#this was inspired by a costume blog that i like that did a series of posts on folk wear around the world and the post for england was suits

[popsicle-stick]

i have a post on trad folk wear in england brewing away in the drafts but i'm not strong enough to actually send it off into the world

[ialwaysknewyouwerepunk]

queer signalling: louis and harry living their beautiful queer lives, collected by me

since we must take note of our fellow queers when they signal that they are very much one of us, despite being closeted. since i've had a very very queer few years thanks to them, thanks to their signalling, thanks to them being brave.

(!! this list isn't exhaustive, and if i've forgotten your favorite, by all means let me know. there's always room for another edition. it's been a while since i made a compilation and felt there was a need of a new one on my blog. this one goes a few years back, since my last one dates from 2021 :'o. so yeah. here we go.)

harry in my policeman, playing a closeted queer man, based on the book that's long been one of his favorites. lauded by the director and co-stars for how well he portrayed this character, how well he understood.

harry wearing a green flower on his chest for the mp premiere, placing himself (once again) in the same line of history as oscar wilde.

louis's green flowers on his initial 28clothing jersey at the first afhf, which includes bonus roses and 28s all around

the entire late night talking mv bc!!!!!

louis's rainbow stage lights during sibwawc. he really did that. every single night.

the entire dazed magazine happening. “I’ve always tried to compartmentalise my personal life and my working life,” he explains. / “I have unlocked an ability to be myself completely, unapologetically,” he says with conviction." / “I think through my own sense of self and personal journey, I am realising that happiness isn’t this kind of end state.”

louis's gay exit songs: most notably 'ever fallen in love (with someone you shouldn't've)'

harry flirting with stanley tucci

louis and his gay ass tank tops !!! we must point it out !!!!!!

all along

harry kissing a pride flag during harry's house ono in nyc

rainbow flare during the btm mv

harry being gifted a mask of his own face at munich n2, which prompted him to say that he feels like he's wearing a mask sometimes

28 in a triangle for 28clothing!!!!!!!!

kit connor soft launching 28 clothing. a young actor starring in a queer coming-of-age series, who was forced to come out after being accused of queerbaiting. he was the first one, besides louis, to wear 28clothing

harry's grammy's speech "people like me" (which ppl sadly misunderstood), echoing what he's been saying on tour for years. this doesn't happen to people like him. if they only knew, right?

harry's freddie-inspired outfit for the grammy carpet (which also brought back his theme for clown/jester fits, like harryween 2021 n2. wonder why)

louis's merch graphic where a boy is trying to smash a glass ceiling

harry posing for david hockney, actual living legend, gay artist of the ages. "Styles seems to know how lucky he is, adding, with a tinge of disbelief: “I’m in awe of the man with enough one-liners for a lifetime.” As to what those one-liners might be? Styles and Hockney’s mutual silence on that question suggests that what happens in the studio, stays in the studio."

louis having suspicious visuals during back to you, the only visuals of that type on tour

harry's 2022 harryween outfit: dressed as danny (literally. he did that. he went grease on us.) but wearing sandy's jacket

louis at barricade aka held safely in the arms of strong security personnel

harry singing man, i feel like a woman and still the one with shania twain. while wearing a rainbow discoball jumpsuit (parallel with kacey musgraves wearing a rainbow dress to sing it with him years ago.)

louis's gay ass merch for the away from home festival

harry dressed in nina ricci by harris reed, an explicitly gender-fluid line. "At 18 I found myself living in london creating ruffle blouses, corsets, fabric flowers and flares from my kitchen floor (...). My creations at the time were met with nothing but criticism for being “too feminine” or “costume”, teachers said I should focus on “menswear” or “womenswear”. l remember it really wasn’t until I started dressing for myself and who I was that it all clicked. @harrystyles was my first ever client who embraced the fun, fluid and expressive clothing I was creating."

continuous bluegreening. to name a few: harry's werchter fit, all this time lights, satellite caps in two colors only, louis's smiley flickering bluegreen on tour in 2022, the james cordon shit, louis in uncasville. enjoy this post here

harry's snl shoot unseens: him as ariel

louis out in amsterdam at a gay bar

harry going to the women's only swimming pond (on a day it was open for men, but this is important to me okay)

harry's use of orchids in his visuals during 'she' during love on tour '23

the 'hairy mermaid' tour visuals

harry as a mermaid during the mfasr mv. as a supreme physical manifestation of harry as the mermaid he truly is inside. but in his true form he gets chopped up and consumed. literally

as it was mv and its parallels with the matrix, hints to harry as the woman with the red dress.

louis jumping up on barricade against the one spot where a pride flag was draped over it

oh yeah that exact same thing happened in 2022 too

harry forming a skirt with a pride flag in brasil after his pants ripped

that gay ass denim getup with the fur collar?? while wearing the fucking peace ring????

harry and phoebe breaking gender norms in the tpwk mv dance. no i'm not over it yet shut up

louis wearing a basquiat t-shirt, another famously queer artist joining the ranks

harry bought an actual genuine basquiat. flex

harry dressed in skirts for gucci

"happy pride! happy pride! 'tis the season! can you tell i'm relaxed?"

"isn't all of this sparkly bi music?"

satellite mv rainbow planet tshirt

louis's bigger than me promo where he's literally george michael like??? IM SORRY???????

harry kissing lewis capaldi at the brits

harry kissing nick kroll at the dwd premiere. lol

and... harry as friend of D O R O T H Y. sang over the rainbow. we all cried. especially me at this clip of harry glancing in relief at his band after over the rainbow.

[ideavian]

Your art and the style you have can only be compared to a resplendent dream. I'd love to know about your history in art, ie, your inspirations, how long you've been creating, and the story behind your fascination with distinctively ornate birds. My guess for the birds is Articuno, but what do I know?

Thank you so much!! That’s so nice of you to say akskkssk the birds are not really based on articuno sadly but articuno is one fine bird. Would love to catch it in Pokémon go one day 😔

I’ve been drawing birds for some … 8 years now? It started out less as birds than as colours in shapes tbh, like this one from probably 2016:

^Brought to you by sketch express and its 3 whole layers on my iPad 2. I think the first such bird drawing I ever did was based on a particularly nice sunset I saw :) I drew a whole series of these elements-based birds but I can’t find them anymore…

After playing around with that for a few months I started taking requests for birds based on anime characters like this one (mid 2017)

^rip Lelouch Codegeass you were a real one. I mostly drew characters from bungou stray dogs and That One Obscure Chinese Anime which. Really didn’t work that well in hindsight considering that the designs were more casual than what this style was suited for. But that’s where I started basing birds on people :3

And then in 2018 I got into a little dress up game called Love Nikki and started using the costumes as inspiration and also ran an art request blog, so I was drawing stuff like this for maybe four years? Also I got involved with an art club associated with the game so I was drawing a lot. Most of my stuff from around this time is on this blog!

(August 2018, June 2019, September 2020, August 2021. These are very representative of my personal growth because if you look at my signature you can tell I changed from a cat person to a crow person)

In the summer of 2022 I started doing commissions and got to see a lot of of people’s OCs! It was a lot of fun honestly and I think some of my best work was from then tbh. I think seeing other people’s character designs in different styles really helped me with learning to work with different elements and compositions and such :3

(August 2022, June 2023. Finally got a proper watermark because if I didn’t use them I’d get cancelled so hard on Chinese social media)

And also I discovered genshin character designs around that time and really vibed with the amount of detail on them :D I know people complain about how complicated they are a lot but my style only really works with complicated designs alsjsk

(April 2023, January 2024. Found out about lighting this year and it’s so exciting)

And that’s my bird drawing journey so far! I’m busy with school right now but I’m definitely looking forward to drawing more consistently after I’m done :D I love birds and fancy clothes and birds in fancy clothes

[celestial-sapphicss]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme! (created by @fiercynn)

tagged by beloveds @nobodynobodyno & @cornflowershade & @solana-ceae thank you for tagging me this was so much fun! 🌹💖

note: i consider "fanworks" to pretty much everything people create related to a fandom, including but not limited to meta/analysis/discussion, gifs, fanvids/edits/fancams, filk, fanart, fanfic, fan food, fan crafts, etc. please include this note with the meme unless you have a different definition!

name and whatever you want to share about yourself

im vi! i'm queer, 23, born & living in India, but brought up in south-east asia!

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

i saw the show as it aired but i joined the fandom (and tumblr) around ep3!

favorite ship(s)

PatPran (duh!), but also InkPa because they're such a good pair like how Pa is a badass but around Ink she just melts and gigges (both the jundapat siblings are the same skskks)

favorite character(s)

Pran. he is me, i am him. he is a feral, musky scented hoe and i love him.

favorite episode(s)

episode 4! first we got ink and pa projecting her crush pn pat! then we saw pran AND A LOT OF PINING AND JEALOUSY. my boy had gotten his hopes up and then absolutely shattered. we got "only i can have these super cute dimples" & "if you were ink, would you like me?" and that absolutely heartbreaking last scene <3

favorite scene(s) 

i mean there's the obvious ep5 4/4 fight followed by the best kiss in cinematic history. but also pat in the music shop discovering that he likes pran. and pat shouting his love to pran in the architecture faculty. and pat and pran's scene in the corridor with the guitar. and inkpa hotpot date and the photography room scene. the entire episode 8 & 11 (im cheating ik). i will keep on listing all the scenes if i don't stop.

one thing you would change about the show if you could

i wish there was just one discussion about wai being a dick to pran in ep8/9. like i wouldn't change what happened but like after all the dust had settled and all the friends were ok with patpran, i hope there was a discussion or even a mention of that wai apologised to pran somewhere behind the scenes and pran mentioned this to pat. (and i'm not sure if os2 counts but i would most def change ep3 of the crossover where they are just getting lost and screaming each others' names again and again sksksks)

what are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people

this is very unfair ok i love them all but here are a few

i'll just link all the fics here & the post i made about it some time back! (special mention to a soft boy in soft sweaters by @dimplesandfierceeyes)

the entire @badbuddyingifs blog

fanarts by @hereforlou (x) & @architectxengineer (x)

bad buddy costume colour theories by @dribs-and-drabbles

InkPa edits:

this edit by @pranink

this one by @akingyouniverse

episode 7 by @mantrisanu

developer stopper fixer by @oswlld

darkroom confessions by @forcebook

just the way you are by @snimeat

another darkroom edit by @chinzillas

FMVs

iris fmv by @prantically

enchanted fmv by @thranduel

patpran x zara zara fanvid by @prany

Quotes & Stuff

this cursed (affectionate set) by @guntapon

this quote that makes me cry everytime by @machikeita

yet another one of my fav quotes by @nanons

when we were younger by @alexshenry

you'll never be friends by @taeminie

myth by @tipsyjaehyun

love story by @fourthnattawat

another one by @freensrcha

v. imp kissing patpran set by @patspran

already home by @sunsetandthemoon

pran's life anthem by @morkofday

Character & Dynamics

pat-ink edit by @pranpats

pat saying ma ni by @casualavocados

best boy pat edit by @louwilliam

feral musky scented hoe pran by @seanwhites

best siblings by @ardentlytess

ink by @angelbesideme

Misc

page to screen series by @actually-yikes

inspired movie posters by @nanonkorapat

bad buddy rewatch series by @baifengxis

bbs2 by @dimpledpran

concept sets by @i-got-the-feels

episode 7 edit by @ayan-sukkhapisit

(if you create fanworks) what are your favorite fanworks that you’ve made?

i did make some edits but my favourite one is the PatPran x Bollywood edit!

a song that makes you think of bbs (the ones in the show don’t count lol)

well obviously same page? by tilly birds. but also way too many taylor swift songs (seven, labrynth, gold rush, our song, the 1, betty, i think he knows, daylight, the great war, mine, enchanted), sleepwalker by julie byrne is so pran coded, home by reese lansangan, straberries & ciggarettes by troye sivan, i'm yours by alessia cara, doors by ben&ben etc. etc.

idk anything else you want us to know?

cursing your feed with this

tagging everyone i tagged above! (if you want) <3

[quillofspirit]

Picture recommendations

Hi! 👋

I’ve done a few photo-related things (LOTR terrain inspo and Colour series) as well as book covers and headers. Some of you will have noticed that I’ve talked about and use Unsplash a lot, and that’s because it’s an awesome resource that I firmly believe everybody could use. I’ve used it since 2015, and I will continue to sing its praises.

I will admit however, that it can be tedious to navigate, so I thought I’d provide a little bit of help. I’m not an expert, and I am in no way affiliated to Unsplash, but I do think it’s a great resource for writers and artists, and if I can help at all I’m going to do it.

This is going to be a long one, bare with me!

This post is separated in three categories

My favourite tags to search

Some photographer recommendations

Some tips and tricks

Favourite tags to use

Let's start easy! Pictures on Unsplash can be tagged with a variety of things from aesthetic, to location, to what is in the image. Here are some of the tags I like to use for most of what you might have seen on this blog.

Castle Costume Cottage Crypt Dream Fantasy History Historical Knight Magic Medieval Portrait Reenactment

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

Photographer recommandations

Alice Alinari

Unsplash Magical portraits. I mean it.

