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curiousquirks · 10 months

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Day 9 | Endeavor x F!Reader (18+)

Mirrors | Prostitution

Content Warnings: Prostitution, Love Hotels, AFAB Reader, Female Dialogue Used, Oral (Male Receiving), Hand Jobs, Dom!Reader, Submissive Enji, Dirty Talk, Degradation

Word Count: 2,175

Summary:

Something about you, specifically, made things much easier for him. You listened well, you behaved well, and he knew you took him well. You couldn’t complain either, especially with how much Mr. Number 1 was paying you. The longer it went on, the more interesting it had gotten. He started giving you gifts, pieces he wanted you to wear and put on before he showed up. Then he started asking for photos of you wearing it when you two weren’t meeting up. You’d take mirror selfies for him, sending them away with erotic promises. You quickly became his favorite.

Love hotels weren’t exactly Enji’s favorite, they just made it easier. It was more practical. Plus Pro-Heroes and celebrities knew all the more exclusive ones that hide the patrons identity thoroughly. He had enough heat and pressure on him as it was, this didn’t need to add to the list. Scheduling sex was a different level of humiliation but he had found rhythm in it. Having clear specifications that the women were to follow made it easy. He didn’t have the time to waste.

You were wearing one now, a little detail he had wanted prior to your meeting today. It was a forest green velvet slip dress, lovingly requested to be worn with nothing beneath it. You checked yourself in the mirror in the bathroom when you heard the door to the room open. You quickly made your way out the bathroom, swallowing a laugh as you looked at the confused look on his face. He closed the door behind him as he glanced around the room taking in the confusing decor.

“The more toned down rooms were already booked. Probably some event or meeting nearby for you guys.” You said, gesturing towards him to signal that you meant Pro-Heroes.

He just looked annoyed now, his eyes lingering on the statue of a unicorn in the corner of the room. The room was decorated to look like a moonlight grove, complete with overgrown grass and fake tree decals on the wall. The only thing that didn’t fit in the room’s decor, except the vines draped over it, was a large mirror propped up facing the bed. Bed was subjective, it was an elevated cushion covered in fake moss.

“I’m going to start booking a normal place if this keeps up.” He complained, starting to remove his shirt.

“I think it’s cute,” You said, twirling around the room before plopping yourself down the bed. “Besides, I match the colors. I think you’re just trying to cover up that you actually picked this room because you’re embarrassed.”

He grunted in response, tossing his shirt to the side. Any complaints he was going to voice were left unsaid as his eyes raked over your body. The twinkling fairy lights give your body a beautiful glow as the dress clung to you in all the right ways. You let your hand drop lower and trace along your skin as you slowly moved your leg to the side, nearly exposing yourself to him. You let your hand trace up your body until it reaches the strap to your dress.

Enji puts a hand up momentarily causing you to pause in your movement. “Don’t remove it, I want you to wear it.” He instructed, as he moved down to unbuckle his belt. His cock was already hard and painfully constricted.

You bit your lip as you leaned back on your hands, watching him intently as he removed the rest of his clothing. There was nothing small about him and it had you soaked just thinking about getting to ride him. You wiggled in place, the uncomfortable wetness threatening to start dripping from your folds onto the bed beneath you. He wasted no time as he made his way towards the bed but you held your hand up.

“Ah, ah, ah, hang on a second.” You interrupted, causing him to stop in his tracks. “Don’t rush into anything before we settle the payment.”

“I already sent it before I came into the room.” He informed you, as he continued moving towards you.

He bent down, hovering above you. Just as he was about to put his arm on the bed next to you and lay you down, you slipped out from underneath his arm as you quickly moved yourself onto the other side of the room. You grabbed your phone, swiping a few times as you scanned through and checked to test the integrity of his words. He sighed and sat himself on the bed, glancing over and noticing the mirror positioned near him.

Your eyes widened when you saw that he gave you significantly more than you two talked about. You stared at your phone for a moment, blinking in surprise. You slowly put your phone down and turned on your heels. The surprise quickly wiped from your expression so he couldn’t see it. You sauntered your way over to him, placing both of your hands on his legs as you crouched right in front of him. You looked up at him, his irritation and annoyance plain on his face.

“I had to make sure, this is a business exchange after all.” You teased, leaning forward to place a kiss onto the tip of his throbbing cock. “I see you gave me some extra.”

“I pay based on quality.” He replied simply.

He gave a groan as your lips wrapped around him, taking in as much of him as you could. You gagged slightly just from the sheer mass of his cock, giving a moan as you heard him whisper praise above you. Your hand wrapped around the bottom of his cock to stroke as you bobbed your head.

“Fuck…” He groaned, letting his eyes fall close as he drank in the pleasure.

You pulled off of him with an audible pop, swiping your tongue over his tip. You grinned as you felt him twitch, still giving him a steady rhythm with your hand stroking his cock. You looked up at him, noting his eyes being closed.

“Since you were so generous with your payment,” You began as you let him go before you stood up, moving yourself to straddle his lap. “Why don’t we use this mirror? I moved it towards the bed.” You explained, turning your head to gesture towards it. His hands immediately found your hips, his cock pressing into your stomach as you leaned forward. Your breasts pressed into his chest, his hands sliding down to grab onto your ass. “I think it’ll be fun.”

“How so?” He asked, his skin felt incredibly warm even through the thin fabric of your dress.

“I’ll show you but you have to let me go first.” You joked, turning your head back towards him. You placed your hands onto his shoulders as you let your lips linger inches from his.

His eyes fell to your lips, staring for too long. You felt his cock twitch against you again before his hands let go of you finally. You brought your hands up to cup his face as you pressed a quick chaste kiss to his lips. “Good boy.” You praised as you got off of his lap in one swift motion.

He swallowed hard at the comment but before he got too lost in his own head you had tapped your foot against his leg to signal him to scoot over. He was now perfectly positioned in front of the mirror. You moved yourself to hover over his lap backwards, facing the mirror against the wall in front of you. You locked eyes with him in the mirror as you brought two of your fingers to your mouth. You sucked on them, coating them in your saliva before bringing them down to rub against your folds.

You moaned and used your other hand to hike up the fabric up of your dress. You could feel his impatience. Moving your foot to rest onto his leg, allowing you to spread your legs wide, allowing your aching pussy to be on display for him. His eyes left yours as you watched his hands reach up and rest on your waist, keeping you steady. You bit your bottom lip, watching as his eyes intently watched your fingers swirl around your clit.

“Like what you see, big guy?” You teased, which caused his eyes to peel away from between your legs to meet your gaze again. “Don’t tell me you’ve gone quiet now.”

