#why on earth did you read this whole thing surely there is something far better out there to distract yourself with

[bewarethecircles]

After a vacation in Alpha Centauri, Gabriel and Beelzebub come back to earth and move in together. They proceed to be the worst and most baffling neighbors anyone in the neighborhood has ever experienced. 

They introduced themselves as Bee and Jim, but immediately started laughing about it, so people are pretty sure those aren't their real names. 

Neither of them seem to have jobs, but they must be rich, because their house is massive and they're always wearing fancy clothes, and their wallets are bursting with money. Maybe they’re in the mafia?

Speaking of fancy clothes, “Jim” is always wearing designer suits. There is an ongoing game where people attempt to take a picture of him in any other clothes. One time, an enterprising teenager went so far as to sneak over in the middle of the night to look into his bedroom (hoping he’d be in pajamas), and saw him still in a suit, Standing on Top of the Bed, eyes wide open and Smiling Brightly. (Gabriel has not gotten the hang of sleeping yet.) (The teenager refuses to go near the house ever again.)

The short one, “Bee,” is consistently trailed by flies. This is alarming to everyone. They say that they're a “fly-keeper,” but people are pretty sure that's not a thing. Do they carry rotting meat around or something?

Bee also seems to be constantly changing appearances. One day they have a buzz cut, the next day their hair goes to their mid-back. Their eyes are a different colour every time you see them. People have set up cameras to take pictures of them on different days, and upon comparing them they are Definitely almost 6 inches taller this week. Even their facial features shift. 

It gets to the point where people decide Jim must just have multiple partners, and be lying about it. (“Multiple partners that all look similar and are never seen together?” the opposition will point out. When asked if they have a better theory, they can never answer.)

The two of them will have romantic moments Anywhere, including standing in the middle of the highway staring into each others eyes. By all rights they should have been run over, but in a bizarre coincidence every car in the area ran out of fuel and stopped moving at that exact moment. People want to blame Jim for it (he did make a strange hand movement, after all), but that would just be absurd.

They use the absolute worst pet names for each other. A list of overheard ones is being recorded. “My rotten cabbage?” “My hell-bringer?” “Dearest packet of crisps??” 

You cannot let them notice that you're disgusted by their lovey-doveyness. They will either get exponentially more cringey, or straight up insult you until you run away crying. Or both. 

“Everyday” by Buddy Holly will be audible to the whole block at all times. Do they know other songs exist? Don't they get bored of this one?? Why is it so loud???

There’s a statue of Jim in the front yard. Its 20 feet tall and definitely a HOA violation, but people are too scared to mention it. Both Bee and Jim will come out at different times and spend hours staring at it dreamily. 

People would hate them, but ever since they moved in the weather has been perfect, crime is at an all time low, and there’s little trucks that go around selling hot chocolate, and those things Probably cant be because of them, but still...

Plus, Jim doesn’t understand how money works at all, so he’ll give you $300 for a bag of chips. It's endearing, even if he is sometimes a jerk.

Bee does seem to know how money works, but they’ll frequently pay even more than Jim, especially if the person seems overworked and the place is under-staffed. They say they have experience with it.

After a month of them living there, most of the neighborhood is in a group chat created to discuss the two of them. Beelzebub is secretly in the chat, and reads their favourite theories to Gabriel. 

A rumour starts going around that they're an angel and a demon in disguise, but no one can agree which one is which. 

Beelzebub is the one who started the rumour. 

If anyone writes a fic with any of this by all means tag me I'd love to see it!!

[hopelessromantic5]

Merthur with King Arthur and pre-Court Sorcerer Merlin.

(Don’t worry though, when this is continued, he will be given his rightful place.

If I have to write it a thousand times, I will see Merlin get his happy ending, dammit.)

“Um. Merlin?”

The manservant had been daydreaming again.

It was honestly getting out of hand.

Two moons had passed since Merlin finally told Arthur about the magic.

It went better than expected.

A great deal better.

He didn’t even really seem surprised. If Merlin could count on himself as a reliable narrator of the story, he would say he saw relief flicker across Arthur’s face before he began asking questions. But Merlin was basically imploding on the inside and terrified that he was about to lose his best friend and his home in one fell swoop, so he might’ve imagined it.

Thankfully, Arthur seemed more anxious for answers than anything. He wanted to understand. After a week of catching him up on the last five years of their lives, magic included, Arthur seemed at peace with it.

A week later was when control began slipping from Merlin’s grasp, ever so slightly. Arthur came to him on a random day in the spring, and nonchalantly said he had some documents he’d like Merlin to read over. Make sure they were presentable for council.

Merlin thought nothing of it, he’d done it countless times thus far, and was secretly looking forward to proof reading speeches for the rest of his life.

You can imagine the shock when he approached the desk and found a repeal of the magic ban. Sitting there, in the sun, in Arthur’s perfect penmanship.

Merlin began weeping.

He could almost hear in his head,

“Don’t be a such a girl, Merlin.”

But it never came.

Instead, the King silently joined him by the desk, and embraced him, for maybe the second time in all of existence.

They hugged like they were trying to meld themselves together.

Arthur had one broad arm wrapped behind Merlin’s neck and the other locking him in by his lower back.

They were two pieces that somehow fit perfectly together.

Merlin hid his, probably unsightly, face in Arthur’s neck and willed the tears to stop themselves falling.

A few heartbeats later Arthur whispered,

“I’m so sorry, Merlin.”

Merlin involuntarily scrunched his eyebrows at that. Yet, he did not let go. He did not want to leave, not yet.

“Why are you apologizing?”

A whisper came back,

“I hate to see you cry.”

Merlin wished on every star in the heavens, that he could’ve seen Arthur, in that moment.

But he would not let go. Not until his King did.

At present, things were moving along very well with the repeal. Especially among the townspeople, who are more than welcoming towards the Kingdom’s new citizens.

However, Merlin found himself with a whole new set of challenges.

Merlin was definitely not staring at Arthur as he shuffled through reports at his desk. Though, the sun was casting the perfect halo on his blonde head. It painted a picture that was wholly ethereal, calming.

When Arthur looked up from his papers suddenly, Merlin went back to his polishing like he never stopped.

Because he didn’t, of course.

That would be inappropriate.

That’s when he heard,

“Um. Merlin?”

The raven boy’s head snapped up from the sword in his lap, and found amusement in his King’s eyes.

“What?” He was skeptical, narrowing his gaze.

“Are you planning on turning my chambers into the Royal Gardens or is this your only idea on how to spruce up the place?”

“What on Earth are you-“ spinning around in his chair, he finally saw it.

Vines wearing tiny purple flowers were slowly crawling their way up the bed-posts; bigger, colorful flowers were beginning to bloom from the cracks in the stone floor.

This is not good.

“Uh, I have to-“ he huffed, placing the sword in his seat and running for the door. “I need to go, sire.”

“Merlin, what are you-“

“I think I’m coming down with something. I’m just gonna go see Gaius about it.” Before he closed the door behind him he yelled “I’ll be back with dinner.”

And then he was gone.

[sindar-princeling]

I am still baffled by some of the choices made by rop so far, and in a big part it is because. there is such a good story right there. and unless they had no rights to literally any plotline ever described in any of tolkien's works... why fix something that isn't broken, you know? ESPECIALLY if you're not actually fixing it ajsjdjdjdfjffj

I can't really get (yet, at least. benefit of the doubt until the whole story is told) what justifies adding Isildur's sister or those women dressed in white or Sauron pretending to be Just A Human Guy On A Raft while the story we have, however generally described, is fascinating

elves get tricked by Annatar because he says he's an emissary from Valinor - the HOME they're banned from just got brought to them! you can show why and explain just how big of a deal it is that they can return at the end of LotR so much better than "we're told it's a big deal but Galadriel jumps and returns anyway". AND this way it's the elves' collective mistake, not just hers. were they too hubristic to believe Annatar's offers? did they just miss home too much? there's a big, deep story here about AGES of middle-earth's history. and even if you wanted to tell a new story in this show - it IS new to most people who know LotR anyway, because most people know it from the movies and have never read the book, let alone the Silm! this is a new story for them!

maybe things could get wrong slowly even before Sauron creates the one ring - at first deniably, until it can't be ignored anymore. maybe there's some agitation among the free peoples, and elves can see that their mortal acquaintances are different, they're not sure what is happening, but it's wrong. there's a growing, nearing sense of dread, and by the time the one ring is forged, by the time they realise the threat was right under their noses this whole time, it's too late, and it has been too late for a long time. by having made the three, the elves managed to create not a solution, but barely a means to stop MORE damage, but they only managed to help themselves anyway.

the world starts to grow smaller, weaker, diminish into the third-age middle earth that we know, and there's some sweetness in it for us as viewers because this is the world we're most familiar with, but it's first and foremost bitter and tragic. it's not a happy ending. the war will continue, and many of our characters will have no choice but to continue seeing it through because they're elves. they will live to see it, or they will die, or they will run - and not all of them can run

series fucking ends.

anyway, I will. try. to not make this blog into a pool of bile in the next few days after s2 comes out, but as it turns out I'm still pissed about the "stronger than the foundations of the earth" bit coming from sauron and not galadriel in s1 and stripping her of her best character trait so! 👍

[withlovesstuff]

until you remember

fem!reader 18+ DARK fic- Dubcon, Noncon, Predator/Prey, Eventual smut, gross behavior, stalking.

It’s always dark, in the dreams. A cover of night so black you can’t see in front of you, it makes your feet stumble like a newborn fawn. The moss from the forest floor burrows its way in between your toes, you grimace at the feeling. 

You must keep moving. It is echoed in your mind by a voice much like your own. 

The sleeping gown that had once kept you warm, its only job had been to act as a barrier between your soft skin and thick sheets that enveloped you. But, your gown is now in tatters, your barrier ripped to shreds, the cotton torn by branches, thorns, hands. 

The night air washes over your exposed legs and chest, so cold. Why did you ever leave your bed? You were so warm.  Your mind can’t seem to remember the reason, whatever coaxed you from the safety of your bed is gone, erased from your mind, but you still try to remember.

You were reading, then the candle flickered, the draft, yes the draft. Lifting from the bed, you had gone over to the window. To close it, you needed to close the window because of the draft, yes. But when you reached the window, the air was still, there was no wind, it was quiet, almost like the forest surrounding your home was holding its breath- 

Shooting pain from your head pulls you away from the scrambling thoughts,your brain doesn’t want to remember, your brain hurts when it remembers. 

You bring one hand to your face and outstretch the other in front of you, blindly searching for something to grasp, to lean against. You're so tired.  

Your legs are burning and you don’t know if it is because of the running or the cold, your hand is wet, your exposed skin is numb-

Why is your hand wet? 

Your outstretched hand finally meets something dry and rough- bark, a tree! 

Lifting your hand from your face, you hold it in front of you, but you still can’t see. 

Frustration eats at you, but your brain screams at you.

You must keep moving. 

The air burns your lungs, but you continue to suck in breaths, desperate for your heart rate to slow. A part of you is always scared when you can hear your heart beating in your ears, because that means they can hear it all the better.

You continue your run much faster than before since you had tumbled onto a dirt path, that means it leads to something right? It must! It has to! 

Loose rocks scrape your feet, you want to cry, you're surprised you haven’t yet. Your desperate, your body is not going to be able to run much longer, you need to find someone, anyone. That’s it. You’d pray to god, but after feeling those things touch you, your sure he can’t answer you. 

You crane your neck when you hear it. A sound you can’t describe, a sound your ears have never before heard. You see the waning moon, so pretty, you wonder why it isn’t giving you any  light, you wonder if it’s real at all, because it seems to flicker. Much like your candle did, however this time there’s something in front of the moon, blocking it from your view, but only for a moment then it falls, revealing the moon right where it was before, still not giving you any light. Picking your jaw up, you have time to take a sad half step before it crashes down in front of you, shaking the earth under your feet. 

“Hennnn, slow down, aye?” 

Slow down? Why on earth would you slow down? This wasn’t a playful game of tag, this was strictly cat and mouse. Only whatever was just growling words at you isn’t a cat. 

 They’re trying to swallow you whole. For fun.The alarms in your head are screaming at you so loudly you can barely hear the shaking of branches surrounding the area. You surprised yourself with how fast you bolted up and over the tree that had landed in front of you. Even with the vast amount of fear coursing through you, you hadn’t froze.

You must keep moving.

The brain in your head repeats those incessant words over and over

You're not far, keep moving.

even as scarred hands wrap around your waist

You’re not far, keep moving.   

even as your dirty feet are lifted from the forest floor

You’re not far, keep moving.

Your mind still tries to give you hope.

You never make it, in the dreams. You always wake up right as whatever was chasing you finally catches you, a part of you thinks it’s your brain finally saving you. You always breathe out a ‘thankyou’ to yourself as you wipe the sweat from your brow. You never want to know what happens next. And as you ready yourself for work the dream slowly fades, before nestling itself warmly in the back of your head. Inevitably you do have it again, but until then, the dream sits quietly, only allowing two intricate details to claw at your skull. 

Two pairs of eyes. 

You remember them vividly.

You remember mahogany with honey specs looking at you through thick blonde lashes. 

You remember blown out pupils adorning angry sea irises, so much so that you lift your tongue and feel grains of sand pricking the roof of your mouth.

The eyes haunt you so beautifully, not only do they plague your dreams, you swear that sometimes it seems like they’re on you for real. And funny enough they are. 

They watch you often, mostly to make sure no one thinks about taking what they had claimed so long ago.

On occasion they also break into your apartment. Some of them choose to bury their nose in the panties that sit on top of your hamper before pocketing the thin lace, some lick the small vibrator that's hidden at the bottom of your drawer like your some kind of prude, some just to jerk off on your sheets, while those more restrained go to your fridge and spit in the coffee creamer you use every morning.

They thumb through your journal too, angry curses falling from some of their lips, because for the life of them, they can’t figure out why you remember two pairs of eyes and not four:(

[railroad-migraine]

In honour of Legend of Vox Machina coming out, can we have a Percy x (fem/gender neutral) reader with the prompt "You feel like home to me." Maybe reader also lost their home (or they were from Whitestone too)

'Welcome Home'

-> Percy x GN!Reader

Notes: Angst and fluff, hurt comfort. I started writing this piece in January 2022. As of June 2023, I have now watched TLOVM. Sorry it took a while Anon, but I wanted to save your lovely request for when I eventually got into Vox Machina 💙 Can be read as platonic or romantic

~ Poet

*****

It wasn't meant to be like this.

Things had not gone to plan. What was the plan, you say? That is debatable depending on who you'd ask.

