#this is some sort of new situation we've discovered

[memecatwings]

i think the thing thats absolutely throwing me about the missing sub is that its a situation that feels like it could only have happened in a hypothetical. the fact that its actually real and actually happening feels astronomically improbable and yet it happened. a CEO really did build a rinky-dink submersible to visit the titanic wreckage with a playstation controler as a steering wheel and no emergency action plan and he invited a small group of wealthy guests to pay 250 thousand each for a ticket and then they all disappeared. he's quoted as saying he doesnt care about safety. it sounds like some sort of made up ethics scenario or a rejected scifi plot from the 1930s. this is not a tragedy that befalls any normal unsuspecting person hell this isnt even a normal corporate incompetence and capitalist greed tragedy. this is some loony toons jules verne bullshit. this is a rejected knives out movie script.

[newchangestf]

Our best versions

Will and I used to be those skinny nerdy boys that never got any attention unless it was the bullies making fun of us. We often hung out at home after school where we could hide from the others.

One day Will burst into my room dangling some sort of golden medallion.

"Look what I bought at that garage sale on the other street!" He exclaimed.

"Some piece of jewellery?" I asked looking at the golden disc quizzically.

"The owner said that if two people hold it at the same time and close their eyes it will turn them into the best version of themselves!" Will explained.

Like anyone in that situation I laughed at his explanation. Will was always getting carried away with some fantasy. Though we had nothing better to do so I humoured him.

We sat opposite each other and held on to a side of the medallion each. Counting to three we shout our eyes.

The medallion began to heat up and violently shake. Despite the shaking and the increasing heat we couldn't let go. It's power grew and grew sending shockwaves through our bodies. I could see the light coming through my eyelids but I couldn't open them.

Suddenly without warning everything went dark.

I slowly opened my eyes to find myself standing in a kitchen. Not one that I recognised either. Looking down I noticed my body was different.

Gone were the twigs that were my legs. Now they were hairy tree trunks thick with muscle. My bulge obvious and protruding.

Cupping it with my hand I felt it's new thickness and weight. I let my hand run up my body to discover the forest of hair that now adorned my torso.

It was then I felt two meaty hands reach around my body and lift my shirt.

"Will?" I said.

The muscled man behind me leaned over my shoulder.

"Yes my dear?" He replied.

Turning my head to face him I was met with the most beautiful bearded Adonis I have ever seen. I lifted my arm to take hold of his blond locks and instinctively pulled him in for a kiss.

It turns out that the best version of ourselves are a pair of muscled hairy daddies. We don't remember our nerdy past not when we've got eachothers bodies to explore.

[theamberfist]

It's Tough to be a Teacher | Alastor x Teacher! Reader

Platonic! Alastor + Best Friend! Teacher! Reader

Description: You and Alastor have been best friends since you were alive; where you two served as a murderous radio-host-and-kindergarten-teacher duo. Now, your refusal to become an overlord and protect yourself in hell causes Alastor to come up with a plan to convince you; for your own safety.

(Notes: CW Alastor, mentions of cults)

❀ We've got a song in this one! (Sometimes I like to write in songs I find if they fit the scene since Hazbin Hotel is a musical after all!) ❀

Words: 4,243

Alastor was someone who absolutely thrived in hell. With almost no consequences for any of his actions, he could kill, torture, or eat anyone he wanted. It was no surprise to you that he'd risen to be one of hell's strongest overlords in such a short time after his death.

You'd also been dead by then. In fact, you'd been killed off long before he had when your crimes in life were discovered. Alastor, upon arriving in hell years later, had informed you that he'd gotten revenge on those responsible for your death in the most brutal, bloody way possible; just as a best friend should, and he'd been making a name for himself here ever since with your support.

You were under the impression that you thrived in hell, too. However, since you had absolutely no interest in becoming an overlord, this sense of safety and contentment you felt was really thanks to your best friend's protection. There were few in hell who would mess with the Radio Demon, and even fewer that would have risked harming you and incurring his wrath when the two of you were always seen together.

But that didn't mean there weren't any at all.

Since his debut as an overlord, Alastor had caused many of hell's strongest to go missing, where he broadcasted their screams of pain and torment for all to hear. As it turned out, many of those missing overlords happened to be connected to not-yet-missing ones, who would then take it upon themselves to exact their revenge upon him. And more recently, that meant going after the closest person to him, you, as an eye-for-an-eye sort of situation.

He hated it. Even more so because you could have easily become just as powerful as him if you wanted to. You'd been a killer in life too and you certainly had the stomach to deal in souls, but every time he brought the topic up, you refused it.

Your murders had always had a strict moral code to them when you were alive. The pattern had been what ultimately alerted the New Orleans police that you were a suspect and got you caught in the end. You only ever killed those that you had deemed deserving of it based on a list of circumstances and traits. In short, you'd been trying to make a positive impact on the world in your own twisted way by killing off people you considered bad.

In fact, you met Alastor precisely because of your little 'good deeds,' as you'd referred to them at the time. You had been in the woods burying a body, only for him to be out hunting at the same time. Surprised by the presence of another person, he'd come over to strike up a conversation and the rest was history. You'd been best friends ever since because, ironically, Alastor had never met your qualifications for a truly 'bad' person.

Together, you two were a radio host and kindergarten teacher duo by day, but a pair of serial killers by night; both very notorious for your crimes.

And yet, when you'd arrived in hell, you'd seen no point in becoming an overlord. Why own the souls of other sinners? It wasn't like you wanted to become some sort of god and the way you saw it, you could protect yourself just fine without that extra power (though, Alastor would have begged to differ on that point, considering it was usually his power protecting you without your knowledge). So every time he tried to suggest you join him in his path, you'd politely but adamantly refused.

Which was why he was now left at a loss for what to do. Sighing, the Radio Demon slumped in his seat as he stared down at the 'coffee' in front of him. He'd come down to Cannibal Town since they had some of the best cafe's in hell and a warm drink had always helped him think better.

He could continue to protect you the way he currently was just fine, of course, but should he ever not be physically present, and an overlord that was on the stronger side showed up, he wasn't as confident in the fact that you'd get out unscathed.

The Radio Demon had never worried for another person to this extent in his life or afterlife, but it seemed his best friend was one of few exceptions to that. After all, without you, who would he share endless hours of gossip with when even Rosie was busy? Who else in hell had he known in life that didn't constantly ask him for favors the way Mimsy did? Who else had quietly listened to his broadcasts every day while their kindergarteners took their afternoon naps in the classroom?

No matter what you said, he refused to allow you to come to any harm if he could prevent it. Whether he liked it or not, you were too much of an important aspect in his life for him to even risk that. For heaven's sake, you had hardly even committed a single crime since arriving in hell of all places because you claimed "everyone here was probably a bad person" and that you "couldn't actually kill them anyway so what was the point?"

So it was Alastor's concern for your safety that finally brought him out of the cafe and on a walk through the cannibal colony in the hopes of coming up with a solution. If he couldn't get you to become an overlord, perhaps there was some other way to ensure your safety down here. Could you make a deal with someone in higher standing? Sneak into heaven? Get a job working for Lucifer, if you had to?

Luckily, he didn't have to ponder long, because as he walked, he passed by a group of what looked like young adult sinners all resembling various animals. They were gathered in an alleyway and huddling like a sports team might before a big game, and since they weren't doing anything that particularly irritated him, he nearly passed them by without a second thought.

...Until he heard them say your name. Well, it was your last name; they'd referred to you the way your kindergarteners might have, back when you were alive.

Alastor froze, his head snapping to look at the group now. Upon noticing his gaze on them, they all quieted down as he repeated your name with an unreadable expression.

"Do the lot of you happen to know them?" He asked. The sinners all exchanged glances before hesitantly nodding.

"Yeah, we all had them as our teacher when we were little." One finally spoke up. Clearly, he recognized who Alastor was because he and the rest of them all seemed a bit timid.

"Interesting..." Alastor said as he took a step into the surprisingly-clean alleyway now. He was extremely curious as to why they'd brought you up at a time like this. If they were your former students, he was sure they'd absolutely loved having you as a teacher; all of them had. But bringing up someone who'd taught them when they were in kindergarten at a time like this seemed excessive.

As he came closer to the huddle, he noticed a few more interesting things on the wall behind them that only amused him further. It seemed he'd been right when he called them excessive.

Dozens of what he could only assume were their assignments from kindergarten had been plastered on the wall; all graded by your hand and with that sparkly pen of your favorite color that you always used. The Radio Demon wasn't even sure how they'd procured those things in hell, but that wasn't all. There was a photo of you with your class of kindergarten students from when you were alive at the center of it all, and lines drawn in bright red blood connected everything; wrapping up this odd display.

It was a shrine. That knowledge only made Alastor's smile widen further in amusement. You likely didn't even know these former students were in hell, so he enjoyed imagining how your face would look when he told you all these details.

The sinners exchanged glances with one another now, seemingly put-off by his silence this whole time.

"Do you have a problem with us?" One of the braver ones spoke up, "If so, we're not alone! I'll have you know there are tons of us down here that will gang up on you if you try anything!" The Radio Demon wanted to roll his eyes at that- as if a group of regular demons, no matter how large, could stand a chance against him- but an idea was forming in his mind now that he couldn't help but want to investigate further. He hummed, taking another step forward as he raised his microphone-cane to point at the wall-shrine.

"And do the rest of you worship this person too?" He questioned casually. It seemed your former students hadn't expected that because they exchanged glances with one another again before answering.

"...Yes. All of us were their former students," one said, "We were inspired by their death and followed their ideals in our own murders. Now, we continue to spread their knowledge throughout hell."

"I see..." Alastor replied. He couldn't have been more amused in this moment; here he'd been worrying about your safety since you didn't want to become an overlord, and now it seemed he'd just accidentally stumbled upon the solution. "If that's true, then I assume you've yet to run into them down here?"

That gave the group pause.

"They're down here?" The sinner who had first spoke up asked and Alastor nodded.

"Indeed!" He replied, "In fact, they happen to be a dear friend of mine." Their eyes seemed to narrow at that; as if they didn't approve of the supposed friendship. Alastor, however, paid them no mind as he stood taller and rested his hands on his cane. "I have a proposition regarding your former teacher," he announced to the group, "One I believe you'll be more than inclined to accept."

He could already see their intrigue as he began explaining.

..........

You quietly hummed to yourself as you made your way to what essentially served as your dwelling here in hell. Thanks to Alastor, you could have chosen just about anywhere to live if you wanted, so at the moment, both you and him resided in an otherwise-empty apartment building that closely reflected the architecture found in New Orleans during your time. Your apartments were next door to one another; even having a door on one of the walls between them for quick access, though Alastor rarely ever used it; instead just popping up out of nowhere in your house.

Unlocking the door to your home, you stepped inside and shut it behind you. Since your best friend had been busy today, you'd taken a peaceful walk by yourself and had now returned to make dinner for the both of you. Alternating who cooked and when was a common practice for you and the Radio Demon since you both shared the same tastes and preferences when it came to food. You had to admit, though, that he was much more skilled in the kitchen than you.

You turned on one of the many radios found in your apartment as you moved through the kitchen; humming along with the song Alastor currently had broadcasting. You were just about to start cooking when there was a knock at your door.

Frowning, you set down the apron you'd been about to tie onto your body and made your way to the entrance of your apartment. You'd never received visitors before; and especially not out of the blue like this. Alastor tended to ward off anyone who might have been looking to come see you.

Curious, you looked through the door's peephole to see a huge group of people crowding the hallway. Slightly nervous but remaining confident, you pulled open the door to greet them.

"Hello, can I help you?" You asked as kindly as you could. Alastor would likely lecture you about not answering the door for strangers like this later, but it wasn't like anything was going to happen, right?

Suddenly, someone from the group called your name, but not just any name; the title you'd gone by as a teacher. Your gaze snapped to them in surprise.

"Y-yes, that's me..." You replied carefully, "And you are?"

"It's me; James!" The person called and suddenly, memories of your life came flooding back to you. James had been one of your very first students and he was always such a sweet kid. He used to offer to sharpen your pencils for you during his own recess time, and though you never took him up on it, you were always appreciative.

"And Joseph!" Another demon called.

"And Ruth!"

"And Mary!" Suddenly, a whole chorus of names were called out, all belonging to your former students. Your breath hitched and a huge smile made its way onto your face at being able to see them again.

"My goodness, what are you all doing here?" You asked happily, ready to invite every single one of them into your home for dinner, even if they could barely fit in the long hallway outside your apartment, as it was.

But then it hit you; this was hell. If this many of your former students were here, that meant they hadn't made it into heaven like you'd always assumed. This was only a handful of those you used to teach, of course, but if this many had ended up in hell, you wondered what could have gone wrong to make them commit anything worthy of being here.

"What are you all doing here?" You asked, now crossing your arms. It had been a while, but those teacher instincts of yours were beginning to come back just from seeing all your old kids.

"We found out about your killings!" Mary eagerly spoke up. You cringed at that. You'd known your students would likely hear of what you'd done, and while you didn't regret any of it, you did feel bad that it had likely ruined the image of their former favorite teacher in their memories.

"We were inspired!" Joseph called now and your eyes widened.

"You're like our idol!" Agreed Ruth, "We want to be just like you so we've been living the way you wanted and continuing your legacy of cleansing the world of evil!"

You felt like you couldn't breathe. They were here because of you? Because of what you'd done? You weren't sure whether to be proud or guilty over that, but before you could decide, James dropped another bombshell.

"And now we want you to own our souls!"

You paused, taking the information in. A part of you expected them to backtrack, laugh, and tell you this had all been some elaborate prank, but that didn't happen. They were dead serious about wanting you to be their overlord.

"What?" You asked in surprise as Mary nodded.

"We want to give our souls to you and work under your command!" She explained excitedly, as if what she was proposing was the most normal thing. You weren't sure what to do.

"Uh...Could you all give me one moment?" You asked politely, feeling as if you might faint. The students nodded and you quickly shut the door before going straight to your living room. That was where the connecting door between your and Alastor's apartments was located and you hurriedly knocked on it, needing the support and guidance of your closest friend right now.

"Al?" You called quietly enough that the students wouldn't hear you but loudly enough that he would, "Are you there? I could use some help!" There was no response, even after you waited a minute, and you sighed, assuming he wasn't home yet.

You went to turn around now, trying to come up with a nice way to reject the crowd of people outside when you jumped at the sight of a bright red deer-like demon standing behind you.

"What is it, darling?" He asked in a cheerful tone.

"You've got to stop sneaking up on me like that!" You exclaimed as you reached a hand to your heart. It wasn't like you could have heart attacks in hell but it sure felt that way.

