#what if they become unhealthily obsessed with each other..

[quillkiller]

the urge to write a bartylus texting fic with disowned or runaway delinquent barty / repressed young adult regulus still living at home after sirius was disowned and has urges to act the fuck out. and also barty is a criminal

[helenanell]

A Breath of Life || Challengers

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Part Two

Pairing(s) : Reader x Patrick – Reader x Art – Reader x Tashi (sort of.) 

CW: MDNI - 18+ : smut, rough / manhandling. Infidelity. Angst. A lot of yearning. (They all want each other, badly.) Manipulative behaviour. Minor spoilers for the film.

Notes: Female Reader (AFAB Reader) - Absolutely no use of y/n, (because I despise it, sorry)

Wordcount: 9.7K

Summary: You met Tashi in your final year of high school and were more than happy to have lost a tennis match against her. Afterwards, the two of you become inseparable and you find yourself feeling for her in a way that you don’t quite understand.And then things get even more complicated when Patrick and Art burst into your lives. As the years pass, desire, love and hatred all get tangled together...and so do the four of you.

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The idea of meeting Tashi Duncan had been much more intimidating than the actual event itself. It was an odd thing, to idolise someone who was the exact same age as you—a girl not yet out of high school and still so chronically unsure of herself and the world—but it was impossible not to. 

You had watched every single match of hers that you could, staring for so long at the way she moved, that you were left with the afterimage of her burned into your eyes: She was in your thoughts constantly and always waiting behind your eyes when you closed them hoping for sleep. 

You were brilliant at tennis, you knew that you were. But Tashi played like it was the only way she could take oxygen into her lungs; each serve and shot an inhalation and exhalation. You understood, because you felt something similar.

For a long time, you had been ignored or dismissed in every aspect of your life, by everyone. But then you had found tennis, and you were really fucking great at it. 

 Tennis saved your life by making you undeniably tangible. Your existence could not be disputed when someone had to react to your movements, to receive something you had offered. 

It was no wonder then, that for as long a match lasted you were unhealthily obsessed with whoever it was that you were playing against. They made you real. 

But then you played Tashi. You had lost, of course, but it had been a close match, neither of you dominating for long before the other gained the upper hand once more. The gasps from the crowd had been the swelling of some great tide, breaking against your flesh and reinvigorating you like freezing water. 

Once it was over, you felt bereft of something vital. You felt as though you had slipped back into non-existence, only this time it was worse than ever, because your connection to Tashi Duncan was gone. 

But your body remembered. It ached and throbbed, rebelling at all you had put it through- no. All Tashi had put it through. You were desperate to feel it again. 

And your prayer was answered. 

She appeared before you like an angel.

Tashi jogged over to you as you gathered your things after the match, flushed and with beads of sweat glistening on her skin like crystals. And her eyes…they had been wide and dark and enrapturing. And then she had said the words that would change the trajectory of your life: 

“So, when can I play you again?”

━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━

Ruah is the Hebrew word that means God’s spirit, but it is also breath or air and is widely understood to be God’s presence in the world. 

You couldn’t remember when you had learnt the word, but you knew that in the Bible, God had created Adam by breathing life into him. Which was why, when anyone joked about Tashi Duncan being some kind of deity, you could not dispute it, because that is what she had done to you. 

Tashi had breathed life into you.

 Her presence in your life has allowed you to come alive even off the court: you finally felt like a real person. Thanks to her, you knew that when you put your racket down, you did not simply disappear. 

Tashi saw you, on and off the court, and you loved her for it.

But, by the time you were both accepted into Stanford, over a year after you’d first met, you still wouldn’t let yourself delve into that love, and work out the ways in which you felt it. Not only because, you’d only ever been drawn to guys in any romantic or sexual way, but also because you felt undeserving of her.

 How pathetic would it be for you, who crawled at your best friend’s feet, to look up and whimper out words of desire to her?

 You were blessed to have her in your life, let alone to be as close with her as you were. Love was so many disparate things; you could love her as a friend, and hold that carnal aspect deep down. Just having her in your life was more than enough. She was enough.

Or so you thought. 

At the party celebrating Tashi, the two of you had not yet left each other’s side. You were dancing together, close enough that you could feel the ecstasy of victory buzzing beneath her skin as she held your hands and pulled you close. Her hair was silken and flowing down her back and as you were tangled up with her, it tickled against your own exposed skin. 

“They’re still staring.” You whisper into her ear, laughing as she answers by twirling you around and then pulling you back in. 

You practically fall into one another, having to steady yourself by placing your hands on her hips, the beaded fabric of her dark blue dress digging into the palms of your hands. 

“Good.” Tashi answers, wrapping her arms around your shoulders.

She turns you enough that with your chin resting on her shoulder, you are looking right at the two boys who had been gawking all night. One dark haired with confidence coming off him in waves, the other more reserved, a different kind of potency bubbling beneath the surface.

The blonde’s eyes meet yours and he tilts his head, offering a delicate but untethering smile. 

“You’re going to have to talk to them.” You offer, still held in Tashi’s arms. “Otherwise they’re going to follow you around like lost puppies all night.”

You gasp and squirm away as your friend playfully pinches your side.

 “Do you really think they’re just looking at me?” Tashi questions incredulously.

You laugh at her shock. “Of course they are.” You say, gesturing up and down her form as she continues to sway to the music. 

“Oh my God!” Tashi exclaims, grabbing your hand and pulling you close again. “You’re such a fucking idiot! They’re looking at you, too!” 

You roll your eyes, but can’t help feeling a little buoyed at the prospect of being desired. “Yeah, right.”

Tashi shakes her head. “It’s a good thing you’re so oblivious, I like having you all to myself!”

Heat floods every part of you, acutely aware of the sweat trickling down the back of your neck, your skin uncomfortably warm. 

Only when the two of you have stopped dancing do they come over. 

Art Donaldson and Patrick Zweig saunter needfully into your life and had you known then all that would ensue, you still would have welcomed their approach. 

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The four of you had wandered down to the beach. 

Art and Patrick were sitting on deck chairs that sat side by side, their legs stretched out and their gazes lustful, both of them looking at Tashi who was perched on a rock opposite them. In that moment, the moon seemed made only for her, the silver light lining her form. 

You sit on the sand near her, your legs pulled up to your chest. The waves softly hit the beach behind you, lulling you into an even more incorporeal mindset. All that exists to you, is Tashi and the two boys who so clearly want her. 

Despite how desperately you want to engage in their conversation, you’re exhausted and distracted by the knowledge that your parents will already be looking for you. 

You’ve rested your chin on your knees, your eyes drooping shut, when a voice calls out to you. 

“Hey, are you okay?”

 Art is crouching beside you, his hand on your back, his knees sinking into the sand, shifting the surface beneath you. You jolt at the contact, scrambling to your feet as Tashi chuckles.

 Patrick’s gaze flits between you and Art and then over to your best friend, his cheeks dimpled with a smirk. 

“I’m fine.” You reassure with a shaky smile, brushing sand off the back of your dress. “I should go though, my parents will be waiting.” 

“You can’t leave!” Patrick protests playfully, placing a hand to his chest. “You’ll break my heart.”

You grin, spurred on by his own smile and shrug. “And why should I care about that?”

Patrick’s mouth drops open in feigned hurt as Art chuckles, shoving his hands into his pockets and stepping away from you. 

You turn to Tashi, meaning to say goodbye, but she’s already up and hugging you. She often kisses your cheek as a form of goodbye, but this time she gets so close that her lips tease the corner of your mouth as hers make contact. You are electrified by it.

You know that she isn’t doing it for you, which is confirmed when she pulls away with her eyes flitting giddily between Art and Patrick who have both gone utterly still as they watched the display. 

 Despite the jealous ache that blooms, you play into it, because another part of you is excited at the thought of working the two boys up. You pull Tashi back into a hug, your hands resting dangerously low on her back as you squeeze her. She giggles into your ear. 

“You already have them wrapped around your little finger.” You say it quietly, but loud enough that you know the boys will hear. 

Over Tashi’s shoulder, you see Patrick smirk again and Art runs his thumb over his his bottom lip with a small smile on his face.

When you do finally pull away, Tashi smacks you on the ass. 

“It was great to meet to you!” Art shouts after you. 

“I miss you already!” Is Patrick’s shouted offering.

You just shake your head and continue on your path away from the beach.

Unbeknownst to you, three sets of eyes follow you until you’ve disappeared from view.

When you get home, you still feel the touch of Tashi all over you. But when your hand dips under the covers, something has changed. Because when you close your eyes, it’s not just Tashi you see. Instead, multiple people are fighting for dominance in your midnight fantasy:

You see Patrick’s licentious smirk.

You see Art’s coy smile. 

They’ve both invaded your mind, corrupted your thoughts that for a year had been so gloriously void of anything but Tashi.

And from that moment, you know part of you will always hate them. For so long, even knowing you can’t have her, all you’ve needed to sate yourself are thoughts of Tashi. But they’ve changed that.

You hate Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson because they’ve made you want more. You want….one of them. You don't know why and you also don’t know which one of them it is. 

But what is clear to you, is that a new itch has arisen within you, and it comes with panic, because unlike with Tashi, you’re certain there’s a possibility that one of them might actually want to scratch the itch for you.

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Had he known how furious you were going to be with him when you arrived, you doubted Art would have been so eager to invite you to have lunch with him in the cafeteria. 

Even when you slam your tray down and drop into the seat opposite him, he still looks happy to see you. He always did. It was infuriating.

“What are you playing at, Art?” You struggle to keep your volume down. You hadn’t wanted to yell at someone in a long time, but he had managed it.

Concern flashes in his eyes, but his lips press together in a way that tells you he knows exactly what you’re referring to. And yet he still asks:

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re fucking with Tashi’s head.”

“I would never do that.”

You scoff, stabbing the flimsy plastic fork into your salad. “Except you are, and I know that you’re doing it on purpose.”

Art pushes his own tray to the side and settles his elbow onto the table, resting his chin on his hand. “Yeah, how’d you figure?”

“Why else would you tell her that Patrick doesn’t love her?”

“Because I don’t think he does. Do you?”

You ignore his question, instead opting to pick up your apple and throw it at his head, hard. He catches it, that damnable little smile still on his face. 

“For fuck sake, Art!” You erupt. “She needs to keep her head on straight. Don’t upset her just because you want her for yourself!”

He tilts his head, blue eyes sparkling as he takes a large bite out of the apple. He chews for a bit before holding it back out to you, speaking through a mouthful:

 “You should have the rest of this, you haven’t been eating enough.”

“Fuck you!” You snatch it from his hand and shift in your seat, easily throwing it and landing it right in a nearby trashcan.

“Well that was a waste of perfectly good fruit.” Art licks some residue off his thumb and then leans across the table. 

You fail to snatch your wrist away before he grabs it. He’s gentle but firm, and as his thumb rubs along your pulse point, you feel the residual moisture from his own mouth he’d left behind, transferring to your skin.

“You don’t have to fight this hard to protect her,” Art presses. “She’s a grown woman.”

“She’s my best friend and I don’t want you to hurt her.” 

Art’s thumb stills, but he tugs your wrist a little closer. “Do you really think I could?” 

You scowl, pulling free of his hold. “You know, the way you and Patrick worship her isn’t the compliment that you both seem to think it is. You’re putting her up on a pedestal, practically deifying her, but she’s not invulnerable. She feels more strongly than anyone I’ve ever known and tennis is her life. If you get in her head and fuck up her game, It will break her and then I will break your fucking hands.”

This time when he’s smiles, it’s rife with fondness for you and it makes you want to punch him for the fluttering it causes in your stomach.

“You didn’t answer my question.” He says simply.

“What?”

“Do you think Patrick loves her?” Art repeats patiently. 

“Do you love her, Art?” 

“Can you please just answer my question?”

“I don’t know!” You throw your hands up in exasperation. “I’m not even sure I would know love if I saw it. All I do know, is that you both lust after her and definitely for each other too, even if you’ll never admit it. You’re all totally fucked.”

Art’s jaw clenches, the muscles ticking, but instead of irritation or anger at your outburst, his gaze softens. When he speaks, it is soft and achingly tender:

“You do know love. Because you love Tashi.” 

You let out an embittered laugh. “Of course I do. I tell her all the time.”

“But she doesn’t love you, not in the same way.”

You really didn’t know if he intended for that to sting, especially not with how gently he’d said it, but if he had, he’d failed. You came to accept that fact a long while ago, and while you would always want Tashi in some respect, it was not the all consuming desire it had been. The lust was gone. She was important to you. She was your best friend and you wanted to protect her. 

Unfortunately, the two men you wanted to protect her from, were the ones who had usurped her as objects of desire in your mind.

“Are you trying to find yourself a catchphrase before you go pro?” You sneer at Art. “I’m not sure how great that would look on a billboard for Adidas.”

“You deserve to be loved.” 

You had picked up your cup to take a drink of water, but upon hearing his words, you slam it down again and rise to your feet. He tracks your every move, as calm as ever.

