#whoops didn’t mean to post this one lol

[harleybarkerson]

You don’t want to know how many times my bird pooped on this chair

[chelseeebe]

addict.

a/n: this has been in drafts for LONGGG and is basically a continuation of shameless. i wanted to post something because ive been slacking with writing and ideas so i hope this suffices lol

18+. smut. cheating whoops. it’s a tiny bit angsty i guess but it’s happy in the end bc we all love that don’t we

listened to bathroom - montell fish writing this ;)

⋆˙⟡♡⟡⋆˙

‘so what’re you doing tonight?’ connor asks, eyes soft as he leans against the metal shelving unit, finally getting a free moment without customers.

‘uh.. nothi-,’ you’re cut off by a curious steve, bounding down the aisle to intervene in your potential plans, slinging his arm around your shoulder, smug grin plastered on his face.

‘oh no she’s busy tonight,’ his face twisting into a sarcastic, not-really-sorry expression, ‘sorry bud,’ shrugging as his hand dangerously nears your breast.

‘steve- you’re..’ you look back to a disappointed connor, his eyebrows raised, not prepared to argue with steve over this, ‘maybe another day?’ offering him an apologetic smile, swatting steve’s wandering hand away.

‘ahh.. yeah yeah, sure,’ connor nods, disappointment in his voice as he backs off, trotting down the aisle, leaving you with a cocky steve who’s hand had already found it’s way back to your chest.

you glare up at him, ‘you’re such an asshole,’ you bite, pulling yourself from his grip, justifiably annoyed by his cock-blocking.

‘don’t tell me you actually wanted to go out with him? besides, you are busy tonight,’ he smirks, reaching out to grab onto your waist, closing the space between you in a few short steps.

‘oh yeah? what am i doing tonight then?’ raising your eyebrow as your back presses against the cold metal of the shelf, steve’s hungry eyes leering down at yours.

you weren’t really mad at him. it wasn’t like you didn’t want to go out with connor, it was just that you were sure he wanted something more.. serious. and you weren’t exactly sure how to let him down gently.

‘well me hopefully,’ steve grins, his fingers loosely pulling your cheap, polyester work shirt up. your hand clamps down on top of his, well aware that you were still in work.

you push his chest with your free hand, keeping a stoic expression, ‘is that so? daisy’s at work then?’ his fingers grip onto your shirt, keeping you close.

he rolls his eyes, ‘yeah, she is.. i’ll be outside at five, up to you if you wanna come,’ wiggling his eyebrows, already certain that you weren’t saying no.

you purse your lips together, faux-pondering, ‘ugh, you’re so romantic,’ keeping your hand on top of his as he moves in again, fingers gripping your fleshy hips.

‘if you want romance, i can give you romance.. you just gotta give me a chance baby,’ his head dips, careless about where you were and who could see you.

‘get off of me,’ you scoff, pushing him back once more, managing to wriggle from his hold and backing up the aisle.

‘i’ll see you at five,’ he calls out after you, grinning to himself as he watches your hips move as you walk off.

-

sure enough he’s in the parking lot when you walk out at five, leaning against his car with a boastful smile as he watches connor walk off to his own car and you walk over to his. he’d won and there wasn’t even a contest.

‘you don’t need to rub it in,’ poking him in the shoulder as you open the passenger door, glaring at him before sliding into the leather seat.

he follows, tongue peaking out over his bottom lip as he gets into the car, ‘i didn’t even say anything,’ holding his hands up in innocence.

‘you didn’t have to,’ shaking your head. granted, connor was a little desperate but that didn’t mean steve had to be a prick about it.

the drive to his place is rather intense, you’d had half a mind to just get him to pull over somewhere on one of the back roads. his fingers creeping from your knee and somehow ending up between your thighs, teasing your clothed cunt as he drove. watching you squirm in the passenger seat with a sickening smirk on his face the entire time.

‘what the fuck?’ he exclaims, free hand hitting the steering wheel as he pulls into his driveway.

your eyes springing open to find daisy’s car parked haphazardly in front of steve’s, ‘i thought you said she wasn’t here?’ jutting your bottom lip out, disappointed and now worked up with no release.

‘she’s not supposed to be,’ he complains, ‘fuuuck,’ hitting the steering wheel again, ‘d’you think she’s seen me? we could go to..’ trailing off as your eyes follow his to see daisy peering out of the door, probably why her boyfriend was taking so long to get inside.

his hand shoots from your thigh, flashing her a feeble smile. you feel like a colossal bitch, clambering out of the car to give her a short wave.

maybe you should have taken connor up on his offer after all.

-

going out with the entire gang could never go well. especially not when daisy had tagged along, sitting next to steve like a lost puppy dog, not understanding any of the niche inside jokes and thankfully not catching on to the reckless looks steve had been slinging your way.

there’s only one dinghy little club in hawkin’s, so that’s where you went. dancing on the sticky vinyl floor, with a glass of watered down vodka in your hand. nancy and robin dancing alongside, they liked to act like they hadn’t a clue what was going on, but you knew steve had slipped up once or twice and perhaps you hadn’t been as quiet as you’d thought you were that one time you’d all stayed at nancy’s.

it didn’t matter though, neither of them wanted the hassle of getting involved. confident that whatever was happening would resolve itself one way or another.

their eyes gave enough away anyway, watching intently as steve saunters across the dance floor, running his hand along the small of your back as he walked through the crowd to the tiny, shared bathroom cubicle at the other end of the room. there was no need to even look at each other. you knew the drill.

waiting a mere few minutes before following him past the crowds of dancing patrons, promising nance that you’d be back in a few minutes and she could have the rest of your drink if she wanted. you wouldn’t normally be so brash and careless about what you were doing but after a few drinks and the massive cock-block daisy had given you the other day, you could not have cared less.

rapping your knuckles against the splintered wood door twice and waiting for the lock to slide open before slipping inside. steve pouncing on you the second you’re inside, one hand fumbling to lock the door as the other grips onto your waist, back hitting the ceramic basin as his lips press against yours rather hungrily.

there’s hardly enough time to catch your breath before the lock is jammed into place and the previously free hand is sliding up your thigh and under the tight skirt that may have only worn to piss him off.

‘jesus.. steve..’ you manage to get out between kisses, fingers curling into his hair while you struggle to get onto the sink, using the back of his neck to hoist yourself up.

‘i can’t help it.. couldn’t wait,’ he murmurs, digging tiny half-circles into the squishy skin on your hips, angling them towards his, moving down to attack your neck, teeth grazing against your jaw bone.

his lips press against your neck, peppering sloppy kisses to the sensitive skin, breath hot as his hips press against yours. the denim of his jeans pressing against your thighs, hooking your legs around his waist to keep him close.

‘fuuck, i would.. do.. anything for you,’ he breathes between kisses, already losing his composure and he wasn’t even inside of you yet.

your fingernails digging into his tense shoulders, ‘shut up,’ groaning as his erection brushes against your sensitive clit through your panties, the thump of the music outside of the tiny room growing.

his movements are antagonistically slow, you weren’t sure if he was teasing or just trying to make himself last long enough that you wouldn’t laugh at him.

‘i’m serious.. i want you,’ he murmurs, moving back up to level with your face, pupils dilated in a mix of lust and intoxication, jaw slack as pink tongue peaks out to wet his lips.

‘show me,’ pressing your forehead to his, grazing your fingernails down his lean back, tugging at the material in an attempt to hurry him.

sure, steve was always trying to convince you to fall in love with him but it increased tenfold after a drink. if you’d only say the word, he’d storm out of this bathroom and breakup with daisy in front of everyone. but you wouldn’t. and honestly? if she couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on by this point, then maybe she deserved it.

‘i will.. i will,’ he repeats, fumbling with his belt buckle, desperate to keep his eyes on yours while he does so, prolonging the entire process as his drunken fingers struggle to undo the metal.

‘steve?’ daisy’s muffled voice calls from the other side of the door, barely audible over the music, ‘steve?’ knuckles now banging on the door.

you can’t contain the eye roll that follows, keeping him between your legs as the knocking persists. his jaw gritting in determination to get this damn belt undone, despite the fact his girlfriend is very much stood on the other side of the door.

‘i’ll be out in a minute,’ he calls out, your body tensing in response, if he’d just shut his mouth, she would’ve fucked off soon enough.

‘oh, you are in there.. i wanna go home.. i’m tired,’ she complains through the wood. his fingers finally get a grip on the buckle, sliding it undone and hurriedly tugging his jeans and boxers down together, resting on his large thighs.

‘okay..’ sucking the air between his teeth as your legs widen around him, pulling your lacy panties to the side, positioning himself at your already soaked entrance, ‘i-i’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?’

his hand clamps over your mouth before pushing himself into your cunt, his own groan strangling in his throat at the feeling of your warmth, disgusting the noise with a half-assed cough. your hand coming to grip onto his wrist, the other holding onto the white basin as he begins to move slowly.

‘well.. no, are you not coming with me? i don’t wanna go alone..’ she grumbles, though you aren’t paying attention to anything else right now, focussing on containing the explicit moans from escaping through his hand.

‘ohhh christ.. no, no.. you go- i’m staying,’ his glossy eyes don’t falter, the hand that had held your hip coming to rest on your thigh, thumb extending out to rub circles around your throbbing clit causing your mouth to open further against his palm.

‘what? what are you doing in there? can i just come in?’ the door handle rattling as daisy grows impatient. you wouldn’t be surprised if she could hear the filthy sound of your cunt around him, balls slapping against the flesh of your ass.

‘no! no fuck no,’ his hand leaving your mouth to hold the wriggling door knob, keeping it firmly shut as his pace begins to falter, the conversation with his fucking girlfriend working in his favour to stop him coming so prematurely.

you’re forced to bury your face into his neck, soft whines vibrating the skin as your own orgasm fast approaches, the familiar feeling in your stomach growing. his thumb relentlessly circling your clit despite the circumstances.

‘steve wha- why can’t i come in?’ daisy persists, steve’s hand grabbing onto the door in pure frustration.

‘just go,’ he sounded desperate, pleading with her to leave before he came and she most definitely would’ve found out what or who he was actually doing in here.

your fingertips press into the cotton t-shirt on his back, mewling into the stubble on his jaw as you’re brought over the edge. head going dizzy as you clench around him, pleasure overcoming every single one of your limbs. if you hadn’t a death grip on the sink, you were sure you would’ve ended up on the floor.

you can hear daisy huff from outside, but the rattling stops and you hope to god that means she’s finally fucked off. feeling brave enough to let out an audible moan into his neck, just about coming back to earth.

‘cum in me,’ you babble, unsure of where the hell that had come from but still instinctively tightening your legs around his back, keeping him pressed against you as he gives you a few pathetic last thrusts, painting your walls with thick ropes of cum.

the sound out of his mouth is ungodly, thick and husky as his knees buckle, his body collapsing into yours, hot and sweaty, just a complete mess while he regains his strength. mouth open against your cheek, panting and gripping your hips.

craning your neck to press your lips to his, pulling his face to meet yours properly. it’s slow and tender even as his cum drips out of you and onto the grubby bathroom floor.

‘holy shit,’ he breathes into your mouth, feeling the smirk forming against your lips. it’s moments like these that have you questioning if did actually love him or not.

just completely enamoured by the way he looks, so pussy drunk and pupils damn near shaped like hearts as they gazed at you. you think you could. you really could.

he’s still panting for breath when you push him off of you, stumbling backwards into the adjacent wall. drunkenly fumbling with his belt as you hop off of the basin, rubbing the tender skin where the tap had dug into your spine.

‘you go first,’ you nod, tapping his arm, ‘i need to.. clean up,’ trying desperately to hide the smile on your face.

he stops for a moment, flashing that lop-sided smile that had you stumbling over your words. ‘okay.. you want a drink?’ running lazy fingers through his skewed hair, it was useless when everyone in the club would know immediately what had gone down.

you nod, shooing him out of the tiny room before you jumped his bones again. ashamedly pulling your skirt back down to a respectable length. you’re both terrible people, you know that.

and yet, you can’t stop yourself. he’s like an addiction that you’d never be able to rid yourself of. regardless of how many people and how many lives you both fucked up in the process.

-

you’re just about ready to wake steve up yourself. his snoring had been driving you crazy all night and now it was already afternoon and he was still fast asleep next to you. desperate to interrogate him on the things he’d said last night, his intoxicated confession.

he eventually stirs, so you take the opportunity to nudge his arm, pulling him from his sleep fully. groaning as he comes around, expecting daisy to be the one poking and prodding him.

‘uhh.. wait, what the fuck? what’re you doing here?’ voice groggy and deep as his smile peaking out from the pillow, arm extending out to wrap around your waist.

‘well someone had to make sure you didn’t die last night,’ rolling your eyes but still leaning in to his touch, grateful to no longer be sat listening to his horrific snores.

‘that bad?’ he groans, shoving his face back into the pillow.

‘oh yeah,’ stoic in your expression, ‘you got kicked out.. started screaming at the bouncer and then-,’ he grimaces, loudly groaning. large hand hiding his face from your judgemental eyes.

‘and then, you told nancy you were in love with me so uhh.. i think we’ve been rumbled,’ glaring at him from your position on the other side of the bed, not impressed with his antics.

‘well..’ he shrugs, feeling his fingers begin to toy with the shirt you’d borrowed, ‘was gonna happen sooner or later, wasn’t it?’ lifting his head up, gazing at you from squinted eyes.

‘not love though, steve.’

you can feel him tense up, sniffing as he looks away, ‘i was drunk.. it’s not- it doesn’t mean anything,’ a failed attempt at nonchalance.

‘so you don’t?’ looking at him earnestly, his face still half-hidden in the pillow.

you’d had enough time to reflect on his drunken declaration and quite honestly, you weren’t sure exactly how to feel about it. it wasn’t like it wasn’t pretty obvious that he felt that way towards you, but now that it was actually out there, was there any way for you to continue the odd relationship you shared?

‘i.. does it matter? you’re still gonna fuck me anyway so we should just forget i ever said anything,’ his hand disappears up underneath the t-shirt you’d stolen, his hands cold as they find their way higher, a pathetic attempt to distract you.

‘maybe i won’t.. steve- stop,’ becoming increasingly frustrated with him, ‘tell me.’

he sighs, contemplating his options as his wandering hand halts, ‘okay, and if i say i am in love with you, then what? you’re gonna tell me that it’d never happen and i’ll go back to daisy and then in two months this’ll start again.. it’s stupid,’ his eyes finally meet yours again, ‘i told you, it doesn’t change anything.’

you pause for a moment, studying his face through narrowed eyes. it was fairly obvious that he was trying to just brush this off, and no matter what you said, it wouldn’t make an ounce of difference. he was right though. you could end this today and go your separate ways for a little while but you both knew it wouldn’t last long before you were sneaking off at work and inevitably breaking some other poor girl’s heart.

you swallow, feeling his hand slither from under your shirt, watching as he props himself up against the pillow, already certain how this conversation was going to end.