"Why, but it's so entertaining!" He replied before setting his cane down and letting it rest in the crook of his arm. "Now, what seems to be the issue today?"

Ignoring how he almost sounded like a customer service worker, you sighed and reached a hand to your forehead in an effort to calm your already-growing headache.

"Remember how I used to teach kindergarten?" You asked, though, you knew he did. Regardless, the Radio Demon nodded and you continued. "Well, it looks like a bunch of my former students grew up looking up to me and now they're here in hell. They showed up just now and they want to give me their souls like an overlord!"

Alastor remained smiling, as always, so it was hard for you to notice just how amused he was by this situation. "And why, pray tell, would that be an issue?" He asked.

"Because I can't do that!" You exclaimed, groaning in frustration, "I can't hurt them; they're still my former students! I would have no idea what to do with that kind of power and besides, I don't want to be an overlord!" You plopped down on your nearby couch as Alastor listened intently to your plight. Finally, he hummed.

"I still fail to see the issue, dear," he told you, holding his cane in his hands behind his back as he calmly paced in front of you, "who says you would have to harm them if you owned their souls?" When you didn't respond he went on. "And as for the power, you would hardly need to use it. They could live their lives just as they did before if you so wished, but this way, you would finally be able to protect yourself."

"I can already-" you started to protest, only to see the look in his eyes and think better of it. You'd been in denial about the role your best friend played in your safety for a while now. Finally, you sighed. "But Al, they see me like some sort of god," you told him, "they idolize me to a concerning degree. I can't have that power over people; it's never been my style."

Alastor knew this was true. After all, in life you'd always preferred to manipulate the world from the shadows via your killings. You would never have been comfortable with this much glory, but he wasn't about to give up on the idea yet.

"Perhaps I can put it a different way," he said. The sentence was a reference to your teaching style as well; always willing to try and explain or show things differently if a student didn't get it the first time. You were endlessly patient, and luckily, he knew that would work in favor of his current plan. 

With a wave of his cane, a hoard of shadow creatures appeared in the room around you. You glanced at each of them, having seen the group before, wondering how he planned to get this point across. That was when he pointed to the door, where one of the creatures had grabbed the handle and was now swinging it open. In the hall, you could see your crowd of students all kneeling, but they looked up with smiles once the door was open. That was when Alastor, in his theatrical fashion, began to sing.

"There, you see? They're on their knees!" He called, pointing his cane in the direction of the hall, "Being worshipped is a breeze!" As if to further prove his point, the shadow creatures ran over to kneel in front of him. The one that had been at your front door now closed it and joined them. "Which rather suits us in the interim!" Alastor added with his signature wide smile.

"I just...Don't think I'm cut out for it," you admitted with a sigh, completely ignoring his song. On a normal day, you might have sang and danced along, but you weren't in the mood right now. "They want me to be a god!"

You plopped down on the couch with a defeated look on your face but your best friend wasn't done yet. 

"It's tough to be a god!" He admitted dramatically as the shadow creatures spun in circles around him, "Tread where mortals have not trod! Be deified when really you're a sham!" You could tell he was mocking you now as he leaned on the couch and raised a hand to his forehead like an exasperated lady. You rolled your eyes but then he moved to stand in front of you, taking both your hands in his.

"Be an object of devotion!" He sang as the shadow creatures performed some surprisingly elaborate choreography around you. "Be the subject of psalms!" He pulled you up off the couch so you both were standing now and then draped an arm over your shoulders, pulling you in and raising his hand to his mouth as if telling you a secret. "It's a rather touching notion; all those prayers and those salaams!" He took your hand now, spinning you in a circle as you chuckled. 

Alastor knew his plan was starting to work now; at the very least, he'd cheered you up. It seemed pretending he had no part in the arrival of your former students really had been the right choice; otherwise you would have caught on to what he was doing. 

"And who are you to bridle if you're forced to be an idol?" He asked as the shadow creatures brought of both their hands and shrugged dramatically, "If they say that you're a god that's what you are!" You bit your lip at that; seemingly still not enthusiastic about the idea. Knowing he needed to try another tactic, Alastor snapped his fingers, transporting a few of your students into the room.

All of them were kneeling on the floor surrounding parts of what had been their shrine to you. Your widening eyes told him you hadn't realized their devotion ran that deep yet and his smile grew more sly as he went on with the song. 

"What's more," he sang, "If you don't comply with the students wishes I can see you being sacrificed or stuffed!" He dragged a finger across his neck for emphasis and you seemed to get a little more nervous. In order to bring back your enthusiasm, though, he pulled you back into a side-hug as you both faced the students. Now as they continued to kneel, silver platters of your favorite foods rested in their hands and they held them out to you. 

"So let's be gods, the perks are great!" He lead you over to one of the students and took note of how your eyes lit up slightly at the sight of your favorite food, "All of hell here on our plate!" He spun you again now and snapped his fingers so the platters disappeared and a few more students joined the others in kneeling. "The students' feelings should not be rebuffed!" He sang as he directed your attention to the sinners, who all gave you puppy-dog-eyes in agreement. Alastor had to hand it to them; they had a knack for going with whatever he came up with in order to convince you. "Never rebuff the students' feelings, no my friend!" 

The shadow creatures began dancing around again and the other demons joined them, despite not really knowing the choreography. The result was an adorably awkward dance between the two groups. "It's tough to be a god!" Alastor repeated to you as he took a step, gesturing to everyone around you both. "But if you get the students' nod..." He trailed off, giving you the opportunity to speak. You did, with slight hesitation. 

"Count your blessings?" You asked more than you sang. Alastor nodded, glad to know he seemed to have gotten you on-board now.

"Keep them sweet; that's my advice!" He replied as he came to stand by your side again in the middle of the circle of shadow creatures and students. 

"Be a symbol of perfection..." You sang softly. The Radio Demon knew his plan had worked now so he nodded and went on. 

"Be a legend, be a cult!" He advised you, "Take their praise, take the collection as the multitudes exult!" You turned to the students, one of your hands slightly extended as it began to glow your favorite color; a phenomena you'd never experienced before now.

"Don a supernatural habit?" You sang as you glanced back at Alastor, who nodded, before leading you slightly closer to the group. 

"You'd be crazy not to grab it!" He sang as the first student eagerly lined up to shake your hand. This time, you didn't reject the offer and the Radio Demon was glad to know his plan had worked out just the way he wanted. He knew you only needed a little more convincing in order to become one of hell's next best overlords. "So sign up this new god for paradise!" He sang as you finally took the hand of your student, shaking it and solidifying your first deal as a new overlord. "Paradise~!"

And with that, it was done. You would finally own souls of your own, and with them, you would finally have the power to protect yourself just like your best friend had always wanted. 

[a-killer-obsession]

Wavelengths [Killer x Reader, Heat x Reader]

🔞 Minors DNI 🔞

A search for a rumored Vegapunk weapon leads the Kid Pirates to an unexpected new crewmate, with a bloodlust that rivals their own and an incredible power.

CW: Please check AO3 for all current warnings, but general warning for smut, slow burn, serious gore, and really dark themes. AFAB reader, she/her pronouns.

Masterlist || AO3 || Chapter 1

Chapter 11 - Trial and Error

You try something new, and Kid makes a big mistake.

WC: ~8k

Taglist: @h0n3y-l3m0n05 @tremendoushorsepatrolgoth

You stared awkwardly at the wide range of brightly coloured vibrators and dildos on display in the store. You had no fucking clue what you were looking at or what you were supposed to pick out. Heat had somewhat temporarily abandoned you to peruse the porn selection, and you looked over your shoulder for him anxiously, wondering if you should just give up and go bug him for help.

“Doing okay darlin’?” an older woman with bright pink hair approached you. She had a nametag, indicating she worked here, but otherwise wore casual looking clothing. The smile on her face was gentle and soothing, you felt immediately more comfortable with her there.

“Yeah um.. I think I need some help,” you admitted, “I'm not really sure what I'm looking for”

“Of course baby,” the woman cooed, “we've got all the features written out under the price tags, do any of them sound interesting? I could show ya how they work on your hand if you'd like”

“I um… I can't read,” you told her anxiously, feeling defeated. A room full of dildos and porn, and this was what made you embarrassed. She didn't seem like the kind of woman who would taunt you about it though.

“Oh that's no problem sweetheart!” The woman said, “I'm happy to help. What sort of things do you like? Clitoral stimulation? Penetration? Nipple play?”

“She's still figuring things out,” Heat told the woman, appearing like a saviour beside you, a handful of porn mags in hand, “she only just got out of a bad situation recently so she's not had much opportunity to learn what she enjoys”

“You the boyfriend?” the woman asked curiously.

“Uh, just a friend helping her figure herself out,” Heat answered with a nervous laugh, “she likes clit stimulation, and she recently discovered she likes receiving oral, so I'm thinking one of those suction toys that simulate it might work good for her, but something for her to explore penetration on her own wouldn't go amiss either. Give your what you'd consider an exploration starter kit, money isn't a issue”

“Very good, I have just the toys!” she picked up a small, purple dildo, tapered at the end and with a very slight bulge to the top. The overall shape was smooth and elegant, wide enough to be pleasurable but slimmer than the average penis, something ideal for a virgin to experiment with. Of course, you had been penetrated before, but there was no need to worry this woman with the horrific details of your past sexual encounters. She held down the button on the end and it started to vibrate, and she held it gently against the back of your hand so you could feel it. Your eyes widened as the woman clicked the button a few more times, making the vibrations more intense, before handing it to you for you to explore the settings on your own. You had the sudden realisation that your vibrating abilities thanks to your devil fruit were maybe far more useful than you'd initially thought, but it wouldn't hurt to have something to replicate the ideal levels. You didn't want to accidentally overdo it and hurt yourself after all.

“This one is what I recommend for newbies,” she explained, “its cable rechargeable, waterproof, easy to clean, and has 15 different settings ranging from gentle vibrations to more intense pulsing. It's ideal for both clitoral stimulation and penetration”

You handed the toy back to the woman who turned it off and returned it to its display holder, before selecting another toy. “Now, in terms of suction toys, you can't beat this model. It has ten power settings, waterproof, cable rechargeable, near silent, and the slim profile makes it ideal for using in tandem with penetrative sex. Paired with a good lubricant it offers orgasms that will truly blow you away with very little effort on your part”

“She'll take both,” Heat answered for you.

“Very good, now I'm assuming she also requires cleaning supplies and lubricants?” The woman asked.

“Yeah, get her whatever you recommend,” Heat said, “and these too, please” he continued, holding out the magazines for the woman.

“Very good, I'll get everything collected and rung up for you at the counter, let me know if you need my help with anything else” the woman smiled, taking the mags from Heat and collecting several boxes from the shelves under the displays, before walking away to collect a few other things. She met you at the counter and began to scan and bag the items. “Your friend must care about you a lot, this is quite the kind gesture” she noted to you as she scanned the last item and slid it into a discreet, unmarked bag.

“She deserves it, after the shit she's been through,” Heat told her. The woman smiled sadly in response, and you got the sense that maybe she had an inclination of what you'd been through. Given you still looked pretty boney even after a few weeks of eating well, it was probably clear that you'd been abused quite badly, you still had the clear physical appearance of someone who had been starved for a long time.

Heat paid for the items with a generous tip and thanked her for her help, leading your excited but nervous self out of the store before you could burn a hole with your eyes into the massive dragon themed dildo you'd been staring at curiously that stood proudly on display behind the counter.

Heat followed you back to your room at the inn after running errands together, still carrying your shopping bag like the gentleman he was. The two of you had already left most of what he'd bought with a couple of henchmen to be taken back to the ship. It was late afternoon now, soon the others would be gathering at a nearby pub that Killer had picked out for dinner. Kid wasn't a fan of fancy restaurants, but pubs had a much more casual atmosphere, more suited to his tastes.

“You gonna try out your new stuff?” Heat smirked as he pulled your things out of the paper bag that hid the adult store items, leaving just his mags inside to bring back to his own room later.

“I was gonna have a shower, actually,” you replied, sliding off your shoes and pulling your toiletries from your duffle bag, “did you want to join me?” you added with a coy smile on your face. There'd been dirty thoughts in your head all day since Heat had explained oral to you, and the trip to the adult store certainly hadn't helped the situation.

Heat squinted at you, trying to decide if you were serious. Sure you'd fooled around plenty, but you'd never been below the belt with him, he'd been holding off till he felt like you were ready. He wanted you to learn how you liked to be pleased before you focused on anyone else. To be fair though, you had slept with Delilah last night, so maybe you were ready to experiment on other people. And if pleasing others was what made you feel good, who was he to deny you? Lord knew he got off making you feel good.

“What's that face for?” You mused, already half undressed and on your way to the door of the attached bathroom, mask discarded and seastone in hand.

“Are you sure you're ready for that?” Heat asked you with genuine concern.

“Yeah, I'm sure,” you smiled, tugging on his hand to pull him to the bathroom, “to be honest I really liked pleasing Delilah last night, I wanna please you too”

“You don't have to do that,” he said softly, while you tugged at the lacing on his corset to loosen it.

“But I want to,” you purred. Your genuine smile made his heart flutter and his dick twitch. Fuck you were hard to say no to.

You finished undressing and turned the shower on, adjusting the temperature before stepping in. You stood under the stream for a moment, letting the warm water wash over you, before giving him an almost tender, inviting glance. He sighed in defeat and finished undressing, sliding in behind you. It was a reasonably sized shower, big enough to fit Heat's large frame beside you, but small enough that you were forced to stand somewhat close. You let out a contented sigh as he wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling your back against his front and pressing kisses along your collarbone. You twisted in his arms to face him, pulling him down with arms around his neck so you could kiss him, he was so goddamn tall.

The water spilled over you both as you smoothed your tongue against his, and you pressed hard against his front, rubbing your soft abdomen against his growing erection. You could feel the cool metal of the piercings on the underside pressing against your skin. Out of curiosity you pulled away from the kiss, wanting to see better, and he gave you space to look, proud of his size and not at all uncomfortable with your staring.

“You can touch it, if you want,” he told you reassuringly. Your eyes flicked to his quickly before returning to his dick, a hesitant hand coming up and running along the underside, admiring the weight of it, before wrapping your fingers as much as you could around the base and stroking it gently. The skin there was surprisingly smooth, like velvet in your palm, and you ran your hand carefully over the piercings, scared you might hurt him. His hand wrapped around yours as he groaned at the first feeling of your warm touch on him, and he encouraged you to squeeze a little firmer, guiding your hand to stroke up and down near the base the way he liked. He let go as you got the gist of it, your eyes shifting between watching yourself stroke him, and his face as he groaned quietly and supported himself against the wall behind you.