 “I can’t talk to you right now, Art. You’re being cruel.”

You storm away from the table, only making it a few steps before you hear the scrape of his chair against the floor as he rushes to follow you.

 You’ve only just pushed open the door when he crowds up behind you. 

Art’s hand lands on your back as he guides you outside, his other hand rests on your arm and even after he turns you to face him, his touch remains.

 His hand is wrapped lightly around your arm, the other keeping you close- his palm pressed against your lower back. Anyone watching would think he was drawing you into an embrace. You almost shudder at the contact.

 Patrick has always been handsy, touching and caressing you under the guise of teasing, but Art has always moved around you as though you’ll disintegrate at the lightest touch. The way he’d held your wrist back in the dining hall and how he cradles you now, is the most he’s ever touched you.

 Your chest heaves as your flesh tingles.

Art’s head drops, his eyes on his own hand on your arm, as if he can’t understand why he’s holding you. His voice is strained:

“Patrick isn’t good for her.”

And just like that, you’re slammed mercilessly back down to earth. 

Art wasn’t touching you with tenderness or affection, you were just someone he was holding in place so that you had to hear him out. So you had to hear how much he wanted Tashi. 

“Oh, but I deserve to be thrown at him as a distraction so that you can have her?” You snap at him, more hurt than you’ll ever admit.

“You deserve whatever it is that you actually want.” 

Art sounds frustrated now, not at you…but perhaps at what he knows you won’t say. You do want Patrick. But you also want him. You had just never considered that he knew that.

But that’s not what you say. Instead you say–

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Do you want to know why he isn’t good for her?” Art presses, entirely unaffected by your fury.

“No, but I’m sure you’re about to tell me.”

The hand on your back pulls you a little closer, one errant blonde curl falls down from his forehead and brushes your temple. His breath is hot against your cheek. 

“Patrick’s not good for her-“ Art begins, his tone becoming embittered. “Because he wants you. He always has.” 

You rip free from Art’s grip with such force that the friction of it burns, his fingerprints leaving red marks on your arm. “You are unbelievable!” 

“I’m not lying. You know I wouldn’t, not to you.”

“You will say anything to have her won’t you?” You laugh nastily. “What’s the plan, Art? Do you think that I’ll try and seduce Patrick away from her now, leaving a space open for you to swoop in?” 

“Ask me how I know.”

“No.” You spit back at him. 

But you don’t move. 

Your body waits for words that your mind doesn’t think it can handle hearing. Something feels so close to breaking and you can’t help but feel like it’s to do with whatever force binds the four of you together. 

Art steps forward, closing the distance again, he raises his hands and rests them on either side of your neck, his thumbs pressing onto where your pulse is ratcheting beneath your fragile skin. 

“I know he wants you, because the night after he won our match- when he won Tashi’s number- he told me that I should fuck you.”

“Art.” You warn, frustrated tears bringing horrible pressure behind your eyes.

A small group comes out of the dining hall and have to split down the middle, because neither of you move a muscle. Art’s hold tightens, like he’s trying to leave a permanent imprint behind without it hurting you. 

He whispers now. “Patrick told me to fuck you. And I know him. He said that because when he couldn't have you, it excited him to think that I would. That I'd tell him about sleeping with you.”

“That was such a long time ago.” You say shakily, coming completely unmoored.

But Art won’t let it go.

“He still looks at you the same way, and that’s not fair to Tashi. You want to protect her, right? Well what will it do her when she finally notices the way her boyfriend is constantly eye-fucking her best friend?”

You hit out against his chest with a closed fist. The shock more than the force makes him stagger back. 

“You are so fucked in the head! You and Patrick are both pathetic little leeches who want the same girl, but can’t cope with the way it’s made them realise that they also want each other. You know what? I actually think so much would be solved, if you and Patrick just fucked each other!”

You start to back away and Art darts forward, trying to grab you again, but you smack his hand away and turn your back.

“Leave me alone, Art! And leave me out of your shit!”

He calls out your name with ragged desperation, but he does not follow. And even though he’s truly made your skin crawl, something about that makes you even more furious. 

Why won’t he follow you? 

Why do you still want him to?

━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━

You hadn’t spoken to any of them since your argument with Art. 

You couldn’t cope with the realisation that if any of them ever did feel any desire for you, it was only because they saw you as some sort of vessel through which they could access parts of the person that they truly wanted.  

You couldn’t even be said to exist in Tashi’s shadow anymore, you had simply been subsumed by it. Those two men, who you both despised and wanted desperately, would never see you, not really. To them, you were just part of her. But you would not let them ruin your friendship with Tashi. You just wouldn’t.

You knew when you arrived to watch her match that something wasn’t right. She was upset. You could see it in all the minutiae of her: in the way she took off her hoodie, in the way she picked up her racket. Something was really wrong. 

You walk through the stands until you come across Art. 

There are two free spaces to the right of him, so you sit down on the one furthest away, leaving a gap in the middle for Patrick to take up when he arrives. But then time passes and the match approaches and he still hasn’t materialised. 

You feel Art staring long before he makes his move. The air shifts as he shuffles over into the seat directly beside you.

“That seat is taken.” You intone harshly. Your eyes are fixed on Tashi as she prepares. 

“If it was, I wouldn’t have been able to sit in it.” 

“Sorry, I should have been clearer. I don’t want you anywhere near me, so I want Patrick to sit there instead of you.”

Your name is a tentative as he speaks it. “Will you please look at me? I can’t handle you not looking at me.”

Your gaze remains set on Tashi, she looks up and finds you in the crowd. The furious divot between her brow eases for a moment before her eyes snag on the way that Art is leaning into you. She turns her back on the entire crowd, but you know the gesture is meant for you alone. 

Fuck. What the hell had happened overnight? If it was Art’s meddling, you’d kill him. 

“The match is about to start.” You say coldly. 

 Art’s hand lands on your knee, but when you flinch, he immediately pulls it away. 

“I know I hurt you and I’m sorry. I- I need you to forgive me.”

You grit your teeth at his audacity. “Why do you need me to, Art?”

“Because I can’t stand the thought of you not being in my li-“

The match begins and Art never gets to finish his sentence. 

In fact, you don’t speak to him properly for almost a decade after that. Because Tashi gets hurt. Her sporting career ends in the blink of an eye and takes your friendship with it.

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Both you and Art had sprinted down onto the court, your heart breaking in your chest as you fell to your knees beside your best friend, tears gathering in her eyes as she whimpered in pain. 

What had hurt the most though, was the way Tashi had shoved your hand away when you had tried to comfort her.

“Don’t touch me!” She had barked on a ragged breath. “Get away from me. Get away!” 

The hatred had dripped from her words and landed on you like a corrosive liquid. And as it had burned down to the bone, you had looked at Art and the apologetic agony with which he’d regarded you—even as he’d cradled Tashi’s head in his hands—told you what he’d done.  

He’d not only told you about Patrick’s supposed lust for you, but he’d also told Tashi. He had told her that even after her now boyfriend had won her number, he’d apparently been thinking about fucking you. Art had also definitely shared his little insight that Patrick didn’t love her either, which you quickly worked out had contributed to his absence.

So Art got what he wanted: he finally had his hands on Tashi and he’d done it by carving you and Patrick away. 

Art Donaldson was an attentive, gentle, even needy man, but you had been so stupid to think that meant he couldn’t also be calculated and cruel. Because of course he was. What else could win the heart of Tashi Duncan but brutal passion? It was part of what she loved about tennis: the unforgiving force of hits that once you met them, somehow felt like affection.

When Patrick had tracked an injured Tashi down, still waiting to be taken to hospital, he had been ordered away by both her and Art.

You knew that because he’d just told you. It was the first thing he’d said to you when you’d let him into your room fifteen minutes earlier.

Now, you were both sitting on the scratchy carpet of your dorm, passing a bottle of vodka between the two of you. 

You felt bereft. Your body wracked with sympathetic pain for the grief in your mind. You’d lost Tashi today, you knew that. And the man that had caused it, was a man you’d spent years yearning for. 

Art hadn’t only taken Tashi from you, but he’d violently ripped himself away too.

“Art wasn’t lying.” Patrick grumbles after taking another hearty gulp of vodka. 

“Please, don’t.” You beg wearily, taking the vodka from his outstretched hand and pressing it to your lips. Not even the burn of the spirit going down your throat registers.

“I wanted- want, both of you. You and Tashi.” 

He isn’t drunk, only tipsy, but he’s getting there, and his words are sluggish, laced with fury. 

“Shut up, Patrick.”

You fall down onto your back, resting the vodka bottle on your stomach, holding it by the neck as you stare up at the ceiling. 

Patrick has been sitting opposite you, but he moves languidly forward, crawling up over your body. He braces one knee beside your hip as the other slots between your legs. 

You blink up at him as one of his hands rests beside your head and the other falls over your own where it still holds the vodka bottle. You let him take it from you, placing it beside your body before the hand then moves to rest on the other side of your head. 

You’re now trapped beneath him, his lithe body hovering just above yours.

When he leans in, his alcoholic breath almost sears your skin as his lips brushed the shell of your ear. 

“Sometimes, when we were fucking I would imagine that you were with us.” Patrick’s teeth nip at your ear. “I asked her once, you know, and she slapped me. Called me a pig. I think she was just mad because she liked having you to herself. You were such a devoted acolyte, kissing the ground she walked on—“

Fury bursts within you like a solar flare, red-hot and ruinous. He was talking about her in the past tense, as if she was dead to both of you already.

Art groans in pain when you knee him in the balls. You use the chance to shove him off you and he falls to the side, knocking the bottle of vodka over. 

As you stand up, you feel the alcohol seeping into the carpet at your feet. 

“You are a pig.” You hiss down at him.

 It’s your room, but you find yourself storming towards the door. 

You don’t get far before Patrick recovers, clambering to his feet and easily closing the distance with his long legs. 

You groan in frustration as he presses you into the door, one hand above your head and the other wrapping around your torso, his fingers dangerously close to brushing your breasts over your tank top. 

“If I’m a pig, why did you let me in?” He pressed his face into your neck and breathes you in.

 Some of the vodka has evidently soaked into his shirt, because the scent seizes you with the same violence with which he had. It’s a secondary intoxication. 

You words come out weakly, and you hate that it’s because you’re using so much energy fighting the urge to press back into him:

“I felt sorry for you.”

Patrick laughs. 

The smug bastard actually laughs right into your skin, the vibrations travelling all the way down to where your body has begun to ache the most. 

“Oh, sure.” He coos patronisingly. “It definitely wasn’t because you’ve wanted to fuck me for years.”

You should fight him, but you don’t want to. 

You should protest when the hand that he has pressed to the door moves to pull down one of the straps of your tank top. But you simply don’t want to.  You want him. 

Art had been right about both of you.

No sooner has the thin strip of fabric been removed from your shoulder, than Patrick is clamping his teeth down on the exposed flesh. You yelp in surprise, the pain a burst of sordid pleasure. 

Patrick laughs again, the hand he has pressed to your stomach pulling you flush against him. You can feel his need for you pressing into your backside, but in case you had somehow missed it, he bucks his hips up into you. 

You gasp and he laughs again, his tongue now running over the aggravated skin where his teeth have left a dent.

“We both know what this is.” He goads.

“And what is it?” You ask teasingly, your head now thrown back and resting against his chest. He groans into your neck as you grind yourself back onto him. 

“Inevitable.”

“Are you just doing this to get back at them?” You ask, not daring to speak their names. 

An angry grumble you can’t quite make sense of tears out of Patrick’s throat just before he is forcefully spinning you around. 

You get barely a glimpse of his feral smirk before he is easily picking you up again and throwing you over his shoulder. The slap he delivers to your ass is punishing and stings furiously as he practically throws you down onto the carpet.

The bed is right next to you, but the asshole apparently wants you on the scratchy carpet and with a wet patch where the vodka has soaked in.

“I’m doing this, because I have wanted to fuck you, from the moment I saw you dancing at that party.”

 You’ve barely got your breath back after being thrown about, when he is grabbing your calf and yanking you down so that you’re laying completely flat beneath him. 

“But you only ever pursued Tash-“ 

He cuts you off from saying her name by leaning down and pressing his mouth to your still clothed breast. His tongue swirls over the fabric, your nipple growing pert. 

When his knee presses up between your legs, parting them forcefully, your head falls back, strands of your hair wetted by the spilt alcohol. 

When Patrick bites down on your chest far too hard, your hand instinctively comes up to slap the side of his head.

 You’re so shocked by your own burst of violence that you go still at exactly the same time as Patrick, both of you breathing furiously. When he does peer up at you, his dark curls slick against his increasingly sweaty forehead, menace dances in his eyes. 

“Do that again.” 

You wish you could have feigned confusion or indignation for even a moment, but your blood is pumping to all the right places to urge you to make terrible, delightful decisions.

 Your second slap connects cleanly with his cheek, your palm tingling with the force as his head spins to the side. 

