ABOUT MER HOB

YOU ABSOLUTELY MAY, even if it took me longer to respond than intended, oops. But! Mer-Hob is slowly turning into a different fic than originally imagined last year. Which is fine, and good, because what I'd originally imagined just wasn't working. I think I can confidently place him back on the wip list now with a better idea of the shape he'll have moving forward. And for you, thank you for your patience, here is their freshly-drafted first kiss scene:

"Dream?"

Dream glances to where Hob sits beside him, tail fin drifting idly in the water near Dream's bare feet. Dream had brought chocolate, again; the delight Hob had displayed the first two times was something he wanted to see again, and again, and again. He wanted to find every way possible to bring joy to Hob, to make that warm smile light up, to bring his laughter bubbling forth.

The chocolate has been finished, though, and Hob sounds…tentative; Dream's brow creases. "Yes?"

"I've got a question for you. Or. Well. Not so much a question, as something I'd like to tell you." He's tilted his head slightly, is toying with the lowest spine of his ear-fin. "It's. It's—I've been trying to tell you, like I would another mer, but I don't think you get it. And why would you, culturally, you've got no way to know if I don't explain it first right? So I thought, maybe I should just. Try it the human way?"

Dream is perplexed, not sure he entirely follows what Hob is trying to say, but then Hob is leaning closer, leaning in, as if he means to—

His lips touch Dream's, and Dream's heart stops as his brain catches up. Hob. Is kissing him—

Except it's not exactly a kiss, has none of the common elements aside from two pairs of lips in contact; Hob is very still, holding that touch for another instant, and then he pulls back.

Dream's heart thuds in his chest, tripping faster; he can feel how wide his eyes are and how his mouth has fallen slightly open, but all he can see is the hopeful uncertainty in the warm depthless brown of Hob's eyes.

"I'm sorry if I didn't do it right. But a kiss is how you say you like someone, right?"

"I. Yes." Dream is drowning in the instant-replay inside his own brain. Hob. Had kissed him. Hob had kissed him. Hob had kissed him—

"Well. I like you. And I think maybe…maybe you might um. Like me too?"

Dream manages a nod. "Mmhm." His heart is racing.

"Well!" Hob looks delighted if still nervous, and his tail flicks up in the water with a splash. "That's good, then! Brilliant! Okay!" He smiles, all warmth and happy energy. "Okay."

"Merfolk do not kiss, then?" Dream is slowly processing, still catching up, still circling helplessly around the bright spot of Hob kissed me, Hob LIKES me.

"Not many, nope. And I've never. But I've seen enough humans and human stuff to get the idea. Did I do it right?"

"Right enough. However." Boldness surges up in Dream, riding the bubbling tide of joy curling higher within his chest. "Can I. May I show you, what observation alone does not perhaps convey?"

"Of course," Hob says, curiosity in the tilt of his eyebrows, and Dream leans in.

It's soft, sweet; he fits his lips gently to Hob's and presses, brushes them together and apart and together again, aching with the fulfillment of this long-held wish. He is kissing. Hob. And Hob is kissing back, tentatively matching the movement of Dream's mouth on his, and Dream is dizzy with it. His hands yearn to hold, to touch; he brings one up and lets his fingertips flutter lightly to rest on Hob's cheek, away from the delicate spread of his ear-fin, away from the curve of his neck where his gills are tightly sealed. And when Hob reaches carefully to touch him in kind, Dream's heart soars.

A long moment passes before he ends the kiss at last; he draws back just enough to see, to watch Hob's eyes blink slowly open.

"Oh," Hob breathes, voice full of softness and wonder, and his beautiful eyes shine warm with the same.

~ Mer-Hob wip tag for the other recent chunk and some older little bits that may just wind up orphaned

[underratedandoverit]

You Wanna Wish Away Your Sins (3/3)

After losing to Best Friends at Arcade Anarchy, Kip undergoes shoulder surgery. One person reaching out to him afterwards sends Kip spiraling, turning all the pain and suffering in him into… Flowers? Flowers growing in his lungs?

Kip Sabian/Chuck Taylor. Hanahaki disease. Angst. Hurt/comfort. Emotional hurt/comfort. One-sided attraction. Also tagged this from now on with manipulative Kip.

Marked Mature on AO3 for general content. Warnings for mentions of hospitals, surgery, medical stuff. Described feelings for choking and vomiting.

Other characters on-screen include Penelope Ford, Orange Cassidy. Rest of Best Friends are mentioned. Background ship of Penelope/Kris is heavily implied, but never specifically shown.

part 1 || part 2

On AO3

Finishing this took way longer than I intended. Oops. Mental illness and whatever be damned yada yada. But it's over now. And I am content. It's a whole fic and ended just as I wanted and had planned, surprisingly no surprises during writing lol. I hope it makes sense, there's a little bit there that doesn't get explained, but I have convinced myself that people can put the pieces together considering the mental state Kip is in and how the hanahaki disease works so. Yeah.

If you have read this far, thank you so much, I really appreciate you and your patience if you have waited for this to finish since I originally posted in early September. I see all the kudos and subs attached, they mean the world to me. Would love to hear your thoughts of this now that it's over, as there was a lot of time (obviously lol) and love put into this, so it would mean a lot ;; But I appreciate you all so much either way, thank you for sticking by and reading!! 💜💜

@midnightpretenders0 @stormbornpirate @ss-trashboat

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

Kip tried to keep his eyes on the television, but he wasn’t registering anything he saw on the screen. Even if he was technically interested in watching the game that was being played, Kip would have much rather been looking at something else. Or someone else. That someone being the man sitting on the couch next to him, being much more into the activity of playing a video game that he was partaking in that Kip was.

While he was glad that Chuck was coming over far more often these days, at the same time it did grind Kip’s mind that they had fallen into this false routine of a casual friendship. Chuck would appear on his doorstep, bring a movie or a game with him for them to busy themselves with that day, maybe some snacks and energy drinks, and the rest of the day they would just hang out, consume the media of the day, and that would be it.

Same talking points every single day. Sitting in the silently designated spots on the couch just far enough from one another that even by accident their hands wouldn’t brush against each other unless they were passing the food and drinks around. Eye contact was brief, almost uncomfortably so if it managed to exist in the first place, and only when one got up from the couch and asked if the other needed something or something similarly surprising happened. Maybe a laugh could gather a quick glance, maybe a sneeze, a cough. And even then it was more often Chuck doing that to Kip, while Kip was trying to steal looks into his direction any chance he could, hoping Chuck would catch a hint.

It had been days, weeks even, maybe. How many, Kip had lost a count somewhere after the first few days, partially because of the pain he was going through, partially because he still found the whole situation so absurd. But the thing he knew for sure, was that it had been too many for comfort.

Every time Kip watched Chuck walk out the door of his house again at the end of the day, his breathing became a little bit tighter, the stabbing pain in his chest more prominent, the sleep during that following night a little shorter.

He was so tired of it all, and with every day that passed him by, it was pushing Kip closer to the realization that he finally had to do something about things. Before the pain was too paralyzing, before the thoughts became too much. Before he just couldn’t do anything about it anymore, before it was all too late.

“…Hey? Kip?”

The Brit blinked blankly a few times, finally registering the voice calling out to him after the words had been repeated a few times. His eyes slowly dragged away from the television screen, facing the brunet sitting on the couch next to him, Chuck looking at him with worry and concern. It was almost adorable to Kip how his brows furrowed and eyes darted around his facial features in clear worry. Almost.

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

Chuck sighed, Kip trying to offer him an apologetic smile as he watched Chuck running a hand through his hair, eyes turning away from the other man again as he shook his head a little. Kip had been too deep in his own head, with his own thoughts to notice Chuck had even tried to talk to him, the guilt almost immediately gnawing on him at the mere thought. He was supposed to try to pay attention to him, to try to make Chuck realize the situation, how close they were, to understand his feelings, to close the gap, to --

“I just wanted to know if you were hungry. We could order something in, maybe. If you’d like.”

For once Kip was thankful that Chuck wasn’t looking straight at him, his cheeks flushing red for a brief moment as he registered the words. Ordering food? Together? At his place, like this, out of the blue? For the first time?

It almost sounded like a date night proposal in Kip’s ears.

He quickly shook the thought from his head, turning away from Chuck to make sure he didn’t even by accident catch a glimpse of the blush decorating his face, desperately trying to not have the words caught in his throat, only partially succeeding.

“Ye-yeah that would be great.”

Chuck was so sincere about this question, just like he always was about everything, he was probably just hungry himself, and Kip was overthinking it all. Once again. But also, what if…

“Great. What would you like to eat?” Chuck’s words cut Kip’s thought process off again, his eyes slowly returning to the other man, watching Chuck pull his phone out of his pocket, eyes landing onto it, seemingly to avoid eye contact with Kip, who just shrugged a little. “I don’t know. Whatever sounds good.”

Chuck’s brows furrowed, suddenly looking back at Kip, making the Brit jump a little. This wasn’t the kind of reaction Kip had expected to his words, swallowing a little surprise lump in his throat as all of a sudden he was very unsure again where this was going. He hated nothing more than the unpredictable nature of their relationship, not being able to read Chuck at moments like this, mostly due to his own emotions and thoughts clouding his judgment and understanding of what the situation called for from him.

“…Okay, I’m going to be fully honest with you.”

The suddenly rather serious tone of Chuck’s voice made Kip’s eyes widen a little, he could feel his whole body tensing up at the sudden shift. Chuck offered him a small smile, most likely in hopes of trying to calm down Kip’s very obviously surprised demeanor, but seeing that smile just made Kip’s whole mind skip another beat instead.

“I’ve been worried about you recently. I actually talked with Penelope yesterday after I left, and she feels much the same way as I do.”

Chuck? Worried? About him? Chuck? Kip’s head was spinning, but he just nodded his head, not even acknowledging the fact that Chuck was also talking about Penelope being involved in this. All Kip cared about was that Chuck was thinking about him, outside of this room, outside of this couch, when he wasn’t around.

Chuck was thinking, and talking, about him.

“You’ve been… Seemingly getting worse each day I see you. You lack sleep, you lack food, you lack energy. I understand you are in a lot of pain with the shoulder and all, but you need to take care of yourself, Kip. Mine and Penelope’s help will only get you so far.”

Kip just looked at him quietly, trying to process the statement in his head, but all his thoughts retracted back to the overall realization that Chuck was worried about him. Thinking about him. That Chuck at least seemed to care more than he led on directly to him, at least before this very moment at hand.

“If there’s something wrong that you need help with, other than what we have been providing so far, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask, you know?”

Kip felt his head nodding itself, despite not approving of the movement in his mind. He was running on a practiced autopilot, still afraid that one casual movement might fuck all this up for him, not being the kind of response that Chuck wanted. This seemed to be enough for the brunet for now though as Chuck nodded back at him, eyes slowly returning to the phone in his hand. Right, he was ordering food. Right.

“So, again: what do you want to eat today? You can get anything you want, as long as it makes you eat. We just want to make sure you take care of yourself.”

At the same time it was endearing that Chuck was doing this for him, but Kip also knew he had to put a stop to this, all of it. While yes his current and constantly worsening condition was making him neglect his own basic needs, both which directly as a result affected his appetite and energy levels, Kip knew that trying to eat some proper food one day wasn’t the answer to his problems. Above all else, his condition was making it not only difficult to breathe, but the pain in his chest and particularly in his lungs made eating at this point a near impossible task.

As the silence from the Brit continued, Chuck glanced towards him, spotting Kip just looking back at him. Whether he was deep in thought or just staring, Chuck wasn’t quite sure.

“Kip?”

“I’m not hungry.”

At least it wasn’t a lie in a sense. Chuck raised a brow at him, slowly lowering the hand holding his phone onto his lap, eyes narrowing a little. Chuck’s eyes lingered on him just a little bit too long, forcing Kip to look away, back towards the television with the frozen game pause screen on it.

“You need to eat something.”

“Food can’t fix this.”

Kip could feel the confusion radiating from Chuck’s face, probably his entire being at this point, but he just couldn’t look back at him. It was so much easier for Kip to process his thoughts if he wasn’t looking at what he was sure was a very worried expression on the brunet sitting on the couch a few feet away from him.

He heard Chuck sigh. Not a very good sign.

