#we’ve reached that point gamers

[objectshow-enjoyer]

Hating you won’t make you suck any less

lyrics: Kokopelli Face Tattoo - AJJ

[aspiringtrashpanda]

This is the dumbest thing I've ever written. Please familiarize yourself with this scene from the Little Mermaid for best reader experience.

Characters: Leviathan x MC Stupid musical fluff, first kiss, kiss the fish baybeeee No warnings apply

“First, we’ve got to create the mood…”

A ripple surged through the aquarium, light undulating in soft waves, permeating the wall and reaching the furthest corners of the room. You traced the movements of the tiny goldfish, the pad of your index finger catching on the tacky glass just as the orange scales disappeared from view. 

You thought you could hear the thump of a bass guitar. Was it coming from Mammon’s room?

You almost brushed it off. Almost. 

However, when you thought you saw the water in the tank slosh in time to the steady beat, you asked, “Did you hear that?” 

“Hm?” Leviathan looked up from his computer monitor. One of his many displays. He had been at the start of a popular ARPG from the human world, last time you checked. Now, he had almost completed the tutorial. Turns out, it was as easy to speed through the introduction as it was to purchase a game from another realm through Akuzon. Jeremiah Bezoar, right?

Despite the reluctance to support such a megalomaniac, Levi found his thumbs smashing buttons. Why was there always so much exposition at the beginning of the quest? He frowned, “Hear what?”

“Percussion. Strings. Winds. Words…” 

You shuddered, a chill trickling down your spine. You were voicing your discomfort before you could even place the source. 

“Voices? But… They don’t sound familiar.” Though you were reluctant to tear your eyes away from the seascape stretched before you, you found yourself stepping backwards. One heel after the other, until you nudged against the back of Leviathan’s gaming chair. 

“Gah!” He startled, his headphones falling around his neck as wide, amber eyes turned to meet your gaze. The flex of his fingers seemed anxious, his knuckles popping in time with the rhythmic thud of the bass.  “Erm, you’re probably just hearing things…”

You were so close to believing him, to accepting his words as truth. Perhaps you would have, if it wasn’t for the smooth baritone that spilled into your ears.

“There, you see him. Sitting there across the way. He don’t got a lot to say. ‘Cause he’s playing Skyrim.”

The flit of your eyes confirmed the voice’s dulcet tones. Levi was, indeed, playing the classic fantasy game by Bethesda. There was no arguing the claim, not with the way the dragon attacked the site of his execution. 

Another glance at the aquarium revealed swaying kelp among the decorating stone structures within the tank. A flash of golden filaments forced the question from your mouth, “Can Henry speak?”

“Henry?” Levi paused the game, pulling up the main menu. He squished up his nose in amusement. “LOL. Not to you.”

Though, regardless of his claims, the melody bounced about the room.

“And the arrows fly, your knee’s been nullified. Go on and kiss the boy. ” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” And whether you were asking the fish - you noticed multiple fins fluttering from the hydra anemone to the sweeping greenery within the freshwater - or Levi, you weren’t entirely sure. Regardless, Leviathan spun in his chair, rocking back and forth on the creaking hinge of his high-tech seat. It was probably sponsored. He was a prominent gamer in the Devildom, after all. 

The pause between your question and his answer would have felt deafening if it wasn’t for the consistent thump of the bass, the jingle of mallets on a seashell marimba. Perhaps you appeared confused, though the uncertainty fell in syncopated beats, along with a tune you weren’t sure Levi could hear. 

“Well, you know, you normies have inferior hearing to us dem- HEY!” His squawk managed to overwhelm the crooning from the water fixture. The shellfish had joined in with some lovely harmonies, at this point. However, you found yourself happy to be distracted by Levi’s large, clammy hands as his long fingers pried yours away from a figure on his shelf.  “Don’t touch that!”

“Ah, sorry. I was just wondering…” You couldn’t stop the rush of blood to your face, the heat searing your cheeks a pretty pink. “Is that the Lord of Shadow’s crimson banquet outfit?”

Leviathan froze, his frame somewhere between sitting and standing. With his hands on his thighs, just above his knees, it looked as though he had been about to stand, about to rush to your side and physically remove your touch from the figure you had been admiring. 

“Yes, you want him. Look at him, you know you do. It’s possible he wants you too, and there’s one way to ask him.”

There was a flash of something in the indigo veins of his burning gaze. Did he hear it, too? Before you could ask, Levi narrowed his eyes, redirected your attention to his shelf of figurines. “Are you referring to the movies you marathoned with Mammon, or the books?”

You frowned, indignance igniting a roaring fire up your spine. With a sniff, you turned away from his incredulous glare. “I actually have started reading the books, you know. But… Well, I’m only on book two.”

The soothing accompaniment looped some sort of interlude. Minnows scurried from one rock to another. A toad lingering on a stone fixture breaching the surface croaked low and heavy, “It’s a list of words, by his fave character, go on and kiss the boy.”

And it was only then that you noticed the tension building in Levi’s blue seascape of a room. You felt the way his chapped lips parted, his tongue darting out to nervously wet the skin. He swallowed loudly, rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. His headphones rattled when he pushed them into the soft indigo strands brushing his nape, displaced and apparently forgotten. You smiled as a pretty pink flush spread across Levi’s cheeks, over the bridge of his nose. 

In an attempt to comfort him, you brought his attention back to the figure on his shelf. “Tell me about him, then.”

The prejudice dissolved from his gaze, replaced with a genuine excitement that nearly turned his orange eyes as bright as the sun that never touched the Devildom. He took a deep breath in, choosing his words carefully. “The… Um, the costume design department actually stuck really close to the canon source for the crimson banquet.”

A series of bubbles floated to the surface of the aquarium. As they burst, a note rang out through the room. There were so many instruments involved in the song now. How did a crayfish play a flute? It was past logic at this point. All you could do was pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary. You offered Levi a shy smile, “Is this a special edition?”

“It is!” You loved the beam that stretched across his face, all crooked teeth and enthusiasm. “Oh! You’ll get it, then! See, Mammon tried to steal him and sell him for only 15,000 Grimm! Can you believe it? I mean, not only would it be unthinkable to sell Crimson Banquet Lord of Shadow, but to sell it for such a small amount?! It’s like he didn’t even know that the designer had actually researched the small nordic community off of Greenland to accurately represent the sort of clothing that…”

The sound of his voice was a sweeter melody than any fish could sing. You thought you caught the shimmer of a red scale, a rainbow shark swimming low to the colorful pebbles hidden in the soft silt at the base of the aquarium. You caught its eye. It winked. 

You weren’t sure how you felt about that. 

“Er, you’re probably not interested in all that…” Levi was still rambling. At the sight of his nervous expression, the way he twiddled his thumbs and averted his eyes like he thought you weren’t interested, you kicked it into high gear.

“I am.” Your heart thudded against your ribs. Really, you were. You were interested in anything Levi wanted to tell you. You found his passions fascinating. 

The moment his sunrise gaze slammed into yours, a swelling chorus rose from the aquarium. You felt your pulse thrum in time with the beat. Their voices appealed to the endorphins rushing through your veins.

“Sha-la-la-la-la-la my, oh my! The human is too shy! Ain’t gonna kiss the boy.”

A pair of koi flicked their tails, arcing past the aquarium glass with a loud, “Whoa, whoa!”

It was cute, you thought. It wasn’t as if you hadn’t entered Levi’s room with that very intention. You liked him. You had liked him for a while. Yet, you weren’t sure if he was ever going to get the hint. Hell, if even his fish knew of your soft spot for Leviathan, what did you have to lose? He had to know too, right?

So, there you were, the choir of aquarium life pushing you forward. However, as you took two steps closer to the Avatar of Envy, Levi deflated in his chair, covering his face with his hands. You could just make out his lips moving, a soft repetition, over and over again. 

Shuffling over to him, to his desk and his gaming setup, felt like walking a tight rope. “Hey,” You whispered, “Are you okay?”

He scowled, huffing a soft, “No!” 

“Sha-la-la-la-la-la ain’t that sad? The poor otaku lad. You’re gonna miss the boy.” This time, Henry the goldfish fluttered through the water, suspended in the light of the room. 

You thought he looked smug.

“Levi.” Your fingers gently grazed his knees, the soft fabric of his sweatpants encouraging you to curl your palm around the bone, to squeeze ever so slightly. 

“Yeah?” It squeaked out between the gaps in his fingers, splayed across his face. 

“I think your aquarium is serenading us.”

As if to confirm your claim, Henry - flanked by the two koi - swam in a shape too close to a heart to be anything else. You could hear the th-th-thump of your pulse in your ears. 

“Yeah…” It was cute, the way Levi’s tongue darted out to wet his lips. A crease formed in his brow, his ears burning bright as he winced, “They’ve threatened that a few times, but I didn’t think they actually would!”

“It’s kind of charming.”

“Is it?!”

Where the toad managed to find a saxophone, you weren’t sure. Nevertheless, the breezy tune paved the way for the second verse. And for what? Well… Perhaps your eyes were deceiving you, but was Levi leaning closer? 

There you were, slowly absorbed into Leviathan’s personal space, your frame falling between his knees as they trembled, parting carefully. His hand brushed his mouth, his teeth knocking his knuckles as he protested, “Y-you can just ignore it, really!”

Henry had other plans.

“Now’s your moment. Your room looks like a blue lagoon. Toggle off display #2, and offer your sweater.”

And despite his own advice, concern flashed in Levi’s eyes. “Are you cold?”

You shivered. “A little, yeah.”

“He won’t say a word. He’s just an awkward nerd, go on and kiss the boy.”

Levi’s hands - slick with nervous, cold sweat, rested on your biceps. He took a deep, shuddering breath in, and then, he steeled his resolve. “Y-you… could come closer?”

You shuffled further into his space. How you ended up edging your body between his knees as he sat in his gaming chair, you couldn’t quite recall. You supposed he had covered his face, and then you had crouched down to make eye contact, and well… Now you were wedged awfully close to his heaving chest, his eyes screwed tightly shut. 

“Sha-la-la-la-la-la don’t be scared, you’ve got the facts prepared. Go on and kiss the boy (Whoa, whoa). Sha-la-la-la-la-la don’t stop now, you’ve leveled up and wow, you’re gonna kiss the boy.” 

“Levi,” You sang, soft and sweet, drawing his name out in the same key of the song. His right eye fluttered open, peering at you with cautious optimism. 

Noses nudged together, breath mingling as the song faded into the routine bubble of the aquarium. Levi’s thumbs rubbed circles into your arms, and you found yourself near hypnotized by the steady pattern paired with the blazing heat in his fiery eyes. 

A shaky breath. A soft, “You, er, don’t have to! I mean, I’m just a yucky otaku! You… Um, if this is just a joke, it’s fine, and -”

Your lips met his. 

It was a quick kiss. Chaste and gentle. Simply the press of two mouths, both unwilling to cross any invisible line drawn in the aquarium sand. 

There was pure silence as you pulled away. The music had disappeared completely. Even the tank’s filter and the hum of Levi’s computer tower fizzled out. 

A beat, where it was only you and Leviathan.

You and Levi in the watery haze of his bedroom, your lips so very close, and yet…

It was Levi who surged forward, slotting his lips between yours once more. This time, he kissed you like he meant it, as if you were a crimson banquet-themed delicacy that he had been saving for a very special dessert. His fingers curling into your sleeves, you found yourself melting into his embrace, your heart pitter-pattering in time with the rattle from his own chest. Cupping the nape of his neck, you reveled in the soft indigo strands that brushed your palm, in the breezy scent of the sea that followed him wherever he went. 

It was a strange sensation - to feel as though you were burning alive while cocooned in the blue haze of the ocean. And yet, you never wished to experience anything else. The taste of his lips, the twist of his needy hands on your body all you could register as you scrambled into his lap, his chair creaking under your combined weight.

A quiet huff spilled from his wet lips, his bangs butting against your forehead. His jaw tensed, and you knew he was about to say something when…

A voice sounded. A voice from outside the walls of the House of Lamentation. A voice so low, it shook the very foundation beneath you.

“Oh, you wanna kiss the boy!”

Levi grimaced. You blinked. 

“Was… Was that Lotan?” You weren’t sure your ears had registered the melody correctly. 

“Can we…” Levi nuzzled his face into your neck. You could feel the humiliation radiating off him in waves. “Can we go to your room?”

*・゜・*:.。.*.。.:*・☆・゜・*:.。.*.。.:*・☆・゜

MY REQUESTS ARE OPEN! I've finished the first round, please give me more! This is a fun little writing exercise for me! Find out more HERE. i love you all so much, but shout out to @shootingstarrfish and @4laurus. Please check them out. 💕

[govindhtech]

Hogwarts Legacy 2 Sequel in Development, Says Movie Insider

Fans of The Hogwarts Legacy, be on the lookout: it was only recently disclosed that a sequel is presently in the process of being produced, and when it is published, it will take the series to greater heights than it has ever reached before.

Hogwarts Legacy sequel

MyTimeToShineHello, a well-known movie insider who is also recognized for their amazing track record when it comes to exposing facts about the film industry, is the one who leaked the information. In spite of the fact that the leaker did not reveal a lot of data, it is fair to infer that the leaker has sources within Warner Bros. given that he has previously exposed a variety of pieces of content that came from the studio. In other words, it is acceptable to think that the leaker has sources inside Warner Bros.

Because this is the first time we’ve heard of a prospective sequel, we aren’t very familiar with the intricacies of it. However, we do know that it would be set in the future. Despite this, a second installment of the Hogwarts Legacy series was certain to be developed at some time in the future since the first game in the series was such a huge commercial success.

This game had its best year ever in terms of sales, bringing in a grand total of $1.3 billion in revenue as a result of its popularity. When we evaluated the game, we were impressed by what Warner Bros. brought to the table, especially when it came to developing an engaging and interesting game that was set in a well-known fantasy setting.

Since the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, has already made a remark about the company’s devotion to develop a “perfect” game, even if doing so would come with a tradeoff in terms of production time, one should not think that a release date will be revealed in the near future. Instead, one should not anticipate that an announcement about the release date will be made in the far future.

If we do not think that a certain movie or video game is the culmination of our best efforts, then we will not make it available to the general public. Even if we are successful fifty or seventy percent of the time, it is not going to be worth our effort to continue with this plan.

However, the company has recently embraced this point of view as the foundation of its new cultural philosophy. The recounting of tales is what our company does for a living. The members of our team with the most original ideas are constantly toiling away to enhance our content and make it the very best that it can be.

Taking into consideration the average development cycle for a triple-A video game, it is conceivable that we will not be able to purchase Hogwarts Legacy 2 for at least three to four years

While we wait for the second edition, you may play the original one on a number of different consoles and devices, such as personal computers, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One. The game’s original release date of July 25 has been moved back by four months, and it won’t be available for purchase on the Nintendo Switch device until the month of November.

Quidditch, the sport that is featured in Harry Potter, is going to be the focus of a new video game that is now in development for both personal computers and gaming consoles. This is sure to excite fans of the Harry Potter series. On the other hand, mobile gamers may already participate in the collectible card role-playing game Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, which was released at the end of July for both Android and iOS.

[nat20marketing]

Hello fellow marketers. Welcome to our FINAL session of the Nat 20 Marketing journey!

I just want to ask. How are you? How are we feeling for having come so far? I will be honest here, it is a little touching that we’re seeing the end of this wild adventure on IMC. We’ve covered so many points regarding how to conduct a successful IMC campaign.

When I first started taking business in college, I wasn’t sure what the program would be able to inspire me. I thought business was plain and boring, and had to do with lots of numbers. Sure, as marketers, we still have to deal with numbers every day, but I would like to think that a successful marketing campaign consists of both refreshing creativity and data-supported numbers and statistics. In the realm of business and reality, money (and budgeting) is just far too critical to ignore. This is where we as marketers have to stay grounded when we come up with all sorts of fascinating ideas.

For this final blog post, we’ll look into the aspects of how to deliver a good pitch presentation. At the end of the day, marketers will have to present their BIG IDEAS to people with the capital to invest in these ideas. We are going to cover two major tips I figured out myself when I was preparing for my presentation the other week, hopefully, they’ll prove to be useful for everyone in the future.

First and foremost, you must know your target market inside out.

Research and data collection are sure to bring us insight into how our target markets behave and act. It is the most basic and the very first step to understanding our target market. I am going to take the pitch presentation I recently did for my marketing class as an example. 

My group discussed heavily on the idea beforehand to make sure everyone was on the same page. I think this is extremely important because it can genuinely help each teammate prepare their individual parts at a better level of understanding. I think it is completely fair that each teammate focuses on different parts of the presentation since there are just so many points we have to talk about during the whole pitch. However, having everyone know what is happening exactly opens room for new perspectives, ensuring no stone is left unturned. It helps the team refine the BIG IDEA and allows the team to dive deeper in case there are any unreasonable concepts or objectives. 

I think it is understandable that sometimes we are not completely certain with numbers and we are often left to make educated estimations. On one hand, we want to be logical with our budgeting and projected returns. On the other hand, we also want to be realistically optimistic about the BIG IDEA. If one is unsure of the BIG IDEA in the first place, how is one going to confidently sell the concept to investors and prospectors? How is one going to convince others that their idea is a good one?

Okay, we talked about being confident and thorough with the preparation and brainstorming stage. What about understanding the target market? How does it actually help?