‘were you telling the truth?’

his eyes close and you’re not sure why but his lips twitch into a tiny smile, ‘yeah,’ running a hand through the mop of hair on his head, already messy from sleep, ‘you knew that though, didn’t you? you know i’d fucking-,’ he exhales through his nose, ‘i’d do anything if you just asked me to,’ his shoulders slumping in defeat.

your heart pounds in your chest, the mere thought of leaving this room, leaving steve for god knows how long felt like the worst possible way for this to end. apprehensive to go any further but still terrified to end this in any other way.

‘you know how i feel about this.. i’m not..’ struggling to find the appropriate words, ‘i don’t know how to be in a relationship, you deserve someone that does.’

this is what you do. pushing away anyone that expresses even a semblance of interest in you. it’s a knack at this point.

he exhales, ‘i’m not asking you to marry me for fuck sake, i just wanna give this a shot and who knows? maybe we’ll get married and have six kids or.. or maybe we’ll end up hating each other but fuck- i wanna try,’ his hand reaches over to sit on top of yours, he’s pleading with you almost.

the bile rises in your throat, you can’t go on for much longer denying the way you felt towards him. it’s scary and you’re not sure if you can even formulate the words needed to tell him but maybe you should try. perhaps you would end up in a loveless marriage or maybe you’d crash and burn immediately. but maybe now you’re willing to try.

you sit like that in the silence for what felt like hours and eventually the only thing you can think of saying was, ‘..what about daisy?’

his eyes roll into the back of his head, groaning at the sheer mention of her name, ‘she’s gone, christ i’ll do it right now,’ his hand fumbles for the phone on his night stand, holding it up in front of your face, ‘tell me and i will.’

your mouth opens but no words come out, his clammy hand squeezing yours in one last hopeless attempt to convince you. watching his normally bright eyes falter as you remain silent.

‘do it.. break up with her,’ nodding as sign of encouragement, still wary of the decision you’d made but deciding that whatever might come from this couldn’t be as bad as being the reason another unsuspecting girl got her heart broke.

‘you’re serious?’

‘yeah,’ breathing out for what felt like the first time this morning, ‘i think we should try.’

and lord knows, if it really did all come tumbling down, that you’d get your karma one day and you couldn’t be mad.

[heesdreamer]

SILENCED (4)

MASTERLIST

GENRE ➩ enhypen zombie apocalypse au!

SUMMARY ➩ navigating life 1 year post end of the world was already difficult as you avoided rotting corpses with hefty appetites and groups with various bad intentions. things get harder when you run into a group of survivors, 7 boys who make it impossible to run away.

WC ➩ 6k

WARNINGS ➩ death gore blood um zombies and everything the apocalypse brings…

AUTHORS NOTE ➩ Hello, me again lol Sorry it’s been so long since the last update on this I’ve had other stuff I was prioritizing but thank you to the people following and enjoying this story! The updates are a lot smaller than my usual works and that bugs me a bit but I have a lot planned and it won’t be such a long gap between each chapter from now on lol. Reminder to check out the playlist for hints and general vibe! NOT PROOFREAD but u knew that

“What are you even talking about dude, I beat you five to one easy. It wasn’t even close.” Jake’s voice was laughing out as he rested back on the couch, swinging an arm forward in emphasis towards his friend.

“No you don’t get it, if we had a rematch I’d whoop you.” Jay was quick to respond, a gloomy look on his face from losing so terribly and the younger boys broke into a fit of giggles at his attitude.

The day had been quiet, picking up each other from school one by one and heading back to Jake’s place. His mom had been out of town for the month on a business trip and it’d become their official club house for the time being, messier than it should’ve been with blankets covering any surface that could serve as a temporary bed.

Heeseung was pushing through the front door with a strange expression on his face, glancing behind in the hallway before locking the deadbolt and peaking out of the peephole. Sweat was coating his face and the other boys stopped laughing as they looked at him.

“It’s that bad out there now?” Jungwon was asking in a soft voice and Heeseung jumped a bit before glancing at him and giving him a solid nod.

News stations had been buzzing for weeks but nobody paid too close of attention outside of the people with particularly raging anxiety. Reports of cannibalisms, first in America and then the neighboring countries.

The boys hadn’t thought much of it, some crazy new drug that would never make it this far or mass hysteria. Then it was announced that it was a disease, something that couldn’t be helped and borders could not stop and things started to get a bit more wary. Some stores were shutting down, families leaving to their summer houses out in the country and yesterday Jay had been cut from work early.

“I don’t know, I don’t think we can wait anymore.” Heeseung was muttering and Jake sat up on the couch, raising an eyebrow in bewilderment.

“You mean like leave? Where would we even go?” He was asking and his question made them all fall silent, knowing he was right and they didn’t have a safe haven to disappear to like others did. They all had families but they weren’t extremely close now that they were older, spending most of their time together and only coming home to get scolded for poor grades.

Heeseung was shaking his head and turning towards them fully to scan the room, freezing up slightly when his head count came up one short. “Where’s Riki?”

“He.. had that exam I think. Must’ve had to stay late.” Sunoo was saying it slowly to try and explain but a feeling of dread settled over everybody at the realization he was out there alone, not yet realizing how quickly things were falling apart.

“Is it really that bad Heeseung?” Jay was asking in confusion, just yesterday they all were walking around casually outside of the few religious nut jobs screaming about the end of days.

Heeseung didn’t say anything for a long time, like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to relay what he had saw or if he just wanted to let them think things were okay for a few minutes longer. He knew he had witnessed stuff that wasn’t going to be fixed anytime soon, stuff that would change how they lived from now on and he wasn’t sure he was ready to fully embrace that.

He was clearing his throat to speak but the words fell short and he made his way over to the kitchen counter instead, taking Jungwon’s moms keys and glancing at him for permission.

The younger boy looked confused but he gave him a small nod, eyes widening a touch when the oldest hesitated before going back into the kitchen and returning with the largest cooking knife available.

“Woah, you can’t go out there with that. You’ll get arrested dude.” Sunghoon was rushing out, suddenly paying attention and alert now as he sat up off the couch and raised his hands towards Heeseung.

“I don’t think there’s anybody left to arrest me.” He was spitting out but he wasn’t angry at his friends, just stricken with fear and anxiety at the thought of returning back outside but he couldn’t stand the idea of Riki being out there alone.

“Well I’ll come with you.” Jay was announcing and standing up, wiping off the chip crumbs from his sweater. Heeseung almost denied him and demanded he stayed here and kept the doors locked but he figured he might not be able to make it alone and Jay was definitely the most capable of the two of them, strong and sturdy despite his carefree personality.

“The rest of you need to stay put. I don’t care what you hear, or how long it takes for us to come back, you can’t open that door.” He was warning the group and they all paused in fearful hesitance before slowly nodding, the idea of not searching for their friends after a period of time leaving them unsettled.

The two eldest were making their way out of the apartment building, stopping at the entry door to push a vending machine in front of it. Jay looked confused when Heeseung asked him to do it but he followed suit anyways, not wanting to deny the orders considering the fear in his friends face.

Jungwon’s moms van was large and loud, rattling when you pressed too hard on the gas pedal and squealing every time it forced its large frame to a stop. They didn’t drive it often, outside of trips to the beach and going through drive thru’s, and Heeseung was grateful that the roads were uncharacteristically empty as he amateurly made his way through the city streets.

It was complete silent as they pulled up to their youngest friends school, both holding their breath as they leaned forward to see out of the driver side window and try to catch sight of any sign of life.

Heeseung’s heart was throbbing and he felt sick, almost too scared to go and find the boy in case he saw something he wasn’t able to ever forget, something he wouldn’t be able to move past. Jay’s hand was reaching forward to take his arm and he glanced at the other boy, seeing him give him a firm nod with a look of determination. Heeseung gave him a weary smile in return but it was the boost of strength he needed to open the door.

There was debris around the area from the days of mild chaos leading up to this and Jay bent down to grab a particularly long piece of metal, steadying it in front of him like a baseball bat as they got closer to the school doors.

They were unlocked and they quickly realized something was wrong judging by the papers scattered along the hallway, backpack’s abandoned in classrooms like they had to evacuate fast and Heeseung could smell something foul that caused his nose to turn up in disgust.

“Riki.” It was a yelled whisper echoing through the halls, carrying the noise all the way down the silent building until it was reaching the end and bouncing back towards them.

“Hyung? Is that you?” A scared voice was coming from the end of the hallway, shaky and muffled like he was hidden behind something and the two older boys let out a sigh of relief at the confirmation that he was at least okay enough to respond.

They were swift in their approach towards the room the voice had come from, forgetting to be cautious because of their relief and rush to get out of there but they quickly froze when a figure was coming out of one of the classrooms in the middle of the hallway.

Heeseung automatically recognized the signs of the creatures he had seen earlier, staring at the man who was staggering into the hall and turning towards them with his nose in the air. His eyes were yellow and vacant and he had dark liquid around his mouth, still moving his jaw like he was finishing a large meal. The man groaned loudly in their direction, bordering on a screech and the boys could do nothing but stare.

“What the fuck?” Jay was rushing out in an anxious tone, glancing over to his friend who was remaining still and watching it carefully. “Dude what’s wrong with him, what the fuck?”

“He’s got it.” Heeseung was stating matter of factly and Jay paled at the realization, shaking his head in disbelief and faltering backwards a few steps.

Heeseung was approaching the creature slowly and they both jumped when it reared its head and roared in agitation, sloppily approaching them and not faltering even when it almost slipped and crashed into the floor. They watched it approached speedily and when it got near they both circled around it’s back, confusing it momentarily but not long enough before it was attacking again.

The creature pinned Heeseung back against the wall, his hands flailing in front of him as he tried his hardest to shove it away with cries and groans of fear. It’s strength was double what a normal man’s would be and he was seconds from giving up when it was slumping to the ground.

Heeseung dropped off the wall and scrambled over to Jay who was panting with the piece of scrap metal in front of him, dripping thick syrupy blood now that he had smashed it into the figure.

They both watched in horror, attempting to catch their breath, as it begun to rise off the floor again. Shakily standing back to its full height and snarling again at them, seemingly angrier now.

“Oh you’ve gotta be shitting me.” Heeseung was panting out as he stared up at its cracked skull, half of its face sliding downwards and a bloodied mess from the force of Jay’s swing mixed with days of decay.

Both boys watched it as it started to approach again and then Jay was letting out a loud scream, taking a few steps forward and swinging the metal back down on its shoulder. They both froze in anticipation and then fear when the creature didn’t react to the hit at all.

“Oh what the fu-“ He was cut off as the creature swung at him and he dove out of the way with a grunt. “How do you kill this thing?”

“Why the fuck would I know?” Heeseung was screaming back in bewilderment, glancing around in confusion to try and find a way out of the situation but coming up with nothing as he turned back to keep his attention on the man who kept getting more and more unhinged the louder they avoided him and his gaping mouth.

The creature wasn’t getting winded whilst the boys were barely managing to swing their arms anymore, using this to its advantage and catching Jay off guard. Heeseung watched in horror as it pinned his friend to the hallway floor, listening to his screams of terror and gasp of air from under its heavy frame.

He didn’t think twice before he was rushing forward, and throwing the entirety of his weight into its body. He let out a guttural scream and pulled his arm back as far as it could go before driving the knife forward into its softened skull. Jay was, thankfully, getting the memo and rolling out of the way before the creature slammed onto the floor, now fully lifeless.

Both boys collapsed to the floor in fits of gasps and pants. Nobody spoke for a few minutes from shock and then Jay’s tired voice was ringing out. “Dude… you just totally saved my life.”

It was silent again for a few seconds before Heeseung was letting out a soft chuckle, launching the other into a fit of delirious laughter until they were both cracking up with the body in between them.

“Holy shit.” Both boys were pausing at the sound of Riki’s voice, a lot closer now as he pushed his way out of the classroom and was watching them from the end of the hallway. “You guys totally killed Mr. Kim.”

“And then what?” Your voice was completely enthralled as you spoke, leaning forward towards the campfire so your elbows were on your knees and you thought you saw Jake’s lips curl up from the corner of your eye.

“Well… we went back to get the others. We tried to get to family but..” Jay was trailing off but you nodded in understanding and he gave you a grateful look before sighing and continuing with his story. “Heeseung found a map in the pocket of a dead guy on the highway out of the city and he had circled the general area that you found us in, so we assumed it was safe.”

“And it was.” Jake was adding and it was some of his first words of the night, having remained mostly silent and to himself throughout your trip.

It had been two days since you left and you knew everybody was feeling unsettled by the fact you were heading back home now to the unknown. It was a mostly uneventful journey, not stopping much or sleeping more than a few hours with a shared determination to get there and back as soon as humanly possible.

You felt like the universe had cut you a break when you arrived to the veterinary hospital Jungwon had seen on the map, only encountering a handful of walkers and finding some medicine that should do the trick fairly quickly. But you knew the universe wasn’t kind nor was she fond of handing out breaks so your stomach clenched with the idea of what could be waiting for you back at the camp.

Sunghoon could’ve died from blood loss and infection and passed along the traumatizing act of putting him down before he turned, or he could’ve turned in the night and taken out a few of his brothers before anybody was awake enough to put a stop to it.

You knew the two boys with you were thinking similar things so you’d ask for a story to try and keep their minds off of it, listening to Jay carefully as he recounted the first time they’d killed a walker and how happy Riki was that it was his mean teacher that often stuck him in detention.

“Heeseung was our leader before he was ever our leader.” Jay was remarking as he finished his story, scooting down more into the dirt so his back was fully pressed against the rotted log he was resting on.

Jake hummed in agreement and you didn’t say anything, thinking about the statement and the conversation you’d had with the eldest boy about the weight of his responsibilities. You felt a longing for him suddenly, missing him and the others more than you thought you would and you could tell the two with you were thinking the same thing now that it was falling silent again.

You didn’t say anything as you were standing up to stomp out the fire, knowing it was already a risk to strike it up in the first place but especially to sleep with it roaring.

The three of you followed the same routine as the past two nights, stringing up cans in a circle around where you were sleeping so if anything, dead or alive, bumped into it you’d have some form of warning before it was coming down directly on top of you. You laid your head down in the pile of leaves and tried to ignore the sticks sitting uncomfortably under your shoulder blades, falling asleep to the sounds of the forest and the two boys breathing.

——

You’d been walking for a few hours before seeing anything familiar but your body was alert to the fact you were getting closer to the camp again, this time with a backpack full of supplies and a prayer in the back of your mind that things would be okay.

It didn’t take long for you to realize something was off about your surroundings, the woods unusually silent and resting like all the animals and trees were holding their breath. You raised your hand and folded it, a silent signal for the boys to stop walking and fall into a crouched position behind you.

Your eyes were hurriedly scanning over the forest floor and your heart sank when you noticed multiple pairs of tracks and footprints that wouldn’t have been from your group, having no reason to venture this far out. You waved Jake and Jay closer and they quickly shifted forward in their crouched position.