To start, Vax was unfortunately spotted skulking around the enemy's camp. That then lead to small confrontation, one that he'd be fine to handle all by himself, one where he was suspiciously poked and prodded at innocently, but Keyleth instinctually stepped in to save him - thus getting the whole party involved and quickly overwhelmed. It was manageable until the exact moment where Grog lopped off the head of one of the bandits.

To put it simply, all hell broke loose and it all went to shit.

However, in the end, when the bandits lay dead and smloldering by the campfire, it was a victory for Vox Machina.

A victory, maybe. But not quite a win.

Wounds were in need of tending to, and Pike was far too exhausted to treat everyone. Camping in the woods did not seem to be the best option, the trees offering little cover, and neither did the cliff face nearby. Frustrated, tired, hungry - voices raising at each other prickled the hairs at the back of your neck and you knew you had to step up. To be the adult.

"There is a village," you start, but no one chooses to listen, your voice just another one in the argument.

"There is a village," you repeat, a little more firm and insistant, and the others begin to withdraw, eyes falling onto you, "not far from here. I- I didn't mention it before because it doesn't belong on the map. Not anymore, at least.

"We can go there, set up camp, sit down and just shut up for a few hours," you sigh.

Most of the party look hesitant but Scanlan raises a brow and shrugs with an easy nonchalance that you envy. "If you say it's safe, I'm down."

It wasn't meant to be like this.

"It is." You hope. "I promise.

Percy watches you carefully, the fading light of the Sun behind him casting shadows on his face, sharpens his already sharp jawline even further until it cuts into his coat's collar. Something dangerous in his expression. "Lead on, then," but he doesn't sound convinced.

And so you lead your friends to the home and earth that once nurtured your childhood, the very same that you abandoned all those years ago in favour of adventure.

You were still young. Like a child, scarrless, soft, green and new to the greater world that waited for you beyond your doorstep.

It wasn't meant to be like this, you think as you fall to your knees, taking in the grim sight before you. It's hard to tell what exactly happened, whether the homes had been raided and intentionally burned down, or if it had been a simple accident and the townspeople luckily fled somewhere safe.

How long had it been since you left home? What seemed like yesterday were many, many months for your people, and anything can happen in that time apart.

But you never expected to be returning home to a graveyard.

It wasn't meant to be like this.

"I'm sorry."

You sniffle and quickly wipe your nose with the sleeve of your shirt, choking back a bitter laugh. "Percy." He pulls his mouth into a straight line, a grimace of sorts. "You can be a thorn in my side at times, but why should you be sorry?"

He shifts his weight on his feet. "Because... because it's what people might have said to me when I was in a similar state. I'm not sure if it would ever have made me feel better, but I suppose it shows some level of... respect. Condolences. Comfort, sometimes. Or so I've heard."

He pulls his coat tighter around his torso, the bite in the air unforgiving even as you mourn for your childhood home while your knees press into dirt. You risk a glance up at his face, and his forlorn expression shatters your already broken heart. He feigns a weak smile, and ducks his chin in sympathy. "It's not for everyone, I suppose."

It's a cold comfort as your grip on the ashes of your home loosens, and slips through your fingers, like sand lost in the wind.

Percy says your name, clear and grounding, and you manage to tear your gaze from what's left of your history. "Look at me." You crane your neck to look to where he looms over your hunched form. "Home is a feeling... I know that more than anybody."

Slowly, so slowly and gentle as if caught in slow motion, he crouches down to meet your height. He appraises you for a hesitant moment, then reaches out to wipe a tear that trails down your cheek, one that you had accidentally neglected. It smears across your skin smoothly, leaving a clean line in the thin layer of dust you had acquired since the battle and trek over here.

He looks at you softly, and you nearly sob from the incredible amount of emotions you feel all at once. You grip his hand like a lifeline and press it into your face so that you can lean into the comfort he's providing, and a shudder washes over you at the warmth radiating from his glove.

Percy nudges your chin up with his free hand, and you have no choice but to meet his watery eyes.

"And you feel like home to me."

In that moment, you know you feel the same for him.

*****

[posts this and RUNS]

[shrimplymoray]

After a while of trying, I ended up uninstalling Twitter again. That app is not for me lmao.

On the other hand, though, I am feeling quirky and want to make a new HCs post of creepypasta. So...

Creepypasta characters soft spots*

Featuring: Jeff the Killer, Jane Everlasting, Nina the Killer, Homicidal Liu, Sully, BEN, Eyeless Jack, Laughing Jack, Laughing Jill, Candy Pop, Jason the Toymaker

* bear in mind I make them a tad bit fucked up in the head, so beware (though it IS Creepypasta)

Tw: slightly graphic canibalism description, mentions of abandonment trauma, canon like control freakiness on Jason's part

Jeff The Killer - expressiveness and not being easily intimidated

Jeff is a pretty... Expressive guy, to not say a huge asshole with a big ego. And even though he might not say it, he does admire someone being expressive. It took him a long time (and a mental breakdown) to start expressing himself how he wanted to. If he meets someone that is expressive be it verbally or physically, he will end up circling around them more often than others.

Hand in hand with that, if the person is not easily intimidated and has the courage to talk him out of his mean comments, he might as well ask to be friends with them. As much as he denies it, he enjoys not scaring someone by being himself from time to time.

Jane Everlasting - housekeeping skills and good music taste

Jane is not the easiest person to get along with. However, if you know how to work a stove, and knows that x product is better at cleaning windows than y, she finds than entertaining. She misses Mary so much, and having someone that reminds her of Mary, it warms her on the inside.

This is more of her being a bit of a nitpick, but she despises having to deal with screamo or those techno songs. She deals with it too much from the others, so having the chance to listen to classic romantic ballads, or some soft Jazz while reading a book, by her fave person's side, and not having a complaint at all? That's a dream. One that seems so far away to her reality, being near so many emos

Nina the Killer - foot on earth and alternative fashion

If you stayed even 5 minutes with Nina, you would understand why she appreciates someone hard on reality. Nina is easily enthusiastic and also impulsive as fuck. So having someone to keep her from breaking the whole house down, or to make sure she doesn't throw someone out of the second floor window, it really helps her out in the end, and she knows it.

Nina, although she is slowly getting better at keeping this down, is still a bit obsessed with Jeff, so alternative styles like emo and her beloved Scene style, it makes her feel like she is right up her alley. She would pick matching fits for you two, and also make a whole blog just for pictures of you two with very 2000s core stuff. Plus: hot topic dates.

Homicidal Liu - respectfulness and good cooking skills

Liu has gone through a lot of traumatic events, all his life. Some he holds the memories, after alter fusion, and others... Not so much. But what he does know is that disrespect towards his person, and what he has gone through, is something he doesn't want to go through never again. So being respectful, in the sense of not narrowing him to DID guy, or to murderer, it makes him genuinely happy.

Liu misses his family, even though it wasn't the best family. It's been 11 years since he lost all his family, so sometimes he will try cooking food that his parents used to make. However he... Is not the best cook. He tries, he really does, but it's not his thing. So having someone put the time and effort to do this small act, of cooking him the food that he misses since a teen, it makes him have butterflies. Plus, seeing his lover in an apron sounds cute in his mind.

Sully - strong morals and dark humor

Sully may share a body with Liu, but he is still his own person, as an alter. And most importantly he is the system protector. It is his role to make sure no more trauma is suffered. So, having a lover that understand that and agrees with him, it is a sight to behold to him. And most importantly, having someone that understands and respects the boundaries he puts, which are many, is important for him.

Now... The system is rather small, and so Sully is a trauma holder alter. But... His method of coping with that trauma is mostly through dark humor. Jokes about his trauma done by him or the body, is the way he knows how to cope and, in his eyes, not turn into a monster like Jeff, which he despises. Having someone letting him indulge in his not healthy but necessary coping mechanism, and even joking around with their own problems, it ends up in a great pair for him.

B.E.N._drowned - Sass, nerdiness and night owl

BEN is not really a human, and although he sometimes can be very human like due to the Moonchildren Souls, the one in control is still the Behavioral Environment Network. So he has the power to be as mean as he wants and not feel remorse. Though as a behavioral AI, he can react in many ways depending what his code finds most fitting. He didn't start liking sass, but after being around Jeff and collecting data to act based on that, besides the souls, he ended up sassy, and enjoys now having sass thrown back at him. It is a familiar environment, which is something he sometimes need.

He is based around on TLOZ, and his souls had that common interest besides other games, so of course he wants a gamer to fit with him. He doesn't sleep, so having someone also be a night owl and stay the whole night spending time with him, letting him learn their functions and behavior, it makes him enthusiastic, as much as malevolent code can be.

Eyeless Jack - Patience and a hard stomach

Jack, different than a lot of the others, didn't want to be here at first. And as such he isn't the easiest to approach, sometimes being plainly reclusive, and others being aggressive. Having patience but still perseverance to approach him at his own time, and let things go in his time, it makes him trust you even more.

Jack, as we all know, is a human eating being. Not sure cannibal is the right term since he isn't a human anymore, but I'll use it for now. As a cannibal, it is not easy to be around him sometimes. He is not afraid to eat in front of others if needed, or to harvest organs out of a human carcass. If you can endure at least the putrid smell of organs and blood, than you will find EJ to not be he worst to be around.

Laughing Jack - playfulness and clingyness

LJ is, as we all know I assume, a clown! So what would I clown like to be around? People who know how to have fun, of course! Playful battering, joking around, a good sense for a performance, this are all things that, summed by playfulness, make Jack feel alive. The feeling of succeeding at making his lover laugh till their cheeks turn red, it is a sight to behold to him, so having a good sense of playfulness makes things a lot easier.

On the other hand, Jack was once abandoned for years in his toy box. He grew to feel lonely, sometimes even around others. Having someone being close to him, even when not the best option to do so, and the feeling of being wanted all times. It does magic to the clown.

Laughing Jill - good sense of humor and optimism

Jill, like Jack, is a big clown lady and as such, she loves to make people laugh and have fun! She isn't the fondest of the more mean plays, but she does love striking jokes around, so having a good sense of humor is the best option of a pair for her!

Although she was made to be happy and make others happy, she can have negative emotions too. But having someone that will make sure to let her know that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and give her the care she gives to others, it is truly special for her.

Candy Pop - chaotic nature and being laid back

Candy is to an extent a genie like entity. And as such, they love to bring chaos, and distort stuff to their amusement. And as such, having someone that matches their personality is what they want. C'mon, who doesn't want to see what can happen if they inflate their head like a balloon? I do.

As such, someone strict to the rules, and someone that wants them to be in line at all times bore them if not anger them. They need some semblance of freedom. Being laid back, doing your stuff when they do theirs, and uniting forces to end get out of trouble, that's love to them.

Jason the Toymaker - size difference and art appreciation

Jason is someone that likes to feel in control of any and all situation. He is a manipulators, so making sure he is the one up top, it's what he wants ever and ever. Having someone smaller than him, it gives him a semblance of control, even if only illusory. It plays in his control freakiness.

As a toymaker, he is an artisan. He loves to create intricate toys, which are pieces of art in itself. Having someone that appreciates it and praises him for it, it boosts his already inflated ego. He might plainly squeeze you for your praises, as a thank you.

That's all I got for now, might do some others plus the proxies on another post.

Reminder that it is cool if you don't agree or like these, y'all can have your own opinions and it is very valid! This is how I like the characters (aka sick in the head).

[tmntartblock]

TMNT LEOSAGI AU

FIND ME IN THE FUTURE

Chapter 2: Finding the truth

previous chapter | next chapter

After some weeks, after the physical scars had started to heal, Gen, the old friend of Usagi, came to visit unexpectedly. Gen had been part of Usagi’s military but left after disobeying the leaders. Leo had met him only once when he had just left and had the military after him.

“Gen… What are you doing here?” Leo asked. Hope raised in him. Was Gen here to tell that Usagi was safe and everything was just a horrible nightmare?

“Do you have that Earth leaf juice? I need that stuff before I have to flee again. The army is too active on this planet to stay long.”

“You mean tea? Uh, yeah sure”, Leo said and went to put the kettle on. Finally, after pouring everybody a cup, Gen opened his mouth.

“I’ve heard rumours of a prisoner bunny here on Earth. Is that true?”

“Prisoner bunny?” Leo stood from his chair, staring Gen, afraid of what the rhino might say next. Heart was pounding painfully in his chest. Prisoner bunny could only mean-

“I only know of one bunny who visits this Earth”, Gen said, eyeing the turtles that looked all shaken up, except Mikey, who was more focused on devouring his cheerios.

“You mean that backstabber Usagi?” Raph spitted, anger raising in his voice. “He betrayed us with some Foot ninjas couple of weeks ago and left us to die.”

“What? That doesn’t sound like Usagi”, Gen said and emptied his cup.

“I guess you can’t really trust anyone nowadays.”

“He… He sold us out”, Mikey said, voice quiet, trying to make the words hurt less. “Just like that.”

“There was clearly something going on. He said he was not going back to the Realm”, Leo said.

“Maybe they got him”, Gen said. “It was dangerous for him to come here out of all places. They knew where to look for him if he actually decided to leave.”

“So… you are saying he did not betray us?” Donnie asked.

“I can not be for certain. All I know escaping that hellscape is not an easy task and you have to run for the rest of your life. Not stay with your boyfriend.” Gen gave Leo a pitiful look.

“It’s not Leo’s fault that he’s ex is an idiot”, Raph spitted. Leo looked at him angrily. Raph meant good but it hurt that everybody had just accepted that Usagi was a backstabber and it was jus the truth that he didn’t care about Leo.

“Look. My intels told me that there is a bunny, held captive on Earth. That’s all I know and I wished that you would have more information but you clearly don’t. The Realm is breathing on my neck more than in years and I have to look out for myself.” Gen got up. “Thank you for the leaf juice.”

“Thank you for telling us even if it risked your life, Gen”, Donnie said.

“I still care about my friend even though we did not separate in best terms”, Gen stated, melancholy in his voice. “I can’t wait for the day that the Realm falls finally and we all will be free. Good bye.”

Gen created a portal and disappeared, probably as far as possible. Leo had no time to feel bad for the rhino because all he could think about was that the worst betrayal of his life might not be true at all. He hadn’t sleep for weeks. He had felt anger, shame, sadness, everything in a rollercoaster and all at once. Questioning all the love that he had so blindly felt. And now all those feelings were insignificant. Usagi was probably captured. Being tortured. Weeks of the anger turned to shame. How he could have believed such things of Usagi. Leo knew him better. Leo knew how honourable, how loyal and caring he was. And that one moment let him threw out all of that.

