#uhhh something something reason for halo

[abs0luteanarchy]

today’s v1 sketch

[themissingnumbers]

Hi, Starry! Remember that observation I said I wanted to do of that "A Boy Named Red" art piece? I finally got around to that. I don't mean to clutter your inbox or blog, but I don't know where else to put it, so I'll just put it here- This probably won't have any sort of theory in it, but I dunno yet. We'll see-

1. Where do I start- Uhhh, did anybody else see that one half of Fire's face is just... missing? Like, it's decomposed or something. You have to change the brightness of the image to see it, but you can see his bones—the mandible/jaw, the zygomatic bone, and the maxilla. Looks like his eye is missing, too, or is just empty/milky white. Freaky. (Also, those gold dots are looking right at us you cannot convince me otherwise.)

2. Might be grasping at straws here, but for whatever reason my brain focused on the fact that there are no words near Fire's head when it's perfectly fine overlapping everything and everyone else. The inner circle of the halo closest to his head is empty. Is that symbolism? Like, showing that he has no ability to think for himself? That the only words he's influenced by are the words of "God" (In air quotes because fuck Arceus, that thing is no god to me-) and nobody else's input matters so long as he does what he's told?

3. The Strings. Those strings bug me in a way I can't really explain. It's not just the stitches that are holding him together, but it's that fact that they're like... pretty. They're wrapped around him in such an intricate manner, like a work of art or the bow on an expensive present. They feel possessive. Evil. They're restrictive. One is connected to his eye, the other to the corner of his mouth, the others are wrapped around his arms and legs, and there are more wrapped around each individual finger. They're not quite chains, but they may as well be. They give me the vibes of "Oh, your pet finally learned to behave, so it deserves a nicer collar." It looks nicer, and it's more comfortable, but the core meaning behind it is still the same. Someone else owns you and you have no freedom. It gives me an oddly icky feeling.

4. Can I focus in on the sword for a second? Okay, thanks- That thing is so cool. Younger me was a bit of a weapon nut and that came out a little bit the more I looked at it, so enjoy this little ramble. The sword itself, as in the blade, at first glance reminded me of a Xiphos but looked like more of a Gladius upon closer inspection due to the shape of the blade. Xiphos swords have a Leaf-shaped blade that sort of gets wider in the middle and a reinforced mid-rib, while Gladius blades are completely straight with a uniform width and a pointed top, along with a diamond cross-section. (It's probably not a short sword, but from the angle I'm looking at, it looks like a short sword.) [Hold up: I went back and refreshed my knowledge, and I swear this blade looks like a Cinquedea, at least in shape.] Now, I can't really see what specifics the blade has got, but based on the blood spatter I'm gonna assume it's got a diamond cross-section. (But this is also fantasy so who really cares?) I also can't really see the hilt of the blade either, but with the angle we're looking at it seems like it's curved, which is freaking awesome. A curved hilt gives you more leverage for cutting and is good for thrusting attacks due to its more pistol-like grip, so it's effective. It's a powerful weapon when placed in the right hands. What I'm really focused on though is that based on the blade's appearance, it looks like a double-edged sword... which would be bad for a blade with a curved hilt because now you can't use it in the opposite direction, but there's also an extra meaning in a more figurative sense—like the power is a burden. Take that as you will :)

5. The Bodies. There are SO many bodies, some of which I spent too long trying to identify with no clues, but I'll just point out who I see. You've got (shirtless!) Red on the left with his ribs exposed and his guts spilling out, still smiling. You've got Blue not too far away from him with a knife in his neck. And then a little bit behind Blue but closer to fire there's just a pile of bones hidden by the darkness. I don't know who those belong to, but they're there. Over to the right, we can see who I'm pretty sure is Leaf going off of the dress, the shackles and the bloody hands. You can see Miki's head right by Fire's foot all wrapped up in red string. A little bit behind who I'm assuming is Leaf, I'm assuming is another Blue with bleeding ears or an injured face? They've got the FRLG high-collared shirt that Blue seems to wear, but the shoes don't really match up so I'm not really sure. I also don't know who's in the chest or who's facing Suicune, but all the way in the bottom right corner is Gold (ouch-) I couldn't tell at first, but after brightening up the image, you can see his hood, the detail of his pockets, and that little band on the sleeve of the arm laying nearby. (Poor Gold, but also Poor Fire-)

6. Other items. There are a lot of little things just lying around in this picture that I'm not really sure about, but I'll give them my best guesses here. There's something to the right of Fire, just below the hand holding the sword, that kinda looks like... coins? A flower? I'm not really sure, but it looks like it's on top of something else, which I unfortunately cannot see. There's a classic brick Game Boy off to the right as well. Don't know why it's there along with the box that person was shoved in. There's also like... some fuzz?- or some shit right up by Fire's wrist, which I also don't know why it's there or who it belongs to. I'm just assuming it's fluff/fur based on how I've seen Starry draw fur and Eevee. There are some crystals on the left, which kinda look like those crazy crystals jutting out of Dark Mewtwo. And there's also this weird ball thing in the bottom left that I genuinely cannot identify. It looks like it's being held together by green string, but I'm not sure. (Almost forgot to mention the Pomeg Berry at Fire's feet-)

7. The Others. I don't have too much to say about them, but there are two other characters in the background. A Suicune who's wearing a muzzle, and a Hisuain Zoroark with a golden collar around its neck. I'm assuming that the Zoroark is the character that got teased a while back, the one that was "Collared by the Narrative" I believe. Now, I'm also not sure why Suicune is wearing a muzzle, but I'm going to take it at face value and assume it's a form of control because the idea of Arceus having other gods in its back pocket just makes sense to me.

Okay, I think that's all I got for now. Sorry if it's too long. I just wanted to write this stuff down while I had the energy. Hope you like it though :)

Death comes in many forms; Slaughtered, Poisoned, Enshrined. Not every body is how it was, scraps and fragments left behind.

Remember the thirds, all that went wrong. The Youngest is the Eldest, strange beasts who don't belong.

Copies are valuable, for the imperfections they hold. Truth lies in scripture, held together with gold.

[danketsuround]

sunday six!

early again (late for me, but). i wrote this on tumblr while waiting for a package that hasn't arrived yet. tagging uhhh @four-white-trees @c-cw-f-saeko @overdevelopedglasses @fire-tempers-steel @passthroughtime and uh i forgot who else is participating in this

sawa and mitsuru one shot below. not an au, they're just in high school. i was complaining earlier today about how they didn't get to interact at all (like, not even in a flashback???) so like whatever i wrote my own thing. be the change you want to see in the world. kthnxbye

Past a road on a steel bridge, among little fossils in a river, there was a mound of green grass, and two bikes laying diagonally atop each other. Mitsuru laid there in the sun, craning his neck upwards to look at their chains, tangled like legs under a blanket. He sighed and let his head drop against the ground. It made a sound much heavier than him.

"Mind your head," pretty Sawa seemed to scold him, as if he were some infant with a soft spot in his skull. She had the nerve to speak to him so dearly, even as he twisted the grass between his fingers in anxious sorrow.

"It didn't hurt," he said, not bothering to look up again.

Her little patent leather shoes hit rocks. She had been balancing on a log near the river. He heard the gravel under her feet, then the grass, and then the sun disappeared.

"You have a grass stain on your shirt."

A halo of light hit her backside. Had he prayed more, he thought, maybe the angel would say something useful, or kind.

"That's okay," he replied shyly. She was tall; tall enough to call the sun again when she sat beside him.

They had biked from the train station—as most high schoolers did—recklessly, without their helmets. Sawa lived three doors down and across from him, in a smaller, gated house, with a nice windowsill tomato garden and an old dog with a hoarse bark. Despite this, they never saw each other. Better yet, Mitsuru never saw her. He kept his head down and looked at his feet like his shoes were in danger of catching on fire at any moment. He was quick-footed, too, despite his chronic tardiness—or, perhaps, because of it. Sawa held onto his arm in the sardine-packed commute of the sweaty summer afternoon rush. She didn't let go when the doors opened, or when they squeezed out of the car, or when they took the escalator down; and she didn't say a word to him at all until Mitsuru found he had locked his bike next to hers, and suddenly it seemed his feet were safe of any interesting fires. She wanted to tutor him.

"No thanks," he told her, then frowned when tall and pretty Sawa made an angry wrinkled face like she was going to chew him.

In the long hour they walked their bikes together, he discovered her face was stuck like that, always, even when she smiled. He thought, that's probably why no one messed with her, and why she won the student council election by a landslide. It was the first day of the second semester and they came to the knoll, together.

"Are you eighteen already?" Sawa asked him out of air, watching the sun lower behind the old bridge.

Mitsuru shook his head into the dirt.

"Are you?"

"I turned eighteen over the summer."

"Happy birthday."

"Thanks."

Then it was quiet again when Mitsuru started thinking about sitting at the dinner table with a grass stain on his shirt, and his mother with her eyes on some stack of papers he couldn't read.

"I'm still a kid compared to you."

"I guess."

"You can vote, and take out a loan, and apply for a credit card, and stuff."

"I can't drink yet."

For some reason, she defended herself.

"But you're closer," he argued anyways. "And you're taller than me."

She laughed. "Age doesn't have much to do with that."

He looked at her and, for some reason, he grew excited.

"Do you think I'll grow ten centimeters by winter?"

"No," she said, which sounded cruel coming from her chewy face. "Or, I guess you'll have to wait and see."

"Yeah, I'll wait," he said sadly. "I'll wait."

She loosened her clip and pulled her fingers through the bend in her hair. Being a girl seemed really hard, but, like most things, Sawa did it effortlessly. He hadn't noted much about her, but he knew she played the cello, and that she played it beautifully. She could have played a stand-out instrument—the violin like Mamiya, or the flute, like himself, which stood-out in terrible, shrill ways—but she played the low, humming background of an instrument and she played it better than anyone else. Her kindness was the same, her voice played a pitying, slow tune.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

He imagined she asked because she, a grown up, already knew.

"A nurse."

"A nurse!"

Admittedly, her shock stung a little.

"That's just the first thing that came to mind. I want to work in a hospital, like my mom."

Sawa tucked her legs in. "Is she worried about exams?"

He wrinkled his face taking another blow, then shook his head in an uncaring way.

"No, she doesn't worry about me," he said. "She thinks I can do anything."

"You can do anything."

Mitsuru shrugged. "I don't know."