Your handprint is already a pink mark on his skin when he wraps his arms around your torso, lifting you up just enough so that he can pull your tank top off and throw it to the side. Your chest is left bare to him and he wastes no time before peppering kisses to your sternum, to your breasts and your neck, his arms still wrapped around you, his nails digging into your back. 

The throbbing ache between your legs becomes far too much to bear, so you curl your fingers into his hair and forcefully tug him away from your chest- a bead of saliva stretching between your flushed skin to his swollen lips. 

You lean your head forward, taking his bottom lip between your teeth and biting, pulling at it until he groans pathetically. You let him go, beyond pleased when you don’t have to tell him what you want next. 

You don’t want to wait any longer. You haven’t slept with anyone since you met him and Art. 

Art.

 Is it wrong that as Patrick pushes your back into the carpet and pulls down your sweatpants and underwear in one clean tug, that you close your eyes and briefly imagine that it’s Art instead?

You might have found an answer if you had more time, but when you open your eyes, Patrick is over you, his shorts and boxers already discarded alongside your clothes. His shirt is still on, but neither of you have the patience for the second or so it would take to get it off him. 

Patrick smirks down at you before pressing two of his fingers into your mouth, you open gladly, your eyes locked onto each other as he swirls them around. When he’s satisfied, he pulls his fingers out, and then licks his own hand, mixing himself with you. 

He swipes his wet hand over your already slick core a few times before he’s pressing himself inside of you. Your arms curl around his neck as you wrap your legs around his waist. 

“Fuck.” He groans, his tongue licking up the side of your neck as his hips begin to move. 

“Patrick.” You plead, your fingers digging into the nape of his neck. 

He knows what you want, nipping at your neck before he is driving into you with bruising force. 

In that moment, as you’re joined in the way you’ve wanted since the moment you’ve set eyes on him, you realise thar Tashi isn’t the only person that can make you feel real. 

As Patrick drives into you–his lips and teeth leaving marks on your flesh that will be wine-dark by morning, and the horrible fabric beneath you leaving carpet burn on your back– you finally know more than tennis can make you feel alive. 

The sex is forceful and punishing, but fuelled by a genuine passion. Nothing but your intermingled breaths and the sound of your joined bodies fills the room. 

If the two of you hadn’t been so lost to your pleasure, you might have heard Art knocking on your door. But you didn’t. 

He did however hear the two of you, so he walked away. 

You wouldn’t speak to him or Tashi again for over ten years.

━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━

You weren’t in New Rochelle to compete. You didn’t need to. You were on the top of your game, ranked the third best female player in the world. 

No, you were in New York because despite your better judgement-- and the many years that had passed since you’d last seen him--when Patrick Zweig had called you, you’d answered. 

You hadn’t heard his voice since you had told him that for your own sanity, you couldn’t see him anymore.

For the two years you had been together after Tashi had banished you both from her life, you had let Patrick consume you. And you had never played tennis so poorly in your life. 

You hated what that said about you, that you had willingly discarded someone you had genuinely cared for to improve your ability to hit a ball. But hitting that ball was what kept you alive, not him. 

Not only that, it hadn’t taken you long to realise that you didn’t love Patrick enough to let him affect your career.

And yet when he had called, you’d answered. And when he’d told you that Art Donaldson had entered the Challenger as a wildcard, you both knew that you would come. 

From the moment you had booked the flight, to the first step you’d taken into the hotel, you had lied to yourself that you were only coming for the closure that you hadn’t received as a twenty year old. 

But when you stepped into the hotel lobby and saw Tashi disappearing into the nearby elevator, your self-deception shattered. 

You were here because still, after all the time that had passed, you ached for the way that you had felt when she had been in your life. You missed her. And you had missed Art. 

It was a sickening truth of your life, that while no one had fucked with your head or upset you as much as Art had ended up doing, no one else had ever been so attentive to you either. 

Art had watched you—watched out for you—even when you weren’t playing tennis. In fact, in moments of utter stillness, when you had been doing nothing even remotely remarkable, was when you had always caught him staring. He never shied away, or broke his gaze when he was caught, he’d just smiled as if he wanted you to know he would never feel shame for being found looking at you. 

And that had not changed.

You have been sitting at the hotel bar for ten minutes, feeling sorry for yourself and nursing the same glass of gin and tonic, when you feel someone looking at you. 

You turn your head cautiously, your shoulders sagging as your eyes meet Art’s. He’s sitting on one of the small leather couches tucked into the far corner of the darkened room. 

It had been an inevitability, but things would have been so much easier if you never came across him. 

You know you shouldn’t move- part of you had come for closure and you could get that just by watching him compete tomorrow, so you don’t need to talk to him. 

But then Art tilts his head and smiles at you like no time has passed and pats his hand on the unoccupied space beside him on the couch. 

You get down off the barstool.

 As you approach, he watches unflinchingly.

The last time you had heard Art’s voice, was when Tashi had suffered her injury and he’d been permitted to stay by her side when she had ordered you away.

And yet even after so much time, when he greets you with a quiet ‘hello’, the pathetic girl who had pined after him returns.

You don’t respond as you come to a stop right in front of him, the tips of your heels right against the toes of his shoes, but you make no move to sit down. 

It’s of course not the first time you’ve seen him since college, or been at the same event, or even in the same room- you’re both highly successful tennis players, you couldn’t help but overlap sometimes. But neither of you have ever allowed yourselves to get close, or to even speak. 

It has been over ten years of your eyes connecting through crowds and across rooms that felt much larger than they were, simply because there was distance between the two of you within them. 

Art sits forward, his forearms resting on his knees. He’s fiddling with his wedding ring and you can’t bear to look at the familiar way his fingers carry out the gesture. 

When he looks up at you, it's so open and wanting that you almost turn right back around. But then you hear his voice again.

“Can I ask you to sit with me?” 

“I don’t know Art, can you?” 

He smiles, sighing softly as he runs his hand through his hair. It’s short- much shorter than the curls he’d had at college. You like it. It suits him. 

You shift on your feet, crossing your arms across your chest to cover up your nerves. Perhaps you can protect yourself if you look like you’re closed off from him and from…whatever this interaction is about to be. 

Art doesn’t say anything else, but he surprises you by rising to his feet. You stagger back, but his hand reaches out and lands on your side to steady.

His touch lingers for a moment too long, but he does eventually pull it away.

 But he’s still close, too close.

Your hands have fallen to your sides, so it is too easy for Art to reach out and brush his fingers against yours. He doesn’t intertwine them, but he’s doing enough to let you know that it’s what he wants to do. 

He whispers your name. “Will you please sit with me?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Art.” 

“When have you ever known me to have one of those?” 

You smile ruefully, but take a step back. His hand chases you, his fingers brushing against yours again as he tries to take your hand. 

“It’s been a long time since I’ve known anything about you.” You say, hating how sad it sounds. 

You should be angry at least. His meddling and his desire for Tashi is what ripped you all apart. And he has her now. They have a daughter together.

He doesn't get to ask you for anything, not even if it’s just to sit with him. 

You can’t trust yourself to sit next to him. 

“You do know me. Time can’t change that.” He insists, quietly but firmly. 

You scoff nastily. “I knew Art Donaldson when he was in college. The world famous tennis player who does AD campaigns for sports cars with his wife, is a stranger to me.” 

“Yeah.” Art laughs darkly. “He’s a stranger to me too.” 

You frown at him, growing angry. He seems exhausted and down-trodden. He’s clearly hurting and you hate that you know that—you hate that you‘d been able to tell that even from across the bar—because it means that he’s right: you do still know him. 

“It’s late, Art. You should get some rest. Big day tomorrow.”

You turn away from him and while he doesn’t reach for you this time, he does call out. You keep you back to him as he asks his question. 

“Who do you want to win, me or Patrick?” 

“Tennis can’t decide a victor between the two of you, Art. It’s never been able to.”

When you walk to the elevator, you feel a physical strain as you stop yourself from looking back at him.

━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━

You were right, tennis couldn’t decide on a winner: it was as fickle and incomprehensible as the human heart. Which was fitting, seeing as Tashi had always described tennis as a relationship. 

You had sat only two places away from her during Patrick and Art’s match, and you know she had seen you. But there had been no reaction, her face had been impassive and set on the court, her eyes hidden behind a large pair of sunglasses. 

Now, the match was long over and a result had been given. And yet there hadn’t been a victory for anyone. Just like you knew there wouldn’t be.

Something had happened on that court between the two men, some silent, inexplicable exchange that had altered the very fabric of them.

This time, when Art knocks on your door, not only do you hear it, but you answer. 

You feel almost shocked when you pull open the door to reveal him, dressed in a grey t-shirt and flannel pyjama trousers. You’re surprised at the sight as if you hadn’t known he was coming- as if you hadn’t readily offered up your room number when he had messaged and asked for it.

You’re also somehow certain that Patrick had given him your number, but you didn’t want to dwell on what sort of exchange had led to him handing it over.

Without a word, you step away from the door, self-consciously tightening the cord that holds the silk robe around your body. You stop and face the windows.

The curtains are drawn, by you stare forward as though the whole skyline is on display to you. 

The door to your room clicks shut.

You hear Art take off his shoes before his feet are padding towards you. 

When his arms wrap around your waist, you close your eyes and savour the sensation. He nuzzles his face into the crook of your neck, so you lift a hand and rest it on the side of his head. 

“I want to retire at the end of this year.” He says and you can feel his exhaustion in the slow breaths that coast over your neck. 

“So retire.” You answer softly, your eyes still on the curtains. “You’re tired.”

You know you don’t need to clarify. Thanks to the grateful press of his lips against your neck, you know he understands what you mean. 

Art is weary of all that he has to be when he’s playing tennis; he’s tired of the effort it takes to play the sport for not just him, but for Tashi too. His wife has been living vicariously through him. He’s been living for two people, taking the strain of two professional athletes combined. 

You know there had never been any point in competing with Art or Patrick, because Tashi would always love tennis the most. 

A shiver wracks your body as Art’s hand reaches for the bow that’s keeping your otherwise bare body concealed from him.

 “Can I?” His request is whined into your hair as he presses his face into the back of your head. 

Instead of answering verbally, you nudge his hand away and untie the robe yourself. Then, you take hold of both of his wrists and guide his hands onto your skin. You let out a sigh of relief when Art finally touches you the way you want him to. 

Your hands are still on him as his fingers move to cup your breasts, but he is the one guiding his movements now. He squeezes, his thumbs brushing over your nipples. 

“Art.” You rasp, pressing back into him wantonly. 

“Can I have you?” He asks, pressing open mouthed, hot kisses to your neck as he palms your breasts. “Please, let me have you.” 

“Stop fucking asking me and just do it.” 

You feel him grin against your neck just before he backs away, pulling back your robe and tugging it from your body.

The fabric has barely had time to pool at your feet when he’s grabbing you by the hips, his fingers digging in as he turns you. 

When Art’s lips finally claim yours, you moan unashamedly. His kiss is gentle but assured, you struggle for breath as he refuses to release you. Then, his hands are cupping your ass and he’s lifting you up. 

With his lips still moving hungrily against yours, Art settles you onto the edge of the bed. When he draws back, your lips chase after him and he smiles, grasping your face in his hands and giving you one more brief but searing kiss before he’s dropping to the ground.

 His hands press into your knees, forcing them apart as he begins to kiss and lick up your inner thighs. 

You prop yourself up on your elbows, watching where his mouth ravenously meets your flesh, tracing his path as he works his way closer to where you want him most.

When he reaches the top of your thigh, Art peers up at you through his long eyelashes, already looking drunk on you as he presses another kiss to your burning skin. 

“Lay back.” He instructs gently. 

But you’re too transfixed to listen- too desperate to see the moment his lips land on your core to look away.

He smiles at the realisation, delighting in your shudder as his tongue darts out and licks a line up your centre. 

“Oh my- fuck!” Your head falls back, already lost in the feeling of his mouth's devoted ministrations. 

As Art pleasures you, one of his hands skates up your stomach and gently presses down, asking rather than forcing you to lay back. This time you oblige, your eyes closed as your hands fist in the sheets. 

“You deserve so much more than I can give you.” 

You smile to yourself. Only Art could grovel as he gives so much pleasure.

Tightness begins to coil in your lower belly, but the moment he adds a teasing finger to his tongue’s movements, you realise you can’t wait. 

“Art- stop.” You gasp out, sitting up and resting your hands on his head. 

He halts immediately but doesn’t remove himself from between your legs. 

“Are you alright?” He asks, his hands rubbing soothingly along your thighs. 

“It’s not enough.” You say, tugging on his hair, trying to get him to come to you. “I need you.” 

Art doesn’t have to be asked twice, but he also doesn’t rush. He presses one last kiss to your now very sensitive folds before he’s climbing over you. 

You shuffle back, settling yourself onto the middle of the bed and even as Art takes off his clothes, he watches you. It’s as if he’s afraid that you’ll disappear if he so much as blinks. 