Leo felt hesitant. He remembered how Usagi had looked at him. Directly into his eyes. There had not been any fear, no hesitation. Leo was hurt and Usagi did nothing to help. Maybe Leo had read the whole situation wrong.

He had made a mistake. Why hadn’t he gone after him immediately?

“Leonardo. What are you going to do?” master Splinter asked with his husky voice. He had stayed on the side, like he nowadays did most of the times. Time had done its work and master Splinter had grown weaker. He only could stand ten minutes at the time without shaking.

“I will fix this”, Leo said and looked at his father with determination. Weeks of hopelessness turned into new purpose. “I will start my search in New York.”

“You can’t just leave us for your own little missions!” Raph yelled and pushed Leo’s shoulder. “Foot ninjas could attack any time!”

“You basically demolished them, Raph. They are not coming back any time soon. They don’t have a leader. You made sure of that.” Why Raph always wanted to push him back?

“You don’t know how fast they can reorganize themselves again. You’ve seen they don’t go down easy.”

“I have to do this Raph. I have to safe Usagi. Don’t do this any harder than it already is.”

“He left. Willingly. You saw it. Gen is full of shit.”

“Gen said that there are rumours of a bunny prisoner held hostage on Earth. Who else could it be?”

That shutted up Raph, for now.

Leo started to attack the scattered Foot ninjas, trying to get any information out of them but nobody seemed to know anything about a bunny prisoner even a sword on their throat.

After weeks of inspection, Leo came to the conclusion that Usagi was not in New York. The only other option seemed to be going to Japan, to Tokyo. Raph was not happy, he yelled at Leo for being irresponsible. Leo couldn’t give a damn about Raph’s opinion: Raph didn’t know what real responsibility was. He had never had to make the tough calls and gave bullshit for Leo for doing so. Master Splinter didn’t seem happy either. But for years now he had chosen to give advice to only when asked for it, so his words meant nothing now. The responsibility of the family was put on Leo and he was going to use it. Wether others liked it or not.

It wasn’t easy to leave them all on their own. The last time he had done it, he had to rush back to ruins, thinking that he’s brothers were dead. But his brothers were competent. They’d survive. The Foot was no threat anymore and Donnie had a good surveillance system. The family was safe. With these thoughts he packed a little bag and left, unsure of when he would return. He only knew he could not return without Usagi.

Leo had always wished to visit Japan but this way wasn’t the most pleasant. Tokyo was huge, full of possibilities and dangers. With his elementary level Japanese Leo barely survived and he had no help to gather any information about anything so he had to go in places cold turkey. That meant the stakes were higher, the risk of dying being more imminent than ever.

But Leo knew that he could not give up. Somebody had to know something. Leo attacked ninjas, trying to gather any valuable clues but again, nobody knew anything. He infiltrated the headquarters, searched every single prisoner cell but nothing. He wanted to give up. To go home to his family. But he couldn’t. Fear of failure burned through his veins.

Finally, after months and months of constant attacks from Leo, the head of the Japan Foot clan quelled after a fight and told that they had a deal to help transfer a bunny through a portal. They had forced Usagi to make a deal. Leo tried his best not to have the anger overconsume his senses. The blade of his katana was shaking on the neck of the leader.

“Does that ease your mind, reptilian? His freedom for your life.”

It did, for a second. But that meant Leo had been wrong and it may had costed Usagi’s life.

That’s it. There was no other information. They did not know anything else, the Foot didn’t ask questions for that good amount of money. Leo believed.

Leo went back home, defeated. Usagi was not anywhere on this planet.

The return was difficult. Everyone tried to act like he had not disappeared for months. Leo tried to cover his anger. He tried to act normal. Listen to Mikey’s rampant about his new comic book idea. Sit next to Donnie and hand him over screwdrivers and metal pieces. Let Raph use him as a punching back. But nothing took away the pain.

Disappointment was eating him alive and the only thought consuming his brain was that Usagi was not on Earth.

Usagi was not on Earth.

Usagi was not on Earth.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

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[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 49 – Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

Introduction

I forget who initially recommended me this book, but I owe them an incredible debt. Really the only disappointing thing is that I hadn’t heard of it even sooner, as this really is just perfectly tailored to appeal to me specifically. First science fiction/fantasy novel I can remember reading in a long time that I actively wished was longer. As a testament to how much I liked this book – this review is long enough to need subheadings.

So! Some Desperate Glory is a space opera, following Kyr (Valkyr, technically), a 17-year-old cadet and genetically enhanced ‘warbreed’ golden girl of Gaea Station – that being the quasi-fascist statelet of militant dead-enders who fled to a desolate planetoid in a dead system to continue the war after aliens destroyed the earth/most of humanity. After she gets assigned to Nursery (read: breeding the next generation of soldiers) instead of a combat wing and has a crisis of faith, she talks herself into running away to help her brother on the suicide mission terrorist attack he was deployed on. With the help of one of her brother’s friends and a captured alien, she manages it, discovers that her brother had absolutely no intention of actually following orders once he’d made it out, and take it upon herself to do her own, better, terrorism. From there the plot gets weird, and I’m going to spoil it shamelessly talking about it, but if you value surprises when reading at all just stop this review and go read it.

The Heroine

Kyr is, and I say this lovingly, the most insufferable bitch of a 17-year-old military brat I’ve ever spent time in the head of (at least at first). Even compared to the other indoctrinated child soldiers she’s the cop nobody likes. She then spends the first third to half of the book unlearning this indoctrination, by which I mean very arduously and painfully reaching a point of ‘the fascist cult was a corruption and black mark on the good name of the death cult vengeful crusade, I’ll do it better’ and ‘it’s probably okay to not, like, personally hate aliens who were too young to have been alive when the earth was destroyed. Torturing them for no reason is wrong, like abusing animals was, back when there were animals’. She spends the entire book expecting on a bone-deep level to get herself killed for the cause, and at the end of the book is only like 10% of the way better (one of the last beats in the entire story is, standing with one of her only friends and sure they’re both about to run out of life support, offering to snap their neck for them because ‘asphyxiation’s a nasty way to go’). Whenever she is confronted with the idea that some people aren’t constantly aware of the possibility of physical violence or get to live their lives as something other than a bullet in the gun seeking vengeance for a dead planet she wants to scream and smash things at the unfairness of it all. I adore her.

Honestly my only real complaint is how quickly she starts mellowing out in the second and third acts of the story. There’s extenuating circumstances (whole extra life of memories, time loop bullshit, forcibly confronted with what she said she wanted and what it looks like, etc), but past the one real big hump it did rather feel like her character development suddenly became a bit smooth and easy/. This is one of the things I’m talking about when I say I wish the book was longer – everything after the first big climax and the time travel/universe editing felt kind of rushed and abbreviated.

As far as being a #problematic fave goes, Kyr was also very carefully kept from being, like, directly personally culpable for anything really unforgivable. Which I do understand why from a wanting people to sympathize with the racist homophobic fascist child soldier, but like – you’ve already introduced time travel and retroactivity. C’mon, don’t get cold feet now. Let her and Avi really share the ‘killed trillions in a universe that retroactively never happened’ credit.

Also, and entirely tangentially – you know how in a lot of action shows, the hero has incredibly emotionally tense rivalries and/or camaraderie with other guys, and then also an extremely conventionally feminine girlfriend off to the side somewhere who does like two things in the entire story and mostly seems to exist to prove he’s straight? Kyr has that, except she is textually gay (if incredibly repressed about it and like 90% of the way to asexual in terms of libido). Sorry Lis, but you are literally barely a character. Cleo’s right there, and already has a personality that’s more than two bullet points and is actually involved in the plot in ways beyond ‘love interest’.

Gaea Station

The shitty fascist asteroid habitat that Kyr grew up on is (if barely) the primary setting of the story, and as far as portrayals of incredibly unbalanced and fundamentally broken society just full of cultlike and ultranationalist neuross. I kind of love it as a dystopian setting, though I feel like the author kind of over-egged the pudding on it by the end of the book.

Society is organized into what feels like an intentional parody of a lot of YA dystopia setups, where you live in a tightly integrated mess all through adolescence (each with their own heraldic animal to idenity with!) but then at 17 your exams determine the branch of society you will be assigned to for the rest of your life to do your duty for humanity. Of course, unlike most YA dystopias, the System isn’t the result of some leviathan-state ruling the fates of millions or a tradition that’s going back generations upon generations – it’s a ramshackle mess that can barely consistently feed its warrior elites enough protein slop to take advantage of their genetically engineered hormone levels for muscle growth. It’s all so clearly and intentionally artificial and fake that it loops around to feeling extremely realistic.

Also do love how the elder generation all have names like Joel or Ursa or Elena, while the younger generation are all Valkyr and Magnus and Avicenna and Zenobia. The only really surprising thing is that they don’t specifically call out how children are raised in common and without individual families as following Plato’s Republic – it’s exactly the sort of attempt to create a grand unifying mythology for all of Earth’s true and vengeful children.

I really do wish Tesh had trusted the reader a bit more about it, though. Like, we can tell that almost all the names of the younger generation are either historical figures form the Mediterranean/Greco-Roman world or Norse mythology (with a few exceptions like Avicenna who fit the general aesthetic if not those exact conditions), which puts a bit of a lie to the whole ‘pan-human’ bit. It’s a clever bit of characterization through worldbuilding! You don’t need to call it out twice in dialogue between characters and then again in an in-universe scholarly essay excerpt at the start of a chapter. I can’t complain too badly though, she’s really not even close to being the worst for that I’ve read recently.

One thing I did like especially because I don’t think it was ever called out and brought front and centre is just the sort of, like, perfect irony of both Kyr and her brother Magnus – ‘warbreed’ engineered supersoldiers with physical capabilities beyond any baseline human, blonde aryan ubermensch, the golden children and eugenic future of Gaea Station/true humanity – both being queer and totally unsuited to their assigned gender roles. If it was, like, specifically brought up in a big monologue as disproof of the Gaean ideology or something it’d feel much too on the nose, but as just a set of facts underlying the characterization of the protagonists I liked it quite a lot.

Trio Dynamics

They don’t actually have all that much pagecount spent together, now that I think about it, but as far as I’m concerned the absolute heart of the story is the dynamic between Kyr, Avi (Avicenna, genius-level hacker and cynical rat bastard discontented Gaea Station restaurant) and Yiso (young and rebellious Prince of the Wisdom, taken captive by Gaea when they’re personal ship came too close and then liberated/kidnapped by the other two in their escape attempt). It’s peak trauma-bonding in that the first time it involves a) Avi torturing Yiso to force the alien supercomputer to let him access it and b) Kyr shooting Avi in the head after he uses access to the supercomputer to wipe out 90% of galactic civilization as payback for the whole ‘destroyed Earth with an antimatter missile’ thing (she got a case of morals when confronted with what ‘winning’ would mean. Also her brother shooting himself.)

By all rights they should absolutely hate each other and after two temporal recursions and oceans of retroactively unspilled blood on all their hands they’re the only people who even slightly understand each other. At one point Kyr tells Yiso ‘just so you know, I don’t really care about you as a person,’ and then immideately thinks ‘that was a lie. Why did I say that?’ Avi and Kyr both deprogram themselves from the cult that raised them but only the ‘loyalty to the cult’ bits and not the ‘alien race war vengance death cult’ bits. Yiso meets Kyr in an atemporal training simulation and gets retroactive Stockholm syndrone even though the first time they actually meet she breaks their ribs for repressed teenager reasons. They all drive me absolutely insane and I absolutely adore them. Even if Avi’s redemption felt waaaaay too rushed and unjustified in the final recursion, willing to forgive it here.

Time Loops

The big twist of the story is that, having fucked up and enabled Avi taking vengeance for Earth by doing the same thing to every other alien species, Kyr jumps into the alien supercomputer time manipulation buisness wholesale and goes back to prevent the destruction of Earth. Which then fast forwards to her being a newly minted officer in the Terran Expeditionary Fleet that is the imperial power dominating the known galaxy in increasingly high-collateral damage ways as time goes on. Yiso, in this timeline the beating heart and soul of the main alien resistance group, seeks her out and restores her memories and they go back to try and hijack the alien supercomputer before the government office whose hijacked its crippled remnants (as helmed by the alternate-timeline version of Gaea Station’s great leader, now a fleet admiral of the ‘Providence’ division) manage to literally destroy the universe.

It is mostly down to all the fanfic I’ve read, but I really, really adore timeline divergences that ropagate out and leave all the major characters different but similar people in alien yet appropriate situations. I also adore time travel stories about someone turning the timeline into swiss cheese trying to brute force their way to the one and only golden ending. So I adore this whole conceit. Really my only complaint is that there were only two (one and a half, really) recursions. Not that I’m demanding a full groundhog day here. But, like, it’d have been nice. And Kyr/Avi/Yiso continuously bumping into each other in different configurations and usually ending up at gunpoint would have been ann absolutely amazing bit.

Space Orcs

I can’t be sure Tesh actually had any exposure to the whole online meme of ‘humans as space orcs’, but I do and it’s really impossible to read the book as anything but an examination of the idea. Compared to every alien species ever encountered, humans are tall, heavy, muscular, impulsive, and violent. In a one-on-one confrontation they’ll snap any other species’ neck. The very first pages of the book are an excerpt from an in-universe text writing for an aliens about how actually really humans are very intelligent, and then talking about how threat displays and ‘human culture’. In the original timeline they even fit into the usual social niche of orcs in a lot of fantasy these days – the scattered and diminished remnants of a brutal empire that was defeated and mostly-exterminated in their attempts to conquer the universe.

The book’s handling of this doesn’t really have a point, as far as I can tell – the worldbuilding’s sufficiently divorced from anything real that trying to call it a commentary on racism or genocide or conquering empires is a stretch. (It is after all a fundamental point of the book that the obliteration of earth and extermination of the vast majority of humanity really was the only way the Wisdom could prevent the Terran Federation from conquering the known galaxy. Which is I’m extremely sure not something the author intends to be a historical analogy.) I found it a fun bit of worldbuilding and interesting subversion of normal space opera tropes regarding humanity’s relative abilities, anyway.

Theodicy

Is an incredibly pretentious way to title this section, but also in a sense kind of the core of the book’s plot? In an interesting way, and I think it’s really the book’s greatest weakness that it doesn’t explore or grapple with it enough.