"You can play the flute pretty well."

"I don't know."

"And you can swim pretty well, too."

"I don't know. I hate swimming."

She leaned forward. "Do you like being a nurse? Don't say you don't know."

His answer was silence instead.

"What do you want to be?"

She held her breath. Her face was red and puffy and she laughed when she couldn't hold it any longer. On her back, next to Mitsuru, she said, "I don't know."

Mitsuru scrambled to his feet while Sawa held her stomach, spitting and laughing and hitting the ground with her legs.

"Well!" He said stridently. "Then! Then, then! Why'd you make me pick!"

When she finally calmed down, she said, "I want to know more about you, Kusumoto."

That was a damn good answer—better than one he could ever give. The sun had mostly set, leaving gradients of pink and yellow, which settled starkly under the coming twilight. He stuck out his hand for her to take it; his actions were bold but he was red in the face, redder than Sawa's spitting laughter.

"I want to go home now," he said. "And do my laundry."

"Okay." She took his hand but pulled herself up by her legs. They untangled their bikes and she motioned putting on an invisible helmet, then she led the way because her house was a block further than his.

On their bikes, Mitsuru yelled, "Maybe you should be a teacher."

"Maybe," she yelled back.

"I'd like to see that." He was smiling but she couldn't see. "Sawa-sensei."

[xikyuu]

hey for no reason in particular can you send me some dallas references :3 either picrews or written descriptions or something

gnawing at the bars of my enclosure UH YEAH YEAHYEHAYEHA I CAN faoms at the mouth—

picrews of dally. ill dm photos of people’s at that look similar instead of showing bc i dont know the artists names 😭 same w the picrews but,.. yeah

one of those is from gacha life but shhh

a general written describes uhhh lemme look in my notes for this:

before we start imma just say that bc dallas is a self-insert, their general appearance before all the magic n lore n stuff kicks in,, he looks like me! which is something ive done when i got better self-esteem honestly. so i could dm a few photos of myself and you could tweak them around however you like

red/ginger hair. length and style depends on what stage of life hes at. if its wilds/walls/rebellion, its gonna be short but like.. shoulder-length short bc hair-styling was a big thing in kismá culture & also he likes it. after-death? it changes bc he can shape-shift but normally its long-ish and in a ponytail. not anime-long, like normal realistically long, maybe touches the middle or lower half of his back. sometimes there might be a white streak or several from stress that he doesnt get rid of

yellow/gold eyes

if he’s in his Guide/cryptid form, he also has multiple Eyes all over his body and wings (face examples in picrews, wing examples would be watcher!grian art, body examples could be tamari from song reckless battery burns).

there may also be Eyes floating around him in a halo if he actives those powers.. not common though

the more common halo! just a fancy spiky golden one tbh. not a boring circle, no he can shape-shift!! it can look so special and cool!!!

6 wings + the ear wings. thats the basic amount in the cryptid form but he can also yk. shape-shift. theyre normally angel wings but he will change them to different bird wings to fit in. they were originally going to he osprey wings but i decided to change it to angel wings which are really jist white wings.

cryptid form also has a demon tail thats gold bc its cool

many many scars even when disguised as human. he feels more connected to his past and his humanity that way.

he wears a bronze compass necklace that has lore implications from the wilds arc and the copperhead “gang”. i have this necklace if you wanna see the photo.

bc he can shape-shift, he can open up piercing holes and close them easily. however he only prefers piercings in his ears. most of the times its just the normal ear piercings,,, 2 of them like how some people get so he can have a pair of dangly earrings and them studs for complementary

for clothing, he normally wears a tight black undershirt for the pressure bc its a habit and relieves anxiety. like a weighted blanket. reminds him of a bulletproof vest.

he wears cargo pants often bc he likes pockets. its good to have pockets yes. you need to carry around stuff in case something happens.

he will also wear flow-y clothing sometimes like a big t-shirt or maybe a skirt if he feels pretty good that day. he loves dresses but sometimes has issues actually wearing them

loves wearing necklaces and bracelets,, especially when they jangle. reminds him of home. rings,,, they feel weird between his fingers so if he gets one as a gift, he’ll wear it on a chain instead.

i could send clothing examples if you want if you need more

hope that helps idk aaa

[thecouncilofidiots]

26. Do you have any in-system relationships?

A few, but not many. Ace is in a queerplatonic relationship with Sin. Poppy and BaBa (both fragments) are married (AMAF aka Assigned Married At Formation /silly). Other than that, there's a couple friendships, but we're overall colleagues.

27. Do you label roles within your System (and if yes, which ones?)

Yes, we try to. We have holders (emotion holders, symptom holders, ect), protectors, ect. We also get a bit niche, but those are more for fun/because we like organizing.

28. Are most of your Members introjected, brainmade or something else?

Most of our members are brainmade; we only have a handful of introjects.

29. Do you use names, emojis or something similar to sign off messages (and if yes, which ones and why?)

We sign-off with our names; there's too many of us to keep track of and remember emoji sign-offs

30. Do any of your System members use Xenogenders?

Sort of? Not sure if they're xenogenders or neogenders (or perhaps a combination of both), but we do have a lot of non-traditional gender identites

31. How do Members pick face claims?

We don't really. If we can, we use picrews to make approximations of our appearance, but officially, we make moodboards to capture our vibes (not all of us have a clear form)

32. Do you have any Introjects of popular sources?

We do have a Fizzarolli (from Helluva Boss) and The Smiler (from Escape the Backrooms)... Kora is from Coraline, and Lolli is technically from Creepypasta? Spartan is from Halo! I don't know, we've got a few

33. Do you have any Introjects of unpopular sources?

I don't know what's considered unpopular? I guess "less known", so perhaps Anna (from K-Project)?

34. Do you have nonhuman Members?

Yes! So many! Animalistic, supernatural entities, objects, ect ^.^

35. Do any of you use Typing Quirks?

Well, Jasper writes the way he talks (usin' drawlin' Southern charm), and many littles or less sentient alters drop words (talk simple, use no extra word), ect.

36. Do all of you front, or only a selected amount?

There's no front rules, but the more developed alters tend to front more often than the fragments (though sometimes fragments return to front after formation). Mostly depends on necessity (protectors and holders fronting when needed for their roles)

37. Are there any Members who can't or prefer to not speak?

Yup ^.^ Mouse and Mel (both fairly well developed/sentient) are entirely non-speaking, both when fronting and in headspace. Grey is less sentient, and can't speak, but does make grunts/growls (zombie alter). There are also several animalistic alters who cannot speak (Mayhem, Ferrus, Misch, ect), though they do make noises (barks, meows, ect) when in front. Ace and Domino are typically speaking, but are prone to verbal shutdowns

38. Are most of you short or tall in height?

We don't really have heights (most of our appearances are conceptual due to aphantasia)

39. Is there a Member that is collectively loved by all in the System?

Uhhh... Mouse? Mouse is our youngest, and we all are pretty adoring of Mouse

40. Do any of you struggle with being front-stuck a lot of the time?

Fortunately, we rarely get frontstuck. I think Sammie has it happen most often (she's a protector who helps us with medical things, and can't switch out when we're struggling with medication)

Ace gets frontstuck when at home with family (the rest of the system is... adverse)

41. Do you have a Headspace (if not, is there a reason)?

We have one! It (like our appearances) is conceptual due to aphantasia, but it does exist

42. What does your Headspace look like?

It's a series of underground caverns interconnected via tunnels

43. How do Members look like in Headspace? (example: Cartoony, Foggy, Realistic, ...)

(See question 38)

44. Is there a reason why the Headspace looks the way it looks?

Caves = dark, warm, safe

45. Is it easy for you to enter Headspace?

Sort of? We know that if we aren't in front, we're in headspace. But the memories don't stick around.

46. Do you remember what happened in Headspace when you switch into front?

Nope! We have strong memory barriers between each other and front/headspace. Some things stick around or can be tracked down in the collective/communal memory, but it's incredibly unreliable

47. Does time in Headspace pass (and if yes, is it at the same speed as in real life)?

Nope :) we have no sense of time, and it extends to headspace

48. What is your favourite place in Headspace?

Sin's arms <3 (written by Ace)

Otherwise, we each have our own cavern, and most choose theirs as their favorite

49. Are there "NPCs" within your Headspace?

No, the only beings in our head are our alters/headmates

50. Are there any interesting fun facts about your Headspace?

Physics are Wrong™️, so the caverns and tunnels exist simultaneously on the same plane and parallel dimensions, always moving/shifting, overlapping and completely separate at random

#One-Hundred

[pt: #one-hundred]

In order to celebrate 100 days of posting, here are 100 questions for you to answer! You can either answer them all at once, or let others send in the numbers they are most curious about!

Some of them are general questions, others are just really silly and should not be taken too serious. I put a lot of effort into coming up with all of these, so I truely hope you have fun with this!

For simplicity sake, all questions will use the words "System" and "Members".