“You’re killing me,” He said, after a long pause. “Every time you force me to wait instead of doing what I actually want to do.”

“That’s what you pay me for though isn’t it?” You reminded him. You let your leg drop off of his, his hands falling from your waist as you stood straight. “You want a woman in control of you. To tease you and set the pace of things.”

He let his head hang low, dropping his eyes to the ground. You moved yourself swiftly onto the bed behind him, pressing yourself against his back. You rested your chin onto his shoulder, looking at him in the mirror. His cock stood proud, pre-cum glistening at the tip, with balls that looked ready to burst. You almost pitied him. You clicked your tongue and moved your mouth next to his ear, your hot breath causing a shiver to run down his spine.

“Look up.” You commanded, and he did. His eyes met yours, wanting desire written plainly across his face. “Do you want to come?”

Your question caused his cock to twitch, he didn’t know how much longer he could take. He didn’t answer, just nodded his head. You lifted the hand you have been using to please yourself earlier and spat some saliva onto it. You reached around and wrapped that same hand around his cock, a shuttered gasp releasing from his lips. You began stroking his cock, in all the ways you’ve learned that caused him to lose himself. You grinned at him, your devilish mischief and skilled hand ripping a groan from deep within him.

His eyes nearly drifted closed when your voice caused them to pop back open. “Eyes on what I’m doing.” You commanded, the pressure you were focusing on his tip was causing his head to spin. He struggled to keep his eyes on your hand, focusing on the rhythmic stroking motion. His body heat was rising, causing a layer of sweat to form on your body. “Are you close? Do you want to come? I want to hear you ask me. Beg for release, beg for me to drain your cock. Letting your cum drip all over the floor instead of inside of my pussy.”

You heard him let out a muffled whimper as his hands gripped into the fabric beneath him, nearly burning through it. He grunted as you quickened your pace as his hips started thrusting up into your hand. “I bet you wish you could pump it deep instead of me. Slamming your hips against mine, your large frame dominating over me.” You practically moaned your words, watching his flushed face struggle to stay alert. “But it isn’t though is it? Your just sitting here fucking my hand because I’m in control. I tell you when to come, that’s why you haven’t. You’re struggling to hold on, aren’t you?”

“P-Please…” He whispered, panting as his muscles tensed up. Desperately holding onto any shred of his sanity.

“What was that, Enji?” You teased, malicious enjoyment lacing every syllable.

“Let me come.” He forced out in between grunts. “Fuck, please…I need it, I need it.”

You waited another few agonizing seconds before you finally whispered. “Then come.”

With the permission he needed, he thrusted up roughly as his orgasm released. His hot cum shot out, spurts after spurts coating the floor and your hand. You continued stroking him, milking his cock for all its worth as his hips finally stopped with a shuttered. He panted, heat waves coming off of his body as sweat collected across his skin. You backed away from him, giving some room so you could cool off. You laid yourself against the head of the bed, reaching your hand up towards your face.

He turned towards you in time to see your tongue dart out to lick the cum off of your hand. His eyes never left your mouth as you thoroughly cleaned every drop off of your skin. You made a show of sucking on your fingers too, watching as his cock started standing at attention quickly again.

“I love how quickly you spring back,” You said, spreading your legs. You moved the dress up, exposing your pussy to him again. Your hand dropped to run through your folds. “We’ve still got plenty of time left and don’t worry, I plan on letting that huge cock of yours completely destroy me. I need some more prep though, so come here and let me fuck your hand this time.” And without another word he came crawling towards you.

#endeavor x reader #enji todoroki x reader #bnha smut #kinktober 2023 #curiouskinks 2023 #bnha fanfiction #endeavor #enji todoroki

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jdsgothwife · 7 months

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lawlight fic rec list

so i’m gonna do a series of these, starting with my favorite death note ship! make sure to pay attention to all warnings on these fics. enjoy! if you have a ship you’d like me to make a rec list for, please just send me an ask! i don’t want to be obnoxious, and i’m not saying they’re good, but i (slackjawbitch on ao3) have some lawlight fics up!

♡ = a favorite of kitty’s

angst

♡ 1. i’m drowning; please save me: L looks at Yagami Light and drowns. There is no other way to put it. As the days pass and blend into weeks, L looks at Yagami Light sitting next to him, the harsh lines of his face creased and determined, and he swallows water.

L looks at Yagami Light and he cannot breathe.

great characterization, always makes me very emo, and is probably a pretty major influence on my writing. one shot. 1,817 words.

2. always waiting for you just to cut to the bone: And then, breaking through the pounding in his head he hears what would be the last words out of that wretched man’s lips.

“I love you.”

fic for teh death note drama (2016) canon! title is unfortunately from a t*ylor sw*ft song (/silly) but this fic is so good and sad.

3. Our Bodies, Possessed By Light: L. Lawliet is a gifted photographer who believes he has understood the light and its secrets. Light Yagami is a young, unstable and slightly crooked model. Together, they kill time.

modeling and photography au. make sure to read all teh tags and warnings for this one; there’s nothing gross, but some potentially triggering subjects for some people are in here. multi chapter. 81,218 words.

4. Hearts and Spades: Which would you choose? Love or death? RaitoL, slight AU.

short but sweet piece featuring that classic fanfiction dot net era vibe, an emo-ass playing card metaphor (/pos), and a recounting of l’s death scene that made me sad over him all over again (also /pos). and also light being obnoxious, but it’s death note, so that’s usually a given, lol. one shot. 1,801 words.

5. Not Quite Drowning: Sometimes Light ponders happiness. L/Light

a short lawlight and light character study. i like it a lot, and i don’t usually like light, so that should tell you something about how well i think it’s written! one shot. 424 words.

♡ 6. Water, water, water: In the bath, they forget they’re a detective and a suspect; they remove these identities along with their clothes, layer by layer until there are only the handcuffs left. And them; facing the other in the eerie calmness of their bathroom.

At least, it’s how Light sees it.

i really love this one! make sure to read teh tags, as eating disorders and drugs are mentioned, for example. angst with a happy ending! one shot. 3,504 words.

fluff

1. Silver Bells: Silver bells...silver bells...

They’ve made it. Everything is okay now, when they’re dancing in the candlelight.

really, really cute! i recommend it as a palate cleanser to make you feel better after reading a sad one, lol. one shot. 1,255 words.

♡ 2. New Year’s Eve: "I've seen fireworks before," he says. "This is... so much... more."

just a cute little new year’s eve lawlight fireworks show! this one is also from 2009 which is kinda cool to me, haha. i like this author’s descriptive language a lot. one shot. 507 words.