Which is to say – the Wisdom is at the heart of galactic civilization. It’s an alien AI with vague but vast (though limited) reality-warping and precognitive powers. It does not rule the civilizations that accept it, but guides them as a benevolent god towards best, happiest outcomes with whatever support they ask for or need. To determine what ‘best’ means, it creates its Princes, vat-grown heirs to the dead species that created it, with a lifespan of millenia spent going through simulations and interacting with the world to provide the data and decision-making it requires to make that sort of strategic decision.

The Terran Federation’s attempt to reverse-engineer or hijack the Wisdom put it in a situation where the only solution its princes could find was to destroy the better part of humanity and even more of their industry and culture. Through the plot of the first acts of the book, Kyr and her genius-level-hacker friend hijack a node of it and Kyr convinces/forces it to accept her decision-making instead of its prince (who they just killed). This results in an explicitly colonialist human empire ruling over aliens as oppressed subjects, and using the half-wrecked and poorly understood Wisdom to eliminate threats before they occur (shunting the reality backlash off to alien worlds they don’t care about). The next acts of the book mostly resolve around fixing or reverting this, and end with Kyr diving back into a node and having another conversation with it.

A conversation which is basically it giving up. It reverts things back to the human-genocide timeline, then shuts down its infrastructure and goes dark, leaving the entire mostly pacifistic and loosely governed galactic civilization it had protected suddenly on its own. Humanity were such assholes we found a loving god and then convinced it to kill itself.

Which, like, could 100% totally work. As far as high concept short story prompts go its incredible. But as far as actually driving the action goes the Wisdom is the one who makes the most important deciisons in the entire book, and determine the entire shape of the plot. For it to land, it really really needed more than two and a half short conversations on screen, at least to me.

TL:DR

Good book, lesbian doing space atrocities, should have been longer.

[incorrectshantaequotes]

MINI-TRANSCRIPT: Hypothetically Speaking

So - had an idea for a comic, kinda like the one I did for the Reversal AU after I finished Huntress Baron's design, buuuuut as I was drawing it, it occurred to me that it would take WAY more work than that one, and as much as I would like to commit to it, I do have real life obligations that make me unsure if I could finish it. But, it was also funny enough that I wanted to make sure people saw what I had in my head somehow...

And then it occurred to me: transcript. I've done this for the Reversal AU plenty of times for hypothetical cutscenes, why can't I do it for general canon Shantae with hypothetical comics? So, here we are! This is going to be shorter than the ones I've done for the Reversal AU, and far more comedy-focused, but I hope you enjoy!

(NOTE: this takes place after Living Memoir. It's not really required reading to understand this, but if you feel curious about how the exact situation described below came to be, go ahead and give it a read!)

[Scene starts inside SHANTAE's house. HOLLY LINGERBEAN is laying down on SHANTAE's couch, reading an opened letter, while SHANTAE is in her pajamas and pouring herself coffee]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: Huh. So, you and the zombie girl are together?

SHANTAE: First of all, don't go through my mail. I should not need to explain to you why that's rude. Secondly, yes, we are. It happened a while after the whole...ordeal with you, and I am NOT in the mood to explain right now. So if you have something to say-

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN quickly sits upright and puts her hands up with a placating expression]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: Hey, I'm a lesbian too, I'm fine with that! I'm just curious is all!

[SHANTAE looks behind herself, no longer irritated but contemplative]

SHANTAE: ...huh. Well, good for you. Maybe I'll be willing to answer some questions after I've had some breakfast-

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN puts a finger up with a grin, clearly about to say something, when SHANTAE turns her head away with a deadpan expression]

SHANTAE: -made by MYSELF, because I'm not dealing with your sixth attempt to bribe me to ditch my plan to try and guide you to being a better person THIS early in the morning.

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN's eyes widen, and she looks away from SHANTAE's direction while some sweat appears over her forehead]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: I...! Ah...I...wasn't...going to do that...

[SHANTAE and HOLLY LINGERBEAN are silent for a moment, the only sound coming from SHANTAE sipping from her coffee mug]

[Afterwards, HOLLY LINGERBEAN speaks up, her expression more neutral but looking genuine]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: So, have you felt the inside of her disembodied arm?

[SHANTAE promptly does a spit take and whips her head around with an extremely confused and disturbed expression]

SHANTAE: Excuse me??

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: Okay, that one was probably a bit much...has she bitten you? Or, well, not actually biting you, obviously, more like...letting her teeth hover just over your unbroken skin?

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: Letting you feel her breath run over you, knowing that she could bite down at any moment? That sort of thing?

SHANTAE: ...NO??? Why are you asking me this??

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN puts her hands up again, this time looking defensive]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: Hey, I'm just curious! I mean, just, hypothetically speaking, if I was the one with the zombie girlfriend...

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN looks away, almost appearing to be in a daydream as she speaks]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: I kinda figure that'd be part of the appeal, you know? You're looking at someone who's cheated death, in a sense, but death left its scars, and you'd naturally get just as intimate with those as you would with everything else about your girlfriend...

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN gives a wistful sigh, her eyes now closed with a light blush across her face]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: And she wouldn't ever let death take you, no matter what anyone has to say about it...she'd go to the ends of the earth for you - you belong to her, and she belongs to you, forever intertwined, and you'd end up finding comfort in how the two of you will never be apart-

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN's eyes suddenly snap open, her blush now luminescent as she looks like she's just now heard what she's been saying. After a moment of silence, she glances to look at SHANTAE]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: You know. Hypothetically speaking.

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN turns her face away from SHANTAE, hiding the sweat on her face and her nervous grin as she laughs]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: It's not like I've ever THOUGHT about that sort of thing or anything! Or, uh, any OTHER incredibly specific, but still very similar scenarios...that'd be crazy! Hahahahaaaaaaaa...

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN suddenly stands up and walks over to SHANTAE - who, this entire time, has not changed her expression - and places a hand on her shoulder]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: Heeeeeey, why don't I make some breakfast for both of us! Completely bribe-free, I promise! We can just sit back, relax, and forget everything I just said back there!

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN pauses, looking to the side, and then looking back at SHANTAE]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: Metaphorically. Forever.