“If you eat something, you get energy. You feel better. I shouldn’t need to explain all this to you. Kip, please --”

“This isn’t about food.”

Chuck fell silent as Kip cut him off, probably a bit more aggressively than necessary, but he was tired of this. All of this. Both his inability to do anything about the situation even though he desperately, so very desperately needed it, and the way they both seemed to just dance around the topic and the issues at hand. To Kip, Chuck offering to order him food was nothing but a detour that he couldn’t afford to wait to take to where he eventually needed to be. Kip had suffered long enough, mostly due to his own faults, yes, but Chuck jumping in to push his buttons like this, while a step in the right direction, wasn’t a fast enough track to where they needed to be.

Where Kip needed to be if he wanted to make it through all of this, it seemed like.

“…Are you mad at me?”

Kip’s eyes narrowed a little, but he still didn’t turn to look towards Chuck. All he heard was another quiet sigh.

“I don’t know how many times I can apologize for what happened. You know it was an accident. I’m sorry --”

“I don’t want you to apologize. I don’t care about that.”

If something, it was supposed to be Kip who apologized for everything, and he knew that painfully well.

“Then what is it?”

Kip swallowed thickly, being absolutely certain that Chuck could not only see it but also hear him do it. Kip’s eyes slowly dragged back to him, watching the confusion all over the brunet’s face. If the situation wasn’t so dire and heavy, Kip would have found the look on him endearing. Right now though, seeing Chuck not put the pieces together so easily, filled him with dread instead, along with the knowledge that Kip knew exactly what he needed to do next and the can of worms that he needed to open if he ever wanted to have a shot at things getting better again.

“I need…” Kip stopped, the confusion on Chuck’s face slowly melting into a more expecting look. Both of them were still clearly hesitant, Chuck not knowing what to expect out of him and Kip not being so sure how he was going to phrase this so it made even some sort of sense.

Just say it.

“I… I need you to kiss me.”

The silence that fell into the room felt like it was knocking all the remaining air out of Kip. The longer he looked at Chuck and the unreadable look lingering on his face after the words slipped out of Kip’s mouth, the worse he felt about everything. For once he was being honest about this entire situation and what he wanted out of it, and yet it felt like a worse mistake than anything he had lied to Chuck about so far.

He wanted this. He needed this. This was the trigger Kip had been so afraid to pull for so long now, but he knew that if he didn’t finally say those words, no matter the reaction, it would have terrible consequences for him. He was already suffering, the roots of his problem crawling deeper into his lungs every single day he put it off without even trying to make anything out of it. Kip was tired of it, he was suffering immensely because of it, he just needed to do something. Anything.

After what felt like forever of Chuck just staring at him, Kip was snapped out of his thoughts as Chuck took in a sharp breath, the only way Kip was able to describe his expression being polite confusion.

“You, uh… You what?”

Not sure if Chuck was just making sure or if he really hadn’t understood the statement, Kip bit his lower lip as he turned away from the other man. He inhaled slowly, preparing himself to say those words again. Kip did it once, he could do it again. It was a necessary step forward.

“I-I need. To kiss you. You to kiss me. So-something like that.”

As Chuck didn’t reply for a while, Kip stole a quick glance towards him, trying to gather an overview of the situation. Much to his surprise, Chuck looked like he was in deep thought for a second, as if he was pondering over the request. At least he wasn’t outright denying it from Kip, which in turn as he realized it, made his heart jump back into his throat.

The burning as Kip nervously waited for an answer was worse than the thorns poking inside of his lungs at the moment.

“Would that help? Make you feel better?”

Kip nodded almost instantly, the motion almost frantic, something he couldn’t control. Still clearly in his thoughts, Chuck nodded as well.

“I mean,” he muttered, a hand slowly reaching closer to Kip, the Brit’s focus turning on it with slightly widening eyes, “If… If it helps. I guess.”

Kip watched his hand stopping to hover close to him, slowly his own hand reaching for it. He could feel Chuck’s fingers gently wrapping around his hand, giving it a little tuck, an invitation to come closer. Kip followed suit, shifting over on the couch to slowly make his way to sit down right next to Chuck. For the first time since they had started doing this, for the first time since Chuck had started to spend the days over to keep him company. There had always been a cold, untouched gap between the two of them on the couch, but this was the first time it had been broken, filled, fixed.

And all it took was a small request that Kip should have been able to do in the first place, but it took him weeks and actual concern from Chuck to get to this point.

But there he was now, Chuck still gently holding his hand, running this thumb over his knuckles. A soft, still kind of unsure smile crossing his lips as he was looking Kip straight in the eyes. Chuck clearly wasn’t budging back on this, honestly much to Kip’s surprise, as his free hand slowly crept up to the Brit’s face, palm pressing against his cheek. Chuck’s hand was surprisingly cold against his flushed skin.

“…You sure?”

It was almost as if Chuck was asking that from himself more than Kip, but he pushed the thought aside, just nodding his head again. Without another word, Chuck leaned closer, finally closing the gap that had been antagonizing Kip these past few weeks without remorse, locking their lips together.

The kiss was awkward and hesitant at first, but slowly it felt more natural as they both seemed to relax into it. Soft and homey, but Kip could taste his own desperation in it despite all of it. He knew how badly he not only wanted, but needed this. While he could have joked that it was the matter of life and death, to him it was actually no joke, but merely the cruel reality he barely understood himself at all. Feeling Chuck’s lips finally against his, after the excruciatingly long amount of time of craving and needing nothing more than to taste him so desperately he was suffering from the withdrawals more and more every day, Kip’s mind went blank. He could feel Chuck close, hear his breathing, slowly allowing himself to enjoy it, running a thumb over Kip’s cheek.

Kip had been waiting for this moment for so long, craving for this so badly, that he needed more now that he finally had it, pushing the boundaries first as he found himself without a single coherent thought giving a small bite on Chuck’s lower lip, a silent, desperate request for a deeper kiss. A deeper meaning.

A request that was granted to him, but was also almost immediately and far too fast ripped away from him as Chuck suddenly jolted away, as if he had suddenly in the midst of all of this realized what he was doing and thought better of it.

Eyes opening as Kip felt the hand disappear from his face, he leaned slightly back, watching in emotions swimming in disappointment and confusion as Chuck’s eyes were suddenly on his phone again, the piece of tech buzzing on his lap, suddenly demanding his attention. Almost as if it was mocking Kip and how close he had finally gotten.

“So-sorry, I have to take this.”

Kip just nodded, feeling the body heat of the other man disappearing from around him as Chuck’s hand left his, grabbing a hold of the phone before he stood up, answering the sudden call. He could still salvage this, it wasn’t all lost. Chuck hadn’t denied him this, by the way he was acting it was obvious to Kip that this wasn’t just all in his head. Maybe the kiss had been brief, but there was compassion behind it, he was very gentle about it, there --

“What do you mean that was today?”

Kip’s eyes slowly traveled up to Chuck, watching the brunet run a hand over his face as he sighed. “Yeah I know, I know you need me there for that, just… I was kinda in the middle of something…”

The silence that followed that statement and the way Chuck couldn’t look back at Kip made a familiar lump climb its way back in his throat. Kip tried to cough it out quietly, not to attract attention to himself, just watching as Chuck stepped a little bit further away from him.

“I can be there in twenty minutes, I guess. …Alright, I’ll see you then.”

As he hung up the call, Chuck didn’t even need to say anything. He was sure Kip had heard most of it, and the apologetic eyes and the small smile he offered to him as he finally turned back towards the Brit really didn’t help the case.

“Sorry, I completely forgot we had a photoshoot to do today, I… I gotta go.”

Kip nodded his head, but remained silent as he stood up from the couch. At least this was a start, they were going somewhere. He had put at least part of his desires out there, for Chuck to reach out and react to, if nothing else. This was a beginning, hopefully for the better. Kip wasn’t sure how fast he was supposed to be feeling the effects of his love and affections being returned to him, but so far he was blaming the sick feeling in his throat on the sudden change of pace in the room rather than Chuck not returning his feelings like before.

Maybe he had read all of this wrong. Maybe the sickness had caught up with him just because he didn’t know this was mutual. That had to be it, right?

Kip walked him to the door, Chuck turning back to him again as he rested his hand on the door handle.

“Look, I’m really sorry I have to go, I just completely forgot about this. You know, with having to worry about you and all.”

Kip could feel a smile tucking the corner of his lips, allowing at least a part of it to show. As sad as he was having to watch Chuck walk away yet again without a resolution to this whole problem, at least there was hope. Chuck smiled back at him, leaning closer to press a quick little peck on Kip’s lips, catching the Brit off guard, leaving him looking back at him with wide eyes as Chuck opened the door, stepping outside.

“I’ll see you again tomorrow, alright?”

Kip could only nod before Chuck closed the door, leaving him standing there, heart racing and beating loudly between his ears. Kip leaned against the closed door, inhaling deeply before he sighed, the content smile on his lips only wiped away as he coughed softly, eyes shooting open to witness the handful of purple tinted rose petals he let out of his mouth.

No.

Chuck Taylor still didn’t love him.

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

“…Are you sure it’s him?”

Cassidy shrugged his shoulders a little. “I mean, who else could it be? Besides, he has photos of himself that he signs and hands out and a big board on the table with the name ‘Kip Sabian’ on it, so…”

Chuck sighed, running a hand over his face before rolling his eyes. “You could have led with that information, you know.”

Cassidy didn’t reply back to him, just observed the brunet on the couch through his sunglasses. “I thought you would have known. Aren’t you two friends or something?”

Chuck avoided looking directly back at him, trying to make it seem like the question didn’t sting. He hadn’t seen Kip since that day, he never opened the door when Chuck came over the following day or answered any of his calls or texts since. He had been living in complete darkness over what had actually happened with Kip, even Penelope refused to tell him anything apart from a general ‘he’s fine’ every time Chuck asked her something.

“I told you, that was months ago.”

Cassidy just nodded, stopping to observe Chuck as the other man just tried to focus back on lacing his boots. After a long, lingering silence the blond broke it as he spoke up again.

“Do you want to go see him?”

Chuck stopped, eyes slowly dragging up to Cassidy again. He seemed sincere in that question, and if Chuck was being honest, that had been the first thought in his mind since Cassidy had waltzed into the locker room with the news that Kip had been sighted inside the building. The premise seemed rather odd to him, but at the same time, he wouldn’t have put something like that past Kip. A silent man with a suit and a cardboard box on his head, doing a signing that hadn’t been advertised for anyone beforehand. Sounded like it was just down Kip’s alley, in some really weird way, to him.

“Is he still there?”

“Probably,” Cassidy shrugged again. “He seemed to be just setting up when we went into the cafeteria like twenty minutes ago. I doubt he has left yet.”

While he wasn’t quite sure how to take any of it, let alone how Kip was going to take it if he showed up, Chuck nodded a little, still a bit hesitant. Cassidy mirrored the movement, before nodding his head towards the locker room door, asking Chuck to follow him. Not that he didn’t know where the cafeteria was in the building, they had walked past it when they had entered earlier, but maybe his hesitance was on the surface enough that Cassidy thought taking the lead was going to make him regret this less. Make it easier for him.

Chuck followed Cassidy outside, tracking through the hallways for a moment before they arrived at their destination. It was extremely easy to spot the individual not belonging into the group of people in the big, bright, well-lit room, the man standing in the middle of it all by a large table messed up with multiple scattered photos around it, hands behind his suited back as he was observing the room through the eye holes poked on a box over his head.

Chuck swallowed thickly. It didn’t matter if he didn’t see his face, all that was enough for him to recognize him immediately, no matter how many months it had been since or how much things had changed between now and then.

He was so focused on reading the words on the front of the box that Chuck didn’t notice the eyes inside of it land on him. The distance made it a bit harder, sure, but the lights were bright enough and the dark circles surrounding the eyes made them pop for Cassidy to notice the stare at first, even if it wasn’t directed at him.

“Hey,” he muttered, carefully elbowing Chuck to the side to get his attention. “He sees you. I think you should at least go say hello.”

Blinking himself back to the situation, Chuck glanced at Cassidy on his side, the blond just shrugging at him a little. Maybe Chuck’s nervousness was obvious, maybe Cassidy quickly put two and two together from what Chuck had told him before about how their last meeting had ended, but he only sighed, once again leading the way towards the man in a suit and the box, Kip’s eyes never leaving Chuck as they approached. Chuck on the other hand tried to look at everything except him, until he was stopped to stand right in front of the other man he hadn’t seen in months until now.