Now completely naked, he lays himself over you, his arms braced beside your head. He positions himself so carefully thar it’s almost as though he’s trying to fit himself to the shape of you- every divot and curve perfectly aligned sp that you’ll be fused together forever. 

As Art sweeps hair out from your face, his blue eyes bore down into you with an adoring intensity. 

You smile up at him and he rewards you by cradling your face in his hands, he lowers his head, his nose brushing yours as he gently takes your lower lip between his teeth.

Only when you understand what he wants and you open your mouth, does he kiss you again, his tongue delving in deeply.

As he seeks to consume you, your hands run down his back, squeezing his sides with your thighs. 

Art’s still kissing you as one of your hands reaches the curve of his arse, you dig your nails in and he jolts, his mouth moving away from yours and travelling down your neck. 

Tentatively, you move one hand around and down between his legs and when your hand wraps around him, he falters, his kisses stopping. 

“Is this alright?” 

Art moves again, licking the sweat slick expanse of skin between your breasts.

“Anything you do will be alright.” He assures, his lips brushing a nipple and making your back arch. 

“Do you want to have sex, Art?” You ask, barely restraining yourself.

His breaths are hot against your sensitive breasts when he answers. “Please.”

It is a joint effort as he slides inside of you. You gasp, arms wrapping around his neck as he presses kisses into yours.

Art groans as he begins to move achingly slowly, his hips rolling over yours with precision. 

You're happy like that for a few minutes, both of you revelling in your closeness after years subjected to absent desire for one another. But eventually, you want more.

You yearn for more force and luckily as you buck up into him, Art gets the message.

 As one of his hands moves behind your head, cradling it so that he can keep kissing you, the other wraps around your thigh, and pulls your leg higher over his hip, allowing himself to get even deeper. 

“You’re so beautiful.” He says in-between sloppy kisses, moving rapidly as you moan and whine. “You’ve always been so beautiful.”

Even with him inside you, making you feel more desired than anyone ever has, your mind drifts to that first night you had met him. The first night you had met Patrick. 

“You stared at Tashi.” You say.

You aren’t accusatory or upset, if anything the acknowledgement if it turns you on more. All four of you have always had a desire for the other, and it feels powerful to finally acknowledge it.

“-That night on the beach, you couldn't take your eyes off her. Neither of you could.” 

“I wanted you.” Art asserts with a particularly powerful thrust. “I- I wanted you so badly, but you went home.”

You nod, pulling him in for another kiss as you meet his thrusts. 

You understand his thinking. You’d often wondered how things might have changed had you not gone home early that night. If you’d stayed on the beach and then gone to their hotel room along with Tashi. 

Entirely content with just moving as one, you both fall silent and somehow Art curls over you even more tightly, like he wants his whole body to hide yours from the world. 

After you’ve both found your release he takes you into the shower and cleans himself off of your sensitive skin, each swipe of the washcloth accompanied by a kiss.

It ends up being time wasted though, because when you return to the bed, he takes you twice more.

━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━

You wake up with Art’s head resting on your bare chest. He’s laying on his side, one arm stretched out on the pillow above your head and his other hand resting on your hip. 

You’re sore in the most pleasant of ways as you sit up. You try to move slowly but Art stirs anyway, his head turning to press open mouthed kisses to your sternum. 

You rest your hand on his cheek, meaning to guide him away, but he moves so that he can kiss the palm of your hand instead. 

It’s only when you sigh into his touch, his eyes still closed as his other hand delves between your legs, that you realise why you had woken up int he first place. 

Someone was knocking on your door. 

And then you hear her voice. 

Tashi is calling out your name, sounding almost panicked.

 “Please, open the door, I know you’re in there.”

This time when you push Patrick away, he obliges, but far less quickly than you would have liked.

 In the time it takes for you to throw on your silk robe and gather up all of his clothes from the floor, he has barely got himself to stand up. He’s naked and blinking sleepily at you. 

When you shove the bundle of his clothes into his arms, he rushes to press a passionate kiss to your lips, holding the back of your head with his free hand.

You aren’t sure you want to know whether he’s truly still half asleep and genuinely hasn’t realised what is happening, or if he just doesn’t care that his wife is outside the door.

Flushed but furious at his casual demeanour, you push Art into the bathroom and close the door, just as Tashi knocks again.

 The repeated request for you to come to the door tumbles from her lips like a prayer.

You brace your hand against the door as you draw in a fortifying breath and smooth out your hair. You swear you can feel her through the door. 

The moment you open the door, Tashi is bursting in and closing it behind her. You step back, waiting for her to make the first move, for her to shout of attack or go charging into the bathroom. But she does none of those things. 

Instead, Tashi pulls you into a crushing hug. You go still, shocked but healed by it at the same time.

She pulls back, taking your face in her hands.

 “You’re a phenomenal tennis player.” Tashi says it rapturously. 

If you weren’t burning up at the feel of her hands on you, you might have laughed at how ridiculously perfect it was that those were her first words to you after over a decade. 

Tashi communicated and connected through tennis. She loved through tennis.

All you can muster is a very sincere: “Thank you.”

Tashi brushes your hair out of your face, tucking a stray piece behind your ear. You find your hands lifting, resting atop hers where they hold your cheeks.

“You need to let me coach you.” Tashi demands almost possessively.

“I have a coach.”

“They’re not me.”

“No, they’re not.”

And just like that, you were snared again. 

You had gone years without any of them, and with one word, you had allowed all three of them back into your life.

 Only this time, you know it might actually kill you if any of them leave. And perhaps it would kill them too. 

Only time would tell.

[tallyowlpress]

ABOLISH THE MONARCHY (in this brand new TTRPG)

Guillotine: Crown of Blood

Harness heretical magic, discover cutting-edge technology, and overthrow the crown in this Gothic fantasy TTRPG.

KICKSTARTER LINK

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

GUILLOTINE: CROWN OF BLOOD is a TTRPG where you can -- and should -- destroy the Crown. Use magic. Use wit. Use weird new technology, forged by your own hand. Use prayer, even if it's unorthodox. Use rhetoric to win hearts and minds. Or just beat the shit out of them. It's up to you.

Fact Sheet:

FUNDED IN JUST SIX HOURS!! Plus, we've unlocked our first stretch goal (character generation tables!)

Runs on the Powered by the Apocalypse system.

Based on games like Armour Astir, Heart: The City Beneath, Monsterhearts, and Monster of the Week.

Play as members of a Cause, against an oppressive Crown of your own making -- then play as the antagonists during a Villain Turn where you can torment each other's characters, or otherwise advance the plot.

Ten unique playbooks.

Includes weird magic, talking your way out of trouble, strange gods, and a worrying amount of blood.

Mechanics that let you become unhealthily obsessed with your friends, lovers, rivals, and political scapegoats. The more you interact, the more you understand them: for better or worse.

BONUS: Use Martyr moves to permanently remove your character from the narrative, irrevocably changing the fabric of the city, the revolution, or even the laws of physics!

All you need are some friends (or at least fellow travelers) and you're good to go! Do you have what it takes to destroy the Crown? Will you destroy yourself in the process? There's only one way to find out.

KICKSTARTER LINK

PLAYBOOK PREVIEW

ART PREVIEW

[colourstreakgryffin]

Yandere! Romantic! KNY Tokito Muichiro Headcanons

(🥳 It’s a celebration~ 🥳 Final post of the Yandere Hashira seriesss~ Leaving one of the best for last!)

(Yaaay! A top favourite! Muiii 🥰! He’s aged up to adulthood for this post since I’m not comfortable with writing romantic stuff for a 14yr old! Anyway, this one is greaaat!)

Muichiro as a romantic Yandere has the Yandere traits of; Overprotective, Possessive, Delusional, Violent, Psychotic, Hateful, Clingy/Loving and Emotionally Attached

Muichiro doesn’t really notice nor care about you being the new Hashira, gaining new support is fairly normal. A new Hashira, okay then. He does get a bit alarmed when you approach him and start stirring up a conversation despite him not answering

Though, resistance is futile as Muichiro slowly begins responding to you and your want to be friends with him. He guesses, talking to somebody so nice is a treat

You remind Muichiro of Tanjiro and that makes him all the more interested in you. You have that matching positivity, that matching view of the world and he feeds of that type of person. Muichiro feels his heart suddenly beat faster each time he sees you, the longer he gets to know you

He went from; “I don’t care about her” to “I always want to be around her” in almost no time. Even in his pre-Yandere state, Muichiro was already semi-Yandere as his obsession with being around you and learning about you in such mediocrity conversations shaped very fast. He grew unhealthily attached to you and threw mental fits if he couldn’t be by your side

Muichiro’s head was finally cleared of the mist only six years ago and is now filled with thick fog after realising his love for you. The fog zeroes in on you and blocks out everything but the most important thing to him, you.

Combining a Yandere obsession with Muichiro, he ends up becoming one of the most dangerous Yandere Hashira out there as he quickly averted back to his past self with a willingness to raise his sword but doubled. Cold, heartless, careless, aggressive. He forgot all about the important lessons of sympathy Tanjiro taught him as you drown out his rationality

Muichiro is very overprotective in both casual and battle sense. He gets fuming jealous of other people staring at you and shanks into them hard after intimidating the everliving sh*t out of them till they run away crying or terrified for their lives. You’re not gonna be able to go outside anymore without Muichiro weaselling his way into your schedule and then mercilessly berating somebody all because they needed to talk to you for whatever reason

“Unlike all of you, who have no value in the slightest, Dokusha’s value is insanely high and her time is vastly important as a Hashira and that should be obvious. Think before you act, Dokusha will not waste her beautiful breath on you feeble-minded nuisances—“

Muichiro is quite violent. Like Shinobu and Sanemi, he doesn’t mind spilling blood if needed to keep you safe and from those nuisances that plague your homeland. He’ll openly attack the people who approach you like a bloodthirsty bear and chase away them with his sword swinging. If he manages to land his hands on somebody, he’ll beat them to a inch of their life, Yandere Muichiro is merciless

Goddamn it, Muichiro is the most delusional Yandere out there(alongside dangerous). His thick clouded mind can only process what he badly wants, so nothing but your forced praise and/or your forced remarks of love for him will go through his ears. Everything else is washed away and replaced with bulls**t excuses from those tiny voices in his head. He is so delusional, he believes you’ll love him too, no matter if he had hurt your fellow Hashira, your friends or your family

Muichiro is swallowed whole by his obsession and the need to keep ownership of you. You’re his and his only, not your stupid little family’s, not your closest friend’s, not the random fleet market woman’s. NOBODY and he won’t let people brainwash you into thinking you don’t belong to him so he’ll take away that possibility altogether

Muichiro is extremely hateful towards everything and everybody except you. He glared down all the threats he must face and berates the living breathing beings around him, including his fellow Hashira. His hate is infernal and won’t ever disappear anytime soon, it fuses with his Yandere traits and amps up his danger level, he will gladly kill to vent out his anger hatred over all creatures except you

The Mist Hashira has his disastrous ways to keep you as his when he knows you are. Kidnapping, he isn’t above kidnapping and he’ll strip away your freedom until he is convinced he can trust you. He, however, is kind after kidnapping and will give you a comfortable environment so you’ll express your mutual love to him sooner

So stuck up in his ridiculous fantasies that he’ll never know that you hate him forever for what he has done. To innocents, to your sick mother, to you. How could you stand a complete lunatic like him! You don’t but you don’t have a choice in the matter

Muichiro is psychotic, if not, extremely psychotic. He doesn’t redirect his deranged mannerisms to you but to his worst enemies, the demons he fights and the people who dare to speak with you. They all will be cut down to size and he’ll smile hysterically whilst doing it. He does let his mania slip out at times though, it won’t hurt you at all

-Muichiro is very clingy and loving towards you, his beautiful spouse. He expresses his intense affections through random physical gestures, carrying you around bridal style, letting you sleep in his lap. Muichiro thrives off all of it! He does force you to let him give you affection pretty much every single time but he won’t lay his hands on you, he loves you too much

Muichiro’s Yandere means and obsession is centred around his emotional attachment to you. He is very emotionally attached and requires your presence to function, otherwise, he’ll mindlessly attack everybody around him like a true mentally-ill man. He has very bad mood drop when you aren’t around to sustain him and providing him affection powers him in a style of a candle

Muichiro does steal some of your belongings for his twisted pleasure but he returns it once he’s done as he respects your needs and he won’t push past your boundaries and hurt you. Like pretty much all the Yandere Hashira, he doesn’t realise that you’re hurt and blankly believes you’re so happy that you’re living with him now

You’ll end up spending so much time in the Mist Estate, that you’ll eventually forget what the outside looks like as Muichiro keeps you hidden away from the world out of his extreme need to have you as his soon-to-be-wife. After he took you away from the world and the Corp and brought you to a single room chained to the wall, he proposed to you and forced you to take his hand

“Aren’t the clouds so pretty, Dokusha, love? A-ah? No… I’m not gonna let you go to that place, me and this Estate is your true home. No, no, please don’t cry, I promised and still will look after you, my dear. Come on, let me cheer you up”

[bookwyrminspiration]

Thoughts on Sophie’s love interests/their relation to her?