When we reach the stage of complete understanding of our target market, we can shape the tone and energy of the pitch presentation to match the target market. It goes to show that those who come up with the BIG IDEA truly know the wants and needs of the target market well enough to think from their perspective; to consider what they care for; and to provide tailor-made solutions with their best interest in mind. 

Taking the same example, the pitch presentation for my team is for the McDelivery app targeting GenZ gamers. When we think of GenZ, we think of adolescents and young adults. We think of middle schoolers, high schoolers, and university students. We think of young adults who are just kick-starting their career paths. They are a vibrant group with all sorts of interests and personalities. They care about individuality and societal issues. They are attuned to rapid technological advancements and are open to solutions that make their lives easier and more convenient, so they can make time for their hobbies and personal projects. When we think of gamers, we think of video games and entertainment. We think of action games, roleplaying games, puzzle games, horror games, comedy games, cooperative games, competitive games, cozy games, etc. There are so many genres in the market, and it is not a simple task to target all gamers. With a budget in mind, our team narrowed it down to a popular battle royale game in the market for a collaboration campaign. It is competitive and well-known across North America with a stable and large player base. Our team spent time researching the psychology and behavior of gamers who play competitive video games. We finally decided on the tone to be upbeat, energetic, and casual. This leads me to my next big tip.

Knowing the target market and the client should be the key to formulating the delivery format of the pitch presentation. We as marketers want to be close to our target market. We want to be a part of them and make them feel that we do understand their needs and wants. We want them to know that we have just the perfect solutions to their problems. For my team, we brought props to the presentation. We had headsets and console controllers. We had a TikTok video and a live demonstration to reflect how our target audience acts and thinks. We showed that we knew the target market’s priorities and passions. 

I would like to humbly point out that roleplaying in a presentation takes quite some confidence and it may not be for everyone. Rehearsing with the whole team helps, but individual practicing is critical. The more we practice and the more hands-on we are with the group’s whole research and brainstorming process can be very helpful. It can get us to the point where cue cards are not necessary. We can freely move around the stage instead of rigidly standing next to the slides and reciting the script. (If it can be helped, I do suggest memorizing key ideas and terms in place of the script itself. It gives room for improvising on the spot and reduces stammering when we forget the next exact line.)

I do not think there is any standardized answer to how to prepare the perfect pitch presentation, but I think the two tips I leave here with you all today are worth considering and adopting for anyone who is planning for some kind of pitch presentation.

It’s been a wild journey finally practicing what I’ve learned in class in the past few years. Thank you for joining in on this ride fellow adventurers. I hope all your future marketing campaigns run smoothly and successfully. The rocks and bumps on the way are lessons to be learned, and for my final tip of this blog:

NEVER STOP LEARNING.

Thank you, and goodbye!

[44gamez]

Our 100 most popular Xbox games of 2023 list shows the power of Game Pass

In any case our weekly charts, this this is the massive one: the highest 100 Xbox Gameplay Chart for the entire 12 months of 2023.By some means, regardless of being in first place for almost each chart of the 12 months, Fortnite is not prime of the chart for the preferred video games of 2023. Minecraft has that honor (it was first for final 12 months's prime 100 chart too), adopted by GTA V in second, after which Fortnite in third. Name of Responsibility is in fourth, with Starfield managing to interrupt in at fifth. Starfield was undoubtedly one in every of 2023's largest launches, so regardless of solely releasing on the finish of the 12 months (and to blended opinions) it isn't an excessive amount of of a shock to see it shoot so excessive. It is received extra deliberate for 2024, too, so it'd handle to carry onto its spectacular participant numbers. Halo Infinite was fourth in final 12 months's chart for the highest 100 hottest Xbox video games however has slipped right down to ninth this 12 months regardless of common updates and new Seasons, whereas Rocket League has raced as much as tenth. FIFA 23 has made a large leap up from fiftieth final 12 months to eleventh this 12 months. 2023 noticed it be part of Xbox Sport Move Final and EA Play, earlier than being delisted forward of EA Sports activities FC 24's launch. The subsequent huge change is Atomic Coronary heart, which is at 18th after launching into Sport Move early this 12 months. One other of this 12 months's huge launches is Hogwarts Legacy, which has made it to twentieth after launching just a few weeks or so sooner than Atomic Coronary heart. Payday 3, a September 2023 launch, has made it to twenty second regardless of all its launch points and patch delays. Name of Responsibility: Fashionable Warfare has fallen from fifth place in final 12 months's chart to twenty third this 12 months, whereas just under, The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath (one other 2023 Sport Move launch) has reached twenty fifth of the 100 hottest video games. We then have a spate of different 2023 releases: Wo Lengthy Fallen Dynasty at twenty seventh, GoldenEye 007 at twenty eighth, and Forza Motorsport at twenty ninth. All launched on day one into Sport Move. Black Ops 2, in the meantime, has managed to leap up 40 locations from final 12 months's spot at 72nd. Earlier this 12 months, Xbox 360 Name of Responsibility video games noticed an enormous spike in gamers after server fixes, which could assist to clarify this enhance. The remainder of the chart is riddled with 2023's releases, though they may not all be the place you'd count on. At thirty fifth we've got Occasion Animals (a day-one Sport Move launch), adopted by Stranded Deep at thirty sixth, Monster Hunter Rise at thirty seventh, and Redfall (one other day-one Sport Move addition) at thirty eighth. Redfall was stricken by bugs and lacklustre opinions at launch, prompting Phil Spencer to apologize and focus on his disappointment at letting down Xbox followers. Nonetheless, Bethesda's Pete Hines says the crew will maintain engaged on Redfall as a result of it is in Sport Move, saying, "we all know, as a first-party studio, Sport Move lives ceaselessly."Madden NFL 23 launched in 2022 however makes its first look on the highest 100 chart for 2023 at fortieth, most definitely because of becoming a member of Sport Move Final by way of EA Play. Loads of huge Sport Move day-one launches present up all through the chart, akin to Lies of P at forty first, Minecraft Legends at forty seventh, and Hello-Fi Rush at fiftieth. Then we've got main releases like Diablo IV, which exhibits up at forty sixth. Some huge releases, like Murderer's Creed Mirage, do not store up on this prime 100, however the older Murderer's Creed video games are all falling quick: Odyssey is down from 51st to sixty fifth, whereas Valhalla is down from forty seventh to 82nd, and Origins is down from forty first to 89th. The much-updated No Man's Sky is down from 2022's spot at 58th to 73rd, however Good day Video games introduced a brand new multiplayer sport known as Mild No Hearth, which already seems to be to be vastly formidable. In the meantime, it is fascinating to see Vampire Survivors has solely made it into the highest 100 this 12 months, and at 91st, because it joined Sport Move final 12 months. Nonetheless, it is had plenty of huge updates, which could clarify its sudden look. Rounding out the chart at a hundredth is Remnant 2, which launched earlier this 12 months however joined Sport Move solely not too long ago. Chart compiled utilizing gameplay knowledge from over 2.4 million lively Xbox accounts. Chart info is copyright GameInsights. For particulars on how the chart is calculated, click on right here. Source link Read the full article

[soft--dragon]

Blueshells and Belly Laughs

Based off of this prompt here

Word Count: 1,390

Warnings: None

This is a SFW tickle fic, if you don’t like that then don’t read :)

“Aaaaaand WINNER!” Dream whooped loudly, throwing his arms up into the air in glee.

“You bastard!” Came Wilbur’s yell of annoyance, his character on the screen passing the finish line seconds after Dream’s. He rounded on the hoodie donned man who was grinning madly and pointed an accusing finger. “Cheated. You bloody cheated.”

Dream gave a snort, lightly slapping away Wilbur’s hand and clicking the buttons on his controller to set up the next race. “You’re just a sore loser, my god. No wonder you and George get along so well.”

“You haven’t lost a single game, what the fuck,” Wilbur grouched. “Do you just never go outside and waste your time playing this shitty game?”

“Firstly rude, I do go out, I’ll have you know,” Dream rolled his eyes. “And it’s not shitty, you just suck at it.” Dream selected a new racetrack and gave Wilbur a side eye. “You done bitching so you can get your ass kicked again?”

Wilbur hunched his shoulders inwards and snatched his discarded controller off the cushions once more. “I regret meeting up with you.”

Dream wheezed loudly, clicking on the track and settling into his Gamer Pose™ on his side of the couch. “Uh huh, and you call Tommy a child.”

“At least Tommy doesn’t throw blue shells at me and call me an old bitch,” Wilbur reached over on instinct and jabbed Dream’s side like he did with his little brother. 

Dream instantly flinched with a muffled noise, kicking Wilbur’s foot in response. “T-That sounds like something he would do,” he shot back, eyes forward on the screen. The slight wobble in his voice peaked Wilbur’s interest, drawing the brunette’s eye back to him.

Dream’s gaze was solely on the screen, a small smile on his face and brows scrunched to his eyes. Wilbur noted there was a faint pinkness in his face. Odd. 

Dream suddenly flicked his eyes over and rolled them with a smug grin. “Oi, I know I’m pretty but get your eyes forward, we’ve started.” 

Wilbur jolted and quickly scrambled to hit the right buttons, his kart boosting forwards on the track. “Fuck fuck- why didn't you say anything?!” He yelped, trying to catch up to Dream who was a natural speed demon and had climbed to first in seconds. 

Dream cackled. “Snooze you lose Wil,” he taunted, “maybe if you didn’t try to spy on how I play, then you’ll know when it actually begins.”

Wilbur shot him a glare, button smashing and hurling the green shells he picked up forwards in hopes they’d throw the other characters off. “Shut up you green motherfucker.” 

“Ooooo, someone’s getting sassy~” A blue shell suddenly swung by and smashed Wilbur’s kart to the side, an instinctual yell of outrage bursting from the British man. Dream cackled, his character speeding past his own destruction. “Take that you old bitch!”

“I’M THREE YEARS OLDER THAN YOU!”

“AND YET YOU DRIVE LIKE YOU’RE SIXTY!” 

Wilbur reached out instinctively again and jabbed Dream’s exposed side, freezing a bit at Dream’s yelp and what sounded to be a muffled giggle.

“Hey! Hands to yourself,” Dream smacked away his fingers, quickly returning back to his controller when a Blooper swung in front of him and sprayed ink all over his screen.

Wilbur, however, couldn’t care less about the ink blinding his character as well. All his attention was now on the new found weakness to his friend. He grinned wide and mischievous, throwing caution to the wind as his fingers were already lunging back into Dream’s sensitive midsection. 

“HEHEhehey! Wil! Whahat the fuck ahAre you dohoing?!” Dream spluttered, instantly letting one hand go off his controller to try and shove Wilbur’s wiggling digits away, his character veering off course as a result. 

“Aw c’mon Dream,” Wilbur spoke sweetly though his eyes had become playfully dark. “What happened to that winning streak? Look, baby Bowser has pulled ahead of you now!”

Dream gasped and laughed harder as Wilbur’s hand scoped out the weak spot on his lower back, pinching and scribbling mercilessly. “Wihihihil! Lehehet gohoho fohohor fuhuhucks sahahake!” 

“Aww noooo, you’ve dropped to fourth Dream! You’re never gonna win at this rate,” Wilbur cooed in faux sadness, “And you’re so good at this game too, imagine how sad it would be to lose.”

Dream wheezed, managing to grab onto Wilbur’s wrist and went to shove him away. “Okahahay! Okahahay Ihihihi gehehet ihihit! Stohohopihihit!” He pleaded, giggling so much it was almost incoherent. 

“You get it? Get what? I’m not even doing anything,” Wilbur dropped his controller, ignoring the game to fully scribble into Dream’s belly.

Dream shrieked at the top of his lungs at that, his own controller dropping to the carpet as he scrambled back to get away. “WIHIHIHIL!”

Wilbur cackled, leaping for the man and tackling him down to the cushions, his hands plunging into the fabric of his hoodie to squeeze, scribble and spider into sensitive skin. Dream arched his back high in wild squeals of laughter, his face fully red now with a large smile spread across his lips. 

“Oh, are you ticklish Dream? Is that what’s wrong?” He teased meanly, poking along the man’s ribs and worming nimble fingers into the grooves in-between. 

Dream squirmed into the couch cushions madly, wheezes breaking between each fit of giggles at the rush of ticklish sensations. “WihiHIHIHIlbuhuhur! Ihihit- Ihihi cahahan’t stahahand thihihis!” He whined, pressing his hands to Wilbur’s chest and trying to shove him off only for his armpits to be drilled into, making him throw his head back in laughter.

Wilbur clicked his tongue mockingly, not the least bit sympathetic. “Aw, well you shouldn’t have gotten so cocky Dweam, I’m afraid you did this to yourself.”

“FUHUHUCK OHOHOFF YOHOHOU DIHIHICKHEHEAD!”

Wilbur rolled his eyes. “Such a nasty mouth too, golly, it’s a wonder no one’s done this sooner.” 

He yanked up Dream’s hoodie so he could claw his fingers straight onto bare skin, and the scream the sounded out made it sound like Dream was getting murdered. 

“OHOHO NOHOHOHO- WIHIHIL! PLEHEHEASE NOHOHOT THAHAHAT!” The man howled, flailing wildly in hysterics at the sensations. 

Wilbur’s eyes lit up and he giggled a bit himself. “Awww, the Manhunt King’s got a ticklish tummy? A sensitive stomach? A buzzy belly?”

The teasing sent a rush of warmth up Dream’s neck and he buried his face into his hands, snorts peppering between his laughter. “YOHOHOU’RE SUHUHUCH AHAHA PRIHIHICK!” 

The tickling lasted a few minutes longer, Wilbur finding all the sensitive spots quickly and making Dream just about scream with laughter, the man reduced to a puddle of giggles by the time Wilbur had settled to just tracing his nails over his trembling belly. 

The brunette then placed his hands on Dream’s lower belly, feeling the muscles quiver instinctively and let out a laugh. “Relax Dream, I’m done for now,” he snickered. 

Dream visibly slumped into the cushions, his hands planted on his face as he calmed down from the attack. He heard Wilbur chuckle quietly and felt a gentle pat to his stomach, subconsciously flinching at the contact with a squeak.

“You know, I’m glad we met up. I get to see you like this,” Wilbur settled beside Dream, grinning down at him. “It’s kinda cute, King.”

Dream whined, the tickling had stopped but the small giggles tumbling out of him hadn’t. He shifted his hands so he could clamp them over his mouth, his eyes squinting with how big his smile was. “Shuhut up, it’s embaharrassing,” he grumbled. 

Wilbur shook his head, smiling genuinely. “Well I found it quite sweet. And I’ll make sure to tell George when I go back.”

Dream immediately flinched and shot up, staring at Wilbur intensely. “No- no you can’t, he’ll actually murder me when he gets over here.”

Wilbur snickered, looking at his nails. “Ah well, I’ll give a nice eulogy then.”

The strawberry blonde spluttered in outrage. “Like hell you will-!”

Wilbur’s own cackles rang through the house as Dream enacted his revenge, yelling at the brunette to not tell George, while Wilbur yelled about him trying to silence the truth. Mario Kart lay abandoned at the side, the characters tied for last place while their players tussled on the couch. The race wasn’t going to continue for a while, but there were more important things at hand.

[redorich]

"Hello, Mr. Blade," Quackity says.

Techno inwardly groans. He knows that tone of voice; it usually precedes some awful joke, or indicates that Quackity's about to take off all his clothes and attempt to sell cocaine to people again. Possibly both. In a desperate attempt to avoid whatever shitstorm is coming his way, Technoblade resolutely reads his book and pretends he does not hear Quackity. He holds out for a whole five minutes, until Quackity starts autotune-singing about how much he and Techno love doing exceedingly nasty things with each other. When Quackity breaks out the guitar, Techno snaps his book shut.

"What do you want?" the piglin grunts.

Quackity shapeshifts into a cute little yellow duckling, presumably to persuade Techno with the power of cuteness. "Break into MCC with me," he says.

That is such a bad idea on so many levels. Challenging, sure, and very interesting...

"What's in it for me?" he says.

"I want to put a whoopie cushion on Scott's chair," the duckling quacks. "That means we've got to break into the admin room, and you can mess with the admin control panel."

Techno raises a skeptical eyebrow. “You want to break into the most secure room in the most secure event in recent history.”

Quackity nods. “Exactly!”

“To put a whoopie cushion on Scott’s chair.”

Technoblade puts his face in his hand and mourns the collective IQ of the Dream SMP, because surely Quackity lowers it just by breathing. The shapeshifter, still in duck form, hops up into Technoblade’s lap, then turns into a human so he can risk death by daring to suggestively straddle the piglin. He immediately gets shoved onto the ground.

“I’m going to regret this...” Technoblade says. “Let’s do it.”

---

Getting into the MCC server is the easy part. They’re both whitelisted, and it would be a hassle to remove everyone on the whitelist only to add them back later each time there’s another championship, so they have indefinite access. The moderators would surely come up with a way to keep everyone out if they knew about the two Dream SMP men’s plan.

“Do you even know where we’re going?” Quackity complains loudly.

Technoblade slaps a hand over Quackity’s mouth and looks around quickly. The shapeshifter responds by licking Techno’s palm, and Techno retaliates by removing his slobbery hand from Quackity’s face and swatting him upside the head for the childish behavior.

“Be quiet, we don’t know who’s here,” Techno says. “And yes, I know where we’re going. The admin room is below the map. There’s a secret passageway around here somewhere...”