Through the eye holes of the box Chuck could see his vacant stare just blankly staring back at him, saying it all without saying anything at the same time. Kip looked at him briefly, before providing a photo from the inside pocket of his suit jacket, pulling a marker seemingly out of nowhere along with it. He scribbled something quickly on the photo, handing it to Cassidy, and walked away without looking back or acknowledging either of them further.

Cassidy looked at the photo for a moment before handing it over to Chuck. It was an old promo picture of Kip, in his Superbad gear, with his face crossed over with a red marker and some messy text scribbled next to him.

‘Time changes us all. Embrace the change.’

[inkspindle]

This post got a lot longer than intended (oops), so feel free to just skim the pretty pictures, or skip to the bits you find most interesting!

I got bored, and wanted to try something out, just to see how it looked. The goal was: Make a visually appealing pixel-object out of very limited colors, which is both clear in visual, and shaded to give a lil depth. While this isn't a tutorial on making old-school pixel art, I'd love to see if this inspires anybody else to give it a try!

Shrunk a public domain photo down for the silhouette of my base here (https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=173260&picture=tree) and just kinda riffed on it. Tried to "capture" the way it looked (to me) as best I could, while staying true to the original photo.

In order to tempt people into scrolling past the read-more, here is the final image I settled on after taking several passes at it. (Be warned, this is a VERY LONG post!)

(And what it looks like at normal size)

Normally, when I do pixel art, I prefer not to do the thing where you shrink a picture down, and make it more pixellated. But... I've realized there's a bunch of different ways to emphasize those same pixels. So I decided to experiment.

First-off, my initial goal: The background would be the lightest color, and I would then use a darkest color and two mid-tone colors to re-create the entire image. I couldn't work with any other shades, as it would help me simplify the shapes I'm looking at a little better. So I started by blocking in the deepest shadows I could find, and then sculpting them into more satisfying shapes.

While it "worked," I didn't like the end-result. It wasn't terrible, it just didn't look the way that I wanted it to.

The next attempt was to make all my existing shadows the darkest color in my palette, then "fill in" between them with a nice mid-tone. Something to soften the shadows up a bit, and make it look a little more cohesive.

This also didn't quite give the effect I wanted. The shadows are a lovely shape, but I probably added too many of them. I wanted the "focus" on the bits of the tree that were fully highlighted, but it still didn't look right.

While it broke my initial "rule," I tried combining the first picture and the last one, to see what a "happy medium" looked like. The end-result... looked almost identical to the photo that I started with. (Colors notwithstanding.) While the visual effect was a bit more pleasing to the eye, that definitely defeated the purpose of the exercise. So...I started over completely.

SKIP DOWN TO THE TL;DR TO AVOID THE VIDEO GAME HISTORY RANT.

(Certain things have been heavily oversimplified, to make for a shorter explanation!)

Fun lil video-game history fact: Early visuals in video games started with "off" and "on." A lot of the modern limited-palette pixel art you see is directly inspired by the fact that the earliest screens we had to work with could only show visuals in binary; Parts of the screen were "on" (the lighter color) or "off" (the darker color) and we hadn't gotten to the point we could display a crisp white or black, yet. This meant that you might have a green background with darker green artwork. Later on, they were able to add a mid-tone shade or two for sake of depth and detail.

After we went through our early MS Paint era of video game visuals (complete with blinding use of primary colors), people stretched what early processors (CPU/video card/RAM/low-res displays) could handle to the limits. That harsh limitation on what an early computer could display without frying itself, and what it could display at all, led to some extremely clever uses of color-choice, dithering, and cross-hatching, to trick the eye into filling in with colors and shapes where early video game artists couldn't add them.

See, when we talk about "8-bit" games, we're talking about (oversimplified, mind you) the amount of colors and pixels a computer is capable of displaying, both overall, and in a given section of the screen at a time. Individual tiles and character-sprites for old games had a set amount of pixels per "square," and within those "squares," you were only allowed to display a certain amount of colors. Each separate "square" then had to be designed individually.

Some while after we figured out how to display more than "off" and "on," we developed computers that could handle showing a lovely range of different colors. But then we had a new issue; Within a single "square" (8x8, 16x16, etc) of the screen, you could have white, black, and up to 1-2 other colors. The computer couldn't handle displaying anything else; No midtone shades inbetween, no nothing.

So early video game artists compensated for this by sticking to that old method of "chunking" out the visuals on the screen into tiles, which matched that resolution. You wouldn't notice that your computer could only show 2 gray tones in the same square, if that square happened to be a stone wall. The square next to it could then be two different shades of green, and it would make a lovely piece of grass, or a tree, with shading even!

There was a period inbetween where we had such limited colors to work with, people had purple trees, orange grass, and red skies. It created a wild visual effect, and had all the right contrast (see artwork term: "Value") to allow the eye to see the detail needed for games in which visuals were really important, like early point-and-click adventures.

Eventually, artists stretched the limits further. While that resolution was slow to evolve, people began to create complex backgrounds with visible perspective, that blurred the lines between each "square" on the screen. If you wanted to create a diagonal edge, or overlap two objects over eachother, you had to use a set of colors that could apply to both objects you wanted to create.

So!!! FOR THOSE WHO SCROLLED DOWN, tl;dr-

I wanted to see if I could re-create this tree with only 3-4 total colors (+background) in a way that an early computer could have rendered on-screen. That means white/black + 2 colors per "square." Since I didn't like how harsh a pure black looked while I worked on it, I skipped using it. We're going to pretend an old computer could handle these specific shades of pink and purple (spoiler; they absolutely could not)...but the visual effect being used is true to the idea.

A first-attempt was made. I allowed myself one extra mid-tone, just for the sake of smoothing things out. I then decided on 8x8 pixel squares. You can visually see where one stops and the next starts. It had a fun visual effect, and it was much closer to what I was originally going for...but the artists that came before me made nuch nicer artwork with much worse tech, and I could do better. So I took a second pass at it.

THIS was much closer to what I'd been going for. While you can still guess where each square begins/ends, all the extra dithering and more organically-shaped lines helps to blur the edges of each square, without straying outside of them.

If you got all the way down here, you're amazing. I hope this entertained somebody, and that others will like the end-result as much as I do. :)

[stargazer-sims]

🖊️🖊️🖊️- Seiji, Haru, Victor

Thanks @dandylion240 !

haha I could write a lot about Victor especially, but I’ll try not to go too wild with it 😆 Anyway, here you go! This is going to be kind of spoiler-y in places. Oops 😬

----------

Hinamori Seiji

Where to start with Seiji...?

Seiji is an only child. As a result, he's very close to his parents, and he also tends to think of his friends as the siblings he never had. He's sure his best friend Takahiro is the closest he'll ever get to having a brother, and he certainly loves him like one.

Seiji and Takahiro met when they were ten years old, when Taka's family moved to Mt. Komorebi from the city. They met before the new school year began, and they were pleased to discover they'd be attending the same all-boys school. Taka was scared about being the new kid in school, but Seiji assured him that he didn't need to worry about it because he'd already be his friend and would protect him if other kids gave him a hard time. He was true to his word, and he and Taka have stuck together ever since, through all the good and bad times in their lives so far.

Seiji is named after his great-grandfather. People who've seen photos of the last man to hold the largely honourary title of Lord Hinamori say that Seiji has grown up to look just like him, and as much as Seiji pretends to scoff at this, he really can't deny the resemblance.

The similarity became even more apparent when he met Sachiko Kobayashi for the first time, and she immediately got down on her knees to bow to him, and called him Hinamori-sama because she initially mistook him for someone from her past. When she was alive, Sachiko had been a servant to Seiji's family on their estate. She'd worked in the now-famous gardens, but had been a particular favourite of Seiji's great-great-grandfather, the elder Lord Seiryu Hinamori, and was often asked to come into the main house to perform other tasks.

Sachiko is the ghost that inhabited Victor & Yuri Okamoto-Nelson's house in Willow Creek. Seiji's meeting with her came about when Taka and his then-fiancé Fox invited Seiji to come and stay with them for a whlie. Seiji, who'd never left his country before, was terrified about travelling to Canada, but he really missed his friends Taka and Victor (and their partners) and wanted to see them, so he agreed to go. He initially stayed with Taka and Fox in their apartment, but soon moved into Victor and Yuri's basement guest room. He said it was to give Taka and Fox back their privacy in their tiny apartment, but it actually had more to do with being close to Sachiko than anything else. He ended up staying a lot longer than he'd originally planned to.

Seiji and Sachiko discovered that they'd each lost someone they loved before having a chance to confess their feelings; Seiji because his unrequited love Tsubaki had died, and Sachiko because she had died before telling her love — Lord Seiji — how she felt.

At first, Seiji didn't know how to react to this ghost telling him she'd been in love with his great-grandfather, but he soon found that he was able to look past that uncanny detail and recognize Sachiko as a sort of kindred spirit (no pun intended). He was able to see her as someone who hadn't yet healed from a devastating loss, and despite himself, he wanted to help her in any way he could.

As it happened, Sachiko helped him too. They grew close, and without even realizing it at first, they fell in love with each other. This caused Sachiko a great deal of stress once she understood what was happening, because their love seemed impossible and she was worried Seiji would be hurt all over again. Seiji, for his part, was determined to find out if there was some way to restore Sachiko to life. Even if it was impossible, he swore to himself that he wouldn't stop until he had an answer, one way or the other. It gave him a sense of purpose that he hadn't had for a long time, if ever.

SPOILER

There did, in fact, turn out to be a way. It wasn't easy, and it took time, effort and a voyage back to Japan. Seiji's friends thought he'd totally lost his mind, but he was absolutely not going to give up once he knew.

Afterwards, Seiji and Sachiko decided not to stay in Willow Creek. Seiji took her home to Mt. Komorebi, and they settled down together and eventually started a family of their own. They often visit the Hinamori family estate, where Seiji's grandparents, uncle, aunt & cousins live, and Sachiko finds great irony in the fact that she is now a lady of the estate rather than a servant.

__________

Abe Sakuharu

One thing about Haru is that he never shies away from a challenge. Because of his disability, there were a lot of things he was never expected to be able to do, including living independently. Although it's true that he might not do well living completely on his own, he's definitely capable of looking after himself and everyone who knows him now considers him to be a functional, independent adult (okay, maybe not everyone thinks he's an adult, but still...)

Haru has a form of FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) known as alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder. Fortunately for him, his physical delays were mild. He was later meeting his milestones like sitting up, crawling, walking and feeding himself than typical kids, but he did eventually meet all of them and is physically "normal" now. His biggest challenges are non-physical, as he has issues with memory, attention, judgment and impulse control. Sometimes he has a hard time regulating his emotions as well. In terms of cognitive delays, he's quite intelligent but struggles with academic things; reading and writing in particular.

As a child, he had behavioural issues, but has since recognized those were mainly due to frustration, anxiety, and an inability to express himself and make his needs and feelings clearly understood. He worked with a therapist when he was a kid/young teen, who helped him develop coping strategies for anxiety, anger and frustration, and helped him find safe and healthy ways to communicate his needs.

Haru loves poetry, music and dance. Performing is the best and healthiest means of self-expression he knows. Most people don't realize it, but for him, being a performer is just as much therapy as it is a career.

One of the best things to have happened in Haru's life recently was meeting his boyfriend, Eden. Haru is afraid to tell most people about his disability because he's scared he'll be judged for it, but he told Eden, and Eden accepted it without any hesitation whatsoever. It's not that Eden is ignorant of Haru's challenges, but that he sees Haru as a whole person and not just as his disability. Haru loves that. One of the things he's constantly craved in his life are people who love and accept him as he is, and he's grateful to have found that in Eden.

----------

Victor Okamoto-Nelson

After retiring from his career as a competitive snowboarder, Victor ultimately settled on nursing as the profession he wanted to pursue. He's always known he wanted to work in healthcare in some capacity, but it took him a long time to decide because he'd always been worried about whether or not he could handle the training and whether or not he'd be any good in his chosen field.