“Is it a hoard?” Jake was whispering to you when you pointed out the shoe prints in the mud, glancing at you with a worried expression. Jay’s eyes were dark with concern and his face was hard, glancing in the direction of the others and frowning.

“I don’t think so.” You were shaking your head and sighing softly as you trailed your finger around the indented mud to explain to them. “The steps are too direct and pointed, if it was walkers they’d be messy and all over the place.”

“So it’s people then.” Jay was saying matter of factly and you all feel into a heavy silence, knowing you had no choice but to continue on the path back home, regardless if there was anybody left waiting for you or not.

You didn’t bother wasting anytime, falling into fast and silent footsteps and you maneuvered your way through the woods, guns drawn and knives out of your holster in case any of the people were still around and surveilling the surrounding woods.

Jay caught sight of something long before you did and you were grateful for his hand that shot out to stop you from rushing right into the view of the man you could now see, pacing back and forth in the center of the little houses and keeping an eye out for anything out of place.

You lip curled up in a sneer but you weren’t exactly sure what to do. If it was up to you, you’d simply take him out from a distance but you didn’t know how many were inside with the boys and if any more were not here, not wanting to risk the safety of the others or the three of you by acting on impulse. Jake seemed to be thinking something similar considering he was tapping your shoulder to get your attention, indicating down to your knives after you looked at him.

You understood what he was implying but you stared at him for a few seconds to make sure he was certain, realizing you hadn’t yet discussed the groups morals when it came to the living.

His eyes were hard as he gave you a solid nod and he mouthed for Jay to have your back as you moved in silent towards the patrol. The man didn’t have time to react before you were behind him, listening to the sound of Jay whistle and bring his attention forward before you were wrapping your hand around his forehead and tilting his head back so his neck was fully exposed to you.

He let out a gurgled shout as you slid your knife across his throat, grunting softly under his weight as you tried to lower him to the ground as silently as possible.

You looked up at Jay after he was on the ground, watching him carefully as he gave you a small nod of acceptance and you sighed softly before returning it to him and waiting for Jake to come out of the woods and meet you. The three of you ducked against one of the houses, your backs pressed against the wood as you listened to try and get a guess of how many people were inside.

“I say we just kill him already.” It was a woman’s voice and she was speaking in a nasty rasp like she was a heavy smoker, your heart pounding at the sentence she spoke. “He’s half dead already, I’ll be pissed if he turns on us and takes a chunk out of my arm.”

You glanced at Jake after she was done speaking and he was already looking at you, both of you relieved to hear that she was talking about Sunghoon still being alive, immediately followed by the dread of what she was implying they should do.

“Touch him and you’ll have bigger problems than him turning.” Heeseung’s voice was speaking now and it was dropped to an octave you’d never heard it in before, cold and serious and he threatened her in a deadly tone.

You heard an annoyed scoff from a male voice before it was followed by the sound of low groans of pain that you made out to be Sunghoon’s, wincing slightly at the hurt in his cries.

“Do something then.” The males voice was speaking in a teasing manner and you heard Sunghoon groan again, likely being hit or kicked by somebody inside to prove a point towards the other boys helplessness. “Oh.. you can’t, that’s right. I forgot.”

There was more sounds after that but you couldn’t fully tell what they were, feeling sick and helpless where you were sitting until Jay was snapping his fingers and getting both of your attention back on him.

He was making signals with his hand and you swiftly understood that he was implying he wanted to rush inside and take them out before they had a chance to react or take any hostages, using the element of surprise to your advantage. Jake seemed more hesitant in the idea although you figured it was only the two of them inside the small house, seeing the car they had arrived it and doubting it could fit more than four people.

Your eyes wandered over to the body on the ground and you steadied your footing in the dirt before nodding softly to Jay and patting Jake on the back.

It went extremely fast, your mind on complete autopilot and devoid of any extreme emotion to help you get through the terrible act without hesitating or missing your shot. Jake was kicking the door open roughly and then stepping back to allow you and Jay to rush forward, relief rushing through you at the confirmation it was only two people and then followed by horror considering how easily you were able to sink your knife into the skull of the woman.

She’d barely had a second to process your arrival, eyes widening in fear and letting out a painful gasp of shock before her face was lifeless and she was crumbling to the floor.

You felt slightly sick that it had been so easy for you to kill two people in the span of minutes but you glanced up at the scared boys huddled around the house and you realized that you didn’t regret it, that you’d do it 100 times again if it was necessary.

Heeseung was tied to the radiator next to Sunghoon, clarifying the reason he hadn’t even able to stop their assault on the boy and you glanced at him to see him far paler and more lifeless than he had been when you’d seen him. He was still alive however and you were rushing to grab the supplies from your bag when you noticed the horror on the boys faces, eyes over your shoulder.

You froze up but before you could turn to see what they were seeing, a shot was ringing out close to your ear and you were completely disoriented for a few seconds.

It took awhile to process what had happened, turning your body in a panic to see a fourth man laying in the doorway of the house. His knife was still rattling against the floor from where he’d dropped it and you saw the exit wound coming out from the backside of his head. You spun back around and your heart crumbled when you saw who it was that had killed the man, saving your life by taking another’s.

Riki was holding the gun in shaky hands, barely able to keep it steady and his eyes were wide in shock and horror, keeping it pointed in your direction despite the threat being gone now.

“Riki.” You were saying softly, still frozen but raising your hands in surrender and taking a small step towards him. You didn’t necessarily think he would hurt you but he clearly wasn’t thinking straight and his fingers were still dangerously tight around the trigger. “Riki, it’s okay. You got him, he’s dead.”

His eyes shot to yours at the words and his face softened slightly, letting you approach and take the gun from his rigid hands.

He was dropping his shoulders in relief once the metal was out of his hands, shocking you by pulling you in for a tight hug that knocked the air out of your lungs. You returned it after a few seconds, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and squeezing him tightly with your eyes shut. You could hear the others moving around, untying Heeseung and greeting the others.

After Riki let you go and went to sit down in the corner and calm down, you quickly administered the medication into Sunghoon’s veins and sighed softly at the heavy breath he took at the feeling of it entering his system. You pushed his damp hair off his sweaty forehead and smiled softly at him even though he couldn’t see it, happy he had managed to fight for this long.

You were standing up again and immediately bumping into another frame, pausing until you realized it was Heeseung.

His hands were coming up to cup your face and you smiled at him in relief despite the cuts on his face and the noticeable black eye that you imagined had come from the struggle with the looters that had led to him being the only one tied up. “You gave them hell didn’t you.”

He laughed softly at your words and nodded his head, eyes gentle as he looked down at you and you felt your heart clench uncomfortably at both his expression and how much you had missed him.

You thought this about them all as the night continued on, telling them how your run had gone and listening to them laugh and tell funny stories that you didn’t fully understand but you still felt a lightness in your heart just from how excited they sounded about remembering the smallest details of things that had happened to them together in the old world.

Riki was still a but subdued after what had happened, not speaking much and staying in the corner as you all ate dinner and took sips from the liquor bottle the three of you had found on the trip. He seemed a bit out of it and your heart felt heavy after Jungwon had leaned in to whisper and explain to you that he had never killed somebody before.

You felt guilty that he had done something like that to save you, your own mistake for not assuming there was another person still outside or checking the tracks more carefully because you were too worried about them and too focus on getting inside as soon as possible. Your care was making you stupid and making you weak, leaving the youngest to lose a piece of himself to fix your mistake.

It was this that made up your mind for you, solidifying that you couldn’t stay here with them any longer or else things like this would keep happening. You’d have to continue to risk yourself for them and vice versa, you couldn’t take watching them hurt themselves in the name of saving you or each other and you knew now that they were always going to put the others and you over themselves individually.

You kept reminding yourself this as you silently packed your bag, waiting for the others to fall asleep and leave you on watch duty before you were preparing to slip out.

You’d stay in the woods outside the camp for the night and make sure nothing hurt them during your watch cycle and then you were going to disappear into the dark cover of the trees once the next person on the rotation woke up and found you missing. You left them all of the medication and food, taking nothing but your change of clothes and your knives.

The crickets were extra loud as you made your way outside, having carefully stepped over the sleeping boys and left a note with detailed instructions on which medications to give to Sunghoon and when. You included a small goodbye sentence just so they knew you hadn’t been taken and didn’t get hurt trying to find you, although you had a feeling they’d try anyways.

You were barely off the porch, your foot hitting the dirt softly and feeling the cold chill of the night when a voice behind you was causing you to jump and spin around.

“So that’s it then?” You whipped around with wide eyes but your face crumbled when you realized who it was, seeing Heeseung come out of the shadows with a hurt expression and hooded eyes. “You’re not even going to say goodbye?”

You froze as you looked at him, words falling short as your mouth open and closed in silence. He scoffed as he looked at you, turning his head away as his eyes teared up slightly but he shook his head in anger before taking a few steps in your direction with a raised accusatory finger.

“You’re just going to leave after all this?” He was spitting out at you and the tone of his voice, the disgust lacing his words, made your heart drop into your stomach with a crushing weight.

“I have to.” You replied back with desperation, your face curling up in anguish and you tried to get him to understand even slightly what your reasoning was. “Sunghoon almost died Heeseung, and Riki he… these things will keep happening.”

“He didn’t die.” He was almost yelling now and you flinched back at the volume of his voice, having half a mind to shush him softly and watching the way his face curled up in anger at the sound slipping through your lips. “He didn’t die Y/N, and you were the one who made sure of that. You care about us, I know you do.”

You didn’t know how to reply to that, not wanting to correct him especially when he wasn’t wrong.

You did care about them and it was making your skin crawl every time you found yourself smiling affectionately at one of their offhanded jokes or paying extra attention to their wounds and bruises. Even more so with the boy in front of you with the gentle way he touched you to make sure you weren’t injured, when his face was lit up by campfires or his determination to lead a group of boys through a world he himself didn’t understand.

“I can’t watch it happen.” Your voice was breaking and your shoulders sagged in upset, exhaustion wracking through you both emotionally and physically. “And it always happens, Hee.”

“It won’t happen this time.” He was taking more steps towards you and his hands were shakily coming up to hold your face, staring down at you with his own sense of determination to try and help you see his side of things. “Why didn’t you say bye to me?”

He was asking but you knew he already knew your answer and you tried to pull out of his touch to avoid answering, stopping when his thumb was gently rubbing your cheek and shaking his head to try and stop you.

“Because you wouldn’t be able to leave.” He was answering for you, filling in the blank and giving you a soft sad smile that made you break into a sob, your first time allowing yourself to cry for as long as you could remember. “Right? Tell me I’m right.”

You didn’t say anything but you didn’t need to, feeling him pull you in tightly against his chest as you fully let yourself feel the wave of your emotions, restricting them for so long in the name of survival and fighting to make it through the day.

Heeseung was keeping you in his embrace even when your legs were giving out and you were sinking to the floor in his arms, your hands hitting the dirt and feeling it mold between your fingers. You hooked your head over his shoulder and shut your eyes tight when your gaze fell on the body of the man you’d killed so easily earlier.

You let him hold you like that until your sobs were slowing down and the blood was drying in the grass.

You stayed like that far longer than you’d realized, sitting still and frozen until your cries slowed down and his blood had fully dried in the grass.

[annimator]

I have not had this much cuteness aggression over gay fictional ships since like, last May, holy shit-

(aka, i react to tomjake episode 2 via a rambling tumblr post. I’m spoiling the episode, so everything’s under the cut)

• OH WE ARE STARTING OFF STRONG. ELLIE’S SLEEPING ON GABBY’S SHOULDER

• omg they’re much smiling so much at each other :>

• I feel like I should’ve mentioned that a clip of gabellie’s first kiss from S1 ep8 also got me into disventure camp in that other post I made. whoops :P

• HELP. AFTER ELLIE COMPLAINS ABOUT LOUD SNORING, IT IMMEDIATELY CUTS TO TOM SNORING-

• Tom, you’re canonically in your 30s. why the fuck are you going “ *snore* mimimimi” in your sleep. AND HOW THE FUCK IS JAKE STILL SLEEPING, HIS EAR IS SO FUCKING CLOSE TO TOM’S MOUTH- wait that sounds kinda wrong lmao

• anyways besides that, THE WAY JAKE AND TOM ARE HOLDING EACH OTHER WHILE THEY’RE SLEEPING IS JUST SO FUCKING ADORABLE BRO

• the spinoff intro never gets old, I love it so much

• WAIT THIS MORNING ROUTINE SCENE THAT PLAYS AFTER THE INTRO SONG PARALLELS THE ONE FROM LAST EPISODE, I LOVE HOW TOM LOOKS SO MUCH HAPPIER WITH JAKE

• THEY DID NOT HAVE TO ANIMATE A SCENE WHERE TOM LOOKS AT HIS SCARS IN THE MIRROR WITH A SAD FACE, ONLY FOR JAKE TO LOVINGLY KISS HIM ON THE CHEEK, AS A WAY TO SAY THAT HE LOVES HIM WTF (/pos)

• Awww, Jake’s looking for a job :D

• “Money can’t buy taste. Y’know, you’re lucky you’re cute.” “Aw, and?” “And lucky to have me” holy fucking shit (/pos)

• Physical touch and words of affirmation are definitely Tom’s languages. he cannot take his hand’s off of Jake, and that’s fucking adorable.

• “You’re persevering, that’s all anyone can ask. “I’m sorry you have to deal with me.” “Seems like the best deal ever.” WORDS. OF AFFIRMATION

• I can relate to Jake worry about finding people at the Pearson airport. There are so much godamn people there

• I LOVE TOM AND GABBY’S FRIENDSHIP SO MUCH. THAT HUG SCENE WAS ADORABLEEEE

• I shouldn’t have laughed so hard at Gabby saying that she and Ellie have no friends-

• THE WAY ELLIE’S CUPPING GABBY CHEEKS IS SOFQWOFNASBSV

• “THE GAYS AND SAPPHICS TAKE TORONTO!” Gabby ilysm. She definitely shares the title of being my favourite DC character alongside Fiore after this episode

• YOOOOO MIRIAM APPEARANCE :D SHE HAS SPEAKING ROLES TOO

• “You remind me so much of him sometimes.” hey wait I was here for the yaoi and yuri ;-;

• “Guess who… finally decided to call” lol

• wait Gabby’s job is self-defence training? That’s kinda surprising, but at the same time she kicked Derek’s ass during the s1 finale lol

• Aww Gabby wants Jake to spend time with Ellie so that she won’t be alone :D

• HELP THE PUPPY DOG EYES?!

• damn Ellie, you and Gabby live like this? She’s on that work grindset ig

• I’m still thinking about Tom calling Jake a housewife in that one greeting. Him cleaning up Ellie’s apartment while she’s sketching for her job is not helping-

• DAMN, HOW STRONG IS GABBY FOR HER TO DENT THE WOODEN POLE OF A MAILBOX

• “there were thankfully no murder cases just lying around” “We could make one!” Gabby are you ok

• that clip of Tom and Gabby thinking of what to do honestly has great meme potential tbh

• I’m honestly living for Jake and Ellie interacting with each other in a positive way fr

• “tax fraud, tax fraud,” LMAO???