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN proceeds to power-walk to the kitchen while SHANTAE stares after her]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: I accept your thanks in advance~!

~~~~

[Several weeks later, SHANTAE is in her regular outfit, stretching in a hotel room on Siren Island, when HOLLY LINGERBEAN bursts into the room, looking distinctly panicked while also blushing]

SHANTAE: Holly? What are you-

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: OK, so I know I haven't been the most receptive about the whole "hero" plan, because I thought it was stupid and you should've just been grateful I wasn't stealing memories anymore, but is there ANY way you could make me a good person in like, three hours? Preferably less? Because I REALLY think-

[SHANTAE promptly grabs HOLLY by the shoulders, now looking mildly concerned]

SHANTAE: Oooooookay, slow down! Holly, what is going ON? I mean, normally I'd be really grateful for the turnaround, but this is kinda freaking me out. Seriously, what on earth brought this on?

[HOLLY LINGERBEAN looks away, still blushing]

HOLLY LINGERBEAN: Well, there's this lobster girl, and she's really nice, and she was concerned about me, and I would let her drag me to the bottom of the ocean but that's not important, but we've been hanging out, and she's REALLY nice, and if she finds out I'm a bad person and doesn't like me I will DIE!

[SHANTAE pauses for a moment, a buffering icon appearing over her head as she processes HOLLY LINGERBEAN's statement, before looking at her with surprise]

SHANTAE: ...you have a crush on Lobster Siren? I mean, I'm happy for you, don't get me wrong, but I'm honestly surprised. I mean, she really doesn't seem like your...type...

[It is at that exact moment that SHANTAE'S expression becomes more deadpan as two memories float to the top of her head, illustrated by a thought bubble - the first is LOBSTER SIREN appearing right behind SHANTAE without warning, causing her to yelp in surprise and mild terror, and the second is LOBSTER SIREN eating a raw fish, looking confused as to why SHANTAE looks so horrified]

SHANTAE: ...on second thought, never mind. I think I can guess why she appeals so much to you.

[drakiandh]

Shifting Jewels - Chapter Two, Strawberry Trip

Another one. Imma update every Saturday in hopes that I can make these chapters without stress. I am in love so far, and am currently making their designs. Anyways, happy reading! Words - 4,265

Star’s gaze lingered on the fallen gem, its vibrant red hues now dulled by the golden corruption that had taken hold. His weapons returned to their places within his gem with the flick on his true hand. The air around him hung heavy with a mix of emotions, a complex tapestry woven from joy, grief, and fear.

Joy surfaced at the sight of Painite, an old companion he thought lost to the ravages of time. Grief welled within him, knowing that despite the years that had passed, Painite still harbored resentment and hatred. Fear, however, clutched at his core, an icy grip that tightened with the looming threat of the corruption that had claimed his friend.

Approaching cautiously, Star moved towards the gem as if the very act of proximity might trigger the other’s reform. He hesitated before gently nudging it with his foot, as though testing the waters. When no reaction followed, he reached down and cradled the corrupted gem in his hands, a sense of regret lingering in his touch.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, his voice barely audible, as if speaking too loudly might shatter the fragile moment. His finger traced the intricate cracks on the gem’s surface. “I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner.”

Before Painite could attempt to reform, Star enveloped the gem in a sphere of deep navy blue, cradling it gently. He hesitated to send the other gem to the temple back in Beach City, opting instead to shrink down the bubble small enough to fit it into his pockets. Clutching the bubbled gem in his hands, he stood and walked over to the nearby pillar. Retrieving his jacket, Star concealed the gem under the fabric, beginning the journey back to the nearby human town. As he walked, he couldn’t bear the silence, so he decided to speak aloud.

“Things have gotten better, at least in my combat skills,” Star murmured into the open air, absentmindedly rubbing the bubble with his thumb. “When I last visited Rose, I could handle nearly three whole minutes in a fight with her. I wonder how she is; it’s been, what, a hundred years since I’ve visited?”

He was certain that if Painite could hear him, he’d be complaining about Star talking his ears off. Star weakly chuckled at the thought, the memory quickly tainted by their current relationship. “It wasn’t my fault,” he began, hopping down the stone path while keeping the gem within the bubble steady. “Well, it was, but could you blame me? I couldn’t bear the feeling of being just some slave to them. Blue was cold and rude to me, assigning me a purpose without even checking if I was functioning properly. Sure, I’m glad she didn’t, because if I wasn’t, she would’ve shattered me, but the thought would’ve been nice. Yellow was just an ass to me, telling me to ensure Pink would win the war. I’m not even going to mention White; she was terrifying. Pink was a lot better before, well, you know. She was the only one who treated me like someone alive, but even then, she was distant and only really interacted for war-related matters.” Star rambled.

“When Rose offered my freedom, she treated me like I was something alive, not just some tool to see into the future. How could you have stayed? Did you like being their slave? Being nothing more than what you were made to do?”

Star could already imagine the words Painite would say if he wasn’t poofed and bubbled in his hands. “My purpose is what I am made to do. Why should I fight it?”

“But what about after it?” Star responded to the whispers of the question. “After the war, would you be shattered? Poofed? If you were lucky, you’d be taken by Yellow and sent to fight there. But is there really nothing for you other than just claiming worlds filled with life to make more repressed gems? Earth is a free world, Painite. It’s not too late to renounce your allegiance to the Diamonds. I doubt they would even take you back if you somehow get to Homeworld again. They’ve probably already made thousands of Painites on some claimed world of theirs, and maybe they’ve already created thousands of Star Sapphires too. So what’s the point when they’ve already got copies of us?”

They arrived in town before Star could continue, prompting the blue gem to sigh and tuck the blue bubble safely into his pocket. After ensuring the bubble wouldn’t pop when he moved, he shook his still-blue hands back into their false brown color and began his trek toward the nearest warp pad, conveniently located on the other side of the human town.

“Hey, Star!” The Sapphire turned his head toward the human who walked up to him, smiling nervously. He recognized this person as the one who had encountered him in the forest.

“Hey, Carl,” Star greeted, faking a warm smile. He chuckled, clearly nervous.

“I heard a big bang earlier; did you find that big beast and take care of it?” The human asked. Star’s hand drifted down to the bubble hidden in his pocket.

“Yep!” he responded, popping the ‘p’. “You won’t have to worry about it now.”

“Thank god,” the human sighed before offering a genuine smile. “Want to stay over for a while? I know a good hotel-”

“No, thank you, though.” Star cut the human off, still smiling. “I’ve got to get back home.”

“You sure?” The human asked.

“Sure,” Star nodded. The human watched him for a moment before shrugging.

“Your loss.”

Star walked off before the human could say more, his smile falling when the human was out of sight. The Sapphire pulled his hood up to cover his expression, walking as casually and as fast as he could. He’d been to this town many times before, unintentionally earning himself a friendly traveler reputation. And true to his nature, he strived for everything to be pleasant around him.

He smiled and waved at each human that greeted him, engaging in brief conversations with those who asked him questions, and graciously accepting any small gifts offered. By the time he arrived at the edge of the village, the sun was dipping down the horizon, and Star felt the weight of exhaustion settling in.

“Alright,” he muttered, more to the gem in his pocket than to himself. “The warp pad should just be down this road.” The shadows of the night devoured the last remnants of sunlight, and hidden pockets of light illuminated his path. His own gem began to glow with its blue hue, casting a gentle radiance that helped him navigate through the darkness. Intrigued, he took out Painite’s gem, holding it in his hand to see if it, too, would glow. Surprisingly, it did, but the light was subdued and took on a purple hue due to the blue bubble encasing it. Star wondered how Painite’s true red color would look in the dark, but he dismissed the thought, assuming it would be dull and muted, much like Painite’s current appearance. Star pondered what might have happened to his once-vibrant friend for his colors to fade into a pale pink. Was it the corruption? It seemed unlikely, as most of the Corrupted gems he encountered retained the vibrant colors of their original forms. So, what had happened to change Painite’s appearance?

The warp pad glowed subtly in the surroundings, concealed yet unmistakable. Star felt a tired smile spread across his face as he stepped onto it, clutching Painite’s gem close to his chest to ensure it wouldn’t slip from his grasp in the beam. The white light enveloped him, a low hum filling the air as he traversed to his home. The journey took only a few moments, and as the light dissipated upon arrival, he stepped off the pad and took a deep, unnecessary breath. His home, Mask Island, was saturated with the sweet scents of nature and pure water. Though he didn’t require air, he appreciated the olfactory experiences it offered. His smile grew a bit as he strolled down the familiar path he had tread countless times.

His eyes lifted to the split mountain in the center of the island, a frown creasing his features as he recalled the event that had caused it to crack open. He was grateful that Rose, Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst had managed to thwart the Cluster, just as he had foreseen many years ago. When he first glimpsed that timeline, concern had gripped him about Rose’s fate, fearing that it might be altered, as if she wasn’t truly there. Yet, as the world beneath his feet still flourished under the first rays of the sun, he found ease, finding he had nothing to worry about.

His home, aside from being part of Mask Island itself, consisted of a simple cave within the mountain that had remained unscathed. While it lacked the embellishments he had envisioned, its dull grey walls still emitted the comforting yellow bioluminescence. It wasn’t filled to the brim with decorations, but it was home—his home. However, he knew there was one more task to accomplish before he could retire for the night. Stepping to the center of the cave, he summoned his shadows, drawing them from his gem’s light to form a large, protective dome. Placing Painite’s gem at the dome’s center, he stepped outside, ensuring Painite wouldn’t escape. Using one of his shadow hands, he punctured the blue bubble, and Painite’s gem fell to the ground.

Star stared at the freed gem, nerves coiling in his chest as he waited. He recalled that Painite had only poofed once before during the many years they’d known each other, and it had taken a considerable amount of time for him to reform. Star wondered how long it would take now that he was corrupted.

As it turned out, not very long. Painite’s gem began to glow in its vibrant red hue, illuminating the cave as his form emerged. Star winced as it shivered and glitched from the crack, but Painite reformed with a gasp. The red gem fell to his knees, frantically surveying his surroundings, eyes wide with shock. Upon spotting Star, an animalistic hiss escaped from his mouth, and he instinctively retreated as far as he could. Star winced, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender to try and calm the other gem down.

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you,” Star said softly, slowly, keeping a careful eye on Painite. The red gem continued to stare back, his mind not fully present, as he emitted a low growl. Star took a few steps back, recognizing it as a warning growl from past experiences. He patiently waited as Painite gradually regained his composure. After a few minutes, Painite blinked and slowly looked around.

“…Where am I?” Painite asked, his gaze returning to Star. The Sapphire didn’t respond immediately, lowering his hands and allowing Painite to stand, leaning on the dark navy of his containment.

“You’re on Mask Island,” Star explained gently, enunciating carefully to ensure his words reached the red gem. “You’re in my home.” To his surprise, Painite emitted a sharp laugh.

“I’m in your home? This hardly looks like a temple,” Painite remarked, his voice trembling slightly from exhaustion. Star frowned, torn between leaving Painite to rest and pressing for the information he sought.

“How did you survive the Diamonds’ blast?” he inquired, stepping forward until he was a foot away from the dome. Painite glared at him, his teeth clenched and bared in an obvious threat, but he appeared too weary to do more. In fact, it seemed Painite knew he was too fatigued to fight, so he opted to provide an answer instead.

“I hid in Earth’s crust,” Painite replied simply.

“But how?” Star pressed, unsatisfied with the brevity of the explanation. His insistence drew a hiss from Painite.

“The Cluster didn’t get corrupted,” Painite explained slowly. “It was too deep for that. I thought if I got deep enough, I would be safe.” He paused, shifting his weight slightly. “I was not fast enough.”

That was all Star needed to hear. “Okay,” he breathed, nodding to himself. His eyes snapped to Painite’s leg as it glitched, forcing the red gem down with a shout. Star responded by shouting the other’s name and bringing a hand to his gem, summoning the old healing liquid from the depths of his memories. Luckily, the glitching on Painite’s form faded quickly, leaving the red gem on the ground. “Pain,” Star called, waiting until the other’s single eye stared at him. He lifted the liquid floating in his hand, holding it out in an offering. “I can heal your gem if-”

“No!” Painite hissed, wincing as he got to his feet again. Star recoiled as if he’d been hit, surprise evident on his features.

“No?” Star repeated, confused. “What do you mean no?”

“I will heal my own gem,” Painite responded, leaning heavily on the wall of the dome. “I do not need your help to do so.”

“Dude,” Star said incredulously. “Your gem is cracked, a good hit and it would shatter.”

“Then so be it,” Painite responded, finally gaining enough strength to only leave a hand on the wall in case he fell again. “But I will heal on my own.” Star stared at him, mouth slightly open in confusion.

“Wait? You don’t mind being shattered?” He asked, watching as Painite slowly began to walk closer, using the wall to guide him.

“No,” Painite responded simply. Star waited for something else, an explanation, a reason, anything, but all he got was silence. So instead he prodded. “Why?”

“Why?” Painite repeated, stepping closer. “Why not?”

“Why not? Because if you get shattered, you’d die,” Star said. “You want to die?”

“I don’t mind dying,” Painite responded, his arm slowly lifting in a gesture Star recognized well.

“Well, you should,” Star responded, keeping his eyes on Painite’s face. “You shouldn’t mind dying. There’s so much to live for on this planet.” That got a laugh from the other, short and fake.

“There is nothing on this planet worth living for, other than it being a good gem-producer planet,” Painite responded. “Besides, it has a new purpose. Soon the cluster should emerge; I felt those quakes.”

“The cluster has already been calmed,” Star said, causing Painite to pause. “I saw it 5321 years and two weeks ago. The cluster has been subdued, and I don’t see it returning anytime soon.” Star didn’t flinch as Painite’s arm thrust forward in a pathetic attempt to hurt the other. He did flinch when Painite’s arm pushed against the dome before recoiling with much more force than necessary, forcing the gem back and knocking him off balance.

Painite landed on his back, and a horrified gasp escaped Star as he heard the tell-tell sounds of a gem cracking. Painite’s form erupted into glitches, lasting much longer than the one before. When it settled down enough for Painite to reform fully, the red gem rolled onto his side and laid there. Star saw a few small yellow shards fall to the floor, bringing a kind of dread Star hadn’t felt since the Diamonds decided to corrupt the rebellion.

“Painite! Your gem!” He said, dissipating the dome and rushing forward. He knelt by the other, earning himself a weak hiss. He held out his hand with the healing water, his hand shaking slightly. “Please, please, please just let me heal you.” He begged, hating how the Diamonds had made him. To never give, to never act without being asked first. He hated how he was made to just be a future seeing and better pearl.

“…Only the Diamonds… can heal a gem…” Painite said weakly, glaring at Star.

“Come on dude, all you have to say is yes! You know how I was made, you know!” Star begged, tears beginning to pool in his eyes as fear caused him to shake. Painite simply stared, his expression softening from the hardness Star was so unused to. But just as quickly as it came, it vanished, leaving Painite to turn away.

“No.” He hissed.

“What is your problem?!” Star yelled, dropping the water and allowing it to fall to the ground as he stood up. He was tired of his friend’s attitude, hating the stubborn nature he had once loved. “Why won’t you let me heal you?!” Painite didn’t respond, only laying still as he looked away. Star groaned, burying his hands into his hair as he fought the urge to go destroy something.

“Fine!” He finally yelled. “Be that way! I’ll be back in the morning, and when I do, I better get an explanation as to why you’re being such a stubborn and stupid ass!” He reerected the dome with a grunt and turned on his heel, storming out in the open night. He left for the warp pad, knowing exactly where to go to vent his frustrations.

╭──────────.★..─╮

┊ ⋆ ┊ . ┊ ┊

┊ ┊⋆ ┊ .

┊ ┊ ⋆˚         

✧. ┊         

⋆ ★

When Star returned to Mask Island the next morning, he wasn’t surprised to find his cave empty. Instead, he stood there, gazing at the tiny yellow shards scattered on the ground. A heavy sigh escaped from Star’s lips as he stepped off the wall he had leaned on, embarking on the paths he had etched into the earth. He wandered aimlessly, not actively seeking Painite, already resigned to the likelihood of not encountering the other gem for another millennium or so. The idea of visiting Rose crossed his mind—it had indeed been a substantial span of time.

With that contemplation, he altered his course toward the island’s warp pad. As he strolled, he observed the quaint watermelon creatures that now populated the island. Star had even picked up a smattering of their language, learning from them that his vision of the Malachite fusion had indeed come to fruition. The thought was disheartening, but he found solace in knowing that the remaining Crystal Gems had managed to handle the situation in his absence.