♡ 3. Do Gay Penguins Go to Hell?: Too many New Year snacks bring about a family discussion between L, Raito and their daughter about healthy diet, common sayings and nature of good and evil. And gay penguins, of course. AU

a really darling kid fic, based on teh stupid, homophobic controversy over that adorable kids’ book about teh gay penguin couple. one shot. 3,791 words.

4. A Feeling: It's LxLight fluff! This takes place after Light was confined and lost his memories, chained to L. : D SO YUS. SOME FLUFF FOR YAH D: Hope you leik it :D

very cute “l and light cuddle and kiss” fic, written by a scene kid in 2008, which is extra points with me! one shot. 1,006 words.

alright! i will add to this rec list as i find more fics, and i would love it if people would send in their favorite lawlight fics!

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honeybeeofficial · 1 month

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Im obsessed with your horseshoe crab bag and wanna make my own but dont have any leather working experience or knowledge, did you have a pattern you followed or did you just free hand it? also what would you recommend to someone wanting to try leather crafts for a first time?

I'll answer both this and a related question from @chaoticspaces:

hey! I’m in love with your crab bag. you mentioned you’ve never worked with leather; do you have any tips on where/how to start learning? or did you just wing it? I must preface that I’m a beginner at any sort of crafting and will have to learn the building blocks first but damn, people can just MAKE that kinda shit? I’ll learn to sew for that.

So it must be acknowledged that I am a fairly experienced crafter, I grew up sewing and sculpting and origami-ing and all sorts of crafty things. Meaning that although the horseshoe crab is my first experience in leatherworking, it's building off of existing crafting skills and experience thinking through how materials behave and how shapes interact. I say this as a preface not to discourage anyone from diving in, but rather so anyone who's newer to crafting can go in with a bit of perspective and not get discouraged if they don't get the hang of it right away! Be patient with yourself and keep pursuing the skills you want to develop.

With that out of the way, here's a (slightly abbreviated, but still Long) walk through what my process was like for drafting the pattern and learning how to work with leather!

Drafting the pattern

I started by looking up pictures of horseshoe crabs and doing a simple drawing of one from the top and from the side to get a sense of the shapes.

Then I broke it down into sections to make things easier on myself. Reducing things to basic shapes (crescent, box, wedge, cone, etc) is a good way to start making sense of a more complex form.

To make it work in three dimensions, I'd sketch what I think the shapes should probably be; cut out a mini version in paper; tape it together; go "hmm, that's not right," and adjust the sketch; repeat until I get roughly the form I'm looking for.

Once I had a general shape that worked, I recreated those pieces on paper again, this time full-size. That involved a lot of math to make sure all the proportions scaled accurately. Then I cut out those pieces and taped them together and adjusted any basic proportions again to fix anything that I scaled wrong.

At that point, I had a shape that read fairly well as horseshoe crab, and that would have been fine. However, I wanted things to curve and flare and be more organic, which is where a lot of the trickier adjustments come in. Using paper prototypes allowed me to work quickly and make changes easily. To exaggerate a curve, I'd cut the tape "seam", bend the paper into the desired shape, and then add or remove material from the adjoining sides until that curve stayed in place when re-taped. Each piece of the pattern is responsible for helping its neighbors stay in place.

After I got my paper prototype to a point I was happy with, I got some cheap sheets of kids' craft foam and made another prototype in that, but stitched instead of taped, in order to test the pattern as thoroughly as possible without having to use my actual leather for it.

---

Learning basic leatherworking

Youtube! I searched things like "introduction to leatherworking," "leatherworking techniques for beginners," "how to attach two pieces of leather," etc. There are a bunch of videos that show very detailed but not-too-lengthy examples of basic techniques.

Once I had seen a few examples and made a list of the basic tools I would need to get started, I went out and got myself some tools and scrap leather to experiment with. I watched some more videos showing how to use my tools, and followed along with them

Some of the techniques I looked up to start:

How to use an adjustable groover, stitching chisel, beveler, and wood slicker

Saddle stitching

Box stitching

Butt stitching (Yeah, I know)

How to set rivets in leather

What kind of leather dye/what kind of leather conditioner to use

I spent some time testing techniques, even ones I didn't need for this project, because the more time you spend with your material and tools, the more you'll understand how they work and how to get them to do what you want. I have a bunch of scraps lying around that just have random burnished edges, wonky rivets, stitches that don't go anywhere, etc.

I also found it helpful to look through leatherworking subreddits and follow leather crafters on instagram and look through what they're doing for inspiration, tips & tricks, and to see how they handle unusual shapes. Those subreddits can also be a good resource for finding existing answers to questions you have, or asking questions yourself.

#lamppost #question trembley iii #horseshoe crab

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completeoveranalysis · 8 months

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[5]

Caught up in the moment I forgot to comment on Fai’s open affection in holding Lava Lamp’s face before, so here it is again. HEALING.

I'm obsessed actually that the response from both of them was PHYSICAL. Lava Lamp expected them to physically attack him, and he would have accepted that, and they DO respond physically but turn it around into an affectionate gesture instead.

Something about the fact that Lava Lamp, with his guilt and self blame, opens himself up to destruction, but Fai and Kurogane (the people he thinks deserves to kill him the most) use the language he's expecting to show him the opposite of his expectations. They don't hate him, they love him. They don't blame him, they're on his side.

Obsessed with this inversion.

Meanwhile Fai manages to reassure Lava Lamp, tease Kurogane, AND explain their thought processes all at once.

Because ONE of them needs to be able to communicate clearly with words, and it's certainly not the other two!

OOH YES HERE WE GO.

Fai summarised it much faster than I could ever.

Please add me to the list of people that Fai needs to save through his short and clear explanations.

Fai includes Lava Lamp’s guilt as something too much for him to be fairly assigning to himself. To assume that HE ALONE is responsible for every single bad thing that has ever happened IS far beyond the limits of logic, and to let yourself feel guilty for Everything Ever is an unfair price to put on himself as well. Fai’s kind smile goes miles towards showing that they personally know all the tragedy that has happened since the events Lava Lamp began, but if THEY don’t blame Lava Lamp, then he shouldn’t either.

AND THEN WE GET TO KUROGANE EVERYONE SIT DOWN

Kurogane admits that he would probably make the same choice.

BECAUSE HE DID.

Or at least he did a very nice parallel to it, if not quite on the same scale.

In Acid Tokyo, Kurogane was faced with the choice of following Fai’s wishes and letting him die or breaking the rules to save his life. I'm not sure if this is officially labelled a taboo by the text, but removing someone's say in the matter and turning them into a vampire against their will certainly feels like a taboo at the very least.