The two sneak underneath the bridge to the arena, locating a lever that opens a hallway inside the main gate. The inside of the hallway is mostly quartz and concrete. Obviously, the map-makers put more effort into the bits that were supposed to be seen.

They reach a fork in the hallway: they can either go left or right. Techno points to the left. When they turn the corner, they come face-to-face with another person. Quackity and Technoblade both freeze in place at the sight of Grian leaning on the door to the admin room, fiddling with his phone. When he hears the two intruders, he looks up, squinting at them from behind the thin frame of his glasses.

Why is he here?! Techno thinks. We’re gonna get in so much trouble!

“I didn’t know either of you was an admin,” Grian says casually.

Technoblade sweats. How does he pretend to be an admin?

"Uh, yeah," he says, wrapping his arm around Quackity in a gesture that's supposed to look friendly but is a bit too tight. "My friend's code is, uh, glitching really hard right now."

On cue, Quackity shapeshifts into a moaning pile of limbs, then a duck, and then his normal state again, flickering between human and limb-pile.

"It's time sensitive, so if you could please let us through," Technoblade continues.

Grian raises a singular eyebrow, totally unimpressed. "Is it, now."

Quackity begins to foam at the mouth. Technoblade hopes that that's a shapeshifting trick and not some weird disease Quackity's picked up. Grian steps to the side, allowing the other two men to pass through the door to the admin control panel room.

As soon as they’re on the other side of the door, Technoblade leans heavily against it, pressing a hand to his his chest and exhaling. “He actually bought it,” the piglin says incredulously. Meanwhile, Quackity waltzes over to Scott’s spinny gamer chair without a care in the world, placing a whoopie cushion on the seat. For good measure, he also duct tapes an air horn to the bottom of the chair, so that when Scott sits down it’ll go off.

“We don’t have all day, man,” Quackity chides. “Go do whatever admin thing it is you’ve got planned.”

Right. He’d forgotten about that. Technoblade boots up the admin control panel. The text glows brightly, most of it in Galactic Standard. It would take too long to bother deciphering it all, not to mention it would overtax Techno’s attention span. The piglin skims the characters on the screen just enough to the point where he can locate “automated_messages.txt”. This file, if he is correct, should be the one that the main script references. If he just alters this one bit right here, then heads over to “display_messages.cpp” to alter a few corresponding lines of code... There!

“I’m done,” he says.

Quackity, who’s been climbing the wall as a hot pink lizard, drops to the floor and comes back up as a human again. “Nice, now we should probably get out of here before that Grian guy realizes we’ve done something. What’d you put in the code, by the way?”

Technoblade stuffs his hands in his pockets and shrugs. He can’t suppress his smirk, though. “Oh, nothing much-- every time a game is chosen, instead of saying the name of the game, the system will say ‘subscribe to Technoblade’.”

Quackity groans, heading to the door. He’s about to say something, but when he opens the door, the two see exactly what they don’t want to see.

Grian is still waiting for them when they exit the room, arms crossed and leaning against the wall casual as you please.

He tilts his head. "You two got that issue sorted out?"

Quackity beams, nodding rapidly and speaking even faster. "Oh yes, I'm completely better now! Technoblade fixed me up; it was difficult and scary but it worked perfectly, I feel so much better now! All he had to do was give me a true love's kiss--"

The shapeshifter is cut off by Techno's elbow digging into his ribs.

Grian nods. "That's good, that's good." A pause. "For the record, code isn't glitchy. It's either buggy or it's corrupted, usually corrupted. You're a really bad liar, Technoblade."

“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Techno deadpans. When in doubt, deny all knowledge of the evidence!

“Team with me,” Grian demands. “I want to win the next MCC.”

Quackity immediately agrees, “Deal.” At the Look that Techno strikes him with, he simply shrugs. “Hey, I want in on this too.”

---

Grian, Technoblade, and Quackity team with Philza. They win in a landslide and Technoblade gets banned from MCC for a month. It’s worth it.

[codenamesazanka]

Spinaraki is sublime indeed, but I admit a lot of it is from Spinner’s end of things: it’s Spinner who becomes captivated, it’s Spinner who’s shown to care about Shigaraki a lot, and it’s Spinner who revealed the little detail that they talked about gaming and stuff. With Shigaraki, we’re much more unclear on his exact feelings.

Doubtless he likes the League - they’re exempt from his dream to destroy everything, he wants them to join him on the fun, and he’s shown he cares in much more subtle but still telling ways: accommodating members when they need it, getting revenge when his team has been wronged, allowing the League whatever they want.

But I do think that the particular friendship Spinner and Shigaraki has struck up is reciprocal, even though we haven’t seen it on the page, images for our eyes.

There are things we can infer like how Shigaraki seemed to have paid enough attention to Spinner’s grievances to reference the ‘hollowness’ Spinner spoke of, sharing that he was the same. He had to have noticed that Spinner stopped talking about Stain and started paying attention to him more during Gigantomachia month; or if Mr. Compress notes that Spinner is the one most loyal to Shigaraki, the rest of the League - including the leader - probably would’ve too. That Spinner had been there to help find and return Shigaraki’s last Hand to him after Deika, or found a moment to ask Shigaraki about it, to know how one survived.

The biggest evidence we have is Spinner’s revelation that they bonded over video games, that they were able to get along well enough for Spinner to look absolutely devastated when he realized Shigaraki wasn’t himself. This could’ve been just Spinner’s take on the situation, but Spinner himself said he found the connection unexpected, that it surprised him. That sort of implies he wasn’t looking to become best friends, initiating from his end. It either was Shigaraki who started the conversation, or they fell into it naturally and both had fun enough for it to have become a positive memorable experience for Spinner.

The gaming connection had been foreshadowed when Spinner used GRAND THEFT AUTO as his driving instructions and as a battle cry, and one of Shigaraki Tomura’s most memorable trait up to that point was his use of gaming metaphors. The League had two gamers in its ranks and it was inevitable that people wondered if they might talk to each other about it.

That we actually got an answer would’ve been satisfying enough, but the manga went further to used it to create a particularly heartbreaking moment in a situation that was already dour. Suddenly we’ve been made aware of a bond that, of all people, Shigaraki ‘I Hate Everything’ Tomura had, and it’s been forcefully severed (for now) by someone who wants Shigaraki to keep hating everything, to make his emptiness even more hollow than before. In context of this, any degree of friendship, connection, fun Shigaraki might have had becomes actually quite significant; that for Shigaraki Tomura, it might have been a sort of Big Deal, especially if he was the one who initiated it.

All we have are faint wisps of clues that could be counted on the fingers of Shigaraki’s left half-hand; and beyond that, it’s all guesses. On a meta level, it seems to be a set up for something important, that there just might be an affirmation of Shigaraki’s mutual feelings towards Spinner - but that is also just a guess.

Yet something is there, and it feels nearly within reach. It hinges on something that’s not much at all, a small thing: all we need is just one word, one action from Shigaraki.

What a way to fuel a ship.

[bloodpacks-archive]

HOMES OF THE RFA (+V AND SAERAN) HEADCANONS

alright we’ve got zen’s bachelor pad first - generally zen tends to be a pretty minimalist guy with his house. part of it is honestly because he couldn’t really afford to completely deck out his house for a while, and now he’s just grown used to the look of it so he really likes having spaces that are a little less cluttered. the one exception to this, unfortunately, is his kitchen. he doesn’t use his kitchen often, and as a result, he often forgets to do his dishes until the end of the week. monday? that shit is spotless. his kitchen is cleaner than anything has ever been and the dishes are neatly put away. do not even look at that kitchen on wednesday. it’s become a disaster zone and he’s embarrassed. but once the mc starts to come by more, i think he ends up cooking for himself a lot more because he starts to realize that he actually really enjoys it. he loves being healthy, and now that he has the motivation to cook for himself (and her, of course), he starts to realize how much he likes control over what he eats. so now his kitchen is a lot cleaner bc it just has to be.

two different places for yoosung !! - the one on the left is yoosung’s dorm :) it’s actually really cool in there. he spends a lot of time in that little room, so he decides to invest a little bit and make sure that he’s happy with the place he lives. he likes alternative lighting (mainly because it helps his eyes a bit when he’s playing lolol) but also because overhead lights can be a little harsh for him, especially after a long day of school. when the mc’s there, he always makes sure that the lights are just right. it’s very common for both of them to fall asleep while the LEDS are still on, a movie playing on the projector he bought a while back. when he moves out of college, though, his house is a bit of a different story. he still keeps some LEDS and neon signs in a little gamer/office space, and for the most part he’s actually pretty neat, but his house can definitely get messy. surprisingly enough, the mattress on the floor is not for him. in fact, it’s for zen. he comes over so often that yoosung ends up setting up a little mattress for him so that he can stay over whenever he has drinks with him. the mess honestly isn’t terrible though, and he and the mc are both good about making it an organized disaster.

jaehee’s cozy little apartment - rather than art posters, jaehee actually has a lot of framed broadway and other musical posters on her walls. she branches out a bit from zen’s musicals over time, and she actually really loves decorating her home with something that she loves so much. she likes her small apartment, and it means that she and the mc are never really that far away from each other. she places her hand on the mc’s back whenever she squeezes past her in the kitchen, and when they have their coffee in the morning she can lean over and grab her hand during conversation. she always has candles lit, and she prefers really earthy and woody scents. tobacco is a common scent, but as is sandalwood. even with the candles, their apartment constantly smells like fresh coffee beans and sourdough bread. it is a very rare day if there isn’t dough rising in the window somewhere, and even rarer if there isn’t a baked loaf hidden away in the kitchen.

two homes for jumin as well !! - the first picture is of his penthouse when the mc moves in with him. she adds little throw pillows, some rugs, and some plants to his stupid penthouse and makes it feel much more like a home. he gets rid of that stupid circular bed the second he realizes that she feels a little cramped in it and upgrades to a beautiful king sized mattress. there’s about a million and one windows, and that’s actually something he really loves about the penthouse. so it’s really no surprise when he and the mc move a bit out of the city and they keep the big windows and the big open spaces, but make it feel like something that’s meant to be lived in. jumin discovers his love of wood and tall bookshelves with a mix of occult novels and old classics, and the mc convinces him to add a little more color into his interior. their new house has a big garden out back so he can still visit the roses (though they aren’t the same ones from his old rooftop garden, but he’d argue that he planted them with her, so they’re so much better). they built the house themselves so it’s perfect for them, and elizabeth the third has her own little space for playing.

hmmmm. saeyoung choi’s new home <3 - saeyoung eventually leaves the bunker. it’s a hard move, and it’s definitely not one he takes lightly (he’s used to moving, but not away from a place with so many good memories). but, he builds this new home from the ground up with the mc. he makes the plans and hires architects to help him, and he starts to fall in love with this new home even while it’s still a blueprint. he never gives up his complicated security system (the arabic dictionary really starts to feel heavy sometimes), but he does start to realize how much he loves windows. he still ends up getting them reinforced, but he loves the natural light and he actually really likes being able to see outside so easily. it’s a stupid thing, but sometimes the mc will catch him sitting on their couch and just looking out at the secluded little forest they ended up moving to, and he seems really happy. similar to yoosung, saeyoung cannot stand overhead lighting. at first, his solution was to just have no lighting at all, but one day he came into his office and there were these little lamps everywhere and they actually made his office feel a lot less daunting. ever since then, he’s started using lamps more often than the lights installed into his ceiling. he also says they help to reduce any sensory issues he might have from the light, which also means a lot less headaches for him. he starts to really love thunderstorms while he lives there, and so he and the mc always curl up whenever it starts to rain and they sit on the couch, watching as lightning cracks across the sky and counting the seconds until the thunder together. whenever it rains, saeyoung knows he can take a break from everything for a while.

jihyun kim’s beautiful little apartment - his apartment is tiny except for his studio. similarly to jaehee, he likes the small spaces because one, he loves how cozy is feels, but two, because it means he can reach out to his mc a lot more often. his studio, however, is the biggest and brightest space imaginable. all of his apartment is big on natural light, but he loves having a huge window in his studio because it means he’s able to see actual life even when he’s wrapped up in his work. it’s also big enough that the mc can sit in and watch him work without ever feeling like she’s in the way, which he absolutely loves. it’s really common for her to be sitting on one of his extra stools, flipping through some of the drawing drafts he’s made with delicate fingers. he’ll turn then, half-dried paint on his fingertips and go to kiss her. she’ll laugh when she feels the coolness of the wet paint on her cheek, and he’ll feel terrible about it, but there’s not many worries that can be had when you’re standing in the shine of the afternoon sun, surrounded by art that you’re proud of and standing in front of the girl who brought you back to artistry. as far as the rest of his apartment goes, jihyun is very particular about color. he likes things to look nice and he appreciates things to be very calming in nature. the green kitchen is perfect for him because of this, and everything is always spotless. the only part of his home that’s ever a mess is his studio, but he knows where everything is.

and lastly we have saeran’s little getaway :) - of course, saeran stays close to saeyoung. they both end up moving to a really nice, secluded area where they feel safe. even after the issue with their father has been resolved, both of them feel safer if they’re away from the public. this actually ends up being great for saeran though, because it means that he has access to so many plants. so many. he can walk though his pretty summer garden outside to get to his greenhouse, and he loves being able to tend to all of the flowers there. it really is something that’s calming for him. plus, whenever he walks outside he can see saeyoung’s house and he can be reminded that he’s only a few steps away, so he’d make the trip often even without the flowers. his house is pretty small, but he can’t imagine wanting anything too big. it always smells really fresh in his house, like clean linens and citrus, but not the artificial kind. he just always has oranges somewhere in his house so fresh citrus is always there in the kitchen. he and the mc enjoy a really quiet life together in their house, and it’s honestly at this point that he feels the happiest. he likes being able to wake up in the morning and sit at their kitchen island together, a homemade breakfast in front of them and her head leaning on his shoulder.

[kuroopaisen]

12:54 am || kozume kenma

➵ some important introductions are finally made.

wc: 1496

warnings: gn!reader, kenma is a youtube g*mer

a/n: gracie dear, this one is for you! i remember you saying you were looking forward to it. you’re one of the loveliest people i’ve chatted to on here and you have such a kind and gentle heart. thank you for having such an accepting and calming vibe and you’re so so easy to talk to, it’s very relaxing! your blog is such a positive space you and you make me feel the big ❤️ bless your dear heart, and i hope that november is kind to you!

The sun is long gone, the sky above Tokyo draped with velvet midnight. It looks like the kind of night you’d want to go out and experience, to walk around the ever-bustling city centre, to watch the sky in the hope of seeing something that’ll make your heart stutter in your chest.

But you don’t have the energy for that this evening.

Your honours project is sucking all it can out of you. You’re not surprised, of course, but that doesn’t make the experience any less irritating. You’re at that point where you just need to push a little more and polish it off; but as always, that’s the hardest part. Trying to thread together every section into something that’s not only coherent, but also of passable quality is harder than you’d given it credit for.

It’s the time of night when your eyes feel like they’re about to dribble out of their sockets like candle wax, and you’re aware that you’re not going to get anything of substance done now. You sigh, squinting at your laptop screen.

12:54 AM.

You blink your sore eyes rapidly. Was it really that late?

You stretch your arms above your head, feeling the strain in your muscles. You want nothing more than to curl up in bed with your boyfriend, letting the stresses of the day fade away as you run your fingers through his hair. He usually lets you at this hour, melting into your touch in a way he wouldn’t usually during the day.

It’s much too late for you to get anything of worth down for this assignment.

As you stand up, you swear you can hear every bone in your body crack. You don’t just want to go to bed, you need to get some rest.

But there’s no way you’re going alone.

You totter down the hall as quietly as you can, balancing yourself on your tiptoes. Kenma’s gaming room sits at the end of the hall, chosen for its decent acoustics and spaciousness. You tease him for his set up all the time – ‘epic gamer’ is your favourite moniker, and currently crowns your LINE messages.

You and Kuroo had even made him a little sign for his birthday. It’s a plaque stuck to the door that reads, “WARNING! Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my Epic Gamer moment.”

You grin at it as the door creaks open.

Kenma’s clicking away on his computer as he sits at his desk, eyes narrowed and a little pout on his lips. You smile to yourself; he looks so cute like this, so focused and intense. He doesn’t tend to get like this about anything else, but gaming had a way of drawing the intensity out of him.

You can’t help but wonder if he was like this during his volleyball days in high school, analysing the court in the moment. You’ve never seen him play, and you doubt you ever will. He pays Hinata to do that, after all. You’re glad that such a bright boy is part of your boyfriend’s life. Between you, Kuroo, and Hinata, there’s no fear of Kenma going unloved.

You give him a small wave from the door.

Recognition flashes in his eyes as he catches sight of you, the smallest of smiles gracing his face. Someone outside of your relationship might assume that doesn’t count for much; a tiny, forgettable little gesture that isn’t worth taking note of. But you know how to read Kenma.

His gaze flicks back to his screen.

“You all want to know that bad, huh?” He teases, even though his voice is still monotone.

‘Know what?’ you mouth.

“They want to know what made me smile,” Kenma tilts his head at you, and you swear your heart is about to bloom into a kaleidoscope of light.

You nod, tottering over to him as he rolls his chair back. He’s left just enough space for you to sit. You settle yourself down on his lap like it’s second nature, and he loops his arms around your waist. Usually, that wouldn’t make you blush. But, knowing a significant portion of his viewership were watching this happen in real time brings a certain nervousness to mind.