Since finding out that his difficulties with reading were due to an eye condition rather than an intellectual deficit, his confidence in his ability to do academic things skyrocketed. There was no stopping him once his vision was corrected. He happily wears his glasses or contacts with the same satisfaction and pride as he'd wear a medal after a competition, as if they're a badge of achievement. He supposes they really are like that in some ways, because they represent the moment when he realized he could be way more than just an athlete.

Victor originally thought he might like to do home-care nursing, but his first clinical placement was in pediatrics, and after one day on the pediatric floor of Willow Creek Regional Hospital he immediately knew he'd found his calling. The registered nurse who'd supervised him told his professors that she thought he was a natural with kids. His gentleness and patience (and appropriate silliness) were valuable considerations for his supervisor.

Now, he and his best friend & step-sister Ellie are co-workers at the hospital. Ellie, also a nurse, works in the ICU. They're both extremely busy, but they try to catch up for a snack and a cup of tea whenever their breaks coincide.

Of course, they also spend loads of time together outside work, just like they've done all their lives. "The team" which used to be Victor, Ellie and Leo, has now expanded to include Yuri, as well as Yuri's friend Takahiro and his husband Fox. (Bonus: Leo and Taka also work together at one of the local preschools).

Victor loves his life. He has a job he's passionate about, a beautiful home, and a spouse who's devoted to him and who he's equally devoted to. He's lucky enough to have the freedom and opportunity to do what he enjoys, and he's happy about that. He still takes part in a lot of sports, including snowboarding, and he still likes to train dogs. He and Yuri travel a lot, usually whenever he has vacation time.

He's the uncle (or honourary uncle) to a lot of adorable kids, and he loves that, too. As far as he's concerned, it's the ideal situation. He gets to love them and play with them and teach them things, but doesn't have the problem of being tied down with full-time responsibility for them. His favourite kids are his step-niece Leonora and Camellia Abbottsford, probably because they both remind him of himself at their age.

[kohaive]

Please tell us about evil Ilana!

this got way longer than I intended oops

vital og ilana lore for context:

in the long ancient past there once existed a divine city known as the city of temples, wherein seven powerful spirits worshiped as gods lived. (they were referred to as divinities.) the oldest, jayang, was known as divinity luck and possessed power over fortune and the karmic cycle.

jayang however was Very Fucking Lazy and had an assistant that did about 90% of the work around the temple as well as making sure they were on time for important rites and festivals. as jayang's right hand, she was generally known as lady luck and possessed luck powers through jayang's blessing. this assistant was ilana.

although ilana devoted herself wholly to jayang, she respected the followers of other divinities and especially those in the city that did not follow any divinities at all. to ilana, every person in the city was worthy of divine protection, whether or not they followed any of the seven gods. she and jayang have several arguments about this, especially when one of jayang's other disciples is forced to change divinities for reasons too complicated to get into here.

after working with jayang for many years, the seventh god finally arrived: the rabbit of fate, kayin. according to kayin's tapestry of fate, they and jayang were destined to be lovers, and sure enough kayin soon had all of jayang's attention despite not giving them much in return. the fact that jayang was spending so much energy on kayin when kayin rarely gave them the time of day in return bothered ilana, especially when she did so much work for jayang and didn't get the same treatment

basically she was jealous lol

at some point, the city collapses in civil war, and the divinities start falling one by one while their disciples kill each other. kayin kills themselves in jayang's arms. ilana and jayang flee, but not before jayang sustains a mortal injury protecting ilana from an attacker. they escape to the unfinished corner, a place full of wild, untouched magic. with their final breath, jayang asks ilana to use their bones to seal the area so it can't be accessed in order to prevent another tragedy like the city of temples. they die, saying that they're going ahead to see kayin.

ilana realizes that using jayang's bones means their soul will be trapped and they will be unable to meet kayin in the afterlife per their wish. she decides to use herself as the seal instead, putting her divinity before herself. however, the seal doesn't kill her as she expects; instead, it keeps her alive and in stasis, sustaining itself using her divine-touched soul as the power source. the sheer magic from the unfinished corner is constantly pressing on the back of her mind, and over tens of thousands of years she slowly loses herself to her grief and resentment, becoming a spirit fueled by hatred: hatred towards kayin, hatred towards the city's destruction, and hatred towards herself.

jayang chooses to be reborn into the mortal realm to walk the earth and spend time with humans, who kayin was so fond of, in an effort to feel closer to them. they stumble across ilana's seal by chance, but they don't do anything because a) they don't realize she's alive and b) they want to maintain the seal on the unfinished corner, which they judge to be too powerful for humanity to know about.

now in the ORIGINAL lore, what happens next is: in modern day, a group of what amounts to professional problem-solvers investigate the memories of the past, and end up stumbling across ilana and her predicament thanks to a memory fragment of another ancient spirit that's been trying to help her but doesn't have the power to do so. they literally cut her away from the manifestation of resentment that she's been trapped in for tens of millennia and restore her sanity, though they can't free her from the seal just yet. she asks them to find a way to break the seal and free her so she can die, because she's so tired. and she wants to rest.

however, in the BAD ending, ilana's resentment and hatred overcomes her completely and she dissolves the seal herself, claims the whole of the unfinished corner's power for herself, hunts down the reborn jayang, kills them, and eats their heart to assume their powers. the result is s'vivana: jaded, finds humanity abhorrent, and resolves to use her ill-gained power to bring about their destruction. she saved the world, and nobody cared. she saved her god, and they didn't return the favor. she gave everything she had for the sake of everyone but herself, and her reward was a torturous, unending solitude she had no choice but to endure.

nobody saved her. so nobody deserves to be saved.

[kiingleoturtles]

1,3,9,10 and 12 for the three fic ask game

Okay, let's go:

1. which three fics occupy your top posts? Tell me a bit about the inspiration behind them!

Shopping Trip started off as me just wanting to write some funny silly gay stuff and is my most popular fic haha.

Satisfaction is my second most popular and is my most self indulgent fic by far so kudos to that (pun intended) for doing so well.

And then rounding out the top three is Tongues And Teeth which has done way better than I ever would have expected. So that's quite nice actually.

3. which three fics best represent your views about love / relationships?

Satisfaction for definite. Maybe because it's my favourite fic / pet project but I feel like across the various different relationships I portray (whether platonic, familial, romantic or otherwise).

Although I haven't written much of To Be Loved so far, that's also definitely going to end up being another one representing my views towards that. Maybe it's because I have so many ideas to do with Martel's relationships with the various other cast members and that some of her characteristics are based off of my own but I feel like that's also going to be one with those views presented.

Okay so I can't properly start publishing my third choice because it will be part of a prompt fill week for most of the early chapters. However the current nickname for it is the Heatwave-verse and it has my second most random polycule I've created (aside from the Lesbutches in Satisfaction). But I guarantee that will also end up being a good representation of my views on relationships.

9. oops - your entire fic repository has to be permanently deleted, but you can pick three to remain. which three fics are you saving and why?

Satisfaction, my doc for the prompt fill week that Heatwave-verse is in, and Solstice (which is a lot longer than what's currently posted) because they're my babies.

10. which three fics were you most nervous to post? why?

Solstice because it's original stuff and I'm awkward. Ready for Love because, once again, I'm awkward and anxious. Also Tongues And Teeth because of how dark it is.

12. pick three fics that feature the same trope. what do you like most about writing that trope, and / or how did you do that trope differently in each story?

Satisfaction, Ready for Love, and Solstice all have the Found Family trope because I'm a sucker for that trope, but it varies a lot across the three. In Satisfaction the characters are growing closer as everything happens (and Greed keeps adopting children), whereas Ready for Love there are some characters who were already in a found family but it expands, and Solstice starts off as just Dawn and Dusk having each other until they meet Moonshine (ooo spoilers/teasers hehe).

[bleue-flora]

I don’t really have a lot to add because you did a great job covering what I was trying to say. It’s funny because I hadn’t really intended the original post to be about looking at the reasons behind the prison based on the small cells or using them to analyze anything at all. I more just thought it was interesting that they were empty when I for some reason totally thought there was at least a bed and I couldn’t help but think about how awful it would be to live in such a room as Connor and Ranboo did and how it’s one thing for the guards to let the shady things about the main cell slide, but pretty wild to allow Sam to just throw Connor and Ranboo into bare cells. That is literally a form of torture in itself and like they don’t even have a Revival Book to torture for lol. It was originally just about what did happen -> the cruelty and suffering Connor and Ranboo endured that we never talk about, not really what the purpose of or was planned to happen with the cells in the first place. Which you touched on. And you are right a discussion on the bareness of these extra cells should really be more so a conversation about Sam letting power go to his head to do whatever he sees fit, not about the prison design itself. Not that this topic we’ve strayed too hasn’t been fun to look at though. :) <3

3. Anyways… In regards to the side note, I think you’re right, it’s not about the prison design being perfect but Sam’s will being ultimate and using things to throw in Dream’s face as karma. (Also for some reason I totally remembered Tommy only staying longer because Sam thought he was dead… oops. Totally forgot Sam went over the signed waiver week, my bad. But that’s besides the main point anyways)… and I’ll just say that Sam did replace a lot of the clocks but Dream pushed him too far and so kinda lost that privilege himself by throwing them away over and over (in other words his “misbehaving” made Sam change things like also the potato dispenser and such, or crying obsidian since Dream was trying to light a nether portal…), so originally Sam was following the design and rules of the prison like Dream likely predicted he would in the first place and I think Drean counted on Sam being that way, and that’s why I was saying it was necessary for things like books and clocks to be specifically included in Dream’s design rather than try to ask for later because Dream must have assumed Sam would uphold it, which obviously he didn’t end up doing much to Dream’s misfortune. Oof.

4. . Technically he did threaten to put Quackity in the prison, obviously he didn’t end up doing so but was that just because ya know the slime army or whether he never intended on following through is unlear. And a discussion for another time… the question of whether he meant to use it after prison and didn’t for whatever reason remains unanswered, we just simply do not know. When I ask the question is it more so related to besides the put himself in prison what was the purpose of the prison as a whole since that is only one temporary use he had for it. But you are of course right we don’t know and after his imprisonment we don’t know much either all we know is that he threatened to put Q in there and said if a true evil came along he would lock them up.

6. I wasn’t really trying to make a point about whether the prison as a base was a good or bad choice after his imprisonment, but whether it was efficient or well designed to be a base from the design phase beforehand. Pandora’s Vault is of course a great option for Dream after prison for many reason especially as you pointed out the people after him and such. And yes it is certainly more secure than just about anything else. (And yes there are other ways in, though the way the guards and Sam get in is through stasis chambers which in my opinion in general is probably not the only way you want to have to get into your base so I wouldn’t design my base to be like that, but hey that’s just me. I don’t know just sounds annoying to be honest.) - I was more saying it wasn’t as secure from a base stand point as it could’ve been designed. And that it is far from the most efficient design even from a prison stand point, so it doesn’t make sense to be designed as a set piece nor a base. I see no reason why a prison design on a smaller scale wouldn’t have worked just as well if it was just supposed to be a set piece with a functional secure cell, Dream does like to go big or go home but as a builder and engineer the prison doesn’t make sense to not be made and fully designed to be a prison. Just seems like a lot of work to not be real. Furthermore, while it did become a set and stage Dream used, I’d say that doesn’t make it a set piece in the same way you wouldn’t call a real apartment building they used in a movie as a set piece. It’s not a fake prop gun Dream used it was a real gun, sure they both suit the needs of being a gun in a scene but they are different. In the same way decoration and the real thing is different. And a real gun (the prison) that was used to hurt real people (Connor and Ranboo) is more notable than a prop gun used to hurt someone because it doesn’t beg the question - jeez I can’t believe that guy (Sam) was really walking around with a real gun and used it to shoot two innocent people. And as I think you also pointed out, the prison was designed and constructed by mostly Sam and of course if he was commissioned to build a prison he’s gonna put multiple cells. Here’s him even talking about them.

Also as an aside, while Dream would have likely been better off physically living far far away, I don’t think it would have been good mentally for him (not that what he ended up doing was good for him that’s not really my point) and it makes sense why he didn’t do that after all he “just didn’t want to ever be alone” and he had just spend so much time alone, moving out to the middle of nowhere wouldn’t sound appealing after that. Which is different than Techno moving out to the Arctic after Pogtopia because he just spent a good while dealing with all kinds of people, so getting a break would be nice. Sure Dream would have lived longer if he moved 100k blocks away but he probably wouldn’t have been happy. Dream clearly needs people, which is a reason why I think he pokes into everyone else’s business, not to mention naturally curious and wanting to be prepared as well informed as he can be, which in my opinion is perhaps why he’s so nosy… but anyways that’s really getting into a whole different topic and I don’t have enough brain cells at the moment to be analyzing Dream and his mental stability and such so I’ll leave it there, but you make some good points on that too.

lol and here I said I didn’t have much to add🤦‍♀️ oops

Ya know to be fair…. There is an argument to be made that the small cells are worse than the main one.