Woman in the snow

Bathtub Mermaid

Andrej Lisakov

Unsplash+ collaborator, but you still can look at the pictures for inspiration, some great collections

Warriors Collection here Witchy Aesthetic here

Royalty Collection here love this one! you get to see the details very well

Baran Lotfollahi

Beautiful atmospheric portraits and conceptual photographer

Woman lightning the way

Gold decorated woman

Gioele Fazzeri

Unsplash

A few medieval inspired portraits

Viking

Knight

JJ Jordan

Website Unsplash Wide range of portrait types

Educated woman

Woman in white hat

Lance Reis

Website Unsplash Timepiece portraits

Classy woman

Woman silhouette

Lucas Mendes

Unsplash Pretty dreamy photos, I would say romanticizing everyday life.

Cottagecore goals

Flower vase

Pascal Bernardon

Website Unsplash Street photography, travelling and awesome architecture

Impressive house

‘Medieval’ siding

Timothy Dykes

tw spiders, insects, tripophobia

Website Unsplash Some macro photography (closeup), some cool insects and spiders shots, and awesome portraits

Birthday toad (his name is Shiitake and I am in love)

Woman with hood

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

Tips and Tricks (that work for every website)

You can search

By theme; This is what I do for headers, book covers and moodboards. I define what the idea is, and then search things that work for that. For ‘The Shadow of Sorrows’ headers, I knew I wanted Cleia, Kalendora and Hamund on there, so I looked for ‘Fantasy Woman’, ‘Armour’ and ‘Warrior’

By location; For the LOTR terrain inspo, I looked up where everything was filmed and scoured through Unsplash for photos of those places and places I’d been I knew felt right.

By colour; This is what I did for the Colour Series, as well as look in the Wallpaper section, since I wanted mostly minimalist pictures.

By method; Say you are looking for some landscape inspo, but have no specific place in mind, you can always start by looking at the 'landscape' tag. It's always a good idea to work wide and refine your search as you go. You can try 'portrait' if you're looking for people inspo.

P.S. you can sort by orientation

If you've made it this far, CONGRATS!! And thank you 💚

I hope this can be useful! If you're struggling with a project, or have a question, please do leave a comment or drop into my ask box, I'll do my best to help

These are my dividers, please do not use them.

[thgfanfictionlibrary]

Authors On THG Writing Hiatus Masterlist (4)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 /

***Active (on this blog) is defined as a blog/writer who has updated within the past year. Inactive (on this blog) is defined as a blog/writer that has not been updated at all in the past year+. On THG Writing Hiatus (on this blog) is a blog/writer who has updated within the past year but has not posted a fanfic in the fandom in the past year BUT they may return to writing in the future. Lists will be updated as needed based on activity. ***

Created: November 17th, 2023

Last Checked:----

abrahamsdaughterraisedherbow-ao3, tumblr

Popular Fic: Winter Flower A blizzard strikes. With Peeta stranded at the mayor's place and Haymitch passed out at home, a heavily pregnant Katniss must have her wits about her. post-Mockingjay, pre-epilogue.

alatariel-gildaen-ao3, ff.net

Popular Fic: A Year in the Life It hadn't been her plan to fall for him but his unending goodness won out. As soon as they met it became inevitable. This is a series of snapshots following Peeta & Katniss' first year together as their relationship develops into something real. Modern AU sequel to Sabotaged Heart.

archersandsunsets-ao3, ff.net, tumblr

Popular Fic: autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place "What did you see in him anyway?" "Oh, I don't know." She waves a hand absently. "Blond hair. Blue eyes." "So Taylor Swift walks into this coffee shop, and you'd date her?" In which Katniss Everdeen has a bad date, and her best friend Peeta Mellark comes to the rescue.

aquarpisc-ao3, ff.net, tumblr

Popular Fic: It Started As A Bet The bet was: Be the first to lose your virginity and you win. How hard could it be? Find a guy. Have sex with him and that would be it. Right? For Katniss, that's all it should have been...

ATigressAshore-ff.net

Popular Fic: Safe and Sound A series of oneshots following Peeta and Katniss after the war. Post-Mockingjay, pre-Epilogue. Some chapters rated M listed at top of page .

Belladonnablush-ao3, ff.net, tumblr

Popular Fic: Masquerade When Peeta convinces a less-than-enthused Katniss to dress in costume for a Halloween party, she quickly learns just how fun dressing up can be. Modern Day Everlark AU, they're 21 and living together. A fun and very smutty Halloween-inspired one shot.

bethylark/katnissisbrown-ao3, ff.net, tumblr

Popular Fic: As Long As the Danelions Grow An in-panem, no games AU exploring the complex relationship from childhood onward between our beloved Peeta and Katniss, told from Peeta's POV. This starts out innocent, but will become more dramatic as the story progresses.

Billiebee3-ff.net

Popular Fic: Small Debts She never wanted to owe him anything. If he didn't have to be such a damn hero it wouldn't be a problem. Same universe with no hunger games. Everlark

Blueberrychills94-ao3, ff.net, tumblr

Popular Fic: It’s a Jungle Out There When head cheerleader Katniss Everdeen is found in her bathroom unconscious and surrounded in pills everyone thinks the same thing: suicide. Her life is thrown into turmoil when nobody believes her when she says that she didn't try to kill herself and the only person she can turn to is Peeta, the boy who she has bullied for most of her life and is now tutoring her for math. OCC.

[tveitertotwrites]

Dress Up

Series: Red Carpet Diaries (Post Series)

Pairing: Thomas Hunt x F!MC (Brooklyn Moore)

Rating: General

Word Count: 534

Summary: Thomas surprises Brooklyn with their son, Matthew in a Anne Boleyn Costume

A/N: This was inspired by Nicole Louise Lewis's Instagram Story (Current Principal Catherine of Aragon on the UK Tour of SIX) where her daughter dressed up like CoA and I immediately thought of writing this.

It was simply a normal day at the theater. The cast of SIX was doing some quick run throughs of the show with the alternates subbing in for some parts of the roles that they covered to make sure everything was still going well. It was the Sunday before Halloween and Brooklyn had only a couple more hours of rehearsal and the evening show before she was free for the next two days, as they had no shows on Mondays and she took Halloween off to spend time with Thomas, Matthew, and some friends from her hometown. 

While Brooklyn was at rehearsal, Thomas was at home with Matthew picking out a costume for him to wear while going trick or treating. This was Matthew’s first trick or treating experience as he was now 2 years old and they figured it was time. 

Brooklyn and Matthew had gone out to the costume store a few weeks prior to pick some costumes for Matthew to try on and pick which one he liked best. What Brooklyn didn’t know was that Thomas had actually asked Addison Sinclair to make Matthew a costume similar to Brooklyn’s Boleyn costume for Matthew to wear as a surprise. Addison had dropped it off not long after Brooklyn left for rehearsal and Thomas had gotten Matthew into his costume before going over to the theatre. 

By the time Thomas and Matthew had arrived at the theatre, rehearsal was almost over. Once they were signed in and all set, someone from the team brought them back to the left wing of the stage where the alternates were sitting and checking their notes for the queens they play. Megan Shaw, who is the alternate for Boleyn, Seymour, and Howard was the first to notice their arrival and smiled when she saw his costume. Thomas gave her a small smile and made a shushing motion with his mouth and hand, to which Megan nodded and went back to her notes.

When the cast had finished the run through, Thomas and Mathew slowly came out from the wings. Thomas clapped which made Matthew attempt to do as well. The whole cast besides Brooklyn turned to see them and cooed at Matthew’s outfit. Brooklyn then turned her head and let out a little gasp before quickly walking over to the pair and immediately grabbed Matthew from Thomas and started to spin him around, making Matthew giggle

“Where did you get this costume?” Brooklyn asked. 

“I asked Addison a couple weeks ago if she could make it for him.”

“It’s so cute!”

Brooklyn started peppering kisses all over Matthew’s face making him giggle. Everyone else smiled and watched the interaction. What Brooklyn also didn’t know was that Thomas had bought tickets for the two of them in the front row. She noticed them during her song and everyone could see she was a lot happier.

After the show, Brooklyn quickly got out of her wig and costume so she could quickly go through stagedoor and go over to Thomas and Matthew. Once she was done, she ran over to the two of them and gave each of them a kiss on the cheek before they walked back home.

Perma Tags: @crazy-loca-blog @driverstveit @rookiemartin @zahrachoices

@choicesficwriterscreations

[mliter]

Kimberly Jackson.

"What is strength"? Well hmmm... that depends on the person you ask, I guess. You know what I'm saying?

Introduced in Street Fighter 6, she's an energetic young genius with a love for anything and everything from the 80s. She's actually a student to Guy, did you know? It's good to know he's doing well. One of Street Fighter 6's biggest themes in both game-play, design, themes and story is the next generation. It's not a new theme to this series, but they're going all in with this one.

Character designer Kaname Fujioka revealed that alongside Luke & Jamie, she's supposed to serve as the Chun Li to the new generation of Street Fighter fans. Ryu, Ken, & Chun Li will always be there but just like athletes, stars and even in your own life you'll see them take a step back and let the kids take over. It's important, and the people behind street fighter also seem to recognize that.

Her design is absolutely amazing. Heavily modifying Guy's Bushinryu uniform, She has that sporty-urban Ninja look, while wearing a headband and ascot with African inspired patterns and colors. The rest of her color scheme plays into it. She also has turquoise colors at the end of her hair, matching her gear.

I really like how they handled her face. She's adorable. I watched wannabe eugenicists online lose their minds over her facial structure, but as i know people that look like that, i take comfort in knowing that these companies are listening to those people less and less.

She also has a alternate costume which quickly became beloved. Capcom once again proving why their art department is on. top.

I've said it a million times on this blog and i wont stop. After living through a childhood of seeing people that look like me be discarded, devalued and disliked in the spaces of the things i enjoy, this turnaround is blowing my mind and warming my heart. The confidence and self acceptance of the young black girls who are currently growing up with this character and many others is going to be through the roof.

[trialbymagicks]

A Spooktacular Witch’s Brew: The Real Magic of Scary Godmother

It's that spooktacular time of year where the magic and the mundane merge once again for a night of tricks and treats! Just what is it about the Scary Godmother movies that makes them such an enduring cult classic?

The Part Where We Act Like This Is The Inspirational Personal Essay On A Recipe Blog

As someone who has always loved the spooky season and held a fond place in my heart for Halloween, I was drawn to stories – particularly movies – that suited the occasion. To name just a few: the Halloweentown movies, Hocus Pocus, The Little Vampire, Twitches and its sequel, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and of course Scary Godmother were all top of the very long list.

Perhaps not-so-surprisingly, as I revisit these tales from my childhood I’ve noticed that they seem to share common themes. Families or found families of outcasts celebrating their individuality in an environment that seems hand-crafted for them, often using Halloween as a time to openly hide in plain sight during a merging of two different worlds (the magical and the mundane) and ultimately fighting for their right to coexist when a closed-minded force threatens to destroy them. As I engaged with these stories growing up, I often found myself feeling like I was coming home just as the protagonists did when they embarked on their journeys of self-discovery and acceptance.

My own personal journey with the season has been a bit of a bumpy one. For the majority of my childhood, I adored the idea of getting to dress up as whatever I wanted to be and live out a magical fantasy. Once I reached my teenage years and struggled to understand who or what I was through the extremely confusing “socially-acceptable” lens of my peers, Halloween suddenly became the one day I felt like I could wear a costume and be as weird as I wanted to be because no one could judge me for it. Then depression soon hit me like a sack of bricks and that spark of joy the season had brought me began to wither away, the only saving grace being that I could still watch the movies I’d grown up with and feel at least a little like I was home again in my own skin, though I longed to be a part of those worlds instead. Now, a decent way into my adulthood, I have started to return to my roots and discover an even deeper appreciation for the occasion.

The Recipe For A Halloween Cult Classic

Scary Godmother started out as a hybrid comic-novel book series created by Jill Thompson for her niece as a way of spreading the Halloween joy to readers of all ages in a market that she felt was lacking the material. Two of her original stories were adapted to the screen in 2003 and 2005, both of which received her supervision and guidance during the creative process.

Step 1: For a unique and easily identifiable look, toss two art styles in a blender and pulse until satisfied. Be careful not to over-blend!

Mom says it’s Hannah’s turn with the eyes!

First things first, we have to address the elephant in the room: The mix of CGI models on 2.5D backgrounds is wild to look at and the internet has been abuzz with reviewers, reaction channels, and casual viewers alike commenting on how hauntingly unsettling it is. They point out the soullessness of the eyes on many of the human characters. There have been frantic questions about why the movies weren’t animated in 2D like Jill Thompson’s beautiful storybook illustrations. Was it only because CGI animation is quicker and cheaper to produce?

Luckily for our curious minds, the answers to these questions are simple. This was Jill Thompson’s vision!

The movie designs are accurate adaptations of her original illustrations and in fact the CGI was her decision. When discussing how to approach the style of the movie, she specified that she did not want live-action and she absolutely did not want 2D “because I’m doing 2D. Nobody else should be doing 2D, just me.” (Yes, she really did say in a Comics Bulletin interview that that was her reason. No, I’m not sure I understand it either.)