• “I’m having a lot of fun with you.” “Aw, why so sentimental?” “It feels like being a kid again!” ik i didn’t copy-paste the entire convo between them, but I love it so much

• aw, they left New York because they couldn’t pay rent :(

• OH DAMN THE GAYS ARE GONNA START FIGHTINGGGGGG

• “Do you even know what my life is like? Ramen noodles for dinner if I’m lucky.” Girl I would not complain about eating ramen, that shit’s amazing

• “Oh, I guess a privileged twink like me wouldn’t know the meaning of that, huh?” LMAO I JUST REMEMBERED YUL’S BITCHASS CALLING JAKE A TWINK (part 2) WHEN HE GOT ELIMINATED IN ALL STARS

• bruh, what are these insults y’all are calling each other you sound like toddlers

• wait, Jake actually took the words out of my mouth lmao

• I’m kinda disappointed that they didn’t apologize about what happened in DC, but either way, I’m happy to see Jake and Ellie reconcile and say that they’re cool :D

• “I still have a roof over my head, and Gabby” I LOVE THEMMMMMMMM

• Gabby’s having so much fun skating :D SHE LOOKS SO CUTE WITH THAT BEANIE

• “The dog stole it! I convinced him to give it back!” *hard cut to Gabby barking at the dog and Tom immediately picking up the gnome after it drops it*

• srsly tho that clip made me laugh lmao

• Aw Jake catching Tom before he slips on ice was so cute :D

• ANOTHER TOMJAKE KISSSSSSSSSS

• “Aw babe, I’m so proud of you!” “What can I say? You bring out the best in me Gabbs!” “The part of you is always there. I was always there to see it.” OH MY GODDDDDDD (/pos) AND GABBY KISSING ELLIE’S HANDS

• “Oh my god, Ellie look! It’s snowing! It’s so beautiful.” “I could think of something else more beautiful” AAAAAAA

• NO WAY WE GOT ANOTHER GABELLIE KISS TOO LETS GO

• Loving the implication that Ally wrecked Jake’s shit in Smash Bros lmao

• YOOOOOO LUCIA APPEARANCE!

• …ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME ARE YOU LEAVING US ON ANOTHER GODAMN CLIFFHANGER-

• Besides that, great episode 10/10. would rewatch until the heat death of the universe

[ilikekidsshows]

i’m not super active in the ml fandom anymore so i’m pretty out of date when it comes to fandom drama. are there still fans out here thinking that adrien being a sentimonster would make a good metaphor for child abuse? looking through some of your posts kinda brought flashbacks lol

i remember seeing some fans using it to explain why sentiadrien would be a good storyline in ml buy i always thought it would’ve been unnecessary. I mean adrien’s abuse storyline already existed before all that. sentimonsters were only introduced in the season 2 finale, and the whole sentimonster theory never even existed until that one season 3 episode…I think it was called “Ladybug”? and that was close to the end of season 3. Before that, adrien’s abuse storyline had no mention of sentimonsters and the show did a pretty okay job at handling it, so I think the sentimonster plotline was unnecessary for adrien’s arc (after all, why include a metaphor for something that’s already there in the story?) and would’ve just made it more complicated in a way I think the show’s writers would not have been able to handle.

The whole idea of sentimonsters in ml always gave horror vibes due to the whole lack of autonomy thing. I think if the writers wanted to make adrien a sentimonster, they should’ve leaned into the horror aspect because I think that’s the only way that story would be treated with the seriousness it deserves (but i also don’t expect them to do that since this is a kids’ show we’re talking about, which is also why I thought that idea never should’ve been included to begin with but I digress).

I remember seeing some fans say that sentiadrien was a good metaphor for abuse and while I disagreed with their takes, I figured they trying to see things from an optimistic perspective and were in that denial phase since many of us didn’t want to admit ml was becoming a shitshow…but do you wanna know something funny? actually, it’s not funny, it’s pretty sad.

I moved on to another fandom for a story that includes this character who is a canonical abuser. This character is extremely popular in that fandom, and I saw posts from this one ml blog I recognized (that used to talk about sentiadrien being a great metaphor for child abuse) defending the character that verbally and physically abused their victim multiple times throughout the story. their reasoning was that the victim didn’t react too badly to the verbal and physical abuse (victim has a habit of downplaying their hurt to seem tougher like many teenagers do) and the abuser can not be abusive because they were also abused and struggled a lot when they were younger?

so it’s kinda funny but also very sad that one of the very vocal defenders of sentiadrien being awesome for adrien’s abuse survivor arc doesn’t actually seem to know that much about child abuse…or they’re just ignoring what they should know for their faves…reminds me of some certain stans in the ml fandom.

…and i didn’t mean to make this so long, whoops

---

I blocked all the SentiAdrien defenders and the phrases they use years ago, but I do think I’ve been seeing less “this post has blocked content” posts lately, which implies the SentiAdrien defenders finally shut up after the show dropped the ball on it in a very expected but still extremely infuriating way. The only defense I’ve seen is the usual “season 6 will fix this” bullcrap.

Frankly, I think the defensive side of the fandom is mostly ignoring what canon did with their “cool concept, that's totally a good metaphor for abuse”. Now they're instead treating Marinette doing the bare minimum of giving Adrien his free will back (while risking it further by not telling him that's what she’s doing) as romantic, because Adrien's free will takes the form of wedding rings. Oh, what an act of true love, that Marinette gives Adrien his remote control without the knowledge he needs to keep it safe. She was so selfless for not keeping it for her own even though the knowledge she holds makes Adrien dependent on her for his safety without his knowledge.

Truly, if this is the fandom’s idea of selflessness and romance, I really do think Adrien giving her one or both of the rings as a sign of his commitment would be met with jubilant screeching instead of the horror it should be. This fandom already sees Adrien as Marinette's property and that's why the dehumanization never bothered them; it makes it easier for Marinette to claim possession of him and control him if he has no human rights, after all.

In hindsight, the warning signs for this fandom reaction were there. The common refusal to see anything Marinette does as wrong and the extreme hostility towards any girl being in Adrien's vicinity despite everyone knowing that the love square would be endgame, while Marinette could collect a harem with the OTP defenders’ lack of reaction to her having competing suitors shows that the fandom has always been ready to devalue Adrien for Marinette's benefit. Adrien needing Marinette to make decisions for him on who he can see was a common idea even before Marinette started making decisions for Adrien over his dad's identity and his own free will.

Almost all the Married AUs I’ve seen also have Marinette take over his father's company, while Adrien is a stay at home dad or works at the bakery or has some other “commoner” job. The idea is that Adrien wouldn't want it, and Marinette would make the company better than Gabriel ever did because she's a better designer and kinder boss, but you can see how this common, unquestioned aspect of fandom lore devalues Adrien for Marinette’s literal monetary gain. We also have so many posts about Adrien donating all of his wealth away and buying extravagant things for his friends because he doesn't want it. Basically, Adrien shouldn't have financial independence, but Marinette should, so Marinette has to seize his wealth. Everything about Adrien gets weighed based on how it benefits Marinette.

As such, yeah, I do think people in fandoms tend to overlook and excuse abuse when their favorites are the ones benefiting from it or committing it, and the Miraculous fandom is a prime example of this. The Miraculous fandom has been spouting literal abuse apologia to excuse Marinette treating Adrien the exact same way Gabriel did, stuff like “Adrien is too emotionally volatile to know the truth”, “Adrien can’t be trusted to make his own decisions” and “Marinette has good intentions, so Adrien should forgive her anyway even if what she’s doing is wrong”. And the show's writers are encouraging them to think this way, the "Adrien is too emotional" excuse came straight from them. There's a reason I've been calling Miraculous "Abuse Apologia the Show" lately.

[acerathia]

pink camellias || Chapter 6: morning glory

Chapter Summary:

morning glory: affection

Wordcount: 2.7k

Read on AO3 || Masterlist

Pairing:

Bakugou Katsuki / Reader

Tags/CW:

royalty au, inspired by Mulan, war and its consequences, violence, childhood friends to strangers to companions to lovers (i am sorry), Angst, Acts of Service, Character Death (Major, and Minor), swordfights, misogyny, f!reader, kidnapping, implied torture, let me know if I missed anything lol

Note:

anyway, i posted this days ago on ao3, but im too lazy for tumbs whoops, enjoy

You had lost count of how many battles you fought through, no, rather you refused to count in the first place, the guilt of their existence more than enough for you. Still, you didn’t close your eyes to the situation, you kept your eyes wide open, making yourself remember what was happening in front of you, by your own very hands.

That meant that you fully realized what you were doing, yet never dared to stop the blade from cutting your way free. But your steady hand in battle did not mean your body didn’t lurch and shake afterwards, rather you only learned to push it farther away, to hide it into the corners of your body and to let it only fuel you afterwards.

Despite your ability to cope, you needed some time after each battle, just to sit in silence, to let yourself calm down, lest you swing a fist at someone approaching you. And at first, you sat alone, only your sword in one hand and a wheatstone in the other. Until the Captain started joining you, and you couldn’t outright walk away, as there was no other calm place beside this one. At least he had stayed quiet, not even greeting you when arriving there. So, in the end you allowed him to be there, allowed yourself to come down in his presence, only hearing the sharpening of two blades in the same space.

In a way, this meeting turned into checking each other, nodding to each other as a sign, ‘yes, i survived once again, and you did too’.

So, of course your goal in every single fight was to just sit there, just to survive another day. Even if it meant gritting your teeth and elbowing someone. A splatter against your cheek, and you ensure your life for another couple of minutes.

For a moment, you just stood over the person you had just fought, breathing heavily before you could resume the senseless battle. But before you fully regulated your breath sufficiently, you noticed a shadow looming behind you, and you barely managed to dodge the oncoming strike. Their blades missed your vitals, but it dug itself into the flesh of your thigh.

A hiss escaped you when they ripped their sword out of you, and you began to retaliate before they got ready for another attack. It didn’t take long for you to dispose of them, but longer than you had anticipated. By the time you were done with them, your own blood had soaked through your pants. You cursed and shifted your weight, as more blood seemed to pour out of you the more you used that leg.

Without another choice, you slowly retreated. But you were aware that you might not make it back to the camp in time, much less all by yourself. So, you did leave the battlefield, but rather found some covering behind a tree on the edge of the field.

Slumping against the trunk, you sat on the ground, taking all your weight off your wounded leg. With trembling fingers you grabbed the dagger, the one to only use if your sword and ax were nowhere to be found, but you doubted you could use them in the moment, at least not without making anything worse than it already is. You squinted, trying to focus through your current dizzy spell while slowly cutting through the fabric around the wound. But despite getting rid of that barrier, you were barely able to see the cut properly, blood pooling, making everything homogenous. So, you grabbed the hem of your shirt and cut some stripes loose. Ripping it in half again to make it longer, and you began to wrap it around your thigh, trying to stem the blood flow while also bandaging the open wound.

After putting a knot over the cut, you leaned your head against the trunk behind you, ruminating about the next steps. You didn’t know how long the battle would last, and you doubted anyone would find you in your little hiding spot. And you had to be honest to yourself, you had no idea how much longer you could remain here, as despite your clumsy wound-dressing you still were slowly bleeding out. The makeshift bandage already felt somewhat wet, and you thought to see a tinge of red peaking through already.

A sigh escaped you moments before you noticed a shadow looming over you, and for a moment you thought it might be the enemy as you grabbed your dagger, which you had carelessly thrown onto the ground. Pointing the blade to whoever was standing in front of you, only to lower it slightly. The person crouched to be at your height, and for a second all you could see was the sunlight filtering through strands of gold.

“Hey, what the fuck are ya doing?” he asked you with a scowl, yet his eyes kept flitting over your facial features, as if the answer was going to hide underneath the grime on your skin.

“How the fuck does it look like? I’m having a nice picnic, Captain,” you answered with mocking intonation, especially his rank.

His blazing gaze finally left your face to scrutinize the rest of you. And if you weren’t more concerned about the whole dying ordeal, you would have felt a tiny bit of shame at your sorry state, but you were too dizzy to care. Still, you could pinpoint the exact moment he noticed the blood staining through your pitiful bandage, because you didn’t know that the furrow between his eyebrows could go that deep.

Before once again, his eyes returned to watch over your face, trying to read you and your expressions. And without any more words, he stood up and reached a hand in your direction, waiting for you to take it to help you stand up. You did. You took his hand with no hesitation, because it was so easy to trust him, for some reason. Also, you didn’t want to keep bleeding out behind the trunk of a tree.

Once you were on your feet, he carefully slung an arm around your waist to support your weight, as you barely could use your leg at this point. This way, you both gripping, clinging to each other, you once again walked by his side, him leading the way, all while adjusting to your walking speed.

Your fist was hooked on his cape, only tatters left of the once majestic fabric. Still, you noticed the way his clothes were a painting of orange and the numerous splatters of red. And you couldn’t help but feel some sort of guilt, a guilt about letting him carry you to safety, once again, a guilt about not asking him about his well-being. But now it was too late to ask, wasn’t it? So, you stayed silent, following his footsteps with a twinge of pain running down your leg, imitating the warm drops of blood slowly running down, taking the same path.

Before you knew it, you both stopped in front of a wooden door, and you barely had the time to formulate a question in your head, as he immediately just opens it and enters the small cottage, dragging you like dead weight inside.

The door closed behind you with a decisive kick by him as you conveniently fell onto a chair, and you suspect that he tipped your balance on purpose. It was easy for him, considering the difference in strength and, of course, the wounded leg of yours.

For a moment, you just stared at him with a dumbfounded expression as he lit some candles and immediately began to rummage through one cabinet, obviously looking for something, but failing to do so, as indicated by his low curses.

But before you could get back onto your feet, he turned your way, some proper bandages in hand. And of course, you stretched your palm out to take them and use them. He was faster than you though, and he got the bandages immediately out of your way.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Your hands are bloodied, you’re only going to fucking sully this stupid wrapping,” he sniffed with a roll of his eyes.

“Fine, fine! What do you want me to fucking do? Wash my hands? I also want that, but after, you know, avoiding bleeding the fuck out,” you raised your hands in surrender.

He scowled at your words before simply kneeling beside the chair. His free hand grabbed the ankle of your hurt leg, and put it into a position in which your muscles weren’t tense. After glaring at you, silently telling you to not move, he reached for the dagger in his belt. The mere sight of a blade made you scrunch your face, as you immediately expected some sort of pain, as weapons did.

But you didn’t feel any pain, none at all. That was because he was simply cutting the fabric of your pants away, making the hole you already made bigger and getting rid of the pieces stuck onto your skin. At least none were glued to your open wound, and you were glad that you had some foresight for once.

After your wound was freed, he pulled some sort of clean towel out of nowhere, and he started tapping it on the skin around your wound, the cloth slightly damp. And the moment he pressed it against your cut, you hissed involuntarily, realizing that he had put some alcohol on the fabric.