He props his chin on your shoulder, as he always does. For once, he’s more casual than you; he’s in his element, immersed in a game and bolstered by people who adore him. It’s all you could want for him.

“Yeah, this is my partner,” he hums, small smile playing at his lips.

You see the chat rush by on the corner of his screen, but you opt not to look. Doing so would only make you more nervous.

“They want to know how long we’ve been together,” he says, conspicuously dropping the question in your lap.

You grin, fighting the urge to roll your eyes. “Officially, two years,” you smile. “But basically three.”

He chuckles lightly, pressing a kiss to your shoulder. “They also want to know how we met.”

“I was Kuroo’s roommate in university,” you say, well-aware of Kuroo’s much-loved presence on Kenma’s channel. “He decided I’d be a good friend for Kenma so he wrestled me into their little duo. He likes to say that us getting together was part of his plan all along, but I have my doubts.”

In all honesty, you’re surprised by how relaxed your reveal is. You’ve been worried about it for the past year, fearing the backlash that romantic partners of youtubers – especially gaming Youtubers – tend to receive.

Kenma had told you it would be okay, that you won’t have anything to worry about.

It feels nice, just sitting in his lap, getting to be part of this little world of his.

You stay for the next fifteen minutes or so, answering a myriad of questions pinged your way; was Kenma the same as he is in his videos? Does he ever sleep? Do you game with him much? Does he go easy on you in 1-v-1’s or is he ruthless?

“Thanks everyone,” Kenma yawns, propping his chin on your shoulder. “We’ve run over time, but you guys did a great job today.”

You bite back a giggle as you listen to his ‘Youtuber Outro Voice,’ which was just a shade brighter than his normal cadence.

You sit patiently as he wraps up, mentioning something about his next upload and the charity this stream was for. You know it’s got something to do with ensuring that children with disabilities are offered opportunities to take part in sports, and to help schools accommodate for that. You’re pretty sure Kuroo’s the one who linked your boyfriend up with them; you often teased him for ‘exploiting’ kodzuken’s following for charity.

Kenma clicks off the stream, letting out a long sigh as his shoulders deflate.

“Thanks,” he mumbles, nestling his face in the crook of your neck.

You giggle, reaching a hand back to smooth his hair. The angle’s a little awkward and your fingers bump against his headset, but you don’t mind.

“Did you raise a lot of money?” You ask, shifting in his lap so you can see his face.

He nods. “Not as much as the collab with Shouyou and Kuroo, but a fair bit.”

“Good,” you smile. He looks exhausted; he often does after long charity streams. But you know he cares about them – he wouldn’t bother with them otherwise. You gently slip his headset off – you bought them for him as a one-year-anniversary present, a cute, high-tech thing with cat ears – and place it gently on his desk.

You run your fingers through his hair, gently grazing his scalp. He hums in response, letting his eyes flutter shut. It’s like all the tension is melting away under your fingers, as if you’ve brought him a moment of precious reprieve. He never complains about his work – not in any real capacity, anyway – but even he got tired of his job.

As you gaze at his face, you’re content in the knowledge that you don’t need to flit amongst the city or watch the sky to see something that’ll make your heart stutter. He’s right in front of you.

“Hey, Kenma?”

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

The words flutter between you, threading a proper smile across his face. He doesn’t need to say them back to know your feelings are reciprocated; Kenma isn’t a man of many words, and his affection doesn’t tend to come out in grand statements or confessions. His love is in the little gestures; in a gentle kiss to the nose, or his fingers laced through yours, or permission to be part of his little world.

His love is shy, gentle, purposeful. You know he struggles to let people in. To let himself be seen. But he opens his windows for you, lets you filter through like the sunrise.

It’s all he’s capable of giving; but he gives it all with a quiet thoughtfulness.

And that’s more than enough.

[seraphsnorlax]

Prompt: Susie has to practice her healing magic by hugging

---

"Who the f--"

"Susie! Language, please!" Ralsei was quick to cut her off, as Berdly began snerking behind his wing.

"I'm sorry, but you call that healing magic?" Berdly continued, tipping his head up dramatically as he scoffed, "If you need magic lessons, I suppose--"

"Actually, I'm the one whose been teaching Susie!" Ralsei chimed in, giving Berdly a bright smile, "I can show you too, Berdly!"

"Uh--and you were--" Berdly opened his mouth to retort, but something about the sharp glares he suddenly received from both Kris and Susie caused his throat to dry into an awkward, noncommittal cough.

"You just need more practice Susie, here!" Ralsei cheered, leaning over to hug Susie, causing Berdly's face to contort in outrage.

Such a sly devil! Leaning in and trying to sweep his dear Susan off her feet? Right in front of him? Well a Gamer never backed down from a challenge run, that was for sure!

"A-ah, well!" Susie coughed, petting a hand down roughly on Ralsei's head, "I guess...more practice isn't a bad thing."

Oh? Was this a chance? Perhaps it was her way of wanting to get closer, without revealing her true romantic intentions...

"Oh, I don't think just hugging persay is--" Ralsei began, but Berdly was quick to push them apart with a brisk movement, though flinched slightly as he caught sight of Kris' sword being drawn.

"I actually think that makes perfect, logical sense! Illogical sense makes perfect sense!" Berdly began fumbling, fluttering his wing slightly higher, to obscure his face from a now confused looking Susie.

--

"Okay! Hugging time!" Susie roared, and Berdly felt himself being shoved aside as Noelle made her presence known.

"O-oh! Well--Um, I know! Healing magic as well! So feel free to ask me anything--or show me anything, or practice anything with me--uh, Susie!" Noelle managed to get up, her face growing redder by the second.

"Oh--swell! Thanks," Susie smiled slightly, not understanding her intent fully, but glad to have a chance to get stronger, "Uh--hold still?"

Noelle's let out a small squeak as Susie moved closer, and covered her face with her hands in an attempt to hide her excitement.

"Oh, dear Noelle! No need to be afraid!" Berdly incorrectly interjected, "Here, if I must--"

"No! That's fine, Berdly!" Noelle looked at him with a strained, slightly wild eyed expression, "You don't even know healing magic!"

"Ah, my dear Noelle...I apologized for leading you on in the early years of our friendship, but as we've grown together, I hope you know--"

"That was literally ten minutes ago--and you didn't lead me on!" Noelle couldn't help but shove him, earning herself a hearty laugh from Susie, and an approving look from Kris.

Ralsei looked in confusion up at Susie, as Kris moved forward to lean against Susie, causing the feuding duo to pause and stare at Kris in disbelief.

"What's wrong, Kris? I didn't think you could use magic." Susie laughed, her teeth sharply grinning down at them as she slung an arm around their shoulders, "Or were you hoping the healing master would teach you too."

----

"She's right, Kris!" Noelle cleared her throat, "I think I'd be a better--"

"Kristopher! Really!" Berdly scolded them, "That's not even how you hug."

Kris stared at Berdly for a moment, their mouth moving before they could answer for themself,

"Oh, then show me how." Kris spoke, though their tone was as sarcastic as they could muster.

"Oh, dear, deary Kris. I understand your reverence for my superior magical, combative, and superior stream quality powers, but alas, I never cheat on the VN route I choose." Berdly lamented sardonically, Noelle taking the opportunity to inch closer to Susie as he spoke.

"I...I can show you how too, Kris..." Ralsei mumbled.

"Too late, nerds!" Susie declared, pulling Ralsei in with her other arm, squishing the two with both arms as her muscles flexed.

"Oof--I guess I have a lot of hugging I need to learn too!" Ralsei griped, though with a cheerful smile.

Kris felt themself smile slightly as Noelle held her cheek, still flustered, but felt bad for her nonetheless. They didn't want to take away and opportunity for her and Susie to get closer, and well, there wasn't much closer you could get than a hug.

--

Two options formed in their mind as to how to get the two girls together, and as Kris formulated which path to take--

"Alright, you two dweebs next!" Susie released them, as she leaned over and crunched herself against both Noelle and Berdly, who shared equally flushed, delighted expressions, and shook them slightly, "Damn, I can't wait to show Lancer later. He's pretty bouncy though, might slip outta my grip..."

Kris watched as the grip of the hug damaged Noelle and Berdly for about three points of damage, and Susie's ultimate healing skill heal them for about the same.

She was getting better with practice, that was for sure.

"Well, it's time to seal the tunnel, right? We can practice more back at home!" Ralsei declared, starting to worry as the red in Noelle and Berdly's face didn't seem to just be from blushes anymore.

"O-oh, is that it--I mean! We can practice any time, okay Susie?" Noelle stammered, hiding her face again.

"Hey--Berdly, you alive?" Susie asked with a small chuckle, watching as Berdly quickly passed out as she released him too, "What a weenie."

"Oh no--let me heal him--" Ralsei started, but Kris put their hand on his shoulder, shaking their head no, "Oh? Kris? Did you want to try too--I don't know if human's can use magic..."

"He's fine like that." Kris spoke dryly, but in their own voice.

"Kris is right! Berdly used too much power earlier, he deserves a rest!" Noelle beamed, grateful to have an excuse for Berdly to shut up.

---

"W-well, if you say so!" Ralsei shrugged, touching his cheeks softly as well, "That was nice! Much harder than Kris hugs, but still very nice!"

"Oh? You two have hugged, Kris?" Noelle asked with a sly grin, "I thought they didn't like being touched all that much! You must be a really special friend to them--um, Ralsei!"

Ralsei blushed deeply at this, unconsciously reaching for his hat to cover his face, only to realize it wasn't there.

"Oh! That makes me really happy to hear!" Ralsei smiled through his paws, to which Kris felt themself blushing slightly as well.

"What the hell, Kris? You were helping Ralsei practice his healing magic? You never let me hit you with my axe?" Susie griped, giving Kris a slight shove as she rested her elbow on their shoulder.

>I was just hugging him because I like him >You're not fast enough to hit me with your axe

Kris struggled as the voice began to speak for them, but managed an even tone as they stated that they hugged Ralsei just because they like him.

"I--I like you too, Kris!" Ralsei smiled brightly, his cheeks still flushed happily.

"I like Ralsei too!" Susie agreed, slinging a rough arm around him with another sharp toothed smile, "Just you wait, and I'll show you how to use an axe too!"

"I-I don't think I can lift your axe--but I want to try!" Ralsei spoke in a determined tone, staggering slightly as Susie gripped him, but felt surprisingly comfortable despite his toes barely touching the ground.

---

"That's the spirit! Now, c'mon Kris. Let's head back."

The two of them bid farewell to their friends, and headed towards the fountain of darkness. Kris felt an odd sensation overtake themself as they stared up into the light.

A world of darkness. Where they'd always be with their friends here.

They never would have befriended Susie without these worlds, and they never would have reconnected with Noelle like this...

But that was a thought for another time.

Another day.

"We'll go see them after, Kris. Lancer and everyone else, back in the classroom." Susie reassured them, her voice softening slightly.

Kris nodded.

And the two entered the fountain, and returned back to their world.

At least for now.

[miracle-sham]

Crack Your Bones and Say Those Lies.

| {Jasonette July 2021, Saturday Challenge 3: And They Were Roommates} |

| [Ao3 Link] | | [Masterlist Link] | | [Spotify Playlist Link] |

———

| After getting roped into the Vigilante life by Chat Noir, her friend and partner in crime, Maladroit tries her best to help fight crime to make the city a better place, if only Red Hood and his gang would stop causing problems. |

| Or alternatively, Marinette and Jason are roommates with secrets. Both have huge crushes on each other but more importantly, both are trying to juggle moonlighting as their secret identities. However, when watching the nightly news together, everything changes. |

| Word Count: 5,014. |

| Warnings/Tags: No Miraculous/Different Powers Au, Roommates, minor gang mentions/Red Hood is a gang lord, gun violence, Vigilantism, Identity Shenanigans/Mistakes, Miscommunication, some emotional hurt, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, and Domestic fluff. Also Oblivious, Protective, & Mutually Pining Marinette and Jason. |

———

| A/N: Hey! Sorry this is nearly a week late but where I live got hit with a nasty heatwave and I was barely able to write from sheer exhaustion from the heat. But on a happier note, I'm so glad I've finally been able to write and post a proper Vigilantes au (as in like Spidey style vigilantism with homemade gear and all!) Because that kinda Vigilante au especially combined with roommates is my favourite trope ever! Well maybe joint with Dragonrider AUs, but still! I've had multiple Vigilante Aus sitting in my notes and drafts so it's brilliant to finally release one into the wild! Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this! |

| Also side note, Don’t Like? Don’t Read. Also also, please do not criticise any of my writing. This was written for fun and receiving criticism, even in a compliment/criticism sandwich, is the exact opposite of fun. |

———

It's Friday night, and Maladroit and Chat Noir are midway through their usual patrol of their slice of territory in the city.

“Race you to the billboard!” Chat Noir calls out, snickering in an almost cat-like-chitter as he launches himself forwards. Swinging over Maladroit's head with his grapple, he lands on the next roof ahead, in a perfect three-point landing.

Maladroit giggles, “Oh, you're so on!” She grabs her grapple and shoots. Swinging after him and onto the same roof. She instead, dive forward rolls for her landing and uses the momentum to propel her into a run.

Losing his lead due to the momentum loss of the three-point landing, Chat Noir vaults over a roof vent.

Forced to swerve to the side, Maladroit barely dodges a massive puddle of rainwater on her side of the roof.

Neck and Neck, the two raced across the rooftop. Closer and closer to the billboard they raced.

Nearly there! She thinks, c'mon! Reaching an arm out to slap the billboard—

Bzzt!

“Eep!” She yelps, startled by the buzzing crackle of her earring-comms. Unintentionally, she accidentally veers to the side and crashes straight into Chat Noir's side.

They collide with a loud thud, and two of them crumple into a pile.

“Graceful as ever, Mal.” A voice teases over her earring-comms. “Joking aside, didn't mean to spook you, sorry!”

Maladroit groans, “thanks,” and gingerly extracts herself from the vigilante limb pile.

“Gamer!” Chat Noir cheers, having heard him through his own disguised comms. “Got any crimes for us to fight tonight?”

There's a chuckle over the line, “Lucky you should ask, Chat, I do happen to have found some villainous plans for you to thwart.”

Chat Noir cracks his knuckles and stretches. “Oh? What are they?”

“Two which are time-sensitive.” Gamer adds.

Maladroit stifles a squawk, “Two! That are time-sensitive?” Her voice goes up a pitch on the last word, making it sound like a question.

“Uh-huh.” He confirms. “Chat Noir, there's a break-in at a jewellery store two blocks over from you. I'm sending you the directions now to your phone.”

Chat Noir does a two-fingered salute to the nearest security camera. “Got it, G! Detective Noir is on the case!”

“And Maladroit, we've got reports of sightings of Red Hood outside his usual area. By the Warehouses on fourth. There are no security cams around there so I've got nothing but rumours to go on. See if you can check it out and find out what he's up to.” Gamer informs her, sounding slightly irritated at the fact he's got little information to give her.

Maladroit nods, grumbling slightly. “When isn't he up to something.”

Slinging an arm around her shoulder, Chat Noir grins like the Cheshire Cat. “C'mon, Mal! It'll be a quick sweep and nothing will turn up like the last twenty times we've gotten this kinda tip-off!”

“You owe me ice cream from André's when we're in civvies tomorrow!” She huffs. “I made us macarons last time!”

“I haven't forgotten!” Chat Noir protests. “Anyway, see you tomorrow if we don't catch each other for the end of the patrol?”

Maladroit nods. “Yep! See ya later Minou!”

The two split. Chat Noir dashing after the directions, and Maladroit swinging towards the warehouses on fourth.

———

Breathe, Maladroit—reminds herself, perched on the rafters in one of the warehouses on fourth. Staring at the blood-red glowing mask of the red hooded villain, who happens to be oh so creatively named the 'Red Hood', leaning on the balcony railing on the opposite side of the warehouse to her rafter, and presumably glaring up at her.

“It's you again, Maladroit.” He growls, distorted by whatever voice modifier he's got wired into his mask.

She can't help but wince at the reminder of the word she had accidentally said the first time she had ever helped Chat Noir fight crime. Which irritatingly enough, stuck as her vigilante name. Especially since her second attempt at a name, Ladybug, didn't stick. She frowns beneath the black and red spotted bandana covering her mouth, and tightly grips her bladed yo-yo—with piano wire instead of string—of the same colour scheme.

“What are you planning, Red Hood?” She spits out, voice also modified by her bandana, a tad too grumpy and bitterly for the awkward-but-smiley "persona" she's supposed to act like (although it's not so much of a persona when that's just how she is almost all the time). But in her defence, she's had a rough day at uni, things have been awkward at home because of her crush on her roomie lately, and more importantly, Red Hood's lackeys have been a pain in the neck for the past week, so her reaction is more than warranted.

He has the audacity to laugh. “What makes you think I'm going to tell you, Pipsqueak?”

“Well,” Maladroit huffs, “I was hoping you were feeling considerate.”

Red Hood shifts his shoulders. “Aww, sorry Pipsqueak. I'm not feeling particularly considerate today.” In a split second, he slips both guns from his holsters, spins them, and shoots.

Maladroit squeaks, instinctively tugging on her power, and dives off the rafter to dodge the shot. “Rude!”

She's just able to shoot her grapple off and swing up to another metal beam.