Perhaps a 2D animated movie would have looked less jarring, but I’ll say it – these movies are extremely charming in a storybook way largely in part due to that animation. The 3D characters perform highly energetic visual gags that often make them look as though they are leaping off the 2D pages of their world. Much like turning the pages of a pop-up book, it looks unreal and quite a bit magical, and may have been what first drew the attention of channel-surfing kids every year.

Step 2: Sprinkle in a Found Family of “weirdo” character types that you enjoy coming back to every year. Go ahead, really make it feel like a home away from home~

I always looked forward to catching this movie on TV every year because there’s something so sweet about Hannah’s found family journey with the inhabitants of The Fright Side. I mean, what Halloween-loving kid wouldn’t be drawn to a whimsical spooktakular adventure into a world of feel-good Halloween vibes? They welcome her into their home and encourage her to be her authentic self the way they live their own lives openly among friends who understand and appreciate them.

The three “broommates” in charge of the monster house are Scary Godmother, Bug-a-boo, and Skully. Their quirky trio truly is the backbone of the group.

Oh my god, they were broommates.

As the monster under the bed, Bug-a-boo is the quintessential misunderstood “looks intimidating on the outside but is a huge softie inside” character. If Boo immediately getting attached to Sully in Monsters Inc. got you right in the heart as a kid, then you’ll understand what makes Hannah’s friendship with Bug-a-boo hit home. She spends the first movie steadily realizing that they share interests and favorite foods, which makes him far less scary and allows her to appreciate his fun-loving nature. When he easily breaks down all the stereotypes Hannah had been taught to believe, it becomes clear that he’s looking out for her more than the guardian she had been told to depend on. To kids who were considered “weird” enough to like monsters, this dynamic feels personal.

Scary Godmother is like the cool aunt who always has her pockets filled with candy for the niblings. She takes a no-nonsense approach to her broommates’ shenanigans, making sure they don’t frighten Hannah too much before she gets the chance to adjust to the new setting, and you just know that if you ever had trouble at home she would be there in a heartbeat to take you in. There’s something about the good witch who can be a little bit bad when the situation calls for it that strikes a personal chord with a lot of misfits.

In the human world, Skully Pettibone is a skeleton in the closet, but in The Fright Side no one is pushing him to stay in any closets! He is out and proud and extremely loud about it. In fact, the first time we see him he’s flamboyantly busting out of the closet with the dramatic flair of a stand-up comedian ready for his grand debut. Somehow, he is both too much and not enough at the same time, so you’re already expecting it by the time he spontaneously breaks out into show tunes.

Oh, and they have the most adorable ghost cat named Boozle who occasionally hacks up scareballs. I love him.

Of course they also have an assortment of friends who have been invited to the party.

The most controversial is undoubtedly Harry the werewolf, a theater kid if you ever saw one. He is like the weird uncle who always shows up intoxicated to family gatherings (or he will be soon after he gets there), believes pajamas count as casual clothes, and has a serious case of the munchies. His fourth wall breaking humor flies over the heads of most everyone in the room and, though these facets of his personality consequently makes him the butt of every joke, he’ll read comics with you, howl at the moon, and make you laugh as he dramatically recites dialogue from your favorite scenes alongside the characters during movie night… even when he overstays his welcome.

Naturally, every band of monster misfits has to include a vampire or three! Orson and his parents are the old-fashioned goth family that gives HOAs nightmares.

Max is the socially awkward Nosferatu out of time with a morbid sense of humor, reminiscing about the olden days of vampire royalty and struggling to adopt already outdated slang in order to fit in with the younger generations. Ruby is the better-adjusted Queen of the Night who finds herself caught between supporting her husband’s preference for tradition and encouraging their son’s individuality. It’s a tough job trying to get them to meet somewhere in the middle, but she has learned to go with the flow. As for Orson, he is the stand-in for every kid whose parents unintentionally embarrass them in front of their friends with cheesy jokes and an awkward amount of affectionate doting.

Step 3: To build the plot, mix 3 parts sugar for your Pure-hearted Hero with 2 parts spice for your Unrelenting Bully and voila! If the Bully gets comeuppance and Good prevails, you’ve done it right! Don’t hold back; make it cheesy!

Did anyone else notice his ears got hairy? His parents let him throw out all but two pairs of clothes they never wash and his friends think he stinks… Just how unkempt IS he?

The premise for the first movie is pretty simple: Jimmy and his friends don’t want to babysit Jimmy’s little cousin while they Trick-or-Treat, so they decide to pull a mean prank to scare her by locking her in the Spook House after filling her head with tales of child-eating monsters. In response to Hannah’s tears, Scary Godmother shows up to whisk her away to The Fright Side and show her that monsters are people too!

While Hannah has the most spooktacular Halloween of her life, the older kids realize that their determination to ruin Hannah’s night caused them to miss out on all the Halloween fun they had hoped to have without her as they spend hours worrying over why they can’t hear her screams of terror from the Spook House.

The comedy lies in the eyeballs!

In the end, Hannah’s new friends help her scare her bullies in return and paint her as the brave hero of their little act, thereby winning over Jimmy’s friends for the sequel and leaving Jimmy with a full year of unresolved psychological trauma that he winds up channeling into a desire to destroy Halloween forever.

Hannah is clearly the glue that holds the entire human world together. Like many young protagonists, her wide-eyed enthusiasm for the holiday and willingness to think of everyone she meets as her friend the instant they’re nice to her is a large part of her charm. It is easy to put yourself in her shoes as she meets the denizens of The Fright Side for the first time or imagine yourself similarly solving the world’s Halloween-related problems with unquenchable optimism. She thinks outside the box and appreciates the charm in the homemade aspect of the holiday that has been overshadowed by the commercialism of the season for too long.

Someone smashed all the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch, jeopardizing that farmer’s livelihood? That’s just the mouth for their jack-o-lanterns!

Someone vandalized all the Halloween costumes and tampered with the candy in the store with no concern whatsoever for the employees whose paychecks might be at risk due to product loss? Just recycle last year’s costumes and make your own treats! Who needs candy anyway?

Someone TP’d the Spook House, littering and making it someone else’s problem to clean up later? That’s not toilet paper, that’s ghost decorations! How thoughtful!

Meanwhile, Jimmy was so traumatized by the experience from the first movie that he became a paranoid Home Alone style shut-in with a vendetta against an entire holiday… and no one was concerned about this. It’s honestly amazing how these human kids overreact to everything and yet their friend having a trauma-induced breakdown wasn’t even a blip on their radar.

He’s hallucinating monsters in his spaghetti, kids. I don’t know what else to tell you. This boy needs therapy.

Jimmy’s gradual descent from casual trespassing and bullying in the first movie to full on vandalism and destruction in the sequel is a character arc with real stakes for more than just the humans. No longer content to simply pick on his cousin, he nearly destroys The Fright Side in his attempt to rid the world of monsters and ruin his friends’ fun. But of course all it takes is an invitation to join the party he tried to crash and a chance to meet the source of his nightmares in a less scary setting to heal his mental and emotional scarring, thereby officially welcoming him back into the friend group and ending the story on a happy note.

Step 4: Bind it all together with an “anything goes” magic system and you’re done!

As the resident witch, Scary Godmother is the primary magic user of the movies and she can do whatever the plot calls for – or whatever looks the coolest to impress the children watching. The way she uses her magic can be boiled down to a few basics: flight, teleportation, levitation, telekinesis, materialization and dematerialization, and some classic illusions.

Her preferred methods of travel appear to be flying on her broomstick for long distances, teleportation for snappy appearances, and using her wings to fly around the house when walking just won’t do. She often uses telekinesis to move objects and get the house ready for Halloween or to levitate a particularly lazy werewolf out of bed.

She will materialize a spider web handkerchief to dry Hannah’s tears and one of her favorite tricks is materializing decorations on a whim for the house parties, but she summons all manner of items when needed and dispels them just as quickly once they have served their purpose. Only once or twice does she ever chant a spell while doing so, most likely for dramatic effect, so it’s safe to presume her magic doesn’t require it.

Perhaps she is at her most terrifying when she summons ethereal skeletal arms that shoot out from her hands to do her bidding against pests or when she uses her illusion magic to appear to melt her whole body into a puddle a la the Wicked Witch of the West. But most of her illusions are beautiful spectacles like releasing colorful trails of magic from her hands or hat to light up the darkness.

The Fright Side itself is a highly magical place with a mostly whimsical take on the concept of a magic system. According to Scary Godmother, it is responsible for such tasks as changing the color of the leaves each season, painting the clouds into the sky, and knitting spider webs. And you don’t need a magic broom to travel there either, since there is a magic key that creates a portal to The Fright Side when used on any door. But the most interesting detail is the thread that holds it all together.

You may be familiar with the concept of certain monsters or nonhuman entities that only exist if enough people believe in them. Or how about the idea that these entities’ power is determined by how many people believe in them? The Fright Side seems to work in a similar way. As seen in The Revenge of Jimmy, its magic is directly linked to how much Halloween spirit exists in the human world – particularly this one town where the main characters live, for plot reasons – because if the holiday was ever retired, not only would Scary Godmother lose her magic and the monsters become their human world counterparts… the magical world around them would disappear into the void altogether.

Final Food For Thought

So, with all that in mind, I really do have to wonder…

The magic calendar showed us that, if humans stopped celebrating Halloween or believing in it, October 31st would cease to exist at all and The Fright Side would disappear. But if the hard work of Scary Godmother and The Fright Side are responsible for such basic things as clouds in the sky and the changing seasons, how would that even work? Would what humans call science suddenly take over again to fill the gap in the universe? Or maybe what humans call science is the same thing as the magic used by The Fright Side to perform those tasks and nothing would change at all.

That’s not even addressing the fact that the complete erasure of October 31st would somehow transition the human world to a 364-day calendar. When it comes to the universe, there is usually a give and take, so would February 29th become a permanent day in the calendar to replace it and February 30th be declared a new Leap Year day to even things out?

These and many more are not questions we are meant to ask as casual viewers of the movies, but it sure is fun to think about!

Note: This article was originally posted on WordPress on October 31, 2022.

[rebelwheelsnycshow]

hello (an update & where I’ve been)

hello! it’s been awhile since I posted here. hope everyone has been able to stay safe in these weird times So, I haven’t made any new youtube videos. For awhile, I felt really inspired by TkTok because creating really short videos, was just my speed in terms of spoons. I was (and possibly) still am recovering from thryoidriis  and getting covid a second time (0 stars). But it was also nice because with the youtube channel, it was pretty much just disability content. Nothing wrong with that. Love that. But there’s times as a disabled person who is recovering medically (as well as emotionally) from having some heavy medical trauma, you aren’t always in the mood to talk about disability. And that’s okay. It’s good to honor that. So, the content that I made on TikTok is a variety of topics. Ableism, self care, veganism, and just sometimes just silly videos. If you like, you can view them here, and if not that’s fine too. And then as I began to regain the ability to use the mouse again (yeah, shit got weird), I started making collages which was great creative, cognitive and physical therapy. I posted those in the blog, as well as a new poem and short story. Some (?) may notice that all the struggle diaries posts are gone. I just didn’t want to be reminded of them so I deleted them BUT I am hoping to write on article that sums up everything I learned from that time - and still learning . So, where things are headed in terms of creativity, time will tell but I did want to say hi to anyone who reads these blogs and sending ya much goodness on his day and beyond p.s. Oh! almost forgot but I also for awhile did a photo series.  I needed to get stronger in order to sit up in a wheelchair, so I thought fuck it . why not do physical therapy that also feeds your soul? and because it was during the pandemic, they’re of me in various costumes. Which was weird as I prefer being behind the camera, but it’s good to step out of your comfort zone sometimes, but also thus the costumes lol. I’ll post those as spoons allow.

[anomalyztheseries]

Anomaly Z in the “Real World” (of an Alternate Timeline)

In the alternate reality/future where Anomaly Z is already an active franchise, it’s doing pretty well. The franchise that Collider.com called “Breaking Bad to the Future” was a surprise hit even to its creators, making it to #1 in Netflix’s Top 10 upon release and in the Top 5 overall for the year, and rating 89% in critic scores and 96% average audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Screenrant wrote: “[Anomaly Z has] a ludicrous concept that somehow still works, due to its exceptional performances, biting satire, and a full commitment to taking its ridiculous concepts to their logical conclusions, never once winking at the audience.”

Forbes’ Paul Tassi also wrote about Anomaly Z’s success, and also tweeted “Okay, I like Anomaly Z.” (At least Alternate Universe Tassi did. I have no idea what ours would think.)

Anomaly Z also inspired a sketch on Saturday Night Live.

Fedora Zane also managed to snag a cameo on the alternate universe Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, where she rescued Morty and Summer from the gaping anus of an Ejaculian Fuckbeast. The episode scored high ratings on Interdimensional Cable.