Okay I'm gonna try and cover a breadth, but let me know if I missed one! (this got long)

Sokeefe: Spoke about it more here, general idea is I think Keefe's become stagnant and is constantly inhibiting the plot/Sophie to an aggravating degree. He's unhealthily obsessed with her + praises her, yet is constantly meddling/steamrolling in a way I don't enjoy. I think he needs a life outside her and to actually experience consequences--Sophie should hate him for a while. As a treat. Sokeefe's execution was too quick for my tastes, but is still salvageable.

Sophitz: I'm biased; I love Fitz. He's shown remorse and growth, he spent his childhood looking for her while she spent hers wishing for someone like her. Sophie, without knowing or trying, completely annihilated all the pedestals Fitz stood on. Manifested younger, transmits farther, blocks better, etc. She's unwillingly everything he wanted to be. There's this tension, an undertone of subconscious jealousy to it all. Then the matchmaking makes it painfully clear what different worlds they come from, but it's gloriously frustrating because it didn't have to end like that, yet it was always going to, you know? They could've talked, they could've waited--but they were giddy and rushed in too soon (they never would've waited) and now they're further apart than ever. Really really hoping to see them re-find each other and establish something true and strong, non-romantically

Sodex: Sophie feels weird about it because they're technically cousins, so we're not starting strong (if Sophie didn't care, neither would I, but that's a separate thing). Furthermore, Dex fell hard for the first person in the world to not be a bigoted ass to him. Very low bar, very sweet and innocent, but entirely doomed to fail from day one. The crush was one-sided and built on nothing, the friendship forming later based on actual interactions and getting to know each other, which I think is a more compelling and sensible direction for the two of them. Dex is quick, stubborn, petty, and loyal. Big fan of what they've got now.

Sophiana: The pettiness of the first book, the push and shove. The nudge from Alden, the betrayal. Sophie consumed Biana's family's existence before she could walk, Biana always left out wanting until suddenly she was There. This thing she'd been excluded from made flesh to hate. A ratty, weird antithesis to Biana's princess reputation. The bridging of that gap and the sincerity they develop is beautiful. The ways Sophie opens Biana's eyes and Biana fights in turn to be there for her. Hoping we get more from them in-depth in the future

Solinh: Linh's resilient, caring, has spent a lifetime being an unwanted danger afraid of herself and hasn't had the time to find herself outside of survival. Sophie revolutionized Linh's world, enabled her to find the space she needed to grow and breathe easier. She's scary powerful, determined, and joyful--all of which Sophie would benefit from in turn. They could go on a journey of self-discovery and building confidence together, though right now their one-on-one scenes are a little lacking

Sopharella: Lot of layers to these two. One of her first friends, but despite that was one of the last Sophie actually got to know. Marella wanted to join and blamed Sophie for leaving her, decided it wasn't for her, then was dragged into it all anyway. They've never been super close, but are still tied together in ways they don't understand (Caprise's relationship to the Neverseen). Neither of them want to be in the situation they're in, and yet. They're in a sort of truce, but it doesn't seem either of them are doing anything to move beyond that

Hekster: Ah, rivals to lovers. Stina's unstable superiority, distancing herself from them in hopes no one remembers hey, weren't your parents...? The immaturity of "you laughed at me. you didn't even know me but you took his side" (paraphrased, Lodestar). The "We good, Foster?" Lot of hostility, but a lot of growth on Stina's part in this one (said because like 90% of Sophie's hostility is in reaction). Solid up until Stellarlune. However, I find the imbalance of that hostility to detract from the rivalry's appeal; if it was genuinely mutual instead of Stina being a bully and Sophie defending herself, I'd be more into it.

Sotam: Adore Tam. The defiance, the stubbornness, the way he'd rather fuck off and yet he's become part of this group almost against his will. The quiet burden he's given himself his whole life, the fear and responsibility. The way he'd choose Linh over the world. He's indebted to Sophie for saving Linh, for getting them out and getting her to an environment where she could connect and build her confidence. He's saved her in turn. They've got a sort of silently orbiting each other thing going on. I personally find their backgrounds (as Others), defiance, and humor to best serve a strong platonic bond.

Lopster: I don't even need to explain myself 100/10 no notes

[problematic-rwby-shipping-poll]

FINAL BRACKET - SEMI FINALS: FALLEN PETALS VS BAKED ALASKA

Propaganda is below the cut.

FALLEN PETALS

"can't call this one abusive yet specifically but it totally would be but it would also be fun. Literally that 'lets just add some hatred- oh, no, that's obsession, whoops' meme. The red/black/gold colour scheme vs red/black/silver, magic vs antimagic, (if you really wanted you could do a dark fairytale aesthetic: girl lost in the woods vs monster in the woods), this could truly be so deep and you know that if Cinder got her hands on Ruby she'd break her mind into shards goddamn, can't get more fun then that."

"Cinder would think death is too good for Ruby and would try to mentally break her."

"The OG hero/villain toxic doomed yuri of RWBY—what’s better than Cinder becoming violently passionately obsessed with a teen girl who doesn’t care that she exists? Wanting revenge in any way she can get it, desperately trying to possess the evidence of her failures… while Ruby doesn’t know what’s going on but can’t tolerate Cinder’s crimes—it’s juicy <3"

BAKED ALASKA

"my vision for this is yandereXfemme fatale they are unhealthily obsessed with each other."

[squarebracketsmileyface]

hnnng i KNOW this won't be for a LOOOONG time yet, but i am so, SO stoked for Tim and Brian's first time bonkin' after thinking the other was dead for ten years, ESPECIALLY with them having been exes(?), so they know what the other likes/what they like to be called/where their favorite spots to be kissed are O_O also i'm kinda looking forward to the whole exploratory aspect now with Brian's injury and therefore hindered mobility (meaning they have to experiment to find positions/foreplay that works for them).

also, i'm curious; will we have a Brim-centric fic in the future (regardless of how distant) during/before the events of MH? my favorite parts of IIAB are the two of them pining for each other and doing a terrible job hiding it from the rest of the group <3

Oh god yeah I can't wait to write them getting back together after MH, it's gonna be so fucking fun, so cute and lovely and just AAAAA y'know? They're definitely technically exes after MH but not because they ever broke up, just because Brian was supposedly dead after uni, cos, y'know, Alex. I don't think they'd actually call each other exes, they just kinda lost touch, with both each other and with reality in Brian's case what with him becoming hoody for a whole lot of years.

It's gonna be SO fun writing them figuring each other out again, realising "hey this is the same" and "ooh that's different" and just figuring everything out, especially navigating Brian's disability and having a small child who has absolutely no qualms about barging into their room after bedtime 💀

They've got a lot to figure out, it's gonna be so cute

As for Brim-centric fics 👀

I currently have three planned, two with smut and one without.

The two with smut will be them back in Uni getting together for the first time at basically the exact same time Jay and Alex did (there's gonna be SO many parallels between uni Brim and uni Jaylex in that, both relationships starting in earnest at the same party, both are kept secret from the rest of their friends, but one relationship was healthy and the other was extremely not) and the one about them getting together again after MH is all over.

Then the one without smut isn't exactly brim centric as such, at least not romantically? Kinda?

It's about Tim getting out of the hospital at 16 and figuring out the whole 'being a normal teenager' thing, meeting Brian, becoming friends with him immediately, developing a crush on him and subsequently getting unhealthily attached to/obsessed with him to the point that he convinces himself Brian's a god on earth, so when he's struggling like hell with existing and coping with life, he ends up genuinely praying to him :D

I'm especially excited to write that one honestly lol 💀

Though I also have no idea if I'll be able to do it well. It's been like idk at least half a decade since I dealt with that specific type of religious whatever the fuck that is so I don't remember it super great, but I have dealt with the base of that religious whatever the fuck just without the "my crush is god made flesh!" part within the last year and a half so, fingers crossed I can put that chaos into words 😬

I'm gonna make Tim so mentally ill over his boy :]

[total-drama-brainrot]

If you can change anything about total drama what would you do?

I'd change the writing.

My main gripe with the show's writing is how it treats it's girls.

I know it's a product of it's time, but something about how practically every girl's story arc in the show revolves around a guy (or at the very least, somehow shoehorns in something about her love life) rubs me the wrong way. The only girl who doesn't have an androcentric subplot going on is Heather, until World Tour came along and centralised her whole 'redemption' arc around Aleheather.

Even Katie and Sadie fall into this trap; their whole thing is being unhealthily co-dependant with each other, and yet they're always at odds with each other over a boy (usually Justin).

But the worst offender for me is the way Courtney is treated. Courtney's whole character revolves itself around her feelings for Duncan- to the point that her elimination is literally caused by her being his "love interest" (thanks Harold)- and all of her development as a character stems from Duncan's influence. Meanwhile, all of Duncan's development as a character is entirely introspective, Courtney doesn't really influence anything about him that wasn't already apparent. Maybe she softens his hard outer shell a bit, but we already know that he's got a "heart of gold" behind his tough guy persona so Courtney's influence doesn't really achieve much in terms of Duncan's growth. That's just in Island! In Action and World Tour, Courtney's whole character still revolves around Duncan to the point she becomes obsessive and controlling. Every conflict she faces is centred around Duncan. She's never allowed to grow and change as a person without it somehow circling back to Duncan.

Let these girls have story arcs and conflicts that don't revolve around the men in their lives.

But the writing overall is just... inconsistent? Sporadic. Weirdly paced.

The reboot is the worst victim of poor writing choices, in my opinion, which I know is probably caused by the time constraints due to a significantly shorter allotted runtime, but especially in season two of the reboot there's this constant feeling of wonky pacing and weird plotline priorities. Julia's whole plotline is stilted and the majority of her interesting actions happen off-screen. Subplots are established and built up just to be discarded within the span of an episode or two; i.e. the Rajbow cheating arc, whatever "Normal" Girl has going on, Zee's soda brand deal, Millie's teased character arc and resulting character derailment, ect.

And the main focus of the season? The most boring romantic plot of all time. Priyaleb could've been something great, and I believe that with my whole heart, but the way it actually played out just left a sour taste in my mouth. It wasn't fun to watch, it wasn't engaging or otherwise entertaining to watch, it was just painful. Again, it's the weird pacing and sporadic shifts in narrative that make it all fall apart. I could rant about how disastrous the Priyaleb plot was for hours.

And I really don't mean any disrespect towards the writing team when I say all of this. It's a hard job, made even harder by the time constraints and the limitations they've probably got set in place as a children's show. But I can't help but wonder where this show's potential could've taken it if the writing wasn't so... Like That.

[avelera]

Things that can be simultaneously true:

1 ) Codependency that would be unhealthy in real life can be really sexy and appealing in fic, and in romance stories in general, because those aren’t real life. We want to see the excesses of that emotion so we can feel it vicariously as far removed as we are as readers by the barrier of the written word. Writing characters who are obsessively in love is an effective tool in that regard even if they shouldn’t serve as educational models of an ideal relationship (whatever that is).

2 ) Some of what y’all are labeling as “unhealthily codependent” (even if it’s praise of a story where y’all find the codependency appealing as part of the story!)… isn’t unhealthily codependent?? Sometimes people do just spend a lot of time together when they love each other and make one another their priority? Oftentimes, that’s the person that people choose to marry (or equivalent) and the whole point of that decision and arrangement is you become one another’s priority???

Like I’m just gonna throw this out there as a litmus test for fandom to try out but maybe (when it’s adult characters involved) just ask “is this unhealthily, clinically codependent, like these people can’t psychologically function without the other, OR would they just be really sad without the other because they’re effectively married and they’ve made one another a priority and they could, in fact, after they’ve grieved pull themselves together and continue to function, even if it’s not instantaneous??”

[cringecannon]

I’m obsessed with the idea of there being some Normal Person ™️ who was kind to Astarion when he was a vampire spawn that maybe he’s a little unhealthily obsessed with. Maybe they’re a bartender at one of the establishments where he picked up victims for Cazador, maybe a seamstress who gave him thread for his embroidery or to patch up his clothing, maybe just someone who had kind words for him and didn’t try to hit on him, who knows? But it would be verrrrrry interesting to see an Ascendant Astarion encountering that Normal Person again, maybe deciding to “reward” them for being kind to him when he was nothing. Though I’m not sure if his idea of a reward would be what they would consider a reward….

(Also as an aside, I love your writing! I check your blog daily and my friends and I are constantly sending each other your Gortash and Astarion posts like “wake up, babe, new cringecannon dropped”)

He wasn't entirely sure why he was so enamored with you. To put it bluntly, you were just so... plain. Unassuming. Normal. Sure, you were nice. Plenty of people were nice to him though, and he didn't spare them a second thought. He watches you over the chalice of wine in his hand, seated in a dark corner of the bar.