“That's it- hnng- good girl,” Heat groaned, “just like that”

The pleasurable sounds he was making made arousal pool between your legs and you found yourself rubbing your thighs together to get friction. You only had one free hand, since you needed the other for your seastone, and unfortunately for you it was currently in use.

“Heat, can you hold my seastone against me?” You asked, holding it out for him. He nodded and took it from you, careful to make sure it stayed against your skin as he slid the small pebble up your arm, resting it against your shoulder. You held his hand to your shoulder as you started to kneel, his eyes growing wide in surprise.

“Yin, you don't have to do that, just your hand is enough,” he told you.

“But I want to,” you said, squatting in front of him, still pumping him while your other newly freed hand ran over his thigh. Your mouth was centimetres away from his tip now, and you looked up at him with eyes that were dark with lust. “I want to taste you so fucking bad,” you purred, running your nose against the side of his cock. He grunted and gave in immediately to your dirty words.

“Fuck, okay,” he moaned, “just- don't push yourself too far. If you don't like it we can stop, I won't be angry”

You smiled at your victory and gave him an experimental kitten lick against the side you'd been nuzzling, before making more kitten licks all over. Precum started to leak from the tip as he watched you, and you observed it curiously before lapping it up and humming contently. You weren't sure what you were supposed to do, so you just kept swirling your tongue around the head, looking up at him with innocent eyes as he grunted.

“Put it in your mouth baby, suck on it,” he purred, sensing your were in need of some guidance and petting the top of your head, “just watch out for your teeth”

You hesitantly did as you were instructed, sucking him into your mouth maybe a little too harshly. His hips bucked forward and forced himself further in, making you gag a little in surprise. “Fuck, sorry baby,” he pulled away from you, “you just felt so fucking good”

To his surprise, you weren't at all fazed, instead unbelievably turned on by the idea of him being deeper inside you. After all, you'd only ever had his fingers. It felt dirty having him in your mouth, and you suddenly wanted him to fill you. You ran your tongue back over the head of his cock before swallowing him again, concentrating on suppressing the need to gag as you took him as far as you could down your throat, nestling your nose against his pubes and looking up at him with doe eyes. His eyes were wide as you paused with him deep down your throat, your eyes watering a little but determined to keep him inside you as you swallowed around him.

“Fuck, Yin,” he groaned, “fuck”

You let him go, keeping your hand on the base of his dick and stroking more as you caught your breath. “Did I do good? Should I do it again?” You cooed, looking up at him for praise.

“Yes baby, you're being such a good girl for me,” he cooed. It was becoming quite apparent to him that you had a praise kink, even if you didn't realise it so he made sure to play into it. “You're doing so good, make it go in and out of your mouth baby”

You took him back in your mouth and bobbed your head back and forth, rubbing your tongue against the piercings on the underside as you moved. You were determined to please him, practically suckling on him as you moved. He was leaning against the wall holding on for dear life while you went down on him, trying to keep it together enough to keep the seastone pressed to your shoulder. One of your hands returned to his shaft, stroking him at a pace to match your mouth, while the other slid between your legs, where your pussy was spread wide open as you squatted in front of him. You felt so in control and knowing that it was you making him moan was making you unbearably horny, so you fingered yourself furiously. He could hear the lewd sounds of your fingers pumping in and out of you, and it made him lose control, the coil in his stomach ready to spring at any second.

“Fuck, Yin, I'm gonna-” he pulled out with the intention of cumming on the shower floor, so you wouldn't be surprised by it in your mouth, but he'd reacted too late and instead spurted hot white threads of cum over your face, forcing you to close one eye. “Sorry, fuck, sorry Yin”

You wiped the cum off your eye and looked at the sticky substance on your hand, before licking it off curiously. You found yourself liking the salty taste, aroused by the fact that it had come out of him, and that you had made it come out, so you wiped the rest from your face, pushing it into your mouth and licking it off your fingers, humming contently while he looked down at you with astonishment. On top of the praise kink, he was starting to think you had a thing for fluids, especially considering how you'd spoken about your time with Delilah, having gotten the more graphic details over lunch. When there was nothing on your face, you grabbed him again, forcing his over sensitive cock back into your mouth to milk him clean of anything left.

“Hnng- fuck- Yin,” he panted hard as he pressed his head against the cool tile wall, the water from the still running shower trickling down his back. You kissed your way up his chest as you stood, and nipped at his neck, humming contently at how utterly lewd and powerful you felt. You took the seastone from his weak hand and tilted his chin down towards you, forcing him to look at you, overcome with that feeling of power and desire.

“Heat, get on your fucking knees,” you growled.

His cock twitched back to life at your sudden confidence, and he dropped down in front of you immediately, draping your knee over his shoulder and immediately diving between your legs like a man starved. He’d wanted to do this for so long, having only ever tasted you off his fingers, wanting so badly to drink from the source. You pulled his hair tight as you leaned back against the shower wall, forcing his head to stay between your legs while he ate you out with fervour. You were slick with arousal and he moaned into you, holding your hips tight as he slid his thick tongue inside you and pumped you with it. You weren't the only one who enjoyed going down on a hot, wet pussy. He felt so fucking good inside you and you rolled your hips in time, letting him fuck you with his greedy tongue while his thumb worked away at your clit, till you felt your muscles tighten and you came suddenly with a shout on his face. Heat lapped up your release with a groan, both of your eyes closed in bliss as he worked you through the heavy orgasm.

Finally sated you let his hair go, and he carefully slid your leg off his shoulder, standing back up and pulling you close. You hugged each other tight while you came down from your high, and sighed contently at how warm and safe you felt with your naked body pressed against his under the running water. You leaned up on your tip toes and kissed him tenderly, tasting yourself on his lips, and pushing stray hair out of his face as you lowered yourself back into the hug.

“You're so incredible,” Heat mumbled into your shoulder, his face buried in the crook of your neck.

“Thank you, Heat, for letting me try that,” you purred happily, “it was fun,” you giggled.

“Any fucking time,” he laughed, “I don't think I'm gonna even bother to go find a woman tonight anymore, that was too fucking good”

You giggled again, filled with pride, and nuzzled into him, “me neither, I was going to go see Delilah again but, do you think maybe you'd want to stay with me tonight instead, Heat?” you looked up at him with warm, adoring eyes as he stood properly upright, his hands still on the small of your back, “this is nice, just being close to you”

“Yeah, it is,” he agreed, “I'll stay, but we have to go to dinner first. We can hang out after”

“That sounds good,” you mumbled, half asleep between his warm body and the warm water.

“Are we gonna actually wash while we're in here?” Heat laughed.

“Mmm… nah,” you replied, pressing your face in to his chest, “let's just stay like this”

“Okay sweetheart, that's fine by me,” he cooed, running a hand through your pretty purple hair.

The next day passed with not much of note. Heat woke up in your bed after more fooling around, and you helped him with the last of his errands before wandering aimlessly around the town together. There wasn't much to do if you weren't into winter sports, so you just hung out and got high in your inn room, while Heat happily let you explore his body further. You both decided to head back to the bar that night though, meeting up with the other commanders who already had women slung over their laps. Delilah seemed excited to see you again, and happily followed your back to your room once more, this time taking full advantage of your devil fruit, as well as your new toys and newfound confidence. She left as you were waking the next morning, promising to see you later at the bar.

It was evening again, and the men were all taking full advantage of their last night on shore, the bar now filled with Kid Pirates all hoping to get laid one last time before setting sail tomorrow morning. You were one of the last to arrive, having decided to take an afternoon nap which had accidentally gone a little long, and grabbing a quick bite in the restaurant next door to the inn before heading to the brothel where you knew the others would be. Delilah was already in the booth, and you were surprised to see her fawning over Kid. You didn't feel a pang of jealousy though, you knew Delilah was a working woman who had already sacrificed two nights of potential income to sleep with you, and considering how late you were she probably thought you weren't coming at all, so she'd no doubt decided to make some cash with a paying customer instead.

“Yin!” she exclaimed as soon as she saw you, “I thought I wasn't going to have the pleasure of your company tonight!”

The booth was full, so you decided to just slide on to Heat's currently empty lap, who graciously wrapped his arms around your waist and indicated to a passing waitress to bring another drink.

“Yeah sorry, nap ran long,” you yawned, “did I miss anything?”

“Delilah was just telling me about your fun little vibrating trick,” Kid laughed, “sounds like the two of you had fun last night. Our sweet Delilah missed you the other night, but I took real good care of her for you”

You were unphased by Kid's attempt at teasing, thinking that you would at least have some inclination to be jealous or petty about Kid stealing ‘your’ woman. Unfortunately for him, you couldn't care less, especially not when you'd spent that time with Heat instead, so it's not like you were missing out. Kid scowled at the lack of reaction, more interested in the drink the waitress had just dropped off for you, and picked up his own drink with a heavy frown.

“I didn't know you and the blue haired one were an item,” Delilah noted, observing the casual way you sat on Heat's lap, “kind of him to let you play with me”

“Well, they do say sharing is caring,” you winked at Kid who almost choked on his drink, “Heat and I are just friends though”

“Friends with significant benefits,” Wire laughed.

“They're very good benefits,” you smirked. Heat started to go pink behind you and cleared his throat.

Delilah gave Kid a knowing look before sliding closer to you, pulling your thigh so it rested on her lap instead of Heat's. It left your legs spread wide open under the table as Delilah's hand ran up your inner thigh teasingly. “Maybe you'd like to join our little party with the captain then?”

You froze and Heat could feel your muscles tensing, you were definitely uncomfortable at the suggestion. “Yin doesn't fuck around with the captain,” Killer interrupted before Heat could come to your defense. He felt sorry for you, looking just as scared as you had when Kid had pinned you to the table, and he had no doubt you were remembering that exact moment.

‘Oh? How come?” Delilah purred, still determined to sway you into a threesome.

“None of your business,” Killer snapped. You gave him a look that, even with most of your face obscured by your mask, still read as a silent thank you. His protectiveness was unexpected, but welcomed.

Delilah let the topic go, sensing there was something she was missing here, and slid back over to Kid. “Well, maybe I'll just come say hello later,” she added, “after your captain is done with me”

“If you can walk by the time I'm done with you,” Kid smirked. Killer groaned at the cocky remark and rolled his eyes under the mask.

You felt strange, suddenly feeling like a burden, and slipped off Heat's lap to stand. Once again you were being dropped for someone who would do more, it made you feel insecure and insignificant. “I think maybe I'll head to bed actually,” you said. There was a hint of sadness in your voice that the other commanders didn't miss, “I think maybe that nap wasn't quite enough, I'll see you guys tomorrow. It was nice meeting you, Delilah”

You walked away without another word, not really entirely sure in yourself why you were leaving. You just knew you felt like you didn't really belong here anymore, despite Killer's kind defence of you, and maybe you'd feel more comfortable spending the night alone for once.

It was late when a knock came on your door. You groaned and dragged yourself out of bed. You hadn't really been asleep anyway, just laying in bed, thinking. You were surprised to find a very drunk Delilah leaning against the frame when you opened the door. She was half naked, her hair in disarray, the smell of sex and alcohol strong on her. She pushed her way into the room, closing the door behind her. You didn't try to stop her, welcoming the distraction.

It wasn't long before you were both falling asleep, naked and spent, after several rounds of messy fucking and some special use of your devil fruit. Or at least, that's how it looked at a glance. As soon as she heard the soft sounds of your snoring, Delilah gave up her masquerade and slipped out of the bed, hastily throwing on her clothes and grabbing your mask from the side table before leaving. She stopped at the door, throwing you one last guilty look, before quietly sliding out and heading back to Kid's room.

Not getting a rise out of you earlier had pissed him off, and a pissed off Kid, combined with alcohol, was never a good mix. He'd had a curiosity about your mask since you came on board, but Killer had always berated him for even thinking about touching it. But Killer wasn't here right now, and Kid was pissed off, so he'd paid Delilah handsomely to get the mask for him. She felt awful about it, but a berri was a berri - she had bills to pay, and she’d probably never see you again anyway. He probably could have gotten it himself, but Killer would have drowned him if he'd found out he'd gone to your room and scared you. At least this way you got a few orgasms out of the arrangement, he praised himself for being so kind.

Nothing seemed amiss when you woke up, stretching and yawning, wiping the sleep from your eyes. You flopped back down, not quite ready yet to open your eyes. With a groan you reached your hand over to the side table, dropping your seastone in favour of your mask. It clattered against the wooden floor as you missed the unfamiliar table, so used to the size and position of your table back on the ship. No worries, you'd just pick it up in a minute. You kept your eyes closed as you reached for your mask, it was easier to avoid being overwhelmed that way. It was a bad habit, really, letting go of the seastone before grabbing the mask, but if you did it this way you only needed one hand, and you were lazy. You found the surface with your hand, patting around blindly for it, and finding the surface empty. Maybe you knocked it down in your sleep? Not a problem, it was made of a metal shell, so you'd be able to make it out on the floor if you opened your eyes.

You could see far too much when you opened them, the wooden walls and furniture of the room becoming basically invisible as you saw right through them, save for the occasional pipe or wire or nail. You could see people in the other rooms, all Kid Pirates and a handful of working women, since the rest of the inn's residents had fled when the crew checked in. It was hard to tell who was who, just warm bodies scattered in a void of space, broken up by the occasional metal from a door handle, or weapon, or the small personal safes that each room featured. Most of them seemed to be doing something akin to packing, some of them still horizontal, sleeping you assumed. A few were a few interacting with other bodies, no doubt getting in last minute romps before they set off.

You shook your head and tried to focus, you knew from experience that you only had a few minutes before you became overwhelmed, it was important you found your mask before then. You set your sights on where the floor of your room should have been, and scowled when you found no sign of your mask. You looked around where you estimated the boundaries of your room to be, finding only your dagger and sword, and the metal inner workings of the toys Heat had bought you the other day. Your shoulders twitched as the buzzing noise around you started to creep in, becoming louder as you grew disoriented and your focus began to falter. Your last hope was the seastone, you would be able to see it if you looked, since it nullified your ability. Seastone created something of a void in your vision whenever you looked at it without your mask, not so much a physical object, more just a complete lack of anything.

You underestimated where the edge of the bed was and fell, landing face first on the hard floor. You raised yourself up on your hands, beginning to lose your hold on reality. You could see the seastone, but it seemed like it was under the bed. You felt for the edge of the bedframe and tried your best to reach under, but the bed was too low and your arm was too short, flapping around uselessly under the bed as your shoulder drove painfully into the bedframe. Panic was setting in as you felt yourself starting to slip away, so you turned desperately to where you had seen your katana, hoping you could slide it under the bed to free the stone.