Anomaly Z merchandise is also very successful. It includes the mandatory Funko Pop (Prototype Chronosuit Edition):

The collectible PVC statues for the Collector’s Editions of the Anomaly Z video game. Pictured are the statues from the $150 “Prototype Edition” and the $200 “Chrononaut Edition,” respectively.

Children’s costumes were also made for Spirit Halloween, despite the franchise being rated R/TV-MA. Sales were respectable.

And of course, the usual Anomaly Z t-shirts, hats, keychains, car air fresheners, you name it. A manga and an animated Crunchyroll exclusive series based on the show’s in-universe anime Fedora Katana: Sword Girl Detective! were also released. (See related blog entry.)

If you somehow make it to that alternate timeline and back, please bring me back one of  those PVC statues, thanks.

Images generated by Midjourney AI. Story and concepts by M.J. Romanowski. Copyright © 2023 M.J. Romanowski. All rights reserved. 

“Rick and Morty” image by the Go Rick Yourself Generator at gorickyourself.com. “Rick and Morty” TM & © 2023 Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

[columboscreens]

i haven't watched "it's all in the game" since i'm still on classic columbo but based on your screencaps MY GOD they fucked up the job on dyeing peter falk's hair.

on one screen cap he has dyed hair, on different one you can see the roots and yet on another one he has his natural grey color.

like i get it, recording one hour-long episode takes months and i have much respect for makeup and costume department and i also get the fact that columbo is bit younger than peter falk AND the set lighting can either be your friend or your enemy but for continuity sake i would just let falk has his hair normally from the start of rebooted series. or at least get a good hair dye and a person who does it well because this is atrocious.

i have seen your previous answer on the dye job in columbo so i felt inspired to write this ask <3 love your job on this blog and the full-blown analysis and tidbits from the series when needed <3 *chef's kiss*

thank you so much!! 😊💖

yeah, it's the prevailing opinion amongst fans that the dye job was...kind of unnecessary at best, abysmal at worst. i have utmost respect to costuming/cosmetic staff, but they really dropped the ball on falk's hair in the reboot. at times i'd even go as far as to say that at times they ruined it, a cardinal sin considering how important columbo's hair is to his overall look.

it wasn't just the dye, either. they started giving him these like, weirdly overstyled 80s blowouts and cuts that didn't suit him the way his natural hair did.

columbo is at his best when his mane is messy and effortless but still good enough for tv. left is original series, right is reboot hair (done right)

i think part of what bothers me about his reboot hair is that it appeared much more deliberately styled--which is antithetical to the character because columbo is supposed to be low maintenance. some of his 70s looks were styled but like...one minute with a blow dryer styled, not "full dye wash and set" styled. most of the time it's relatively natural, and sometimes they even let him keep his natural curls/waves.

at first i even sort of understood the hair dyeing, even though he was rocking significant grays as early as halfway through the original series. they wanted to retain that youthful charm, and in the late 80s falk had enough dark hair that the dye job didn't look so wrong. but it was rather ludicrous that they were dyeing the hair of a 70 year old man before finally realizing that it looked ridiculous. there were a few times earlier where they started letting it go ashen, and i was like wow! they're finally gonna...

then they were like NOPE SORRY and dyed it again and i punched a hole in my drywall

let

him

go

gray!

there. much better

[jackrrabbit]

Sidekick /// Dabi x f!Reader x Shigaraki (18+)

Summary: During a rescue gone wrong, a rookie sidekick catches the attention of two villains.

A/N: Thanks for 1k followers!! This is the fic that made me create a smut blog/lowkey inspired this. imho this might be the spiciest thing I’ve ever written 😳 also wanted to call out @kazooli​ because this is highkey inspired by her lol thanks queen

Tags/warnings: quirk kink, reader’s quirk makes other quirks stronger, noncon, threesome, lots of foreplay, outdoor sex, mild overstimulation, degradation, mild violence, threats, chronological/temporal inaccuracies, fucking long

You can hardly be blamed for not recognizing them. It’s only been three weeks since you debuted as a pro, and you’re not even really a hero. You’re a sidekick, and apparently you’re not important enough to have been briefed on the major villains you need to look out for. You’re just…doing your duty. Rescuing civilians indiscriminately. Stupid, naive little sidekick. It’s not your fault that the lives you just saved belong to the two most notorious villains around.

Still, Shigaraki can’t wait to see the look on your face when you find out.

///

The disaster you ‘rescue’ them from—the League’s bar crashing down, the result of a small-time villain’s poisonous gas quirk—isn’t even a disaster. It’s a minor annoyance, sure, but Shigaraki and Dabi would have been fine without you…even though both of them missed Kurogiri’s warp gate and ended up trapped under a wooden beam in the wreckage of the building… Okay, it’s more than a minor annoyance. Shigaraki hacks violently as the cloud of foul-smelling steam and powdered debris enters his lungs. The poisonous quirk doesn’t seem to be having the same acid-burn effects on his body as it did on the building, but he can’t assume it’s harmless.

Father… Shigaraki took Father off his face to drink at the bar earlier before the gas hit, and now in the confusion the severed hand is either buried underneath the rubble that used to be the League’s main base or somewhere else out of view. “Father? Father!” Shigaraki calls out, attempting to shift under the crushing weight of the beam.

“Shut up,” Dabi says from somewhere to Shigaraki’s left. “Kurogiri took it in one of the portals, I saw it.” He looks worse than Shigaraki feels—something hit him in the face as the bar collapsed, and a few of the staples (piercings? stitches? whatever) on his right cheek are torn open and bleeding.

“Are you lying to me?”

Dabi sneers and rolls his eyes. “Let’s just get out of here.” His palms glow blue and Shigaraki follows suit, letting four fingers sit on the wood that’s pinning both of them to the ground. It’s too heavy to lift, so they’re going to have to get rid of it…a task that seems significantly more difficult when it becomes clear that neither of them are positioned at the right angle to touch it.

Shigaraki tries to wrest his arm out enough for his thumb to touch the wood, but it’s impossible. Beside him, Dabi’s having the same issue. “Shit, I can’t reach—“

“Is someone there?” Confident, clear, and oddly robotic, your voice cuts through the din of gurgling water from cracked pipes and police sirens like a lit flare in the darkness. Shigaraki tenses and halts his attempts to get free from the beam, and a second later Dabi mimics him.

“I heard voices.” The same unfamiliar voice rings out through the half-light, now accompanied by a body—your body, taking a series of awkward jumps down the piles of rubble to land in front of the two of them. The outfit you’re wearing is ridiculous: a pair of metal boots that clang against the cement wherever you step, matching braces on your arms, and a space-age chrome motorcycle helmet to top it all off.

A hero. Shigaraki’s lip curls in disgust as your head turns his way.

You scan the scene quickly, eyes resting on the two men trapped in front of you for a moment before you turn back to the opening in the wreckage. “Found two civilians!” you call out to the rescue workers just in case they’re within earshot, although it’s unlikely.

Dabi snickers under his breath. Civilians? Even in the chaos, you should’ve known the second you saw them who you’re looking at. Are you faking ignorance? Got something up your sleeve?  It’s either that, or you genuinely don’t recognize them. Priceless.

You kneel down in front of the fallen beam and give a half-hearted attempt to pick it up. It doesn’t budge. No surprises there—if it were light enough for you to lift by yourself, the two men held down by it would have no problem getting out with their combined strength. You’re going to have to use your support gear to get it off them.

But first—you search for a memory of your rescue training. Reassure the victims. They’re probably panicking.

“It’ll be okay,” you tell them, your voice coming out mechanical and distorted from the helmet you’re wearing. “You’re going to be okay. I’m here to save you.”

This time, Dabi has to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud. Ah, yes…they’re so lucky that there’s a do-gooder little hero around to rescue them, because they’d be helpless otherwise. The laugh is still audible, though, and Shigaraki shoots him a glare.

You raise an eyebrow at their expressions. Did he just laugh? Well…you’ve heard that people sometimes have inappropriate reactions in times of crisis. The dark-haired man seems more badly hurt, so you creep toward him first, careful not to disturb any of the debris and trigger an avalanche reaction. “I’m going to check your injuries now,” you tell him, and your gloved hand brushes away a sweep of spiky hair to examine the sizable red bump growing on his forehead.

Ouch…there’s no way that doesn’t hurt, but the man’s not letting any of the pain show on his face. Instead, he looks disinterested at best, and at worst? You almost get the feeling that he’s eyeing you up under your hero costume. Not that you can blame him. Damn this skin-tight bodysuit—it leaves basically nothing to the imagination.

“Does it hurt a lot?” you ask him. “I don’t think this is too serious, but they’ll look you over for a concussion when I get you to first aid.”

Dabi shrugs and you frown. Is the non-verbal response because of the ripped stitches in his face? Is it too painful to talk? Or could there be brain damage? Or maybe he’s just a man of few words or something…?

“Can you get on with it? Pick up the fucking beam already,” Shigaraki hisses.

Startled, you pull your hand away from the other man’s forehead. That ungrateful little…nope, nope, don’t get annoyed, he’s just in shock. “O-Of course, sorry. Just gotta make sure it’s okay to move.”

Luckily, the beam doesn’t look like it’s supporting anything else that’ll fall if you pick it up. You crouch down next to one end and steady your feet against the cement, lifting up with all your strength while activating the effects of the support items you’re wearing. When you feel the metal on your arm braces grow warm, you remind yourself again to thank the developer of your costume. You may not be a fan of the way-too-tight bodysuit that clings to everything, but the strength-enhancing armor that you wear on your arms and legs more than makes up for it.

A second later, you hold back a grin. It’s moving! You try to ignore the unpleasant screech of metal against stone as the beam slowly lifts into the air. As soon as the men get out from under it, you pant and let it crash back into the ground. “You guys okay?”

“Mm…yes,” Dabi replies, running a hand over the torn piercings in his cheek. “Got any more gas masks for the poison mist?”

“Don’t worry! The Commission is familiar with the villain who created it, and the gas isn’t harmful to anything living. Only buildings. It’s a troublesome quirk, but we’ve got it under control.”

“Then what’s with the helmet?”

He can hear the hesitation in your reply, even distorted and tinny through the metal speakers. “Uh…I, well…”

Now that you’re getting a good look at them, the two scarred faces in front of you seem weirdly intense, considering you’ve just saved them from a collapsed building. The dark-haired man’s eyes are…very, very blue next to the burned-looking skin underneath, and the other man’s greyish-blue hair isn’t quite long enough to obscure a pair of red irises that are scrutinizing your face with obvious hostility.

You give a nervous shake of your head to clear it. “Um, the helmet is…it’s dangerous if I take it off. I should get you guys back to the rescue area, I need to meet up with my hero…” Without thinking, you take a step back and then one more, not knowing exactly why you’re backing away when you’re supposed to be escorting them. “I’ll just lead the way?”

With your third step back, though, you bump into something hard. What was that? Your head jerks around but before you can identify what it is that stopped your retreat, you feel the faint sensation of something tapping lightly on the back of your helmet.

And then…it just…crumbles.

What just happened?

You cough and shake your head, squeezing your eyes shut against the sudden onslaught of dust. A breeze whips through your hair, sending a chill through you in more ways than one. How? No one pulled the helmet off; you would’ve felt it if they had. More dust sticks to your face, and you rub your eyes so you can open them.

Behind you, Shigaraki waits with outstretched fingers an inch away from your neck. If he had to explain the decision to decay your helmet strategically, he could—you’re a hero, a potential threat, and he wants to know what you’re hiding under that outfit just in case you figure out who they are and decide to turn on them.

But really? He didn’t think about it that much. It was an impulse reaction to you walking away from them; a tantrum. Child-like.

Once your stunned face is exposed, Dabi has to wonder what you were even trying to hide. You’re…surprisingly ordinary. Young-looking—a rookie, fresh from hero school graduations a few weeks ago maybe? Large, expressive eyes, lips parted in shock, but nothing particularly interesting. Shigaraki cocks his head to the side to study your face too, and both of them are so focused on your appearance that it takes a moment for them to notice the feeling.

Well, feeling isn’t really the right word, but there isn’t a word for the way your quirk works. Dabi’s eyes widen when it reaches him and behind you, Shigaraki stiffens. You notice.

There’s an involuntary quiver in your voice as you break the silence. “Y-You guys must have strong quirks if you can feel it just from that.”

Dabi sucks in a breath. So this is your quirk? It’s different…he’s never felt anything like it, not that he’s exactly sure what it is. There’s some kind of energy in the air around you that he’s breathing in, a feeling like taking a shot of espresso after days of sleep deprivation.

No, it’s stronger than that. The head rush after doing a line of cocaine would be a better metaphor.

Either way, he’s awake—more awake than he can remember feeling in a long time. Heat rises to the surfaces of his palms unbidden, his quirk appearing without him calling it. “What is this?”

“…It’s called Boost,” you say, licking your lips as a dry wave of heat radiates out from the man in front of you. “I can strengthen other people’s quirks. That’s why it’s dangerous—if the villain finds us—“

“It must have been hard to get through hero school with a quirk like that,” says a raspy voice from behind you.