A sudden voice interrupted his musings, prompting him to shake off the inquisitive watermelon beings who had tagged along. Swiftly and quietly, he dashed towards the voice, halting in astonishment when he beheld Painite, forcefully pressing his corrupted foot onto the warp pad. Painite’s countenance twisted into a snarl, and it seemed as though he was barely restraining himself from summoning his weapon and assaulting the pad. “Why won’t you work?!” Painite bellowed in frustration.

Star hesitated, well aware of Painite’s propensity for coldness and hostility. Despite the lingering anger that urged him to confront Painite, his concern for his former companion took precedence. “Painite?” he called out tentatively, taking a cautious step forward. Painite’s head snapped towards him with a sickening crack, and for a fleeting moment, Painite softened slightly with surprise. Yet, that softness vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by a snarl as the red gem bared his teeth.

“What do you want?” Painite hissed, his attention fixated on activating the warp. Star assumed Painite regarded him as either too insignificant a threat or had already accepted his fate.

“I was just going to visit someplace,” Star said, maintaining a distance. Painite continued to glare, and Star respected his space. “Is something wrong?”

“You,” Painite hissed bitterly. “You’re the problem. If it wasn’t for you cracking my gem further, I would be able to leave this diamond-forsaken planet.” Star sighed, nodding apologetically.

“I am sorry for that,” Star said earnestly. “I can heal you if you want.” He flinched as Painite’s glare intensified.

Painite scoffed, and his expression hardened. “You think I’d trust you after what you did? I don’t need your help. I will find that damn fountain of yours and heal myself.”

Star paused. “Wait, fountain?”

Painite sighed. “Yes, the rumor of some healing fountain the rebellion used to heal gems. If it exists, I intend to find it.”

“Oh, it does,” Star said, earning a slightly less angry, confused look from Painite. “I helped make it.” Painite stared at him for a long moment, causing Star to fidget slightly under the gaze. Suddenly, Painite seized Star’s coat, pulling them close enough that their noses nearly touched. Due to Painite being on the warp pad, Star found himself shorter than the other, causing his face to redden from the unexpected proximity.

“Take me to the fountain,” Painite commanded, utilizing the authoritative tone Star had missed. The closeness and the rough voice almost next to his ear made Star melt momentarily, surrendering himself to the unexpected intensity. A good shake, however, brought him back to his senses, and he straightened up.

“R-Right! Sure!” Star stammered out, offering a crooked grin. Painite scoffed and released the Sapphire. Star yelped as he fell, his legs too jelly-like to hold him up. He groaned as he hit the ground, laying there for a moment before sitting up and rubbing the back of his head.

“You’ve been around too many humans,” Painite stated. “You’re acting like one.” Star laughed sheepishly before standing and hopping onto the warp pad, determined to push aside the warmth of the other’s breath on his face. Now was not the time to dwell on past connections.

“To the garden!” Star declared, waiting for the white light of the warp pad to envelop them. Nervousness crept over Star as the warp pad failed to illuminate, and Painite shot him a pointed look.

“Well?” Star flinched, rubbing the back of his neck.

“The warp pad to the garden must’ve been damaged,” he admitted, laughing nervously in an attempt to defuse the growing tension beside him.

“What?” Painite demanded. Panicking, Star scrambled to find a solution.

“I can take you to the next closest warp pad!” he suggested hurriedly. “A-And I can take you there directly!”

Painite seemed to ponder the option, studying Star intensely. Just as Star was about to propose another alternative, Painite spoke, his tone gruff, “Fine.”

“Wait, really?” Star asked, taken aback.

“Do not act like an idiot, Sapphire,” Painite hissed. “Just take me to the fountain, and I will let you live until I can repair the homeworld warp.” Star furrowed his brow but nodded nonetheless. With a simple thought, the warp pad activated, transporting them to the next nearest warp. The short journey was enveloped in silence, with only the subtle hum of the light surrounding them. Star considered offering an apology, as he had done millennia ago, but he hesitated, turning his gaze away.

The light subsided, revealing a sprawling field of strawberries and butterflies drifting gently on the breeze. Painite inhaled sharply, prompting Star to steal a glance at his reaction. The corrupted gem appeared lost, gazing over the field with an expression Star couldn’t quite decipher. After a moment, Painite blinked and stepped off the pad, unintentionally crushing a strawberry in the process. He then turned toward Star with a pointed look, his expression now devoid of the earlier confusion. Star nodded and hopped off, following an invisible path. Yet, curiosity got the better of him, and he couldn’t resist the allure of conversation.

“Sooo….” Star began, glancing at Painite from the corner of his eye. “Did you ever fight here?” Painite remained silent, and Star assumed he wouldn’t respond.

“Yes,” Painite finally replied, prompting a surprised “huh?” from Star.

“Wait, really? That’s cool! What was it like?” Star inquired, turning around and walking backward to face his travel companion. Painite frowned and swatted away a curious butterfly.

“Were you not there? You should have seen it for our Diamond,” Painite retorted, earning a wince from Star.

“Well, I had foreseen it. I told Pink that the battle would be horrible, but that there were going to be multiple. There were so many that I don’t exactly remember the details,” Star responded.

“Speak her name with respect,” Painite hissed before continuing. “This place is where the rebellion turned the tide of the war. And I was there from the beginning.”

“Really?” Star asked. “What was the biggest one? I remember you were a commander then.” Painite frowned, but Star knew just how to encourage him to share war stories.

Star could see the internal struggle on Painite’s face, but eventually, he sighed and began recounting the tales, much to Star’s delight. “The most significant battle I led was the one that changed the tide. It was destructive, and in the first half, we were winning.” A slight smile appeared on Painite’s face, lost in reminiscence. “We nearly shattered half of the rebellion forces with barely a scratch on our own. I could easily see their attempts and their paths, making it easy to thwart their plans.”

However, his smile quickly faded into a solemn expression, and Star noticed Painite absentmindedly rubbing his gem. “I became too confident, too cocky, and I paid the price. A single gem’s strike took out the leader of our forces, and the battle shifted in their favor. With my crack, I couldn’t fight on the front lines or guide my forces, and that’s the only reason you won.”

As the atmosphere turned somber, Star chimed in with a meek “Oh.” After a brief pause, he ventured, “I remember that day. I’m sorry.”

“Your apologies will not change the past, Star,” Painite responded, saying the name with a surprising absence of hatred, momentarily catching Star off guard. However, the resurgence of resentment was swift, and Painite’s gaze transformed into a piercing glare. “Now, how long will this ‘trip’ take?”

“Oh, just a little over a month.”

“What?!”

[touchtheinvisiblestars]

The scowl on his face was enough to set off a wave of irritation in you. You'd had plenty of disagreements in the run up to your leaving date. The last ending in him leaving the hotel room you were staying in the night before, unsure of when you'd broken his trust so badly.

Which made for a really awkward flight the next day. He point blank refused to speak, sitting down next to Benny. Feeling dejected, you couldn't work out why he'd decided you shouldn't join them. To the point you weren't sure whether you should.

***

"I just don't think you coming to location is the best idea."

"Frankie, what the hell? You've never had an issue with this before. We've been to far worse places."

Standing across the room from each other, he had his arms crossed defensively over his chest. It wouldn't take a genius to work out he wasn't saying everything he wanted to. Even more so that you'd known each other for over eight years. Been to more countries than you could count on both hands, spent month after month sleeping in the same room as each other.

"That's not really the point is it." He was almost scowling at you, at this point you were wondering if he'd hit his head and had a total personality transplant.

"Go on then. What is your point?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you. I'll speak to Pope in the morning."

"Why don't you just spit it out. You're clearly hiding something, and to be honest you're acting like a dick."

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't think you should be on this mission."

"Okay, but why? You can't even give me a valid reason?!"

"I- you know what I'm not going to stand here and list all the reasons."

"So there's a list? What have you been supervising me for the last eight years? Inspecting my work? Who the fuck do you think you are?"

"Someone who knows better than you, you've been getting sloppy over the last year. I read that report from June last year. Your bad Intel nearly got a whole fucking group killed."

Losing all the fire from your anger, you physically recoiled, "Frankie I told you that in confidence. Not so you could use it against me later on." Refusing to look at him, you stepped back and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Don't do that okay, I'm just trying to look out for you."

"Mhmm."

"Nope. I'm not letting you guilt trip me into changing my mind. Fuck that."

***

Choosing an empty seat near the front of the small jet, you slumped down and stretched your legs out. Looking out of the window, the air marshals capturing your attention.

"What on earth is wrong with you and Fish?" Pope's voice brought you back into the plane.

You gave him a look, "why don't you ask him?"

"I've tried!" His voice raised a few octaves, and you let out a chuckle, "that man is in one heck of a grump. I'm wondering if you were to blame."

"Me?!" You narrowed your eyes at him, "well, I'm sorry that I came. Seems like everyone's pissed at me for existing."

"Woah, woah, woah, no one's saying that. Hang on. What the heck were you two arguing about last night anyway."

"I'm not gossiping Santi, I'm really not in the mood." You crossed your arms over your hoodie and tucked your legs up on the seat.

"No- I just want to know what's going on. I'm not having any unresolved issues going in. We need to work together on this."

Looking at Santi, he had a furrow in his brow. You understood how important this was for him, but you held up your end of the bargain fine. You'd put together the profile as you always did and the concept was going to be easy to put into practice. It was the people who were going to be harder to organise.

"Well. Go ask your pilot why he's so dead set against me coming. He was acting like I'm going to fuck up the whole thing." Meeting Pope's eyes, he'd softened slightly.

"What? Fish thinks you're amazing at what you do, more than half of our missions would have gone sideways if it wasn't for you."

"That's not how he was acting last night. Or for the last two weeks."

He sighed, thinking for a moment, "trust me when I say that none of us think you aren't capable. You're a fucking badass okay? I'm going to get Benny to swap with me and I'll talk to him."

As if on cue, the seatbelt sign pinged off. Shooting you a cheeky smile he gave your knee a squeeze and pushed himself out of the seat.

Not long after a larger figure sat down next to you, looking over to see a pair of bright blue eyes and a suspiciously wide grin greeting you.

"Jeez, did someone put some tequila in your orange juice this morning or what?"

"Whatever I had. You need some of it." He jibed back at you, "you and Fish are a real bore this morning."

"Yeah well I'm sorry. Guess someone just took the wind out of my sail."

"Pfft. Oh come on, you can't let me down. I need my drinking buddy back for tonight." He poked a finger into your ribs, making you jump involuntarily.

"Oh I'm definitely drinking tonight. I'll need to after you finish your scout of the place."

"Hang on. You aren't coming?"

"I think it would be better for you guys if don't. I'll probably just fuck everything up."

"Oh no you don't. I need my eyes with me. You can't pussy out on us."

"Well you're going to have to convince Frankie. Cause I've spent the last two weeks arguing with him about it. He's decided he can't stand me."

"Why didn't you say? We would have just told him to shut it."

"Same reason I guess he didn't tell you either."

There was a bit of a pause before Benny replied, looking at him, he had this almost offended puppy dog look on his face.

"Something must be up with him, he wouldn't act out like this for no reason."

"I sure hope you're not blaming me for anything. Mr."

"No! No I'm not, sweets, you can't seriously think he just decided to hate you after all this time?"

"If you saw the way we were arguing yesterday. You'd have a different opinion."

"Okay, well I know Pope won't have any of it and..." He paused, shifting in his seat to get a better look down the aisle of the plane, "seems like they're having a pretty serious conversation."

"Good for them."

"Why don't you try and get some sleep. I bet you hardly slept last night, and we need you well rested." He gave you a smile and when you sighed, accepting defeat he broke out into a grin.

Settling yourself into a more comfortable position, your brain kept trying to creep back into overthinking mode like you had been for the last day. But you forced it to shut up and enjoyed thinking about nothing.

A warm hand on your arm brought you out of the unexpectedly deep sleep you had fallen into. Blinking your eyes repeatedly trying to get rid of the remnants of sleep.

"Mhmm?"

"It's okay sweets it's only me, cabin crew told me I had to wake you up."

"Oh, right."

You'd somehow tucked yourself in a tight ball in the corner of the seat. Stretching out your muscles, they ached at being stuck still for so long. You winced at the twinge.

"Feeling a bit better?"

"Uhh, ask me in half an hour, I'm all groggy." You laughed lightly, it's always a risk having a nap. 50/50 you're going to wake up feeling like dirt, or completely fine.

The plane landed quickly, and we all filed off.

We got into the two jeeps waiting for us, with Frankie obviously jumping into the other one.

Arriving at a private tucked away villa. Before we could all scatter and chill, Pope explained to us we would be having two days downtime, to travel to the location.

"Wait Pope, that's not what you told us last week." Benny asked.

"I know. I had to keep it under wraps what was really going on, we're going to another location."

You hated this. Being less prepared because plans changed without you being told.

"Look, I know this isn't ideal. But the information we're after changed hands because of our intel. So I couldn't risk it happening again because we all knew."

"Was it just you?" You asked Pope, gaze falling on Frankie.

"Was just what me?"

"Was it just you that knew?"

The others got wind of what you were implying, and both Miller brothers let out a characteristic huff.

"You knew." You pointedly spoke to Frankie.

"What the hell was so bad about this You couldn't share with the rest of us." Benny jumped in.

"I had Fish do some digging and it was almost ridiculous what he found they had about us from our last visit here." Pope explained, a slight wave in his voice made you realise he wasn't just being a dick. We had got ourselves into trouble.

"It- it wasn't just what they had from the mission. They had some people follow a couple of us back." Frankie spoke up, it felt weird hearing his voice for the first time in like twelve hours.

You had stupidly assumed you could all go unnoticed. Suddenly feeling very exposed, you excused yourself from the table.

"I'll be back in a bit guys. Just carry on without me."

You made a beeline for the front door, and rushed out of it. Feeling stupid for not realising that's why Frankie was so adamant you shouldn't come. You'd been followed home. You did have a sneaking suspicion someone had been following you the last few weeks. But you'd initially brushed that off, putting it down to living in a small town and meeting the same people in multiple places. The supermarket, the gym, the park, even at the bank. Clearly you'd let your guard down.

Sitting down at the end of the garden, the house was fairly high up and had a beautiful view over a jungle valley.

"Fuck!" You exclaimed, the gravity of the situation had just hit you like a landslide.

"I'm sorry but I tried to tell you."

"Great job, flinging insults at me and vague accusations." You snapped back at him.

"Pope insisted you had to come, but is it really worth it?"

"Well. I'm here now! Can't really do much about that."

"You weren't going to be. I almost had him convinced to have you back home."

"Thanks, making me feel so much better."

"But then he said you'd be safer with us. That anything could happen while we're away and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it."

"If you're now trying to tell me. That this whole you kicking up a stink about me going, was because you were worried for me... Is absolute horseshit Morales. This is just not even funny anymore. You've spent the last two weeks telling me that you don't think I'm good enough for the team anymore, and that I'm not going to help you guys. Well you know what? You can shove your half-assed non-apology right up your conceited ass. Because I'm done with you. Whatever bond we had over the last eight years, you just totally threw away. So well done. I've had enough."

You could see the panic in his expression. But you just didn't care. He'd totally stomped on your trust for him, and you'd had enough.

"Hey wait." He intercepted you as you walked past where he was standing. A rough hand softly gripping you left elbow.

"What? Don't bother trying to force out an apology. Its not worth it and its not going to help either of us." You couldn't look at him, he had one of those faces you couldn't say no to. Even if you were mad as hell.

He let out a deep sigh and let go of your arm. Stepping back, he said nothing. Which was almost worse than him saying something stupid.

[ringtailwrites]

Draco x Reader

I haven't written a lot but I'm trying to do more so here's a Draco x Slytherin Reader. It's kind of short but I hope you enjoy! <3

~

This hasn't been beta read so I apologize for any and all spelling and grammar mistakes.

Of course the person you fell for just had to be the infamous Draco Malfoy. He was kind of a dick, but you saw through that, you saw how kind he could be. And naturally you fell for him. Your friends with him, being in the same house, but you know he could never like you like that.

"Y/n!" Draco calls out when he steps into the Slytherin common room.

"Yes Draco?" You respond from the couch, looking up from your book.