Like there is literally nothing in them… at least Dream gets a sink, toilet, books, lectern, chest, clock, lava, even glowstone...

[go-our-own-ways]

Gundam NT - Experience and Initial Thoughts

Hello tumblr...it’s only been 94857589746575 years, eh? 

Well. So it finally happened. Gundam NT finally got an official run in America, and I finally got to see it. I’ve finally seen the dang mecha movie that I’ve been dying to see since last November. 

Finally!!! 

But, not without some dramatic mishaps at first (lol). 

I was lucky enough to have my local theater showing the movie, but it took them 20 minutes to get the movie running (it was just a dead screen up until then)...only for us to realize it was for Bohemian Rhapsody, and not, in fact, for Gundam NT. Some jokes were made from the other movie-goers (”Gee, Macross sure looks funny!” “Hey Hawthorn you okay there?”) but soon the chatter turned into serious consternation and concern. Eventually, theater staff told us the movie couldn’t be shown because the projector didn’t have it, so we all filed out of the theater to head to Guest Services. While we waited in line to get vouchers (in lieu of a refund), we were also told that staff was working to fix the issue, so we were welcome to go back to the theater to wait it out. 

And boy am I glad I decided to go back up, because soon enough, they had it up and running. THANK GOD. 

Unfortunately, they skipped over most of the bonus footage featuring the interview and introduction from the producer and director in the interest of time... I’m actually really sad and salty about that, but it’s better than not seeing the movie at all, at least. 

And so, after like 30-40 (or maybe more?!) minutes delay...we finally began the movie proper. LMAO. 

Before diving into things, a bit of a head’s up: 

Frankly, I’m new to Gundam, and I’m by no means well-versed in Gundam lore. Additionally, I’m also not someone who is usually nitpicky about details in animation or story-telling. So, my POV is basically of a casual bystander who happened to check out the franchise, and decided to stick around because it seems fun and interesting. If you’re someone who is more or less opposite to me...then this “review” of sorts is definitely not for you. 

Actual movie thoughts under the cut! Not spoiler free!!! 

I’m not gonna lie...honestly my memory of the movie is really cluttered and foggy. However, despite this, I still very much enjoyed watching the movie! 

So...pacing. I’m no expert, but I seriously feel like this movie could have benefited from getting like maybe 2 hours of screen time rather than an hour and thirty minutes. It felt like the production team was trying to cram SO MUCH into TOO LITTLE time that the whole movie felt really fast. Despite this, the tension build-up was definitely there, especially as we got closer and closer to the end. About halfway into the movie I began to clutch my coat and scarf (it was quite chilly out today) really tightly just out of the continued anticipation of what will happen next...needless to say, my hands are now very sore, lol. 

I do wish the plot wasn’t revealed in such a non-linear way. Of course, flashbacks and the like are sure to be used in storytelling, but much of NT’s story-telling felt more like oddly-placed snippets that went back in time, rather than a series of flashbacks. For the most part, I’d say each of the trips back into the past were important and revealed important information...but it made the movie feel cluttered and kind of all over the place. And honestly, the non-linear way NT’s narrative was told made it difficult to keep up with what was going on and how everything tied into it all until the very, very end. That’s probably my one gripe about this movie, I think. 

Now, despite the pacing and the scrambled nature of the plotline, NT was still a lot of fun for me to watch, and I think I can credit the fight scenes, the characters, and the acting for that. The fight scenes were thrilling to see on a BIG ASS SCREEN, for one. And then just generally anxiously waiting at the edge of my seat to see how the battle would pan out is of course always a thrilling part of (my so far very short) Gundam experience. Animation-wise I really don’t know if I can say anything, since I didn’t notice anything especially jarring or bad. But, I’m also terrible at noticing small details when it comes to animation, so it could have also missed it. 

The characters were a pleasure to watch, in my opinion. Rita honestly seemed like a cooky mystic Newytpe for most of the movie, and it really grated on my nerves. I kept thinking, “Surely there’s more to her than wondering about heaven and wanting to be reincarnated as a bird.” But the very end of the movie finally revealed the more human side of her, and that definitely made me feel better about her as a character. I do wish they could have shown more of Rita’s human-ness, but I suppose in the interest of time, they couldn’t. 

Michelle seemed really cool, up until she started to look like a nasty manipulative player with huge stakes on the line. But as more and more of her story unfolded, I began to see the layers of the onion, so to speak. I was glad that she wasn’t just a vengeful person greedy for power, and at the same time I was also glad she wasn’t just another corner in a love triangle. Her humanity was evident, but I wished that we could have seen more of it through showing rather than telling. Ultimately, it was Brick who made the final reveal on Michelle’s true character in his last message to Jona, and I just wish that we could’ve seen more of it through Michelle’s own actions instead. We did get glimpses of it, of course, and I suppose maybe choosing to not show it much was to reflect that side of Michelle’s character--someone who guards her personal emotions closely and puts on a show, a facade for the public to see. But even then, I still wish we could’ve had more glimpses into Michelle’s humanity through her own actions. 

Jona, Jona, Jona... Where do I even begin. Ultimately, I resonated with his humanity the most, I think. Seeing how much he still thought about those years with the lab even after all this time, how angry he was with Michelle, how distraught he was over Rita being taken away...it all felt very raw and very human. I guess it was just all very relatable, seeing how emotional Jona could be. I’m a pretty emotional person myself in the sense that I feel emotions very intensely, and it seemed like Jona’s personality was like that, too. 

He says a line towards the end of the movie where he’s wondering out loud what is the point of continuing to live. He pretty much wonders, after the only people you cared about have left, after you’ve witnessed such horrendous things, after you’ve had to LIVE through such awful events...what even is the point anymore? I really felt for him in that moment. It made me remember how much I’ve wanted to give up before when everything seemed to be terrible and miserable in life. When nothing seems to go well, what point is there to continue going on, right? 

Then there’s the returning characters from Unicorn. I was happy to see all the characters who returned, of course, but MAN...I was SO happy to see Banagher finally, at the very end of the movie. And the words of encouragement he says to Jona...the classic “Even so...” MAN. MAN OH MAN did I cry...! Like I mentioned before, I was already really resonating with Jona in like the prior scene, so the emotion from seeing Banagher again combined with the emotions from HEARING those words of hope...that really did a number on my heart, and in a good way. 

The dub cast did a fantastic job, I thought. Normally, I feel like I’m suffering every time I have to watch a dub, but the cast made it work for this movie. I think the only bone I have to pick would be Rita’s dub actress, and that may just be personal preference. I figure the actress was told to sound kind of mystic and airy (since that’s basically Rita’s personality for about 99% of the movie, so that’s a fair direction to take with the acting), but it sounded a smidge too...fake? plastic? for me to really buy into. But again, this is probably just me being picky, lol. I LOVED the acting for the other 3 main characters though (Jona, Michelle, and Zoltan). I have to commend Jona’s dub actor (Griffin Puatu) because he really pulled off a similar tone and feel to Enoki Junya’s acting, I thought. (At least, based on the long preview; I’ve yet to watch the first 23 minutes of the JP version of the movie.) I have other thoughts for the other actors but I think I’ll leave them for another day... Also, I’m merely a fan when it comes to voice acting, so these are purely just the feelings and thoughts the performances gave me as a viewer, and nothing more. 

So, after having seen Unicorn AND Narrative, I really get the sense that the story of Newtypes, and I guess Gundam on the whole, is about humanity. At its very core, Gundam is seeking to tell a story about the differences that could tear us apart, but also the humanity that holds us together. It feels like watching a story that tries to remind us that at the end of the day, no matter our differences, we’re all human, and we ought to remember that if we ever hope to survive as a species. 

Furthermore, I really feel like Gundam is trying to show the importance of both communication and emotion. Both UC and NT showed how Newtypes can communicate on a higher level, but that communication typically ultimately conveyed the person’s feelings and will. Sure, we got thoughts and important backstory too, but I think the main thing we tend to get from their communications is emotion--what is that person feeling, and how is that emotion then translating into the actions they’re taking. Not only that, but we also then see the subsequent actions taken in response to being revealed someone’s deepest, innermost feelings. Of course, there were times when the person was mercilessly murdered, be it by accident/misunderstanding or out of “necessity,” but there were also moments where the action taken ended up being to withdraw an attack, or to let go of the captured person. 

Maybe this is just me going off on a limb, but I think that’s a really important message to take in. Communication is important, but what’s even more important is communicating our emotions to others, and respecting others’ emotions in turn. That’s probably the big message I take away from seeing the Newtypes’ stories in Unicorn and Narrative. 

Well, needless to say, I’m now very curious to see how the UC plotline continues on. We’re already slated for another movie this upcoming winter, so I guess I’ll have to wait until then. In the meantime...I suppose I’ll finally get around to finishing Origin (lol). Even if the next movie doesn’t show much of the previous characters, or even if the JP voice cast doesn’t feature anyone I know, I think I know too much of the plot now to be able to abandon the series. 

All in all, NT was a fun movie to watch. I definitely don’t recommend watching it if you haven’t watched Unicorn yet, but once you get through Unicorn, NT is a nice way to wrap up the story from that point of the UC timeline. 

Now to eagerly await the BD release for those sweet, sweet bonus materials! :3c 

[chuuya-centric]

down CATACLYSMICALLY 🤕

character: chuuya nakahara

genre: fluff, smut

warnings: gn afab reader, no pronouns used, alcohol mentions / use ? unorganized as FUCK — read at your own risk 🚶 these r also much longer than i originally intended 🤒🤕 they get kinda bad at the end bc im lazy asf and just wanted to be done with these im sorry yall LMAOO

↬he he i he he i i hhnhshgghfgg

↬lord please god passionate+romantic sex with this man is all i ask you for please ill never ask for anything ever again 🙏🙏🙏

↬now i would like to start this with a disclaimer by saying chuuya is usually vv rough and passionate and would manhandle your ass 😁🤞 however these hcs will be like 🧍 slow ................. and passionate ??? not gentle per se but just romantic amd uhm very much "love making" if u will 💯

↬sensual ?? i think ????