You were crawling towards it on your hands and knees, twitching, when it finally became all too much. You curled into a ball and whimpered, you couldn't even make out your own voice over the deafening sound of everything, so you had no idea if you'd be able to yell for help. Would it be loud enough for anyone to hear? Would you even be saying anything coherent? You couldn't tell, and your heart rate was spiking as you began to hyperventilate, the twitching becoming more frequent as you became hyper aware of every molecule of air vibrating around you.

You pushed yourself up onto your knees and desperately looked around, too far gone to know what you were looking for or what you needed. That was when you spotted it. Your mask.

Or at least, what looked like parts of your mask. And in front of it, the unmistakable metal-armed body of Eustass Kid. An inhuman growl escaped you as you realised that he had your mask, and he was disassembling it. A bloodlust sparked in you, those feral instincts that had long since laid dormant taking over as your mind singled in on one goal - kill Kid. Kill Kid, kill Kid, KILL KID.

You rushed towards him, smashing into and bouncing off a wall you hadn't seen, or had forgotten existed, and you roared at it like it had personally offended you. You pressed your hand to it, vibrating the wood till the molecules broke apart and it scattered into dust, leaving a hole in the wall for you to pass through. You continued this way on a direct route to Kid - charging forward, crashing into a wall, destroying it, continuing. You passed through a room and a body approached you. You didn't recognise them, seeing only their blood and their organs and their bones, and went on the attack, in defence against someone you had no way of knowing was harmless. In your fury you liquified their insides, not even bothering to watch their lifeless body fall as you continued on your war path. It had been one of the henchmen, and the woman he had been with screamed, running panicked for her life. You did not hear it.

The body you were zeroing in on perked its head in the direction of the scream, about to stand, when you came barreling through the wall. Your eyes were lifeless and empty and you were breathing like a rabid animal, twitching like you were covered in fire ants as you approached Kid. He stood to defend himself, immediately realising he’d fucked up, and you charged, jumping at him and sinking your teeth deep into his neck till you tasted blood. You could have killed him quickly the same way you had the henchman, but you wanted to make his pain last longer, you didn't want to make it a quick kill. You wanted to feel him bleed out, feel his hot blood pooling while he cried out, hear and see his heart take its last weak pump. You coated your body in armament haki, making yourself a bullet proof leech as he fruitlessly punched and clawed at you, falling to the ground in his struggle.

Killer had been finishing the last of his packing when he heard the scream. Shrill, terrified, the sound of a woman who thought their life was in genuine danger. He could only assume a henchman had gone too far, and tutted as he left his room, preparing to scold whoever had made the poor woman scream. He caught the tail end of her as she raced down the hall, mostly naked, disappearing down a stairwell. Retracing to the open door she had come from, he cleared his throat in preparation for yelling, but stopped dead in his tracks as he noticed the hole in the wall. It was a perfect circle, a large pile of wood dust sitting under it, like someone had painstakingly sanded away at the wall layer by layer. He stepped through the hole and immediately regretted not bringing his weapons when he found the body of a henchman, lifeless on the floor, a pink goo and dark blood dripping from every orifice. His open eyelids revealed empty holes where his eyes should have been, a pool of liquid dripping from them instead. He almost gagged under the mask, it was a gruesome sight even for him.

He was about to investigate closer when Kid began to shout nearby, and his head snapped in the direction of the yelling to find two more perfect holes, Kid falling to the ground in a struggle on the other side of them. Killer ran, ready to destroy whoever or whatever had dared to attack his captain, weapons be damned he'd use his bare fists if he had to.

He panicked when what he found was you, your unmistakable purple hair swinging back and forth as Kid tried to roll to get you off him, revealing your teeth deep in his neck as he moved. He was smacking you with his metal arm, and you were entirely unphased, covered in the metal shimmer of strong armament haki. A quick glance around the room to look for a weapon or something he could use to subdue you and he spotted your mask, dismantled on the desk of the large room. He growled under his own mask in anger as he put two and two together.

He leaned over the two of you and grabbed your face, sticking his fingers in the corners of your mouth to force your teeth out of Kid's bleeding neck, like you were a wild dog. You made a feral sound that made a shiver run down his spine as he attempted to pry open your jaw, but with more force than he would like he was able to loosen your bite enough to pull you away. Moving on pure instinct he ripped off his mask, jamming it on your head to muzzle you before pressing you to the floor, using his entire weight to pin you down. You roared and fought back, but after a few moments you began to settle, your armament haki dissipating and the feral growls turning to small sad whimpers as you calmed.

“Kid what the fuck did you do,” Killer growled, turning his uncovered face to look at Kid, who was trying his best to stop the bleeding on his neck with a discarded shirt. The unbridled rage was clear on Killer's face, his piercing blue eyes told Kid he was ready to kill him. A sight he hadn't seen since they were kids, it shook him to his core. “I told you, I fucking told you NOT TO FUCKING TOUCH HER MASK”

“BUT SHE PISSED ME OFF!” Kid snapped back, “I just wanted to have a look! She had her seastone! It was fine!”

“Evidently Kid, it was not fucking fine. What the fuck is wrong with you?” Killer snapped, “put it back together, NOW. I'm fucking serious Kid, I will fucking kill you myself if she doesn't do it first, there is nothing stopping her right now from liquifying both of us at any second”

“Fuck, okay, okay, I'm doing it,” Kid grumbled, immediately putting his devil fruit in to action to manipulate the mask pieces while he continued to hold the shirt to his neck. “Why is she calm now? Shouldn't she still be rabid?”

“She told me my mask is a blind spot for her, so I thought it might dull her senses,” he explained, “she gets like that because she's overwhelmed, so I was hoping blocking most shit out would help.”

You'd stopped fighting him entirely, and he wondered if it was okay to let you go now. He lifted himself off you slowly and you stayed where you were, but reached for him blindly. He figured you were probably terrified, so he stayed sitting cross legged on the floor next to you, and pulled you into his lap protectively, letting you burrow into him and use him as an anchor. The mask made it tricky, and you whimpered as you bumped awkwardly into his chest, but you managed to wrap yourself around him anyway, sitting in his lap facing him, with your legs and arms wrapped firmly around him while you made sad little sniffles. He did his best to comfort you, keeping you held tight against him and stroking your back. It was weird seeing you in his mask, he'd never let anyone wear it, but it'd been the first thing he'd thought of to sedate you. He didn't like however that there was currently a massive hole in the wall behind them where anyone could walk in at any time and see his unmasked face.

Kid stood over the two of you and cleared his throat, interrupting Killer who was apparently lost in his thoughts, idly rocking you back and forth. Kid was holding your mask out for him to take. “You good, Kil?”

“Yeah it's just.. weird to see someone in my mask..” he replied, taking your own mask from him. He sighed and removed his mask from you, quickly putting it back over his own head before putting yours on you. The second you felt the familiar pressure sliding on you grabbed it like a lifering, pulling it in to place and quickly switching it on.

When you finally opened your eyes you yelped, seeing Killer's mask so close to you, then looking down and realising you were in his lap. Not just in his lap, but effectively straddling him, your legs wrapped tight around his waist. You scrambled backwards out of it, backing up against the side of Kid's bed. “SORRY, SORRY!” you squeaked out as a visible blush spread down your face and neck.

“It's fine,” Killer assured you, hiding his own blush as he realised just how close you'd been, feeling the distinct absence of your weight and warmth. “Are you okay?”

You looked between Killer and Kid, who had a trail of blood down his chest as he held pressure on his neck, then you looked around and realised this was most definitely not your room.

“What- what happened?” You whispered, “did I- did I go feral?”

“You tried to take a fucking chunk out of me,” Kid growled. Killer shot him a dangerous look. It didn't matter that he had a mask back on, Kid knew the look well anyway. He quickly shut his mouth.

“Kid took your mask,” Killer explained, “and he's really fucking sorry, aren't you Kid?”

“I just wanted a look…” Kid replied like a scorned child.

“Kid,” Killer snapped.

“OKAY, FUCK, I'm sorry Yin, I didn't know you would actually go feral,” he mumbled, “what happened to your seastone?”

You scowled at him, doing your best to not just snap and kill him right then and there out of principle, “it fell on the floor when I was switching to my mask, which would usually be fine, if someone hadn't fucking taken it”

“I said I'm sorry okay!” He yelled.

“I don't fucking care what you say, you're fucking lucky I don't kill you right fucking now,” you spat, standing up and rushing at him, an accusatory finger poking him in the chest, “what the fuck is wrong with you Kid? Killer warned you what would happen, are you fucking stupid? I COULD HAVE KILLED YOU, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!”

Killer was standing behind you now, resting a calming hand on your shoulder, pulling you gently away from Kid, “That's enough, one life lost is enough for today”

You snapped your head towards Killer, “one life lost? Did I fucking kill someone? Oh my god tell me it wasn't Heat please”

“Heat is fine, I assume,” Killer assured you, “it was just a henchman. No big deal”

You let out a heavy sigh and looked at Kid with an apologetic expression, “Sorry, Captain”

“This ones on me,” Kid sighed. You took a few steps closer and gave him a hesitant look before delicately pulling his hand that held the shirt away from his neck to inspect it.

“Fuck,” you whispered, standing on your tippy toes to be able to see properly, “the bleeding looks like its stopped but you should probably see Mohawk about this, I went pretty deep. Sorry Kid. I've always did tend to go for the jugular when I'm feral, doesn't help that its one of the only things I can see”

“Don't worry about it,” he mumbled, “lesson learned, I won't touch your precious mask again”

You sighed again and took a few steps back, apologising again before turning to leave. That's when you spotted the series of perfectly circular holes that led directly to your room and pinched the bridge of your nose. “Well, that's new,” you sighed, walking through the holes back to your room, stopping to glance at the dead henchman on your way. You didn't even know his name, so you exhaled in relief, no love lost.

Killer gave Kid one more warning glance before following you back through the holes to check on you, not fully convinced that you were fine.

“You okay?” He asked as he stood in the eave of the last hole, watching you hurriedly pack your things. He couldn't help but notice the new toys as you shoved them unceremoniously into your duffle bag, but he tried his best to shake the dirty thoughts they brought up.

“I'm fucking peachy, Kil,” you muttered, before taking your katana and using it to retrieve your seastone from under the bed. “Stupid fucking rock,” you mumbled as you threw it in your duffle bag. You zipped the bag shut and paused, looking at it sadly as you stood beside the dresser it sat on. “I nearly killed him, I tasted his fucking blood, Kil. I can still taste it.” You shook your head with a frown and opened your duffle again, retrieving your toothbrush and toothpaste and making a beeline for the bathroom. You left the door open, so as not to be rude to Killer.

“Its not on you, this is his fuck up,” Killer told you. You turned back to him as you brushed your teeth and softened, seeing his mask and suddenly realising what he'd done for you.

“Your mask…” you said softly, lowering your brush.

“You said it blocks shit, I thought it might help,” he said nonchalantly, scratching the back of his neck.

“It was good thinking,” you told him, spitting your mouth full of toothpaste and rinsing your mouth and brush. You returned the brush and paste to your duffle, staring at the bag with a small blush, “It smells like you in there. It reminded me of the blanket you put over me during the storm. You have a calming scent”

His breath stuttered as you stood properly and looked directly at him, and there was a pregnant silence as you stared at each other. Your eyes couldn't meet because of the masks, but he felt like you were looking right into his soul. His heart skipped as you closed the distance between you and gently took one of his hands in your own.

“Thank you Kil,” you said softly, finally breaking the silence. Your voice was sweet and sincere, “that must have been hard for you to do, I won't forget what you did for me”

“It's nothing,” he mumbled, glad for the mask that was hiding his bright red cheeks, “I did it to protect Kid”

“Yeah, I know,” you sighed, staring forlorn at his hand as you ran your thumb over the scarred back of it, “but thank you anyway”

“Right,” he cleared his throat, pulling his hand away, “I need to finish packing…”

“Yeah, of course,” you replied, taking a few awkward steps back, “I'll uh.. I'll see you on the ship?”

“Yeah, sure,” he mumbled and quickly fled back to his own room.

[NEXT CHAPTER]

[buckydeservesthebest]

OK SO HEAR ME F*CKING OUT!!!

Bucky Barnes, the Bucky Barnes we know would NEVER, EVER agree to try to murder anyone, not even bad guys, WILLINGLY.

Bucky didn't even want to kill the bad guys he faced like the Flag Smashers, not even Zemo, even when he had plenty of reasons to do so.

Bucky has made it clear time and time again that the last thing he wants to do is hurt others.

To make him act like the Winter Soldier voluntarily is horrifyingly out of character! Proving that he is not the Winter Soldier is literally the crux of his story in TFATWS!!!!

His suit in Thunderbolts has virtually the same components that HYDRA used to outfit him as the Winter Soldier.

Besides it is obvious that this scene is identical to that of CA:TWS.

The only explanation for this is that Bucky is being mind controlled again... There is no other way...

My theory is that whoever is mind controlling Bucky is using a different method than HYDRA's trigger words.

We know that something similar will happen to Isaiah Bradley in Cap4. That means the government has access to mind control methods. And Bucky "works" for Congress/Government. The new Ross government! The pin that Bucky wears is the same one that can be seen on the Ross Funko. Of course there is a connection there.

Also, we know from the book The Wakanda Files, that Bucky's brain has irreparable damage that even Shuri couldn't heal... So maybe Marvel is building on that...

Another possible explanation is Loki's scepter, suspiciously shown in the same scene as Bucky. Maybe some of the power of the mind stone is still there and that's what they're using to control him!

I strictly refuse to believe that Marvel made our Bucky become a ruthless bad guy voluntarily! THAT'S NOT THE BUCKY WE'VE SEEN FOR 13 YEARS!!!!!

Besides, if Bucky were really the kind of person to accept those kinds of missions, he would have already been recruited by Val to do her dirty work like the rest of the TBs.

Precisely, according to an insider, Congress assigns Bucky the task of investigating Val and exposing her dirt.

And if that wasn't enough, even when Bucky pretended to be the Winter Soldier in TFATWS, HE NEVER CARRIED WEAPONS!

So my complete theory is:

Bucky is being blackmailed by Ross' government to work for them, in exchange for not pursuing charges against what he "did" as the Winter Soldier, and that explains the court scene.

He is assigned the task of investigating Val.

He discovers what she is doing along with the TBs, and reports it.

At some point they (or perhaps Val herself from the shadows) assign him the task of tracking down and/or eliminating the TBs, but he refuses which causes them to resort to some sort of mind control to force him.