“How the fuck do you keep dodging my shots?” He snarls, gesturing at her with his guns in short angry-looking motions.

In response, she throws her yo-yo at him, tugging on her power again. The yo-yo spins through the air, slashing through the Red Hood's jacket sleeve and slicing a deep groove into the gun, then rewinds on the wire back to her. “What makes you think I'm going to tell you, Bullet Boy!” She parrots back, cheekily.

“Hey!” Red Hood snaps, aiming another shot at her.

Tugging on her powers once more, Maladroit yelps as she swings to yet another metal rafter beam in order to avoid the shot. “Your aim sucks!”

“Fuck you!” He retorts, firing off four more shots aimed at her head.

There's a horrifying moment as she barely manages to tug on her powers in time. The bullets barely skimming past her hood, one even tearing the fabric slightly.

“Mal!” Comes Gamer's terrified voice over her earring-comms, “I need you to pull back immediately! Red Hood and his gang have been spotted nearby and Chat can't get to you in time to back you up if you do get into a fight!”

She raises a hand to her earrings and quietly laughs hysterically. “Little too late for that, G! I'm uh currently staring… face to gun to him”

“Oh, fuck!” Gamer responds, voice going up a pitch. “I'm contacting Chat now. Try and get out if you can but prioritise not getting yourself killed, please!”

Red Hood fires his guns again. “Eyes and ears on me, Pipsqueak.”

Squeaking yet again, Maladroit desperately tugs on her power once more and swings to another rafter. Her heart thunders in her chest as loudly as his gunfire. She spits out a frantic, “no promises!” to both of them.

“I've informed him, your backup is on the way.” Gamer tells her.

The main warehouse doors clatter open with a resounding slam! Followed by the stomping of multiple pairs of boots storming inside.

Maladroit waves at Red Hood, the quiet terrified hysterical laughter practically bubbling out of her mouth. “Haha, well I'm afraid that's my cue to Bug Out!”

“Oh, I don't think so, Pipsqueak.” Red Hood taunts, shooting six bullets at her, rapid-fire. “I ain't finished with our convo yet.”

Squeaking for the umpteenth time, and really just giving him even more reason to keep giving her that stupid pipsqueak nickname, she riskily shoots her grapple, aiming and swinging towards the warehouse's large balcony windows.

“Get the fuck back here!” He snarls, voice deepening with fury. Pausing to reload before firing off more shots at her with abandon.

Maladroit wriggles midair, tugging on her powers to try and dodge the shots. She curls into a dive forward roll as the grapple forces her to land onto the balcony. The same one that Red Hood has been stood on this entire time. Oh, help me! She thinks, eyes widening behind her makeshift red with black tinted lenses, goggles-slash-domino mask.

He aims his gun at her once more. “Move and you fucking die, pipsqueak.”

Putting her hands in the air, she swallows a gulp of air. Her body armour is padded beneath her red, and black spotted, hoodie but it isn't bulletproof. And she can feel the straining exhaustion of overusing her powers clawing at her.

They're at a standoff. Still as statues, the both of them. It's almost poetic how they parallel each other. He's got his gun aimed at her, whilst she's desperately clutching at her grappling hook gun in one of her raised hands. Both donned in red. Both committing crimes in the eyes of the law. Two sides of the same coin, one and the same.

Maladroit feels sick to her stomach, staring down the barrels of his guns. Ever so slowly, she tugs on her powers. The window a little bit behind her creaks quietly enough that Red Hood doesn't seem to notice beneath the clamour of his gang doing whatever it is they're doing below.

She counts her breath and tugs on her power. A minute passes with no movement, no words, nothing happening on the balcony. Out of the corner of her eye, she can just see that it's now open enough that she should be able to make it out unscathed. Or at least mostly unscathed.

Closing her eyes, not that he can see, her power snaps. Instinctively she doubles over and slaps a hand over her mouth. Barely in time as a stifled scream is yanked from her throat, leaving her panting for breath. Her knees crash onto the balcony flooring. A bullet whizzes past her neck.

“Shit. What the fuck was that?” Red Hood grumbles, sounding genuinely concerned. He storms across the balcony towards her.

Maladroit can't help but flinch, bodily throwing herself back as far away from him as she can. Mind racing in panic.

He stows one gun back into a holster then reaches a hand towards her. “Hey, hey, hey. Calm down.”

“Gotta go! Bug-bye!” She squeaks out, wrenching on her power with all her remaining strength, and bolting for the window.

“I think the fuck not! Fucking pretending to be hurt.” Red Hood barks, ripping the gun back out of its holster.

Narrowly dodging the spray of bullets shot at her, Maladroit dives through the window and fires off her grapple. Safely swinging far away from the warehouse.

———

Carefully Maladroit drops with the ease of far too many nights of practise, onto the fire escape outside her bedroom window. She crouches and lets the shadows of the night hide her form. Creeping closer, she checks the windowsill for any marks or signs of tampering but it all comes away untouched. Content with her quick security check, she fumbles for the disguised piece of string wedging the window ajar in a way that's barely visible unless you know where to look for it. Got it! She thinks to herself, grabbing ahold of it and prying it, and the window above it, up and open.

Slipping through the open window, she sits on the sill to rip her thankfully not-too-dirty studded steel-toed boots off. Picking them up in one hand, she wiggles the rest of the way into her room and immediately resets the security measures, yanking the curtain down for privacy.

Maladroit then shuffles over to her bed. Tikki—her gorgeous fluffy red and dark brown miniature dachshund—blinks sleepily up at her, from the dog bed next to it. The puppy yaps in greeting before snuffling and curling back up to sleep.

She coos at the cuteness before continuing on. With the other hand not carrying the boots, she pries the blanket covered duffel bag out from underneath. Wrestling to unzip it in one janky and awkward motion, grunting slightly at the exertion. The metal of the zip digs in but the discomfort is mostly mitigated by the padded gloves and wrist guards she's wearing. The easy to clean plastic bag designated for temporary storing of her boots is dragged out of the bag and said boots are tossed in without a second glance.

Huffing, she starts to take the rest of her cross between mostly homemade and refashioned sports kit vigilante gear off. First, tugging down the hood of her hoodie and unclipping the black scrum cap hidden under it. It's dumped unceremoniously into a secondary plastic bag in the open duffel bag. After that, Maladroit removes the black neck guard and pulls her makeshift goggles-slash-domino mask over her head. Those too, are dumped into the other plastic bag. Then she unties the bandana with the nose guard underneath, from around her mouth and nose. Unsurprisingly, they're also dumped in the bag.

Next, she undoes the velcros on her red and black padded gloves, black wrist guards, as well as black elbow, knee, and shin pads. Also dumped into the other bag. With the outer protective wear removed, Maladroit pulls her hoodie over her head. Continuing on, she peels the padded rugby body armour and shorts off, and then the thermal under-armour. All dumped into the third and final plastic bag. “I swear,” Maladroit mumbles to herself, “getting changed out my gear never gets easier. And to think back when I had my last P.E. lesson at school, I thought I'd never have to touch this kinda kit ever again. Rip me.”

Lastly, Marinette—no longer Maladroit seeing as she is no longer in her vigilante gear—throws on her running-to-the-bathroom spare bathrobe to cover herself. She hastily shoves the three plastic bags into the duffel bag and kicks it under her bed. Purposefully leaving it unzipped but quickly fixing the blanket covering the bag, so that she can more easily grab her kit to clean everything later, whilst keeping it sufficiently hidden.

With that mostly taken care of, she nabs the mouthguard case, some clean pyjamas, and dashes out of her room—clinging awkwardly to the bathrobe. She hops in the apartment's shared bathroom, the rest of the place is silent, meaning her roomie, Jason, must have gone out. Still, Marinette locks the door regardless. If there's one thing she's learnt in her foray into the nightly masked vigilantism, is that one can never be too careful.

“Shit! Nearly forgot to take this out.” She grumbles to herself, just as she was stepping into the shower. Prying the mouthguard out of her mouth as she shuffles over to the sink, she gives it a quick rinse under the tap. Followed by a thorough scrubbing with her toothbrush and glob of toothpaste. She pops it into the mouthguard case and leaves it on the side of the sink for now.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Marinette finally allows herself to indulge in a good half an hour-long hot shower to get the grime from a night of crime-fighting off of herself.

She's only just drying off her hair, having already changed into her pyjamas, when the blare of the TV echoes through the apartment. Tensing up, her anxiety runs wild. It's what they get for living in the cheaper but slightly dodgy apartments where the walls are thin and the doors are thinner. Grabbing the mouthguard case, she wraps it up in the bathrobe and peeks out the bathroom door and looks down the hall into the open plan kitchen lounge. Jason's back, he's sitting on the sofa watching the TV.

Shoulders untensing, she finished drying her hair and heads out into the hallway. In place of a greeting, she exclaims, “oh! Jason, you're back!”

Jason flinches slightly and looks over his shoulder back at her. “Yeah, a friend had an emergency so, y'know.”

Immediately, concern wrenches at Marinette's heart, “oh no, I'm sorry. Are they… okay?”

He waves a hand in a so-so gesture and clears his throat awkwardly. “Uh, yeah. They're fine now.”

“That's good!” She says, nodding, as she makes her way fully into the lounge and the TV catches her attention. “Oh is it nearly the eleven o'clock news already? I need to watch this! Alya texted me earlier saying I have to, and she sounded really excited!” Glancing down at the bundle in her arms and flushes red. “Actually, I'll be back in a second!”

“I'll yell as soon as it actually starts.” Jason offers, smiling warmly at her.

Marinette just misses the smile, rushing back to her room, and throwing a quick, “thanks,” over her shoulder back at him.

Also missing his smile turn fond and the good-natured roll of his eyes at her antics.

Barely half a minute passes before she's bounding back into the lounge, with a sleepy Tikki at her heels. She plops herself down on the sofa next to him and hopes the blush on her face could simply be mistaken for the flush of running about like a mad thing instead. Tikki whines until Marionette picks her up and lets her on the sofa with them, padding over to the furthest corner to curl up in.

Jason points to the pink floral steaming mug on the coffee table, right next to his Pride Prejudice and Zombies themed mug. “Whilst you were in the shower, I made us both hot chocolates with marshmallows, my granddad Alfie's recipe.”

“Oh!” Marinette responds in pleasant surprise. She turns to him and positively beams, eyes shining with happiness. “Thank you so much, Jason! You're always so thoughtful!”

He blushes and rubs the back of his neck bashfully. “Yeah, well, I thought it's only fair since you normally make 'em. And I visited Alfie recently, and I promised to get you his recipe to try, so I thought it'd be a nice surprise for once!” He pauses and points at the big bowl also on the coffee table, “also I cooked us some popcorn.”

“Aw! Thank you again! I really appreciate this!” She scoops up the hot chocolate with slight reverence and takes a sip. Immediately her face lights up even more in joy. “Oh, this is delicious!”

Jason chuckles, “isn't it the best! I'll pass that onto Alfie though, he'll be glad to know you like it so much. Speaking of which, he's gonna give making them a try next time I'm up since I wasn't there long enough this time. Would you fancy coming with me to see him, then?”

Her eyes widen and her heart stutters in her chest, feeling close to bursting from happiness. “I'd love to! Do you have a date when you're thinking of going up?”

He nods. “Yeah, maybe around—”

But he's interrupted by the starting audio of the eleven o'clock news.

They both immediately shut up and watch the screen intently as the news anchors appear on the show. The starting discussion is somewhat boring, talking about the local billionaire Wayne-or-something business and a related upcoming charity event of some sort.

Marinette doesn't pay attention to it, but she does catch Jason wrinkling his nose and scowling at the conversation.

Luckily, the topic shifts quickly enough. “And now, over to our newest reporter, Alya. We hear there's been some rumblings regarding the conflict between local vigilante Chat Noir, his sidekick Maladroit, and the gang controlled by the infamous Red Hood himself.”

“That's stupid,” Jason grumbles, “Maladroit is a fully-fledged vigilante in her own right and not just the catboy's sidekick. That's like saying Nightwing is Batman's sidekick!”

Marinette frowns, very touched by his words and trying her damnedest to appear nonchalant. “I don't know… from all the-uh news clips, Maladroit seems like Chat Noir's sidekick to me. She's always hovering nervously near him like a strong wind would spook her.”

“C'mon! She's been reported to have held her own against Red Hood on multiple occasions, alone!” He argues, sounding rather offended on her alter egos behalf.

Scoffing, she shakes her head. “Clearly that's because he's going easy on her! He's never directly shot her, according to the reports clearly, he's soft on her!” The lies taste bitter on her tongue.

Jason splutters and flushes bright red, turning away from her slightly. “W-well that's obviously a testament to her skill and not Red Hood's mercy! He's always reported as being a merciless killer, why'd he be soft on her!”

“I don't know!” She makes a dying-choking noise as she flushes even more red than earlier. Shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth to avoid having to respond any further.

Luckily, the news shows pans over to Alya standing in front of a screen showing a recorded feed of a warehouse. Not just any warehouse, but specifically the one on fourth that Maladroit had faced Red Hood in less than an hour ago.

Marinette feels her pulse quicken at the reminder of the close shave she'd had.

“Hey wait a second, those warehouses don't have security cameras at all? How'd they get this footage?” Jason complains, eyes narrowed at the TV.

It feels as though ice has been poured down her spine at his words. She freezes, body stiffening in shock. He's right… G said there's none because that's why he asked me to check things out. The only people who'd know this are Chat, Gamer, myself, and Red Hood and his gang. She swallows thickly and tries to subtly side-eye Jason. Oh no. I've been crushing on my roommate who works for Red Hood's gang? Oh god! The friend with the emergency was referring to Red Hood calling him into work!

She can't help but inhale a shallow panicked breath. He could've been one of the lackeys shooting at me and Chat this past week. Or, or I could've hurt him with my yo-yo. Or—

Jason turns to fully face, clearly registering the blatant panic on her face. “Hey, hey, hey, Marinette, you're okay, you're safe. What's wrong?”

“Are you working for Red Hood?” Marinette blurts out, accidentally, the words pouring out in an unintentional panicked rush. “Are you in his gang?”

He jerks back, fear, confusion, and hurt crosses his face. “Wh-what? What makes you think that?”

“His gang was just in that warehouse, and you were out on an emergency for a "friend". And how would you have known unless you were there tonight and working for his gang?” She chews her lip forcefully and winces as the taste of iron floods her mouth.

He reaches towards her, eyes widening concern.

She flinches back, suddenly reminded of how similar this is to that moment with Red Hood on the warehouse balcony.

Jason jerks back as if her flinching burnt him. Raising his hands, he leans away from her to give her some semblance of space. “Fuck. Look, I'm not going to hurt you! Have I ever hurt you whilst we've been roomies?”

Nervously, she shakes her head.

“I really care about you, Marinette. Hell, we've lived together for nearly a year now. I would never hurt you, okay! I promise.” Tears prick in his eyes, and he grimaces slightly, lowering his hands to rest on his lap. “Yeah, I uh, I'm working for him. But I do everything I can to keep work from following me home. I didn't tell you because I never wanted to scare you.”

Guilt gnaws at her. “I'm sorry! I shouldn't have judged. I—” She takes a shaky breath, “I really really care about you too. I'm just worried, what if Red Hood, or even Maladroit, or any of the other vigilantes hurt you? What if you get hurt in one of those gang wars?” Her words aren't lies but they're not the full truth either.

He sighs, “I can't promise I won't ever get hurt on the job. Maladroit and the other vigilantes do a lot of good but Maladroit especially is far too nice to hurt any of us. I've uh, seen her fight some of the others gang members, and been fought by her too. And out of everyone against the gang, she's the one who leaves us with barely more than a scratch at worst.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Most in the gang really respect her for that, y'know.”

Marinette's brain feels like the windows shutting down sound. “Oh. Oh.”

Sheepishly, he smiles half-heartedly at her. “Yeah.”

“So, is that why you were so adamant she's a fully-fledged vigilante in her right?” She asks, feeling bashful yet honoured whilst completely surprised.

Jason clears his throat and glances away. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh.” Her brain rewinds a moment. She splutters for a second, desperation racing through her. “Wait, she's fought you!?”

Full-on grimacing, he nervously laughs. “Left but a scratch!”

“Are you misquoting Monty Python right now? Oh good gods, that's the knight who says that after getting his limbs chopped off!” Marinette exclaims, looking every bit as horrified as her tone of voice conveys.

“Seriously, I've never gotten worse than a couple of minor cuts and bruises, I'm fine!” Jason reiterates.

She frowns and gingerly shuffles across the sofa closer to him. He keeps leaning back away, so she physically throws herself at him, pulling him into a tight hug. Incidentally burying her face in his shirt. “Okay, okay. Just, please let me know next time you get hurt. I've a friend who lived in a bad situation before, so I know how to help patch up minor injuries. Promise?”

Jason stiffens at the hug and slowly moves one hand to cup the back of her head whilst wrapping the other around her back. He shuts his eyes, cocking his head back and sighs. “Alright. I promise I'll tell you. And I'm sorry for keeping something this big from you. As I said, I was worried you'd be scared of me or that you'd get dragged into gang-related shit because of it.”

“You don't need to apologise.” Marinette mumbles in response, “I get it. I really do understand.” She bites at her sore bleeding lips again in guilt, her secret identity left unspoken on her tongue.

He shrugs, “so uh. I'm guessing you're still happy to stay roomies then, right?”

“Of course!” She responds without missing a beat hugging him even tighter.