Dark eyes follow the movement of your fingers as you carefully flip the page of whatever book you're reading. He glances up to your mouth, memorizing the twitch of your lip as you half-smile at some thought. Vanity rears it's head. You must be thinking of him. You had spoken to him for maybe a minute, one transaction out of hundreds, but how often did you get to see a face as pretty as his?

Not often, he hopes. A bolt of insecurity cuts through him. He feels pathetic, desperate. It sickens him. He could take anyone in this tavern home with him, and he's not going to sit around and let you make him feel inferior. His eyes settle on some pretty thing sitting alone at the bar and takes his wine with him, swaying over to his mark. Out of the corner of his eye, he tries to see if you're watching. You're not, staring down at your book like it's the most important thing in the room. He refuses to let you deflate his ego. His master wouldn't want you anyway. He'll waste no more time obsessing over some boring nobody.

He does, though. Watching you becomes a treat for him. Speaking with you when he shops becomes a whole event. The last time he saw you, you'd finally started to recognize him. A warm smile lit up your face as you reached for the exact kind of thread he always comes in for. It was fate, of course, that he'd be abducted the next day.

That first night in camp he wonders if you'll miss him. If you'd think about him as fondly as he thinks of you. Reality crashes in, and the fact that you probably won't is bittersweet. He had been playing a dangerous game with you. Any closer, and Cazador probably would have found out. You'd have been just another thing to take away from him. It was safer this way.

He doesn't think about you much after that. Facing death everyday tends to do that.

It's not until Cazador's blood has long since dried on his hands that he thinks of you. He washes his skin absentmindedly, trying to remember all that he could about you. It wasn't much, honestly. He didn't know your name, but he knew the kind of books you liked to read and the way your eyes shined when your hand touched his when he paid for his thread. It was a start. No one else in camp had kept his attention long. He needs someone to sit by his side and look good for all eternity, and you'd do just fine.

That settles it, in his mind. When the elder brain business is over, he'll start courting you. He thinks he should start by buying the shop you work in. Get rid of the owner somehow, and then he'll give it to you. Once you fall for him (and you will, because you're just too perfect to be so ungrateful after receiving such a thoughtful gift), he'll invite you to live in his new manor. If you're a bit more stubborn, it won't matter. He's not yet sure what hovel you live in, but he's sure you'll appreciate the upgrade.

He sits up a little taller, a small smile on his face as he dries his hands. Should he make you his spawn before he marries you, or after? On one hand, it'd be the perfect way to start the honeymoon. On the other, if he turns you early your cooperation would be guaranteed. He hums to himself. Decisions, decisions. Honestly, it's too soon to worry about it. He has the rest of his everlasting life to woo you. No point stressing over it now.

[p-perkeys]

I've been out of the loop with X-men comics for more than fifteen years, and actually I was in the loop for a year, maybe year and a half - I'm not from US, so they've been hard to come by. My love for mutants came mostly from cartoons.

BUT. Your fixation on Laura reminded me of my fixation on Laura from the times I discovered that she exists, so I thought you're the best person to ask this: If I wanted to read something recent and good about her, where should I start?

Actually, doesn't have to be recent, just good :D

Hiiii!!! First of all, thank you so much for this ask!! I'm so flattered that you consider me to be a good resource!! I am unhealthily obsessed with Laura haha I could talk about her for daayyyysss!!!!! It's always so fun to connect with other people with the same interests and passions!! <3 <3 <3 I love it!!

Laura's been in so much!! But here's my personal favorites, and they're all things that I feel like are important to her characterization as a whole :)

LOVED NYX (2003) - her intro into comics!! So much angst and trauma and allllll the insight into who she is!

Uncanny X-Men (I'm pretty sure 456 is the first appearance for her here!)

New X-Men (she's not there until the 20s!)was really important - a lot of big moments as she tries to navigate her first time at a semi normal life.

x-23 Target X - SOO important, we see more of her backstory and transition from the facility!

X-Force (2008) MORE TRAUMA AND ANGST. I hate what happens to her here but love the angst from a story telling perspective. You can really feel her slipping throughout this arc!

X-23 solo (2010) It is a beautiful story!! So many amazing things! and SO IMPORTANT to Laura's character development!! Love her and Remy here, love her becoming friends with Jubilee, and LOVE her reallymeeting Akihiro - the start of an amazing story of chosen family!

I like her in Avenger's Academy - to be honest I mostly skimmed. I do like the angst of the brief friendship she had with Finesse though! To me it offers another look at how Laura is growing as a person!

Avenger's Arena was okay - I personally didn't feel like there was a ton of development for her, but it's good if you like angst and it just shows another layer of her slipping through the cracks again. The same with circle of four! I think they're good to read to get into her headspace for when she's introduced in all new xmen.

All New Xmen... I didn't love until it was over. I didn't understand all the things going on, but it made sense after the fact. You do see Laura's first official romantic relationship, and she has quite a bit of development, some set backs, some leaps forward... over all good and I would recommend reading for her overall story!

Wolverines was really good!! It shows the transition of tolerating each other to deciding to be family for her and Akihiro! I personally am OBSESSED with this story and I've read it countless times!!

Her All New Wolverine solo was AMAZING!! Loved this!! There was just so much that happened for her! Gabby, Akihiro, Sarah, Kimura... you get a dose of EVERYTHING and I think it ties the loose strings nicely!!

XMen (2019) isn't a favorite of mine but I do think it's important to read just because a lot happens for her here! It continues into the reboot in 2021 with an older version of her that comes back after she's presumed dead from a mission!

XTerminators is a resounding YESSS!!! Super fun, super cute! She's a little more relaxed and we get to see her reconnect with Jubilee!!

X23 Deadly Regensis was a nice bridge between her leaving the XMen and leaving with Remy in her early days. We get to see more of Kimura and more of what Laura went through!

X-Force (2019) was alright - it was a set up for her current appearance in Sabertooth War, which is also kinda meh lol but it's where she is now!

There are a lot of other things she's been in but I feel like it can get REALLY overwhelming, so these are just, in my opinion, most of her major stories that really showcase who she is :)

As a bonus - I loved her in Trial of Magneto and Deaths of Wolverine strictly for her interactions with her siblings. And there have been a lot of little crossovers between major events too where she just has shown up everywhere haha but I hope I answered your question!!

Please feel free to ask me anything else - I LOVE interactions like this!!!

[brucewaynehater101]

Hey I'm gonna write something about Tim x male Oc but I don't know if it's good enough so I have this idea:

One, the Oc is actually someone in the past that got dragged to the present where Tim is and started to get closer to him but it's going to be revealed that Tim also from the past but in the past they weren't meant to be together.

Two, what if, from the first idea. My oc and Tim actually MEANT to be together like the Andromeda and Milky way Galaxy but it's gonna take a long time for them to realize that, they're in love with each other from the moment both save the other and be there for the other from the very start until the end.

Three, Tim was killed but regressed where he almost got killed by Jason at the Titans Tower and was saved by someone mysterious that led him to feel some sort of grateful to his savior. Meanwhile that savior is actually stalking him and that is My oc, he's gonna be there whenever Tim is and cut down any foe in Tim's way. So basically the Savior x Salvation (bcs Tim sees him as his Savior and my oc sees Tim as his Salvation that needs to be protected from anyone or anything.)

Anyway that's all, I just need to hear from someone about my idea :3 (it's just for silly things :P)

No worries! Glad to chat about it ^^ I'm not really one for romance, but it's still really fun to explore ideas.

Both being from the past in intriguing. I'm curious from what era they both come from (or maybe even separate time eras) and what their past was like.

Hmm... If you're doing fated lovers (that's what I'm assuming the reference means), there's a few ways to represent that. There are classic soulmate marks/indications. If they don't realize it at first, perhaps they either are both secretive about their marks or marks can be either platonic or romantic (with no obvious indication of which is which).

If not soulmarks, you could mess around with the canon gods, magic, etc. Perhaps someone sees their souls are intertwined or a god tells them or even a god curses them to make their path to romance harder.

As far as the savior one... That one is tricky. How consensual and non-toxic are we talking?

Don't get me wrong. I crave the dynamic of people who are consensually unhealthily mutually obsessed with each other. It's so fucking compelling. Various types of relationships can be super fun to play around with in fiction (although, to not trigger myself, they both or all of them have to want to be in that type of relationship with each other).

Anyways, what levels are we chatting about here?

For the OC, their perspective of Tim kind of reminds me of the song "My Way of Life" by Frank Sinatra. I absolutely love that song. The lyrics kind of match the vibe of the OC seeing Tim as his salvation ("Gotta have you near all the time with your dreams wrapped in mine. Gotta be part of your soul and your heart all the time. Nothing in the world that I do means a thing without you. I'm just half alive in my struggle to survive without you. You are my way of life. The only way I know. You are my way of life. I'll never let you go").

Just OC seeing Tim, his salvation, and doing everything he can and must for him.

Tim seeing the OC as his savior can be tricky. I think it's called the hero effect? Something something adrenaline, being protected, etc. causes someone to fall in love with their savior. However, this can cause a power imbalance.

You've managed to negate that a bit with the OC seeing Tim as their salvation. Despite that, there would need to be seriously work on communication, getting to know each other, building trust, and commitment before the relationship would work.

If you want them to be mutually unhealthily obsessed with each other (and a stalking each other vibes), Tim becomes consumed by the mystery of this person.

If Tim regressed, then who is this? Who is this person who never showed up in the first timeline?

Lots of exciting ways to take it ^^

[toxic-ship-tournament]

ROUND 4 / POLL 1

CEO x Arowana ( @owo-whats-bliss ) vs Matejka x Darling Nikki ( @outpost-31 & @rhaaclaws )

who makes up your ship?:

CEO (human) and Arowana (the weird fish thing)

why does your ship deserve to be considered the most toxic?:

They do extremely unethical experiments on people together under the guise of saving them, but Arowana is just using them to eat the people while telling CEO that that was a last resort. CEO is hopelessly devoted to them, both romantically and religiously, and uses everything he has financially and emotionally to support whatever they do (even to him). Arowana is initially only using him, but falls in love and becomes unhealthily obsessed, threatening to harm those who look at him. CEO is a human, Arowana is a god, keeping him alive no matter what happens to him. (Also, Arowana does have a human form, they're just not in it 80% of the time.)

ship tags/playlists/pinterest boards?:

None of those, but I think about them to the songs "Hakidasu" by Mao Sasagawa and "god, please () me, a monster"

****

who makes up your ship?:

Matejka (he/him) [by @outpost-31] and Darling Nikki (she/they) [by @rhaaclaws]

why does your ship deserve to be considered the most toxic?:

Darling Nikki and Matejka met in 1524, after Nikki's mother's death, and got into a duel- proposed by Matejka- at the price of Nikki's soul. She ended up winning the fight, and was turned into a vampire. They stayed together afterwards due to both being immortal, and have known each other closely since then. The reason why we think they deserve to win is their extreme codependence: Matejka is extremely attached to Nikki, because she looks like his dead wife Esmé, whom he's still in love with. Nikki takes advantage of him and roleplays as Esmé during sex. This unhealthy attachment to Nikki began consuming his life, so they got into a fight and split up for nearly 100 years. This caused the both of them to become incredibly suicidal, as they'd known each other for 4 centuries at this point, and they barely knew how to live without each other. Even missing each other so dearly, their relationship has the tendency to be very unhealthy. Once, Nikki insulted Matejka's dead wife as a joke, and he almost dragged them out to the sun in an attempt to kill them. Another time, she tried to eat Matejka (due to being a cannibal), but thought his black blood was disgusting. They know each other like no one else does, but still have layer of distrust. Nikki doesn't even know Esmé's name. Altogether, their bond is an incredibly complex one due to the nature of their immortality, but their unhealthy overreliance on each other has nearly ruined both their lives.

ship tags/playlists/pinterest boards?:

Ship name: Red Flags And Long Nights Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4GJDQdhpDITspMvp9c99m9?si=29599a8e944946a3

[felassan]

its that time again! 🍵 

Thoughts/wonderings on Dragon Age: The Missing #4, under a cut due to spoilers for The Missing -

I'm probably becoming a lil unhealthily obsessed with this building. what do we think it is? the Archon's Palace is the highest building in Minrathous (tho I guess not, as it has sewers and this is floating). A Circle? it has a similar shape to the logo for the Circle of Magi. the meeting place for the Magisterium senate, lording over everyone below from high above? whatever it is it looks cool and it must be important to be featured on the map. I wanna go there (๑*ᗜ*)

I love Neve Gallus' design. it's fresh and cool, and she just looks so cute and neat okay. also full of detail - the snake pattern on the headpiece, shoulder 'scales' and scales elsewhere, collar & jacket like one of those hooded snakes, snake-'tailcapped' footwear (rather than steel toe-capped), the serpent belt and of course most of all the beautiful snake design of her prosthetic limb. 10/10 character/costume design

this page had me on my knees basically. my heart.

surely this panel is a new meme format hh? same goes for the one where Varric is saying "Then perhaps all this is linked" and Harding says "And we've led them here"

you walked into the wrong neighborhood bro

I also liked this pair of illustrations, they had a nice 'bookend' feel and reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings.