1. What is your System name and / or the name you collectively go by?

2. Which word do you prefer to use for your System? (example: System, Collective, Constellation, ...)

3. What are your Systems origins, if you choose to label them?

4. Do you have any Subsystems?

5. Do you have any Sidesystems?

6. What is your opinion on you& / your& language and similar types?

7. What methodes do you use to keep track of your System and it's Members?

8. What is your Systems ways of communication?

9. Is communication hard or easy for you (and why is it the way it is)?

10. Do you view yourselves as parts of one person or as multiple people in one body?

11. Who are you out to as plural?

12. What languages do you collectively / one of you speak?

13. What is something you can't seem to collectively agree on?

14. If you have a collective Identity (such as Gender or Orientation), what is it?

15. Do you collectively identify as queer / LGBTQIA+?

16. Do you collectively identify as Otherkin, Alterhuman or Nonhuman?

17. Do you have a collective rentry / carrd / something along those lines? (feel free to share!)

18. What does switching feel like for you?

19. Are you Monoconscious, Polyconscious or something else?

20. What does fronting feel like for you?

21. How many System members do you have?

22. Which word / words do you prefer to use for members of your System?

23. Which age group seems to be the most common in your System?

24. Which gender seems to be the most common in your System?

25. Are there any talents / hobbies you picked up because of a Member?

26. Do you have any in-system relationships?

27. Do you label roles within your System (and if yes, which ones?)

28. Are most of your Members introjected, brainmade or something else?

29. Do you use names, emojis or something similar to sign off messages (and if yes, which ones and why?)

30. Do any of your System members use Xenogenders?

31. How do Members pick face claims?

32. Do you have any Introjects of popular sources?

33. Do you have any Introjects of unpopular sources?

34. Do you have nonhuman Members?

35. Do any of you use Typing Quirks?

36. Do all of you front, or only a selected amount?

37. Are there any Members who can't or prefer to not speak?

38. Are most of you short or tall in height?

39. Is there a Member that is collectively loved by all in the System?

40. Do any of you struggle with being front-stuck a lot of the time?

41. Do you have a Headspace (if not, is there a reason)?

42. What does your Headspace look like?

43. How do Members look like in Headspace? (example: Cartoony, Foggy, Realistic, ...)

44. Is there a reason why the Headspace looks the way it looks?

45. Is it easy for you to enter Headspace?

46. Do you remember what happened in Headspace when you switch into front?

47. Does time in Headspace pass (and if yes, is it at the same speed as in real life)?

48. What is your favourite place in Headspace?

49. Are there "NPCs" within your Headspace?

50. Are there any interesting fun facts about your Headspace?

51. Are there any "System Stereotypes" you fit into?

52. Who of you would be considered the "evil alter"? (in a lighthearted, joking manner)

53. What is your favourite inside-joke with a Member?

54. What is your favourite Plural meme?

55. Is there any character that you headcanon as plural?

56. Is there any show or movie that you believe is a good plural representation, despite that not being its intention?

57. Is there any song that you believe decribes your plural experience?

58. What about an artwork that describes your plural experience?

59. Which Member of your System do you believe to be the prettiest of them all?

60. Do you collectively have a lucky number?

61. When did you first discover your System?

62. How many Members did you know about during your Syscovery?

63. Was accepting your Plurality a challenge for you?

64. How did you learn about Plurality?

65. Where there any signs of your Plurality, if you look back at your past?

66. Do you think your Syscovery changed a lot in your life?

67. If you're out to others as plural, have they ever told you later on that they already thought about it before you realised?

68. What was the biggest struggle during your Syscovery?

69. Was there any big event that led to your Syscovery?

70. What is something you want questioning plurals to know?

71. Are you Neurodivergent (and if yes, how?)

72. Do you have any physical disability?

73. Do you have a dissociative disorder?

74. Do you have any other disorder?

75. Do symptom vary in intensity depending on the fronter?

76. Do you think your disability / disorder has an influence on your plurality?

77. Do you have amnesia of any kind?

78. Are there Members who deal better with symptoms than others?

79. Do your disorders / disabilities influence communication or switching within your System in any way?

80. Does being plural help with your disorders in any way? (example: another Member switching in to take care of the body during difficult times, ...)

81. Which is your favourite plural flag?

82. If you have one, which is your favourite plurality related tumblr blog?

83. What is a fun fact about your System?

84. What is a flavour of ice cream that describes you collectively?

85. Which pride flag is the prettiest, in your collective opinion?

86. If you collectively had to choose between being a sweet or a sour candy, which do you pick?

87. Your body always morphs into what the current fronter(s) look like, would you want this power or not?

88. Is there a Hatsune Miku in your System?

89. Who has been in your System the longest (if you can remember)?

90. If you collectively had to choose, would you rather only eat sweet foods or only eat savoury foods for the rest of your life?

91. If you collectively had to choose, would you pick to become a vampire or a werewolf?

92. Your body is transfered into one of your Members sources, which do you pick and why?

93. If all of you turned into animals right this second, which animals would we find in your System?

94. What would a Minecraft server with all of your Members look like? (example: chaotic, peaceful, laggy, ...)

95. If you could choose between only living in Headspace or only living in Meatspace (real life), which would you choose?

96. What topic would you collectively make a youtube channel about? (it can't be plurality!)

97. Which superpower would your body obtain, if you had to collectively decide on one?

98. Who would pick the coolest tattoo for the System and who would pick the worst?

99. If you only were allowed to eat one food for the rest of your life, but you would have to decide on the food collectively, what would it be and what would the decision making look like?

100. What is the most fun about doing polls and answering questions, in your opinion?

[heavenwithgyu]

locked in heaven

pairing: vernon x gn!reader (mentions reader wearing skirt once when describing the outfit somewhat but other than that nothing else!)

genre: fluff !

a/n i got this idea from tiktok lol ! i used filters to come up with the premise (forced proximity and vernon) and the rest was just me so :P also costume party bc halloween is so close and idk how long i’ll keep this writing spree !! i havent written this much in so long its crazy :)) i took the songs mentioned from seungkwans playlist on spotify so its songs he actually listens to and i absolutely adore ftisland so seeing them on there made me so happy

proofread: sorta, tumblr deleted part of my draft so i had to rewrite some which i didn’t reread

warnings: seungkwan says an suggestive joke accidentally, reader repeats it, brief mentions of drinking (reader doesnt and neither does vernon) uhhh kiss/makeout scene

Seungkwan had finally convinced you to go to one of his halloween parties, when he first asked you about it a couple of years ago, you weren’t as close so you said no.

The year after when he asked, you had already agreed to going to another friends party so you had to decline, treating him to lunch because of how petty he was afterwards. Any time you would ask to hang out a few days after the party, he would be telling you to go ask your other friends before you finally caved and told him you’d pay for him. He agreed.

This year he had asked you before your other friend even began planning theirs, spurring you on with the idea that Vernon would be there. Seungkwan knew you had the fattest fucking crush on him and who were you to say no to being at a party with your crush?

It gave you the chance to get to know him better, so you agreed, telling him you had no idea what to be. He had given you the idea to be an angel, said the halo and wings would look good on you.

You should’ve suspected the reason why he instantly knew what you should be but you didn’t, which is why when Seungkwan pulled up to your house just as you had finished getting ready, Vernon following behind him and dressed as the devil, you knew you were in for one tonight.

“Oh you guys are matching! How cute!” Seungkwan mused once he got inside, Vernon’s eyes locked onto your outfit, his face unreadable as traced up from your white skirt to the halo that you had gotten on your head with a headband and a piece of wire.

“Don’t go corrupting them!” Seungkwan scolded playfully, slight shock overrided you at his words and then he seemed to realize what he said. “Oh, not like that, oh I could’ve worded that better,” he said, his hand covering his mouth and you were giggling, walking over to the other man.

A smile on your lips as you looked at him, his eyes pouring into yours. “You heard him, don’t go corrupting me,” you repeated, his eyes widening while Seungkwan was telling you to shut up, obviously annoyed with you spurring on his misspeak.

Another giggle left you while Seungkwan was pushing you out of your house, Vernon following the two of you out and shutting your door since you were being pushed all the way to Seungkwan’s car. He was scolding you the entire time, saying how it’s not nice to make fun of mistakes, that he is soo nice to you all the time and you treat him like this.

You got into the back seat, letting Vernon have the front seat since he had been sitting there on the way to your house so all his stuff was still up there. Seungkwan was still going on about how he had done so many things for you when Vernon was getting into the car, a laugh slipping out of his lips when he realized that.

Vernon put on some music to shut him up, Seungkwan not protesting since he enjoyed the song that was on, singing along to it immediately while beginning to drive to his house so he could get the party ready.

You knew it wouldn’t rake him long, he probably had most of it set up already and just had to do a few finishing touches like scattered decorations or something of the sorts. You began humming along to Take Me Now by FTISLAND, surprised since the song that had last played was one by Harry Styles.

He didn’t live that far away from you so it didn’t take long to get to your house, the next song started to play as he pulled up. He sighed as he turned off he car, normally if he liked the song enough, he would wait until it finishes to leave but he didn’t have the time to.

You all got out, holding your bag close to you since you had never gone to one of his parties before, you were close with all the guys but it would be more than just them there. Seungkwan asked you to help him put silly stickers around, one’s that were fake blood and had writing that said ‘help me’, and stuff like that.

You were reaching up to put one of the stickers where he told you, up close to the ceiling for some god awful reason, but you couldn’t quite get it there. You looked around for something to stand on, just to give yourself an extra inch or two because you knew Seungkwan would be picky.

“Here, I got it,” Vernon’s voice suddenly said from next to you, carefully grazing your fingers to take the sticker from you, sticking it where he saw Seungkwan tell you to.

You muttered a quick thank you, feeling your fingers buzz from the gesture, it was small, it was nothing, you knew you shouldn’t be this flustered over it, but it was him, you couldn’t help yourself.

A few of the others began to come in, Minghao was dressed as a cowboy, boots and all, a smile gracing your lips at the sight because he looked funny. “Howdy partner!” you called to him, he grumbled, Seungkwan coming over and laughing.

“Seokmin and I made a bet, I lost,” is all Minghao said before he was off into the kitchen, presumably looking for the alcohol to start the night off early. He was ticked off from what it seemed, he hated losing bets, he was a competitive person by all means.

Seokmin followed in after him quickly, absolutely beaming with pride while he was dressed up as Pennywise. “Did you guys see him?” he asked, a slight giggle in his voice and Seungkwan was quietly telling him he was a genius and that he should win bets more often.

Minghao came back out with a cup in his hand, a glare sent to the two who were giggling, Seungkwan instantly trying to find something to pull him out of his situation. “Oh, uhm, Vernon! Help me with the rest of these?” he seemed to have settled on continuing to decorate, holding up the pack.

You glanced at the boy who was still beside you, him blinking a couple times while looking at Seungkwan, “Huh? Oh yeah, sure.” He walked over to the other, grabbing some and walking off to go put them places, not even waiting for Seungkwan to direct him.

A hum left you as you walked over to Hao, letting him complain about how Seokmin most definitely cheated somehow, just to see him wear this. He was planning on being Jack Skellington and had the makeup for him down but he just had to lose the bet, which he wouldn’t tell you about.

He brushed off the question both times you asked, so you just assumed he was holding onto the little bits of dignity he had left. “Y’know, you look like Woody from Toy Story,” you snickered after you looked at his outfit more, a loud sigh coming from him and then he was taking a swig of his cup.

“Whatever,” he muttered, walking off as more people began to file into the house, Seungkwan setting off towards where people weren’t to finish up and make it look like it wasn’t last minute.

You found yourself in the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water, surprised Seungkwan even had them in his fridge at a party to begin with, but you were grateful nonetheless. Sipping it as you walked out towards where the party had seemed to come alive spontaneously, music, people, everything.