Eventually, they release each other from the embrace to finish their now lukewarm hot chocolates and popcorn. The news continues playing, no longer forgotten in the background as the two try to act as if nothing has changed.

———

Jason collapses onto his bed with a heavy sigh. He pulls out his phone and rings a number on autopilot.

The dial tone plays as the line connects. “Hey, whaddup Jay?”

“Holy fucking shit balls, man.” Jason groans. “I fucked up.”

Roy hums, “like need help burying a body fucked up or what?”

Jason groans even louder, smushing his face into his bed covers. “My roomie is smart, right. I accidentally let a tiny detail slip when we were chatting whilst watching the eleven o'clock news as usual. And she now thinks that I'm in Red Hood's gang.”

There's a long pause, before Roy bursts into raucous laughter. “Holy shit, I'm dying! She's not wrong!”

“Yeah. I know. She ain't right either though.” He grumbles in response. “She was absolutely terrified when she realised. Nearly had a full-on panic attack and everything.”

“Oh fuck.” Roy helpfully says.

Jason grunts in agreement. “She was also real concerned that Red Hood or the vigilantes have hurt me.”

“Well, that's better?” Roy offers, sounding rather unsure of his own words.

“Yeah but she's taken thinking I'm some low-level member of my gang this badly, how the fuck d'ya think she's gonna take finding out I'm the big bad Red Hood himself?” Jason sighs. “I don't want to ask her out without her knowing this, 'cause it could endanger her.”

Roy hums again, “well, you've been roommates this long already and she's been completely safe from the Vigilante-Gang life so far.”

There's a gentle thump as Jason lifts his head and throws it into the sheets again out of sheer frustration. He relents, reluctantly. “That's true…”

“See. And since it sounds like she's not planning on moving out, clearly she doesn't mind living with you. Just ask her out to dinner already.” Roy adds, cheerfully.

Huffing, he rolls over on the bed. “I'm starting to feel like those weird girl slumber party ads with the creepy phone-a-boy games.”

Roy wheezes, followed by a thudding noise and the distant sound of his cackling.

“Wow. And to think I called you for help. I'm offended.” Jason goads with no bite, waiting a few seconds to hear Roy's response but it's just more laughter.

He rolls his eyes and ends the call, not like Roy will mind. Throwing an arm over his face, Jason barely refrains from grabbing his pillow to scream into. He doesn't, obviously. Because the walls are thin enough that Marinette might hear him and he's worried her enough this night as is.

Sighing like a lovesick protagonist in a period romance novel, Jason moves his arm to run his fingers through his own hair. A date. Just gotta ask her at some point, to dinner at a fancy-ish restaurant. It'll be fine, what's the worst that can happen?

Her terrified reaction on the sofa flashes through his mind, followed by the reminder of how small and scared Maladroit had seemed when she had fallen to her knees on the warehouse balcony. There was no way that she was faking the pain, like he'd initially thought. She had practically staggered in her mad dash to escape. And there's no way for me to find out whether she got to somewhere safe afterwards. God, she could be lying dead in some dank alleyway for all I know right now. Fuck, I hope she's okay...

He groans in distress and shifts in place. Already feeling like he really won't be getting any sleep at all tonight at this rate, thanks to his concern for those two.

———

| Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little fic! Comments, Likes, and Reblogs are much appreciated! |

| I decided to go close to canon for names this time, hence why Chat Noir remains unchanged but Max is Gamer (because A. that was his Akuma name, and B. he's like Player from Carmen Sandiego in this, couldn't help myself), and Marinette is Maladroit (from the first thing she calls herself in Origins). |

| Oh, also whilst it's not explicitly stated in the text; Marinette/Maladroit's has the power of luck/being lucky, Chat Noir has the power of being unlucky, and Red Hood has "Perfect Aim" aka he's a hitscan. Which is why Maladroit is able to dodge his bullets by making herself "lucky enough" to dodge in time. |

| Also feel free to send me any comments with any questions you have regarding this fic, I'll be more than happy to answer! |

| @jasonette-july-event |

[benjaminthewolf]

The Tiger And The Rat 2

Yeah, I couldn’t think of a better title.

Also, yep, I’m back! Requests are still closed for now, but trades are open.

(Oh, and guess what’s dropping after we reach 100 followers? I guess you’ll just have to find out!) ****           For anybody walking alone at night in Fandom City, their stroll could go either one of two ways. One: They were left alone and made it back home without everything going to shit; or two: They became somebody’s target for whatever arbitrary reason that someone had in mind, and everything went to shit.    

     Aran Ryan was one of the few characters who knew with absolute certainty that he would never fall subject to the latter option. Not because people were scared of him, oh hell no, there were about one thousand billion other characters to fear in Fandom City before Aran Ryan became even close to the level of a “threat”, but moreso, people didn’t want to somehow end up pissing him off, and then wake up one day to find every single wall of their house, inside and out, completely vandalized in Lucky Charm graffiti.     

     As such, not even the tiniest, most miniscule sliver of hesitation coursed through Aran Ryan’s being as he oh so casually trod around the…how should I say this…less fortunate…parts of Fandom City’s downtown area, humming the tune of “Drunken Sailor” in a rather contented air. Yep, he could do that all right, especially since he had shifted out of his rat-person form and into his human form at this point. This was a privilege that he had earned, and there was absolutely no way that anything could happen to ruin his-     

     “I’VE GOTCHA NOW, WUER!”     

     “Eh?” Aran Ryan instinctively forced out with a slight jump. He sporadically began swiveling around in order to find who said that, fully expecting to find himself surrounded by old, forgotten gaming characters, ever on the hunt for someone to knock up. Except, not only was there nobody anywhere near him, Aran Ryan quickly found out upon his eyes randomly landing there, that there was a rather…interesting scene taking place in the nearby alleyway.    

      “You must think you’re real slick, huh? Comin’ round to these parts? All y’all UWUs should know way better than this! ‘Specially you, Cami!”     

     Aran Ryan immediately let out a humongous sigh, now that he knew that those words of aggression were not directed towards him. He could have used this newfound knowledge to get the fuck out of there before he did become one of those forgotten gamers’ targets, except, he didn’t. Aran Ryan had no idea whether it was morbid curiosity or sadism, but his eyes, put simply, would not remove themselves from that spot in the alleyway.

     “NONONONONO PLEASE! PLEASE LISTEN TO ME, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” the character that had just been referred to as “Cami” began to desperately plead. “I WASN’T EVEN TOUCHING THE GROUND HERE, I WAS JUST FLYING OVER THE AREA TO GET TO-”

     “I DON’T GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU WERE DOIN’, YOU KNEW OUR RULES, AND YET YOU CHOSE TO DISOBEY THEM!” the gamer almost instantly snapped back.

     The gamer in question appeared to be some sort of generic-ass lookin’ player avatar character, and judging from his design, from an old game to boot. Skyrim, maybe, who knew? Certainly not Aran Ryan.

     Diverting his eyes away from the gamer and towards Cami, Aran couldn’t help but scoff. No wonder the gamer had described them as “an UWU”. The poor guy, still wriggling helplessly within the gamer’s grasp, appeared to be a catboy with ears, paws, and a tail colored dark blue. They also had dark blue wings, and judging from the state of the one on the left, it became clear to Aran that Cami had somehow gotten shot down. Cami had skin the color white, and jet black hair. They wore a yellow sweater with a light blue paw print in the middle, a dark blue collar with a yellow tag with a “C” on it, light blue pants, and black shoes.

     “We’ve told ya once that no UWUs are allowed ‘round these parts. Now, do we have to tell you again and hope you remember, or are we gonna have to find some way to force you to remember? Gee…I sure hope it doesn't come to the later.” the gamer scowled with a malicious grin on his face.

     Still locked dead-onto the spectacle, the only thing, the single sentence that echoed around in Aran’s skull in that moment was: “Ooooh, this is getting interesting!”

      As the gamer stared down at Cami’s writing, pathetic form, some sort of magical glow began to emit from his palm. The gamer was definitely more than ready to use it, even letting out a slight chuckle at his victim in order to rub salt in the wound, before a couple of shadowy forms suddenly showed up in the back of the alleyway, cutting off the moment, and saving Cami nothing more than a few seconds of time.

     “Ay Raider, we caught that other UWU you were tellin’ us about.” one of the forms called out.

     Raider immediately turned his head away from Cami and snuffed the glow for the moment.

     “Perfect. C’mon, bring the other one here, we’ll deal with the both of ‘em  at the same time.”

     “Aight.”

     Still playing the role of merely an observer, Aran Ryan was expecting pretty much any random catboy or anime character to be dragged out by Raider’s goons, presumably one he had never met. What Aran Ryan wasn’t expecting, however, was for the one being held lock-tight within the clenched fists of Raider’s goon, the one being vigorously struggled over to the same alleyway wall as poor, poor Cami, becoming subject to whatever horrendous crimes this pack of gamers was intending on committing, that very same one, to be the W.V.B.A.’s infamous magician-boxer combo himself, Great Tiger. 

    “Y-you’re completely mistaken, whoever you all are!” Great Tiger immediately began attempting to defend himself. “I’m not an UWU! I’m a video game character just like all of you-”

     “OH SHUT YO GODDAMN KITTY MOUTH YA WUER! DON’T THINK WE HAVEN’T SEEN YO ASS WITH THE FUCKIN’ TIGER EARS AND TAIL THROUGH THAT GODDAM OPEN WINDOW OF YOURS! WHY YOU EVEN DO THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE? YOU’RE JUST ASKIN’ FOR TROUBLE AT THAT POINT!”

     Before Great Tiger even had the chance to respond, the gamer forcefully and precariously held him up by the skin on the back of his neck, activating his cat instincts and making the cat ears and tail appear on his body before practically slamming him to the wall, almost right next to Cami.

     “Aight then, hold the bitches back. Imma go ahead and hit ‘em with it.” Raider instructed his goons as the white glow in his palm re-appeared, and rather more intensely this time.

     Aran Ryan, though entranced by the situation he was, was practically forced by his body to close his eyes as the glow was released and a huge flash went off, causing him to rub his eyes in pain for a few seconds before he was able to open them again. Even then, it took him a couple of seconds for his eyes to refocus before they were functioning properly again.

     Once they were, Aran was almost immediately able to tell what had happened. Both Cami and Great Tiger were now being firmly grasped, one in each hand, by Raider, their now tiny forms dwarfed by the gamer’s great stature. And to make matters even worse, one of his goons was holding a jar.

     Raider wasted absolutely no time shoving both the tinies into the glass container before screwing the lid back on to prevent them from escaping. After all, the both of them could fly to some degree. It was right then and there that Aran began to truly start contemplating whether he should book it out of this scene before he saw something that nobody should ever be forced to witness, before things took a turn for even worse.

     “AY, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKIN’ AT?” one of the goons cried out to Aran, who had finally been spotted by them. “IF YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT CALLIN’ THE COPS ON US, YO ASS IS NEXT, BITCH!”

     There were many things that Aran Ryan could’ve done in this moment. He could’ve ran, he could’ve turned back into a rat-person and ran, he could’ve put his hands up, he could’ve said: “I’m not!”, he could’ve tried any of those logical options, but instead, in that moment, Aran Ryan had an idea. And as history has shown us, when Aran Ryan has an idea, it almost never ends well.

     “Ah, no, of course not! I was just going to show you guys the best way to torture an UWU once you’ve captured one! Or a few.” he began to explain while takile a few steps into the alleyway.

     “Oh is that so?” Raider began to say while glaring directly at Aran. “Then show us!” he firmly ordered after snagging the jar from his goon’s hands.

     Handing the jar off to Aran, the deranged Irishman wasted absolutely no time unscrewing the lid, immediately grasping both occupants in a vice grip, preventing them from being able to speak, or even breathe.

     Aran proceeded to hold both captured catboys up to his face, taking a second to decide which one he was going to traumatize first. His eyes darted back and forth from Cami to Great Tiger and back and forth again, going over the pros and cons of noming one before the other, before he at last came to a decision.

     “Alright then, you first!” he at last called out, before forcefully tugging Cami out of his hand by the back of his neck, making him instinctively go limp, and thus unable to struggle.

     “This tiger won’t be roarin’ any more once he sees what I’m about to do!” Aran said to himself with nothing but excitement in his being while staring at the tiny terrified being in front of him. Excitement that didn’t stem from malice, nor a desire from revenge, but merely Aran Ryan being Aran Ryan.

     “Now like I was saying-” Aran swiftly lifted his head up in order to speak to all the gamers surrounding him. “The best way to torture an UWU after you capture one…” Aran paused for a second to glance back at Cami with a sneer. “...is to give ‘em a taste of their own medicine!”

     And with that, Aran promptly held Cami way over his head before slowly opening up his maw with a teasing: “AAAAA!” Cami, naturally, began to positively freak out upon realizing what Aran was doing, but as it was, his biology would simply not allow him to do anything except dangle there helplessly and take it.

     Aran Ryan made sure the positioning was all lined up before Cami was at last let go, still stuck in a state of stasis, and thus unable to flap his wings. Plopping straight down onto the soft, squishy landing that was Aran’s tongue, Cami wasn’t even given a second to pick themself up off the floor before Aran’s jaws came crashing down around them, thus rendering them completely and utterly trapped.

     Aran let out the best snicker he could with his teeth clenched shut, before scooping up Cami with his tongue and laying him flat against the underside while the slick, wet muscle proceeded to stroke across his form, taking slight breaks in between so Aran may examine the taste.

     Cami tasted almost somewhat like a sugary marshmallow, but flavored blueberry. Aran could understand why, I mean, they were an UWU, after all.

      As poor Cami’s tiny form continuously got doused and smothered in Aran Ryan’s saliva, they at last began to regain control of their body, and in a moment of slight desperation, wound up a fist in order to deliver a punch to the warm muscle.

     Big. Mistake. Slightly annoyed at Cami’s pathetic display of resistance, Aran proceeded to pick Cami up again using the surface of the tongue before shoving him towards the back of his throat, Cami’s head landing squarely in Aran’s gullet, positively squished between the two sides of the muscle walls making up the esophagus.

     Aran wasn’t exactly pleased with this arrangement either, and after a few failed attempts to force Cami’s head out from his throat, he eventually just gave up and solved the problem by merely swallowing.

     Glancing down at Great Tiger, who was still trying to wriggle his way out of Aran’s grasp, Aran made sure, absolutely and positively, that the poor Indian man saw the slight bulge that Cami was making in his throat as the muscle walls continued to squeeze them on down.

     Great Tiger instinctively shuddered upon seeing it, as he knew that in merely a few minutes, he was to be making a bulge in Aran’s throat as well.

     Cami began desperately meowing for help as he got squelched down further and further. With each push that the muscle walls enacted, Cami knew that he was one step closer to being doused in this lunatic’s stomach juices, getting him even more wet than he was now.

     Slightly struggling, even though he knew it was entirely pointless, Cami shoved and kicked against the tight walls that continuously led him on towards his destination, but was immediately frozen by fear into stopping as he began to pick up the sound of a heartbeat.

     As soon as it became obvious to Aran that Cami wasn’t going to fight back anymore, he at last diverted his eyes onto Great Tiger.

     “So, Mr. Totally Not An UWU, why don’t we see how you like it when you’re shoved down the throat of a fellow boxer!”

     Aran wasn’t actually being driven by revenge, as was mentioned previously. He had already gotten over his little misadventure a while ago. No, at this point, that incident was just leverage, and leverage he was going to use to his one hundred percent, complete, and full advantage.

     Suddenly, Aran felt something large-ish landing in his stomach, that which was only  made more obvious by an audible gurgle that made him only slightly recoil in embarrassment.

     “Ah…well…that must’ve been that Cami fella.” he reasoned before focusing back onto Great Tiger. “Anyway, time to join him!”

      Unable to say anything in response, Great Tiger was simply forced to let it happen as Aran opened up his maw once more and only somewhat gently laid Great Tiger down inside on the tongue. Aran almost immediately began to savor Great Tiger’s flavor. Aran had expected the tiger within him to make him taste a little spicy, but what he wasn’t expecting was the slight mixture of sweetness that was  mixed in with it. Almost like the spicy pepper-like flavor was being complimented by…what was it? Aran shoved Great Tiger into his left cheek as he attempted to figure out the composition of his flavor. All of a sudden, he got it. Chocolate. That’s what it was.

      As the tiny catboy got drenched in saliva from the endeavor just like Cami had been, the tongue began to move in and around his form, maneuvering him from front to back all around the maw. Although this time, a little more…aggressively.

     Great Tiger was swished from cheek to cheek, shoved to the bottom of the maw and scraped against the rough ridges on the top, before he at last got any breathing room to let his brain catch up with his eyes. The warmth inside Aran’s maw began to naturally heat up his body along with the stress he was receiving from the situation as Aran at last shoved him to the back of his throat, preparing to swallow. Great Tiger made one more last-ditch attempt to save himself by grasping onto the large uvula that dangled just above his head. All this did was make Aran almost instinctively gag, though without opening his mouth to expel anything from his body. Instead, after getting over the initial shock, Aran merely swallowed hard.

     Great Tiger’s lower body was forced down into the throat, but his upper body was still in the maw, and his hands were still grasped firmly onto the uvie. It took quite a few more consecutive gulps before Great Tiger was at last forced to release his grip on the uvula, but when he finally did, it was only after the rest of his body had already entered the esophagus.