↬hhndhsgh ik we're all horny and just wanna be used like a ragdoll but please hear me out yall

↬emotional and passionate sex !!!!!!!!! this usually happens whenever chuuya gets drunk (bc i think he is a v emotional drunk, and if he's w his s/o i think he gets vv sentimental / touchy-feely

↬ofc if you say no or reject his advances he wont do anything other than cling to ur side but if u dont do anything to stop him you will 100% be in his bed by the end of the night 🔥🔥

↬starts out as him havin a lil too much to drink nothin new yk and then he gets more touchy / physically clingy than usual 🧎

↬a lil off topic but he would absolutely fight anyone who tried to flirt w you / anyone who looked at u the wrong way LMAOOO not saying u have to babysit him but 🧑‍🦯🧑‍🦯 taking him back home would be the smart thing to do as to avoid bar fights

↬but back on track i think chuuya would refuse to leave your side 💀 he would be all over u so unless ur into like hardcore pda u fr better take him home 💀💀

↬he's a horny menace 😕👎

↬okay so blah blah blah yall r back home now what ? now he rlly starts getting emotional 🚶 he's just so grateful to have u in his life and he loves you so much and what if he's not good enough for you ???? how could u love someone like him ?????? what if— please just shut him up with a tender kiss 🤒☹️ tell him u love him very much

↬he............hhbbgdgshhhh i was talking to @chuuyasbf ab this but dhshsbhhhhhh we came to the conclusion that he'd like smother u in kisses oh my fucking god 💔🙏 like he'd just cover your mf face in kisses and i— bursts into tears

↬now by this point this is where he'll start communicating his feelings thru actions rather than words so please expect a very heated makeout session (that leads up to the best sex of ur life 😏)

↬"he just goes “oops, missed a spot *kiss* oops, theres another one *kiss*" - @chuuyasbf and i honestly could not agree more please 🧎🧎 hhnbbhghghh

↬but back to the makeout session it started after u shut him up w that kiss yk and u were both just sitting on the couch, originally basking in the others presence, before the words just started flowing so ofc u gave him a lil kiss n told him he was enough and that u loved him so so much and he pulled you back for another n another til u were sitting on his lap w his tongue in ur mouth

↬and things progressed n progressed n next thing yk he's got you intoxicated (his kisses r life changing ok 🤨🕶️🤏 even if he were sober it'd just be hjndhdghgggh) but like yall know when ur grinding against them n they buck their hips up a lil ? yeah <33

↬HE'S SO HANDSY OMFG ESP IF YOURE SITTING IN HIS LAP 🙏🙏🙏 after he's pulled you as close to him as humanly possible (im talkin chest-to-chest, hip-to-hip — he is a very intimate person and greatly enjoys physical touch argue w the wall ab it) his hands go from finding purchase on ur hips and guiding your movements to pulling at ur hair to feeling u up to running his fingers up n down ur back to helping you take your shirt off. he cannot for the life of him keep his hands to himself

↬in reality he'd shift you onto his thigh before making ur neck his next target for his kisses (and hickies)

↬when you start whining for more and saying his kisses aren't enough, thats when he'll sober up enough to be snapped back to reality n to carry you to his room 🧎 or so you thought 😚

↬confused, u didn't get the hint until he bounced his leg, once, twice, oh— and even after you'd understood what he wanted you to do, he'd grab ur hips and completey take control of the pace n grind u against his thigh almost agonizingly slow, all while leaving some awfuy dark hickies on ur lower neck n a handful on ur collarbones

↬ofc theres some muttered praise and "i love yous" as well. he'll tell you how good you look, getting off on his thigh like this

↬he'll take u back to his room only after you've cum against his thigh 🧎🧎 consider it a warm up LMFAOO

↬when he finally does get up from the couch, he'll probably use his ability to help stablize yall a little 💀 (he had a lil too much to drink pls dont clown him)

↬whereas he'd normally toss u onto the bed, this time he took his time to set u down gently before settling down in between ur thighs and— hey wait a damn minute when did this mf find the time to get your pants off huh—

↬aye speaking of which i think chuuya is rlly big on eye contact regardless bc its honestly just vv intimate to him 🧐🚶

↬yall know when they like ............. when theyre like caressing / holding your thigh n looking up at u n they kiss ur inner thigh while maintaining eye contact or whatever ...................... <33

↬i think his praise kink especially shines thru when he gets drunk bc he will take his mf time covering you in kisses and hickies all while showering u in praise n telling u how beautiful u r and ab how much he loves you

↬he knows his words usually tend to be / sound harsh, but at the end of the day he loves you sm more than words will ever be able to convey :((

↬def tries to make up for that (when he's drunk 🙄 emotionally inarticulate ass 🚶) by showering you in praise and doing his best to be tender and gentle

↬and to be fair he'd be content w smothering u in praise and kisses for the rest of the night n probably would if u let him 🧎🧎 please snap this mf back to reality by yanking his hair n whining for more

↬in which case he will be happy to oblige 😚 he's def the type of person to get off on his partners pleasure so that being said this mf will make sure u cum on his tongue at least twice before properly fucking you

↬whenever hes drunk he tends set a rather slow pace but dont let that fool you 🧎 the entire thing is so fucking intimate oh my lord you will be seeing stars by the time he's done w you

↬his thrusts r much deeper n more precise than usual and he puts one of ur legs on his shoulder and has the other pressed up by ur head it really just enhances everything yk ?? 😁😁 (mating press kinda ??????? not exactly but)

↬he ends up alternating between leaving (more) hickies on ur neck n shoulders and actually kissing you as well (your lips r gon be bruised asf by the end of it all sorry 🔥💯)

↬even drunk he loves to overstimulate you omfg 🤤 loves seeing you get all teary-eyed from the pleasure (even better if u actually cry 😏🕶️🤏) bc to him it shows that he's done a good job

↬aftercare w drunk chuuya is a lil sloppy tbh 😕 probably immiediately passes tf still inside u after pressing like a final kiss to ur forehead LMFAOOO

↬but dw he makes it up to u in the morning !!!!! after taking care of his hangover first tho 💀 once he's feeling better himself, he'll def offer to draw u a bath and, lets pretend he has the day off here, after that all he rlly wants to do is cuddle for the rest of the morning

↬do not bring up how clingy he was last night LMFAOOO his face will get so red so fast (unless ofc thats ur goal in which case go right on ahead 😚😚😚)

↬please do, however, kiss his forehead and tell him that u love him n that he did a good job last night

[hamletthedane]

Man that Kenneth Branagh post hit home he takes himself waaayyy too seriously. I HATE his version of Hamlet…. Like if you’re going to mess around w the time period of a Shakespeare play you gotta do it right, you know? You’ve gotta do it in a way that adds something interesting. Two of the best versions of hamlet I’ve come across are an adaptation set in the 1980s and a post apocalyptic version— i think they work so well because of how they juxtapose the expectations of the audience. In my opinion Branaghs setting adds nothing. The sets are so damn bland i can’t figure out why but there’s just something off about them.

That ended up being a way longer ask than i originally intended oops

Oh man. Several years ago, I wrong a whole post about how much I hate Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet.

One undergrad and doctoral degree later, I still agree with my 11th grade self: Branagh’s Hamlet is boring, unimaginative, and poorly directed and performed. Branagh’s only saving grace is that the performance includes nearly 100% of the folio lines and thus is the most “accurate” for classrooms. It kills my soul just a tiny bit.

[idealisticrealism]

Hey @igetthebag hope you don't mind, I'm gonna answer you in a reblog bc I have far too many words to say about it to fit in the replies section lol

I definitely feel you about Jorge's arrival, and I totally agree with what you said about his people maybe being the ones to kill Arman, bc I've actually been thinking the exact same thing. The trailers show that the Sin Cara cartel is going to make a reappearance early in the season, and it's almost certain that they're going to be the ones responsible for Arman's disappearance (back in 2x09 Arman even told Thony that one of Bosco's men might have given up his identity to Sin Cara). Which basically makes me wonder if Jorge could be the leader of Sin Cara, and that's why he captures and interrogates Thony, since she was part of the drug smuggling that was happening on 'his' territory. From the snippets of info we've gotten so far, he then seems to become intrigued by her/romantically interested in her, so I've also been hoping that she uses that (uses him) to try to find Arman. I think that the original plan for the season was for Thony to eventually find out where Sin Cara had been keeping Arman and rescue him alive in one of the final episodes, but obviously now that can't happen (a reality that I have cried a lot about, ngl), so hopefully she will now be going down the revenge path instead. And of course it makes sense for her to team up with Nadia for that-- especially because, if it is Sin Cara that kills him, his death was then indirectly caused by both Thony (for coming up with the smuggling plan) and Nadia (by insisting on smuggling street drugs), so they'd both need to closure of taking Sin Cara down and 'making things right'. Plus I mean there's a few BTS shots showing various characters from Thony's orbit in La Habana so clearly Thony and Nadia do stay connected this season. And also, them killing Jorge together would feel kind of fitting with the way the antagonists of the previous seasons have been taken out; S1 Thony and Arman make a plan to take down Hayak together (and then Arman kills him). S2 Nadia and Arman make a plan to take down Kamdar, and Nadia kills him. So S3 Thony and Nadia make a plan to take down Jorge, then Thony kills him???? Sigh, we can only hope...

(Tbh the funny thing is that I literally drafted a fic after S1 ended where Hayak kills Arman in prison, and Thony and Nadia team up to kill Hayak to avenge him. I never ended up finishing it bc it felt too dark, but maybe in season 3 I'll be getting my 'Black Widows Out For Revenge' dynamic after all).

But yeah honestly my ideal ending for this season would be with Jorge dead, and Thony and Nadia and Fi all working together-- firstly, feeding all the info that Kamdar had on the criminal organisations he funded to Russo so she could take as many as possible down legally, and then secondly, the three of them teaming up to secretly take down any remaining criminal gangs in Vegas using Nadia's money, Thony's knowledge of how to kill without evidence, and Fi's cleaning ladies' ability to go anywhere and be practically invisible. Ugh it would just be so gooooooodd and I want it so bad

In terms of likelihood, though, I doubt I'm gonna get that wish granted; Jorge seems to have too many connections to be able to be taken out without there being the high probability of his own people (ie his sister) then coming after Thony and co in revenge, and plus he apparently has a kid, and I just can't see Thony intentionally killing a father. (Unless maybe his sister hates him and decides to help them kill him and adopt his daughter for herself? That would be unlikely but great lol). But of course then there's also the fact that it seems like the showrunners are going for further seasons after this one, so they're probably planning to keep him (aka the handsome Santiago Cabrera) around for that.... but who knows. These writers do tend to do a good job of keeping us guessing.

Anyway oops this got longer than intended, which is pretty much what always happens any time I write anything about this show lol. But I really did enjoy writing it, so thank you for that. And naturally I'd love to hear your (and anyone else's!) thoughts if you have any more speculation to share!

Well, I'm glad I've reached a point where I can watch this and actually feel eager to have the show back, and interested about what's going to happen next... but I don't know, some of the latest info about all these new characters etc is making me feel weird all over again.

Literally from the moment I started watching this show in S1, I just always assumed it would be, at most, a 3 season show-- and then after losing Adan, I was so sure that they meant to complete the story with this season and let it end there. I want it to end there. I want the resolution of Arman's arc and the culmination of Thony's to stop at the same place, because if the show continues on (like some of Miranda Kwok's recent comments make it feel like is their plan) then it will mean that Arman is left behind. That he was only a temporary part of the story, and not laced throughout it from start to finish-- because even despite his death this season, I feel sure that he is still going to very much be a part of its story, as central to the events of the season and as vital to Thony's arc as Fiona is. But if they're going for a season 4 or even beyond, the plot will move on without him, and I just don't know if I could face that, not when he (and his connection with Thony) was the very thing that drew me to the show in the first place.

Anyway, if you have thoughts, I'd like to hear them; honestly I'd like any chance to talk about this show, to speculate like we used to, because I think it's the only thing that's going to make this coming season any easier to bear.

[refinedbuffoonery]

Quarantine Moments (5)

This is my two favorite things in one: space stuff and making these pining idiots feel things, so it ended up being way longer than I intended. Oops. Enjoy some meteor shower shenanigans. :) 

*****

It’ll be fun, they promise. 

We don’t need a tent, they say.  We’ll sleep in the bed of the truck, they say. We’ll all fit, they say. 

It’ll be fun, they promise again. 

Riley knows better than to take “It’ll be fun” at face value. Especially when it comes out of Mac’s mouth. 

Five months into quarantine, when Riley’s favorite space nerds ask if she wants to drive out to the desert to watch a meteor shower, she agrees immediately. It’s a quick out and back trip. The plan is to have an early dinner, drive out to the desert for the night, and leave early in the morning before the August sun cooks them alive. Riley balks at their plan to sleep in the truck instead of a tent—sleeping in a truck bed always hurts, no matter how many blankets and pillows there are—but the boys’ excitement is infectious, and Riley can’t bring herself to say no. 

They argue about where in the desert to go. Mac wants to drive all the way to Death Valley, but Riley and Bozer shoot it down immediately. A four hour car ride is too far for an overnight trip. Then Bozer suggests Joshua Tree, but Mac claims it’s too popular. (Like there will be flocks of tourists there during a pandemic, but whatever.) So Riley forces them to compromise on Anza Borrego. It’s farther than J Tree, but not nearly as far as Death Valley, and they can pick up breakfast burritos in San Diego on their way home. 

Mac and Bozer never object to breakfast burritos. 

The boys do all the planning and preparation, so when Mac tosses Riley the keys to the truck, she’s almost surprised. “You’re driving,” he says. “Bozer’s in the back.” 

“Man, why am I always in the back?” Bozer complains. 

“Because Riley is a better driver than you.” Content to let them bicker, Riley smirks and starts the engine. 

“No,” Bozer corrects from the middle seat, “Riley is a faster driver. Not better.” 

At the same time, Riley and Mac both say, “Same thing.” 

“Unbelievable.” 