What—? Your head twists around. When did he—

Shigaraki grips your shoulder with three fingers, holding just tightly enough to keep you from stumbling forward and away from him. His pinky and ring finger hover an inch over your costume, careful not to disintegrate the fabric he’s touching—although with the power sparking through his veins at the moment, it almost feels like three fingers would be enough.

“…Doesn’t really seem like the kind of quirk a hero has.” His voice, soft and pondering (a weird contrast to the harsh architecture of his facial features you’d seen earlier), feels very close to your ear. Something soft tickles your cheek. His hair?

A voice (an instinct?) deep inside of you is telling you to run. You ignore it. This is normal, right? It’s not uncommon for civilians who’ve just suffered a traumatic villain attack to have questions, even if those questions seem irrelevant to the situation at hand. You have to answer, even if your gut is churning. “I’m not really a hero. Not yet. For now, I’m a sidekick to one of the pros—and speaking of which, I really need to find—“

“But how does it work?” Dabi doesn’t notice himself making a conscious decision to step forward, but he does anyway and being closer to you feels right. He can see the trepidation on your face as he gets close enough to reach out and touch you, but you can’t really ask him to stay back, can you? Not when your quirk feels this good?

“I—“ Is it unreasonable that you think you’re being trapped right now? They’re just a couple of civilians, right? The question itself is common enough. People often wonder how you can be a hero. It’s a concern you’ve had to address dozens of times over the years. “Well, I work with rescue operations, especially with other heroes who have healing-type quirks. I can also assist in combat in some situations.”

“In combat? If you’re with a hero and a villain, you’ll enhance both quirks. Seems counterintuitive,” Dabi says, half aware that his voice is getting lower.

“And you clearly don’t have physical abilities. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have…these.” Shigaraki taps three fingers on the metal brace on your right arm.

“The effects can be unpredictable. And I can increase the degree of the enhancement with physical contact.”

“Contact?”

“Yeah. The gloves of my costume come off. My quirk is way stronger when it’s skin-to-skin.” The words tumble out of your mouth before you can stop them.

You shouldn’t have said that.

Shigaraki’s ring finger and pinky, which were hovering over the arm brace, come down to rest on the cold metal. The effect is instant: no crumbling, no slow decay—it’s there, and then it’s dust. His quirk in action, boosted by yours.

“What—What are you doing? What did you just do?” You try to pull away from him, but he holds you tight by your collar. His other hand comes up to grip your chin, and in one long sloppy stroke, he licks you from your neck up to your jawline.

You shudder. So does Shigaraki.

“It’s my quirk,” he tells you slowly. His breath is steamy warm on the cold, wet trail of saliva painting your throat. “Decay. Have you heard of it?”

You flinch away from his hand and your back falls against his chest. Of course you’ve heard of the Decay quirk. You might be a rookie, but even civilians know about the young, impetuous head of the League of Villains. Jesus, how had you not recognized him earlier? White hair, red eyes…you should have known. You should have left him under that beam. “Shigaraki…Tomura.”

“So you’re not completely clueless. Do you know me, then?” Dabi asks. He would think he’s the more noticeable of the two (the burn scars usually identify him), but you just stare up at him with the same deer-in-the-headlights look as before. Smirking, he lights a blue fire in his palm and it jumps up toward your face—not just the small spark he intended, but a bright, high flame. “Maybe this will help you remember.”

“The Forest of Beasts incident. You’re the one who started that fire,” you whisper. You’ve seen the TV coverage of the attack on UA’s training camp, the abduction of that teenage student, the forest lit up blue from wildfire. No wonder his skin looks burned.

“Dabi,” he corrects you.

Breath is coming out of your mouth in shallow puffs. Are you hyperventilating? Is this what hyperventilating feels like? You’re definitely panicking. They’re so close to you, caging you in between them. The smoke from the blue fire is uncomfortably hot over the exposed skin of your face, and Shigaraki’s lethal hands are still touching you. If they want to kill you—and why wouldn’t they?—you’re fucked.

The flame goes out and Dabi’s hands come down to squeeze your wrists. His palms are hot like he was holding them in front of a lit stove. It’s not painful, but it’s a threat.

“I’ll fight,” you say.

Your voice is trembling, and Shigaraki likes it. The effects of your quirk, the way he felt when he licked your face… And you’re afraid. He can see it in your shoulders, the quivering of your torso pressed into him. It’s nice. He wants to feel it more.

You’re struggling against their hold, and Dabi feels the urge to laugh. “You’ll fight…the two of us.”

“If you try to kill me, I’ll—“

Before you can finish your sentence, Shigaraki’s hands flit down to your metal support gear and disintegrate it. Shit. He’s fast, and you’re helpless.

Dabi releases your wrists and cups your face in a mockery of intimacy. His eyelids flutter closed as his skin meets yours… Fuck, he could get used to this. You smell so good, sweet and soft and clean, like fruity shampoo. What is that, watermelon?

Life must be difficult for you, hm… Everyone around you must want to touch you constantly. It seems like Shigaraki enjoyed licking you—maybe bodily fluids are an even stronger conductor of your quirk? Pushing easily past your resistance, Dabi forces your jaw upward and kisses you.

Oh…yesyesyes, just like that. Perfect. Dabi has to bite down a groan as his tongue enters your mouth. It’s ridiculous for someone else’s spit to taste this good, but he’s right—your quirk is amplified by the contact from the kiss.

After a moment he has to break it to regain focus and make sure he’s not burning you. You cringe away from him, your cheek brushing against Shigaraki’s neck, but Dabi tangles his hand in your hair to pull you back. He runs a finger against your closed lips, letting the pad of his fingertip heat up until your mouth drops open in response to the threat.

“What the hell are you doing?” Shigaraki asks, voice laced with revulsion. Privately, you agree. What’s going on? You were sure you were about to be either burned to a crisp or decayed into the equivalent.

Dabi laughs under his breath. “Try it. It feels crazy good.”

Curious now, Shigaraki wrenches your head around and tilts your jaw up to repeat Dabi’s action. When you refuse to open your mouth, he taps your jaw warningly and a hiss of fear escapes you. Would he really kill you? He decayed your support gear so quickly—would it be the same for your body?

Well, what’s going to stop them?

You open your mouth.

Shigaraki’s lips are harsh and unsentimental against yours. His tongue sweeps over the inside of your mouth, invasive and brutal. He grips you forcefully, his face pushing you deeper into the strained hold with your head twisted toward his. You’ve never been kissed like this before. His spit—it’s in your mouth.

And Dabi’s hands are on your waist. “How do you get this thing off?” he murmurs, pinching the fabric of your bodysuit.

A surge of panicked adrenaline gives you the strength to pull back away from Shigaraki. “What? No, you can’t!”

“Are you going to stop us, little sidekick?” Dabi mocks. “I think I can burn it off without too much damage.”

“Let me.” Shigaraki takes hold of the cloth, careful so when it dissolves into dust his hand isn’t touching you, and within a second—a second—you’re left shivering in just your underwear and boots.

“Help!” The plea squeaks out and you hope blindly that there’s a hero close enough to hear you. But is there even anyone who can fight them? You certainly can’t. “Help me! Somebody!”

“Shut up.” Dabi sends up a tongue of flame from a fingertip and you shriek as the heat sears against you. “Oh, come on. You should feel lucky. Bad guys like us usually don’t hesitate to take heroes out.”

“I don’t— Please, I’m just a sidekick, I’m a rookie— What do you even want from me? Just let me go, I won’t tell anyone! Please let me go.”

“Well, I think I know what I want.” Dabi traces circles over the tender skin of your hips, playing with the elastic of your underwear. He meets Shigaraki’s eye over your shoulder. “I think he wants that too. Right?”

“Yeah, I want…I want to fuck her,” Shigaraki hums. This isn’t like him, but he can’t help himself. You’re different. Leaving you here and never feeling this stimulant again isn’t an option. He buries his face in the juncture of your neck and shoulder, bites down on the soft skin there, and sucks.

You whimper, half from his answer and half from the sensation of his chapped lips on your neck. “Why are you doing this?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but…you smell like something I want to eat. Especially this.” Dabi kneels down in front of you and hitches one of your legs up over his shoulder so you feel his hot breath washing over your clothed pussy.

You whine and attempt to wriggle back away from him, but Dabi’s grip on your thigh holds firm. His other hand brushes against the fabric of your panties to rub up against your slit and another surge of panic jumps up your throat. You can’t let him do this.

You kick your foot against his back, desperately attempting to make contact using the heel of the high boot that’s the only piece of outerwear still left on your body. It hits him awkwardly and he growls. “Damn it. Can’t you keep her busy?”

“Ahh…” Shigaraki ceases his oral assault on your neck and scratches a fingernail against one of the bright red marks marring your skin. He feels almost dizzy from the way your quirk is affecting him. Behind him, the broken expanse of wall digging into his back is the only thing keeping his focus. “Behave, sidekick.”

Before you can respond to the mocking title, Shigaraki’s face is against yours and his tongue is in your mouth again. Rough fingertips work up under the band of your sports bra and pushes it up over your tits. You screw your eyes shut at the sudden feeling of cold air on your nipples, and you know without looking that they’re standing up. Shigaraki gropes you thoughtlessly, keeping one finger lifted off of your skin, and you gasp on his tongue.

“That’s better.” Dabi’s mouth returns to brush against your panties. To be honest, eating you out isn’t the first thing on his mind. What he wants—what he really wants—is to shove you up against the wall and fuck into you and find out what your quirk feels like when you’re wrapped around his cock. But you’re probably not wet enough for that, and it’s not like Shigaraki is going to do anything to take care of you. Dabi would be surprised if the other man’s ever eaten pussy before in his life.

Besides…you smell good. It’s not even just the feeling of your quirk exciting him. The rich, feminine scent of your pussy is inches away from him, and Dabi is dying to make you cum in his mouth.

A moan curls up from deep in your throat as Dabi caresses the lips of your pussy through your underwear. You don’t bother protesting—at this point, it’s unlikely that any plea you could muster would stop them. Your earlier begging didn’t do much besides spur them on, but you still cry out as softly as you can when an unnaturally warm fingertip slips under the cloth of your panties to dip into your slit.

“Oh? You’re wetter than I expected. Are you enjoying this?”

Your frantic denial falls on deaf ears. Shigaraki rasps out a laugh and bites down on your neck again. He’s supposed to be keeping you still, but he can’t help enjoying the way your almost-naked body feels as you press yourself back into his chest, trying to force some space between yourself and Dabi.

Your squirming is no problem for Dabi, though—you’re so soft and vulnerable and the velvety skin of your inner thigh looks so delicious… He nuzzles against the area of bare skin and latches on to it, sucking until he’s sure you’re going to have a mark in a few minutes. The thought of leaving hickeys on you like a teenager is sickeningly nostalgic. You’re probably going to try to forget this when they’re done, aren’t you? But you won’t be able to, not when you’re covered in love bites and bruises. You’re going to be marked up for weeks.

Fuck, he’s hard.

Too impatient to bother taking off your panties, Dabi just pushes them aside to gain access to your damp cunt. His fingers feel hot—too hot, almost unbearably hot; you feel like you could melt into a puddle and your pussy is certainly slick enough as he pets your clit and slides one finger in, then two… You whimper and shake your head, silently denying what’s happening to you. The intrusion is uncomfortable, but Dabi’s fingers quickly find that rough patch inside of you that makes you want to beg like an animal. You hate it, but it feels good.

“She’s so tight,” Dabi says with something like awe in his voice. You can hear Shigaraki panting behind your back.

“Get on with it,” Shigaraki says.

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

For a second you just feel Dabi’s humid breath against your dripping cunt before he closes the space between the two of you and his tongue slides onto you, laving over your cunt to come to a rest on your clit. A sound you’ve never heard yourself make before forces its way out of your mouth as Dabi eats you out in earnest, rubbing his tongue against your clit in a stuttering rhythm that gives you no time to catch your breath.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Your head rolls back onto Shigaraki’s shoulder. You feel like crying for a million reasons at once. Maybe you’re already crying—the sounds you’re making are almost like sobs. You want him to stop. You never want him to stop. Your hands twitch as you fight the impulse to fist them in the villain’s hair and pin him down between your thighs.

“Fuck, oh fuck, no stop please stop, ah…!” The stream of gibberish coming out of your mouth crescendoes into a real sob as you feel your climax coming. No—you can’t—you can’t cum here, in this broken-down bar, on the tongue of a villain, but it doesn’t matter that you can’t, because you’re going to cum anyway.

“Please don’t, please let me go—“ You writhe uncontrollably as the desire to cum sweeps over you, but Dabi just curls one arm around your thigh and pulls his face away so he can push his fingers back in, angling his palm to grind roughly over your clit. The harsh, rough texture after the warm wet softness of his tongue is enough to push you over the edge and you cry out your orgasm, your pussy clenching onto Dabi’s fingers as he works them in and out of you.

Unable to support yourself, you crumple like paper, and only the two villains you’re sandwiched between keep you upright.

“Fucking finally,” Shigaraki growls, and he pushes you down so your knees scrape painfully into the rubble. Your earlier resistance was cute, but so is your dazed compliance as he pulls your hips up to meet his.

“You’re going first?” Dabi asks incredulously. After he did all that work getting you off? No way.