The sting brought some tears into your eyes, and you glared at him. But he only raised one eyebrow. “What, some silly burn is making you cry? If that’s all it took, then I should’ve tried that earlier,” he scoffed a little snicker, yet you didn’t feel the heat of his insult, as there was none.

You were aware that he was only trying to distract you with the usual fighting of yours. It didn’t work quite as well as he probably hoped, because for some reason you felt something else entirely stir inside you, something else but the usual anger and annoyance you usually felt at his sight.

Soon, the towel was put away, and he began to wrap the bandage around your thigh. And you were watching him slowly and carefully put layers upon layers onto your skin. You couldn’t help but notice the way the flickering flame made his cheekbones more pronounced, the way his eyelashes glittered like mist under his focused eyes, the way his hair glowed like molten honey. So, you kept staring at him, wondering who he was, who he truly was as a person, rather than his status in this army. Wondering why looking at him, why his presence gave you such a calm mind, made your chest stir.

And then he looked up, his eyes met your gaze. Those ruby eyes, those eyes filled with fire, with sunset. Blooming up at you like a red bouquet of azaleas, of anemones. Once again, you felt your chest stir, but this time your heart was joining, beating a message only you could understand. And you finally did.

Oh…

Oh.

Upon this dawning realization, you simply avoided his gaze, suddenly thankful for the sparse light, as you seemingly could not control your facial expression for a moment. You gulped a couple of times, trying to calm the flutter inside your veins, lest he noticed them.

Still, you glanced back to take a look at him, only to see him back on his feet and tinkering with something you could not discern from your spot. You ought to stand up and see what he was up to, but before you could even coordinate any movement, he was already shooting you a glare over his shoulder, one you only raised your hands in surrender once again before simply leaning back into the chair.

Luckily, you didn’t have to wait for a prolonged amount of time before he turned around, holding a bowl with some water in it and a towel, this time simply handing you both with no instructions. You didn’t need any, of course, so you let the towel sop up some water and began to slowly clean your palms and the rest of your sticky hands until you started washing your face in a circular motion, putting in the effort of truly reaching into every possible crease and corner of your own skin.

After being done, the water all murky after cleaning the cloth in it, you didn’t necessarily feel cleaner, but rather less sticky. Setting the bowl aside, you leaned into the chair, again, and wondered what you were supposed to do in this situation, because you had to admit that you had no idea where this little cottage was located and how far it was from the base. You assumed the reason for its invisibility on cards was because it probably was some sort of safe house, so you were lost about your current whereabouts. Well, at least the Captain was apparently well aware of this place, so you weren’t completely lost, unless he just left you there.

Your eyes immediately jumped to where he was once again tinkering with something, staring at his back. And no, he didn’t seem to plan some sort of escape, and you quickly averted your eyes before your heart began to think for itself once again.

Something rustled outside of the window, and at first you thought it might be just a harmless animal. That was until a group of masked people almost kicked the door down or entered through the window. Your hands fumbled around at this intrusion, looking for some sort of weapon to hold, to prepare to defend yourself.

They had taken the Captain off guard, yet he was able to fend them off. But for some reason it didn’t seem like they were targeting him to begin with. And you were still vulnerable, no weapon in sight. You glanced around, looking for the dagger he had used earlier for the fabric, and you found it on the commode close to the bed.

Slowly, you leaned to the side, trying to avoid their attention for as long as possible. But someone stood in front of you, tutting as they noticed your plan. With your way blocked, you had no way to reach the weapon, so you had to improvise.

You grabbed the bowl from earlier and smashed it on the head of the person standing between you and the dagger. It broke into shards, and some cut into your skin, but that didn’t matter in the prospect of your enemy staggering and slumping. With this move, the way to the weapon had opened itself to you once again and you take your chance, almost yanking the dagger away from the top of the commode.

You glanced in the direction of the Captain who was still fighting off multiple masked people with ease in this enclosed space, and you immediately tensed up, ready to jump in whenever an opportunity arises. But before you had any time to even target one of the enemies, you felt a prickle on the back of your neck. Swatting away at whatever that was, you turned around to face someone slightly shorter than you holding some sort of syringe.

“Good night!” a young girls voice came from their direction, and you furrowed your brows, wondering what she could have meant with that.

Until a wave of dizziness suddenly hit you, making you sway slightly, your hand clutching the frame of the chair as you tried to hold yourself together. You almost forgot about the dagger, but the last remnants of your mind were conscious enough to make yourself slump over to be able to slip the weapon into one of your boots. You didn’t even have enough time to check if it was going to hold before you slipped from the chair and onto the ground. barely feeling your extremities anymore. Still, you tried to move anything, even the tiniest twitch of your fingers.

The last thing you saw were your fingers reaching for the Captain as he began to struggle with the mob. And you met his eyes before everything drowned into a silent black.

[enchxanting]

our love is god [ethan landry] pt. 2

read part 1 here || all parts

pairing: ethan landry x fem!reader

warnings: light angst, mention of drugs/alcohol

a/n: hey, thanks for all the love on the last part! i promise I'm not churning these out like crazy lol, i wrote the first chapter way before posting it here. not a lot of ethan in this one because we have to flesh out the lore, but i make up for it with some tara/sam angst! yippee!

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

“I can’t believe it. I actually can’t believe it.” Chad’s eyes are wide with amazement. “Y/N, at a loss for words? Because of a guy?”

“Dude, I’m telling you, it happened!” Tara said.

I was beginning to get tired of this back and forth. 

Friday nights were usually fun, the whole gang gathered in Tara’s room, getting ready for the night’s festivities (in this case, a house party at the Woodsboro Community College), but today, my friends seemed more interested in rehashing today’s lunchtime events.

“Do you know what his name was?” Anika asks.

“Oh god, please don’t egg them on,” I groan. “No, I didn’t catch it.”

“Hey, he didn’t throw it, either,” Tara teases. “He was probably just as nervous. The dude could barely even make eye contact with her.”

Chad sits up on Tara’s bed. “What did you say he looked like?”

“Uh, tall, really tall. Curly brown hair? He was new, I’d never seen him before. And neither had Tara, so don’t chalk it up to my being a newcomer.”

“Wait. Oh my god.” Mindy suddenly chimes in. “I know who he is. His name is Ethan Landry, he’s in my American History.”

I can’t lie; I’m excited by this. “Really? Why haven’t we seen him before?”

“Because he just moved here.” She grins. “Hey, I thought you’d given up on high school boys, anyway.”

I tinge pink. “Never say never, I guess?”

Chad and Tara whoop. Anika rolls her eyes at them. “Do you think he’ll be there tonight?”

I scoff. “I doubt it. We already have to lie about being college students to get in, anyway.”

Tara’s eyes glimmer. “Hey, you never know. That means you have to get extra dressed up for tonight, just in case he’s there.”

I am not prepared for one of Tara’s evil-genius machinations, especially not a makeover. But I entertain the fantasy for a second too long, and she takes my silence as agreement. 

That’s how I find myself in one of Tara’s old dresses, a strappy black thing that hangs too low on my chest for my liking. After fighting over it for a long while, she eventually agrees to add a long-sleeved top underneath, if only to stop my whining.

Yet even though my getting-ready process was the most involved, I’m still the first one downstairs, which is typical. I’m debating whether or not to run for the hills and go home when Sam comes through the front door.

“Oh, hey, Y/N. Is Tara upstairs?” She sets down a few bags of groceries and turns to lock the four deadbolts freshly nailed to the door. 

“Hey, Sam. Yeah, she is. I think everyone will be down soon.”

There’s an uncomfortable energy between us. Sam has never liked me much. Not because of my character or anything, as Tara has reassured me, but she’s overly wary of outsiders ever since last year’s attack. I try not to blame her, but I can’t help but feel a little hurt when she keeps her distance, giving me a once-over instead of asking about my day.

The tension is broken when I hear the rest of the gang come down the stairs. Sam smiles when she sees Tara, but it fades when she notices that we’re all dressed up. “Hey, Tar, where are you guys going tonight?”

Tara shifts her weight from foot to foot. “My friend at Woodsboro Community College offered us an in, so… we’re taking advantage of our youth?”

Sam’s face darkens. “No. No way, Tar. You remember the last time someone had a party around here? We nearly died.”

“Jesus Christ, Sam,” Tara groans. “You were out of my life for five years now you can’t let me be alone for five minutes..”

I look at Chad, uncomfortable. He slightly shakes his head at me– better not to interfere.. Still, I feel like I have to say something. “Hey, Tara, maybe she’s right, we could just–”

Tara whips around to glare at me. “You’ve got to be kidding, Y/N. Butt the fuck out.” Her words sting, but I step back and sit on the couch.

“I’m not interested in living in the fucking past, Sam,” she continues. “I’m not gonna let what happened to me for three days define me for the rest of my life.”

Sam is quiet. I expect her to snap, to yell at all of us, but she just stares at Tara for a few seconds.

Finally, she picks up her bag again. “Alright. Fine. Go to the party, bring your taser, or not, I don’t care. I won’t be here when you get back.”

Tara’s eyes widen. “Wait, Sam. Wait. I’m sorry, I–”

“No, it’s really fine.” She glances around the room, where the rest of us are trying to blend into the shadows. “I hope you guys have fun. If some psycho killer tries to get you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

With that, she marches upstairs, and I hear her bedroom door slam and lock. 

No one knows what to say. Tara turns her back, and I see her wiping away angry tears. Without looking at us, she opens the front door. “Okay! Who’s ready?”

“Tara, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Anika says. “We can stay back if you want, I mean–”

“Nope! What I want is to get so shit-faced I don’t remember this conversation. Let’s go.”

My stomach still feels hollow, but I silently follow Tara out of the door. Anika and Mindy follow close behind. 

Chad takes a second before making up his mind. He grabs his keys. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go, then.”

[ryuichirou]

Replies

More replies! Related to our posts from yesterday + a couple of JadeSil ones from a while ago.

Anonymous asked:

I guess Sebek will be annoyed on waking up in the morning with Silver only to realized animals are around.

lol yeah, imagine falling asleep with Silver and waking up to that one scene from Bambi where all the animals greet the new prince. Things Sebek has to get used to….

hipsterteller asked:

Welp at least they didn’t find a skeleton

You mean… under the birdies?! Spooky..!

Anonymous asked:

Poor Jamil can't catch a break even at clubs.. (he secretly loves it, don't tell anyone lol he's shy)

- basketball poly asker

(this is related to a reply from yesterday)

Yeeeah, it’s probably better for Jamil when he gets pestered by these boys: this way he gets to have some action but also don’t proactively seek it out lol But of course the thought itself would never occur to Jamil! It’s all his subconscious mind.

Anonymous asked:

Hehe...imagine Azul seeing Jamil and Ace together. Another jealously alert. Even better, Jamil, Ace, and Floyd together.

Azul would get jealous with anyone who gets close to Jamil probably lol So with Ace it would be the same scenario as it is with Ruggie: he’s confused about Jamil’s choice and tries to win him over.

And with Floyd, well, Azul would just have to shut up and be patient and hope that Floyd gets bored of Jamil… because if he tells Floyd to stop, Floyd is just going to cling to Jamil even more :(

Anonymous asked:

Hi! I’m that JadeSil shipper from that one ask, is it okay if you can give some hcs on how would Silver’s first time would go if it was with Jade?

+

Anonymous asked:

I have Jade/Sil brainrot after seeing some other people talk about it…(and totally not because I am dirty minded)

What if one day Silver was eating Mushroom Risotto but it had a “special” mushroom (courtesy of Jade)  which had an aphrodisiac-like effect. Silver eventually asks Jade for help on why he feels so weird…and you can imagine how the rest goes

Sorry it took me so long to reply, Anon! Or are you two different Anons..? In any case, I’m sorry for taking so much time and for not giving a satisfying answer: since these two aren’t a ship we’re very invested in, even though we like it in theory, I won’t come up with any headcanons, but I’ll share my thoughts…. Because when I started to think about their first time, the setup I came up with was pretty much the same as what was mentioned in this second ask lol

Since the main theme/motif of their relationship that I always think about is mushrooms, I think the whole thing will start with Jade’s fascination with Silver’s appetite for mushrooms and his appreciation of them. And for a very long time, he would simply feed him without adding anything suspicious to it, but then he’ll notice just how good Silver is at describing the differences between different kinds of mushrooms Jade uses for the risotto. So of course he’s going to be tempted to feed him a “special mushroom”…

Poor Silver would be so conflicted. He never expected to get poisoned, and Jade seems deeply concerned as well… but is he really?  And would Jade really make such a mistake?

So yeah, long story short, Silver’s instinct would probably be to try to get back to his room and hide there until he gets better, but the poison is too strong, and with all his actions and words being just a big blur, he’ll end up having sex with Jade.

Jade is going to be surprised y Silver though, because while he knows that a lot of what’s going on is due to aphrodisiac (that was the whole idea), some of the things just seemed way too “natural”: Silver’s body is clearly used to having intense and lengthy sex, his movements are very intentional and he even has some noticeable preferences. Silver wouldn’t say a word during their first time (he just couldn’t articulate – he was too aroused), but his body language spoke volumes. Jade would probably be quite intrigued by him…

(whoops I guess I wrote it in a way that it isn't Silver's first time, I just noticed that...sorry!!)

[chibishortdeath]

I got a new sketchbook since I filled one recently :3c. Shout out to suddenly getting a ton of energy and drawing bizarre fanart at 1 am 💀💀💀.

I’m putting the more violent ones under a cut even if the post is already tw tagged because of the subject matter being a bit dark d(^^ ).

Along with explanations for all of them of course!

⚠️tw for self harm and burning past this point⚠️

First one (before the cut) is just some pose practice. Simon’s just sitting, all sad and mopey. There’s also a little chibi doodle of him in the bottom corner and a little pose armature in the top corner for a pose I didn’t even end up drawing whoops lol. I feel like I drew his face a little differently than I usually do in this one :O. Idk how that happened lol.

This one is to show the differences in anatomy between each game! The curse takes a lot out of him, poor guy, so he’s a bit less jacked than usual 😔. Well, more specifically he doesn’t have as much of a layer of protective fat anymore. And he’s also very tired :(. But yeah, this is just a reference I’ll look back at to keep this detail consistent! I was going to put scar reference on it too, but I completely forgot and eh it mighta made it kinda hard to make out anyway d(- - ).

I drew this side profile of Simon while watching a video talking about lost media stuff. I think the image I based it on was something Saki Sanobashi related, idk I just liked the vibes of the hair being blown back by wind and got inspired :). And yes I know that Saki is probably a hoax 💀💀💀💀💀, I didn’t have much interest in it tho tbh, besides just hoping something lost gets found in general. Lost media videos are honestly great for putting on as background noise when drawing :)

Simon is totally me when I have a crisis and cover my face with my hands, but make sure one eye is visible and miraculously out of shadow for dramatic effect!!!