Either way, Kurogane chose to break the rules to save Fai. (And his wording here specifies that he had already decided to "protect" Fai BEFORE that moment as well, which I love endlessly yes please. Even before the Acid Tokyo climax Kurogane had already included Fai in the circle of people he loves)

Kurogane paid the negative consequences of his actions too. But he still did it, doesn’t regret it, and would do it again. So his choices are analogous to Lava Lamp’s.

Fai is the same. When Evil Wolverine offered him a deal that went against the laws of the universe (bringing someone back to life is certainly a taboo), Fai took the deal. He went along with Evil Wolverine’s evil plan in order to save his loved one - it just didn’t pan out all the way.

So, all three of these characters WOULD and HAVE made the same call on this exact topic. Break a taboo, save your loved one.

So if ANYONE was going to relate to Lava Lamp, it’s these two.

And it helps that they also love him.

#How interesting that they all have such similar choices #And all face such suffering as a result #And yet it ALL stemmed from One Stupid Man #Who did this all TO them #But without that they never would have found each other either #Liveblogging the reservoir chronicle #Tsubasa #Vol 203 #Kurogane #Fai #Lava Lamp Guy

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storiesofsvu · 1 year

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Solace in Solitude Masterlist

Emily Prentiss x reader Summary: Emily wakes up in Paris, confused, hurt and alone. That is, except for you, the doctor who saved her life after Ian tried to take it from her. She's isolated, lonely, and yet again, living another double life and thus isn't feeling too grateful towards you. You on the other hand, are equally upset after being ripped away from your own life back in Boston, uprooting your entire career to a place you've never been with the worlds worst patient and minimal to no contact with your friends and family. Neither of you is entirely sure what's going on or how much danger Emily could still be in and that certainly doesn't help with getting along and Emily despises having to have a baby sitter 24/7. Will the two of you learn to get along or will it be constant bickering and frustrations? How long are you going to be trapped together and will you be able to return to your old lives when all of this is over? Being isolated together like this could either drive both of you to the point of insanity or to the breaking point of giving in, the question remains, which direction you'll end up snapping.

warnings: lots of language, some (probably not that accurate) medical/injury talk, your regular dose of hurt/comfort, all chapters will be tagged appropriately. Dm/comment/ask to be removed/added to the tag list (though i believe I'm up to 50 ppl already and that's the max. If people are not interacting, they will be removed and I will add people who will interact)

Spotify Playlist (under construction)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10**

Chapter 11**

Chapter 12**

Chapter 13

Chapter 14**

Series Completed!

__________________

@mickey-gomez @momlifebehard @melindawarnersgf @daddy-heather-dunbar @maybe-a-humanbean @rustyzebra @ilovemycrayons @mandy-asimp @leftoverenvy @kades95 @dextur @supercriminalbean @daffodil-heart @its-soph-xx @just-a-torn-up-masterpiece @hopelesslyfallenninlove @peanutbutterprincess @emilyprentisssluvr @lex13cm @zizzlekwum @emobabeyy @riveramorylunar @s1ut4nat @scorpsik @prentiss-theorem @strongsassysexysloane @happenstnces @sapphicprentiss @geekyandgay98 @pagetboobstarcomments @onmykneesformarvel @inlovewithemilyprentiss @desperate-gay @amypoehlfey @overtrred28 @theclassicgaycousin @regalmilfs4me @kalixxa @ara-a-bird @five-bi-five-mind @niyizh @inlovewithmiddleagewomen @tommyriddleobsessed @hotchs-bitch @ollysmulti

#emily prentiss #emily prentiss x reader #criminal minds #solace in solitude #emily prentiss series #emily prentiss fanfiction

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aroaceleovaldez · 1 year

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Tumblr kept breaking when I tried to reply to the ask about this since the post is too long, so answering this here finally:

A non-comprehensive list of misc things I’d change in HoO, since apparently people wanted me to elaborate further (Re: [This post]). Semi-off the top of my head since I don’t feel like re-reading all of HoO with notations right now. Also this will be followed up by a Things I Would Change About TOA post as well at some point, since that was also requested and kept breaking, but my brain is exhausted from getting this post set up so that will wait. I will link it [here] when I complete it.

Going under a read-more cause it’s very long. Literally Tumblr crashed like three times while I was trying to answer the original ask:

As said before (and what is a given):

1. Goes without saying - fix all the distasteful offensive character descriptions/traits. Similarly, fix the whole "these characters inexplicably look down upon their cultures" cause that's stupid and it's really annoying every time one of the Argo 2 crew brings up something about their cultures only to immediately go "but THAT'S SILLY and WEIRD."

2. Remove Calypso from the active plot, rather than the current canon retconning that doesn’t work saying that she was never actually released from Ogygia like she was supposed to be. There's no excuse for why she wasn't, unless it's supposed to be the gods sent Leo to release her to fulfill that promise, but that's not really implied to be the case at all. There's no excuse for the Olympians to just go back on their promise, since Hephaestus is established to visit Calypso regularly and basically is her only friend. It isn’t the type of thing he’d let be overlooked given all the characterization we know about Hephaestus, and given they are explicitly friends it can’t be that Olympus just “forgot” either. Also Calypso doesn't actually add anything to the plot of HoO or TOA besides serving as a love interest for Leo (not even a motive, just a love interest that "fixes him,” because he already has motive in saving Jason from being the hero of the prophecy and helping save the Argo 2 crew/camp/etc from Gaea etc etc. Leo's romance arc completely derails the established depressive spiral/destructive character arc that's been set up for him and it basically ruins Leo's entire character. He's a tragic character! Let him be tragic until he's done being tragic and then the end of BoO and TOA can be him starting his recovery arc! (I have some thoughts for how Calypso could work removed from HoO but an active character in TOA but that’ll be for the TOA post.)

If Leo still ends up on Ogygia, then have it be clear that Calypso's already left and the island is abandoned (which imo is WAY more narratively compelling for readers of the first series, because you already know the context of the island, but for readers who don't have that context it leads to this being an interesting mystery - who was Calypso? What was this island and why do all the signs/notes left by her imply she wasn't always alone but usually was and was desperate to leave?) and Leo has to collect the scraps left behind to build an escape for himself while he goes through a fun identity crisis. At some point maybe Hephaestus shows up and Leo gets an interaction with his dad that probably does not help his identity crisis and then he goes back to the Argo 2 to have a further identity crisis about how the rest of the crew got along in his absence (a good identity crisis or a bad identity crisis? depends on how they did without him! you decide! I personally like "they managed okay" and Leo feels Really Horrible About That Cause It Feels To Him Like They Don't Need Him. I like Leo's tragic arc, okay? It's compelling.) Iirc Leo’s also the only member of the Seven who doesn’t get to have some kind of direct conversation with their godly parent, at least in-person, so yknow. It’d be nice to have. Also if you want Aro/ace Leo Valdez this is the perfect spot to put it while he's having his identity crisis on Kiss Kiss Fall In Love Island, or when he gets back.