Bucky eventually breaks free of the mind control and ends up having to work alongside the TBs to overthrow Val.

And as a bonus, Bucky is the voice of reason and the leader who inspires the TBs to improve and be better people, as Seb said: "A guy coming into this group that was chaotic and degenerate, and somehow finding a way to unite them."

Bucky is and always has been a good man who has never enjoyed having to fight. I SWEAR IF MARVEL CHANGES THAT, WHICH IS ALL WE'VE SEEN FOR 13 YEARS, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO.

Whatever the truth is, I HATE with all my heart that our poor boy is going through this horrifying situation as if he hasn't already suffered enough!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 😭😭😭 😭

[whoovesnassistant]

Announcement about a Serious Situation

Hello, everyone. We have some unfortunate news but first want to assure you that production is still going and will not be put on halt for DWnA, DWA, and Aristotle's Apocalypse. We are still very excited to bring them to life, but we have one less person on the crew to help and we feel it is important to explain why. Recently we've discovered that someone in our community and within the team wasn't exactly as honest or respectful as we had initially trusted them to be. This individual is no longer with the project or any adjacent projects and will never be permitted to return. He is also not welcome in the fan server any more.

We will try to use age appropriate language here but know that this issue is of an adult nature. The user oreod.ude (discord handle) was an editor on the team who we found out was soliciting artists on the crew not only without permission, but the content he was asking these artists for was wildly inappropriate. While the content being requested might have seemed innocent at a glance, this is clearly an obsession of a more dubious nature, and he specifically seemed to target people who were not comfortable with this kind of content or weren't aware of the more sinister adult nature of the content.

We do not want any artists on our team to feel pressured or uncomfortable, which is why it was a general rule that artists were not to be individually contacted for content. He was told this multiple times and yet still contacted nearly all of our artists for the same inappropriate thing. And now we just want to make sure he can't do that any more in any of our servers and hopefully other projects who might hear about him.

We have a couple of videos he worked on that credit him and we can't really change that, but after that he will not be mentioned if he had any sort of involvement in the finished product.

Other handles this user has gone by that we know of: Vacuum3000, Blue15Bomber, watatimbotle2, lukeffvader We are letting people know this person's identity so they can have a chance to block him or know to avoid him and keep him off of projects. PLEASE DO NOT HARASS OR ENGAGE WITH HIM. This is NOT meant to send a mob after him, it is merely to warn people about interacting with him.

We want to also take this time to caution artists about people who will try to get art from people for inappropriate reasons even if the content seems innocent. Be wary of oddly specific requests like puffed up cheeks or feet tickling, as there are nasty people out there who like to trick unsuspecting artists to indulge their fantasies which is a violation of consent. Don't let anyone pressure you into drawing anything that makes you uncomfortable. Just remember that on the Internet, not everyone has good intentions - be responsible and make good choices, and you can always message a moderator in our discord server if you see any bad, unwelcome, or predatory behavior in the community.

Something important we have learned: It's so important to speak up. This incident was occurring over a few months because people were either scared to come forward or assumed they were an isolated incident. The only reason we now know so many artists were effected was because one of them decided to come to the moderators about the issue, and their coming forward prompted many others to feel safe enough to speak up as well. A lot of bonding has been happening now that people know they weren't the only one and that we take these reports seriously.

We want to thank everyone for supporting us and we want to have a safe environment for all of you. We will not let this incident pull us down. In fact, perhaps our team has become stronger for it.

[voidscarredadjudicator]

A VERY lengthy ramble about Salmonids, Grizzco, and Big Run.

Aaaand this is the follow up to my previous long post where I talked about the new Drizzle Season maps with my stream of consciousness observations. It is long. I am sorry.

Now, I seem to be in the minority when I say that I absolutely love Big Run as an event. I sort of get this vibe that a lot of people aren't happy with it, and considering how infrequent it is compared to Splatfests, I can't say I blame them - especially considering how stacked against the odds the reward system is. Like, top 5% of the entire playerbase for a gold statue? The playerbase of one of the best selling Nintendo games of recent memory? That's a lot of people who're gonna be left in the dust simply by design. I honestly can't fathom why they made the PvE gamemode's event more competitive than the PvP one, but for someone like me? Between the two, I do enjoy Big Run more. I prefer mastering a difficult challenge with a rare accolade to prove it over the stomping/getting stomped that comes with Splatfests.

So yeah, there's gonna be a Big Run arc in Humanity's Endling. I am biased. I will admit to this. In fact, I'm even willing to spill the beans on the fact that Act II is the Big Run arc. You may think it odd that the Big Run arc is gonna be happening before the inevitable Alterna arc, but keep in mind that you are technically able to experience Big Run before the main story. In fact, the original trailer for Big Run sorta inadvertently hints at this since Mr. Grizz's radio is still the bear eating the fish, rather than the new one you get after clearing the main story. Now obviously, that's likely the case since Nintendo didn't wanna spoil that detail, but it's worth keeping in mind that the main story can just... never be done on a save file. Could be the final damn Splatfest of S3 before some asshole decides to actually do something about Cuttlefish lurking in the manhole, y'know?

Anyways, Um'ami Ruins as a Big Run map is... interesting. The first three maps we've had have all had some obvious way for the Salmonids to arrive - Wahoo World is on the coast, Inkblot was built on a river, and Undertow is literally the sewers, but Um'ami?

We are in the desert. There is no water.

...or is there?

Now, bear with me for a second, because I'm gonna go full detective here. Full theorist. A game theorist, if you wi- *gets shot*

Why would the Salmonids even want to attack these ruins to begin with? Do they have some kind of deep rooted cultural vendetta against the people who built this place? Is there some sort of ancient artifact interred within these grounds which holds unfathomable power? Are the Salmonids simply stupid?

No, no, and no comment. It's a lot simpler, actually.

They're not after the ruins. They're after the town next to the ruins.

That clearly isn't Splatsville. It's nowhere near big enough. It's just some tiny town in the middle of literally nowhere that just so happens to border these ruins, and is likely where the excavators and archeologists that are working here live. Additionally, such a town in the middle of nowhere would need some kind of way to get water, and there's this cool invention made by none other than Mario "Jumpman" Mario himself (source: trust me) called 'motherfucking pipes'. Those pipes probably run under/around the ruins - hell, those pipes getting built might even be how the ruins got discovered in the first place - and the Salmonids, being the chaos incarnates that they are, hitched a ride.

But if that's the case, why are we fighting them in the ruins? One of two reasons: they're trying to secure the ruins as some sort of outpost first and we're stopping them before they do that, or Grizzco is actively countering them by cutting off their advance at the ruins themselves. I'd imagine there's likely some sort of measures at play as well to cut off the flow of pipes for the exact situation of, "oh god there's hundreds of fish climbing out of my toilet", which would even explain how all that water gets there. The waterways are closed; wherever it wells up is where Grizzco moves in, as that's the only place the Salmonids can emerge.

That's probably why the alarms were going off in Undertow Spillway, beyond a literal 'perimeter breach' alarm. They likely closed off every waterway going to/from the place to contain the advance, it gets dangerously close to overflowing, alarms start ringing... this is right underneath the city. Shit was dire.

Big Run is a phenomenon that is as much a natural disaster as it is a literal act of war. We get to play as the soldiers, since that's the 'fun' part, but like with any hurricane, tornado, typhoon, forest fire, flood, or earthquake, there's so many moving parts to the response that a lot of people don't know about. First responders, evac, medical, meteorological, just to name a few.

A lot of people seem to be under the impression that the Salmonids are just hapless victims of Grizzco, and Big Run is just them striking back after dealing with Grizzco for so long, but honestly? I disagree. I mean, Grizzco ain't exactly squeaky clean, that's for damn sure, but the Salmonids aren't all that great either. They have their own culture and belief system for how the world works, and part of that culture is one that idolizes combat to the point where they'll attack in droves simply because the clouds dictate. If anything, they probably respect Grizzco and it's workers to some degree for being such formidable opponents time and time again.

Big Runs have been happening long enough for them to be mentioned in what's more or less the closest thing to an in-universe equivalent of the Bible, so their aggression is pretty heavily and historically documented. And clearly, they have no interest in joining the wider society outside of their clans in their murky waters (with Little Buddy being an extraordinary exception). Every sect of their society is trained for fighting one way or another; the smarter ones build and pilot weapons, the stronger ones are commanders, and they even have a place for the inexperienced where they serve as the snatchers. Their entire belief system is predicated on the idea that conflict makes one whole, that fighting and then dying is a process that lets them serve the cycle of nature. It's so deeply engrained into their way of life that they arm their children and send them to fight and die as well. They're a proud warrior race, through and through.

Does that justify Grizzco moving in to take their eggs? Because keep in mind, the Splatoon universe is also undergoing a constant energy crisis, and while we know Grizzco is doing shady stuff with the Golden Eggs... we're still collecting Power Eggs, too. In fact, that's literally the name of the job position - 'Freelance Power Egg Collector'.

On top of that, Grizzco isn't really keeping it secret. They're very open about what exactly is done. You go in, you fight Salmonids, you get their eggs, and you come back. It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it. It's legal, somehow.

Grizzco is likely providing legitimate aid for society through egg collection, which is probably how it's been able to grow to begin with - despite it being a front for Mr. Grizz's own schemes. Not only that, but society relies on Grizzco during Big Run. You can hate them all you want, but they're the ones who're making sure you still have a city to live in and power to run your damn internet.

But also, it's clearly not impossible to have some kind of positive relationship with the Salmonids, as the Octarians have managed to get some kind of trade deal going with them - although as of Splatoon 3, the Octarians seem to be less an actual army and more just the last few groupies Octavio still has after the Squid Sisters pulled some inspirational anime moment hijinks through the power of song twice. It just seems like the only thing the Salmonids are interested in are... more weapons. Weapons that they will then use during Big Run.

Imagine your neighbor breaking into your home and stabbing you with a knife you let him borrow because the clouds 'told him to'. It's... sorta easy to see why the rest of society hasn't really tried doing that. The Octarians probably didn't have much choice - or were at least comfortable with the trade since the Salmonids dwell on the surface, so they wouldn't be affected by their stampede.

Really though, it's a matter of two different shades of gray in constant opposition with each other. Lawful Evil versus Chaotic Neutral. Pick your poison.

If you haven't noticed, I've given this a lot of thought. Kaleb will have a ton to say in Act II about this whole situation. It truly is a uniquely fucked scenario, especially for someone who's world was taken away because of fighting like that... and that's without even getting into the actual things that'll happen during that act.

Before this post gets any longer, I do wanna put out a headcanon that'll be present during Act II, and that's the idea that there's only one Big Run that happens. I find it really weird and frankly absurd that this legendary, prophesized event of utter devastation at the hands of the Salmonids is... a neat, two day event that happens once every few months where they attack a single place and then leave. It's quite literally a biblical event, what's the deal?

So basically, the way I picture it is that Big Run is closer to a week, maybe longer, and basically everywhere is being attacked at once. Like, each Big Run we do ingame is just another theater for the fighting that's happening at the same time as the previous runs. Or, in other words, Wahoo World is under attack at the same time as Um'ami, and Inkblot is under attack at the same time as Undertow, and they're all under attack right now all at once. The fact that Mr. Grizz always acts like you've never heard of Big Run when it starts and the fact that you can hear the fighting in Inkopolis Square no matter the map honestly kinda lends to this idea.

It's just spaced out weirdly in the actual game's event lineup because having Big Run be a week long event that happens only once in the game's entire lifespan would be incredibly stupid from a commercial standpoint. Yes, I am huffing copium.

Anyways, I'm gonna stop myself here because holy shit this is a long post and it's so late that it's early. My sleep schedule is in shambles. I enjoy making these, though. I might do one regarding Alterna & Mr. Grizz himself when we get closer to the Alterna arc. Also I will still be playing Big Run tomorrow. Join me if you dare.

[thelostgirl21]

OMFG! This came across my dash, and given that Jaskier is, like, the most ADHD coded character I've had the pleasure of watching on screen since Jake Peralta, first thing that came to mind was...

"But what if having sex actually is one of the ways that Jaskier has instinctively found to self-medicate, though?"

What if he tends to be able to think more clearly, feel calmer, and be a bit less restless and impulsive after sex?

What if, sometimes, for example, he tends to start a bunch of different new songs at the same time, while struggling with finishing them, and thus feels driven to have sex with someone to help himself focus and complete them?

People with ADHD actually do tend to gravitate towards hypersexuality and hyposexuality (it's not considered an official symptom of ADHD per say, more a co-occurence... Like, I think that among men seeking treatment for hypersexuality issues and problematic porn consumption, they discovered 67% of them had ADHD or something...), and Jaskier's very high sex drive - while not necessarily considered a disorder in itself - is still enough to put him into some serious trouble at times and generate drama in his interpersonal relationships.

I mean, I don't want to call him sexually hyperfixated, but his very first impulse - after the world around him froze and a copy of himself appeared before him - was trying to assess the fuckability of the situation and if he might be into having sex with himself even before asking if he was still alive!

At the very least, it definitely seems that sex might be a coping strategy that he uses to relieve feelings of stress and anxiety.

We've already seen Jaskier go:

to cope with his emotions.

But he just might have this very instinctive:

coping response as well!

In a sense, maybe the way he reacted to Seanchai looking at him was a manifestation of that.

Anxiety going through the roof = Jaskier going:

Poor bard is just going through his life, facing impossible odds, and regularly going:

to manage the crazy levels of stress he's constantly being subjected to.

People think he's being promiscuous because he is irresponsible and immature or something, when the poor bard is just instinctively doing whatever he can to manage his blood pressure, and avoid dying young of some stress-related condition.

Of course, the desired therapeutic effect might be a little offset by the fact that a bunch of nobles tend to want to kill him for having had sex with their spouses and/or relatives... Guess he'll just need to go find someone to sleep with to deal with that stress then... Wait.

Jaskier to Geralt: "I think we should go to Redania... Ciri would have an entire army at her back, and I'd have a really sexy Prince at mine providing me with a steady dopamine, endorphin and oxytocin supply. Seriously Geralt, I'm only human, and if this keeps going, at this rate I won't live past 50!"

Radovid to his brother: "Look, I'm really shit at being a spymaster and a Prince, but years of being very bored and very gay at court have helped me develop a unique type of expertise. And now, I've just discovered there's this one thing - or rather person - that I can do, and do really well! And he's going through some apocalyptic-level stressful shit right now. So, you've got to let me go help him, alright?"