Other thoughts:

Minrathous looks kinda cyberpunk and (despite what Harding says in the opening panels) feels quite clean in this comic

Is that the person tailing them lurking in the doorway that Harding is catching sight of here?

These holes in Varric's ear seem to be new. What happened? Injury from the leopard attack?

confused a bit by the perspective flip in this issue. In issue 1, Varric was more like 'stop', and Harding was more like 'talk to him'. it's flipped around a bit here.

Varric smiled when he thought about Neve and then lit up when he saw her. she calls him an "old friend". I wonder how they met and how long they've known each other. something to do with varric's spy network?

This panel felt a bit meta hh.

When Neve says "Your friend is quite intense" is she referring to Solas or Harding?

Then we come to the two main things we learn in this issue:

We learn that Solas has been in Minrathous causing trouble. He's been attacking Venatori locations in the city, stealing artifacts from them and freeing elven slaves in the process, which has greatly angered the Venatori. The Venatori now want revenge and a "bunch of rebellious elves" are "causing trouble throughout the city, presumably in the name of the one who freed them". I wonder if the artifacts weaken the Veil, are connected to the idol somehow, or are simply sources of great power that Solas either needs for himself/his plans or that he simply thinks should be taken away from the Venatori so that they don't cause harm using them? Tevinter Nights showed agents of Fen'Harel seeking artifacts and referenced rumors of elven artifacts that strengthen the Veil, like the ones from DA:I. freeing folks also makes sense, "I am not a monster" and it's something he has a history of doing

In this issue we also learn that Neve works with a group called the Shadow Dragons, who have been trying to help the former slaves. indeed they're trying to help anyone who is held as slaves in Minrathous. this is our first time hearing about this new group. they make it their business to help those in need and Neve makes it her business to help them. I'm a bit ¿ about their name, just due to how it sounds, but it's exciting to learn about a new group/faction. Each issue of this DA:D prequel comic has shone a spotlight on a faction - Grey Wardens, Antivan Crows, the Veil Jumpers and the Shadow Dragons. two new, two old. it's a nice balance. and it brings to mind the common fan theory/speculation about the PC of DA:D having a different faction background depending on the player's choice. at the very least it feels like a way of saying 'these four groups [or characters from them] will feature in a significant way/be 'players on the board' in DA:D".

thinking about the Shadow Dragons' name in an in-world context, like thinking about why they may have chosen their name: dragons are emblematic of Tevinter. dragon imagery is everywhere there, dragons are a symbol of power and Tevinter heraldry shows a dragon. the Tevinter Imperium is a 'dragon', or several (metaphorically) - Magisters, ruling over the classes below. the "shadow dragons" feel like "the other side" of Tevinter, the side in shadow, the underside, the 'anti-Tevinter'. I'd guess that they are the "Tevinter you forgot", i.e. the Viper's faction. (and if you look at Tevinter heraldry, there is also a snake 'in opposition' to the dragon.) before Missing #4 I wondered if “the Tevinter you forgot” "means they are a group of folks who have fallen through the cracks in Tevinter society or who are the downtrodden in Tevinter society. is it some sort of uprising or anti-Magisterium movement?" - here we learn they're trying to help people Tevinter 'forgot' like slaves and former slaves. I also commented "from the story it sounds like the dark-clad card dealer is the Viper. the magister in the story is afraid of him and tries to claim that the Viper is just a tale, implying that the Viper’s name has become known as a sort of shadowy, stealthy urban legend in Minrathous and that it has a sort of bogeyman effect on magisters." Shadow indeed. Neve later comments that the Shadow Dragons are trying to "help anyone held as slaves in Minrathous". I think it was in the Dorian short story in Tevinter Nights that there's a reference to how there's now an anti-slavery movement in Tevinter. Is that the Shadow Dragons? you can see possible echoes of "the Tevinter you forgot" in later comic dialogue "The Shadow Dragons have vowed to help us restore our dignity. To get back the lives that were stolen from us by the Venatori. To make sure we don't have to scrabble in the dirt for food and warm", imo.

I wonder if Dorian, Mae and the Lucerni know anything about the Shadow Dragons? maybe they've done some work together?

and while the Viper/Viper's faction/the Shadow Dragons themselves didn't appear in issue 4, issue 4 still highlighted them, continuing the pattern I speculated about, of the DA Day short stories (Evka/Antoine/Wardens, Teia/Viago/Crows, Strife/Irelin/Veil Jumpers and Viper's faction/Shadow Dragons), one from each of those short stories per issue.

Varric is still having a bad time. also he was born in 9:1, and so if DA:D is set in 9:52, he's now over 50. from these comics, he's feeling old and tired. I don't expect that he'll be a companion in DA:D. more like an advisor (off-field), a contact or quest-giver, or the person that recruits us.

"But why? What did he get out of it? Surely, he wanted something in return" was an interesting line. because like on one hand "I am not a monster", he has a history of freeing people who were enslaved and he's shown as valuing freedom and not enjoying needless suffering. setting people free definitely is the only decent thing. but he's also smart and does things with purpose, always playing 4-D chess, and has been outwitting Varric and Harding at every turn throughout these comic issues, always one step ahead. it seems like a 'it's both' situation. like two birds, one stone. he would free people and it's the right thing to do, and he also gains from it strategically. Varric lampshades this in the final page: and it's three stones, actually. Solas freed people, dealt with the Venatori on his tail and slowed Varric/Harding down long enough to escape all in one move.

Also, at first I wondered if the brown-haired elf was sort've projecting his own perceptions on Solas (with the "his kin" lines). but look here. the leader of these Venatori has a pouch round their neck. the others don't, it's prominently placed and it's consistent on this Venatori in every panel they're in here. and where have we seen that before? around the neck of the Venatori stalker that saved Varric from the leopard in Issue 3. I think we're supposed to conclude that the ringleader of the Venatori that attack the elves in this issue is the Venatori person that's been tailing Varric and Harding all throughout these comic issues. the Venatori ringleader seems to recognize Varric in a later panel, with the "You!". They fight and Varric starts demanding answers from the Venatori leader. but then, just as he's about to get answers, the brown-haired elf intervenes and kills them at that very moment. they won't hurt their people anymore, and conveniently also (more than one purpose to things again..), now Varric and Harding won't get any answers. and also this:

another - not two, but - three stones. when the brown-haired elf kills the Venatori ringleader, A) preventing them from further harming his people and B) preventing them from giving any answers to Varric and Harding, C) the killing blow also cuts that pouch from their neck. a very specific thing to depict. presumably in the chaos of the Venatori leader's death (you can't see the elf's hands in the very next panel) the brown-haired elf has grabbed the pouch, and part of his goal all along was to take it. I think we're supposed to conclude that the pouch contained the crucious stone and that the brown-haired elf works for Solas. so the "You're too late, I already have the crucious stone" letter from issue 3 was a Solas fakeout, the Venatori at that point in time did in fact have the stone (having beaten Solas to the vault, and as-shown by the Venatori who saved Varric from the leopard having the pouch around their neck), and the events of issue 4 were part of Solas' plan to steal it/steal it back from them (and going by Neve's earlier dialogue, it's not the first artifact he's stolen from them). so two things here: one, Solas' 'three stones' are actually-actually four (free the slaves, deal with the Venatori on his tail, delay Varric/Harding long enough to escape, and steal the crucious stone artifact from the Venatori [my head hurts]). and two, the brown-haired elf was working for Solas after all. he'll give the pouch (and the contents, the stone) to Solas, "he set us, his kin, free" wasn't projection considering that he does work for him, and him being there in the alleyway when he was, with the information that he had, was part of Solas' plan to escape and get the stone. otherwise, it's pretty convenient that one of the former slaves at the place Neve's aware of where former slaves have been eating scraps, at the time when she takes Varric/Harding there, just happened to have helpful info about the meeting that Varric/Harding needed and also happened to kill the Venatori leader and in the process cut the pouch from their neck. idk if it means all the elves here were working for Solas or just the brownhaired one or the brownhaired one & the blond one, but yea. definitely the brownhaired elf is I think.

Neve fighting was cool: staff-less magic and then as a mage using a dagger or shortsword.

party combo-kill! ice spell + finishing blow - a comic depiction of Shattering :)

Brown-haired elf missing his elven ear here.

A cool panel. Also, you can't see his other hand..

just really liked these two panels :) also, they missed their chance, they missed this chance, in this, a comic called The Missing... is that why it's called that?

[clenches fist] vowing to protect Neve and her good heart at all costs

and he stole the crucious stone artifact from the Venatori.

I am not sure that I agree with the premise of this article that BioWare retweeted, that The Missing is required reading before DA:D. I enjoyed issues 2 & 3 a lot! I was hoping for a bit more from the end of issue 4, perhaps a small Solas appearance like at the end of Dark Fortress or just a bit more insight into his plans or things in/the setup for DA:D. finishing on the Dread Wolf mural from the DA:D TGA 2020 trailer as a reminder was neat but the highlight reveal from these comics as a whole was definitely the new mural depicted in issue 3.

"He knows us too well, we need to find/use people he doesn't know" is the same conclusion that was reached at the end of Trespasser (and Harding was present for that conversation). I guess the meta irl reasons for The Missing are: A] since it'll be almost 10 years irl between games, to refresh folks about that conclusion and the fact that it will be a new PC and why it has to be 'someone he doesn't know', since most new players to the franchise at DA:D aren't going to buy years old DA:I and DLC and play til it the end of Trespasser B] fill some irl time C] do some marketing/advertizing and D] highlight these four groups/factions and introduce the two new ones (Veil Jumpers and Shadow Dragons) in advance of DA:D, and possibly highlight these specific characters (Strife, Teia, Evka etc) the same way (though I speculate those characters are more like DA:D 'contact' cameos rather than that they will be companions themselves). Certainly if I was Varric at the moment when Harding asks "So who are you thinking?" at the end here, after the events I had experienced and people & groups I had met in recent weeks, with those being fresh in my mind, I would be thinking about the Grey Wardens, the Antivan Crows, the Veil Jumpers and the Shadow Dragons, both as groups and terms of the mental list of people that I had recently met who Solas doesn't know. again it makes you think about the popular speculation that the DA:D PC will have the background of being from one of these groups. also, those 4 groups aren't ones which were referenced in Tevinter Nights as keeping an eye on Solas/as Solas having some info on them in turn (unlike some other groups like the Mortalitasi, the Executors, the Ben-Hassrath etc).

[deludedfantasy]

Trimax Vol 10 Ch 1-4

Hey guys, how are we doing with volume 10? I had to go lie down on my bed face down multiple times while reading this so....that's how we're doing over here. A good chunk of this is me screaming incoherently. Apologies for the overuse of exclamation points and all caps. I'm deeply unwell about all of this.

Ch 1

Wolfwood's never ending belief in Vash just!!! Wolfwood is a man without faith. But not anymore; now he has faith in Vash.

As he reaffirms his beliefs, he remembers Vash telling him that he gives up hope too easily. Suddenly, now that I know a whole lot more about Wolfwood, that line hits differently. People have said it before but until now I didn’t get how cruel of a thing that was for Vash to say to Wolfwood. He couldn’t know the thing Wolfwood did out of a desperate hope to protect the orphanage. And look at him now, not sure if Vash can defeat Knives, but he has enough hope that he might be able to that he won’t stop fighting. 

Wolfwood won’t give up because Vash has never given up!!! He’s taken on so many of Vash’s ideals, I can’t deal with this. 

Razlo tries to stop Chapel from killing Wolfwood because of how Livio cares about him and I think it’s an interesting moment. It shows us that for all of Razlo’s insatiable bloodlust, he’s concerned with what Livio thinks. He’s certainly not eager to kill Wolfwood and that’s an interesting chink in his armor, since he’s never hesitated to kill anyone before, even if it’s just because he’s suggesting they drag out Wolfwood’s final moments longer. 

Sidenote: oh my fucking god, I’m an idiot. I’ve been making jokes about Wolfwood’s magically appearing handguns for volumes. He’s not pulling them out of his tits, he just has a shoulder holster, like a proper gunman. 

I wanna kill Chapel with my bare hands!!! He’s taking way too much pleasure from shooting Wolfwood over and over again. 

So, Wolfwood hasn’t used his vials because he doesn’t think he’s going to die yet. That’s…yeah, that’s making me feel some things alright. First of all, I’ll say it again, Wolfwood is an incredibly smart fighter. He knows how to fight even while injured and in immense amounts of pain. He couldn’t stand up against Razlo at first, but he took it as an opportunity to learn how Razlo fights and find his weakness, so he could use it against him later. Chapel tells Razlo to stop underestimating him, but I think up until now, Chapel has been doing the same damn thing. 

Second of all, I know where this is going and I :) don’t :) like :) it :) 

Ch 2

Sworn friend? I sure hope that’s Vash because that cover image is going to kill me. Wolfwood’s been STABBED. By a GUN. 