"McGonagall wants me to do this big project on transfiguration. She wants me to turn a living breathing frog, into a non living, non breathing chair! Can you believe that? She knows I'm not good at that class so she makes me do the hardest assignment." He rambles out as he comes and flops on the couch next to you.

"You know," you start as you turn to face him, "if you just ask, I wouldn't mind helping you." You say smugly.

He scoffs, "as if your even passing that class."

"I'll have you know, I'm passing all of my classes. Unlike some people." You say with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"If you really do want help meet me in the library during our free period tomorrow and I'll help you." With that you get up and get ready for dinner.

~

You can't help but wonder if maybe he does like you back; he's nicer to you than anyone else, he offers you things when he doesn't offer anyone else anything, he's mostly respectful when it comes to you. But maybe his parents just taught him to be nice to girls?

Your free period rolls around and your in the far back corner of the library where you normally sit. You have all your notes from transfiguration and all your books out ready to help Draco if he shows up. You hope he does, you already see him a lot but you want to see him more.

He walks in holding a few papers with an unpleasant look on his face.

"I see you actually decided to show up." You say with a laugh as he gets to the table.

"McGonagall said if I do good on this demonstration then she'll pass me. I need to. Pass this class Y/n." He replies, running a hand through his hair.

"Don't worry, you'll pass. I have faith in you"

He rolls his eyes, "where do we start."

~

Two hours pass and your starting to make progress, you think he might actually pass this class. While he writes down some notes your mind drifts, you think of what it would feel like to run your hands through his fluffy blond hair while he lays his head in your lap.

You internally groan to yourself. Your screwed if you can even be around him without thinking about dating him.

"Uh... Earth to Y/n? Hellooo?" Draco says as he waves his hand in front of your face.

You snap out of your daydream, "oh sorry. Did you finish those notes?" You try to change the subject in hopes that he won't ask what you were thinking about, but you know him better than that.

"Yes I did finish them, now, what could you possibly be thinking about to make you drift that far away?" You can tell he's suspicious.

You decide to tell him the truth, just not the whole truth. "Just some guy I like." You try not to blush as you look back down to your own paper.

"I see." It might be all in your head, but he sounds disappointed.

"Jeez Draco, why do you sound so disappointed?" You decide to poke fun at him a little bit to hide your embarrassment.

He stumbles over his words, "I'm, um, I'm not disappointed."

"Uh huh, sure, I totally believe you." You roll your eyes playfully. "What, do you have a crush on me or something?" You know that he's most likely going to say no, and your going to be crushed. You wait for rejection, but it never comes. You look up at him again.

"Maybe I do." He mumbles looking down at his hands. You don't know if you heard him right, you've spent years crushing on him only to find out that maybe he's liked you this whole time.

You get up from your seat and Draco looks up at you, expecting you to leave, but you don't, you walk around the table to the side he's at and you make him stand up.

"Really?" You ask in a hushed voice.

"Yes." He whispers back. You both continue to stare at each other for a moment feeling like you two are the only ones in the entire school.

He breaks the silence, "can I kiss you," he whispers softly.

"Please do," you reply back.

You suddenly feel his soft lips against your as his kisses you. You kids him back. Butterflies do flips in your stomach as you feel his hands on your waist pulling you closer. You put your arms around his neck and you thread one of your hands into his hair, pulling him in more. You feel like this moment could never end.

You both pull back needing to breathe. You make eye contact with him as you catch your breath.

"I've had a crush on you for years," you laugh quietly, "since I met you actually."

"You should have told me sooner," he whispers in a smug voice, "I've liked you just as long."

"Really?!" You ask, shocked as to how you never knew.

"Yeah, I saw you on the train and I thought you were cute, then we got put in the same house, we became friends, and it just never went away, it grew to the point where I was always trying to get your attention."

"Well now you have it." You pull him into another kiss and he holds you tighter, never wanting to let go.

[carai-an-caldazar]

WoT s2 and book spoilers below

Gotta say, I'm digging s2 better than s1 so far. Yes, they still made some inexcusable changes (Uno) and some where I don't understand why they were necessary (Liandrin - I was having a wonderful time just peacefully hate-loving her), but generally speaking I like the narrative they're setting up.

Particularly, I like Mat's character development. Last season I was kinda seeing a sulky bastard who made excuses for his own poor behavior. This season, it's a sulky bastard with a good heart who's so ashamed of his choices that he can't face his friend. Infinite improvement, and a little closer to the book!Mat that I know and love.

Min also just knocks me off my socks every time she does something. I was very, very scared of what a tv show would do with a character like Min (especially considering the whole "sexy lamp" debate surrounding her), but they keep showing a well rounded, kick-ass, human Min who cares deeply about what she does and who she meets. Can't wait to see even more of her.

One of the weird changes is Perrin, and I'm kinda mad that they forced more weird changes on him after s1. First off, it was a hella weird choice to leave out Hurin. I understand why they put Elyas there but 1) Elyas would never fucking do that and 2) it was absolutely hilarious reading about Perring trying to make it seem he was doing the same thing as Hurin, when he was absolutely not doing that. Hurin served as the perfect tool to demonstrate a certain line between normal and abnormal, with Hurin being on one side of that line, and Perrin far over it on the other side. Plus, visions? For real?

Not sure how I like grimdark!Rand yet. He's in a sort of relationship with Selene that book!Rand would have run away from. He's violent in a way book!Rand never was. I understand that he's got a lot to work through, but so did book!Rand, so there's really no excuse. Please, let my boi redeem himself in the later episodes.

The Wondergirls, in conclusion, were perfect. Egwene and Nynaeve's characters were on-point as always, and I am in LOVE with Elayne, to my great relief. I already suffered the loss of fav-character-Mat in s1, and it would have killed me to lose fav-character-Elayne too. They casted really well with Ceara. She's playing Elayne as a down-to-earth girl, but in a "oh shit this isn't normal for peasants?" way that has nothing to do with ego or entitlement, but more with genuine surprise, and without judgement. She cares so deeply about Egwene that she's sleeping out on a cold dungeon floor for a woman she's never met, she's brewing and experimenting and she does it all with SO MUCH GRACE. Thank you Kelly Valentine Henry for your excellent choice here.

In short, can't wait for the rest of the episodes! I'm so happy to actually be excited about them!

[cosmicanamnesis]

he tastes like chocolate pt. 5

[part 1] [part 4] [part 6] [read on ao3]

“Sorry about this,” Eddie said again, pulling out of the parking lot behind their work building.

“Hey, don’t be. It’s something to do, right?” The way Steve was smiling at him was so unbearably kind, Eddie could practically feel his heart beating in his throat. Running errands for his uncle wasn’t how he’d hoped the evening would go, but Steve really didn’t seem to mind.

Really, Eddie could have said anything and Steve would be just as eager to tag along. Steve was trying so hard to act normal and not like he would follow this almost-stranger to the ends of the earth if he’d asked. So far, so good, he thought. But god, his heart was beating so fast he thought it might explode. Hopefully the mundanity of grocery shopping would help him level himself out. They were just hanging out, Steve told himself. That didn’t mean anything. He shouldn’t read too much into Eddie buying him dinner. Maybe the guy was just nice. After all, he was buying all his coworkers coffee every day. Yeah. He was just… Nice.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

Lil Buddy:

did you find out what time your party is?

Yeah, he said it’s at 7. And he’s picking me up, so I might not actually be able to get to your place.

Sorry dude.

hey, don’t worry about it. I already said it was fine, didn’t I?

Yeah, you did. Don’t have too much fun without me, okay?

And don’t get injured, because I won’t be able to drive you to the hospital.

lol

"Who’re you talking to?" Eddie said, glancing over. "Did that say lil buddy?"

Steve laughed, slipping his phone back in his pocket. "The wingman," he explained. "They're doing a party at his place tomorrow, too. Just had to tell him I can't make it."

"Oh! You should've said something, Steve, you don't have to come with me-"

"You asked me first, dude. I see the kid all the time. I can hang out with him whenever."

"Alright, if you're sure."

"Why, you regret inviting me now or something?" Steve laughed, as if that wasn't the actual anxious thought that had been plaguing his brain the whole time.

"No! What? Definitely not. I'm really excited for you to come, seriously," Eddie was smiling, glancing quickly between Steve and the road. "I just… Wanted to make sure you knew you weren't, like, contractually obligated, if, y'know, you have something better to do."

"Trust me when I tell you, this is the something better."

Eddie could feel his face turning bright red. Thank god it was dark. 

Finally they pulled into the grocery store parking lot. It was a bit out of the way, further than Steve normally went to go shopping, so he figured Eddie must live close by.

"It's fine if you wanna just wait here, I won't be long-" Eddie said, parking the van close to the building.

"You're kidding, right?" Steve asked. Eddie just shrugged. "It's just the grocery store, dude, it's not like you're dragging me along to rob a bank or something."

"Suit yourself."

Steve followed Eddie around the small grocery store as Eddie repeatedly checked the text Wayne had eventually sent him with the grocery list. Stuff like paper towels and bread and beer and cereal, normal stuff. It reminded Steve that, oh yeah, he and Robin were out of peanut butter, and god knows how long he’d have to be out, he may as well grab a snack for the road too. Eddie glanced over at him, smiling.

“You can put your stuff in my cart, if you want,” he giggled, watching Steve struggle with the armload of things he ended up accumulating as they meandered through the store.

“Oh! Um, thanks,” Steve stepped up closer to the cart and Eddie helped him set things in the little baby seat to keep them separate. 

“I was gonna wait for you to ask,” Eddie said, still laughing lightly. “But uh… You’re pretty stubborn, aren’t you?”

It was Steve’s turn to laugh, pointedly avoiding making eye contact with Eddie.

“Yeah, I guess. That’s what people have told me, at least.”

“I’d believe it.”

Okay, so the grocery shopping wasn’t really helping as much as Steve had hoped it would. Somehow even the painfully mundane was fun just by virtue of doing it with Eddie. Steve watched as he drummed out beats on the shelves while he searched for the stuff on Wayne’s list and rode the cart down empty aisles.

Eddie knew he was being kinda weird, but it was making Steve smile. He was so aware of Steve looking at him the entire time, and it was making him nervous, and that was the one way he knew how to handle it. It worked like a charm on stage, and it seemed to be doing just fine here, too.

Eventually, with everything paid for and loaded into the back seat of the van, Eddie shot his uncle one last text that they were on their way and to please be wearing people clothes when they got home, and made the quick drive the rest of the way back to his place.

As Eddie pulled into the trailer park, he monitored Steve for any kind of reaction, any sign of surprise that Eddie lived where he lived. But if Steve gave a damn, he didn't show it.

They pulled up in front of Wayne's trailer and Eddie killed the engine as Steve got out and started grabbing bags, helping him unload.

God he was too sweet. Eddie just wanted to-

"So this is the mysterious Steve, huh?" a voice called from the trailer across the way. Steve jumped at the sound of his name. A man they hadn’t noticed until then was smoking on his own porch, dressed only in a bathrobe despite the weather. Eddie huffed.

"Good night, Murray," he yelled back, quickly grabbing the last bags and slamming the van door behind him as Steve made his way up to the porch.

"You didn't say he was-"

"Good NIGHT, Murray!" Eddie yelled louder, cutting him off. Their brief conversation seemed to summon Wayne to the door, fortunately for the boys who both had their arms loaded with groceries.

“You must be Eddie’s uncle,” Steve said, halfheartedly introducing himself as Wayne held the screen door open for the boys to bring the bags into the house.

“You must be Steve,” Wayne answered, looking at Eddie before peeking outside to see Murray giving him a small wave.

“Didn’t realize I was famous around here,” Steve laughed as he quickly found his way to the kitchen and dipped down to set his bags on the floor. Eddie followed in quickly behind him.

“You’re not, I swear,” he said, setting down the bags he’d carried in. “Murray and Wayne just don’t know how to mind their own business,” he spat, staring pointedly at Wayne.

Wayne raised his eyebrows slightly, almost smiling as he sipped from a mug of coffee that seemed to have materialized in his hand out of nowhere. 

"Susan's in on it, too," Wayne muttered, just low enough that Eddie could hear but Steve couldn't. Eddie groaned. It felt childish, grumbling like Wayne was ruining his life or something. He was an adult, damn it, he didn't need the neighborhood Olds speculating on his friends and his love life. 

"You gonna help your boy put groceries away or what?" Wayne asked, gesturing with his coffee to something behind Eddie. He whipped around to find, sure enough, Steve had started putting away anything that went in the fridge.

"He's not my boy," Eddie hissed, grabbing a bag to unload. God he hoped Steve couldn't hear them. He hoped what Nancy had said, about the concussions and the swimmer's ear affecting his hearing, would work in his favor just this once.

"Sure, son." Wayne nodded and turned, presumably making his way back to his recliner and his soap operas. Eddie rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the groceries.

"You have a cat?" Steve asked, excitement bubbling under his words.

"Huh? No?" Eddie turned and looked where Steve was looking. Steve looked at him confused and lightly kicked a bag of cat food leaning against the wall. Eddie started laughing. Steve still looked confused. "Oh! No, it's, um… It's for the uh, resident wildlife. Mostly stray cats, but also, y'know, raccoons and shit. Keeps 'em out of the garbage."

"Huh. Clever," Steve nodded. Eddie knew they did some real white trash shit, not the least of which being feeding the raccoons, and he usually didn't care if people knew. Steve, though… He didn't want to seem any weirder in front of Steve than he was sure he already did. 

He didn't expect Steve to think it was clever.

"Uh, yeah, I guess."

Steve started looking closer at the stuff on the fridge, slightly disappointed that he didn't get to pet a cat. Though, he figured, if he played his cards right he might get to see a raccoon up close. That'd be neat.

There was actually stuff on their fridge door, which was a relatively new concept for Steve. Back home, his parents wouldn't be caught dead doing that sort of thing. Robin got him in on doing communal schedules and grocery lists on a whiteboard on the fridge, and magnetic poetry which he wasn't any good at, but it was a good laugh. But here? Novelty magnets shaped like vegetables and fish held up business cards and take-out menus, a power bill he assumed was already paid because it was from September and the lights were still on.

There was a handful of mismatched number and letter magnets, mostly spread haphazardly around the fridge door except for one group that crookedly read F UCK TH C0P S that made Steve giggle out loud. His favorite thing, though, was all the pictures of Eddie and Wayne.

Some of them were Eddie's school pictures throughout the years. Two looked like they were from a camping trip: one, a silhouette of Wayne fishing off a dock at either sunrise or sunset, Steve couldn't tell. The other was Eddie, sitting on a rock, tuning a guitar by firelight. One picture had a lot of people in it, clearly taken in the middle of the trailer park. Eddie and some boys Steve didn't know seemed to be engaging in a sword fight with lit sparklers. There was an old picture of Wayne from what must have been his college days.

Steve's favorite was, of course, a picture of Eddie. He was small, hair buzzed short, wearing a paper crown that must have said something like Happy Birthday on it. He was smiling big and open-mouthed at the camera, showing off a missing bottom tooth. At the bottom edge of the photo, partially cut off, was a birthday cake with a lit number 8 candle.

"What are you over there smiling at?" Eddie asked, closing a cupboard and coming up behind Steve. Steve tapped the birthday photo. "Oh good lord, just kill me," Eddie grimaced, immediately moving his hand to cover the picture. Steve laughed and swatted his hand away halfheartedly.

"Aw, come on, Eddie. It's cute! My parents never put this kind of shit on the fridge."

"Really?" Eddie recoiled, looking legitimately shocked. "Thought everybody's parents did mushy garbage like this."

"Not everybody. I mean, don't get me wrong, they had pictures of all of us kids framed around the house but we never got to put stuff on the fridge. Mom said it was uh…" Low class. "It looked messy."

"Huh. Weird… You've got siblings?"

"You sound surprised."

"I mean. I dunno, you kinda struck me as a fellow only child."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Steve laughed, crossing his arms to feign indignance.

"Nothing! Swear. How many siblings do you have? Where are you in the order?"

"Uh, Jesus. Six, all older. I'm the baby-"

"Actually that makes more sense," Eddie cut him off.

"-but the next youngest is ten years older than me, so I didn't really grow up with them, per se."

Eddie smacked himself on the forehead.

"THAT'S what it is," he yelled, jokingly stumbling backwards at the force of his own blow. "God, seven of you? I'd never survive. How old are your parents?"

"Oh, don't ask me that, you're gonna make me sound like a terrible son."

Eddie cackled as Steve nervously ran his hands through his hair.

"Nah, that's fine. I don't know how old Wayne is, either."

"I'm thirty!" Wayne yelled indignantly from the other side of the trailer.

"Like fuck you are, old man!" Eddie yelled back, making them all laugh.

Steve felt his phone buzz in his pocket and pulled it out to check. Text from Robin.

"Huh…" Steve huffed, unlocking his phone as another text came in.