     Great Tiger gave a bit of a shudder as he began to get squeezed down, as now, at last, he was, indeed, in the same position that Cami was in just minutes earlier. Great Tiger could somewhat feel Aran’s finger from the outside trailing lightly against the bulge that he was making.

     Great Tiger could do nothing but brace himself for the eventual plunge as he continued on down the slick, smooth tube of the esophagus. The pounding, echoing noise of a heartbeat would come not very far after, and at that point, Great Tiger knew he was only a few seconds away from his destination.

     After his cat ears were able to sense a few great gurgling noises emitting from deeper inside Aran’s body, Great Tiger merely closed his eyes and tensed up his body as he felt himself getting squeezed out from the esophagus and into Aran Ryan’s stomach.

     Immediately after opening his eyes, the first thing that Great Tiger saw was the shriveled, horrified form of Cami, curled up in a ball on the right side of the stomach wall. He was shaking slightly and seemingly trying his best to not wince or make any sudden movements, for who knew what Aran on the outside would do to him next if he caused him any trouble?

     Great Tiger, knowing what he needed to do, began shuffling on his knees through the warm pool of liquids within the stomach before he at last made it over to Cami, gently placed a hand on their head, and began to give the poor, terrified catboy some headpats in order to help him calm down.

      Cami, upon realizing he was being touched, instinctively opened one eye, only to see the rather calm face of Great Tiger staring back at him.

     “I know, I know. UWUs really have it rough around these parts, but…” Great Tiger stopped himself involuntarily, as what in the world could he possibly say to help alleviate all the trauma and pain that was welled up inside Cami’s being from all the harassment and discrimination he had been forced to face in these past few years. This incident was but one of many, many more. Eventually, Great Tiger merely settled on saying: “I’m here now. For right now, you’re safe.”

     Cami seemed to accept these words for the moment, as their shaking had stopped a little. As soon as Great Tiger knew that Cami would be comfortable with it, he began to lean in to offer the struggling fellow catboy a hug. Cami accepted without any hesitation, and the two of them ended up curling up into one larger catboy-ball than had been made when it was just Cami alone. Squishing themselves up against the constantly shifting, sleek, soft stomach walls of Aran Ryan, the two targeted catboys knew that it was the only thing left that they could possibly do.

     On the outside, Aran placed a hand over his stomach in satisfaction before glancing back up at the group of gamers he had just met minutes ago, and was most likely to never see again.

     “Well, I hope my demonstration was informative! See ya!” he awkwardly stated before he attempted to leave the scene with the two targets locked away in his guts.

     “Not so fast there!” Raider swiftly stopped him before he took another step.

     “Oh my god, what is it?” Aran turned back around and groaned in a rather annoyed tone.

     “Weren’t you that guy that spray painted my house with Lucky Charm graffiti last week?” Raider at last growled out.

     It was right then and there that Aran knew he was screwed. He knew that the best option in the moment was for him to turn back into a rat-person and escape into the shadows of the alleyway, hoping to find something to squeeze under, except, he wasn’t sure if doing so would also further shrink his little guests, or if they would remain their current size, and Aran sure wasn’t going to risk something like that.

     As such, the best thing that Aran could do in the moment was say “no”, and hope that these gamers would believe him.

     “No, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he managed to semi-casually state.

     Raider merely glared at Aran for at least thirty seconds straight, with a look that could only mean: “Seriously, dude?” At long last, after shaking his head, he spoke.

     “Well you did us a solid today, so we’ll let it go for now…”

     Aran Ryan instinctively let out a sigh now that he knew he was safe.     “But if we ever catch ya doin’ something like that again…”

     “Yeah, yeah, I get the point! I definitely get the point!”

     “Aight. Good. Alright boys, pack it up. Our work here is done.” Raider called out to his goons as they began to slowly make their way out of the alley.

     Aran Ryan could only stand there and watch as they all left, strolling so casually next to each other that Aran knew these guys were at least one of the groups that ran the streets around here. After getting over that fact, he simply stood there in silence, saying and doing nothing for a solid thirty seconds. Until reality set in.

     Here he was, standing in the alleyway run by probably one of the most powerful groups in this part of the city, with both Great Tiger, and another catboy called Cami, lying within his guts. Aran shook his head slightly from confusion. Less than thirty minutes ago, he had just been on a walk. How in the hell did this situation go from something simple like that to something so bizarre like this?

     Deciding after a while that standing there wasn’t going to give him any answers, he at last decided to just…go back home. Placing a hand over the area carrying his two tiny passengers, Aran Ryan at last came out of the alleyway.

     “Well, Tiger? What do ya think? Comfy? Comfy enough ya think for me to fall asleep in…somewhere like there?”

     Back on the inside, Great Tiger became just slightly flushed after Aran had brought up the time when the roles had been reversed. Deciding not to respond to Aran, he merely tightened his protective hold on Cami, making absolutely sure that nothing else could hurt him as the stomach walls continued to shift and squeeze around them, slightly wetting their beings with a combination of stomach juices and saliva. Yet, though Great Tiger obviously wasn’t going to admit it out loud, it kind of was comfy. The walls were soft and smooth, it was warm, and it was confined. If this had been done with anybody but Aran, maybe he would admit that it was a little comfy.

     As it was, however, Great Tiger was not in any position to admit such a thing, and instead, merely began to close his eyes in order to allow his body and mind to process the events of the day. He soon realized that Cami had already done the same.

     Shifting around slightly in order to get in a more cozy position, Great Tiger at last began to allow his body to slip into unconsciousness, so he may recover from all the tragedy of the past few minutes. On the outside, Aran could not help but notice just how Great Tiger was moving around.

     “Awww, you are comfortable, aren’t you? Heh. Gotta remember that one for next time. I dunno. We’ll see when this knowledge comes in handy again.”

     Great Tiger, who was still able to hear what Aran was saying, could not help but chuckle slightly to himself. “Aran, the day that I willingly allow you to do this to me will be the day that you toss out that makeshift flail of yours.” with that little quip having been “said”, he merely settled back down, and began to drift asleep.

     “‘Night, Tiger!” Aran Ryan finished off the conversation with, as he continued on with his walk, that which Raider had so rudely interrupted less than thirty minutes ago. Aran Ryan still had no idea how that ended up leading to…this, but that didn’t really matter right now. All that mattered to Aran Ryan as he continued to stroll along the concrete sidewalk, was simply getting home.          

[evermorehaikyuu]

Day 1

Title: Broken Heart

Note: As it is Angstember, I will warn you from this moment on: none of these angsts have a happy ending. That’s it, enjoy the ride.

˜”*°•.˜”*°•.•°*”˜.•°*”˜ 

There was nothing left to say. There was nowhere to go. It was all ruined and all because he couldn’t repress what he was thinking. Maybe honesty was the best policy, but in this situation, honesty made him lose the person he loved the most. 

All Kenma could do is sit in his gamer chair, his knees pressed to his chest as he started streaming. However, everyone realized that he wasn’t as sharp as he was the week before. Something had clearly happened and it showed on his face and how he was playing. His mind was whirring as he shook his head, trying to get his head in the game. But if loving someone was hard, letting them go was soul-destroying.

“Hey, Kenma, I found someone to play with us!” Kuroo bounced inside of his room as he was playing another game that his parents had given him the day before. 

Kenma looked up to see someone around his age peeking through the door, her face timid as she glanced at the floor. He was immediately reminded of Kuroo when they first met. All he could do was glance at her, a question in his eyes.

“This is Y/N L/N, she’s my new neighbor! Come on, let’s go play something, Kenma.”

He hesitated for a second, but it was Kuroo. Kuroo was his only friend and if he wanted him to play with the two of them, it was fine by him. Until he realized that they were playing volleyball.

“No, you have to put your arms together like this!” Kuroo stated, helping Y/N out. She frowned before looking at Kenma and blurting, “Do you get this at all?”

He was taken aback as those were the first words she had ever directed towards him. He was amused at her disgruntled face, reminded of his own expression when he started playing. Without saying a word, he walked over and started aiding Y/N in her position. That was how their first meeting went without a hitch.

~

“Kenma, I have a new game, do you want to come over and play with me?” 13 year old Y/N grinned at him, scrapes on her hands and legs.

He studied her scrapes, small tan Band-Aids covering her injuries. Reckless. But he still cared for her, even if he hardly showed it. “What happened to you?”

“Kuroo and I were playing soccer.” She picked at one of the Band-Aids on her hand, frowning before looking up at him expectantly, her eyes lit up like spotlights as she watched his reaction.

Without thinking twice about it, he nodded and headed to her place afterschool, settling down next to her as they started to play their game. About a few hours of this, Kenma had won multiple times and put down his controller. “Again?”

Silence. He waited for a second before looking over and finding that Y/N had fallen asleep. It was a weary day and yet she had offered to play a new game with him, knowing that he liked video games. With a sigh, he reluctantly put his jacket over her and went back home.

That’s when the tiniest spark began.

~ 

“You’re the setter for Nekoma?” Y/N asked, an arm slung over her knee as she tilted her head towards him in curiosity.

“Yeah.” He turned his head away from her, his hand clasping the psp in his jacket pocket. “It’s supposed to be the position where you don’t move that much.”

Y/N chuckled, staring at him with admiration in her eyes. She was so proud of how far he had come in a few years. She had never doubted him for a second, knowing that there was so much potential inside of Kenma Kozume. “You’re amazing, you know that, right? I never questioned if you could make it or not.”

With a gentle kiss to his temple, she stood up and walked back to her place, leaving him with a dumbfounded expression on his face. Did Y/N blatantly express how she felt towards him or was he just bringing his hopes up? But since that day, he didn’t understand why his heart rate sped up when he was near her or heard her name.

After winning a game, Y/N walked over to him and merely said, “Come with me, I want to show you something.”

Kenma followed her without thinking twice about it. She led him through the city, the lights bright and joyful, bringing a sense of calm to him only because he was with Y/N. As he peered at her, he looked at her eyes, reflecting all of the lights in the city as she walked through with confidence in her step. It seemed so long ago that she was bashful when they first met. She changed, for the better and it was something admirable to him.

The walk was no longer than thirty minutes. Usually he’d internally want to go home right away, but she was an exception. Going through cherry blossom trees, she plucked a blossom off of a low-lying branch, smiling down at the flower in her hand. She looked up at a hill with an enormous tree on it. Quickly running up, she beamed down at him. “Come on, Kenma, it’s a better sight up here!”

He didn’t change his pace, yet he reached the top of the hill and observed the area, trying to see where Y/N was. He immediately spotted her sitting down, her back to the trunk of the tree as she stared up at the stars. Kenma sat down next to her, looking up at the constellations as well. The stars reflected on the body of water across from them, making the scene picturesque and like something out of an art frame.

“I’m proud of you.” She muttered after a few moments. He peered at her and she continued. “You’ve worked so hard to get where you are and look at you now. You’ve changed. But the change made you who you are right now. It’s impressive, it’s been an inspiration to me.” Her face had a faraway expression, yet her hand crawled over to his and interlaced their fingers. Kenma did not have anything against having her hand in his.

“I hope you know that no matter what you do, I’ll be by your side, no matter what.”

~

“What? So now you’re ignoring me? Kenma, we’ve been in the same house for years now.” Y/N said, huffing as he walked to his office. He never took a break and it annoyed her. Along with that, he never looked her way, not even when she had made his favorite food.

“Just let me finish this and I’ll come back out.” He shut the door, leaving Y/N alone with his untouched food on the table.

The same excuse every time. He was either too busy or too tired. They were supposed to be working together, helping the other out as much as they could. Every relationship had their rocky parts, but it seemed as if it never stopped in their case. It made Y/N feel hopeless. Everytime she saw Kenma, her heart lifted and started pounding, her fondness for him never changing. Even now, she still loved him, although he seemed distant.

Love was a fragile thing. Yet she was grasping to the bits she could hold on to. The price of love was something awful, yet blissful. There wasn’t a lot she could do, but start letting him go slowly.

As the days went on, she found herself suffering silently, bingeing shows for days on end and her sadness getting worse and worse. It felt as if Kenma was never there, even though he was a few steps away. Time passed through like butterflies, fluttering away from her hands. Until she was sick of it and couldn’t resist her outburst.

“Kenma, can you come out here for a second?” Y/N asked with calm, her tone efficiently coming across as irate to anyone that could hear. 

The aforementioned man came out of his room, his hair tied up in its usual messy bun. From the look on his face, Y/N had interrupted him from doing something important. Then again, that was his go-to excuse.  “What?” That was it. He wasn’t sugarcoating how he felt and it stung her. 

“We have to talk.”

Usually, those words would bring some sort of foreboding, but not to him. He had expected this and yet never wanted to do anything about it. He put the psp back in his hoodie pocket, his eyes examining her. It was clear he wanted to be anywhere but there. 

“You told me--no, you’ve been telling me that we were okay, that we were fine. So explain one thing to me, Kenma, why have you been avoiding me?”

He stayed there quietly, not realizing what was going on. He wasn’t stupid, but he couldn’t see the obvious thing. “I haven’t been avoiding you. I’ve been busy.”

“That’s always your excuse. We’ve never gone out for something, we’ve never stayed in the same room together.”

“Maybe because you always leave the room when I walk in.” His temper was not short, yet something about the conversation made him overthink. Overthinking was not his forte, nor was it a state of mind that he was usually in. Overthinking made him frustrated because he was the analytical one, he knew the results of something, so it wasn’t his fault that he was thinking that way.

“You’re pinning this on me?” She scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Kenma, I’m not the one avoiding you, you’re the one that’s locked up in your office all day! I don’t want to disturb you, but I don’t want to be the one to initiate everything.” Her voice cracked the slightest bit at the end, but she cleared her throat.

It didn’t escape Kenma. In fact, it made his blood boil more. This wasn’t a situation to be weak in and yet she was showing signs of weakness. This wasn’t supposed to happen. “Why are you arguing about this with me?”

“You’re completely missing the point! We’re supposed to help each other!”

Blank.

“I’m the one supporting you, why can’t you do the same for me?”

Unforgivable.

“Kenma...please….”

Unjustifiable.

“Tell me what to fix, how to fix us.” Her face held a plea, but in her eyes, it was all clear. She wanted him to apologize but apologize for what? Being busy? Working so that they could both have a good life? He couldn’t hold back his next words.

“Don’t you get it?! I’m working hard for me, I’m doing what I should’ve been doing a long time ago!” He snapped, his face contorted in anger. He took a deep breath and with a growl, he stated, “There is no us, there never was.”

It was a split second later when he realized what he said and his eyes widened as he saw Y/N’s eyes glimmer with tears before she blinked them back, her breath coming out shakily. “None of this was real. I should’ve known. You’re just like the rest of them.”

He tried to reach out for her and she ripped her arm out of his grip, slamming the door to their room.

That night, he felt an emptiness creeping amongst the house and he peeked inside of the bedroom before completely opening the door. His eyes flitted everywhere, his heart twisting inside of his chest. Everything that was hers….everything was gone. The clothes he had bought for her still hung in the closet, along with the hoodie she had stolen from him whenever she felt lonely. All of the items he had bought for her...left behind.

No, she can’t have left, she can’t. Kenma thought as he dug through the room, trying to search for something that would give him an idea of where she was but nothing. She was gone. He had done the thing he never wanted to do in his life. 

His love had left. She wasn’t going to be there for him when he started breaking apart.

~

It had been a week since the incident and he had not heard from her or about her. His hands shook on his console as he swallowed and continued talking quietly into his headset, but his skill did not match that of a week ago. 

It was funny, he thought, how love could be so fragile and yet humans had a tendency to leap headfirst without worrying about the repercussions. Then again, that was what he did when he fell in love with Y/N.

After the stream, usually he’d head right into editing, but not today. His heart hurt too much. She meant everything to him and he gave her nothing in return. They had been together for years and her love for him had never faltered. It wasn’t her fault. It was his.

Walking through the city, he was always with Y/N as they went to their place by the tree, through the cherry blossom. He remembered staring at her while her eyes looked up in wonder, every part of her easily awed by the bright pink efflorescence around them. He remembered her reaching for his hand and interlacing their fingers without thinking twice about it.

So many memories. 

All of them now gone. 

As he walked up the hill, he couldn’t help but hope she was up there, waiting for him with her hand out. In fact, when he was up there, he had a gentle and expectant smile, only to realize the cold and hard truth: she wasn’t there awaiting him. 

Sitting by the trunk of the tree, he looked up at the stars, but they didn’t shine as bright as before. Without her, it was bleak, it felt like he had no hope.

Kuroo had asked him what was going on, but he couldn’t bring himself to answer it. 

Kenma brought a little black box out of his hoodie pocket, rubbing his thumb across the velvety cube. Inside was a 24 karat ring, simple but with intricate patterns weaved inside of it, a metaphor to their love. It was supposed to be opened for her to take, for them to create a new life together. Yet he had messed it up.

He held the box in his hand as he pulled his knees to his chest, burying his face in them. His vision started blurring with tears, his throat feeling like it was being scraped by a fork. Hot tears started running down his cheeks as his mouth quivered as he tried to hold back his sobs as the memories raced through his head.

All the comfort he got from Y/N, he wouldn’t get it ever again. He could only comfort himself from then on. Choked wails came out of him, anguish piercing him like bullets. 

He stayed like that for a while before wiping his ongoing tears away. Standing up, he clasped the tiny box in his hand, staring at it before setting it by the trunk. Hopefully whoever found it would be able to love their significant other like he couldn’t.