Ok spookier stuff time, first of the below the cut drawings. This one is based on how sometimes vampires are depicted as being able to drain someone from long distances or beyond the grave. Dracula is mean, and Simon is suffering from the curse, the usual. Augh I actually need to do things cause I keep thinking of a cool scene of Simon having a weird Dracula nightmare and then waking up to see it wasn’t a dream, and that’s tropey as hell, but it’s spooky!!! Do you see my vision?

This is a depiction of like what happens with a game over or something :O. Like an absolute worst possible outcome: Simon dies and Dracula is unsealed and fully regenerated. I basically just took is Simon’s Quest design and then rehydrated it and tada, Dracula is no longer a skeleton— He ends up looking way more like Vlad the Impaler in this outfit hmmm. Also, unrelated, but a friend of mine mistook Dracula for Jesus in this drawing 💀💀💀.

Oh boy, edgy depictions of uh a lot of not being very kind to yourself themes. Idk how else to describe this one other than ya know when you get really mad at your past self for making a mistake or the wrong decision that you could’ve only known about in hindsight? Also in part the fear of actually becoming a vampire at the end of all of this? And I guess a bit of feeling like it’s your own fault, you’re the one that keeps shooting yourself in the foot, but I feel like he’d also attribute getting hit by Dracula in the first place as his fault too… hmm just a lot of very sad things going on, this one was definitely a later 1 am time drawing, maybe 1:40 or something. I think what I draw at night is further proof to not trust you when you’re tired; I get weirdly existential at night and then it’s totally fine in the morning. Simon! Just sleep! Stop overthinking!!! You’ll be ok!!!

This one I debated putting up at all cause it’s graphic and not finished (TwT ;). But it was a rare drawing of Simon smiling that didn’t look uncanny, which is kinda ironic because Simon this is not the time to be smiling—! That is also wayyy too far for just the Dracula ritual, you really only need a tiny amount to open the seal, but I’ll cut him some slack cause he is a bit at wits end by this point. I’d say maybe he’s smiling because he thinks he finally won, but tbh I thought of it more like when things are just so bad you start laughing. Like Dracula just rose from the altar and the morbid irony of it all is just so absurd, the irony that you did everything right and fought tooth and nail (Dracula’s to be exact lol) to stop it and here it is happening anyway. I wanna give this guy a weighted blanket and a bowl of warm soup—

These last two are based on what could’ve happened to him. The Grey ending is pretty much usually considered the “worst”, but they’re all nearly interchangeable, especially in the Japanese version. For example: the western release really makes the Blue ending seem like he died and didn’t kill Dracula, but it’s a lot more that he just died doing it in the original, which is to say that it’s kinda like the Grey ending just with a different eulogy— Anyway, the Grey ending is the only one that doesn’t show Simon at Dracula’s grave, so I’ve always taken it as he didn’t make it out of the castle basement. And well, setting Dracula on fire is a pretty common way to kill him so uh um, R.I.P. I’ve got a couple ideas for alternate comic endings to say the least. I might honestly just depict all of them and leave it entirely up to the reader which one happened because it doesn’t change much— Though this also has me thinking of how him surviving would work now. The curse would definitely have left some lasting effects, you don’t just magically stop having been rotted, sleep deprived, and whatever else it did. Idk I picture him being like Renfield levels of lost it afterwards if that makes sense… that could also be a pretty solid explanation for why his story isn’t told correctly and the cycle repeats with Maxim later; it’d be a pretty traumatic thing to talk about tbh. Ok but yappersvile over, next doodle 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

Aside from the burnt doodle that’s uh same explanation as the above (R.I.P.), the other two are just a little head angle and expression practice and one tiny one towards the top that’s Dracula being all spooky ghost vampire, but I didn’t like how it was looking and gave up on it 💀💀💀. It’s very hard to draw a vampire attacking someone and not have it look kinda awkward or unreadable. Tbh I struggle putting two characters in one image anyway because I have to draw the anatomy lines for both of them and they end up getting really hard to tell apart when one is behind another, one character suddenly isn’t proportional compared to the other, or you find out one of them isn’t tall enough for the pose you had in mind (>~< ). So anyway Dracula was accidentally way too short all of a sudden and I couldn’t figure out how to draw his torso without making a completely incomprehensible blob behind Simon oof.

Okie, it’s lunch time, bye :3!

[labselkie]

skyliv master post! [the ship not my account lol]

although she wasn’t my introduction to selfshipping, and at first i was actually too nervous to even consider her, i am so corny when it comes to liv. in a good and bad way.

idk what to describe this post as, its a mix of tag descriptions and lore summary! hope that makes sense lol

@kayakoto-enterprises you wanted to be tagged helloo!!!

s/i info: Lucielle Ross! 25 year old mutant who’s recently graduated from Xavier’s with a masters in wildlife biology (Specifically marine life but Xavier’s didn’t have a separate course for that). Mutation caused her to be born with those seal features, her main power being that she can transform if she has her pelt and is at water. She’d followed Olivia’s work throughout university, and had briefly met her, but they finally properly met when Luce signs up as a mutant volunteer for Alchemax.

In this universe, the collider has barely reached its target funding, meaning construction hasn’t even started. Fisk still funds Alchemax (not for his family) but Liv is still finishing up other projects. One project in particular, what Lucielle volunteered to help with, is an addition to security systems that detects the X gene in people. It was supposed to just be one appointment, maybe some DNA samples and advice on the device, but since Luce was the first volunteer Liv figures there wouldnt be any harm in suggesting weekly meetings. For science of course!

She’s swearing she won’t get attached, after all Kingpin just offered a few billion dollars to start more research on multiverse theory. But. whoops. seals r cute and she thinks this woman is too

Their relationship is weird (/j i just like to poke fun at them) built off mutual fascination in each other and the reassuring sense that they can take this slow. Liv is still doctor octopus, so there’s some tension with her being in that line of work (there’s been at least one incident w that metal chair). One loving the other is like breathing to them, even from different ways of life they found themselves bound from the start, stuck together like suction cups

a seal and an octopus, a lamb and a cat, the ocean and the cliffs, magics and technology, they’re an odd mixture but they fit together just fine

main au list: sky-spider [spidersona x Doc Ock], fantasy [ocean princess x alchemist], march hare [villainsona nd doc ock!]

fun fact liv is eventually discouraged to ruin her life by devoting it to the collider in particular. she’s still a hard worker, maybe spot can be a villain hmm.. idk.

tags: #liv gifs [gifs, pretty obvious], #🪶🧪 [general- any art, writing, or rbs that make me think of her nd me], #fantasy au [self explanatory, a few drabbles on my most developed au], #sky spider [also self explanatory, anything with my spidersona], #phoca vitulina [anything with my selkie/mutant s/i], #tender buttons [my first fic! older posts, but it includes the full thing on a drive], #🐚 [any of my writing posts abt liv], #⚗️ [my newest lore fanfic! regarding my mutant s/i]

playlist: right here! on apple music. either going by vibes or specific to meanings, i just really like these songs, and i feel like they’d both like these tracks

[tater-th0t13]

Pokemon game where you start off the in the hardest town.

You didn’t move there, you’ve been surrounded by the regions best pokemon trainers and toughest wild pokemon your whole life. Even your mom is a super strong trainer, better yet shes the local gym leader.

And everyone is just. So. Mean. To you specifically. They don’t care that you’re 10 and you can’t catch a local pokemon, and even if you did they wouldn’t hesitate to one-hit K.O. your ass. Your mom doesn’t believe in gifting strong pokemon to weak trainers and her own child is no exception. You’re the laughing stock of the town and no one is going to be the one to throw you a bone, lest they be seen as weak themselves.

But you hear about a small, quaint village, and a pokemon professor that has previously given new trainers good starting pokemon and helpful advice. You decide that if you’re going to live up to the standards set by your hometown you can’t stay there. Everyone including your mom is excited to see you leave, half because they’re glad you’re finally starting your journey to living up to your family/town name and half because your presence is just embarrassing.

Your rival is your older sibling whom your mom demands accompany you to the small town and keep an eye on you. They’re equally if not the most embarrassed of you and your weak status and laughs at your pokemon. And unlike the regular games, they do not start off as your equal. You *will* lose to your older sibling. Not just the first encounter, but many times after. True to form, they will always be ahead of you and find all your challenges to be a breeze, followed by an ass-whooping.

The clear goal is to build the ultimate team that will show to everyone back home that they were all wrong about you. To return home with 7 badges and force your mom to award you your 8th and final badge. To at some point in your journey have a team that beats your sibling’s and leave them dumbfounded, and maybe even proud?

But your journey along the way will be filled with characters and challenges that make you question your idea of what it means to be a pokemon trainer thats been engrained into since birth. Trainers who know fuck-all about stats. Towns that have banned competitive poke-sports. The idea that the relationship between trainer and pokemon is not just using them as a tool to earn prominence and money. Everything that flies in the face of what your mom and town have told you about pokemon.

And at one point, you’ll have completed the journey you’ve set out to accomplish. You are *the* pokemon champion. Nobody at home can call you a weakling, you’ve put everyone in their place, including and especially your family.

But after everything you will still be faced with a choice: to be everything your town and family expect of you and wield power using your pokemon OR abandon everything you’ve ever known in favor of the vast and varying possibilities of the wider pokemon world?

Do you return to your roots, hardened and cold from the years of belittling comments and unfair, brutal battles? Do you wield your championship title over your mother and sibling, making them feel the inferiority that you felt? Do you actively shove the words fed to you down the throats of those who used them against you? Become the mirror and hold yourself to the town that made you this way, but worse?

Or do you walk away? Do you return to the towns that taught you the importance of friendship and hard work that has no pay off? Return to the professor who taught you the value of having varied experiences? Join your friends on their endeavors, because through your journey you all became closer than you are to your own family? Give up the title of champion and your birthright to power?

Choosing option one condemns your file to competitive play for the rest of the post-story game lol.

[polutrope]

For the modern AU holiday prompts @i-did-not-mean-to requested Beren + accidental drunkenness, and MoonLord requested Thingol, Beleg, Túrin, and Mablung + Decorating a tree. ~2.2k words, rated G. [The Edain in this AU are officially whatever age and relation I want them to be.] Posting these to AO3, here. Prompt list (prompts closed). Beleria Cast of Characters

The flamboyant man at the booth in the back cried out, “Another round for the bar!” and Beren and Lúthien joined the patrons in a celebratory whoop.

Lúthien threw her head back and laughed as a server set two more two more beers on the table.

“I can’t believe this guy,” she said to Beren. “Who is he?”

“His name is Saeros,” the server answered. “A regular. I think he owns a record label or something. Celebrating a chart topper.” She smiled and cleared their empty glasses. “Enjoy.”

“No way,” Lúthien said, and left her mouth hanging open.

“What?” said Beren. Lúthien continued to gape. “What, what? You know him?”

“Yeah! Saeros Green. He offered my brother a record deal years ago.”

“And Daeron turned it down?” Beren asked.

Lúthien dipped her chin affirmatively with an air of pride. “He did. The guy is a smarmy bastard. Milks his artists for everything they’ve got. I mean, look at him!” Lúthien said, gesticulating with both arms in his direction. “Look at all that bling! And the red velvet suit, on a Thursday afternoon, really? Looks like he got in a fight with the Yule display at Mírdain Mall!”

“Ssshh sssh,” Beren said, giggling. “He’ll hear you! Anyway, I like him. Free booze!” He raised his glass in a toast and took a large gulp.

Lúthien was laughing when he lowered it. “You have foam in your beard!”

Beren grinned, making no effort to remedy the situation. “How do I look? More wizened?”

“Like an idiot!” Lúthien blurted, and laughed again.

She was so beautiful. Beren fell into a besotted stupor, staring at her face lit with mirth, listening to her musical laughter… he could die happy right here, right now, getting day-drunk with the most beautiful woman in the world—

“Beren,” she said. “Beren! Your phone is ringing!”

“What, birdie?” he said, surfacing.

“Your phone!” she said, and shoved it into his hand. “Someone’s calling you.”

He looked at he call display: Morwen Ethel-Wang. “Shit,” he said. “Shitshitshit.”

The call dropped before he could answer. Lúthien stared, awaiting an explanation.

Beren exhaled a long breath before giving one. “You remember a few months ago when we talked about my buddy Húrin’s son staying with us for a few days while his wife is at a conference in town?”

“Oh yeah!” Lúthien said. “When’s that happening?”

“Um,” said Beren. “Today. They’re at our place now.”

“Shit,” said Lúthien.

*

On the monitor, the minutes of the last City Council meeting swam in and out of Elu’s vision. He sighed. The permanent bikeway through Hithlum park had been voted down. Again.

His eyes drifted to the thick folder of letters his intern Beleg had dropped on his desk earlier, from the Hithlum Homeowner’s Association — all variations on the same template, laying out the supposed dangers of a “bike superhighway” through a “family-oriented” neighbourhood. Since when were bicycles dangerous? He pushed the folder aside. Well, they got what they wanted.

It was those damn developers from Valin! Hithlum used to be the alternative neighbourhood back in the 80s, where the artists and students hung out, now it was overrun with wealthy— Elu took a deep breath. He valued the diversity of Beleria. He did. But by god if it didn’t make it impossible to get anything done in this city! You would think, as Mayor, that your word actually meant something—

His phone pinged.

Lúthien💮💗

Hey papa! I know you’re working but I have a biiiig favour to ask.

3:14pm

Elu Singh-Goel

What is it, sweetie?

3:15pm

Lúthien💮💗

Sooo Beren has this friend and his kid was supposed to stay with us this weekend and we kinda forgoy

forgot*

Anyway him and his mom are at our place now and we’re… not lol

3:16pm

Elu Singh-Goel

Oh? Where are you?

3:18pm

Lu?

3:21pm

Lúthien💮💗

Sorry!!

We went to Gabilgathol for lunch and accidentally got drunk

3:23pm

Elu drew back from his phone. That was not like his daughter. It was times like these he found it most difficult to accept her choice of partner. Beren was an admirable man, with respectable ambitions, but he was so young. Accidentally drunk…

Lúthien💮💗

Some guy was buying rounds for the house lol

3:24pm

Elu Singh-Goel

I see. And how do I come into this?

3:25pm

Lúthien💮💗

Can she bring Túrin to the office?

3:25pm

Túrin is the kid

Just for a couple hours! Nellas says she can take him tonight if we’re not sobered up

hahaha

3:26pm

Beren says he’s quiet. Just give him some crayons and paper.

3:28pm

Elu’s thumbs tapped out ‘OK’ before his mind had a chance to catch up. He stopped them, hovering over the send button. What had happened to him? There was a time he would have locked Lúthien up in her room for the weekend for getting drunk at 3pm on a Thursday! — but he couldn’t very well lock up an adult woman. Certainly not one he was going to lose.

Well, not lose. Not entirely — that had almost happened, when he’d tried to talk her out of marrying Beren, but he’d soon repented of that mistake when she disappeared for two weeks without a word to anyone. A cold current shivered down Elu’s spine. That had been a terrible winter.