3. Jason's stab wound in BoO is not healed by the Power Of Friendship, and instead they use the Physician's Cure for that so it doesn't feel like they're literally deus ex machina-ing their way to cheating death like 3 times in the same book. It makes more sense to use Potion Of Don't Die on Wound Of Excruciatingly Painfully Slowly Killing You instead of Whoops You're Already Dead, Just Get Better. Ctrl+Z That Real Quick.

Given they already used the Physician’s Cure on Jason, Leo doesn’t die/get revived at the end of BoO. Instead he just almost dies, probably lands in CHB’s woods somewhere, and is found and patched up with the series ending on him being on the mend and starting on the path to healing and getting help for his Numerous Issues that he was putting off for The Entire Series. Which parallels nicely to Nico basically having the same thing (overexerting his powers to near death, ends series getting medical treatment/being on the mend and the indication that he’s moving on to a happier period of his life). Again, grand happy ending rather than aggravating fake-out.

Further notes:

- Heavily tweak Ella's character cause I get what Rick was going for, but the execution is… not awesome! Please, there's already so much ableism in HoO just. hmm. We can do better.

- Jason and Piper break up in HoO, probably around MoA when they start seeing Percy and Annabeth interacting and after they’ve had time to hang out with each other and realize their arranged relationship is Kind Of Fucked Up, Actually. (Probably something something them having gotten to spend time actually getting to know each other between TLH and MOA while they’re both at camp.) They have no problems with each other specifically and do genuinely like each other, but it just gets really awkward given all the memory manipulation and being set up as a "picture perfect couple" - emphasizing stuff like them both being children of really famous movie stars in their universe, or Jason as a son of Jupiter/Jove (an "all-father" type god) [and Juno - mother figure goddess and goddess of marriage]/"son of Rome" and Piper as a daughter of Aphrodite (goddess of love, also Aphrodite/Venus indirectly is associated as a sort of "mother of Rome" due to Aeneas). They just feel like they have too many expectations being put on their relationship and even though they do both like each other it feels too forced for them, but they’re comfortable staying just friends. This just gives way more opportunity for low-stakes character conflict among the Argo II crew outside of Monster Of The Week Chapter so things don’t feel unreasonably busy and chaotic and we actually get some consistent development. Just a nice mini-arc to follow in the downtime. Also while we’re here, more directly establish Piper’s bisexuality earlier on. If she’s already having an arc where she’s contemplating her romantic life, throw in a couple of nods to like “Piper thinking about her old childhood crush on Shel, the kid of a family friend she’d see when her and her dad visited Oklahoma” or something. Literally anything just to establish some kind of set-up to her getting a girlfriend later. Just for consistency’s sake.

- Bunkernine has a very good post about wishing the Argo II didn't have the magic plates from CHB, which I agree with in concept. Like I was just saying, MoA through BoO lacks a lot of little moments where we get to really focus in on the characters, probably in part because Rick was struggling to juggle so many parties given this was his first foray into writing a major cast that size. We can definitely cut out a lot of the random unnecessary fights and dramatic moments that don't really do anything for the plot and instead replace them with little moments of casual life on the Argo II - the scenes like those that do exist in HoO are some of HoO's most memorable moments to me! And they'd help a lot with how the characters never felt fully and properly fleshed-out. Let them exist as a cohesive group without two-to-three of them being absent at any given time! I don't think we necessarily have to remove the magic plates entirely because they do solve a fundamental problem ("where are these kids getting food?") but like, there is nothing stopping them from still cooking and just using the plates to get ingredients! Let these kids bake or something! Even just for fun! Though also I have personal headcanons about the Argo II crew's cooking skills and I really like the concept of like, during HoH or something at like 3am everybody hears something and they all suspiciously shuffle into the mess hall. And it’s just half-dead Nico standing there in his PJs making food for himself because Dammit They're IN VENICE and he’s FROM VENICE and they DON’T HAVE TIME TO STOP AT HIS OLD FAVORITE RESTAURANTS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT STILL EXIST and he Hasn't Had A Proper Meal In Weeks so By The Gods He Will Make His Mom's Old Recipes At 3am before he keels over from this quest. He just stares at everybody and goes "What are you all looking at. go away." and the rest of the crew just shuffles away awkwardly and leaves him to it. (Is Nico’s 3am meal actually good? Who knows. It is left a mystery.)

- Tweak the god characterizations. Remove the "gods splitting" thing and maybe play more with different aspects of gods/verisons of gods across history/city-states/etc presenting themselves instead. The Roman gods are not wholly equivilent to the Greek gods and it's actually really interesting from a historical perspective, and I think there's a lot you could do with that but instead it gets flatted in HoO which is sad to me. Just generally though, with the god characterizations, like. [uncomfortable pagan noises]. Which is almost impressive because it is difficult to write the Greco-Roman pantheons poorly since a good portion of them are basically just very complicated metaphors turned into personifications and characters. So they work fine for narrative purposes when applied accordingly, and yet! and yet!! Rick managed it! He managed to really bungle it in HoO and TOA. Because instead of leaning into the aspects of metaphors and dynamic characters he just fell into 2D tropes, gimmicks, and stereotypes. Off the top of my head the only deities written Okay in HoO is like. Hades/Pluto and Thanatos. (even Chiron in TOA is extremely lackluster, it's sad.) In the first series it ranges from “okay” to “actually really interesting” so it’s sad to see that drop-off and I would like it to be fixed.

Some potential examples for this: Play with the historical ties combo of like, Athena, Minerva, Enyo, Bellona, and etc! Annabeth and Reyna parallels! if the first 2 books are about the trios, let MoA be about Annabeth and Reyna and both their connections to Athena(/Bellona). Let Reyna be a second half in the Athena prophecy! It'd be cool and fit with her thematically and would set-up the whole Getting-Blessed-By-Athena thing later in BoO and make that scene feel so much cooler!