It also would make sense that Jaskier would be so driven to have sex with people, regardless of sexual attraction, if sexual activity happens to be a coping mechanism for him, that can both act as a psychostimulant, and/or as something to help him relieve anxiety, stress, and even the occasional depressive feelings.

In that case, it can also turn into a sort of cycle that becomes self-sustaining, i.e. :

People make him feel shame over his regular need for sex and "promiscuity" - - > it triggers his RSD and emotional insecurities over never being good enough for those he loves, or "too different" - - > he instinctively seeks sex to take his mind off those negative and painful feelings, feel wanted, connected to others, receive praise rather than harsh criticism, and flood his system with stress relieving and "feel good" hormones - - > people make him feel shame over his regular need for sex and "promiscuity" - - > it triggers...

And then, there's Radovid that never reacted negatively to the fact that Vespula was angry at Jaskier over the many, many different people he'd been sleeping with, openly called Geralt "his Witcher", wanted to help him find and rescue the rest of his family...

He's not putting any pressure on Jaskier to stop loving other people or being intimate with them to also be loved and wanted by him.

There are so many ways that Prince/King can help our poor bard manage and relieve his anxiety, including not making him feel wrong or inadequate for having such a need for sex in the first place...

Ironically, the way Radovid's brain works apparently "turns Jaskier on"... but Radovid turning him on - while also making him fell like he is enough - might also help "turn Jaskier off" (as in, help him modulate his overall need for sex in general) if there's less of a need for him to turn to sex to cope with the way his own brain works, and the distress it might occasionally cause him.

As an ex-nurse clinician, it is thus my professional opinion that someone should really officially prescribe some Radovid to Jaskier, to be taken PRN - p.o., as a spoon, intrarectal or however he needs him - and as often as he personally needs him.

It's not a want, it's a need. Someone needs to deliver some Radovid back to him ASAP.

Okay, and now I imagine Geralt just showing up with Jaskier at some point in Tretogor after Yennefer portals them both there, knocking on the castle door, and basically going:

Geralt: Yes, hi. Sorry to bother you. Things have been exceedingly stressful lately, and I have a bard that's been insisting on going back to see an ex-lover...

Jaskier: I'm telling you, it's fine!

Geralt: ...that's threatened to have him beheaded if she ever saw him on her lands again...

Jaskier: I'm sure she didn't mean it!

Geralt: ...and this idiot is willing to risk death...

Jaskier: She's actually really sweet once you get to know her!

Geralt: ...in the hopes that she'll agree to sleep with him.

Jaskier: I'm not even sure if she offered to cut off my head or give me head if she ever saw me again! You know how easy it is to confuse the two...

Geralt: No. No Jaskier, I do not.

Castle Guard: Ah... Yes, so um... what do you need us to do about -

Radovid: *Showing up out of breath, in a robe, with his crown hanging a bit sideways, after he took off running as fast as he could when he caught sight of Geralt and Jaskier approaching the castle from his private chambers' window.* Yeah... Hi... It's okay... *to the guards* I've ... I've... got this...

Jaskier: *Blushes and whines, leaning heavily against Geralt to avoid sliding to the floor at the sight.*

Radovid: *Concerned, to Geralt.* What happened? Is he okay? *Reaches out to Jaskier to hold him in his arms and help support him, looking for any sign of injuries.* Are you hurt?

Geralt: If you could just keep him with you and have sex with him for a few days, I'm sure he'll be perfectly fine!

Radovid: *Dumbstruck* You want me to do what now?

Jaskier: *Starting to kiss and nimble on Radovid's collarbone, insistently pressing himself against him.* Me. Do me. Now.

Radovid: Ah, alright, but we'll need to use the barracks. I'm not running all the way back upstairs!

Geralt: Don't think you'd even manage to make it to the first floor anyway.

Castle Guard: Ah, so, should we... give the order to empty the barracks your Majesty?

Jaskier: *Beginning to slide his hands under his robes.* They could stay and watch, or join in...

Radovid: I'm... not sure if that's the kind of support I'm entitled to expect or ask from the Redanian army, but if some of them want to stay, I guess... Why not?

Jaskier: *Briefly pulling back to look at him, realising he's not put off by, or disapproving of his behavior.* I love you.

Radovid: *Beams back at him.* I love you, too. Marry me?

Geralt: Boy, that escalated quickly!

[blackjackkent]

Onward to Orpheus's cage!

The Emperor is still acting as if it and Hector are allies and just need to brainstorm a new plan, which is honestly odd under the circumstances. It knows Hector and Lae'zel plan to free Orpheus, it knows they have the Hammer; it really has no reason to believe that they are still on the same side.

Honestly the whole situation speaks of a level of almost-sentimentality on the Emperor's part which is uncharacteristic of it to say the least. The other options, of course, are that it has a trap planned of its own, or that it is so utterly desperate in the face of the Brain's power that it is willing to ignore Hector's planned betrayal. All of these are bad possibilities, albeit for different reasons.

In any event it does not immediately turn around to face Hector as he approaches, but continues looking thoughtfully at Orpheus trapped within Vlaakith's prison.

"I have assessed our encounter with the Netherbrain from every angle," it says calmly. "I know why we failed."

Silence. Hector waits, and eventually the illithid turns to face him, its pale purple eyes intent. "The problem was not the stones. The problem was you."

Hector scowls defensively - and yet the words strike deep in his heart. He feels keenly aware of the fact that he failed in what was supposed to be the final showdown; that on some level he was not strong enough to do what needed to be done.

"You can make only one move at a time," the Emperor goes on. "But the Netherbrain calculates every possible move at once. It knows what you will do. It knows everything you could possibly do. You cannot outmaneuver it."

It drifts closer to him, hooking its hands behind its back. "To defeat it, you would have to think like an illithid. Better yet - be one. Your mind is not capable of this."

Hector's scowl deepens. Of course - even now, the Emperor will try to insist yet again on the Astral Tadpole, on forcing him into "evolution".

But the Emperor surprises him. "Mine is," it finishes. "You will give the stones to me. I will assimilate Orpheus. And then I will be able to leave this Prism to face the brain."

Several moments' startled silence follows these words. Hector just sort of stares at the Emperor in bewilderment.

It is, he reflects, an astonishing display of misplaced confidence. Why does he think Hector will agree to this? And yet at the same time, it stirs that same strange, frustrating compassion that the Emperor - or perhaps whatever is left of Balduran inside it - has always been able to stir in him; in spite of knowing full well that Hector has ulterior plans, it still wants to work with him. It still believes their partnership can succeed. It still saved him when it could have let him die.

Hector hates the sense of guilt that comes with this knowledge - because he is the one torpedoing that partnership wholesale, without question.

But he has a deeper loyalty elsewhere.

"Assimilate him? Tsk'va! No, now is the time to liberate him! Do not stand against me!" Lae'zel hisses behind him.

No fear of that, Hector thinks. This decision was made before we arrived.

"There is another way," he tells the Emperor, deliberately calm, matter-of-fact. "We will free Orpheus."

A mind flayer's expression is nearly impossible to read - but Hector has a pretty good handle on the Emperor's at this point, and its anger is unmistakable. "You still don't trust me? After all we've been through?" it snaps. "Remember, I have been your salvation from the very beginning. Your knight in shining armor. I freed you from the nautiloid, prevented you from crashing to your death. I have protected you ever since - at no small cost to myself."

It floats a foot or two closer to him, its eyes narrowing, and its voice goes oddly soft. "I came to you as a leader, but i did not shy away from showing you vulnerability. I needed you as much as you needed me. I was not above recognizing this. When you discovered my true identity, I did not flinch from truth. I never lied to you, not once. I am just like you. We have the same enemy, the same story. I encouraged you to fulfil your potential, all while protecting you from harm."

It extends a hand towards him and demands, "Now I ask you for the last time to trust me! Release the Netherstones to me!"

Hector remains utterly still, making no move to retrieve the stones.

Oddly enough, this strange speech from the illithid backfires completely. Nothing the Emperor is saying is untrue, and yet laying it out so flatly shows it suddenly in a new light.

Yes, the Emperor has never fully lied to him, but there is plenty that it has not said unless forced to it. It has been vulnerable, yes - but the very way it describes that vulnerability is as a practical tool, not an emotional connection. It has been manipulating him; it would have showed him no kindness at all if it did not serve its own ends.

And another thing, too, nudges at the back of his mind - the Brain said that the Emperor was itself a pawn in the Absolute scheme, albeit unwillingly. Far better, then, to turn away from it entirely to something the Brain does not expect.

"Enough," he says flatly. "I have the Hammer. I will free Orpheus."

The Emperor's tentacles twitch suddenly, sharply. Its voice, always nearly emotionless, goes utterly cold. "I told you we have to trust one another," it growls. "I told you the githyanki would only want to kill you for what you are. Still you choose to break our alliance."

"Even united, the Netherbrain was going to be an impossible enemy. But apart - we have no chance of survival. Very well. Since you will not work with me, you work against me."

A new portal shimmers open behind it; it keeps its eyes fixed on Hector's as it drifts backwards into the gate. "You leave me no option but to join the Netherbrain."

Hector watches in silence as it vanishes into the pale light and the gate seals behind it.

-------

"What?" he says weakly. "What just happened?"

"That's a hell of a flip," Karlach says dryly.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised..." Hector mutters. "It was always about its own survival, in the end."

And yet there's a strange hollow feeling in his chest at the breaking of this alliance that he cannot possibly explain.

-----

"The ghaik is gone," Lae'zel says, unconcerned by this latest strange development. "Our mission is set. Smash the crystals with the hammer, and free the Prince of the Comet. Gith's beloved son will lead us to a sure victory against the Netherbrain."

Hector sighs, hefting the Hammer up in one hand and eyeing the crystals that line Orpheus's prison.

I do hope I am not making a terrible, terrible mistake, he thinks to himself wryly, and then lashes out in a wide, arcing swing that shatters the crystal apart.

[funnier-as-a-system]

hey hi help i thought i might be a system but then i spiraled and long story short my Boys AREN'T RESPONDING AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE IT'S LIKE BEING ALONE BUT WORSE

like they were there and then they weren't and every time i tried to talk to them it felt like i was just talking to myself and making a fake person to respond? is this normal??

i'm panicking a little, sorry for the rant

Alright, first thing: let's try to calm our panic a little bit. Take a deep breath or two, splash some water on your face, do whatever helps you calm down. Panic Mode does not help the majority of crises, this one included, so let's turn our attention to the issue at hand.

By the way you speak, it sounds that you recently figured out you're a system, but your troubles with internal communication are causing you to doubt yourself. I'm going to be responding under the assumption that that is what's happening. If I've misunderstood, feel free to send a follow-up ask.

It is very common, especially in newly discovered systems, to struggle with internal communication. Internal communication is sort of like drawing – you may have a knack for it right off the bat, or you may not, but either way you're still going to have to work to get better and figure out what works for you. It's a whole new skill to learn – one that can be finicky for some people! You are not alone with having difficulty internally communicating; we had the same sort of problems when we first had our syscovery. It took us a good few months to build up a reliable communication system in our brain, during which we had to figure out things like how to send each other our thoughts, how to listen to each other without accidentally blocking people out, what to do if an intrusive thought was shared via internal communication, etc. When you're first starting out, internal communication can be really hard, and sometimes this means you may struggle to hear anyone at all.

In fact, related to that last statement, it's not uncommon to have periods of not hearing anyone at all, even for systems with good internal communication. Sometimes, headmates are just away from the front, or your brain has decided it's going to shut down comms for a few days, or some other nebulous problem has reared its head. It's uncomfortable, and it can be scary, but not hearing anyone doesn't mean you're not a system. Some systems don't have any internal communication, after all!

There is one important thing I want to bring up, however. The feeling that you're not talking to a real headmate, and rather just making up responses with an imaginary person? We've been there. Other systems have been there. Sometimes even headmates mistake themselves as imaginary. Think about it – you are engaging with a hypothetical (because you're not sure yet if they're really there) person who shares your body, the very concept of which goes against a lot of what we're taught, and you are trying to set up a method of communication with this hypothetical person via what is essentially one-person telepathy. It's a situation that is prime for self-doubt to grow.

But – fantastic news – there are ways to help yourself battle this self-doubt. Here's some of the tactics we came up with while developing internal communication:

Ask your headmates to say random things to you. Just random words that pop into their heads! Sometimes, you may be able to guess what they're going to say before they say it, since their head is also your head, but other times they may be able to surprise you. Hell, as I was writing this, someone in my system just told me, "Baseball," and I have no idea where the hell they pulled that from.

Write down internal conversations after you have them. This helps in two ways: one, you will have records to look back on the next time you're doubting yourself, and two, you can add notes about the conversation based on what your headmate says about it. For example, when I write down quotes from my system, sometimes the person who said the quote will tell me how they want it formatted. If you're writing down on paper, you could even set something up where your headmates can tell you what pen or marker they want you to write their statements in! Make your conversation journal a fun activity for all of you.

Play Simon Says. A headmate can tell you what you want to do, and you'll act it out in the physical world! It can help to see a physical world impact on what's going on inside your head (which, btw, also relates to the pen and marker suggestion). We didn't do this much, but we did do our best to fulfill small requests that other system members made, even when they were somewhat inconvenient for us. Nothing like asking for a particular candy brand you don't especially like just because you know a headmate likes it to kick self-doubt in the shin, am I right?

Think about how your headmates have influenced you or your actions. This can be by asking you to do certain things, making you smile or laugh, moving a part of your body through partial possession, or giving you a headache from switching, just to name a few examples. Focus on experiences that have affected your physical body or the physical world around you, and you'll feel less like it's all just in your head.

Set up a code word to let other system members know that you're struggling. We have a code system with certain words that will communicate to other system members how secure we are in the knowledge that we're a system; if someone says an emergency code word, we know they need reassurance right then, and can do our best to pull them out of self-doubt by talking about the issue or pulling out one of the other self-assurance tactics. It can be especially helpful if saying, "Hey, I feel really insecure right now, can you guys help me out?" feels like too much in the moment.

That's about all the advice we have to give on that matter. We really hope this helps you, anon! And remember – internal communication is not the end-all be-all of being a system. It's okay to struggle; it's okay to be unable to hear your headmates. That doesn't "prove you're not a system." It just means you're going through a quiet period right now. Give it some time, and your boys will probably return – in the meantime, enjoy the quiet and take some time for yourself. You're going to be okay.

TLDR: You're not alone in your experiences, this is a normal thing for newly discovered systems to go through, and having trouble hearing your headmates does not mean you're not a real system.