But now, every day was another closer to her and Beren moving to Dead Man’s Isle. It was ridiculous: she had not needed him nearly half her life now, and yet Elu’s heart dropped when he thought of her so far away. Not around the corner, not where he could drop by on an evening stroll to say hello with a container of leftovers or a tin of Melian’s homemade lembas biscuits.

Because of all this, he had become a complete sucker and lost all ability to say no to her. And damn it if she didn’t know it, he thought with a rueful smile.

Elu Singh-Goel

OK.

3:26pm

Lúthien💮💗

Omg thanks so much papa!!

Beren will tell Morwen to bring him by

3:26pm

Elu Singh-Goel

Don’t to worry about it. I think I can send my intern to pick them up. Tell them to wait at The Dimbar.

3:27pm

Elu set the phone down, then picked up the receiver on his desk phone and dialed Beleg’s extension.

“Hey big guy, what’s up?”

Elu smiled. He really ought to impress a more professional attitude on his interns (it’s what they were there to learn after all), but there was something… rejuvenating about this one’s breezy familiarity with him — and besides, it was good for the ego to have some carefree college student call you “big guy” once in a while when you had a pile of letters on our desk addressing you as “Your Worship”.

“Beleg,” said Thingol. “Would you be able to run a little personal errand for me?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I need you to go pick up a kid and bring him to the office.”

*

Half-an-hour later Beleg rounded the corner at the end of the hall, running with a lanky, dark-haired boy clinging to his back.

“Here he is!” Beleg announced, and let the boy down. “Túrin, the Master of Fate! Isn’t that right?” He ruffled the boy’s hair. “We outsmarted fate six times on the way over, didn’t we little guy?”

“Red lights aren’t fate,” Túrin said, in the tone of a child who thinks he knows better. “They are for controlling traffic flow.”

“Beleg.” Elu did his best to conceal his amusement with a frown. “I hope you were not racing lights in a municipal vehicle again.”

“No sir,” said Beleg. “No racing. All very strategic.”

“Mm, I don’t think I want to know.” Elu rose from his hair and came around the front of the desk. “It’s nice to meet you, Túrin. Welcome to the office of the Mayor. I’m Elu.”

Túrin did not look impressed, and made no move to take Elu’s hand when offered. “Hi,” he said. “I’m Túrin.” Then he turned back to Beleg. “Can we go on your computer now like your promised?”

Elu lifted a brow, for Beleg’s benefit, as he addressed Túrin. “He promised you, did he? Funny, because Beleg does what I tell him to do, and I do not remember telling him to do that.”

Beleg laughed, not sounding nearly as nervous as he should have.

“Oh.” Túrin paused, visibly processing this new information. “Well can you tell him to play games with me?”

Elu had to laugh at the boy’s quick tactical adjustment. “I’m afraid Beleg doesn’t get to play games at work. But, while he was off picking you up, I thought of something else we could do.”

“What?” said Túrin and Beleg at once.

“Well,” Elu perched on the desk so he needn’t tower above them, “in the storage room there should be one of those fake trees and a box of decorations. We used to set it up in my office every year. I’d forgotten all about it, but since we’ve got you here, Túrin, I thought it would be a nice thing to do. What do you think?”

Túrin seemed to be deep in thought.

“Hey!” Beleg nudged him. “Sounds fun to me!”

“I don’t know,” Túrin said. “I barely know you. Tree decorating is for families.”

“Oh,” said Elu. “I suppose it’s something families often do together, yes. But they can be set up by coworkers, too, or even strangers, like us. I bet we won’t be strangers when we’re done.”

“We didn’t get a tree at my house this year,” Túrin disclosed. “My dad is away for Yule so my mom said we don’t need one.”

“I see,” Elu said, beginning to lose hope in this venture.

“All the more reason to set one up here!” Beleg offered.

“Yeah.” Túrin shrugged. “I guess.”

“Excellent!” said Elu. “Beleg, why don’t you take Túrin down the storage and have a look for it?”

*

They were gone a long time, and Elu was just beginning to wonder if he should go looking for them when they appeared toting two large boxes — and another of the interns.

“Hope you don’t mind if Mablung joins us!” Beleg said cheerily, setting the tree box upright in the corner of the room. Mablung placed the box of ornaments on Elu’s desk. “He said he was bored, I said he could help us.”

“Of course, of course. The more the merrier!” Elu said absently, distracted by fiddling with computer speakers in an effort to get the music to play. He groaned and threw up his hands. “Can one of you young people figure out why these blasted speakers have turned themselves off again?”

To his surprise, it was Túrin who answered the summons, running around behind the desk to investigate.

“It’s muted,” he said almost at once, and tapped a key on the keyboard. The bouncy beat of I’m the Happiest Christmas Tree spilled from the speakers.

The other three laughed, but Túrin crinkled his nose and hit skip on the song.

Soon, Beleg and Mablung had the tree set up and were arguing about the best placement for the string of lights. Once that was decided, they turned to debating how best to balance the bauble distribution.

Túrin seemed more interested in rooting through the box for the most unique ornaments. Elu watched him wistfully. He had not realised how much he missed being around children and their infectious wonderment at the world.

“I like this one,” Túrin said, pulling out a golden dragon. “My dad has one like it.”

“Oh, yes, very nice!” Elu said. “Why don’t you keep it?”

“Really?” said Túrin, his face brightening. He did not wait for confirmation before he shoved it in his pocket.

“Hey, what’s this now?” Beleg ambled over. “Mayor Man is giving away his ornament collection? Mablung, let’s see what’s in here!”

Beleg peered into the box, shoving aside some silver baubles and pulling out a long black icicle.

“Oh, sick,” he said, letting it dangle from a finger. “This is some goth sh— stuff.”

“Interesting,” said Elu, watching the strange ornament twirl. “I am not sure where that one came from.”

“Ohh, mystery ornament!” Beleg enthused. “Can I have it?”

“Really, you want that?” Mablung put in. “That’s weird, man. It looks like a weapon.”

“No way, it’s cool!” said Beleg.

“Well, if you want it,” said Elu, “I certainly don’t.”

“No, I want it!” Túrin shouted, and closed his fist around the icicle.

“Hey, kid, whoa, easy,” said Beleg. “You could just ask nice—!”

Beleg screamed. The ornament flew towards the ceiling, then arced back down and shattered on the floor. Túrin careened and toppled backwards, just missing Mablung lunging to break his fall.

Beleg gawked at his finger, which was bent backwards as a very unnatural angle.

“You dislocated my finger!” Beleg cried.

“Damn,” said Elu, and he was thinking neither of his injured employee nor of the crying child on the floor, but of the weeks of workplace accident reporting paperwork he’d just created for himself.

[shina-moon-art]

That piece you did on Ann when it comes to how alone she is was amazing! I thought I was the only one who thought Ann didn't seem to be a part of any crew I mean sure she likes Shanks and trusts him since he is her brother but it always felt like although she partied with them there was a disconnect sorta like Drac coming in and out of the red haired pirates lives to do his own thing Ann did the same...or is that just me? Also what do you think this means in terms of Kuzan what with how the manga and anime have put him as of right now?

Thank you thank you. Tbh even though Ann isn’t my character she does kinda feel like my own kid sometimes so whenever someone mentions something that I have an immediate response to it usually goes like that last post lol.

Not a lot of people seem to realize just how lonely Ann’s life has been and I’ve made several posts about that in the past but it just seems to get kinda glossed over? Most of the time I’m talking about her time in the marines but she doesn’t stop being lonely after she leaves she just stops limiting herself.

Lowkey her time sailing with Shanks was honestly her just learning how to be free again. Sailing with Shanks was SO close to how it used to be with Roger but it just wasn’t the same. Shanks got to keep his freedom and grow with it, Ann didn’t. Shanks has always said that she’s a part of his crew (buggy too but he’d never acknowledge that he LIKES shanks enough to accept) but to her it just feels wrong.

The only crew she’ll belong to is Roger’s, otherwise she’d have to be a captain and I just don’t see her doing that. So honestly the Mihawk description is quite accurate.

Tbh I’m not caught up on the anime/manga OR this story lol. Been doing a lot of my own stuff instead of reading but from what I’ve seen Kuzan is in Blackbeards crew?? Not really a great move when trying to get Ann to like you especially because I know damn well these two are not communicating. She’s probably cheering for Garp to whoop his ass lmaoooo

[theydjarin]

Do you think there’s anything between PP and that guy kissing him in that one pic?? 👀

LOL anon

First of all, which one? (😂 I jest) second of all, nah. None of my posting has been related to that at all. I think the one you’re talking about is the cheek kiss which was his agent! I mean, not unheard of in Hollywood but really unlikely. Also people speculating about Pedro and Will D and his wife?? Silliness.

I think he’s queer because of the things he’s said about himself (mostly before he got really famous) and how he interacts with other queer people. His love for queer art and queer theory. Literally wearing a pride flag as pants.

(me working at Target and putting a rainbow sticker on my name tag because I didn’t want fellow queer people to think I’m straight, but to straight people maybe I just like rainbows).

Sure, there’s plausible deniability. It’s a PR strategy. But also like. Why jump through all these maybies when the most simple and realistic answer is that he’s family.

Idk i think we just need to normalize it. He’s queer. It’s fine. It’s not our business what that means to him, and he doesn’t need to Formally Come Out for it to be true and fine.

(I’m reminded of Billie Eilish’s interview for Variety:

“But I kind of thought, ‘Wasn’t it obvious’? I didn’t realize people didn’t know. I just don’t really believe in it. I’m just like, ‘Why can’t we just exist’? I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I just didn’t talk about it. Whoops.”)

If someone’s first reaction to someone going “your fave is queer” is “why would you say something so rude??” I hope they analyze why their first reaction is negative.

(I keep thinking about when I was in high school, I got called a dyke before I was out. And it was clearly not said with love in their hearts. But what hurt worse was a friend going, “don’t worry nobody thinks you’re a dyke!” But I was. And then I knew my friend thought it was something bad to be.)

[skinwalkingxana]

Happy Friday! “There were always stories; people had to talk. Even if they were dying. Maybe the tongue was the last to go.”― Kathe Koja, Bad Brains, for Cassandra/Varric

~ @lordgoretash

( hey sorry tumblr is being weird with the formatting on this post) For @dadrunkwriting ! Happy friday and thank you so much for the prompt! Varric gets away from me sometimes, whoops lol

“There are always stories; people have to talk. “ Cassandra scoffs, fingers lost in the tangle of his chest hair. Despite the fires from the forge being banked long ago, the embers still cast a warm glow on her skin. “Even if they’re dying?” “Especially when they’re dying. You’ve killed enough people in your time, Seeker, you know this.” She hates it whenever he calls her Seeker. He can’t help it, the way her whole face scrunches up, how she’ll counter by calling him dwarf, as if it was some kind of insult. The next words out of Cassandra’ mouth always held a special kind of bite that she reserved only for him. They’ve been meeting up like this long enough now. Long enough for Varric to understand the difference, at least. “Or maybe the tongue is the last to go.” Ah, there it is. Right on time. He has to give her credit, sometimes Cassandra could have a way with words. Not as well as he did, of course. Not that he would ever admit if she had. She’s leaning over him now, eyes dangerous. The wooden bed creaks beneath them with the movement, causing her to pause. A month ago, Varric would have been concerned he was about to end up on the receiving end of her right hook; Maker, sometimes when his eye twitched he could still feel the pain from the black-eye Cassandra left him with. Now though? Now Varric found himself leaning up, lips hungry for something only Cassandra’s own could satisfy. When had they stopped needing cheap Fereldan whiskey to end up entangled like this? The first time had been a drunken accident, sure. Maybe even the second time. By the third it had stopped being a coincidence. Somehow they managed to put on a proper enough facade that no one had become suspicious. In fact, the Inquisitor refused to put the two of them in a party anymore, for fear they would be at each other’s throats the whole trip. It was cute, that Cassandra was so concerned they would be found out. So there were a few rumors that the two of them may be sleeping together, they were just that: rumors. Everyone in the inner circle had some kind of rumor going around about who they kept in their bed, it didn’t always mean they were true! Isabella had even been the one to start some of them! Though, Varric did have to wonder, who had started the rumor he was sleeping with Cassandra? Cassandra pulled away then, the braid that was normally pinned to her head trailing down her back. She was watching him with a scrutinizing look now. It was the same look she had used on Varric that first day in Kirkwall, back when she had ‘interviewed’ him. “What?” Varric finally asked, tired of the long beat of silence that had stretched on between them. “You are over thinking. Again.” Well, shit. She has me there. Cassandra moved off of him, settling down on the bed next to him. She placed one hand behind her head, her gaze firmly set on the ceiling above them. Varric moved into a similar position, allowing one hand to rest on his bare chest. They fell into silence again, leaving Varric reeling for something to break it. “Does it bother you?” “Does what bother me?” Varric props himself up on his side so he can face her again. He finds himself reaching out to play with Cassandra’s long braid, twirling it around and around in his hand. The first time he had touched her hair, he had been surprised by how soft and floral it was. He expected her to have a more bold woodsy scent, or to not have a scent at all, but he could only pick up the notes of floral perfume when they were this close. “The sneaking around? It isn’t your style.” “Of course it does. The sneaking is your doing. If I had it my way-“ Cassandra cuts herself off, eyes wide for a moment. She then pulls her braid out of Varric’s hands. “Forget it.” “Cassandra?“ “I said forget it. “ Cassandra turns her back on him now. “Oh come on. I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.” Varric places one of his calloused hands on her bare shoulder. She doesn’t react, not even to push his hand away. “It is not worth mentioning. You may take your leave now.”

At her dismissive tone, Varric sighs. There’s no use in trying to get anything out of her now. Whatever Cassandra was about to say, it’s gone. He gets up, gathering his clothes. At one point he pauses mid-leg, catching Cassandra watching him from the corner of her eye. Once she realizes he caught her, she quickly turns away again. It happens two more times, and the last time Varric stops lacing his trousers up, allowing his eyes to linger on her bare back. When she doesn’t turn around a fourth time, he decided to do exactly as she says, and leaves.

[constantvariations]

V9C8

I cannot believe I’m awake when the episode drops holy shit. I’m also drunk af bc it’s my weekend off so I might not be as sharp as I’m usually am (not) but guess we’ll see lol. Also the devil works hard but pirates work harder. Bless them yardee hars yo ho

Post Ep: uhh I genuintely dunno what to say here :/ MKEK fucked over literally the only aspect of v9 i liked so i guess imma rot or smth idk

Genuinely funny (by which I mean what the absolute fuck) that the warning does not, in fact, warn the viewer of fucking anything. Reminds me of the conversation in Criminal Minds where the unit receives a bomb threat and have to wait for it to explode because sending out a general bomb alert would halt the entirety of the country in a panic. Wasn’t there a tiktok about this exact thing? One that went liek “TRIGGER WARNIGN! TRIGGER WARNING!“ but never told you wh at the warning was? Feels like this shit

Back at it again with this pov shit? With the hentai panting? Why is it always with the hentai panting???