“You can use her mouth,” Shigaraki tells him. His cock is straining against his pants and he groans as he releases it and rubs it over your panties. He could decay them, but…they’re cute. Pale pink, peach-pink, except for the wet spot over your cunt. Precum is already dribbling out of his cock as he pulls your panties to the side and lines it up with your pussy. Jesus-fucking-christ, you’re wet, sopping and slimy. Doesn’t that mean you’re begging to get filled up? Shigaraki hears himself sigh as he slides the head of his cock up and down your slit so it’ll be wet enough to go in.

You’re still out of it, dizzy from your orgasm and the tension of the situation, but you snap back to your senses with the feeling of something hard pushed up to your entrance. “Wait!” you yelp for what feels like the hundredth time. The gravel scattered over the wreckage where you’ve been forced onto your hands and knees digs painfully into your flesh as you pull away from Shigaraki, but he holds fast to your hips with pinkies raised.

“Uh-uh,” Dabi admonishes with a grin, as if he’s reprimanding a dog for not coming when called. He settles himself in front of your front and kneels again. Your hair is mussed but still silky soft and he takes a moment to enjoy the way the strands slip over his skin before he tangles his fingers close to your scalp and yanks your head in his direction, forcing your cheek to chafe against the crotch of his pants. It’s not difficult to tell what the the thick bulge is through the fabric, and you try to flinch away only to be caught again and immobilized.

“You’re going to take care of us,” Dabi tells you. “Like I took care of you. Okay?”

No, it’s not okay, it’s absolutely not okay, and you would say so if you didn’t see Dabi’s expression darken at your obvious denial and feel a wave of acrid heat coming from his hand in your hair. The smell is worse than the feeling, honestly—you’ve had enough run-ins with hair curlers and flat irons to recognize the smell of hair when it’s three seconds away from burning. “Okay! Okay,” you answer, panicked, voice muffled by the fabric of Dabi’s pants.

“Good girl,” he purrs, and the heat fades.

“I’m not waiting any longer,” Shigaraki says from behind you.

“Then don’t.”

You whine, too scared to try to get away again or even plead with them to let you go, but it doesn’t matter. Shigaraki’s cock presses into your pussy, and there’s nothing you can do to stop him as he slides into you, inch by inch, torturously slow. Is there anything to bite down on? You need to do something, anything to distract from the pain of Shigaraki’s cock stretching you out. He’s big, impossibly big.

Eyes squeezed shut, you bite your lip until you can taste copper and scrabble around blindly until your hand finds loose fabric to grip. It’s something of Dabi’s, probably the coat he’s wearing if you remember correctly, but your brain isn’t exactly working right at the moment—

“You were right…shit, she’s…she’s so fucking tight.” Shigaraki’s voice is low and labored with the effort of not thrusting into you all at once. “Feels like…she’s trying to push me out…”

Fuck it, he thinks. Would it really be so bad if he did push all the way into you in one stroke? It’s better to just get it over with, isn’t it? Yeah…you’d probably prefer him to do it quickly. And besides, he can’t wait another second to feel you all the way up to the base of his cock.

Your strangled whimper is drowned out by his satisfied groan as he shoves the rest of the way into you in a single sudden thrust. The pain knocks the breath out of you in a gasp, and your eyes fly open as you clutch Dabi’s coat like a lifeline.

“It hurts—!”

“Yeah…yeah, I bet it does,” Shigaraki pants, holding your hips steady as he thrusts in and out of you. The bored nonchalance of earlier is gone, replaced by a feral intensity as his cock carves its way through your pussy. If you didn’t know better, you’d think there’s something affectionate in his voice.

For Shigaraki’s part, he can hardly think of anything aside from the soft, hot, wet cunt wrapped over his dick. It’s taking every vestige of concentration he has left to make sure he’s holding a single finger on each hand away from your skin. It’s pure bliss. Your body was made to be fucked like this. He wants to live inside your pussy, he wants to do this every day, every minute. Fucking you raw is the best he’s felt in months…years. And it doesn’t hurt that your quirk is still working on him, still sending pleasurable shocks of energy that make him feel simultaneously like he could keep you pinned down for hours and like he could cum any second.

“Oh, she’s crying,” Dabi says, tilting your chin up so he can look into your eyes. You flinch and try to jerk your head away, but his hand is still holding you by your hair and he’s so much stronger than you are. They both are, even without using their quirks. “Look at me.”

You comply, more by reflex than any real desire to obey. It’s pretty striking to Dabi how cute you look as Shigaraki pounds into you so fast and deep you can hardly catch your breath. Your eyes are glittering with unshed tears, your tits bounce with every thrust, and you’re still holding onto Dabi’s coat like your life depends on it. It’s almost like you’re pulling him closer. Adorable.

“She can…take it,” Shigaraki responds breathily between thrusts. “Such a good whore, taking my big cock in her tight little pussy…”

The backhanded compliment jars you and you feel hot tears spill over your cheeks. “I’m—not—a—whore,” you manage to say, each word punctuated with Shigaraki’s skin slapping against yours.

“Really?” Shigaraki’s pace slows and he leans closer to you so he can reach an arm around and swirl two fingers against your clit. You mewl like a kitten at the unexpected stimulation and he laughs rudely. “Feels so good…can’t believe the heroes don’t want to fuck you like this all the time…”

You shake your head desperately and bury your face in Dabi’s chest, barely noticing him stroking your hair and then reaching down to unzip his pants.

“No, no, I bet that’s what you do as a sidekick, right?” Shigaraki’s thrusts are back to frenzied jerks, and he rubs over your clit just as roughly. “Spread your legs for your hero…you’d make a great personal cocksleeve. Or maybe they rotate you around so every pro hero gets a turn…?”

“No, I don’t! No! Ah— ahnnn…” The denials pierce the air uselessly as the villain’s cock fills you up again and again. You’re not a whore, you’re not…even if it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the growing pressure of Shigaraki teasing your clit in time with his cock rubbing against your sweet spot. It still hurts—he’s so big, bigger than anyone you’ve ever had sex with before, but there’s no way you’re going to admit to yourself that it’s starting to feel good.

“…Is my cock better than All Might’s?” Shigaraki’s words are cut off by his own grunt of pleasure as your cunt twitches around him.

“Shut the fuck up,” Dabi cuts in. “I’m sick of hearing a guy’s voice moaning. I’m going to get soft.”

Past the point of comprehending the situation, you look up at him gratefully, only to reel back in shock as Dabi frees his own cock from his pants and it brushes against your cheek. Trying to pull away from him is more instinct than rational thought, but he holds you just as easily as before and forces two fingers into your mouth. You tense, ready to bite down, (and hopefully take a few knuckles off) but he sees it coming and suddenly your mouth is horribly burning hot.

“You’re going to suck my cock now,” says Dabi conversationally, extinguishing the flame almost as soon as he started it. It’s not so bad—probably more like a coffee burn than anything else—but you’re coughing and spitting anyway. “Say yes.”

“…Yes,” you whisper, voice barely intelligible.

“Good little sidekick. And you’re going to be very careful. You’re not going to use teeth.”

You nod, unable to mount a defense with Shigaraki mercilessly fucking you from behind.

“I want to hear you say it.”

“Y-Yes!” you squeal as Shigaraki finds a particularly sensitive spot inside you.

“Good.” Dabi drags your head down to hover over his cock and massages your jaw until it falls open. “Suck.”

One of his hands falls to your shoulder to try to stabilize you, but you can’t help feeling the threat in the motion. You quickly duck down and attempt to ignore the heady smell of sweat and precum as you trace your tongue up the underside of his dick. He’s big too, maybe thicker than Shigaraki, and you hate yourself for feeling lucky that it’s not this cock inside your pussy right now.

The stunt Dabi pulled burning your mouth made you salivate, and you let drool coat your tongue as you lick around the head. But it’s not working—you rock forward every time Shigaraki stuffs his dick back in your aching pussy, and Dabi’s cock smears over your mouth haphazardly.

“I said suck. Not lick.” Suddenly (although you don’t know why you keep expecting some kind of warning before these villains find a new way to violate you), Dabi grabs the back of your head and shoves his cock into your mouth. Your throat constricts involuntarily as the thick head triggers your gag reflex, and all three of you shiver in unison.

“Do…do that again,” Shigaraki says, voice strained. “She tightens up…when you do that.”

Dabi smirks and thrusts into you again, relishing the warm, humid cavern of your throat around his cock along with the pure swell of energy from your quirk enhancing his. His rhythm matches Shigaraki’s and his cock hits the back of your throat with every rapid pump, making you gag and clench like you’re trying to milk the cum out of him. What a perfect little slut… He can see from Shigaraki’s sloppy movements that you’re squeezing around his cock every time too.

The feeling of having one villain cock buried in your pussy while another ravages your throat is unthinkable, even more so with Shigaraki’s fingers on your clit coaxing out an earth-shaking orgasm. But you’d almost be able to forget what’s happening—god knows you’re delirious with sensation, barely able to keep track of who’s doing what to you—if not for the sound. The wet slap of Shigaraki’s hips against your ass, the horrible squelching from your (dripping wet, even if you don’t want to admit it) pussy as his cock pistons in and out of you, your choked moans and gagging noises, and above it all, the unrestrained voices of the villains fucking into you.

You feel like a fuck toy, a sex doll, used without mercy by the two most evil people you can think of…and you’re about to cum.

Your voice is getting louder by the second, and the pulsing of your cunt around Shigaraki’s cock is telling him exactly how close you are. He curls his body over yours to get a better angle to rub your clit, enjoying your high-pitched whine in response. “Yeah…that’s right…good girl. Cum on my cock…like a good little sidekick.”

You keen and goosebumps rise on your skin as Shigaraki licks at the sheen of sweat on your back. He feels your climax almost as soon as you do… If your scream wasn’t stifled by Dabi’s dick in your mouth, everyone within a one-mile radius would know you were getting fucked silly, yeah? The walls of your pussy clamp down on Shigaraki’s cock, your body begging for his cum, and he grips your ass to make sure you can’t get away as he comes to his own orgasm inside of you.

Fuck… Shigaraki could die right now and be happy. He keeps stroking your clit, knowing it’s cruel, knowing you’ll be overstimulated and sensitive and that it’ll hurt to keep touching you like this after you already came, and not caring because every time the tips of his fingers push that little magic button, you shiver and squeeze him like you’re trying to milk him dry.

Shigaraki gives a few last thrusts, pushing his cum deeper into your body, fucking it into you so you’ll be dripping white for hours, and then finally pulls out. The slurping sound your cunt makes as his cock leaves your pussy is obscene. So is the cloudy trail of mixed white and clear fluid that connects your pussy and the head of his cock until he pulls it away. He loves it.

Knowing that Shigaraki came—inside you, no less, the inconsiderate bastard—Dabi grips the back of your head and tugs you down to deepthroat him. Your walls twitch involuntarily and Dabi groans, letting himself shoot his load down your throat. “Yes…yeah…yeah…just like that. Swallow.”

You don’t swallow. You don’t do anything but gag on his cum and gasp as he thrusts into you. Dabi pulls you off of him, annoyed and ready to threaten you into submission again…until your head lolls to the side and he can see that your eyes are closed.

“Shit, she passed out.”

“…What? Are you kidding?”

Dabi slaps your face lightly. You wince in your sleep but don’t wake up. “Nope. Must’ve been when she came the second time.”

“Is she…” Shigaraki trails off, not sure how to end the question. ‘Okay’ isn’t exactly right.

“She’s breathing, if that’s what you’re asking.”

The two of them wait for a moment, but you don’t move. When he catches his breath, Shigaraki wipes off his dick and pulls up his pants. Dabi does the same. Without them holding you, you flop down into the fetal position on the broken concrete. “What now?” Shigaraki asks.

Dabi wipes the sweat from his forehead. “You tell me, leader. I’m surprised Kurogiri hasn’t opened another warp gate to get you back. Guessing you don’t have your phone either?”

“…We can go to Giran’s place to meet up. They’re probably waiting for us there,” Shigaraki says, scratching at his neck.

“Do you have cab fare?”

“I don’t have my wallet on me. You?”

“Not enough for a cab. We’ll have to take the train. You can owe me.”

Shigaraki looks down at you. You make a pitiful scene, naked except for your boots, sports bra, and cum-soaked panties. Your neck is bruised red and purple, and you’re shaking, shivering in the cool air now that the sun has sunk further toward the horizon and you’re not being touched. “Are we going to leave her here?”

“What, you want to bring her on the train with us? You don’t think that’s gonna look suspicious?”

“Well…” Their eyes meet and Shigaraki knows Dabi’s thinking the same thing he is. You have a lot of potential as an asset. They haven’t even had the chance to see how your quirk boosting works in combat, but Shigaraki almost wants to pick a fight just to give it a try.

And fighting power aside, Shigaraki isn’t a fan of the possibility that he’ll never get to fuck you again.