- Also retcon the whole "Hestia appears as an 8 year old for no reason" thing. And maybe also Artemis only appearing as a teen, because while Artemis has a mythological excuse, Hestia doesn't, so it just feels weird and at worst comes off as a little aphobic (depicting a character who explicitly is uninterested in relationships/romantic love as a child despite them being an immortal god with no basis for appearing as a child or even being comparatively young to other gods) with how it relates to aphobic tropes about disinterest in romance being "childish".

- Remove the "no children of Minerva" thing. Also maybe emphasize the aro/ace vibes there cause Athena being implied to be the only ace character in the entire series who a.) isn't literally a child/teen nor appears as one, and/or b.) hasn't had an unfortunate relationship that makes them disinterested in romance, but also at the same time being the only one out of herself/Hestia/Artemis to have relationships of some sort (having kids, implied to possibly be romantic but unclear) issss bad! actually! Bad tropes, don't like that. (Again aphobic tropes of disinterest in romance being “childish” and something that can be grown out of, or a result of trauma. Also it feels weird that the only a-spec characters in the series are all women. Can we have a male a-spec character please.) Just let Athena be aro/ace and vibing and occasionally having brain children cause she can do what she wants and everyone is aware of this and chill with it (And being a-spec doesn’t mean she’d be disinterested in having kids). Also maybe make her feel less cold cause "a-spec character is cold and loveless" is also an aphobic trope that PJO!Athena falls into, actually.

- Speaking of aphobic tropes, fix the Hunters! Please. Please just redo the Hunters of Artemis entirely. Holy cow. I wrote up an entire alternate oath/rules set for the Hunt because it's just so weird and poorly done. There were male Hunters of Artemis in Greek Mythology! Multiple! And most of them were chill! The "swearing off all romance" thing is also questionable, because depending on what versions of myths you’re looking at it’s potentially implied the Hunters had romantic relationships among themselves. And in Greek Mythology all the Hunters were definitely not all pre-teens. And it feels especially bad that the only adult Hunters we ever see are explicitly ex-Hunters who are heavily implied to be not ace and definitely aren't aro and are also implied to have "grown out of" being disinterested in romance. (That gagging noise you hear is me being sick of how many aphobic tropes the Hunters are juggling).

The version of the Hunters i have written up is, and I quote (from my notes): "Hunters can be any age, species, and gender identity (so long as they are comfortable enough being occasionally referred to as “Huntresses,” “Sisters,” “Maidens,” and etc). Relationships between Hunters are allowed so long as it will not endanger/distract from the Hunt or endanger any other Huntresses. Having a child is not allowed within the Hunt and any Huntresses who wish to do so must leave (purely because having a pregnant person/young child on the Hunt is dangerous, and safety is the number one priority - especially as Artemis is a protector of youth and goddess of childbirth. Once they turn like, 12 they can join, that’s fine. Everyone knows middle schoolers are the optimal combination of bloodthirstiness and ability to wield a weapon)." Also, just as like, a side-thing, I wanna see a clear-sighted mortal Huntress, because we're told thats a thing but we never see them. Closest we get is like ancient semi-immortals and Technical Nymphs, or other Huntresses who are of unspecified mortal/demigod status.

- Similar deal - fix the Amazons. they're… better but still a little wonky.

- Some slight tweaks to the Cupid Scene - Nico still has a confrontation with Cupid cause that is a very compelling scene that works well for Nico's character and informs a lot about him (and serves a purpose in a very meta way - not so much for the plot but reflecting something the first series did occasionally which was a kind of showing an example of a situation, usually a negative situation that either mirrors or directly references a type of situation a kid may find themself in, and explains and shows sympathy for the character being hurt in that situation. Which is notable because the demographic for the series is young middle schoolers and particularly neurodivergent kids, who are probably approaching a lot of new social situations or may struggle with empathy. It acts as an introduction to “unfortunately this is a bad thing that happens sometimes, and it hurts people, which is why you should be nice to this kid. Look at beloved character. Here’s an elaboration on why they’re hurt so you can understand.” So for the purposes of that, the scene of Nico getting outed would likely remain, but it would still keep the very overt “WOW THIS SUCKS, THIS IS A BAD SITUATION.” stuff) Most of the tweaks are just slight adjustments to minor prelude dialogue and/or setting, like. Jason does not forget that being gay is a thing for a second. And etc. But Nico having a very literal metaphorical conflict about grappling with how he views the concept of love by LITERALLY GETTING KICKED AROUND BY THE GOD OF LOVE is actually kinda badass from a narrative analysis perspective. This is exactly what i meant in the previous bullet points about the gods in a lot of myths and classical stories playing the roles of personifications of metaphors and that being used well. Admittedly I'm 50/50 on tweaking Cupid's general attitude in the scene itself, because a more hostile Cupid lends itself better to the meta use of the scene as described before but a more sympathetic-to-Nico Cupid who is nonetheless still kicking the shit out of him is interesting from a metaphor standpoint (something something Nico overcoming internalized homophobia but in the very literal form of it’s the god that literally presides over protecting gay love [yes that is an actual thing Eros/Cupid is the god of] beating him up).

- Remove Reyna's “prophecy” entirely. It's stupid and pointless and doesn’t make sense with her character at all. Just say she's ace. There is not a single scene in any of the series that ever indicates that Reyna believes that she can only be happy if she’s in a relationship and that’s some kind of internal struggle she needs to overcome. The closest we ever get is Reyna being upset that her best friend disappeared and when he returns she finds out he had forgotten about her completely. Which does not apply to the “prophecy” at all. We just don’t need it.

- Absence of "a character" can work! Jason's lack of personality and backstory can work but it works best if it's absence is felt and properly explored. This works best if we get more information about Camp Jupiter from SoN and from the other Roman characters, especially Reyna (and maybe even Nico referencing his trips there!) because that inherently informs us about what Jason's life was like there. Have other characters note things about Jason and highlight the fact that this is absent from Jason's own POV! He's lost that part of his life! It was taken from him! That's such an interesting dynamic to have and explore! But we don't get any of that!