While it wasn’t a lot of people, it was still people, you decided to walk around until you at least found someone you knew in the slightest, seeing Chan dressed as fucking Pikachu, no way.

You sat down next to him, holding in a laugh when he meets your eyes because he can see that little glint meaning you were going to make tease him for his outfit, a quick “Hey Chan—”

He quickly cut you off, “I don’t want to hear it,” him sighing right after and leaning his head back against the couch, sulking through his yellow face paint.

From the way he is sitting, you can tell he also painted his neck which causes a laugh to fall from you finally, him turning his head to face away from you at the sound, his nose scrunching.

You reached over and flicked one of his ears to his hoodie, giggling out “You look so cute~ Makes me wish I had a pokeball to—”

“I get it! Pikachu is funny,” He exclaims, making sure you didn’t get to actually make fun of him, which sucks the fun out of him being dressed like this.

A hum and you’re telling him goodbye, making sure to call him Pikachu instead of Chan which causes him to sulk more, walking off to go find someone you knew.

You wanted to find someone who was relatively alone because everyone who you were finding seemed to be very invested in their conversations would means you wouldn’t be spared the time of day.

Another swig of your water bottle as you finally settled on just roaming around, walking through the hallway and peeking into open rooms to find anyone who wasn’t caught up in something— or someone like Gyu was. He must’ve forgotten to shut the door or something because as you peeked your head in, you saw him making out with someone.

A sight you wished you could forget but also you were glad to see because at least he hadn’t gotten any further than that.

You got into a slightly deserted part of the hallway, leaning against the wall and pulling out your phone, trying to pass the time without getting super bored in the process.

You brought your hand up to open your water but a hand grabbed your wrist instead, looking up to see Seungkwan excitedly telling you, “We’re playing a game! C’mon.”

You didn’t protest, letting him lead you to a room that held a random people from the party, a couple of the boys, and Vernon. You quickly realized what they were playing, Spin The Bottle, at least you assumed with how everyone was sitting in a circle.

The thought of Vernon spinning the bottle and landing on someone else, kissing someone else right in front of you immediately crossed your mind.

You almost told Seungkwan that you didn’t want to play and left. Almost. The little devil on your shoulder was telling you all the possibilities if Vernon spun the bottle and it landed on you, that he would be kissing you.

So you sat down, all logic thrown out the window because there had to be at least 15 people and the chances of him landing on you out of 14? Slim. Close to none.

But there was a chance.

Seungkwan set a bottle in the middle, staying there, “So we all know what this is right?” he asked, a few people shaking their heads to where he was sighing, “It’s a combination of Spin The Bottle and Seven Minutes In Heaven, makes it more fun that way.”

Oh.

Your eyes wanted to look at Vernon, to see his reaction, though you were sure he already knew that since Seungkwan probably told him before he gathered people so your eyes stayed on Seungkwan.

“Who wants to go first?” he asked, his hand still on the bottle, and for some god forsaken reason, Vernon was saying he would.

Your stomach felt like it was in knots as his hand reached for the bottle, his eyes locking with yours before he was glancing around the circle. For some reason, your breath stopped, did he want to land on you?

No.

No you were sat across from him, of course he’d look at you right now, he would’ve looked at whoever was in your spot.

After what felt like an eternity, he spun it, your eyes staring intensely at it as you prayed to every possible God you could think of to have it land on you. You were an angel, they had to help you in your time of need.

The bottle began to slow, your nails wanting to dig into your palms but you tried to act like you didn’t care who it landed on, that the idea of him kissing someone else didn’t make your heart sting.

Because why would it land on you?

You were 1 out of 14, it was stupid chances and you should’ve never played and you wanted to look away to save yourself the disappointment whenever it stopped at— you.

It stopped at you.

Your eyes met Vernon’s, relief faintly on his features but you told yourself that you were imagining it, that he was just glad to have gotten someone he knows.

Why would he want to kiss you? He wouldn’t, he would’ve done it already if he did, there’s no way he wanted to be trapped in a closet with your for seven long minutes.

You were pulled, literally, out of your thoughts by Seungkwan tugging you to stand, Vernon’s arm in his other hand as he was leading you two to a door. You knew this door, this door led to a bathroom would led to another room which wasn’t frequented.

Gulping as Seungkwan pushed you into the other room, smiling at both of you with an evil grin, “See you two in seven minutes~” His voice was sickly sweet and you wanted to pass out when he closed the door.

It was you two, in a room. Alone. At least you weren’t pressed against each other in some tight closet.

“Have you, uhm, have you had your first kiss?” Vernon’s voice suddenly speaks but its quiet, you almost miss it, but you don’t because how could you miss his voice? Your eyes meet his, his hold worry.

You decide to tease him, “No, wanna be my first?” you ask nonchalantly, his eyes widen to comical levels while he’s opening his mouth to say something, shutting it right after. “I’m just kidding, Nonie, I’ve kissed people,” you tell him after a few seconds, walking over and for some reason, putting your hand on his arm.

You tell yourself it’s to help him relax but it’s most definitely just to feel his skin on yours even in the slightest way. “That was a terrible opener by the way,” more teasing leaves you, your hand also leaving him, you miss the way his fingers twitch as he wants to touch you instead.

He laughs softly, nodding, “Yeah, couldn’t think of anything better and the only thing on my mind was kissing so—” He cuts his sentence off short, seemingly thinking he said too much with the way he’s gulping, his eyes moving between yours quickly.

He’s nervous, you can tell, he’s hard to read to most people but to you? You can read him like the back of your hand, shallowly, you can never tell the reason he’s feeling it but you can tell what he’s feeling.

Wait.. the only thing on his mind was kissing? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Was he thinking of the game? Was he thinking of kissing someone else out there? Was he thinking of kissing you?

Your mind was racing with thoughts as you try to decode what he said, hoping by some miracle it’s a confession and you can finally kiss him.

But you can’t, it’s too vague, you don’t have enough to work with to come up with anything concrete. So you two are left looking at each other, words on the tip of your tongue that you want to spill out, that you want him to kiss you, but they don’t come.

Because while you’re silent, he is too, leaving you no indicator that he also wants it. So you’re left, looking at him. “Man, Seungkwan needs to clean this room,” Vernon suddenly says, you hadn’t noticed him look away and you peel your eyes away from him to look around, a laugh slipping past your throat.

“Yeah he really does, jeez,” you reply, not knowing how else to continue the conversation because all you can think about is what the fuck you should do. Fuck it. “Nonie,” you call out to him, his attention immediately on you, and you’re finishing your sentence before he can say anything, “you should kiss me.”

He doesn’t move, neither do you, but he seems to be frozen in his, not even breathing while he stares at you. “What?” he asks, dumbly, after a few seconds and you’re starting to think you’re making a huge mistake but you can’t turn back now so you’re just repeating yourself, quieter this time.

He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds again and your heart is racing and your body feeling like it’s about to throw up whatever you last ate and you realize just how dry your throat is gotten and how you left your water bottle out sitting in the circle still.

You’re too busy overthinking to see him walk over to you, his hand grazing your cheek pulls you back to reality, his eyes pouring into yours, silently asking if you were sure.

You nod slightly to him, letting him know you are, your hands reaching out to hold the back of his neck and he’s softly pressing his lips against yours.

It’s barely a kiss but it’s enough to feel as though matches had just struck your skin, your hands pulling him closer to kiss him more. He practically melts into you, his hands moving to grip your waist so he can ground himself.

You swear you’re losing your mind with how strong his cologne is, how his fingers dig into you to make sure you aren’t going to disappear, how his lips mold against yours— Your head is spinning. It’s too much, but it’s also not enough, you need him to kiss you harder.

It’s still featherlight and you need to feel his lips against yours more, he pulls back to breathe, you think, or find his sanity like you need to do, his eyes still closed. “Vernon,” you whisper, his eyebrows furrowing as you call him by his name, something you haven’t done in what feels like years, “Kiss me like you mean it.”

He smiles at you, his eyes practically sparking as he captures your lips in his again, finally pressing against yours firmly, his arms moving to wrap around you to hold you even closer when that doesn’t feel possible.

Your hands move to his hair, not caring that he had it done up and slicked back, he doesn’t seem to care either because he’s even smiling against you, tilting his head more to deepen the kiss.

Lungs are aching as you both sit there, absorbed in each other, but you couldn’t care, not when he’s like this with you. His lips part and yours do the same, his tongue carefully meeting yours before the door flies open, revealing Seungkwan standing there.

“I knew this would get you two together!” He exclaims triumphantly, a wide smile on his face while you two are practically jumping away from each other, heat spreading to both your cheeks.

You don’t say anything and just look at Vernon, him doing the same and then he’s walking over to the door, pushing Seungkwan out of the room. “Five more minutes,” he says, shutting the door and then walking back over to you, arms wrapping right back around you.

“I like you by the way,” he suddenly confesses, kissing you once again before you can respond and you’re left standing there torn— to kiss him back or confess back.

[samael-i-am]

catholic iconography hunter and belos; finally got around to adding my analysis here :))

i lost my apple pen a few days ago and just found it last night which means i’ve been thinking about drawing this For Days. i have so many thoughts all the thoughts. everything here is drawn for a specific reason.

the way clothes are drawn in iconography is really interesting - folds in clothes are almost entirely geometric, it represents heavenly order. they also have a specific meaning. black, outside of the application as traditional monastery dress, represents, yk. evil. death. etc. i kept belos’ clothes pretty similar to what we see in canon but the Vibes fit. the brown is like, dust to dust or something? i think? don’t quote me on that but that also felt fitting given his whole mud transformation thing.

in iconography gold is pretty much reserved entirely for christ - i kept belos’ gold accents to kind of represent how he’s usurping the titan’s will, and there’s definitely some kind of jesus metaphor going on with hunter and the whole day of unity sacrifice thing so he gets a gold shawl. i consider belos’s white to just be part of the ‘fit, but hunter is in a white smock partly because white is pretty uniformly used to represent swaddling clothes, and is also used to depict purity. he’s baby!

belos and hunter’s faces are pretty stylized…which, i mean, i’ve always had a rather cartoony style, but you see a lot of flat, almost uncanny faces like theirs in iconography for a reason. again, represents divinity, being closer to god…etc etc. belos’ is flatter than hunter’s because i imagine him as more disconnected from his humanity (witchanity? would it be witchanity for hunter?? we need words for this).

hand gestures are specific too…i thought about those a lot. belos’ hand gesture is meant to display that he’s about to speak. i thought about having him make a gesture that more closely correlates to ‘speaker,’ since he claims to be the titan’s prophet, but i felt like straying a bit away from that could show how the titan doesn’t actually favor him.

hunter’s hand gesture is one that you see made a lot by saints known for spending time in prayer - i believe it represents the success of prayer? here, i’m using it to show how much he’s forced to dedicate his life to the titan and belos’s cause. it’s like..the purpose of his existence, poor kid. having him use his left hand instead of his right, as is traditional, to sort of symbolize how he’s ‘different’ - the no-magic thing is not even a metaphor for disability, it’s pretty much explicitly a disability, and there’s no way this kid isn’t neurodivergent. further tying this in with the fact that historically, left handed people were kind of treated awfully.

aaaand last but not least the halos. belos just has the simple halo you see in most iconography because fuck him, and also he technically represents the virgin mary in this scene? i based it off of marian iconography so. yk. the perfectly circular nature of the halos represents sanctity, etc, etc, and it also just helps draw attention to their face. hunter gets the special jesus halo because again. vibes. metaphors.