“Yeah, I know. But she’s a pro hero’s sidekick. She can’t be too hard to find.” Dabi shrugs off his coat and crouches next to you. You’re limp enough that he has no trouble lifting you into his lap and guiding your arms through the sleeves of his coat. Once you’re wrapped in the black fabric, he does up the buttons, combs through your hair with his fingers, wipes the mixed cum and spittle off your chin, and admires his handiwork. Sure, anyone looking closely at you will know at least a little about what happened—you’re still sweating in the cold, you have that undeniable ‘just got fucked’ look all over you, and the smell of sex is overpowering. But at least you won’t have to walk back to the rescue tent in your filthy underwear.

In your sleep, you nuzzle into Dabi’s chest, reaching blindly toward the source of warmth. He grins and strokes the back of your neck, soothing warm fingers over the bruised skin there and enjoying his last opportunity to touch you and feel your quirk working…for now, at least. “You know, I wonder why villains don’t get sidekicks. Seems a little unfair, right?”

Shigaraki’s sneer matches Dabi’s as he bends down to run his fingernails over your cheek, almost hard enough to hurt. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

[maxwell-grant]

You have done an (excelent) post on how to reinvent Batman as a Pulp Hero. Do you think you could do one to Superman as well? Or do you think it is impossible to do this with the progenitor of the Super Hero genre without transforming him in a totaly diferent character?

Well, you saying it as impossible only makes it seem ever more tempting of a challenge, but yes, it is a bit harder. I'm gonna link my Batman post here as a reference point.

Partially because Batman's a franchise I've thought extensively about for a long time in regards to what I like about it or how I'd like to approach if given the opportunity, which is not something I can really say for Superman until more recently the Big Blue to start orbiting my brain. I don't have years worth of redesigns or fan concepts saved on my galleries and files to comb through to pick and choose here, and my experience with Superman as a character is considerably different, in some aspects more deeply personal, and not really something I'd like to go into in this blog, at least not now.

Part of the reason why it's harder is also because Batman and Superman have very different relationships with their pulp inspirations. Batman was, ostensibly, a pulp character adapted to comics, a dime-a-dozen Shadow knock-off who picked up and played up diverging traits from other characters and gradually ran with them to gradually forge a unique identity. Superman right from the start was rooted in a much stronger conceptual underpinning: the Sci-Fi Superman and Alien Menace who, instead of being a tragic monster or a tyrannical villain, becomes a costumed adventurer and social crusader. Even the name Super-Man was taken from an early story of Siegel and Shuster about a telepathic villain who ends the story lamenting that he should have used his powers for the good of mankind instead of selfishness. I hesitate to call what Siegel and Shuster were doing “subversive” because that term's picked up a real negative connotation, and it's not like Siegel and Shuster were out to upend their influences (they were pulp aficionados themselves), but rather putting a more positive, new spin on them.

Which is why it also becomes a bit harder to do what I did with Batman and align Superman with some of his pulp-esque inspirations, like John Carter, Flash Gordon or Hugo Danner, without just making it "Superman but he's John Carter", "Superman but it's Flash Gordon", and "Iron Munro / Superman but everything sucks" respectively. It's harder to create a character that wouldn't feel reduntant and derivative at best, and actively contradictory to Superman at worst.

I guess if I had to come up with a "Pulp Hero Superman" take I liked, well first of all I'd have to take steps to distance it from the likes of Tom Strong or Al Ewing's Doc Thunder, those two are as good as it gets in regards to Pulp Supermen. I stipulated for Batman a "No Guns, No Murder, No Service" policy partially to distance my takes on Batman from all the "Pulp Batmen" that just add guns and murder and take Batman back to the barest of basics. Likewise, I'm adding a "No Depowered Science Hero" rule here, which means it's a take that's likely going to veer off a lot more into fantasy and probably enough tampering with Clark's character that it does risk becoming a different character.

Frankly I don't think I'm gonna succeed at doing these without just making it a new character entirely, because with Batman you can get away with just upending the character's aesthetic and setting and even origin and still keep it recognizably Bruce Wayne (in fact Batman does that all the time), which isn't really the case with Superman, who needs those to remain recognizably Superman as he goes through internal changes and character shifts. I guess what I'm gonna do here is more taking the building blocks of Superman/Clark Kent and see a couple new ways I can rearrange them to create a Pulp Superman

Perhaps something we can do is to scale back or recontextualize the "superhero" parts without diminishing Superman's role as a superpowered fantasy character.

One way we can start is by picking on that connection between Superman and the sci-fi supermen/alien monsters of pulps I mentioned earlier and play it up further, to create a Superman who's deeply, deeply alien in a way that no mild-mannered disguise or colorful outfit can really disguise, something so dramatically powerful and alien, that instead you could get tales about the kinds of ensuing changes and ripple effects this has on the world upon the The Super-Man's arrival. And for that I'm gonna have to quote @davidmann95's concept for Joshua Viers' absolutely stunning Superman redesign on the left side of the image above

The red, the goldish-orange and white, the alienness, the angelic, sculpted feeling, the halo, that innocently curious expression: it’s genuinely beautiful. Superman as a redeeming science-angel from beyond our understanding, as much past the uncanny valley of limited human comprehension as a Lovecraftian monster but tuned to the opposite key - you could spend an endless procession of human lifetimes trying and failing to understand this being, but all you’ll ever know for sure is that it is beyond you, and it knows you, and it loves you.

Superdoomsday from Earth 45, healed and transformed into the savior it was originally envisioned as? Some descendant of his, or a future of the man himself? An alien who picked up on a broadcast of Superman from Earth, and so inspired reshaped itself in his image to spread his ‘gospel’ to the stars?

Alternatively, to come back to Earth a little, many, many pulp characters and series were built off the antics and personalities of real people, celebrities getting their own magazines or serials or fictionalized takes on them, so perhaps one way to make a "pulp" take on Superman would be to emphasize a bit more of Superman's real-world roots, trends that inspired his creation directly or indirectly at the time. The Jewish strongman Sigmund Breibart and Shuster's interest in fitness culture, Harold Lloyd's comic persona, the rising "strongman" film genre in the early 20th century, actors Clark Gable and Kent Taylor that supposedly named his secret identity, Clark Kent being a socially-awkward journalist based of Siegel's own school experiences.

Maybe one start to an authentic Pulp Superman, who would still be Superman, would be to just ask the question "What if Superman was a real person and/or a celebrity, and they started making pulp magazines and serials dedicated to him? What would those look like?". You wouldn't even have to restrict it to just a story set in the 1930s, in fact you could even play around with the rise of new mediums over the decades.

This third one is a little closer to some plans I have for my own take on a Superman character, not necessarily what I would do with Superman proper but one of my ideas for a Superman analogue. Superman's a character I'll always associate strongly with childhood and childhood fantasy, and to tap into that I would emphasize the other end of the fiction that influenced Siegel and Shuster: comic strips, in their case specifically Little Nemo and Popeye.

In my case I would bring additional influences from some of the comic strips I personally grew up reading like Monica's Gang and Calvin and Hobbes, and I already talked a bit about Captain Fray in terms of how he’s a Superman character despite being a villain. I guess you could call this one "What if Superman was a public domain comic strip character, stripped of the importance of being the founding figure of a super popular genre or extended universe, and also was kind of ugly?".

He's not "Sloth from the Goonies" ugly, I swear I didn't actually have Sloth in mind when typing out this idea, I've never watched that film nor did I know until now that he actually spends the film in a Superman shirt. That's not really what I'm going for. Visually I was thinking of modeling my take on Superman heavily after Hugo from Street Fighter and his inspiration Andre the Giant, to really emphasize the “circus strongman / freak wrestler” aspect of Superman’s inspiration, particularly in regards to how Hugo’s SFIII version strikes a really great balance in making Hugo ugly and both comedic and fearsome in battle, as well as lovable and even a little dopey (without being outright stupid, like his IV self) in his victory animations and endings.

He's still Superman, he still goes on fantastical adventures to help people, he's still a deeply loving and compassionate soul whose face beams with joy and affection and who's got wonderful eyes and a great smile. It's just that this smile has a couple of mismatched stick-out teeth or some missing ones, and he's got a crooked smile some people take as smug or malicious, he’s got a strongman’s gut instead of a bodybuilder’s abs, his nose is a little busted (maybe he’s had too many crash landings), and his hair is a little wild or greasy, and he doesn't exactly have very good people skills because of how others usually react to him and, y'know, he doesn't get the kind of publicity Superman would get despite doing ostensibly the same things. He’s not deformed, he’s incredibly intelligent and capable, but in comparison to how superheroes are usually allowed to look, he might as well be Bizarro in the public eye.

It becomes a running gag that people tend to assume some nearby fireman or cop was the one who rescued the hundred orphans out of a burning building single-handedly, meanwhile he's getting accosted off-panel by police officers who think he set the building on fire, or think they can bully this weird man dressed funny. He goes to rescue old people in peril and occasionally they yell at him that they don't have any money. He doesn't get asked to lead superhero meetings or teams even though many in the community advocate for just how much he does for the world, he gets censored out of tv broadcasts or group shots (even his face is sometimes pixelated when they do show him), people invite him on talk shows and don't really let him talk or assume they got the wrong guy. He goes to rescue a woman dangling off a building, and then he gets attacked by like three different superhero teams who assume he must have kidnapped the poor damsel. He was the first superhero, he is the strongest of them all still, but he never really gets credit for it, it nor does he even want to. None of this at all stops him or deters him, except for some occasionally funny reactions.

This never really changes for him, he doesn't really earn people's approval nor does he have to, instead the stories, outside of the gags and adventures you’d expect from a comic strip, veer more towards others learning to be less judgmental and him learning ways to better approach people. He isn't any lesser than Superman just because he doesn't look like most people would want him to look and he doesn't have to look like Superman. Really I think we could use more superheroes that don’t look all so uniformly pretty.

Again, probably not a take that would work for Clark proper, but it’s one way I would take a shot at doing Superman with my own

I have other stuff in the works for this character but I'd like to keep them to better work on them for now, but yeah, these are three of my shots at developing a Pulp Superman.

Alternatively here's a fourth idea that's more pulp than all of these: Join up Nicholas Cage with Panos Cosmatos again, or whatever weird indie director he decides to pair up with next, and let them do whatever the hell they want with Superman. Give us Mandy Superman. Superman vs The Color Out of Space. Superman vs Five Nights at Freddy's. Superman’s quest to find THE LAST PIG OF KRYPTON. Anything goes.

[writingabouteverything]

The Perfect White Flower--and Other Nonexistent Things

a/n YALL THIS IS PROBABLY DUMB BUT I HAD THIS IDEA ABOUT A HARRY STYLES X READER FIC THATS BASED ON THE PLOT OF JANE THE VIRGIN AND I WANTED TO WRITE IT SO BADLY I MADE THIS ACCOUNT

disclaimer--wont follow the show exactly 

Pairing: Harry Styles x latina! reader (a key factor of the show revolves around the lead being latina, and im latina and honestly love writing for us but anyone can still read and understand/hopefully enjoy and the fic doesn’t involve any physical descriptions:)) 

Series Summary: Y/n l/n has had the world figured out since she was a child. She won’t be a writer because it’s risky, she’ll just focus on school and becoming a teacher. She’s never been a child, because her mother had her at sixteen and hasn’t aged a single year since. That’s part of the reason the promise she made to her grandmother means so much to her--if she doesn’t have sex before marriage, her child will never have to grow up as quickly as she did. And Harry Styles is at the top of the world--his music has never been more successful, he has a lovely girlfriend, and he’s never been more in demand. He has everything in the world...except a child, and through a series of unbelievable events--y/n might be his only chance to have one. Ever. 

Chapter One Summary: Who knew getting a pap smear on two hours of sleep and three cups of coffee was as bad as having unprotected sex? 

There’s something dangerous about taking public transportation in LA. And no, I don’t mean it in the ‘there are bad people in the world’ type of way. I mean it in the ‘I live in one of the casual influencer, celebrity, tourist hubs of the world and each time I step onto the bus I find myself mesmerized by all the stories I see in them’ way. Kind of pathetic, I know, but sometimes a child with blonde pig tails or a woman streaming on instagram live will catch my eye and the urge to pull out my lap top and start something I’ll never finish. 

I know that writing isn’t some kind of disease. But I can’t let myself fall in love with it the way I want to. There’s nothing wrong with writing a short story or two, but trying to write a novel? That’s impractical. It will distract me from school, from the four year plan I’m almost done with.

Sighing, I brave taking at my surroundings. I deserve this today, after the anonymous, rude costumer at the hotel today, I need positivity. No one is particularly inspiring. The bus stops and I watch out the window. At first the crowd is ordinary, and then i see them...paparazzi. Flashing cameras from all angles, grown men violating all rules of personal space. It never sits right with me, but I guess it’s just part of living in LA. The bus starts moving again. When it stops again, I see even more paparazzis, but their cameras aren’t flashing. Good for whoever escaped that. 

The bus door opens and I snap my attention back to my computer screen. I rub my eyes as I stare at my word document. How is there more that needs to be edited? This professor is the harshest grader I’ve ever had, and my friend, Gisa, is kind for giving me even more notes. But I’m exhausted. Two tests and an essay due before 12:00. And it’s...11:38. Great--I have to upload it the second I’m at my doctor’s office and have WiFi again. 