"Is that Robin? Did she strike out already?" Eddie chuckled, crossing his arms and leaning back against the kitchen counter. Steve shrugged.

dont know what ur doing but u have an hour to come get anything u need from the house

vix is staying the night n u know what that means

;) ;) ;)

"Oh. That makes more sense," he said, sucking his teeth, slipping his phone back into his pocket without replying. "Um. Do you mind if I crash here tonight?"

Realization dawned on Eddie's face and he cackled, giving one loud clap before he doubled over.

"Go Robin!" he cheered as he caught his breath, wiping stray tears from his eyes. "Yeah, you can stay here."

"Thanks. Could I convince you to drive me back to my place just to grab some stuff? Phone charger, shit like that? Apparently I have an hour." Steve tapped his phone in his pocket. Eddie spun and looked at the microwave clock. 

"Uh, maybe. Wayne!" Eddie shouted, leaning out into the hall, hanging by the door frame. "What time do you work tonight?"

"You've got time!" Wayne yelled back, answering the implicit question. "Just hurry up!"

"Cool, let's hit the road then," Eddie turned and looked at Steve, jerking his head to the side to beckon him along. Steve nodded and followed after him, pulling his phone back out.

Be there in 20! PLEASE be decent when I get there.

Robin's response came as they pulled out of the trailer park.

obviously

wait where r u?

I'm with Eddie.

R U SERIOUS?????

u gonna stay w him tonight? ;)

Oh my god stop. But yes.

never omg

hey unrelated: r we going to the nerds party tomorrow?

You can if you want. Eddie invited me to a different party so I'll be with him.

jfc just fuck him already

Tempting, but he's driving right now.

"The hell- Did you just take a picture of me?" Eddie looked between Steve and the road a few times before settling back on paying attention to where he was going.

"Yeah," Steve laughed. "Told Robs I'm with you, need a picture for proof."

"Gotcha," Eddie said skeptically. 

its dark dingus i can barely see whos in the picture

i assume its eddie

Haha, sorry, yeah.

Eddie snuck glances whenever he could at Steve's phone screen, enough to catch Robin's suggestive comment. Steve was wrapped up in their conversation the whole ride back into town, perfectly silent the entire drive.

"Gonna need you to direct me from here, dude," Eddie said, tapping Steve's shoulder to get his attention once they got back downtown.

"Oh! Duh. Um, keep going straight until you hit that light, then turn left. There'll be a parking lot on the right a few blocks down, just pull in there."

"Aye aye, captain," Eddie said with a little salute that made Steve giggle. He followed Steve directions and pulled into a parking lot that he hoped was the right one.

“Cool. Um, you can come up if you want,” Steve said, halfway out of the van.

“Yeah, uh, as much as Robin’s den of depravity sounds like the event of the year, I think I’ll pass.”

“Probably the smart choice.”

Steve shut the van door and ran across the street, fishing keys out of his pocket. Eddie watched as he unlocked the door to the building, nestled in between a pawn shop and a convenience store. Once Steve was out of sight, Eddie pulled his phone out. In his brief absence, the group chat he was in had blown up, and he had a few missed calls from his friends.

Dustpan: is anybody bringing real food to the party tomorrow?

Garebear: Do you guys not have food in your house?

Microwave: not enough to feed all of us!

Leia: yeah, unless you guys want ramen and cheese its all night, we’re going to need to go shopping

Dustpan: which is why I’m asking

Wildred: I’m off work in an hour, I can pick something up if I need to

JIF: How did I know this would happen?

JIF: I just bought like 6 bags of pizza rolls because I knew this would happen.

JIF: Will you might wanna get chips or something

Microwave: get a veggie tray

Garebear: Jesus Christ Mike what are you, 80?

Garebear: a VEGGIE TRAY??

Wildred: lol I’ll grab some stuff. Other than Mike, does anyone have any requests?

Dustpan: depends, where are you going?

Wildred: … The store.

Dustpan: okay, WHICH store, asshole?

Leia: unrelated, but we’re out of coffee so if you’re going to the store could you grab some?

Wildred: That depends on the requests

Wildred: Yes I’ll get coffee

JIF: That is VERY related as I’m sure we will be drinking your coffee in the morning

Garebear: Tru

G-Man: I can bring chips Will don’t worry about it

Wildred: I’m getting pita chips and hummus and nothing else if you guys don’t tell me what you want

Garebear: Nooooo can you get jalapeno cheetos

JIF: Oh shit, yeah, seconding the cheetos

Wildred: Sure

Dustpan: ANYWAY I asked because I want those bulk plantain chips we get but if you aren’t going there then I’m good.

Wildred: I can get your stupid plantain chips, yes

Microwave: do we have eggos? el just texted me

Leia: WHY are you asking the groupchat that?

Microwave: bc i can hear one of you in the kitchen but i don’t know who it is

Microwave: and i don’t want to yell

Dustpan: it’s me, yes we have eggos.

Wildred: Lucas, do Max or Erica want anything?

Leia: please hold

Leia: max also wants jalapeno cheetos. erica wants pocky or oreos

Dustpan: we have like three different kinds of oreos. don’t buy oreos.

Microwave: we have oreos?? since when??

Dustpan: since like, thanksgiving break dude. if you ate more than dino nuggets and mac n cheese maybe you’d know that.

Microwave: hey. harsh

Microwave: i eat other stuff. i JUST asked for a veggie tray

Dustpan: yeah, because you use vegetables as a vessel for ranch.

Wildred: Eddie, do you want anything?

Microwave: also occasionally cheese, don't be reductive

Dustpan: there is something deeply psychologically wrong with you, you know that?

Wildred: Does anybody know what Eddie’s doing right now? I called him but he didn’t answer

Garebear: He never answers his phone, dude

Dustpan: huh. yeah, he didn’t answer me either.

Garebear: His phone has been on silent the entire time he’s had it

JIF: He should be off work by now, idk where he is though

Garebear: Dude. Did you just try to call him too? 

can you get me icecream?

Dustpan: eddie!

Wildred: Yeah man, what kind?

idk cookie dough or something? brand doesnt matter

JIF: He likes Ben and Jerrys

okay yeah but thats expensive

Wilma: lol I’ll see what I can find

you are a benevolent host

One of these days he'd need to come up with a funnier nickname for Grant.

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

the hellfire club groupchat is my pride and joy. also, i'm sure you all noticed, we officially have a title and, in turn, we're live on ao3! this part will go up on ao3 later today, i'll link it back here when it does!

tagging: @original-cypher @avacrebs @dangdirtydemons @rainydays35 @changenamelater @phantypurple @alienace @renaissan-vvitch @krazyperson @steddiereid @kittsu-makes-glass @i-must-potato @jaywhohasthegay @henderdads @mightbeasleep @straight4joekeery @sharingisntkaren @micheledawn1975 @thehumblefigtree @goodolefashionedloverboi @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @potentialheartofdarkness @dreammetheworld08 @steveisabicon @biatcgh @alittlegreyfish @r0binscript

[seth-burroughs]

The people who made raincode and danganronpa are making another game and you're the most raincode person I know so I'm coming straight to you

It's called "The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy" and it seems really swag and I was wondering if you knew about it, cus it's coming out next year and I'm looking to get it and ik you like raincode, dunno your thoughts on danganronpa but uhhhhhh yeah

I'll be honest I have no idea about any of the games that are coming out currently everything I learn about whatever it is going on in the game sphere has been through mutuals posts. I do not like knowing things. Like I knew about Tribe Nine (but like. just barely a few days ago i found out that's a thing) but this one is new. What's up with that Kodaka. Since WHEN are there two of these now and WHERE are they coming from

I'm not really, uhh, interested? in any of these? So far? (That being said I also wasn't interested at all in Rain Code when it was first coming out either and just wanted to check it out real quick with no intent to succumb to the demons and then return to my normal life, so this statement has the potential to age) Somebody in one of their comment sections said they look like gacha games and honestly yeah they do and I don't trust that. I don't trust them

Basically, uhh thoughts:

Main boy and his fit especially looks suspiciously similiar to Yomi and I think that for that he should be executed

They're reallyyyy pandering to all the Danganronpa fans in the chat aren't they. Aren't they. 16 students locked in an academy with a quirky mascot (who. also looks exactly like is Shinigami Rain Code procreated with Humpty Dumpty) while UDG happens in the background. Like, all these Unknown Assailants are literally just UDG monokumas. Also people die there. Also the style is just. Danganronpa.

What do you mean Kodaka apparently went into debt over this. How and why on earth

Yeahhhh sorry I won't be able to actually play this I think. Even if it did not suspiciously resemble a barely disguised gacha game, I am neither good at nor do I like these sorts of strategy type games. I'm pretty bad at gaming and grinding especially, just give me the story let me read the words on the screen.. I only ever successfully finished ndrv3 because you can't lose at Danganronpa. Thank you dr for being easy I am kissing you on the mouth. If a MDARC sequel ever comes out then I will probably actually buy it too because the first one's gameplay mechanics looked doable for me. But also like. If it's gonna be switch exclusive again then I'm just gonna watch it on yt or something I'm not getting an entire switch just for Rain Code. Basically what I'm saying is that I don't like strategy games cause they're too hard for me

The edgy blue hair girl looks like a middle schooler's deviantart oc no offense to all the middle schoolers on deviantart and their ocs just an observation. She looks so bad. Eyesore. Speaking of the character designs HOW are they so fucking white. They're making Kanai Ward residents look like they actually getting suntan in comparison

I spit on it. Disrespectfully. Why is everybody getting so excited over it yall said NOTHING when Tribe Nine game trailer was out this month too what's special about it. You will never be Danganronpa. I spit on you. I spit on you, disrespectfully

I just watched the... Second trailer apparently and it's looking a liiiiiiiiiiitle better but not enough. I'm still mad over the protag stealing Yomi's fashion. The enemies look so goofy and nobody is hot. Nobody is even hot.

Seth don't care

Similiar feelings on Tribe Nine also (esp. the whole gacha thingy except with this one it's pretty much confirmed lol), however. I am actually interested and will definitely check it out if it comes out (even if it's just to watch like, a few videos and then be done), because of two reasons.

One. The entire premise of the anime, which came out first and I'm pretty sure will influence tha actual game somewhat, is glorious. This is peak fiction. Rain Code wishes it had what Tribe Nine has. Futuristic dystopia where in order to combat the rampant youth gang on youth gang violence the government tells them to do baseball about it. But not normal baseball. EXTREME baseball. Where all of our balls are on the line. In Neo-Tokyo, we live by the ball, we die by the ball... The ball is love, is life itself. Don't you get it, my arch nemesis? This team. This baseball team is my found family, their balls belong to me and my balls are theirs fully, and I will do anything for it, for its honor... No matter how many balls I shall crush for it on my way. Get into position, the time has finally come for us to battle, and only one of us shall come out alive... Also there's robots watching us

Two. This fucking guy. This FUCKING guy they put Makoto in Tribe Nine. I thought they couldn't make Makoto any cuntier, and I was wrong. I believe their name is Zero. And I want them so fucking bad . They will not leave my mind. I swear to god even if I wont be in any way interested in the game after all if it comes out I will literally just obsessively look up videos of every time Zero appears on screen this will be my only exposure to Tribe Nine.

I hope they get an incredibly serious mental breakdown in the middle of losing at baseball with protag team when they monologue about what the ball means to them and without the ball, who are they. Protagonist boy, you must turn back now you do NOT know what you're during right now your ball dreams are meaningless compared to the reason as to why I continue to pursue it. I cannot fail. Failure is forbidden in my family. If I fail my human original whose DNA I have been created from will discard me to the dungeons, the tennis dungeons, to be forgotten. And I yearn to be loved and have abandonment issues and trauma I just have so much trauma mannn and when I was a child they locked me in a washing machine which is why I lost the ability to trust people. Not ever again........ *flies away screaming wildly gripping head and summons giant baseball robot with rocket launchers*

[bridgyrose]

Not sure if I requested this before since it's been a while since my last request. But in case I haven't...

Summer is actually an Earthling who got Isekai'd to Remnant.

(You may avoid the usual Isekai tropes if you wish)

(I have a few tropes I'm going to avoid with this)

Summer sighed as she stared up at the sky, trying to make sense of everything that was going on around her. The shattered moon still seemed strange to her even after these last three weeks, and the training was far different from anything she was used to. Aura, dust, semblances… it was all still hard for her to get a grip on. Though, if this is what it took to finally be a hero… 

“Alright, time to get up,” Qrow said as he walked over to Summer. “You need to work on your aura control again.” 

Summer got up and stretched, her arms still sore from swinging her axe around. “You know I’m not getting any better with it.” 

“Because you’ve only been trying for a week.” 

“But I should be getting better at it!” 

“This stuff takes time. Now close your eyes and try to focus.” 

Summer rolled her eyes and found a spot to sit down as she closed her eyes as she tried to focus like Qrow had taught her. She tried to picture home, her small town back on Earth. The smell of the bakery down the street, the sounds of the cars that drove down the road, the crack of thunder overhead just before a flash of silver light blinded her. “I’m not feeling anything.” 

Qrow put a hand on her shoulder. “You just need to focus. Your aura is an extension of your soul, of who you are. A shield that will keep you safe-” 

“And the only thing that will prove that you are strong enough to belong here,” Raven interrupted. “If you can’t manage your aura then why are you here?” 

“If I knew why I was here, then I’d be able to do this.” Summer opened her eyes and looked up at Raven. “All I want to do is find a way home-” 

“Then go home.” Raven folded her arms and glared at Summer. “Because right now, all I see is someone who has no idea what they’re doing and cheated their way into Beacon in some vain attempt to be a hero. If you cant handle something as simple as aura, then you dont belong here.” 

Summer sighed as she watched Raven walk off, slowly reaching for her weapon to try to find some sort of comfort. It wasnt as if she hadnt been trying, after all, she had been doing everything she could to catch up after Professor Ozpin found her and gave her a place to be. He promised to help find a way home, promised to give her shelter and a place to be in the meantime, as long as she promised to train to be a huntress.

“Dont listen to her,” Qrow said as he pulled his hand away. “We havent had the easiest life living outside of kingdom walls, so its easy to say someone doesnt belong if they cant keep themselves safe.” 

“Still doest hurt any less.” Summer stood up and started to make her way to Ozpin’s office. No matter how much practice she had, she still felt lost and out of place training to be a hero. Grimm were nothing like the monsters she used to read about, dust was a complete mystery still, aura and semblances sounded like super powers and she still had no idea how to activate either without some sort of help, and then there was whatever she did to the grimm that tried to attack her when she first came to Remnant. The way it turned into a statue when she tried to defend herself… it was all becoming too much. 

Still, she slowly entered the elevator in the Beacon tower and rode the elevator up to the top floor. She leaned against the wall of the elevator, tapping a foot as she rode impatiently. As the elevator came to a stop, Summer took a breath and stepped over to the door as it opened. “Professor Ozpin, I… I need to talk to you.” 

Ozpin looked up from his desk and took a sip of his coco. “Summer, I wasnt expecting you until tomorrow.” 

“I know, but… its about this whole being a huntress thing.” Summer walked over to Ozpin and sat her weapon down onto his desk. “I… I cant…do this. I quit.” 

“You… quit?” 

“I’m not cut out for this. I cant use aura, still have no idea what my semblance is, and I still dont have a grip of anything that is going on here.” Summer sat down and looked down at the weapon in front of her. “I’m not some hero, I’m… I’m just a nobody that’s supposed to go to work.” 

Ozpin nodded and sat his mug down. “Then what do you plan to do now?” 

“I… I dont… know. I’ll go home-” 

“And how will you get home?” 

“I-” Summer sighed and shook head. She had no plan on how to get home, she still had no idea how she got here in the first place. “I dont know.” 

“Getting you home isnt going to be as easy as snapping my fingers.” Ozpin pushed Summer’s weapon back to her with a smile. “Until then, I want you to be here to learn how to fight grimm and to use aura to protect yourself.” 

“But why? Why be a huntress instead of… finding me somewhere else to work?” 

“I saw what you did to that grimm.” 

“What I… did…” Summer went quiet as her words trailed off, thinking back to the ursa that had tried to attack her in the forest and the bright light that flashed before it turned into a statue. She caught her reflection in her axe, her silver eyes flashing a bit. “But I didnt do anything. I was almost killed and I… you really think I did, didnt you?” 

“Silver eyes are a rare trait and those born with them are able to defeat grimm with a glance.” Ozpin dug through his desk and pulled out a small journal, sliding it to Summer. “All I want to do is help you learn how to defend yourself in case anything happens.” 

Summer picked up the journal and flipped through a few pages before closing it. “And if I dont?” 

“Do you know anything else you can do?” 

“Well… no…” 

“Then we’ll continue your training to be a huntress until we can get you home.” Ozpin moved a few papers around on his desk. “Since you are struggling with using your aura, I’m going to assign you mandatory training after class. Once you are able to use aura on your own, we’ll work on your semblance. Now, you should get back to your team.” 

“Yes sir.” Summer picked up her weapon and went back to the elevator. Once the door closed and the elevator started to go down, she looked at her reflection in her scroll, focusing on her eyes. “I just have to play along until he can get me home. This could be worse.”