Taking the first step was the hard part. Walking away was the laborious component. 

No matter what he did, he couldn’t love her. He tried so hard to do so and it backfired on him. He walked alongside the city, everything dark around him.

Love was a fragile thing. So fragile anything could rip it in half. He ripped her heart apart. And he'd have to live with that for the rest of his life.

Taglist: @skyguy-peach​ @jovialnoise​ @versatilewindow​ @tsukiibaka​ @jaegersblogh​ @kodzuken-pie​ @sugusho​ @tired-penguinn​

[nefoe-dd]

SO SMT AU AM I RIGHT GAMERS

I mentioned this in the tags of another post and joked about it in Discord but my brain went brrrr during my last class of the day and now I lowkey have a full plot starting to form lol.

Keep in mind the only Shin Megami Tensei game I’ve played myself is the Nocturne remake, plus I only really remember bits of the plot of 4 and whatever we’ve been given so far of 5 so I’m not super well versed in the series.

Also I’ll add this to the tags too but DSMP Spoilers specifically for the contents of Techno’s Will exist in this post, because that is where the idea for this came from. A lot of other JRPGs have similar plotlines but I specifically thought of SMT because its kind of a meme specifically for that at this point how the plot always seems to have the same type ending bosses. 

Also some spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei IV

ANYWAYS

Now Presenting: An AU where Techno’s Limbo is an SMT Game lol

(Under a ‘Read More’ because it got way ahead of me)

An Introduction to Relevant SMT terminology:

Demons: Makes up a large majority of the characters in the game. They are the enemies that you face in combat, and its possible to recruit them to your team through various means. Some demons exist in the overworld though, and can be talked to normally, they’re chill most of the time, unless you do something to tick them off. ‘Demon’ is not taken literally by the Christian definition, they are based off of various figures in folklore and religion around the world, some are even based on Gods and Angels.

Law vs Chaos: Many SMT games have multiple endings based on these two alignments, along with the neutral alignment. It is usually decided by some important decisions the player makes throughout the game. I’m most aware of the SMT 4 ending, in which the route you are on decides the final dungeon, the character you team with for the ending, and the final boss (its either Satan or the in-game version of God). It’s based off of the traditional interpretation of these two, where Law represents the importance of authority, and Chaos represents the importance of freedom. 

Another note is that a lot of SMT games take place in a post-apocalyptic world of some kind, which, spoiler, is the case here.

General Plot Details and Worldbuilding:

- Techno dies in the prison. The stasis chamber fails and Quackity succeeds in killing him. Permanently. 

- Despite dying, he wakes up again in the main prison cell, but things are different. The lava isn’t blocking the entrance anymore, (in fact there isn’t any lava at all), and he’s alone. Upon peering outside the main cell, he notices a bit of sky peeking through the prison ceiling, like it had been broken into. 

- The drop down to the bottom floor is long, but he’s dead, so he just shrugs and jumps down so he can see what’s going on. Turns out there are several holes in this part of the prison, in fact there are multiple on the ground, likely where the lava had escaped from. (Obviously Minecraft lava specifically doesn’t work like that, I’m pretty sure in the DreamSMP the bottom is all source blocks, but just ignore that bit). 

- He exits from the back wall of the prison, and everything there so far looks normal, except for the fact that there appears to be less trees than normal. Of the trees that are still there, many of them were cut down and never collected, and some appear to have fallen over due to some damage.

- Techno goes around the prison to the front, and that’s when he notices some things that are very wrong. Various parts of the prison, not just the main cell, are also sitting destroyed. Many cracks, scuff marks and full-on chunks are missing on the walls. The usual entrance which houses the nether portal is hardly still standing, and he can see straight into the main lobby where the portal would lead into once you were let through. 

- The surrounding areas are not much better. Tommy’s outpost is toppled over in the distance, only the base and bottom floor are left standing. The tents near the beach are collapsed and destroyed, the only remnants of one of them is a small piece of fabric ripped from the main bit and laying on the ground. Skeppy and Badboyhalo’s mansion is crumbling where it stands, half of the back wall and ceiling are gone. And that’s only what’s visible from here. 

- The rest of the server is also in various states of destruction, the spawn walls are hardly left standing, the main nether portal area is covered in potholes, none of the portals are active. The prime path is rotted and broken in most areas, the buildings along it are not faring much better than the ones he’d seen before. And the further he gets away from the prison, the more the plants themselves appear to be dead or dying. 

- L’manburg’s crater looks much the same as it once did right after its destruction, albeit with more debris at the bottom which had fallen from the sides as they slowly eroded. The flag at the bottom is torn up and discoloured, honestly its hardly recognizable. The nature that had finally begun to reclaim the land has slowly been dying instead over time, and the bridge overtop has completely collapsed. The only thing still standing, is the ever present obsidian grid that looms over it in the sky. He supposes that whatever disaster had caused this wasn’t able to reach that high up, or that it was at least in part done by someone that liked the way it looked. Not that there seems to be a need for the reminder anymore. 

- Something something, he finds out DreamXD is here, and that he might have had something to do with how this world looks. And as much as it shouldn’t matter in the afterlife, he did promise Phil he would be killing God sooooo he goes on a mission to do just that. He can do pretty much anything now that he really doesn’t have to worry about dying, so why not. He has no reason to care about some God, especially when they’re the only ones left.

- Some DSMP people hang around the world and are represented by certain demons, the mostly chill ones that kinda just hang around in the apocalyptic scenery. They don’t recognize him, it isn’t really the people he knows after all, but they are willing to talk to him since they can tell he isn’t human either. He learns little bits of what happened through them, and learns where DreamXD resides, that being one of the strongholds that’s a bit further out. 

- Unfortunately, due to the portals being inactive, and his inability to break anything efficiently, or even at all, he has to travel using the overworld. Along the way he manages to speak to some others, this allows him to better locate where the God is, although it doesn’t seem to be hiding out. He even sees it sometimes flying around, which he uses to follow where its hiding. 

- Some of the random demons he runs into recognize that he’s not supposed to be here (according to them at least), so he has to fight his way through them. Luckily, many of the friendly demons that he talks to end up tagging along in order to help, thus making up a team he can use to get through them instead.

 - There’s probably a demon that seems to resemble Phil somewhere, living alone (alone for so so long) away from everyone in an arctic house perhaps. If I wanted to really up the angst, the demon takes a liking to Techno right away, which is partly how Techno is able to tell its him so quickly. The more they talk, the more Techno realizes how lonely the Phil he knows must be without him there, how upset he’d be once he reads the will and finds out what happened to him. Thus he’s more motivated to, you know, fight God, in an attempt to figure out what the hell happened. (DXD is the only entity existing here that also exists where he’s from, he can guess pretty easily that maybe, just maybe, they are one and the same). Thus, he is given a choice that he knows he will have to make in the future. 

- Eventually he manages to find the stronghold and comes face to face with DreamXD himself. DreamXD is just kinda chillin there, they fight, through DreamXD doesn’t seem to be putting in too much effort, almost like it does not want to win. 

- Techno wins (duh), and he is left with a choice, a choice to finish the job, or spare the god and allow it to go free. And, well, he feels that he doesn’t really have the right to decide whether it lives or dies, and while its possible that DreamXD caused whatever disaster created the current state of the world, but he doesn’t know that for sure. DreamXD has done nothing this whole time he’s been here, and its done nothing to him or his companions.

- He chooses to leave it alone, and DreamXD seems to know that it was always going to end that way. 

- DreamXD disappears, and Techno wakes up in the cell again post-revival, the prison and the world around it is the same as he remembers

(I don’t remember the exact real-world to limbo time difference but I imagine that it felt like, a day, maybe half that, while irl it was only a few minutes to an hour.)

Some other notes/details:

- The other possible ending would have resulted in Techno killing DreamXD and being given ANOTHER choice to take its power over the world, or just leave and stay there forever. Basically DreamXD’s existence is vital to the power of the revival book, and it’s death would have resulted in Dream not being successful in his revival attempts. Obviously we have no idea how the powers actually work yet, but I just came up with an explanation because I thought it would be interesting. You can decide on your own which of these endings fall into Law, Chaos or Neutral because uh, its complicated given the scenario. You can also decide if letting DreamXD live even fits into his character! Idk! But its not like DreamXD’s being oppressive by any means, not that there’s anyone to oppress here anyways. That’s my logic anyways.

- I don’t know what demons would represent specific people, I’d like to use one of the Angels for Phil but the Demons based on Angels usually have an important role in the plot that is in line with the Law alignment and like, protecting god or whatever, so no. There are a couple bird ones but idk if they fit the vibe, idk it could work, I’d have to look at a list if I want to go into this further.

- I kinda want Eret to be an Inugami because it’s body does that thing that ferret’s do when they’re all stretched out :) The only reason I’m hesitant is because Inugami is a dog, and Goose deserves representation.

- The reason I imagined for why Techno can’t break anything is because the mining fatigue lasted throughout this because he died with it, it’d get in the way of fighting too but at least it isn’t weakness, and he’s not alone either.

Uhhhhh that’s it for now I think!

(will potentially add to this if I figure something else out in the future)

[demifiendrsa]

Microsoft has announced that it has acquired ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion.

Bethesda Softworks is the parent company of Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane Studios, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios, and owns major franchises such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Dishonored, Prey, Quake, Starfield, and more. 

Comments from each party:

Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox

Today is a special day, as we welcome some of the most accomplished studios in the games industry to Xbox. We are thrilled to announce Microsoft has entered into an agreement to acquire ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks.

As one of the largest, most critically acclaimed, privately held game developers and publishers in the world, Bethesda is an incredibly talented group of 2,300 people worldwide who make up some of the most accomplished creative studios in our industry across Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios. These are the teams responsible for franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Dishonored, Prey, Quake, Starfield, and many more.

Bethesda’s games have always had a special place on Xbox and in the hearts of millions of gamers around the world. Our teams have a close and storied history working together, from the amazing first DOOM, and its id Tech engine, innovating games on PCs to Bethesda bringing their first console game to the original Xbox, the groundbreaking The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Over the years I’ve had many deep conversations with the creative leaders at Bethesda on the future of gaming and we’ve long shared similar visions for the opportunities for creators and their games to reach more players in more ways.

Just as they took the bold first steps to bring The Elder Scrolls franchise to the original Xbox, Bethesda were early supporters of Xbox Game Pass, bringing their games to new audiences across devices and have been actively investing in new gaming technology like cloud streaming of games. We will be adding Bethesda’s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. One of the things that has me most excited is seeing the roadmap with Bethesda’s future games, some announced and many unannounced, to Xbox console and PC including Starfield, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios.

Like us, Bethesda are passionate believers in building a diverse array of creative experiences, in exploring new game franchises, and in telling stories in bold ways. All of their great work will of course continue and grow and we look forward to empowering them with the resources and support of Microsoft to scale their creative visions to more players in new ways for you.

All of our work, and the foundation of our relationship with you, starts with a commitment to deliver a breadth of amazing games to discover and play on Xbox. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been excited to share more detail on important elements of a plan we’ve been building towards for years. A plan that is the fulfilment of a promise, to you the Xbox player, to deliver the most performant, immersive and compatible next-generation gaming experiences, and the freedom to play blockbuster games with your friends, anytime, anywhere. Today is a landmark step in our journey together and I’m incredibly energized by what this step means for Xbox.

Please join me in welcoming all of our friends at Bethesda to Team Xbox.

Pete Hines, Bethesda Softworks

Today we announced we’re joining the Microsoft family.

And if you haven’t had a chance to read what Phil Spencer and Todd Howard shared in their posts this morning, be sure to check them both out. When you work at a place as long as I’ve worked at Bethesda—just a month short of 21 years—you see some things. Chief amongst them is change. When I started, Bethesda was not much more than a handful of people. The team working on Morrowind fit in a couple of offices, and there were probably six or seven of us spread across everything else.

Bethesda Softworks, our parent company ZeniMax Media, and our many internal studios, now employ thousands of talented people working in publishing offices and development studios around the world. We’ve gone from one internal studio to many; from a focus on single-player fantasy RPGS to developing massive MMOs, first person shooters, and everything in between. The world, our industry, and our company has changed a lot in the 34 years since Bethesda Softworks was first founded. Today, it changed again. And I know that brings up questions.

But the key point is we’re still Bethesda. We’re still working on the same games we were yesterday, made by the same studios we’ve worked with for years, and those games will be published by us.

So why the change? Because it allows us to make even better games going forward. Microsoft is an incredible partner and offers access to resources that will make us a better publisher and developer. We believe that means better games for you to play. Simply put—we believe that change is an important part of getting better. We believe in pushing ourselves to be better. To innovate. To grow.

And, we have a long history of working with Microsoft. Our companies share many of the same basic principles. We believe in a culture that values passion, quality, collaboration, and innovation. When I think back to the first time we decided to shift from being a PC-only developer and make Morrowind for the original Xbox, it was a move that countless people said would never work…nobody on consoles wanted a game that big and complex. But Microsoft believed in us and so did you. And now RPGs of all shapes and sizes are hugely successful on consoles.

Yes, it’s a big change for us, but after taking a minute to absorb the magnitude of this acquisition, we’re going to continue doing what we know and love: making great games. We’re going to keep trying new things. We’re going to take the same passion we’ve poured into what we do, and the passion that our community brings to the things we make, and do even better.

And soon the conversation will move on from this deal to talking about our games again. And I can get back to answering the questions that get us all excited. Tell me more about Deathloop. When can I see more Ghostwire? What’s coming in Q4 for The Elder Scrolls Online? I want to see more of the DOOM Eternal DLC. WHEN THE HELL WILL YOU TELL ME ABOUT STARFIELD? I’m excited for those conversations and look forward to talking to you about all of that—and much, much more—-in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

I believe in the people I work with. I believe in the company we have created together. I believe in the communities that have formed around the games we make. And I believe today’s announcement is just the next in a long line of changes in our history that will lead to bigger and better games for all of us.

Pete Hines SVP, Global Marketing and Communications

Todd Howard, Bethesda Softworks

I have been incredibly blessed to spend my entire career at, and help build, one of the best places to make games in the world—Bethesda.

And I’ve had the joy of doing it with some of the most talented, humble, and passionate people there are. They are part of my family, and my good friends. I have also had the pleasure of working with, and partnering with, many of the best gaming and tech companies in the world. But our longest, and closest partner during my career, has been Microsoft.

Today we join them, and I wanted to share some personal thoughts on what it means and our shared vision.

The trajectory of Xbox, and the trajectory of Bethesda, in many ways have gone hand in hand.

From our beginning, we had primarily been a PC developer. In 1999, two things happened. One, Bethesda became part of a brand-new startup—ZeniMax Media. And Microsoft started development of their first video game console—the Xbox. I can remember my first trip to Redmond to discuss the new system and bringing our next game, Morrowind, to the Xbox.

I was dubious Xbox Morrowind would be worth the time, somewhat on a technical level, but more so from taking a hardcore RPG and moving it from a PC desktop experience to a controller-and-sofa experience. If we made it work, would people want it?

Microsoft and their new Xbox crew had a view, that I came to share completely. Shouldn’t we allow anyone to have this experience? Why does it matter where the screen is or what the controller is? There are many people without the same access, and we can bring it to them.

Morrowind would go on to become one of the best-selling Xbox games of all time, behind Halo, another PC style game some said wouldn’t work. Its success paved the way for the growth of our company, and proved the point – people wanted this experience, regardless of device.

Microsoft quickly let us in on their next system, the Xbox 360. More than a PC port, our aim with our next game, Oblivion, was to usher in the next generation of gaming. With each game, from Fallout 3 to Skyrim, our studio and company grew, adding brilliant and like-minded studios across the globe. All of us sharing in the belief that expanding the reach of gaming was fundamental, whether it was on a pc, console, your phone, or the cloud.

With each new console cycle, we evolved together. From bringing mods to consoles with Fallout 4, now over a billion downloads, to the latest technologies fueling Xbox Series X/S. These new systems are optimized for the vast worlds we love to create, with generational leaps not just in graphics, but CPU and data streaming as well. It’s led to our largest engine overhaul since Oblivion, with all new technologies powering our first new IP in 25 years, Starfield, as well as The Elder Scrolls VI.

Like our original partnership, this one is about more than one system or one screen. We share a deep belief in the fundamental power of games, in their ability to connect, empower, and bring joy. And a belief we should bring that to everyone—regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you play on. Regardless of the screen size, the controller, or your ability to even use one.

We can’t think of a better group of people to do that with than those at Xbox. We have friendships that go back to those original days. From Phil to his senior leaders to developer support, they don’t just talk about putting players first, they passionately live it.

At Bethesda, we’ve been lucky enough to create games we love, and have an audience who loves them as much as we do. I have personally been humbled by the many industry honors I have received, as they belong to the entire studio. But one has always stood out to me for a special reason. When I received the Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC, I joked in my acceptance “I wonder how many achievement points this one is worth?” At the end of the ceremony, some good friends from Microsoft congratulated me and said they’d find out. A few months later I was given a code to a game they had created, named after me and locked to my account. When ran, it unlocks a single achievement – “Lifetime – 1000pts.” It still sits in my list when I check, and I smile every time.

It has been a lifetime. But there’s more to come and achievements to unlock together. We hope you join us.

All the best, Todd

Todd Howard Bethesda Game Studios