(also hunter looks like an actual *child* here instead of the weird homonculus looking thing you see in iconography of young jesus because a) baby hunter and b) that looks so fucking weird. like in theory i understand why it was done but oh my god. why. why. i’ll shut up now but i could talk about this at length)

anyways uhhh tldr; dana terrace went to catholic school, something something religious trauma, something something biblical imagery in the emperor’s coven

[wonwooridul]

Hi this is Sher, I saw your ask about the the8 set earlier!! Let me first say that I am very shookt AHHAHA I am very honoured to know that you want to hear about my thoughts HAHA and also a disclaimer that I am quite a new art student, so my knowledge is still very limited HAHAH

uhhh *cracks knuckles* here we go I guess HAHA

I love love love how you made use of the umbrella in the first picture to create the leading lines down to the next pictures + I love the choice of red against the grayish background because red is very attention-grabbing and maybe I'm just biased about this because I LOVE RED.

For the second pic, I love the expensive vintage mood (it feels very gucci, very fashion and so true because the8 has impeccable fashion sense) created with the colours and the again, sharp lines!! It's also super interesting how the diagonal lines and the colours lead the eyes though not all the shapes are actually triangular such as second and third orange shapes.

Also, variation of type of shots of the8 used <3 <3

Typography goes really nicely because of the triangular feel of the font!!

The yellows in the boxes pair very nicely. There are also both overt and subtle circles here in the boxes which is a nice break away from all the sharp lines. (Also a guess but are u also trying to say that the flower symbolises the8 because on the leftmost box the subtle circle is surrounding the8 like a halo while in the next 2 boxes there is overt circle around the flower next to the8)

For the last pic, I like how you inverted the red. Now instead of using it to place emphasis on him, it's used to block out the background such that our focus is on The8. For me, red has always been something used to grab attention. okay, I'm not sure how to explain it further so I'll use an analogy for this. it. Let's say I saw this in public, the red would definitely grab my attention and lead me to come closer to look at it. When I finally come closer to look at it, the red actually helps me to direct my attention to the subject that is not in red instead. THAT IS SUPER COOL OKAY

The sharp lines are pretty consistent across the entire set, plus you added texture so there's that kind of mood created that I absolutely adore! The colours also all go very nicely with one another so <3

I apologise if I've overstepped or misinterpreted anything or if everything here is very "no shit sherlock". I'm just simply so in awe and thinking about how much time you might have spent to plan out not one but THREE different pictures that will work together. It's also super amazing to me how the 3 pictures generally flow so well from start to finish. Like this is the kind of stuff I've always wanted to do for my interests!!

I would love to hear more about how you ideated this and your thought processes as you did this, if you would like to share but no pressure! Or if you have thoughts on my interpretations, you can let me know too!! Thank you for blessing us with this wonderful set.

-Sher

henlo lovely sher <3333 thankyou sm for even responding to you my stupid ask ahhhhh. i have studied fine arts for a couple of years so i do have knowledge about colours and composition!!

i have loved that photoshoot of hao for a long time and always wanted to create sth with it,, because the umbrella gave me ideas hehe. one of the reasons why i used red is because as u said, to grab attention, make it stand out and it works well with the gray-blue opposite colours in the bg. AND it is one of the favourite colours and go-to colours for grfx. i was actually scared that i have been using a lot of red cause if u look at my graphics , it always has red.

leading lines yes,,, that was a point !! your whole interpretation of second panel truly put me in awe because i was literally blank minded when i did that. i just went what i think went with the whole “mood”. which is usually how i make graphics (with obv keeping in mind the alignment and the colour scheme). i was a little confused about the colours so my friends suggested i could go with the little gradient ,, thus the red orange and yellow.

as for the yellow part ,, i went with those pictures because they excluded cool vibes which was a bit contrasting from the mysterious vibes of the photos above it; but your interpretation of it wow,, truly made me look at it in such a new light, it’s beautiful. but you’re not wrong about me thinking about hao as flowers ,, i do associate him w flowers a lot. flowers, art and tea.

“everyone has a different interpretation of art in their own eyes”

the typography was thought after because it gave the expensive, grungy and futuristic look and suited the mysterious mood from the orange and b&w pictures.

the whole graphic was about making hao the main character and how he shines when he’s in the element.

for me, textures are the the oreo in the oreo mcflurry cause it just elevates and adds so much soul to the graphic.

i think i spend about 5 (?) hours over this whole set. i first didn’t like the last panel but then i felt that it was sort of a “concluding” panel to the first one so i let it be <3

i really appreciate you taking out your time and sending me this ask!! ♡ i would love to see if u ever try this kind of thing out !!

love, lee

[lightbringer-morningstar]

Relief nearly sets in as the Devil notices Lucid find some ease and begin to cautiously come forth, but panic catches the tiny dragon once more, like a wild fire that refuses to be put out.

"...uhhh, hey now, wait up, let's try and figure this out... It hasn't harmed you, that's actually a good sign..." he attempts to reason. Even while he doubts Lucid has the capacity to absorb much given the state he's in. Still, Lucifer hopes his presence at least can provide some stability even if he's only talking to himself for now.

Crimson gaze locks on and follows, focus set onto the small wyvern now sporting feathers and scales of various golds, vibrant hues of orange and sclera curiously, now pitch black along with the iris' which were once the brightest and purest sky blue. It's obvious that the angel is spooked and in shock, this sort of heightened level of anxiety was familiar, Hell's ruler could already sense his own heart rate rising. Before it can set in any further he inhales deeply, closes his eyes for a bit of centering and strengthens his own resolve so that he can help Lucid with this... issue. His ears catch one thing in particular said by the suddenly suffering angelic shape-shifter as he began circling in a frenzied panic.

They.

Could someone have actually intentionally done this to Lucid? It would require a magic ability and skill level that were immensely high? Who had he managed to run afoul this time? There were only so few with that sort of power, to Lu's knowledge.

"Fallen?" The Devil nearly huffs a laugh through his nose as he shakes his head. "Allow me to put your thoughts at ease in that department at least." He proclaims in a full and confident tone, while he bends over and plucks up the creature form Lucid has remained in. Holding him up he looks him in the eyes with a smirk. "This is not what it would look like to become a fallen. Nope, sadly it's a lot more complicated a process - and also a tragic one, at that, it takes more than a bit o' poof and your colors change. As unsettling as that whole ordeal was to watch just now. But rest assured that Halo, still intact." He winked and explained as he brought the wyvern in closer to his chest with a reassuring squeeze. "Now, now, don't worry, see, you're not banished just yet. And you've got me here, got that, I'm not going anywhere. I know we can figure this out, we've just gotta put our heads together. So, with that being said. Any ideas who would do something like this to ya? And, I mean besides the big H." He continues in his calm, smooth voice, allowing his hand to subconciously stroke and pet the feathered reptilian in a way that served to soothe them both.

Slowly Lucid stretches out of his scrunched, frozen pose, his serpentine neck rising as he turns his head to glance over his altered appearance. Oh his feathers! His beautiful snow white and sky blue feathers! They have turned to black and orange, inverted hues to his normal color palette. The little wyvern lifts a wing, extending it and flexing open and closed. Chittering with distress, the small dragon begins circling in place to examine every angle of himself.

< OH! Oh Father, what have they done this time?! I-I don’t look like an angel at all with these colors! >

A horrified expression strickens the feathered lizards face. Is…is he fallen? Did those horrible greyfaces curse him as a fallen angel?! Lucid’s chittering becomes more frantic, every feather puffed along his wyvern body.

< LU! Is-is-is my halo still together? Please tell me it’s not broken! I-I can’t be fallen! Did they make me fall?!>

[etihw000]

i started to rework the joke design into one i would actually use and ... and then i got bored because i hate doing reference sheets ugh

details under readmore 

the halo: honestly i just wanted to keep it in place of the crown. i jacked it from the fashion animation meme. i liked it soo much i ... i’m sorry. i’d like to think it can turn into a crown when he wants but i got bored before drawing the crown itself

the eye motif: i ended up CONCENTRATING the eye motif from the original because ... because i like eye motifs and ... there isn’t really another reason. 

let’s pretend that there’s a meaning behind it. let’s pretend i did it because there are angels with loads of eyes and it’s meant to join with the halo theme. LET’S PRETEND IT MEANS SOMETHING ...

his hair: i honestly just wanted puffy long hair that wasn’t a braid because i ... hate drawing braids ... so i just curled up the end of it to be more like a pig’s tail (but in the end i think it looks more like a cobra because of the puff L L L ...)

the shoes: uhhh the white part was meant to be reminiscent of pig hooves but idk if that carried through lol

misc: i wanted to give him loads of gold in the design to suit the piglin idea but i guess in the end i didn’t push it far enough lol. i’m not the kind of person to draw loads of jewelry anyway ...

[starwitness42]

Halo Anons

Hey all! So I got some anon asks about the Halo stuff from yesterday, and I figured I’d answer them all in one post so I don’t spam your dashes. Here goes!

So how is that legal aren’t the characters owned by someone? Like I know ao3 protects their writers specifically because it’s *unmonetized* fan fiction, that’s why you can’t even share links to your fundraising pages..? Either way congrats! I’ll buy it!! This fic saved me. But you should really put this on ao3 I saw it on Twitter that’s the only reason I know. Im sure there’s others like me who went through a period of needing to read certain chapters more than once. I’d be a nasty shock.