Side-note: Part of the problem with Jason's amnesia is that it feels so awkward especially compared to Percy's amnesia because we already know what Percy can't remember. We have the context that informs his character, even though he can't remember it, so that absence is felt and it feels really compelling! Also, Percy is unfamiliar with Camp Jupiter, and we're unfamiliar with Camp Jupiter, so it feels new and interesting (even though we don't actually get much about it so we never actually form any real attachment to it and that's a problem later on in every subsequent scene when we're supposed to care about what happens to Camp Jupiter but we. don't). The reason it doesn't work for Jason is because we don't know what's absent and we already know CHB. Jason also already knows about demigods and stuff, so if you're a new reader starting at HoO it just doesn't work. Because Jason already knows everything and we're being led from his POV primarily for that portion of TLH, and even Piper and Leo's backstories both heavily include being pushed around by Gaea/and or Hera/Juno, so if you aren't familiar with the universe you're just being hurried along and it ends up feeling weak. At least with Percy even if you don't know the contexts of his backstory, we can feel the implications of other characters referencing things about him extremely often, so you feel the weight of his memories being gone, and he doesn't know about the roman gods and you, the reader, aren't expected to know much if anything about it either. We don’t get the full demigod debriefing (but that's also the second book) but we at least get a Camp Jupiter debriefing. The first two books are a bit messy in those specific regards with setting up the camps for the series, and we don’t really see the camps much for the rest of HoO (except for CHB, of course).

This is personally why I stand by that if we ever get a roman series it should be a three-part series from Reyna's POV, because leading with Jason is basically like trying to lead PJatO with Annabeth - a demigod raised in camp and surrounded by the knowledge of this stuff their entire life. It doesn't work as a character who's acting as an introduction to this world for the reader. There's no real clean way to work that out for HoO unfortunately, since literally all our protagonists are given established pasts involving knowledge of Greco-Roman mythology being real and half of them are either already at camp or have been to a different camp. I'd say best solution would probably actually be leading from Piper for TLH and tweak her character set-up slightly in that she Does Not Know What's Going On At All re: Gaea and the Giants. She just knows Something Happened To Her Dad and she's the POV we follow into TLH, because that mirrors Percy in beginning of TLT well (with Sally being kidnapped)! It's a fun call-back for the old readers and a good lead-in for the new readers.

- Fix Nico backstory inconsistencies caused by Rick almost making his birthday in March and confusing himself over it. He's 12 in TLO, 13 in HoO. He was born January 28th, 1929, and got put in the Lotus Hotel and Casino in 1939 (If you wanna be cute, we can specifically say May 1st, 1939, to reference the musical). Hazel is one month older than him chronologically and one year older than him post-revival. Something something also smooth out the inconsistencies about Nico being raised in Italy and how Maria met Hades and stuff. Fill in the rest as you will.

- I do stand by that the entire PJO timeline is not one-to-one with the real world. That's always been a thing with the series. We're basically condensing everything from ~1998 to ~2020 into an 18 year timeline. We don't need to be exact with things. Don't get too bogged down with it.

- Make the whole "injuries caused by celestial bronze/imperial gold for demigods makes their souls self-destruct" thing specifically relating to cursed weapons/materials or feature some more volatile abomination combo weapons like Backbiter (with Backbiter being described as unstable due to being both celestial bronze and mortal steel). (Ex.: the spear used to stab Jason in BoO is just cursed, and maybe Octavian's catapult plan is a "well i put a bunch of mortal steel and imperial gold in a pot and melted them together a bit and now it really wants to explode so im gonna just chuck the entire thing and hope it kills everyone lots and lots <3" which is tbh significantly more dastardly and fucked-up, which makes Octavian a bit more compelling). Having it just be a plain trait of celestial bronze/imperial gold doesn’t make any sense and is only referenced like twice in HoO and never again in basically the entire three series. Again: consistency.

- Make a more prominent reference to the whole "btw there are retired adult Romans just living wherever but they're legally required to help any campers who request aid" thing, cause you could totally do something really fun and cool with that but idk what.

- PICK A THEME! First series theme was family! Second series theme is….. we don’t know! It felt like maybe a theme was intended at some point but we lost it. Forging a new life for one’s self/choosing your own path/etc could be a good theme, or something similar. or found family. or both. We’ve got a bunch of characters absolutely ripe for “I didn’t think i’d get this far and now I have to like, actually consider what i want to do in life. huh” arcs! (Frank! Leo! Hazel! Jason! Percy! Nico!) Do something with that!

- Lean more into the characters having aspects inspired by myths, or legends being mirrored in plot points: 7 against Thebes, the Argonauts, etc etc etc. The first series leaning into it heavily worked really well! More of that! HoO and TOA suffer a lot from lack of mythological basis to lean their plots on, despite there being plenty to work from. It instead just kind of messily mashes random misc myths (haha, alliteration) together into a very incoherent plot. Annabeth is known to be explicitly based off Atalanta, Percy is mostly based off Perseus and Theseus, Leo has loose connections based off of Demophon of Eleusis and possibly also his brother Triptolemus, etc etc. There’s stuff to work with! Poke around at the mythological figures of the original Argo and maybe match them up a bit (though most of the Argonaut myths were used in Sea of Monsters, so focus more on the figures/archetypes rather than just exact myths of what they did. For more plot-things, maybe consider Seven Against Thebes, though admittedly the plot of that is just Kinda Depressing.)

- Slightly related to that - lean into Piper presumably mirroring Orpheus! Or even if she isn’t supposed to, let her do that, because it fits with her thematically SUPER well. Her charmspeak is OP and that needs to be appreciated. In canon she brings Jason back from the brink of death in TLH and just straight up gives Festus a soul/free will/sentience. Let her go Orpheus-mode on everybody. You can even tie that in with the half-hearted snake theme that Rick tried to throw in there that didn’t work at all. We can make this work, just lean into it. It’ll be fun.

- Remove scene of Nico confessing to Percy at end of BoO. it’s just. random and feels sudden and OOC. Give Nico time. You could maybe replace it by having him come out to Reyna on his own terms while they’re on their quest discussing their adventures thus far and them having a very sweet little emotional moment rather than it being a weird out-of-place afterthought comical scene.

- Remove Bob and Damacus. They’re just half-literal dues ex machinas for Percabeth in Tartarus that don’t make sense. It feels extremely cheap and doesn’t fit with the established mythos of either figure (and Bob feels extra awkward without the context of knowing Sword of Hades). If they do run into a figure who helps them out in Tartarus, Arke could possibly be a good option - especially since in SoN Percy meets Iris. There’s a lot potentially you could do there with Percy mistaking her for her twin and stuff like that. If we want a figure to more-so take the role that Bob fills (Nico encouraging an immortal to be sympathetic to Percy and thus indirectly helping him later) that role could be filled by Nyx instead of making her a minor antagonist - imply Nico encountered Nyx in Tartarus or something and she took pity on him as someone who also understands the dark, and he told her about Percy and so Nyx is willing to help Percabeth escape. Plus imagine how COOL a Nyx & her children vs Tartarus/Titans/Giants fight would be. That’d be a significantly more memorable scene than the Tartarus fight scenes we did get. (“Why would Nyx help though?” One of Nyx’s kids is LITERALLY a goddess of friendship [Philotes], we have excuses.)