[selvesdiscovery]

hi, i'm putting this on anon because people i know are highly anti-endo and i don't wanna out myself as being pro-endo. if you want to delete this feel free btw since i know fusion is a touchy subject for some systems

we're a system. we've been diagnosed with DID and told to see a specialist. said therapist who diagnosed us and referred us out is advising we peruse final fusion. we would do it... except the only reason why we would is because we fear nobody would ever like us the way we are (we're a very independent and private system. other than the host, all dating and such is done in system and kicking the host out of front is rare).

do you have any advice on that? i'm sure it eventually gets easier but i'm not sure how to make it easier. do you have any resources and advice on getting comfortable with being a system, and being comfortable sharing that with people (both other systems and singlets)?

thank you. just delete this if it's against the rules or if it makes you uncomfortable :) your comfort is important too

Hi! Thank you so much for reaching out.

This question isn't too sensitive or anything like that, and I see stuff like this a lot in the system world. Even I myself have dealt with similar issues.

What really helped me was 'coming out' to only a few really close friends. It gave us the space to talk about what goes on inside our head, and be honest about who we are.

Ofc, this isn't super helpful if you dont have really close friends. The second best thing I can suggest from personal experience is participating in the system community, either here on Tumblr or on Discord or wherever else, and working on being progressively more open there.

Those are both really vague and I'm sorry about that, the only thing we really personally needed to come out of our shell was trust, either already pre-existing or built from watching others live the same way as us.

Something else that really helps us personally when trying to get more comfortable with ourselves OUTSIDE of a social context, is encouraging the others to find their own way. That's why we made this blog actually. The best way to become comfortable both socially and personally with being a system is to foster a space for every headmate to live their most authentic life as fully as possible.

If you can, try inviting your alters to front with you, to try out new things that AREN'T related to trauma, therapy, or journalling (If you don't have a journal already, I suggest you look into that first and foremost). If you can't, you could always just wait until you cofront naturally to bring this up with them. Your headmates are people too, and the best way to make THEM stop feeling like less than or like something to be ashamed of is to help them grow.

As for your therapist, it sounds like she doesn't have your& best interest in mind. If you can, I'd look for someone who's comfortable with both fusion AND functional multiplicity as options, and can help you find the way you truly want to follow way better than I, some stranger on the internet, ever could.

Lastly, a fair disclaimer, DONT go about doing any of these things if you think you or your alters might not be entirely ready. If you happen to be newly discovered as a system, it might be good to take some time to learn about one another at a nice slow pace, first, before jumping into anything else. Be very careful, as much as selves discovery and branching out and growing as people is important to being happy how you are, it can be dangerous to some systems in certain situations.

I could understand though how these things may not be what your looking for, but since I don't have a ton of information on your personal experience I can't really get any more specific. If you're looking for more specific resources, I'd encourage personalized research, or going to a professional with your concerns, since the most I really have for this sort of thing is personal experience.

Either way, I wish you luck, and I genuinely hope you can find people who accept you as you are, and help you in your journey to grow. You& got this!

[fanficstartrekouat]

Snow-White logs

Scene captain's ready room

Snow White: I'm captain Snow-White Nolan Blanchard Charming Mills of the USS Fairytale and am reporting that my crew and I found a new quadrant or sector that has been uncharted. May I name it the Zeta sector?

Starfleet command: A new quadrant, that is an admirable discovery. You are Captain of the Fairytale and have the authority to name the newly discovered sector. I hereby decree that this sector shall be known as the Zeta Sector.

Snow White: this sector seems to be home of dangerous races. Our first encounter was with a planet that had lizard-like people sort of like the Goarn but they referred to themselves as Frost demons and claimed that they rule the entire universe under the command of some guy named Chill.

Starfleet command: This sounds dangerous, how did the encounter with the "Frost Demons" unfold?

Snow: ( in a depressing tone): Not very well. I've lost many good crewmen against them. We needed fuel. We detected a planet, that we thought could be friendly or we assumed so but we were ambushed by the Frost demons. They seemed to only want to fight and control us. our options were to retreat but they followed however it seems that they can breathe in space.

Starfleet command: I am sorry to hear about your tragic losses. This is worrisome. A species that desires only to fight is one that needs to be handled carefully. It is possible that they might have been provoked? Are there any reports of their behavior towards other species that were peaceful?

Snow White: I don't believe so I've heard rumors that the Frost demons, sent soldiers or warriors to planets in order to kill the population and then sell the planet. I've also heard that they can use energy beams from their body.

Starfleet command: This is deeply concerning. This information needs to be presented to the Federation council immediately so that a proper response can be prepared. It is of utmost importance that you and your ship report back to the next Federation starbase. Have you had any other encounters with these beings? Any luck with acquiring fuel?

Snow White: as for fuel we are running on empty we can't make it Beck without assistance. No, we've barely managed to escape our first encounter my ship is heavily damaged and my crew is working around the cloak to try and fix it.

Star fleet command: It appears you are in a dire situation, it is very unlikely that you can escape another encounter with the Frost Demons in your current weakened state and it is also unlikely that you can repair the ship quickly enough to acquire fuel and avoid running out. Do you have any other options?

Snow White: you're a story teller? Well I don't know what to do if I knew of any other options I wouldn't be looking for assistance but thank you for your time. I'll be in the med bay.

End of act one

Act 2 scene Th USS Fairytale madbaby

Snow White: DR Belle how are our crew is Commander David Nolan Charming My husband a survivor? and what of my daughter ensign Emma Ruth Swan Nolan Blanchard Charming White Mills?

Belle: Captain am doing the best I can but I have too many patients and your husband and daughter are going to survive but it's going to take some time.

Snow White: Oh I know you are but it's harder when it's your family.

Belle: I understand captain Ill do my best to save everybody onboard I have my medical team working around the clock.

end of act 2

Act three scene the bridge of the USS Fairytale

Snow-white: Commander Cinderella hail Admiral Regina

Commander Cinderella: Understood.

Commander Cinderella is hailing Admiral Regina .

Please wait for a reply.

Captain Snow White explains her situation to Starfleet hoping that admiral Regina Mills ( her mom)could send some help and fuel.

The transmission is successful but it takes a while until there is a reply.

Admiral Regina Mills' face appears on the monitor.

Snow: Admiral Regina Mills please mom can you help me i am desperate.

Admiral Mills - My dear Snow White, I am sorry to hear that you are in a dire situation. What is it that you need assistance with?

Snow: Fixing the ship acquiring fuel and understanding this new violent race. and extra medical help for Dr. Belle.

Admiral Mills - I have ordered the USS Whitehorse, a medical and rescue vessel, to rendezvous with the Fairytale in 72 hours. I am sorry that it is not sooner as it is a lengthy journey. As for the new race, I will have our intelligence officers study the information you have provided and advise how to proceed.

I am in a meeting with the Federation Council now but I will do everything I can to help get you out of this situation.

Snow White: mother thank you. Oh one more thing our weapons don't seem to have any affect on these creatures they are capable of Mass destruction with just a finger and they can breathe in space.

AdmiralMills - It might be wise to hold onto your weapons and find out if they are open to a peaceful negotiation. In the meantime, the Federation Council and I will discuss how to proceed with caution and to avoid further escalation. I do not want to lose you and your crew.

Snow: they are not peaceful at all they seem to relish in mass destruction and seem to have no remorse for their actions.

AdmiralMills - I understand. We will discuss the matter further and take the necessary measures. I also recommend keeping your weapons ready as a deterrent. I know that you will be able to come up with a clever strategy, I have faith in your abilities as a captain and a leader. I believe in you, take care.

And with that she ends the transmission.

End of Act three and scene

[kwiyoshi]

彡✎ No Fan Left Behind: K-Pop Stans as Activists for All

Has any fandoms you’re involved in been part of any protest or acts of social activism (e.g. K-pop and Black Lives Matter)?

K-pop: The fandom where fans will take extreme measures to ensure their faves will stay on top. It's honestly shocking what they can do.

As someone who has and is still in the fandom for many years now, I've witnessed some interesting things that K-pop fans have done in terms of protesting and being involved in social activism on different social media platforms. The sort of protesting or social activism involves mainly cancel culture and boycotting. There are already a few instances of this happening in the K-pop community.

Throwback to when Loona stans boycotted their company

Now you guys might be wondering, what is a Loona? Basically, Loona was a Korean girl group that consisted of 12 members that debuted under BlockBerry Creative, an entertainment company (KProfiles 2023). After numerous comebacks, fans of Loona were hit with the sudden news that one of the members, Chuu, was kicked out of the company. This sparked a lot of confusion and rage from fans who were huge fans of hers.

Chuu had requested an injunction in January 2022 to void the terms of her exclusive contract with BlockBerry Creative. She gave several reasons for her request, including unpaid bills, unbalanced accounts, and a loss of confidence (Han 2023). Ultimately, the injunction was approved, and she left the company. Later on, the rest of the members also filed for termination of their contracts with their current company and left the company.

During the whole situation, Loona fans (called Orbits), decided to boycott the company due to the unfairness that the members of Loona faced. On December 8, 2022, the boycott started, and Loona fans were urged not to buy any records, merchandise, concert tickets, or other LOONA-related products. The group's music and videos could not be streamed or played on any platform, and other actions that would benefit BlockBerry Creative were also prohibited (Koreaboo 2023).

Unfortunately, harassment from BlockBerry Creative doesn't seem to be stopping due to the fact that they are always finding ways to sue the members or stop them from performing on stage again.

Either way BlockBerry Creative could not stop them and they ended up debuting in different groups.

K-pop Fancams and Social Activism

If you've been in the K-pop fandom for quite some time, you'd notice that there are a bunch of these fancams that go around on different social media platforms. I personally see them mostly on Twitter. Essentially, fancams are recordings of famous people or public figures that are made and/or shared by fans. On Twitter, they are particularly well-liked by K-Pop fans. Fancams are most frequently recorded during musical performances when idols are typically dancing and will focus on a certain group member (Fanlore n.d.).

You might be wondering; how can fancams tie back to social activism? Well, there are a few instances where fancams were used as a form of protesting or to even block the spread of false information. During the Black Lives Matter Movement, K-pop fans flooded the iWatch Dallas app with fancams of their favorite artists after the Dallas Police Department requested that people use the app to send videos of "illegal activity from the protests" taking place in the city over the weekend which resulted in overloading the reporting system (Alexander 2020).

Here is an example of a fancam of Seulgi from Red Velvet that was used to block out false information by using relevant hashtags on Twitter:

Hashtag Off-Track

Speaking of hashtags, the K-pop fandom has its fair share of derailing the actual meaning of hashtags on Twitter. We've all clicked on a hashtag only to discover that it was littered with posts that had nothing to do with the hashtag at all. The two main causes of this cacophony are either people grandstanding to gain attention for a trending hashtag or reacting indignantly to whatever they believe the hashtag to be about, which only serves to spread misinformation and obscure the real meaning of the hashtag.

An intentional hashtag derailment is less common. However, white supremacists' attempts to make the phrase "white lives matter" a trendy topic inspired K-pop fans to use the phrase against its proponents. Fans worked tirelessly to fill the White Lives Matter hashtag with fancams, music-related tweets, and tweets about others tweeting about music.

Contrarily, "white lives matter" has continued to trend as a topic for days because of the viral success K-pop fans have garnered for this act. It was briefly presented to me on Twitter as a "K-pop" topic, and it even included the hashtag "#WhiteLifeMatter" as a more popular "music" topic (Romano 2020).

Thoughts and Prayers

In short, unknowingly, the K-Pop fandom has definitely left its mark in terms of fighting for causes such as social activism or partaking in protests to protect their favorites by using their fancams and flooding questionable hashtags on Twitter with their fancams as well.

References

Alexander, J 2020, K-pop stans overwhelm app after Dallas police ask for videos of protesters, The Verge, viewed 16 October 2023, <https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/1/21277423/k-pop-dallas-pd-iwatch-app-flood-review-bomb-surveillance-protests-george-floyd>.

Fanlore n.d., Fancam, Fanlore, viewed 16 October 2023, <https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fancam>.

Han, S 2023, Court rules in favor of former LOONA member Chuu in exclusive contract lawsuit against BlockBerry Creative, AllKpop, viewed 16 October 2023, <https://www.allkpop.com/article/2023/08/court-rules-in-favor-of-former-loona-member-chuu-in-exclusive-contract-lawsuit-against-blockberry-creative>.

Koreaboo 2023, LOONA Fans’ Boycott Against BlockBerry Creative Shows Signs Of Success — Online Shop Has Been Closed Down, Koreaboo, viewed 16 October 2023, <https://www.koreaboo.com/news/loona-fans-boycott-blockberry-creative-shows-signs-success-online-shop-closed/>.

KProfiles 2023, LOONA Members Profile, KProfiles, viewed 16 October 2023, <https://kprofiles.com/loona-members-profile/>.

Romano, A 2020, How K-pop fans are weaponizing the internet for Black Lives Matter, Vox, viewed 16 October 2023, <https://www.vox.com/2020/6/8/21279262/k-pop-fans-black-lives-matter-fancams-youtubers-protest-support>.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

HI STEPH! How has your December been?

Hey Lovely *HUGS*

LOL do you want the "Tumblr happy place" version or the "might be a bit depressing" version??

Tumblr-mask version: It's been alright. We've got some snow now, and it feels a bit more Christmassy. Glad I'm on holidays and just enjoying the time off :)

Real life version: We've got some snow now, and I hate snow. And life's been a bit of a gong show for the past month or so. (cw below cut, medical, retail frustration, and depression mentions)

TL;DR: It's December. Hopefully the new year looks a bit more promising <3

As you all know, this kind of all started back when my job was very uncertain. I had a bit of a brief break when I got my raise and talked with the chief of staff. Few weeks, maybe, then just the desire to have a holiday started to kick in because I realized how EXHAUSTED I was.

I recently went though a pain in the ass experience with my car's manufacturer regarding a small repair on my car that was only supposed to be a one day thing and turned into nearly 3 weeks of me not having a car and them refusing to give me a rental because I don't have an "extended warranty" even though I'm still covered under a warranty. Because of the kind of person I am, this spiralled me into a nightmare scenario of me stressing about not having a car three weeks before Christmas, fighting with the dealership to give me SOME sort of compensation (and failing) and them not being able to tell me when I get my car back – I wanted it back before my Christmas break this week because I prefer to go out during the work week when it's less busy. Anyway, coincidence or not, the missing part MYSTERIOUSLY arrived two days after I escalated my situation with the head office telling them their customer service was shit (in a nicer way, of course, LOL), so I at least have it back now. But not an experience I would wish on my worst enemy, it was THAT stressful.