With the legal stuff, that’s why I’ve been editing it. All the names have changed, a lot of their backstories (especially Robert’s) have changed, place names have changed, etc. All the mob stuff was obviously my stuff anyway, so that can stay. But I’ve tried to take “Emmerdale” out of it as much as possible. 

As for posting it on AO3, that’s where things get tricky. If I say there why I’m pulling it, I risk losing my account, which I very much want to keep so I can write more Robron stuff in the future. So... yeah. 

From my other ask.. you should also notify people on the Robron tag. Really! I’m in an great place now, but half a year ago if I saw this fic was just gone I would have fallen apart. When I say it saved me it honestly did.. I was in a really bad place of SH feeling dirty and worthless and this fic made me feel worthy of help. A therapist that was actually paid for through a child victims program that I didn’t think I deserved to use before reading this. So SO happy it will be a book for others!

That’s something I should do, you’re right. I’ll make sure to put a note up on the Robron tag before I pull it. Also: I’m so glad you’re doing better, love!!!!! You go girl!!!!!!

I am so proud of you!! The boy with the broken halo means so much to me ❤️

Thank you, sweetie! I’m not sure if there’s anything to be proud of yet, but I’m certainly going to try and be worthy of all the amazing people that read the fic.

Too bad so many people already read it 😞you should have withheld the final chapter til your book 😉 Jk a HP writer withheld a chapters til she got enough patreon donors and her account was deleted by ao3 😂 ahh exciting though!!! We didn’t deserve your talent on ao3!!!! 👏🥳 are you allowed to use Robron as the people?

Um... does it count that I’ve technically withheld a wedding epilogue? I mean, it wasn’t nefarious or anything. I’m just writing it now so it’s not like I’ve been sitting on it. But at least there will be something fun for anyone that wants to check it out. And really, I didn’t deserve this amazing fandom. I’m telling you, the comments I got on this story still make me ache to this very day. You all were so incredible. 

Does this mean ur not writing anymore Robron now. Im so excited for ur sequel

Congratulations ���

I am nowhere near done with these two. 

No way that’s amazing!! Cheers to you!! I read that fic twice! Are you able to use Robron or does it have to be original character names? I also had no idea your name is Faith! I assumed Becks was short for Rebecca! My name is Hope and my cats are Faith and Love 😄😻

Oh yeah, my name isn’t Faith. Becks is short for Rebecca. Faith is an homage to my first ever fandom name (savingfaith) and Beckett... Beck... yadda yadda. Hope is such a beautiful name though! And what great cat names as well!

I saw the news on Twitter! 🔥🎊 TBWTBH was amazing!!!! Satisfied both my Robron and mob obsession!!! While I don’t reread fics, I still hate that it’s being deleted! It makes sense though! The cover art is amazing!! 🤩

@scrapyardboyfriends outdid herself on that flipping cover. I am so in awe! It was EXACTLY what I wanted it to be and more!!!

“I’m not making this post to pimp myself“ uhhh why tf not??? You deserve to!!! You’re nothing but supportive and caring towards others in the fandom, so damn girl pimp away!!!

You sir and/or madam are so very kind and if we weren’t in a pandemic I would hug you right now. I wouldn’t even begin to know how to pimp myself, though. I’m the worst salesman on the planet. 

[epicmusicplays]

HANG ON SCRATCH MY LAST ASK-

12 and uh- 18 I think?? Idk my short term memory sucks but the ones that are like “whos ur favorite author” and “how do u feel abt ur old writing” skjxksjx

also STAN HALO FOR CLEAR SKIN 💕 (love u bestie (/g /p))

ur getting a sleepy answer bc i just woke up from a nap <3 also u got the numbers wrong (/lh) so i’m doing all three

12) Who is your favorite author?

uhhh in terms of like original books probably rick riordan bc gay rep and then i’m just gonna tag a few fanfic authors who i literally love /p

@willexxmercer @a-tomb-with-a-view @sunsetcurvecuddles @sunsetsandcurves @owenmercers i know for a fact there’s like at least 12 more but my brain literally just went blank so like ,,,, that’s a good start ig-

14) How do you feel about your older work?

tbh i don’t really love Any of my work?? like there’s a few fics im relatively proud of but they’re all from the past like. four months. and all of my old work except a couple of scenes in my old og stories (tulip field and dancing in the rain poas my beloved) usually makes me cringe rlly hard lol

18) Do you prefer editing as you write, or waiting until it’s finished?

a bit of both! mostly edit as i write tho bc if something isn’t working for whatever reason i usually end up not being able to move forward for a while until i sort it out :/ but i also always look over it at least once to make last minute edits before i post it! and if i’m nervous about it i’ll send it to a friend too

send me a fanfic ask!!

[8inkypuffball8]

its time I tell them

after I met toms monster I sarted you think then it wasn’t fair hiding my identity so when I knocked on Tom’s room he let me in

“whats up?”

“do do you mind if I can tell the group some thing …..about who I really am”

“why do you scared they’re going to hurt you like you told me I mean if you want to go ahead”

tom was right after all humans are very complex they can either be really kind or really dangerous and I am afraid that they’re going to torture me or worse kill me if they find out that I’m an angel but I don’t like keeping secrets for long and there my only my family I have left I don’t wanna lose them and I don’t want to hide things from them

” it’s best I tell but do you mind being there just in case something bad happens ? ”

“uhhh fine but only because I don’t hate you that much “

we both walked into the living room were Matt , Edd, and tord we’re as usual tord was reading hentai and Matt was complementing himself in the mirror

” umm guys I need t-to tell you something “

” uh yah why are you stuttering is there something bad going on ? “

I looked into Toms soulless eyes and he nodded like he was trying to say just do it

“I better show you better than tell you

that’s when I feel my skin glowing I thought my wings come out of my hoodie and my halo shining when I open my eyes I saw the three shivering like they were scared of me

” Ana….your

Yes an angel i was always like this ever since I was born in fact I came from heaven and I fell to earth because I want to see why people died and why was worth living I met you guys I found the true reason why I’m really sorry I understand if you hate-

no no I don’t hate you you’re still ana right…. And you’re not alone I’ll show you

thats When I saw when I saw the full moon he look into it and I saw him change and morph turns out he was a werewolf

your not alone to I still have my vampire powers

yah I secretly have powers but i rarely use them

we all looked and each other in questioning

so does that mean now

I guess we’re all well not human but does it mean anything bad it is connects us right and even if we’re not connected by blood or by race or power I guess we’re all still the same

yah I agree

I started to tear up and I collapsed on The floor sobbing with my black tears but I feel paws and hands hugging me tight I hugged them back finally I have a home

PS : plz don’t read this I just did this for fun

[fuzziemutt]

Finally finished the infamous halo 5 and I'm not sure how to feel about it ? (I haven't read the books and i stand by your game should stand alone from your books plot wise. They hold no weight here even if there's a "book explanation" to something)

There were aspects i enjoyed, the x showing you killed your target, some of the combat elements (tho i wished they'd bring back those chunky gun sounds), showcasing the character's world, and various other things i can't think of (Arbiter armor my beloved) like 5 felt like a much more cleaned up, tight version of 4 and played much nicer (even if i kinda couldn't see anything half the time i felt since everything blinded you)

But there were a lot of aspects especially plot wise i didn't like. Exuberance was odd and i don't know why their voice modular was more i guess human sounding than guilty spark ? Also the fact they just.. Appeared like guilt spark pops up in the library but exuberance felt more like "oh shit we forgot we had to get this other character in" vibes ?

The whole weird "ai are alive too" plot point ??? What ??? You can do ai plot lines and it is interesting in halo as i never thought of it before but it felt so ham fisted in to give cortana a "reason" to go evil in a way even if it wasn't actually giving her a reason. They didn't have enough space to explore it especially as they didn't actually touch upon any of this prior (no. The one "they might even give you another cortana ai" doesn't count). It felt so left field it felt forced.

Cortana's character confused me most of all because she didn't even slightly feel like the same character. The "oh the forerunner tech just got rid of my rampancy <3" and sudden change to "i will bring peace through force" felt also just out of no where ??? (Yes i do like that they're starting to further connect cortana to halsey by how their actions are very similar but i don't like how they're doing it). We didn't also get any of cortana's sass which i feel is a major part to her. 4 she still kept that bit but there was this shift. Now in 5 she's only being manipulative and nice like those are her two moods.

I hold that them "reviving" cortana for 5 honestly damaged 4. 4's end was super impactful as it meant something that she was dying and like chief we couldn't do anything. Yes i enjoy the idea of john realizing one of his only closest friends betrayed him and wasn't that different from the people who experimented on him. It's a good angst moment and a cruel reminder that, again, cortana is based on halsey and probs honestly (in canon, fanon you're doing great i love you) only sees john as a pet in a way. She loves the idea of him and his progress but not actually him. But i don't like them weakening 4 like that to make her the big bad out of the blue.

The weird locke situation idk how to explain it but his constant flipping of sides faster than a fish out of water felt weird like you could say he just sides with who he deems right or whatever given his prior work but idk something here there was too much missing in my opinion.

Halsey. (I can't tell if they're trying to make her seem like the "good guy" or not but it feels like they're trying to justify her actions which i feel they shouldn't. She should just be the culmination of pushing science and progress not because you should but because you can. She can be a shitty person without justification guys, it's okay.)

Also there's this one line said by chief some later part on genesis (talking to cortana) that sounds so fucked up it doesn't even sound like the voice actor but it's the funniest shit i wish i remembered exactly when it happened

There are definitely people who could go into depth on this game wAY better than me these are just my first flung out thoughts after beating it. Something about 5 feels off to me like 4 did that i just can't explain right (especially since i love odst and reach like why are the main series ones different ?)

Overall my review: halo 5 is honestly just a movie with it's 50 cutscenes and "badass" moments taken from you but uhhh it wasn't that bad :v

(Also if you're wondering. That chief vs locke scene was just. Boring ngl. Like i feel it doesn't make that much sense even with the argument that chief never hurts a fellow human but like. It was awkward.)

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #332

i’m even more tired than before to try and think up song lyrics, i’m pasting from Word and then fucking off to bed lmao.