“Why did you shout at everyone like that?” Sometimes it’s hard to remember that Little is supposed to be like... a child? I guess? in the Wonderland spectrum of things, so them not knowing what a mental breakdown looks like is both in character and entirely unhelpful in the narrative, considering how easily Ruby brushes off the inquiry

This is probably the most tolerant Ruby’s voice acting has been in the last many seasons. It’s not high and nasally enough to scrape my skull!

Not gonna lie, having Ruby finally break down against the shittiest of tree textures is so fucking funny I can’t take this seriously. It looks like she’s wailing into a painted wall

“If you’re going to stay with me, you’re going to end up dead, too.” Ruby, the only dead people that you supposedly gave a shit about are Penny and Pyrrha. You don’t know about Clover or Ironwood, you definitely didn’t give a shit about that Forrest guy from V7, and it’s still up in the air if you know about Penny 2.0. You haven’t even mentioned Qrow, your father, or the rest of ORNJ, so what the fuck are you referencing here? Your mother, whom you only started being compromised about 2 seasons ago? Big fuckety whoop, no one cares

Ohhhh noooo not the shithead mouse character being saddddd and left behinddddd whateverr shall we doooooo

Aight what’s with the butterfly thing. If it’s supposed to symbolize Summer Rose in some way, it was never foreshadowed and only the barest of threads (butterflies being pollinators of flowers) would connect this shit. There’s a difference between subtlety and bullshit

Uhhhh did Ruby stumble into a casino house of Neo? Is this Neo backstory we’re getting into? Honestly, that’s way more intriguing than anything our heroes have going on

OH SO NOW RUBY CAN USE HER FUCKING SCYTHE WITHOUT GETTIN TRIGGERED

Why did they have to drag Roman into Maya? Didn’t they do him dirty enough by having him be eaten by a stupid grimm? Is this even the same voice actor? It’s not as... sultry

WHY YOU GOTTA DO PYRRHA DIRTY LIKE THIS WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH HER MOUTH THERE’S NO TEXTURE ON HER CLOTHES WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK

Holy shit the animation of Roman jumpin on the table is sending me into the fuckign statosphere fucking hlep

Can’t even have a normal transformation animation between scythe to snipe it’s gotta be a spinny bullshit thing ugh. Take me back to episode 1 I miss that shit

Who is voicing Roman there’s no way this is the original VA Imma strnagle this bithc

“But we all remember how that ended.” Is this based on actual events or what Neo has interpreted? This entire scene has been nothing but bullshit so far, and not even the fun kind that Roman used to produce

“You still blame me for what happened to Torchwick?” Bitch what the absolute fuck makes you think that? What clues could you possibly have that Neo blames you specifically when there are so many random people at this table? It’s not like you’ve ever claimed to be responsible for any of these peoples’ deaths, so why is this the fucking conclusion you make? Other than having writer’s clairvoyance of course

Okay, despite not knowing at the moment what it means, I do like the detail of Roman not stepping on the teacup before but once shit gets real he demolishes it. Still don’t like how ugly he is though. Leave my dead gay son alone

I don’t know if I’ve said it before but I fucking HATE the eyeshadow on the character in Maya. Why is Neo’s fucking mint green? She’s NEO-FUCKING-POLITIAN WHY IS THERE FUCKING GREEN IN HER GODDAMN COLOR PALLETE WHEN IT’S FUCKIN WHITE BROWN AND PINK

“I’m going to enjoy watching you break.” Does Neo not have any sort of contact via her clones or whatever? Did she not see how helpless Ruby was last episode to her Jabber? Because it was very heavily implied she knew when that one turned into her before shattering. Neo didn’t have to do shit to make Ruby break, her so called friends were doing that better than Neo ever could Also, the smiles on everyone’s faces as they say this is 100% me when I write my characters going through some fucked up shit. Neo should’ve gone into theater and literally none of this would have happened lmao

It’s uhhhhhh kinda telling that Yang is the first to stop and bitch about Ruby’s behavior. “How could she jsut run off like that?” damn it’s like your sister knew you ddidn’t give hafl a flying fuck about her and dipped Yang OHMYGOD YANG BEING PISSED THAT RUBY DIDN’T TALK TO THEM I’M FUCKING WHEEZING Girl you were so busy being buried in the pussy you didn’t notice your own sister having a full ass breakdown. I do not feel sorry for you “She could’ve just talked to us” like you talked to her after you lost your arm? Oh, wait, YOU DIDN’T FUCKING DO THAT YANG. You literally told her to LEAVE YOU ALONE. Ain’t that a bitch, huh

“We say things like ‘we believe and you’ and ‘we can count on you’” holy shit this is smth I would expect from the yt exercise gurus I watch after work shifts not from my close personal friends this is so fuckign funny

“It’s not like we’re asking her to be perfect” well mf did you ever, idk, COMMUNICATE THAT. Because, lmee tell you as someone who WAS expected to be perfect at all times, that shit be damaging as fuck. I can’t even let typos happen in funny instances without a voice in my head screaming to fix them

Oh great we get the generic meandering vocals during a pvp platform fight. Do they write these lines knowing they’ll be translated into a game soon? There’s no way “I was the best and brightest Beacon had to offer” comes off naturally otherwise

Ruby literally clambered onto the only structure in the room for defense? Girl at this point you are asking to die lmao

AND HER AURA SHATTERS AT THAT MEASLY DROP I AM FUCKING SOBBING JUST KILL THE BITCH AND BE DONE WITH IT

“Just like you were too late to save me at the Vytal festival.” Bitch that literally didn’t matter shit since you came back in V7. You’re literally wearing your V7/8 outfit. Shut the absolute fuck up you fucking waste of potential and hair space goddamn

“Can you imagine what it’s like to be failed time and time again by someone who meant the world to you” oh like Oz? The guy you demonized for the last few seasons? The guy who was roasted alive by his wife after she butchered their FOUR FUCKIGN CHILDREN?

Also Ruby does not use her FUCKIGN SEMBLANCE BITHC ARE YOU WANTING TO FUDCKIGN DIE THEN DIE ALREADY GODDAMMIT

Okay I can’t put my finger on it, but the animation of Pyrrha going around her staff to kick Ruby is really fucking weird. Maybe because it seems like her spear is merely resting on the ground instead of impaling it? (My current MC had a similar move so this is important to me lmao)

While I do appreciate the line of “have you stopped to consider if you’re doing more harm than good” coming from Ironwood, it’s not really Ironwood saying it, is it? How the absolute FUCK would Neo know this? Was she witness to what was happening, did she figure it out with context clues, or is this another case of writer clairvoyance?

While I guess it is within canon rights to have Neo know that Oscar is Oz’s new host, I’m very much confused about this particular course of action [turning Ozpin into Oscar] from Neo. When it was her vs Cinder,  Neo just tried to annihilate her, but with Ruby she wants to be Jigsaw??? MKEK learn character consistency I am BEGGING

Listen... I know Ruby is in an emotionally compromised state, and that in any other scenario this would be intensely heart-breaking, but with how contrived this entire scene is, I cannot give half a flying fuck about Ruby’s mental state because it’s too damn funny how easily she falls into Neo’s lap. You walked into this giant ass casino, can’t you just walk out? We ain’t seen you try yet, so either you (and the writers) are too stupid to think of it, or it was shuffled off screen, neither of which are a good look babe. Especially when that damned mouse is in the wings for SOME goddamn reason. Probably the next fucking deus ex mouse

RUBY’S HICCUPS SOUND EXACTLY LIKE MY PRINTER IM FUCKIGN WHEEZING

Okay, so Neo offering the tea makes it seem like that’s a path to the Ascension that everyone’s so gung-ho about, which makes me question why the paper pleasers needed to have a whole ass suicide dam-break to ascend if all they needed was some leaf-tea. I also think I’m putting more thought into this than the fucking writers, which, honestly, is par for the course

WAIT WHOA HOLD UP that was some geometric shit hitting Neo into the fucking next generation. Everything in Wonderland is ~whimsy and frolic~ not Square (tm) so wtf is going on

Goddammit again with this pov shit? Whoever suggested it in the group orgy should be drug out to the street and shot

CURIOUS!!! THE ONLY BITCH THAT MATTERS TO ME even if he is ugly as sin

“(Ruby) I don’t want to be me anymore” well aint that just more gasoline to my theory that Ruby’s gonna try to sacrifice herself to the tree No joke, if RT (and for any dumbass who needs clarification, CRWBY is 100% RT property) tries to imply in any goddamn way that sacrifice is the only way to achieve happiness (especially when it comes to other people’s happiness) I will come to each of their houses and shred their shoes, their paintings, and dismantle their ovens

Altho, no joke, I would much rather prefer Curious as our MC instead simply because they are curious and would potentially be able to ask questions about the world that our actual mains would take for granted, like idk wtf is dust and where does it come from? (Mainly stemming from my hc that dust is the remains of human souls that grimm devour but can’t actually process. Like... how else are you gonna reconcile the dust that made Adam ((the original biblical man)) with the dust of Remnant?)

Oh wow so we’re actually going for the take that the cat was evil the whole time? Is that what we’re doing? No nuance about a creature merely curious about a world outside its own? We’re going full fucking body snatcher?

I absolutely HATE this take on the Curious Cat. MKEK. Give me your addresses so I can beat your asses in the nearest Dennys parking lot. I think you sorely need some lessons in humility. Suck my entire asshole

Is Little really fucking hurt by being slung .2 feet from a tail whip? Fucking really?

And now Neo and Curious are fighting over Ruby’s fate. Someone bring back the forced love triangle of Hunger Games (which was forced by the publishers NOT the writer btw) instead of this shit before I throw myself into a lava pit because honesty it this is far shittier than HG

Wtf are Ruby’s fingers bloodied from? Wielding Crescent Rose for .2 seconds? Girl you have been handling this weapon for fucking years, but spinning it around a couple of times makes her bleed? Bitch play Paganini’s 24 Caprices then say how your fingers feel (For clarification purposes, I only know this because I’m writing characters who know how to play the violin, not because I know violin myself despite how much I fucking want to. V from DMC5 has me in a fucking chokehold lemme tell you-*dies*)

“I have been trying to wear you down for so long” BITCH FUCKING WHERE. WHERE THE ABSOLUTE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN WEARING RUBY DOWN MORE THAN HER TEAMMATES OR GENERAL FUCKING LIFE HAS ALREADY BEEN. BITHC FUCKING WEHRE

“I need to know why my makers left me here.” This makes me think that the Wonderland was structured by the shitheel gods of light and dark. Perhaps the cat was one of their compromises, which is why they’re such a wildcard? But that would make so many questions about the purpose of Wonderland itself and we all know that MKEK can’t be bothered with things like worldbuilding or nuance or anything remotely resembling intelligence (also I read once that black scelera ((the white part of the eye)) is a sign of pure truth/desire so honestly this is incredibly intriguing even though I know it won’t end in anything satisfactory)

NEO STEPS ON LITTLE BEST CHARACTER EVER 10/10

The cup sliding into frame after Ruby’s frantic eyes is literally so fucking funny how do they expect to take me seriously when the framing has the subtlety of a drunk elephant?

Ohmygod the way JWBY ran into the room like PS2 characters I’m fucking wheeazing

Ohmygod this is literally the most flaccid way to force a person into your perspective. Like... Ruby got kicked around a little bit after venturing into an OBVIOUSLY NOT GOOD PLACE and then decides to drink the airport jungle juice right as she’s about to be rescued and not ONE FUCKING CHARACTER WITH RANGED ARSENAL SHOOTS THE MUG OUT OF HER HAND

Honestly there are times where it really hits me how RWBY is a show about plot that isn’t plot instead of characters, and it’s moments like these where I’m like “damn, these people are acting to the script instead of their character huh” Like... it would’ve been something profound if the tea drinking had happened moments prior to their arrival instead of “hey watch me drink this fuckin tea while I reflect in your stupid eyeball instead of you doing literally anything about it despite that the supposed fact that you fucking raised me YANG, so watch me drop into this fuckkin hole I guess”

At the very least I guess the writers realized that Neo’s sole purpose was offing Ruby because... Roman was in her vicinity when he died???

OHMYGOD THE FACT THAT THE PERSON WHO REACTS TEH MOST TO RUBY DRINKGING THE FUCKIGN JUICCE IS CURIOUS IS FINEING SENDING ME

SHES A FUCKING CORN COB BSBE IM FUCNG CRYIGN

Okay, Curious fixating on Neo is one BILLION percent more interesting than anything jrwby has going on. Once again, fuck this main storyline bullshit and give Curious their own damn show

Also, nlg, the facct that Curious is Geometric rather than Organic in terms of design (squares vs spirals for the at home group) is super fucking cool and I desperately need an entire goddamn story abt them pronto. I would absolutely love to see how they interact with Remnant and if they’d be able to have their weird ass powers in the dimension of mortals. That is so much more interesting than literally anything our main crew has proposed in literally years, especially since these dumb mfs aint ever talked about whether or not its okay to kill a whole ass human being for their cause (and faunus are human beings. Fuck off if you think that some shtity tail or ears makes you not a whole ass person)

These mfs cannot let the bee train go for a single second can they? These bitches gotta be hit inot the sam efukcin wall while Weiss gets left all alone. Yknow. Like her family let her be for th emost part. Glad to see that RT’s priority is rainbow capitialism instead of genuine storytelling

Well that is a hentai trope I did not expert to see today. Though the fact that it’s Neo does not surprises me at fuckign all. Mmmm love me some fcking body possession. Great job Rt on making on your female characters be absolutely consumed by a foreign entity that surely isn’t a fucking metaphor for antyhign yknow the fucking facehuggers were’nt a metaphor for shit didnt yha know????

May I say to MKEK, absolutely fuck you for makign the cat an undeniable villain. Can you guys not handle even an iota of moral greyness? Can you not conceive of the idea of a situation that is not merely good vs evil? I ask you to look at the world today, and tell me that evil arises merely because it can rather than as a symptom of a society that refuses to care for all its citizens. Can you not idealize a person who, when pressed to their absolute brink, will take upon violence to ensure that the seeds they sow will bring sustenance to those who come later? For fuck’s sake I’ll take a person who idealizes themselves for morally grey reasons other than what the fuck ever these dipshits are trying to sell to me

Wow aint it so spectaculaar that Curious invaded the one person who wasn’t important to the writers plot adn now our heroes can now kill her without any iota of guilt? Aint that fucking nifty? Aint that fuckign grand? And not even a fucking thought extended to teh idea tha Crurius wanted to see the outside world. THat was their main reason for helping the siblings right? Because Alyx promised them that she would bring him to Remnant? But taht whole plotline is gone because it’s jsut TOO SPICY FOLKS. Can’t have anything interesting in our show about FAIRTYTALES whene we’re in a FAIRTYTALE LAND

Honestly, fuck you MKEK, fuck you RT, fuck you any god that ever alloweed existence to happen. THis is fucking bullshit

It was only through looking up the info on the internet that I learned that Roman Torchwick’s og VA died of colon cancer prior to this volume (2022). Mr Kametz, I hope you rest well and know that your expertise was greatly appreciated. May you know peace in the beyond