Leading up to Christmas, work was insane. We're short-staffed and just... no one was "feeling it" this year. We're all tired and we all just want holidays. I took off three extra days since I still had time to book off, so my holidays started sooner than everyone else, and I am so glad I did it. I'm not looking at anything work-related for the next two weeks, thanks.

I don't like winter at all where I live (it's always gloomy and wet; rarely any sun at all), and it feels like my brain is rotting from all the Christmas shit being shoved down my throat. There, I said it. I don't like Christmas, haven't since my dad passed away 2 weeks after Christmas over a dozen years ago. I like the aesthetics of it – the lights, the decorations, the hot cocoa and fancy drinks – but it's TOO MUCH for TOO LONG, and by the time Christmas is here I am DONE. I'm TIRED of people being SHOCKED that I don't like Christmas... ugh. PLUS my seasonal depression spikes badly at Christmas because all people seem to do is like to remind me how alone I am. Like thanks, appreciate it. UGH. The only thing I like about Christmas is that my work gives us 2 weeks every year between Christmas and New Year, and I spend most of that alone watching movies, drinking cocoa or playing video games. It's wonderful. I hear about everyone in my extended family having to visit all these people on Christmas day and I'm like LOL I'm in my jammies watching the Avengers, thanks, you keep that stress.

Christmas is EXTRA kinda poopy this year because one of my closest extended family members found out they have throat cancer at the beginning of November. They're in chemo right now and in good spirits, so I'm trying to stay positive about it, but it's hard to not think about, you know?

Discovering a lot about myself in therapy, and it's mentally draining. That's all I'm comfortable sharing right now.

I'm just all around TIRED and LONELY and feel like no one cares about me, y'know? I feel like I'm never going to be anyone who accomplished something worthwhile (and before y'all say it, my BRAIN LOGICALLY KNOWS THIS IS ALL FALSE, but my wires get crossed and the depression sinks in instead with the intrusive thoughts – My therapist finds it fascinating that I have this kind of awareness and she's trying to find a way to work around it). Some days are worse than others, especially in the winter in this city going on month 2 of no sunshine, UGGGHHH. Having moods that change with the weather REALLY fucking sucks.

AND I've been looking again at getting a cat, but I think I might have to once again put it on the back-burner, because my phone is finally crapping out (it's an iPhone 6S Plus, so it's OOOOOOOLLDD by today's standards) with the camera jittering and the battery barely lasting 4 hours in standby mode, so I might have to get a new one sooner than later. AND I also want to re-look at getting a mortgage again so I'm ready when the housing market inevitably crashes and I can get a condo cheaper than 500K :/ My rent is still cheaper right now because I'm so grandfathered in that I'm paying under 1000$ right now for rent, so staying where I am is the SMART thing, but I'm miserable because the space is too small now. ANYWAY, money. Can't get a cat right now AGAIN because of money. Ugh. I'm not broke by any means, I just.......... am so annoyed my single-person groceries have gone from 50$ a week to 150$ a week, and I HATE HATE HATE it. It's ridiculous. Finally get a raise but I can never catch a break, it seems :/ It's not Avacado Toast, Karen, it's the whole damned economy.

So yeah, that's basically it. I don't talk about myself that much here because I am a fairly private person. I don't like bothering people with my problems because I always feel like a burden. Sometimes, though, I just wish I had a human person I could visit regularly to chat with (that I don't have to pay for, LOL), is all. AND my blog is my happy place, so I try to keep it positive where I can.

Hope you're having a good month, and I hope the holidays treat you well <3

[character-fan19]

MLB Season 4 Character Analysis: "Dearest Family"

Introduction

Hey everyone, I'm back with another season 4 character analysis and this time it's "Dearest Family". You may be wondering where my analysis for "Qilin" is so the answer is that it got removed for some reason and I have no idea why because I made it just like my other posts so far so until I get the answer and understand what's going on we're going to be moving on with episode 21. If you're new to this series then here I look at our favourite MLB characters in depth in every individual episode of season 4 in order to give an overall picture of the characters' journey throughout the season.

Yeah, so "Dearest Family", good episode. We see for the first time that our perfect little kwami, Tikki is not as perfect as she seems due to her obsession over sweets, Marinette trying to figure out what it all means, and her family members arguing over what's best for her. So this analysis is probably going to have the most characters POVs we've had since "Crocoduel". So let's get started.

Character POVs

Tikki

"I was afraid you would thing less of me. Because of my cravings"

For the very first time, we see Tikki have some weaknesses and some characterization. Ever since the beginning, Tikki has always just been Marinette's guide and bright-side-up to help her through difficult times but never had any character of her own. But here, we see that she has cravings for new and unique sweets that happens every few hundred years and according to Plagg, the last time it happened was when chocolate was invented and she made it rain chocolate for eight weeks.

The reason for Tikki's abnormal food cravings compared to other kwamis is due to her being the kwami of creation which makes a lot of sense. Tikki's sweet cravings seem to be so dangerous that all the other kwamis in the Miracle Box are afraid of her and that says a lot. These cravings went to the extent that she even used her power without having a holder which caused a giant galette bigger than the Earth to be made and affected the Earth's gravity but thankfully it was destroyed by Cat Noir as Astro Cat.

When Tikki saw that her cravings were taking her away from Marinette, she stopped as her worst fear, as she stated to Marinette, being afraid that her cravings would make her think less of her, came to reality which really shows how much she cares about her relationship with Marinette and shows the strength of her bond with her. When Marinette tell her that she can help her overcome her weaknesses, this is what gives her strength to try to overcome her cravings.

2. Marinette/Ladybug

"Of course not! I'll always like you, Tikki. Everyone has weaknesses, you know. Let me help you overcome yours. Just like you helped me overcome mine."

This episode is seems that the roles of Marinette and Tikki have been reversed. Tikki has always been the one to help Marinette with her problems and share wisdom on what she should do and encourage her to be better. But now Marinette is making it up to Tikki by helping her overcome her weaknesses.

When Marinette first discovered that Tikki's craving, she was in denial that Tikki had some sort of problem as she believes that she knows Tikki best even when the other kwamis warned her about Tikki's cravings. She tried to control the situation by stopping her from eating their family's galette and transforming into Ladybug to prevent her from eating more which backfired as she got the craving as well when she was transformed.

When Marinette saw that Tikki was going as far as using her power without a holder to appease her cravings, she realized her mistake and admitted that Sass was right about Tikki and she didn't know her as well as she thought and when Tikki revealed to her that the reason why she never told her about her cravings was because she believed that she would think less of her, Marinette assured her that they would work to overcome her weaknesses together just like Tikki has always helped Marinette with her weaknesses.

3. Sabine

"The person who knows best what Marinette needs is Marinette herself!"

Moving onto the family argument on what is best for Marinette, we'll start with Sabine. From her perspective, Marinette is the only person who knows what's best for her and she's old enough to do so and she is the one I most agree with.

We've seen how Marinette is good with planning and is always helping other people and coming up with great ideas, both as a civilian and as Ladybug. It's best to treat her as someone with her own individuality and her own mind and let her to make her own choices. And by the end of the episode too this is what we see them go with: letting Marinette decide what she thinks about getting a motorbike as a gift from her grandmother and decide whether she is old enough for a gift like that.

4. Tom

"I know my little girl better than anyone else and I think that bike is way too dangerous for her"

Next we have Tom, who believes that Marinette needs some like him to protect her and he believes that the motorbike that Gina got for Marinette is too dangerous for her which makes sense for his character considering the events of "Weredad", where he gets akumatized because he wants to protect her little girl, Marinette from heartbreak.

Tom cares about his daughter a lot and would go to great lengths to protect her, he even stated in "Stoneheart (Origins Part 2)" that he would protect her if Ladybug and Cat Noir failed to do so which at the time seemed like it was just a lighthearted joke but we know from "Weredad" now that it's true. By the end of this episode though, he realizes that he should let Marinette decide if the gift is best for her and their conflict is resolved.

5. Gina

"Happy Birthday, Marinetta!"

Next we have Gina, who was the one got Marinette the motorbike for her birthday which she didn't realize was just months ago due to her not spending much time with them as she travels the world on her motorbike.

The last time when she arrived to visit Marinette, she believed that Marinette was younger than she actually is due to the same problem that cause her to not realize that Marinette's birthday was months ago in this episode and it was in that episode that she realized that Marinette was no longer a little girl who ate candies and liked doing things like going to the petting zoo and going on the merry-go-round and was now a young woman who liked hanging out with her friends. So it makes sense for her now to get her a big girl gift like a motorbike and believing that Marinette is old enough for something like that. By the end of the episode though, she lets Marinette decide what she thinks and when Marinette decided that she was still to young for the bike, Gina was OK with it.

6. Rolland

"How can anyone have their head so far up in the clouds? A birthday is a birthday and a Galette's Day is a Galette's Day!"

Lastly, we have Rolland who still seems to be a little old-fashioned from "Simpleman". When Gina brings the motorbike as a gift for Marinette he believes that Marinette is not old enough to have one yet similar to Tom and believes that Marinette still requires discipline to be able to ride the bike.

This makes sense for Rolland's character as it's traditional for someone only to be able to have a motorbike when they are around 21 and before that they can't drive at all. Unlike, Tom he believes that Marinette needs someone to teach her about order and discipline before she can ride a motorbike and not someone to protect her. By the end of the episode, he realizes that he should take Marinette's choice into account and when Marinette decides that she's not old enough for the bike but instead should have a mini-scooter, he is OK with it

Conclusion

Well, that's the end of this analysis. Hope you enjoyed reading. This took a while to do with all the characters but I'm finally done. As always, let me know your thoughts on this analysis and let me know if I missed anything for any of the characters this episode. Until next time!

[drrrmilieu]

Hi Kao! Not the anon who asked about angst, but if you're up for it, could you do a character study-ish scenario? Reader is best friends with Mikage, and she's kind of like Izaya in that she's also smart, keeps to herself, and has some admirers. But she secretly only has eyes for Izaya... who just so happens to start dating Mikage, who herself for now is unaware of the reader's attraction.

Would Izaya pick up on this, and would he tell Mikage? Or would he find a more insidious way to mess with them? Would he have, aside from wanting to see her reaction, an ulterior motive for doing so--maybe he doesn't like the passing semblance? Maybe he wants to isolate her? And what would it take to rope Mikage into his schemes?

There was that saying that people say often, how birds of the same feather flock together. Quite frankly, she doesn't quite agree with that at all. Maybe it's more like magnetism, opposites attract and negatives repel. When she had first met Izaya something about him unsettled her in a way that she'd never felt before. Not that he'd done anything to warrant such a reaction, but she thinks that maybe it was sort of a sixth sense. Something about him was so familiar and if she thought about it too much, looking at Izaya felt like she was looking at a reflection of herself.

It was creepy.

The gentle smile he offers to strangers looks so authentic that sometimes she feels like it is, but she can see that it never really reaches his eyes. Not that his eyes held distaste for whatever situation he was in, it was usually filled with child-like mirth, an excitement that never seemed to die out no matter what happened. Something about him made him mature but childish all at once; maybe she found that almost charming.

She didn't like to be in the same room with him. Not any longer than she had to anyway. If she could read him better than most people, then surely he could do the same to her. If she made eyecontact she couldn't look away for fear of him thinking that she's flustered by him, but if she continued to let him look her in the eyes, into the windows of her soul, he might find something there to use against her---

Mikage always seems to arrive at just the right time. It gives her a reason to look away. "Hey, we've been waiting for you," she greets her best friend with a nod.

"Sorry about that, I ran into some complications," Mikage replies with a shrug before giving her best friend a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Anyways, I've done my part of the plan, so what's next?"

Izaya beckons Mikage over with a wave of his hand. Though Mikage rolls her eyes at the action, she still comes closer anyway and even gifts her new boyfriend with a kiss to the top of his head. Izaya seems more pleased than usual from the show of affection, but it's probably because they have an audience and perhaps the most important audience member they could have. "For now we lay in wait and be patient," he tells her with a smile so gentle it almost feels real.

She tries not to let her eyes linger too long on their exchange. She hopes Izaya doesn't catch the way her eyes narrow in irritation.

But he does see it, and she knows it, judging by the way his smile changes just a little bit. The way his eyes crinkle slightly and how his nose scrunches up a little bit like he's discovered a little secret. It looks unfairly cute on him. "Hey, you."

"I have a name you know," she replies back, trying to sound nonchalant. She even shakes her head in disappointment. "Did you forget already? We see each other almost every day…" she jokes.

"Mmmmm, let me think," Izaya holds his chin between his fingers in thought, tilts his head to the side so that it bumps against Mikage's in an affectionate way. "I can't seem to recall… Was it Thai Fusion?"

Mikage snorts at that, leaning more into Izaya's body now that he was so close anyway. "Are we all listed as food in your contacts?"

"It's to keep you safe, my dear," Izaya tells her with that smile meant only for her.

She seethes silently at the lovey-dovey atmosphere around her two companions. There are two feelings boiling within her now. Mikage was her best friend, and she didn't exactly like that her best friend's attention had to be divided between her and Izaya. And loathe she is to admit it, she liked Izaya and it was really unfair. How he had roped in her heart the way he did was confusing to say the least. She's never liked anyone before, and usually she knew how to play with people's hearts to have them on their knees for her.

"I just remembered something," Mikage's best friend says suddenly, just before Mikage and Izaya could get any closer to each other. It was making her skin crawl. "I have to go buy some things. Do you guys want anything?"

"Pass, but thanks," Mikage says.

"If its not too much trouble, maybe Thai Fusion does sound good right about now," Izaya suggests.

She wonders if his words have a double meaning. Surely it must. The tone is teasing, and his grin is playful. Her heart races a little bit at all the possible meanings but she manages to keep her smile pretty normal. "I'll see what I can do."

As she leaves, Mikage smiles fondly at her best friend. There was just something about her that made her so likeable. "You know," she starts, turning to Izaya. "You guys are pretty similar."

"That so?" Izaya asks. "I don't think I see the resemblance. I think I'm much more handsome than she is."

Mikage scoffs. "Are you jealous of her because I like her more?"

Izaya snorts at this while shaking his head. "The way you like me is different from the way you like her. So even if you like her more in that sense, you like me more in a different sense as well. There is no competition."

"You guys keep making yes or no questions more complicated than they have to be," Mikage flicks Izaya on the forehead, grinning widely when he pouts at her. "Blah blah blah, so much to say without ever saying what you mean to say."

From the window, Izaya sees her staring at them. He carefully drapes an arm around Mikage and pulls her closer. The way Mikage's best friend bristles brings a smile to his face. "You know me too well," he surrenders. He barely had to do anything to push her buttons, she made it too easy.