What was the last video message you received on your phone? I think it was a clip of Doris (Sara's beardie) eating and just being her perfect self? Was your last birthday cake homemade or store bought? Store-bought. One thing you miss about middle school? Shit, nothing. Middle school was the worst. Do you have any shirts signed by famous people? No. Have you ever entered an art competition? Yes. Would you ever pierce yourself? No. I am very much about having a professional do your body mods/art. Plus, I have tremors in my hands. Do you live in a safe neighbourhood? Supposedly. We haven't lived here nearly long enough to know. What is the last thing you did that shocked someone? /shrug Do you often find yourself questioning your future? Only always. Have you ever been for a ride in the back of a truck? Yeah. Do you like your license photo? I hate my permit picture. Are you into superheroes? Who’s your favorite? Not very, but I like 'em enough. I always say my favorite is Deadpool, but I know he's technically an anti-hero, but whatever. If you don't include him, uhhhh... maybe Spiderman. Have you started watching any new TV shows recently? No. Have you ever been able pet a normally wild animal, like a tiger or dolphin? No. :( At least, not to my recollection. Have you ever eaten snow? Yeah. There's actually a winter treat 'round here that you make with snow and sugar called snow cream. Good stuff. What is the messiest area in your home? Right now, the spare room/my wanna-be "office." What’s your favorite computer game genre? Still horror, like video games. Do you have any exes your parents never liked? No. Have you received financial help from your parents in the past 5 years? I'm completely financially dependent on them still. Are you a fast or a slow eater? I eat like, stupid fast, but without being messy. People *cough*Mom*cough* will absolutely point it out, but I seriously can't help it. Making a conscious effort to eat slow feels way too weird. What was the last thing you purchased from a small local business? I don't know. Is there anyone in your family/household whom you frequently argue with? No. Have you ever used chewing tobacco? Ew, no. Tell me what's on your mind? I've been considering yet again reaching out to some tattoo parlors and asking if they're open to hiring someone to handle the front desk and take care of business besides actually performing piercing and tattooing, given my tremors. My group therapy has kinda been encouraging me to use the possibility for social exposure, and besides, I'm very comfortable in the environment and just general aura of tat parlors. I'm sure I'd have to answer the phone, handle money, and obviously talk to costumers, but I know and accept that. I've been at such a stagnant point with my social anxiety in particular that I have to start pushing back harder, and doing this I feel would be one of the most relaxed, social job positions I can hopefully handle. I don't dare to even try this though until I get vaccinated to protect my immunocompromised mom. Writing this all out has actually been pretty encouraging about this idea... Do you wish you never dated someone you dated? Yeah, Tyler. It was such a "I'm lonely and he was nice in high school, so we'll try it" situation. I got nothing from it. Are you scared of growing old alone? Pretty badly. What are you listening to right now? I'm listening to/semi-watching John Wolfe play the remaster of Resident Evil 2. What breed was the last dog you saw? He was a German shepherd. Would you ever go swimming during a thunderstorm? No. Any time a thunderstorm was brewing and I was in the pool, I'd always get out. What is the next concert you will attend? Mom and I plan to see Ozzy when/if he reschedules his tour after he had to cancel with his Parkinson's diagnosis. What was the name of the last pet of yours that died? Teddy. :/ What's the highest science class you have taken? I don't know, actually. What makes you squeal like a school girl? No shame, seeing Mark and Amy do something cute together actually does this, lmao. What’s your favorite symbol? (i.e. the pentagram, the cross, etc.) Do fictional ones count? Because in that case, the Halo of the Sun from the Silent Hill franchise. I'm getting it tattooed somewhere at some point, I'm thinking the left side of my neck. I'm either gonna fashion it in a way where it looks branded on or carved into me. Have you ever been on anti depressants? For all of my pre-teen, teen, and some of my adult life. Apparently, I've only had one truly educated psychiatrist out of no less than a dozen I'd seen, because he fixed me right up. He taught me that those who suffer from bipolarity should avoid anti-depressants; they ramp up your bipolar symptoms. Instead, mood stabilizers are favorable. And what do you know, after I was prescribed a stabilizer and a catalyst for that medication, my depression decreased dramatically and became handleable. Have you ever starved yourself? Kinda. What’s the stupidest name you’ve ever given a pet? I had a guinea pig named Harry Potter. For no particular reason lmao. I'm not even a Harry Potter fan. Do you have nice legs? God no. Do you like fedoras? Okay so I know I am in the strong minority, but I actually do, haha. What is your favorite food group? Carbs. @_@ Have you ever got told that you should be a model? No, but one of the most flattering indirect compliments I've ever gotten was being mistaken for one. Jason's phone wallpaper was one of my favorite pictures of myself with my first snake, and someone asked him if I was a model. ;v;' What song is in a language you don’t speak, but you love it anyway? "Donaukinder" by Rammstein is one of my faves. Who’s a villain you sympathize with and why? SOBS Darkiplier bc his origins are so damn tragic and unfair. What book do you think should be directed as a film? Was The Giver ever made into one? I don't remember that book well, but I do recall it being absolutely beautiful. Have you ever found a stranger’s note somewhere? If so, what did it say? No. Have you ever edited Wikipedia? No. Have you ever edited any other wiki? Yeah. I have thousands on the Silent Hill wiki, where I'm one of the admins. I'm also a content moderator at the Team Ico (Shadow of the Colossus devs) one. Every now and again I used to go on the meerkats wiki as well, where I mainly fixed the fucking nightmarish grammar. Very briefly, I edited at the Dragons of Atlantis wiki as well. Do you get scared when you know some virus or sickness is being passed? Not very, but of course I still acknowledge the risk and am more conscious of hand washing and stuff. What popular social media platforms AREN’T you on? Snapchat, I don't actually use my Twitter, I don't have a personal Instagram... There may be more, idk. Is TikTok a "social media platform?" Because I don't have that, either. What was the name of the first porcelien doll you got? Never had one, given I was afraid of dolls as a kid. What’s your favorite Paramore song? "Decode." Would you be happy with a life without romance? To be entirely honest, I'd feel like I was missing something. Was your childhood happy? Mostly. What fundamentally matters do you? Love, kindness, peace, all that gooey stuff. Is true world peace ever possible? As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think so. The human population is far too big to come to a unanimous agreement on anything. Do you hold yourself to higher standards than you hold others? Yeah. Would you ever own a pet black widow spider? No. I'm getting more into the idea of owning invertebrates (I jabber enough about wanting tarantulas, and there are others, like mantises, I'm interested in as pets), but black widows, I'm not into the idea of having. Too venomous for me to be comfortable risking. If you have a job, what is the longest shift that you've worked? N/A Do you know all of the words to "Bohemian Rhapsody?" FUCK YES I DO. ^ Do you sing it with all of the different voices? sho nuff Do you own more than one copy of a certain book? No. Do you like interpreting poetry or just reading it for fun? Both. I love symbolism, so I get joy out of digging for subtle meanings in poems. Do you have a favorite Dr. Suess book? Yeah, it was always Green Eggs and Ham. Do you watch The Walking Dead? If so, favorite character? Not the show, but I've watched let's plays of the games, haha. In which case Clementine is inarguably one of the best female characters in a video game universe. Who has/had the most mature romantic relationship you’ve seen with your own eyes? Uhhh. I mean I never saw them much, but probably my late grandmother and her last husband. He was fucking incredible to her, and Grammy adored him as well. They helped each other so much and just obviously had the purest love between them. When was the last time you got something for free (legally)? What was it & have you enjoyed it so far? Lmao do balls in Pokemon GO count? Their occasional free boxes are the reason I can play the game because PokeStops are essentially non-existent here, so yes. What is the one fruit you can’t stand to eat? How about vegetable? The first one that came to me were oranges. I enjoy orange juice, but I just caaaaannot with the white veiny shit that you can't totally get off when peeling it. Without that, I might actually enjoy them, but idk. As for vegetable, asparagus is absolutely abhorrent. When’s the last time you actually recited the pledge? If you aren’t American, do/did you have anything similar in your country that you do during a time at school? Probably not since high school. Last person you shared food with? Ummm I have no idea. It's really just Mom and me here and we eat our own stuff. What was the last song you heard for the first time and enjoyed? I believe it waaas... "Down In The Park" by Marilyn Manson, maybe. If your life was a TV show, what would be the theme song? My inner high school emo just screamed "All Signs Point to Lauderdale" by AD2R. Who are some of your favorite female fictional characters, and why? Gahdamn, there's a lot. I don't feel like going through a mental list in my head and then describing why. A character (in anything) you wish hadn’t been killed off? Vol'jin; I think the entire WoW fanbase will forever be pissed about it. It was THE most "lul we dunno what 2 do w/ him anymore, let's let a totally random, unnamed, unimportant demon kill him" like what the fuck, Blizz. Most of his "oomph" was in the book, and I just really wish they'd done so much more with him in the game. Has anything “cute” happened in the past week? Off the top of me noggin, no. When did you last say “I love you”? Did you mean it? Yesterday to Sara. OF course I did. Is there someone who pops into your mind at random times? Hi, PTSD, how are ya. Have you ever slept all day? Essentially. When I was on a larger dose of my anxiety med, I physically couldn't stay up for barely even five minutes, and when I'd lie back down, boom, I was OUT. I stayed on that dosage for I think just that one day, it was so bad. Can you have kids? Well, I have a functioning menstrual cycle, so I would assume so. Doesn't mean I will, though. What colors of mascara have you worn on your lashes? Only black. Do you like eating sour things? Hell yeah, I love sour stuff, candy in particular. Do you like pickles? fuuuuck yeah Did you ever have a really close friend move away? Yeah, in elementary school. I feel bad I can't remember her name at the moment... What's the most creative thing you've ever done? I mean, I guess the things I've written in RP. What's the most creative thing someone has done for you? For me? I don't really know. Do you like to watch ghost-hunting shows? Sure, they're some of my favorites. What’s something you’d like to be better at? Social interaction. Have you ever stayed up to talk to someone who was sad? Yeah. Do you think you would make a good parent? No. I know I wouldn't. The only time I ever wanted kids was with Jason, and honestly, I really hope I don't end up with a man because I never want to deal with that urge again and make a mistake. I'm just in no way emotionally fit to be a mother. How many best friends do you have? Just one. What do you cry over the most? My PTSD, honestly. I never sob about it anymore, just shed some tears. What language did/do you take in high school? Latin for one semester, then all four available for German. Which sports do you follow? None. Who was the last person you talked about marriage or having kids with? About marriage, Sara. Kids, the subject was lightly touched upon with Girt, though "with" was never a part of it, but obviously implied seeing as we were dating with long-term in mind. Have you ever been in a house fire? No, thankfully. Have you ever made out for one straight hour? them is rookie numbers Are you any good at remembering phone numbers? No. I literally don't even know my own, nor my mother's. I need to fix that. Who is your best friend of the opposite sex? Girt. Do you have a bookshelf? If so, just one or how many? No. If I gave you twenty bucks what would you do with it? Save it to go towards Venus' terrarium. Is there a movie from your childhood that you still watch today? Well of course! I'm unashamed to watch any "kids" movie I enjoy, like Disney ones. Most "kids" movies tend to be better than those intended for adults, it seems... Are you afraid of mice? Oh no, I adore mice and I think had a pair as pets before I got rats. What type of souvenir do you usually purchase when on vacation? I can't really answer this; I haven't gone on nearly enough vacations to develop a theme. I can say confidently though it'd probably be something small. If you could see any musical on Broadway right now, what would it be? I don't enjoy musicals. Have you ever watched Doctor Who? One or two with Sara, yes. I know we at least watched the weeping angels episode. If you read, which book or series did you enjoy most as a child? Warriors by S.E. Hinton. Sometimes I wanna get back into them, but I am YEARS behind and more into Wings of Fire anyway, so. I don't read nearly enough for both. How do you get rid of your hiccups? Literally no trick seems to work for me. I just suffer lmao.