I spend some time highlighting and rewording sentences, and once I’m done I reward myself with more people watching because I deserve it and I can’t fall asleep here. I’m kind of invested in the girl live streaming her bus ride...maybe she’ll say her instagram handle. 

But when I look up, she’s not on the bus anymore. Almost no one is. An elderly couple is sitting towards the back. A woman with a toddler sit two rows in front of me...and there’s now a man directly across from me. I blink for a moment, imagining a story for someone who’s face I can’t quite see beneath such dark sun glasses. His dark waves and strong jaw do most of the imagining for me--he deserves a mystery, a dramatic one with a happy ending and just enough romance to keep the people interested. A good romance, too--not too sappy. Enemies to lovers, maybe. A mysterious stranger that’s not really a stranger because something about him is just...familiar. 

He turns his head and I drop my gaze immediately. There’s no doubt he caught that, but I still pretend to edit the title of my essay. “You’ve been typing stubbornly since I first got on the bus.” There’s an accent--of course he’s english. But it’s more than that, I’ve heard that voice before. I’ve been...soothed by it. And--oh my god, I’m sitting across from Harry Styles.

Okay, don’t freak out. Don’t freak him out. He’s probably on here to escape the the whole ‘oh my god, you’re Harry Styles!’ thing.  

“What are you writing?” Harry Styles just spoke to me. I greeted my one direction poster every single day in middle school, and Harry Styles just spoke to me. Okay--relax, breathe--it’s only weird if you make it weird. 

There’s a kind of curt curiosity to his question. He could have been ruder, considering how blatantly I was staring at him. “I um...an essay.” I’m temped to turn the screen so that he can see I’m telling the truth. Though he wasn’t hostile, a part of me is paranoid that he thinks I am writing about him. It’s a fair assumption, for all he knows I’m drafting a tweet about who I saw on the bus this morning or preparing to send something in to some gossip girl-esque blog. “It’s due today at noon and normally I’m way more on top of things, but I had this last minute doctor’s appointment rescheduling because my usual doctor is out of town and--” I cut myself off before I can tell Harry Styles that I’m ovulating and that if I don’t go to my OBGYN now, I have to wait an entire month and I’ve already been off birth control longer than I’d like. I might not have actual sex in my near future, but my cramps have been extra terrible. “An essay, I just finished an essay.”

He nods once. Maybe he feels bad for so thoroughly startling me into such a rambling, because the corner of his mouth tilts upwards. A soft smile adds even more grace to his features, I focus on the dimple that appears in his cheek. “An aggravating essay, I take it, considering the death glares you’ve been giving your laptop screen.”

I smile at his polite humor. “It’s for the harshest grader on campus. She took three points off of my first essay freshman year because I spaced my bibliography wrong.” 

He cringes in sympathy. “Good luck.” 

“Thanks,” I hum, proud of myself for not letting him know that I know who he is. The bus stops, I can see my doctor’s office behind a few paparazzi. “This is my stop.” 

Harry nods once, ducking his head slightly. A tiny part of me feels sympathy for him; from what I’ve gathered, he genuinely loves his fans and the relationship they have, but it must be draining to never have a moment of privacy. Especially when it’s people who care more about selling your picture than your mental health. 

I linger on the bus’s step, watching the men with large cameras look around. “Excuse me, are you guys looking for Harry Styles?” Most of the men disregard me, but one looks at me. “I know he’s near here because I’m a really big fan and my friend just texted that she saw him.” This gets me the attention I wanted. “He’s at Northfield--a cafe like three blocks down. I just know that if she got a picture with Harry in like a magazine or something she’d totally lose it--in a good way, and she’s been having a bad time so if you see her can you try to make it happen? Knowing her she’ll be at his side, she’s blonde, shortish hair.” 

The men seem skeptical, but I guess they realize that this is the best lead they have. I think the fact that I gave a reason to justify selling Harry out for no reason helped. They disperse together, heading at least three blocks away from Harry. I don’t know if I’ve actually helped him, but I hope I have. 

“Essay girl.” I freeze, half cringing. Did he hear that? That’s embarrassing. I consider darting away, but decide that would just make me cringe more. So I turn on my heels. “You...you forgot your phone.” 

He just saved my life. “Thank you.” I take my phone from his outstretched hand, ignoring the slight thrill that runs through me when our fingers brush. “You’re my hero--the last thing I needed today was to run all over the city searching for my phone.” I finish the awkward admission with a partial laugh. 

“Least I could do,” he mumbles, “especially considering what you just did.” 

...He did see that. “Oh um--it was nothing, I just kind of made a connection and assumed the only reason you’d be on a public bus is because you were trying to avoid some things, and you make really great music and a lot of people happy, so you deserve that break.” Why does it feel like I’ve been talking forever? “Anyways, thanks for the whole phone thing, and I hope I got them off your tail.” 

My joke seems to somewhat land. His lips part, like he’s planning on saying something else. A timer on my phone interrupts him. I instinctually look down--great, the alarm on my phone warning me that I’m only ten minutes away from being late. “I’m late.” I turn towards the bus’s exit. “I gotta go, but thanks again, and I hope you have a good day.” 

I disappear after that, still not sure that that whole thing wasn’t some kind of hallucination. Did I just meet Harry Styles? He...he gave me my phone. Harry Styles has touched my phone. I can’t wait to tell Gisa, she’ll lose it.

I’m still thinking about Harry Styles when I finally reach my OBGYN’s office. When I get there, things are a lot more hectic than I thought they’d be. Many people crowd the waiting area and the receptionist’s desk is clearly understaffed. Two young girls are trying to address multiple upset pregnant women and take phone calls at the same time, all while practically buried in a sea pf paperwork. Wow, I didn’t realize that transferring was such chaos. One of the girls waves me over and barely checks my name before shoving a form towards me. I fill out as quickly as possible. 

 I upload my essay quickly after checking in. Who knows, maybe Harry Styles’s blessing will get me an A? A third person in scrubs emerges from the back after a moment and ushers me into a room. I tell myself to focus on going over the facts I need for the test I have to take in a little over an hour. Or to focus on the fact that I just met Harry Styles. But instead, I feel my heavy eyelids fall shut. 

I don’t know how long I sleep, but I know that I wake up during the middle of a doctor’s sentence, “...I know I’m not your usual, so I just want to make sure you’re comfortable.” 

“Hm...Yeah, yeah I’m comfortable.” She nods once, her wide eyes slightly red. “But I do have a class today in like an hour, so I was wondering if this was going to take longer because of the office’s move?” 

“Oh, no,” she shakes her head. “Just because Dr. Rodriguez gave us no notice before deciding that she no longer wanted to work here...or in the country. Or even live in the US, despite the fact that we just signed a lease on a place together...” Tears well in the stranger’s eyes, pity settles in my stomach. 

“That sounds incredibly complicated, I didn’t mean to rush you.” 

She blinks twice, her expression blanking as she fights against the pain of what’s clearly a terrible break up. “No, no--you have every right. Today is your day and if..honestly, if you’re strong enough to go to a class after this, and do what you’re about to do by yourself, then I’m strong enough to get through today.” 

Um...didn’t realize a pap smear counted as something that needs moral support, but I’ll chalk it up to her heightened emotions. “Thanks.” 

She snaps on her medical gloves. “No, thank you for your patience. Now lay down.” 

I do as told, preparing for a sensation I haven’t often experienced. A moment passes and I know she’s started. She’s moving away from me much faster than expected. Oh--I guess pap smears are a lot shorter than I expected. 

“That’s it?” 

“Yep,” she hums, pulling her gloves off. “Now just take it easy, and hydrate.”

Weird...but that’s like general doctor advice. “Thanks!” 

--

I’ve never wanted to keep a secret from Gisa, but sometimes I really regret telling her I met Harry Styles. It’s been almost a month and I find my mind wandering back to the moment in which our fingers brushed more than I should. Sometimes I let myself wonder what he might have said if my phone hadn’t rang. I was probably just imagining the way his lips parted, but my ind refuses to let it go. 

“...You know it’s kind of sad, I read an interview in which he spoke about the fact that he has some genetic condition that makes it hard to have kids. He has so many godchildren, and I feel like he’d make such a great father.” 

I try to keep up with Gisa’s words, but the dull ache in my head makes it feel so far away. “Yeah...he seemed really patient.” 

Gisa nods, turning to face me. “You alright, you’re looking kinda green?” 

“Yeah...” I reach for my canvas bag. “I think I just...I probably just need some water.” 

My hand grazes the metal of my water bottle and then the corners of my vision blur into blackness. I sway, Gisa’s hand is on my shoulder...and then it all goes black. 

--

I sit uncomfortably on the hospital’s cot. Gisa is a traitor for telling my mom that I fainted. I knew she’d just drag me here--hispanic mothers, they either believe they can cure you with vic’s vapor rub or they want you in the ER. No in between. 

“I know you didn’t want another test, but you’ve been throwing up in the morning for days and now you’re fainting.” 

“Fainted,” I correct, “it happened once.” 

“C’mon, mija, it’s just one doctor’s appointment.” 

Speaking of, an ER nurse returns. “Fainting and nausea spells explained,” he says, glancing at his clipboard, “you’re pregnant.” 

My mom and I can’t help but exchange a look before bursting into laughter. Pregnant. If I’m pregnant then the second coming is here. “That’s impossible, I’m a virgin.” 

He glances at my mom, “maybe we should have this conversation in private.” 

“No, what you say in front of me you can say in front of my mom.” 

My mom raises an eyebrow. “Y/n, did you and that guy from your english class--” 

“No! No, we did not. I am a virgin and there’s no way I’m pregnant.” I glare at the nurse. 

He then ushers me to a bathroom so that I can provide a urine sample. After I’m finished, he shows me a pregnancy test strip. “Pink means pregnant.” I bite my tongue as he tests the strip in my sample. He pulls it out and it’s...it’s bright pink.

“I’m calling my doctor, because this has to be a mistake. It has to be like a hormonal thing.” 

“Exactly, pregnancy hormones.” 

I glare even harder, calling the doctor that I saw last week. “Hello, Dr. Ash? I was wondering if I could get a consultation because I’m in the ER and some crazy doctor is trying to tell me I’m pregnant.” 

Silence on the line for a long second. “...I actually cleared my calendar for you.” 

[iheartgod175]

Hey, so remember that ages old Touché Turtle sketch I did a few months ago? Well, I brought Catalina back, and she's gotten quite a facelift since she first appeared. Still short, still sassy and still a force to be reckoned with in terms of swordsmanship (though naturally, she won't beat Touché Turtle himself).

A quick bio for her (italicized means subject to change)

Full Name: Catalina Gutierrez

Species: Cat (obviously, though what breed of cat I'm still working on)

Birthday: July 27th

Country of Origin: Spain

Height: 2'5"

Weight: 92 lbs.

Fur color: Cherry Red

A member of the famous Feline Paladins, a squadron of feline musketeers within the Heroes Society. If Touché Turtle is the D'Artagnan of the Heroes Society, then Catalina is the Athos: she is taciturn and strict, rather aloof and tends to take on missions by herself. Though coolheaded in most situations, she can have some impulsive moments and a hot temper that takes a minute to cool down. She's notorious for her brutal honesty, and won't hesitate to speak her mind, especially when she's angry. Despite this, she's protective of the members of her squadron, namely Emilia, who she cares for like a daughter, and Augustin, whom she recognizes as separate from the actions of his father, the Black Knight.

Catalina has a mysterious past that not even the upper ranks of the Society were able to uncover, though it ties to the Dugan clan and her hatred of of the Gold Paladin, which runs even deeper than Dum-Dum's. She has confronted him only once, which resulted in her bitter defeat. She learned that there was only one person who was able to defeat him, and that was the heir of the Dugan Keep. To that end, she decided to seek Touché Turtle's services...albeit in the most unorthodox manner by arresting Dum-Dum and holding him in prison until Touché arrived. She got chewed out for it later, but in her mind, the end justifies the means. It wasn't an easy partnership, especially in regards to Dum-Dum, but if they can make it out of this without killing each other, then mission accomplished. And maybe, just maybe, she'll discover what made Rutherford Dugan choose this sleepy sheepdog as the next Keeper of the Crown.

Trivia:

- Her profile here doesn't show it, but she's actually left-handed.

- Her costume was heavily inspired by the Three Musketeers set in Revue Starlight, specifically, Hikari Kagura's Athos card, though she also has elements of Karen's D'Artagnan costume as well. Her costume was almost more elaborate than this, but I remembered that I have to draw her again and again 😬

- Personality wise, I imagine her to be a distant relative of Ruff (of Ruff and Reddy fame). I might draw them together some time.

- I can also imagine her and Touché being at odds because of her attitude, though they'd slowly warm up to each other, especially after Cat warms up to Dum-Dum.

That's gonna be all for now, maybe until I decide to do a full on rewrite of the original For Love and Glory. She'll probably appear sometime in the third fic, where they encounter the Gold Paladin again. I'll be posting a (more or less) complete fic list for my Touché Turtle fics in that series on my writing blog, @taviewritesstuff.

Enjoy 🙂