The drive goes much faster with Riley behind the wheel, although she refrains from rubbing it in. The sky shifts from lavender to deep blue to inky black as they drive away from the setting sun. 

It always amazes Riley that they can be so close to SoCal’s endless suburban sprawl, and yet be in the absolute middle of nowhere.

The moon is barely more than a sliver in the sky, and when they drop down into the desert, the vast darkness swallows the headlight beams. Riley rolls her window down, feeling the dry, balmy air caress her cheeks and neck. 

She figured someone else would have the same idea as them, but there isn’t another human soul as far as Riley can see. Even farther, most likely. 

When Riley gets out of the truck, the first thing she does is look up. The sky isn’t black at all, but rather a deep indigo alight with more stars than she could count in a thousand lifetimes. The Milky Way arcs overhead, and Riley’s eyes track it from one end of the horizon to another. It makes her feel small. 

It’s comforting, Riley thinks, to be reminded of her insignificance in the grand scheme of the universe, a welcome break from the constant world-ending consequences of her daily life. 

The trio get to work making their bed for the night. Mac’s two-person camping mattress goes down first, then the pillows and blankets. They didn’t even bother to bring sleeping bags since the nighttime temperature would only dip into the mid-seventies. 

Riley finds a tumbleweed near the front of the truck to pee behind before joining Mac and Bozer in the back. They’re lying on opposite sides of the truck bed, leaving as much space as possible for her in the middle. Realizing how close she’ll be to Mac, Riley takes a deep, steadying breath, grateful that it’s too dark for the boys to see her face. She should’ve begged Bozer to take the middle when she had the chance. 

Cursing herself for wearing booty shorts and a tank top, Riley tries not to notice how her bare skin brushes Mac’s as she squeezes into her spot. She blushes anyway. There is definitely not room for three people. They should’ve just brought the damn tent. 

She misses the days when she could be in Mac’s personal space without every nerve in her body being acutely aware of how close he is. Everything was so much easier then. 

Covering herself in one of the thinner blankets—more for comfort and security than anything else—Riley sinks into the pillows and looks up. She knows the Perseids originate from the constellation Perseus, but there are so many stars that she gets lost trying to orient herself in the sky. As she opens her mouth to ask for help, a bright silver light zips across the horizon, gone in less than a second. 

“Did you see that?” Bozer squeals. 

Riley laughs softly. “Yeah, but I have no idea where it came from, or where I should be looking.” 

It’s Bozer’s turn to laugh. “For starters, don’t look straight up. Look near the horizon.” He points toward a random spot in the distance, his hand a dark shadow covering the glittering sea beyond. “As Perseus gets higher in the sky during the night, the meteors will appear to come from higher up too.” 

Riley nods before realizing he’s not paying attention. “Thanks.” 

As she studies the heavens, the sense of ease settles over her once again. Riley feels her body start to let go of the stress she’s been holding onto for months—the awkwardness of living with Mac, the endless pile of work stuff she has no motivation to do, worrying about her mom and Bozer’s parents, waking up every morning to increasingly batshit news headlines. Out here, she can escape, if only for a few hours. 

Riley catches three meteors in quick succession, each darting across the sky in a completely different direction. Mac hasn’t said a word since they laid down, so when Bozer gets up to pee, Riley nudges him with her knee and says, “You’ve been quiet.” 

Mac doesn’t look at her as he speaks, his gaze locked on something straight overhead. “Ancient Chinese astronomers believed Vega and Altair were lovers, forever kept apart by the Milky Way.” He points. “Vega is one of the brightest stars in the sky. It’s in the constellation Lyra. And over there is Altair, which is part of Aquila, the eagle.” 

Riley hesitates, trying to separate fact from innuendo. A pit forms in her stomach as she understands why he’s drawn to these stars in particular. 

Mac must mistake her silence for being unable to find the stars, because suddenly his arms are around her and he’s pulling her toward him so her head rests on his shoulder. 

His touch feels like stars dancing on her skin. 

Mac’s bicep grazes her cheek as he points again, and Riley has no trouble following the line of his arm to a particularly bright star nearly straight up. That must be Vega, the bright one. The other blends into the Milky Way too well for Riley to pick it out. Her voice catches as she half-lies, “I see it.” His arm drops, but instead of letting her go, Mac’s hand rests on her ribcage. 

Riley nearly stops breathing as her heart pounds loud enough that she’s sure Mac can hear it. She doesn’t know what to do. This is uncharted territory, him holding her like this. They’re in each other’s personal space all the time, but they’re never handsy. Riley has never been a very touchy person, and she knows Mac isn’t either. 

So this...Riley doesn’t know what to make of this. 

“Show me something else,” she manages. Mac takes a shaky breath beneath her. 

He points in a different direction. “Over there are Sagittarius, which looks like a teapot, and Scorpius, which looks like a hook or the letter ‘J.’” Riley finds the constellations easily. “Between them is the supermassive black hole that exists in the middle of the galaxy. All of the matter in the Milky Way orbits around it.” 

Riley smiles. Mac and his black holes. 

Bozer is taking an awfully long time to pee, and Riley starts to think there might be an ulterior motive to his disappearance. She hollers, “You good, man?” 

“Yeah! Got a little performance anxiety from this creepy bug staring at me.” 

Riley and Mac burst out laughing. Tears sneak out of Riley’s eyes as she holds her stomach, giggling until her lungs ache. Just when she starts to get it together, Riley makes the mistake of looking up at Mac, and they both crack up all over again. 

If Riley could stay in this moment forever, she would. Laughing with Mac feels like stepping into a patch of sunlight on a chilly day. 

Mac is still looking at her when they finally recover. Not in Bozer’s direction, not up at the stars, but at her. Riley bites her lip. She could do it right now. Tell him how she feels. 

But a bigger part of her knows that it’s not the right time, no matter how much she wants it to be, no matter how many small moments give her hope that she’s not alone in her feelings. Relationships with a messy beginning never last. Right now, they’re not meant to be, but Riley lets herself hope that maybe, just maybe, in the future, they will be. 

Until then, she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her heart. Starting with loving him quietly, and never expecting anything other than platonic love in return. Just having him in her life is enough. 

Bozer climbs back into the truck, and Riley moves to extricate herself from Mac. His arm tightens around her at first, but when Riley pulls away again, Mac lets her go. She doesn’t think about what it might mean if she stayed. 

The three of them lay together for hours, just looking up at the stars, until Bozer yawns. Riley can’t help but follow suit. 

“Mac,” Bozer says. “Did you set the alarm?” 

“Yeah. My phone is right here.” Mac pats a pillow above Riley’s head. 

She can’t believe what she’s hearing. “Alarm?” 

Mac explains, “The meteor shower’s peak is between three and four am. So unless you’d rather stay up all night...” He trails off. 

Riley groans. Of course. 

She pulls up a second blanket and rolls onto her side, facing Bozer. Safely tucked between her boys, Riley drifts off almost immediately. 

~

Riley wakes before the alarm goes off, struggling to breathe. It feels like someone’s sitting on her chest. 

When she opens her eyes, Riley realizes it’s two someones. 

She’s lying on her back. Between Mac’s arm thrown over her shoulders and Bozer using her chest as a pillow, their combined weight is uncomfortably heavy. They probably got cold and rolled toward her in their sleep. The thought makes her smile. Riley rolls onto her side to dislodge Bozer and ends up flush against Mac’s chest. His warm breath tickles the back of her neck, sending shivers down her spine. 

Shit. She should’ve included not torturing herself in her resolution to love him quietly. 

Riley tries to move again, but it’s futile. She’s stuck. As if to further prove her point, Mac’s arm slides down her body and wraps around her waist, pulling Riley closer like she’s his favorite teddy bear. The gesture makes her melt. Bozer reaches out then, sleepily trying to find his missing pillow, and his hand settles on Riley’s forearm. If Jack could see them now, he’d kill Mac and Bozer without a second thought, but Riley likes being wrapped up in her boys, likes feeling warm and wanted and protected. 

She’s still smiling when she falls back asleep. 

~

The alarm blares in her ear, and Riley can’t do anything about it. Her arms are trapped. She groans. “Turn it off.” 

A weight lifts from her side, and then an arm bumps her face as someone mercifully turns the alarm off, followed by a mumbled “Sorry.” Riley isn’t awake enough to recognize the rough, sleepy voice. It sounds nice though, she thinks. She wouldn’t mind hearing it again. 

The weight returns, and the same voice says, “I hit snooze. You have five minutes.” 

It’s Mac, she realizes with a jolt. Bozer would never be so merciful. 

Now she really wants to hear that voice again. 

Mac strokes her shoulder, coaxing Riley into consciousness, and damn him, it works. Her eyes flutter open. It’s still dark out, and Bozer faces them, his head resting beside Riley’s chest, the comma to her and Mac’s quotation marks. 

“Riles, move. I have to pee.” Swallowing her disappointment, Riley uses her feet to push Bozer back to his side, taking back her space. 

“I’m awake,” he slurs. 

Riley feels Mac’s chest rumble as he chuckles. “Sure you are.” He gets up, and Riley immediately mourns the loss of contact. 

He’s back by the time the alarm goes off again, and this time Riley turns it off herself before sitting up to stretch, her joints popping softly. The stars look completely different now. Riley still doesn’t know how to find Perseus, or even what the constellation looks like, but it doesn’t matter. The meteors are more frequent now, nearly two a minute. Most are quick, bright flashes, but a few are slower, gracefully crossing the sky before burning up. 

Someone—Bozer—kicks her in the back. “Riley stop blocking the view.” Rolling her eyes, she lays back down. 

She’s exhausted, and her body hurts, but it’s all worth it when a massive, glowing meteor arcs across the sky in slow motion, lingering for a few seconds before winking out of existence. “Wow,” Riley whispers. 

Mac and Bozer promised her fun, and sure enough, they deliver.

Riley hovers in that sweet spot between sleep and being awake until the sky lightens and the first rays of sunlight stretch across the desert. The air seems to hum, the way it always does in announcement of the scorching summer sun. Riley and the boys pack up in record time, and Mac blasts the air conditioner even though it’s barely six am. 

Leaning into the pile of pillows occupying most of the backseat, Riley orders, “Wake me up when you have my burrito. Goodnight.” 

She dreams of shooting stars and the warm embrace of a certain blonde nerd. 

[writefightandflightclub]

Wicked Game (Nathan Bateman x reader)

Summary: Interning for an eccentric billionaire certainly makes for some unusual moments. On this occasion, you are woken by Nathan blasting Wicked Game (listen to the song for the vibe) in the middle of the night. You’re just doing your best, honestly, not to fall in love with him. It should be an easy task, but there’s something about this sexy, robot-fucking oddball giving you a dancing lesson that has you wanting to go all-in. 

Author’s note: this is a very quick one inspired by an ask from @spider-starry​ about Nathan teaching reader to dance. I went for mildly creepy rather than cute vibes, idk (Nathan is odd but captivating, after all). But I wanted to (try and) recapture just a little of the vibe from the original dance scene. 

Warnings: TEEN. Potential spoiler from the movie. Blood, injury, mention of prior wound and scars, swearing, mentions of alcohol. Mild sex reference. Shirtless Nathan is a warning. Nathan is a warning in himself. Dancing. 

GIF: @cracked​

The noise. That god awful noise. What is it?

Your hand reaches out from beneath your duvet to flick on the lamp, and you peel one eye open at a time, groaning softly beneath the blanket before peeling that down from your eyes too.

The world was on fire and no one could save me but you It's strange what desire will make foolish people do

Is it...? No, it can’t be.

You had learned to expect the unexpected, while interning with Nathan, but this? This takes the biscuit.

Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game is blaring through the speakers in your bedroom at the ungodly hour of - you squint at your phone by your bedside- 2 am.

No, I don't wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart) No, I don't wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)

You peel the blanket down a little further and slam your fists down to your sides in aggravation, the assault on your senses an unwelcome departure from slumber.

“Nathan fucking Bateman,” you curse under your breath, lying there huffing and sighing, your body as stiff and tense as a board as you let the song play out.

It finally ends and you burrow back into your pillow, and yet, Chris Isaak seems to have other ideas; the song just starts up all over again.

You listen to it three times through. Text him “Nathan!” three times to no avail. And then, you finally chuck off the duvet and track out through the darkness, as intrepid as you are angry,  into the main living space.