Oh, cool, so Razlo confirms that Chapel is unhealthily obsessed with his students and making them into the perfect weapons for the Eye—morally and physically. He’s truly the abusive father figure of this story.

Well, that explains why Razlo’s been kicked out of the Eye. Killing nine other members in a murder spree will do that.

You know what? Chapel begging for Razlo’s life to be spared might honestly be the kindest thing anyone has ever done for him. It’s no wonder he’s so devoted to Chapel. When everyone else treats you like shit, the guy who shoots himself and begs the council to take mercy on you becomes someone incredibly special, even if he is absolutely insane otherwise.

Huh? When did Ms. Melanie and the kids get outside? I thought they were locked in a cellar. Did some of the other mercenaries bring them up on Chapel’s signal so he could torment Wolfwood more.

Awww, the kids don’t want to leave Ms. Melanie by herself! They care about her and each other so much. This is where Wolfwood gets all his love and caring from. 

Chapel is an evil, evil motherfucker. We know that already, but this moment? Oh, the rage I’m experiencing. He’s playing on Wolfwood's worst nightmare, going all the way back to that dream he had where he tried to hold the kids but couldn’t because there was so much blood on his hands. Chapel went and made that real. He shows Wolfwood’s face to Ms. Melanie, while he’s covered in blood, and lets them know all the terrible things he’s done. Ms. Melanie doesn’t need to say anything. The guilt Wolfwood carries will be enough to bring him low. Chapel knows his student and his weakness so well, and he twists until it hurts. 

ARGH MS. MELANIE DON’T MAKE ME CRY. 

This is Wolfwood’s worst nightmare, but she’s not reacting with disgust or hatred! She isn’t looking away from him! The way she says, “You foolish boy, you tried doing everything on your own again.” It’s so sad, but it’s so fond. She still loves him! She wishes he’d come home earlier! It’s still a painful realization for Wolfwood to have, that he would’ve been welcomed back, but it’s also, maybe, a shock and a relief. 

Also, “You’ve always had so many stubborn ideals and were never one to compromise.” NICHOLAS D. WOLFWOOD THESIS STATEMENT RIGHT HERE. It’s what got him into this mess after all! 

Oh my god Wolfwood! No!!!! Don’t look down on yourself now!!! Ms. Melanie’s right! You  came when you were needed!

AND HE’S THINKING ABOUT VASH AGAIN.

When he’s losing hope, he always thinks of Vash. And he realizes that maybe he should’ve asked him here. Because they work so well together, they could’ve taken out Chapel and Livio and saved everyone! IF ONLY HE HADN’T INSISTED ON DOING EVERYTHING ON HIS OWN. 

“I made a friend. He ain’t as dumb as I am.” Wolfwood, I appreciate your whole-hearted belief in Vash but that man is just as stupid as you are and probably would’ve also run straight into danger without asking for help. You two are just peas in a pod. 

“We could’ve done this as a team.” Yes!!!! Because everything’s different when you’re back to back with him!!! Vash and Wolfwood are a battle couple and when they are together, they’re unstoppable. Wish you’d realized this sooner!!!!

Hey, did Wolfwood just grab all of Chapel’s vials with his mouth? Wolfwood is the king of making batshit insane moves in the span of like three seconds because that was a small opening he had before Chapel shot him or the kids.

A mysterious shuttle appears at the eleventh hour?

IT’S VASH!!! VASH CAME TO HELP HIM!!!

And look at Vash, using his powers to protect people! Not only that, to protect the people Wolfwood cares about!

Ch 3

Wolfwood, come on. You were just thinking about how you and Vash could’ve easily handled this as a team. 

Wolfwood’s self-hatred is blinding him so much he can’t even figure out why Vash would come. Just as Wolfwood considers Vash his friend, Vash thinks the same of him. He’s shown time and time again that he’ll help people in a tough spot. Why not you, Wolfwood? Why don’t you deserve that same kind of care? 

This battle is important to Wolfwood and that’s why it matters to Vash. But of course, the tragedy of it all is that Wolfwood can’t see how much Vash cares about him and admires him because he hates himself too much to even allow love in from someone else. 

And with that thought, it’s time to break out the tissues. 

Razlo’s like, “Ooooh, a worthy opponent? Time to absolutely lose my shit!” 

So, on my first read, I somehow didn’t catch that Wolfwood drank two vials at once when he stole Chapel’s pouch and I was VERY confused for the rest of this volume. Now, however, I’m rolling on the floor sobbing. 

He knows how dangerous this is and how it’ll probably end. But he does it because he thinks he’s going to die anyway. He’s come to the point where he’s not scared of death, and he’d rather go down protecting what he loves than live to see it ruined. 

“If we survive this, drinks are on me.” This line is some horrible foreshadowing, okay. I’m just…I think I need to go take some deep breaths. 

Did Wolfwood just toss Chapel like a log? That’s WILD. Razlo actually gets distracted by it! Then again, he’s so devoted to Chapel that the idea of him dying or being defeated must be pretty tough to deal with.

Wolfwood grabs Punisher again but also, he stops just long enough in the middle of battle to put his glasses back on. He’s hiding. From himself, from everyone at the orphanage, maybe even a little from Vash. He doesn’t want anyone to see what he’s about to become, what he’s about to do. 

There’s been a couple times where I’ve wondered if Vash could read Wolfwood’s mind a little with his telepathic Plant powers and this is another moment. But I actually like to read this as Vash knows him so well that he realizes this himself, because that just hits harder. 

OH. I missed that. Wolfwood killed Chapel. Snapped him like a twig even. 

Razlo is actually so…lonely. The only person who’s ever been kind to him was an equally unhinged cult leader and now he’s dead. And all Razlo knows is violence, so that’s how he responds. As always, Nightow makes me feel so much sympathy for what should be the most villainous of characters. (Except Chapel, that’s the exception that proves the rule here)

Vash and Wolfwood executing insane maneuvers when they fight together because they’re so synced up!!! Certified battle couple. 

Wolfwood lighting a cigarette in the middle of a fight after performing some insane moves is so on brand for him. 

This last interaction is so funny and so them. They don’t know how to use their words! They slap at each other like five year olds and Vash can’t even tell Wolfwood he’s here because he cares about him and wants to help. WHY ARE THEY SO STUPID.

Ch 4

Wolfwood is starting to talk like Vash. The reminiscing about times past, pushing away the help people are offering him—it reminds me of Vash right before he got on the Ark. 

It’s so not like him that it even scares Vash, who tries to remind him that has to live. He’s always wanted to live, right?

Well, except, Wolfwood has finally found what he’s willing to die for. He’s already made the decision. Vash just doesn’t know that yet, and that makes what would usually be a light, bantery scene between them incredibly heavy and so hard to read. 

And Vash, goddammit, he still thinks this is Wolfwood giving up! It’s not, at least not in the way he thinks. Wolfwood is more determined than ever. He hasn’t given up hope. He’s taken all his hope and placed it on Vash, and left none of it for himself. 

“What is important? What are you willing to do to protect it?” → Trigun thesis statement. That’s what the story is all about! The worst part is Vash realizing too late what he would do to protect Wolfwood. 

When Vash really, truly fears that he might lose Wolfwood, that’s the first time he realizes how much he needs and wants him. How badly he wants to survive and see a tomorrow with him. Except, it’s heart-wrenching, because it’s already too late by the time he finally realizes this. Vash has finally found something worth living for and Wolfwood has finally found something worth dying for. How ironic that it’s each other. They’re like ships passing in the night, their lives and wants intersecting for only the briefest of moments before being torn apart.

Just as Vash thinks all of this, he catches Wolfwood. Look how tightly he holds on to him, his fingers pressing into Wolfwood’s skin. He uses his body to shield him, barely noticing the blades in his shoulder. He’s so overcome by what he’s realized, but also that he’s about to lose it all.

Look at the reluctance when he lets go of him. He doesn’t want to, he wants to hold on to him. But Vash would never disrespect Wolfwood’s choices. He knows how much it means to him to be able to do this on his own terms. So no matter how much it hurts him, he lets go. But there is rage in his eyes, an expression that is so alien on Vash, who has always been so in control of his anger. He hates that he has to do this and he hates that it’s this that’s causing it, and he won’t hold back anymore. 

Not the bird symbolism. Because Wolfwood has finally found his freedom in his willingness to accept death.

And Vash beneath it, with his face obscured looking up into the sky, but hunched over beneath the weight of his grief and anguish as he walks away from Wolfwood. God, this image is so powerful. 

[strangefable]

Tarot Pairs Tag

tagged by @inafieldofdaisies, @josephseedismyfather, @aceghosts, & @simplegenius042 to do this uquiz, thank you lovelies <3

Our Sins Make You Mine (Micah x John)

the devil + the emperor there's only one religion for the two of you, and that religion is the other. you two are very nearly unhealthily obsessed with one another, and that's just how you like it. when they touch you, they can feel the blood pumping under the surface of your skin. your hearts beat for one another. when the day comes that one stops, the other will soon after. until then, you both will live out your lives in perfect, gothy paradise

obsession, devotion, blood, and religion of one another, yeah this should come as no surprise to anyone. micah and john are completely obsessed with each other, and no matter how much they protest, they like it that way. they were made for each other; when micah first entered his life, john unwittingly molded her into his perfect mate. and when they parted, she grew to match him even more than he could've imagined. their reuniting is when they each finally realize that they were always one another's home. (they're only gothy in the sense that they're like morticia and gomez, only more unhinged)

Wolves Can't Tame Snakes (Lilith x Jacob)

ace of cups + ten of cups your romance is the love story that seems only possible in movies. it starts from a youthful first meeting, innocent. and from what may seem like a lifetime later, you both end up happily in union, perhaps even married! your coupling is the epitome of emotional fulfillment and devotion. neither of you thought you'd end up here, but damn if you aren't glad you did

from jacob's perspective, it was an innocent first meeting. in reality, she was coated in the blood of the man she'd just killed and was still sitting over, so. they're married long before either of them is happy about it (thanks joe), but they do eventually learn to appreciate and respect and even feel a kind of devotion. jacob gets there a lot sooner than lilith, though. their relationship is definitely a shock to both of them, but they do wind up happy in it, despite their best efforts

A Bartender and her Vicar (Lore x Max)

the tower + the lovers meeting this person shook your whole world. crumbling down is everything you thought you knew about life and love. their warmth, their generosity, their naivete, their knowing...! you don't know how anything made sense before them. all you know is that nothing will make sense afterwards

oh boy, yes. lore stomped into that mission and both their worlds collided in violent, unmistakable, irrevocable sparks. they challenged each other and changed each other to their very cores. she traversed space and time to find him, unknowingly. fate had a hand in them, but in the end it was their desire to choose each other that created the bonds that saw them through. their worlds collided and became one, like the creation of planets

But She Was Mine First (Lilith x [Redacted])

the two of cups + the star your romance is a wish granted. finally, finally, they're here. finally, *it's* here! the time where you don't have to feel lonely anymore - you'll never feel that way ever again. laughter, joy, sweetness, kisses - be at ease. all of these are things you have found someone to share with. your love is a dreamy fantasy of love and devotion and miracles. at first, your chest gets too tight when they're around - until they become as natural as the air in your lungs

these two are young love personified, so most of this is fitting, except for the 'finally' part. they're everything that is soft, sweet, innocent, puppy love. until she ruins it and lives to regret it. life has some surprises coming for them, though

Fuck Around Burn It All Down (Micah x [Redacted])

knight of pentacles + the magician if there's something you want, you will GET IT. nothing escapes your fingertips. after all, you're the power couple. your pairing sparks pure cosmic energy. you're fiercely driven to your goals - whether that be status, fortune, or power. you're also fiercely protective of one another. with the knight's earthy energy, you both prefer to purposefully make your way towards your ambitions, rather than playing cards too early or acting too loosely. meanwhile, the magician's half makes gives you a little fire. if they get too close, onlookers and threats to your relationship may get burned

oh hot diggity DAMN does this fit. every word is exactly on the money. they are definitely a powerhouse power couple. but don't expect anyone else to benefit from it

passing no pressure tags along to: @direwombat, @legally-a-bastard, @thisisrigged4, @adelaidedrubman, @henbased, @roofgeese, @florbelles, @harmonyowl, @chazz-anova, @socially-awkward-skeleton, @shallow-gravy, @jillvalentinesday, @cassietrn, @poisonedtruth, @marivenah, @voidika, @unholymilf, @confidentandgood, @v0idbuggy, @theelderhazelnut, @wrathfulrook, @trench-rot, @dumbassdep, @incognito-insomniac, @gayafsatan, @strafethesesinners, @turbo-virgins, @vampireninjabunnies-blog, @asexual-wizard, @g0dspeeed, @euryalex, @mars-colony, @damejudyhench @eclecticwildflowers, @redreart, @derelictheretic, @fourlittleseedlings, @clonesupport, @the-lastcall, @mediocre-life-span, @beemot, @silver-horse, @glitchinginthegarden, and YOU, please feel free to tag me <3