[lakesandquarries]

Jump the Fence Part Two: Ghost Out Of His Grave

chapter two: ghost in your arms

summary: Benrey and Gordon adapt to living together. Some days are better than others.

notes: series title from “jump the fence” by mother mother. this part and the chapters within it are named after “ghosting” by mother mother.

AO3 Link

Benrey manages half an hour of lying on the couch before he finds himself in Gordon’s room. He’s still reeling from everything that just happened, rolling Gordon’s apology around in his mind over and over again, like a looping video he can’t pause. He hadn’t prepared for that as a possibility. He’d been expecting to end the night tied to the couch, or hiding in a dumpster, or dead.

Gordon had hugged him. That had seemed like such an unrealistic outcome that he hadn’t even let himself daydream about it.

He looks peaceful when he’s asleep. Does Benrey look like that? Or is it just another thing that’s special about Gordon? His curly hair is spread around his head, like a messy brown halo. The angel one, not the game. He’d looked more like the other kind of halo when they were in Black Mesa, but Benrey hasn’t seen his armor at all since they ended up in his house. Here, Gordon just wears t-shirts and jeans and stuff. He seems kinda...softer, somehow.

Or maybe Benrey’s just tired and imagining things.

He tiptoes across the room quietly, sliding onto the bed as carefully as he can. It shifts under his weight, but Gordon doesn’t wake up, so Benrey climbs on. It’s a lot comfier than his couch is. Gordon’s got some kinda thick fluffy blanket on top, with the really soft kind of texture Benrey likes.

Gordon won’t mind if he curls up, right? He’s not gonna sleep or anything. Just. Hang out, for a little. Be gone before Feetman even wakes up.

Benrey makes himself comfortable, and before he knows it, he’s asleep.

---

He wakes up to movement, something nudging him. Blinking his eyes open, he sees a grumpy looking Gordon staring at him.

Aw fuck.

“G’morning,” he mumbles, attempting to stretch and nearly rolling off.

Gordon snorts. “Why’re you on my bed?”

Benrey rolls back so his face is buried in the blanket. “Mmm. Comfy.”

“Yeah, fair point,” Gordon says. Something soft hits Benrey. He lifts his face to see Gordon’s thrown the covers back. “Any other reason?”

“Mmmb,” Benrey says again. Gordon sighs.

“Right.” He grabs a hair tie off his nightstand, pulling his hair into a ponytail. Benrey can see the streaks of gray hiding under the brown. Sexy. “Dude. Is there a reason you’re staring at me?”

“Can we go somewhere?” Benrey blurts out.

“Wha?”

“Uh.” They hadn’t actually planned to ask that. Shit. Benrey looks away, staring at Gordon’s half open dresser, clothes hanging off awkwardly. “Weren’t we gonna like...get me stuff?”

“Oh, yeah,” Gordon says. “Shit, I forgot about that. You wanna go to Target?”

Benrey has never heard of Target before in his life. “Tarjet,” he says.

“Okay well, let me get dressed first,” Gordon says, standing up. “Benrey. That means leave. ”

“Right,” he mutters, slinking off into the living room, where he waits perched on the couch, picking at a loose thread on his shirt. The prospect of going outside suddenly seems very, very scary. He hasn’t left Gordon’s apartment since he showed up. The closest he’s gotten to going outside has been standing in front of an open window. And in Black Mesa…

He’s not thinking about that.

Gordon steps out of the bedroom. He shoots Benrey a smile as they scoot off the couch, grabbing his keys out of the bowl he keeps next to the door.

Outside of the apartment are more hallways. It’s a little reminiscent of the Black Mesa dorms, but less ugly. Gordon leads Benrey down the hall, to a door with a bright red EMERGENCY sign over it. “Shortcut,” he says by way of explanation, and then he pushes the door open and -

And -

Holy shit.

He’s been outside Black Mesa before. Sorta. Technically. He has stepped out of the building and seen the desert that surrounds it, the brown dust and brown rocks and brown sky.

The sky is blue here. The grass is green, and so are the trees, and there’s cars going down the street in a million different colours and Benrey can’t do anything besides stare.

“Woah,” he mumbles, kneeling down to touch the grass. It’s damp, and when he pulls on it the dirt underneath is a rich brown, nothing like the dull dust of Black Mesa.

“Hey man, c’mon, leave the grass alone. What are you doing?”

Right. Right, Gordon’s here, Gordon’s watching him - he glances over and Gordon is squinting at him, like Benrey’s doing something weird. He stands up quickly, dusting himself off.

“Uhhhhh. Making sure the grass passes inspection,” Benrey says.

“Right,” Gordon says. “Can I ask you something?”

Benrey blinks. “You just did.”

Gordon rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“Uhhh. Sure?”

“Have - have you ever been out of Black Mesa before?”

His tone is - not angry. The rare soft tone he gets sometimes but never really talks to Benrey with. Genuine curiosity.

It wouldn’t be a lie, to say yes. Technically. He’s stepped outside!

But...that was still Black Mesa property. Even Xen - it was basically part of Black Mesa, at that point. And Benrey knows what Gordon’s trying to get at. He stares up at the sky, the bright blue sky and the fluffy white clouds and the sun that hurts his eyes.

“No,” he says.

“Oh,” Gordon says, and then he goes quiet for a moment. “I could…show you around, if you want. After we go to Target.”

Gordon’s eyes are nice in the sun. Benrey never really got a good look in Black Mesa, between the helmet and the bad lighting and the getting killed. Up here, his eyes are green, with a ring of brown in the center, like the bright green grass with the dirt underneath.

“Uhhh. Yeah, sure. If you wanna.” Benrey shoves their hands in the pockets of their sweatpants, and Gordon smiles at him, and it hurts his eyes like the sun did.

“Cool,” Gordon says, and then he reaches forward and grabs Benrey’s hand.

Gordon’s hand is warm. His skin doesn’t have the chill Benrey’s does, or the gray-ish tint. Everything about Gordon is warm and brown, from his hair to his skin to his eyes, and his hand is soft and his nails are painted orange to match his prosthetic and he’s still smiling even as Benrey stands there staring.

It’s only when Gordon pulls his hand away that Benrey realizes they’ve moved. They’re in front of a car now - Gordon’s, presumably - and Gordon seems to be expecting Benrey to do something.

“Dude. Get in. I know you know how to get into a car.”

Wordlessly, Benrey pulls the door open, scrambling in. Gordon gets in on the other side, giving a glance to Benrey - and then suddenly he’s leaning across them to buckle them in, arm brushing against Benrey’s chest.

“C’mon, seatbelts are one of the laws I agree with,” Gordon huffs.

404, Benrey not found. Benrey.exe has crashed. Would you like to reboot?

“You - you, you agreeing with laws? Laws are - laws’re for losers.” The words catch on his teeth, barely coherent even to himself. Gordon clicks the seat belt in and gives him a sidelong glance.

“You okay?”

“Uh-huh,” Benrey says, pulling their beanie down over their face.

“...Right,” Gordon says. The car engine makes a growling noise, and Benrey pushes his beanie back, leaning against the window. Gordon’s a better driver than Bubby. Probably? He hasn’t spent a lot of time in cars. But Gordon seems to know what he’s doing, turning on the radio and humming along mindlessly as they drive. Benrey can’t help but glance over at him every few minutes, even as most of his attention is focused on the world outside. It’s bright and colourful and there’s so many people . And he’d thought Black Mesa was crowded.

The car stops. “We’re here,” Gordon announces, cutting the music off. When Benrey glances over, Gordon’s eyebrows are scrunched up, squinting a little. “Are you sure you’re good?”

“Whu?”

“I mean is this gonna be like…” He runs a hand through his ponytail. “You just said you’ve never been outside Black Mesa. This has to be like, a lot for you.”

Benrey shrugs. “‘s fine. I’m - I’m a great cool, bro. I’ll be chill.”

Gordon stares a moment longer. “Okay. But, uh, tell me if it gets too much? And don’t -” he pauses, rubbing his face. “Don’t start shit or anything. Don’t try to, I don’t know, don’t start shapeshifting in the middle of Target. And no Sweet Voice! No - no weird magic shit or whatever.”

“‘s not magic ,” Benrey grumbles.

“Whatever it is! None of that, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” He folds his arms, huffing. “Never let me have any fun.”

“I’m just trying to not get us kicked out, man.” Gordon opens the door, stepping out - and a second later, opens Benrey’s door.

“I can get out myself,” Benrey whines, as Gordon leans over him again. He freezes.

“You seemed like you were having a hard time getting in, so…” Gordon steps back. “Benrey?”

“Hh,” Benrey says. He forces himself out of the car and to his feet. “You gotta - you gotta warn me, bro.”

“Warn you of what?”

“When you’re gonna - “ he reaches out, flicking Gordon’s shirtsleeve.

“Oh. Uh, yeah, I can do that. Look, let’s - lets go inside?”