He’s probably drunk again, but honestly, you brace yourself because you never quite know what you’re going to walk in on where Nathan is concerned.

The sight which befalls you is surreal, and a little creepy, to say the least.

Nathan is arm-in-arm with Kyoko, shirtless and barefoot. The robot is dressed in a little slip set. At first, your reaction is to shield your eyes, in case he’s banging her - or, about to.

At second glance, you realise that he’s... dancing?!

This is some next-level aloof billionaire eccentricity, right here. 

Nathan is sweeping Kyoko around the floor, in an oddly impressive display of grace and footwork, his strong arms and muscled torso poised and proud as he easily manipulates her around the floor. The whole “dance floor” is bathed in a red, softly pulsing light, which only emphasises the contours of him. 

What a wicked game you play, to make me feel this way What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you

You fully intend to interrupt so that you can simply get him to turn it down and clamber back to bed, and yet, you are somewhat captivated. By the bizarreness of the situation, as well as the movement of him, lithe and powerful and -dare you say it- majestic. By the intensity in his dark, focused stare. The way he moves is seductive, sensual, enthralling, and you can’t help but watch him from the shadows. 

“Wanna dance?” he says with his back to you, meaning he already saw you a good minute ago and didn’t let on. What’s more, he says it so casually, as if any of this could be considered normal. (The billionaire you live with in an underground house has perfected an AI / human dance routine to Wicked Game, and he’s asking you to join him at 2 am? Yes, exactly what you expected from your summer, naturally) .

Clearly, Nathan saw you standing there ogling. Oh, brilliant. Like you needed to provide him with any further evidence that you’re attracted to him.

You shake those thoughts out of your head as Nathan dips Kyoko with one arm, in a move that looks far too well-rehearsed, and try to remember why you’re stood there in your pajamas in the first place.

All you can muster is to flap your hands next to your ears and yell “the noise!” over the music, as the song loops all over again.

“Sorry. Not used to having people around. Forgot the speakers hook up to your room.”

That’s an unlikely oversight for a man so detail oriented, you reckon. 

“Wanna dance?” he asks again, with far too much normalcy. “Tear up the dance floor with me?”

“Why?” you ask, realising he has already succeeded in distracting you -miraculously quickly- and that you’re longer on track to berate him for the noise.

“Kyoko’s too good. You’ll make mistakes,” Nathan says plainly, releasing Kyoko’s grip and rubbing her arm, whispering to her to step aside. Then, he extends the frame of his arms in your direction, as if he might cradle you against his shirtless body next. 

In case you were wondering how you differ from Kyoko, the blood pumping around your body at the sight of him like that certainly serves as a reminder, that you are very much human, and that his body can affect yours it ways it never can hers. 

What a wicked thing to say, you never felt this way What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you 

Maybe this is a dream. You certainly feel like you’re sleepwalking, as your feet travel towards him of their own accord, and the red light and the deep, slurring croon of the music give everything an other-worldly feel. 

“Are you drunk?” you ask as his arms slot around you.

“No more than usual,” he answers, positioning you closer to him, tucking you into him and his arms forming a perfect, sturdy frame around you. You’ve never been this close to him, and quite frankly, it’s a little more intoxicating than you bargained for. “Are you?” he asks as you practically swoon against him, losing your footing already.

“No,” you say bashfully. “I just can’t dance.”

He ticks up a satisfied eyebrow, beginning to sway you gently against him to help you feel the rhythm. “Good. Routine’s getting a little samey with Kyoko. I like new variables in the equation.”

The proximity is making you nervous, but you wouldn’t move away from him for the life of you. Plus, despite his eccentricities, and somewhat intimidating, cool demeanor, Nathan somehow manages to put you at ease. Perhaps the surrealism of the situation helps with that too. You can almost pretend it isn’t happening. 

“So, when the chorus kicks in, you shimmy your hips like this,” he says, gyrating his hips expertly against you.

And I don't wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)

“Oops,” you apologise, stepping on his toes already and fumbling your footwork. You are tripping over your own thoughts as well as your feet, and to be honest, you think you can be forgiven, as this hot man presses up against you. 

“That’s okay,” he smiles - not softly, but like a hyena-  an improvident glint in his eyes. “Then you spin...” he says, coaching you through the moves... “and... pose.”

You move through the steps with trepidation, and when you’ve rotated through the spin, twirling beneath the fingers of his raised hand he tugs you back into his chest. 

No, I don't wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)

“How’s this?” you ask, self-consciously winding your hips in time, as his hand slips subtly further down your back. 

“Good, honey,” Nathan praises, and you think you might burst into flames. 

With you

You can’t help but trace your gaze languidly over his chest. Over his muscles. Over his smoothness. Over the deep, ridged scar where -or so you hear- one of his AIs stabbed him in the chest last year. You have to resist reaching out to smooth your fingers over it. In fact, you have to resist reaching out with your lips to kiss it better, so help you.

This song, this atmosphere, his body heat, are making it difficult for you to keep your... urges in check. 

His bare skin is warm and solid beneath your hand. His eyes are intense and boring into you, all long lashes and deep dark brown beneath his glasses. His eyes are the colour of earth, and there is more than you can fathom buried in their depths. The way he’s looking at you makes you want to dig. To get to the bottom of him, but you feel like you could fall so deep into the pit of him and still never solve him. 

Even in this moment, you fall a little deeper. Deep enough that you might not be able to clamber back out. 

It's strange what desire will make foolish people do

Then, he dips you, like he did Kyoko, his broad hand firmly supporting the arch of your back as your arm clings to his neck, his other arm tugging up your thigh to wrap around his waist. His lips hover just inches from yours, that hot, muscled body over you leaving you breathless. You can feel the latent potential of him as his muscles ripple to hold you in position.

You gulp and look up at him, completely helpless in the face of your desire now. Your desire is as red as the glow cast throughout the room. If he kissed you now, you’d be done for. Hell, you already feel done for. The bare flesh of your thigh is pressed against him, skin-on-skin, and he’s warm and taut and feels powerful up against you.

“You always look so cute ‘n’ smell so good when you go to bed?” Nathan asks casually as he holds you, and the realisation that you’re sexy-ballroom-dancing with your shirtless, robot-fucker of a boss while wearing skimpy sleepwear suddenly dawns on you. (Yes; more of Exactly How You Imagined Your Summer Going.). 

Your lips part and you expel a small, involuntary whimper. Of desire, of tension, of nervousness. 

The scenario appears to dawn on Nathan around the same time too, his throat bobbing around a hard swallow as that little noise you just made registers, his lips parting and his pink tongue skimming out to whet his plush lips.

“Different to dancing with a robot?” you ask, trying desperately to puncture the sexual tension before you fall all the way into his eyes, and, instead, your voice comes out far more fucking wanton and husky than you’ve ever heard it. You are nothing but breath and lust in his arms as his eyes tell you that yes, you’re different. That you make him feel... different.

But you both hold back, even though Nathan’s eyes are practically teeth, devouring you. 

I never dreamed that I'd love somebody like you And I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you

In a final attempt to re-calibrate and hoist yourself out of this pit, you launch your body to standing of your own volition, and your face collides spectacularly with Nathan’s.

“Ow,” you each say at the same time, your forehead having smashed against Nathan’s nose and lip as you rose up a little too eagerly. 

Red appears. 

Well, that’s one way to divert attention away from your burgeoning desire, you suppose.

“Shit! Nathan, I’m so sorry!” you exclaim, your hands flying to your face in regret. “Are you okay?” you fuss, but he simply looks down at his hand in surprise -no, more like... neutral interest- when it comes away from his face red. And then he... smiles.

“You’re bleeding,” you say in shock, wondering if he still hasn’t registered that fact properly, but Nathan simply grins more widely at you, like a hyena after a kill. 

He grins at you with red-stained teeth, and he’s at once grotesque and captivating.

“Shit. They tell me robots are dangerous,” he says, pinching the bridge of his nose, “ and here I am ballroom dancing with a human and bleeding all over the fucking floor.” 

He’s still smiling, and for some bizarre reason, you begin to smile along with him. As if any of this is normal. 

“What’s so fucking funny?” you ask him, searching his intriguing eyes. 

You never did like normal anyway. 

He simply smiles lopsidedly, blood still coating his lips. “Kyoko’s never done that.”

Something tells you he likes the new variable in his equation. 

(This world is only gonna break your heart)

Nobody loves no one.

Nathan grabs your hand, and you think he might about to ask you another question.

He opens his red mouth and sucks in a breath.   

[smol-angry-antiseptic-plant]

Bro I read your reply about “dm if you want” After I wrote this entire thing so um it’s just a post now. Also it ended up being way longer than initially intended haha

So! I have like Two Main OCs atm. They are Nand and Dira, from an alternate Ancient India where magic is real and gender roles are a bit less boring and most historical inaccuracies are ✨creative liberty✨

Here is a snapshot of Dira’s Pinterest moodboard: (not super happy about the whole thing but this part is ok)

Dira(she/her) is 19 years old, a daughter of a noble family. Her parents both work directly under the king’s treasurer, so they’re pretty rich. She has a huge network of relatives, all Important People but she still lives a very isolated life as she rarely gets to meet them or spend time with friends.

Quick backstory: there is a curse on her family due to which one child in every alternate generation has to be the temple (or prison, because the god constantly tries to escape but can’t) for a minor fire deity (BRO I DID RESEARCH AND ETYMOLOGY STUFF AND CAME UP WITH A NAME BUT I FORGOR💀). The person responsible for being the vessel (usually a dude) must keep his mind in excellent condition. He must have crystal clear awareness, strong morals, self control and focus so that he may resist the god’s manipulation and keep them contained. Dira is very bad at all of these things. She was not going to be the next vessel, but the death of her baby brother, the only other Valid successor, left them no choice. Being not great at containing the god, she found that she could occasionally channel the energy it provided outside of her body. Which means fire powers, she has fire powers, not super original but hey they’re cool what are you going to do about it. 

The fact that she could use them is actually a very bad thing, the more she uses them, the closer the god gets to escaping. Also, if the king found out about it, he would punish the family for failing at their sacred duty. Or worse: if the prince (the heir to the throne) found out, he would probably reward them for finding a new, powerful source of destructive magic and recruit Dira into the military. So the family keeps it secret for as long as they can, but eventually word leaks out about her powers and Dira has to run away from home. After that she meets Nand! (oof that “quick” backstory was actually pretty long haha)

Ok some more stuff about Dira: She’s short (a bit under five feet), fat and dark-skinned. She has a monobrow with a distinctive curve in the middle, so she always looks a bit grumpy. She has ADHD but that shit wasn’t diagnosed back then so she’s just. a Failure :(. She somehow enjoys studying the Vedas (in my universe women were allowed to study the Vedas) and many many other texts despite the executive dysfunction. She’s quite a nerd but will never admit it. She never cusses due to her upbringing but can still think of some very creative insults if you give her like 10 min to think. Does not feel fear related to physical danger as much as a normal human should. Not that she’s any better at dealing with physical threats lol but she heals so fast she’s almost unkillable. She loves pretty things and dressing up and jewelery and makeup and hairstyles. She’s aromantic and a lesbian but she does not have these particular words to describe it; at that time she would be called a svairini or “liberated woman” and she only really figures it out after running away and Seeing The World Outside (and some tits). Loneliness and guilt follow her every step she takes like the jingle of her anklets, breaking every silence, filling every room. Otherwise she’s doing fine.

[Historically, In India the attitudes towards homosexuality and transgenderism have varied from positive to neutral to negative. In my fictional kingdom, homosexual intercourse is a minor offence, comparable to like, speeding. Oops, you had gay sex but eh mistakes happen :) Pay a fine, do a small penance and you’re good. The opinions of individual cultures within the kingdom are a bit different (mostly positive or neutral with a few weirdo hate groups) Transgenderism is almost completely accepted. Marriage is not recognized as a thing for homosexuals, but it’s normal and acceptable for gay people to just like. Live together! It is also normal and acceptable for families to force gay kids into straight marriages if it is for the Greater Good of the family. So, it’s complicated.]

I WAS GOING TO WRITE A BIT ABOUT EACH BUT ENDED UP WORD VOMITING ABOUT DIRA ONLY this took a long time haha

Who are your blorbos? 👀 ( If you want to talk about them )

Kdjslsj hold on bro I'll need to formulate sentences for this one