- On a similar note, this is more of a TSATS thing, but for goodness’ sake STOP THROWING CHARACTERS INTO TARTARUS. You’re overusing it! It only works when we use it sparingly! In fact, just in general Tartarus works better the less we see of it! Nico going through Tartarus once in SoN-MoA, yes, that works! Especially since we have almost no idea what happened to him down there, just that it was Terrifying and Horrible and he Barely Survived. Not going into much detail means we get more out of it. The only exception to that really was when Percy realized that Nico saw Tartarus as it truly was the entire time, because that’s one hell (ha) of a punch to the gut in terms of added information! Percabeth falling into Tartarus in MoA? Eh, fine, sure, because we’ve established that Nico (who is implied to be more resilient to that environment on virtue of being a child of Hades) talked about his experiences down there so they know what to expect and how to survive. Though it does kind of just feel like Rick went “Oh wait hey I can use this to make angst!” and then overused the hell out of it. It feels way weaker in general in HoH because of how much detail we get, because Tartarus has been built up so much until that point that literally anything we get will feel lackluster in comparison, especially with how it kind of feels like Percabeth just. breezed through it with little more difficulty than they’d usually face on their quests. Solangelo jumping into Tartarus in TSATS is honestly just a blatant “Oh boy we can make Solangelo into Percabeth 2!” and it doesn’t work at all because NICO HAS ALREADY BEEN TO TARTARUS.

The only way you could make Nico going into Tartarus two times work is if he fell into Tartarus a second time to replace Percabeth falling down there. Because we’ve established he knows what it’s like down there, he survived it once, and he is actively sparing someone else he cares about from suffering his same fate. And then he can return once again even closer to death and A Little Fucked Up and it turns into a rule of threes where we know “Oh, Nico can’t go back to Tartarus again because if he does he’ll Lose Himself Completely” which is way more interesting than romance angst for the sake of romance angst. Especially since again, we don’t see it, it’s all only implied. Also it then also turns Tartarus into even more of a “Nico is probably the only demigod who could ever even hope to survive Tartarus” which keeps Tartarus as an ominous thing. Percabeth falling into Tartarus lessens that by a lot because it implies that it doesn’t matter that Nico is a child of Hades; that had absolutely no bearing on his ability to survive down there. TL;DR: Stop throwing characters into Tartarus. Either throw Nico in twice in a row and no Percabeth or Nico and Percabeth once only and never touch it again.

- More heavily set up Percy’s emotions/mood/etc being influenced by water around him. If we keep most of Percabeth in Tartaurs, then this would really make the Achlys scene pack a bigger punch. Up until HoH everything is “oh how quirky” but the minute Percy’s surrounded by the rivers of the underworld and the acid/poision you get hit with the “oh shit” realization that Percy Is About To Get SCARY.

- Maybe have Annabeth keep her blindness from Tartarus, or trade Jason having glasses to her having glasses as a result of that, since vision is actually an aspect of Athena so it kind of fits her more, thematically-speaking.

- Change the judo flip percabeth scene in MoA to Annabeth picking Percy up and spinning him around in a hug/swinging him into a dip cause that’s cuter, makes more sense given Percy’s PTSD, and still highlights Annabeth being very strong and showing off in front of the Romans while they’re still being lovey-dovey.

But also, related to that, you could potentially make a sub-arc for Percabeth throughout HoO (so that they actually have like. some type of character development that fits them rather than them feeling stagnant the entire time) about Annabeth learning she doesn’t know as much about Percy as she thought (learning about Gabe [since as far as we know she actually doesn't know much if anything about that!], seeing his behavior change with different types of water, etc) kicked off by the judo flip scene, and possibly vice versa (Percy learning more about Annabeth’s time spent traveling with Thalia and Luke, growing up at CHB, her relationship with Athena and other campers at CHB, etc) so they gain a deeper understanding of one another. If Percy keeps his curse of Achilles, that could also factor in (contrasting Percy’s “perfect” image [relationship, near-immortality] against Annabeth realizing she doesn’t know as much about Percy as she thought [could also parallel that dynamic to Jaspiper, which opens opportunities for Annabeth/Piper and Jason/Percy bonding] [Or Annabeth/Jason and Piper/Percy bonding! I want more Annabeth/Jason and Piper/Percy parallels so bad. They’re almost there but we never get them. Please.]/ the Argo II crew learning about Percy’s past) with Percy being more prone to seek out conflict or solve problems with violence due to the Curse of Achilles and eventually recognizing that [possibly after Tartarus] and it scaring him just as much as it frightens Annabeth. Maybe at that point Percy tries to make some sort of deal to rid himself of the curse.)

- Maybe also explicitly parallel Percy getting the curse of Achilles with Nico’s help to Poseidon giving his lover Caeneus iron skin. There’s no really smooth way to do it, but maybe even just a during Nico’s pov him going “I heard about this myth once and got an idea. It didn’t work.” Just for that added through-line of connecting the series and further establishing “yeah, no, Nico’s been gay this whole time. this isn’t a new thing. we aren’t pulling this from thin air.”

- Give Piper a different weapon than the knife from the beginning cause she stops using it eventually anyways. Also just... no cornucopia. That part is just stupid and there’s no point for it. If we have to keep it as a plot object, give it to someone else - Nico could work because then there’s actually at least a valid relation there regarding his godly parent (yes, Pluto sometimes has cornucopia associations). Also Nico having a cornucopia would be kinda funny in a subversion of expectations thing. Maybe even have Nico go on a little exposition-y rant complaining about Hades/Pluto versus Plutus (the Greek god of plenty/wealth, later merged with Pluto).

- Similarly, either remove Diocletian’s scepter (if we have multiple characters who can boss around skeletons, why do we need an entire separate extra object whose sole purpose is to let them boss around skeletons?) or let Nico keep it but it loses its abilities, so it’s literally just “well now he has a cool bashing stick for bashing things.” Or let him use it as a cane to highlight him being disabled!

- As I slightly touched upon in a previous bullet point, give Piper more connections to her dad’s community in Oklahoma - where’s all her family friends? Tristan is a major pop culture figure in the Riordanverse, so it’d make sense that people from the community he grew up in would like. know him? But all we ever hear about is Piper’s Grandpa Tom. Even though apparently Piper is already good enough friends with Shel presumably before Piper moves to Oklahoma that the two start dating soon afterwards. Heck, again, have Piper reference Shel specifically. Just at any point. For any reason. Just to establish that she knows people her own age that exist outside of CHB.

Similarly, flesh out the background Romans in Camp Jupiter more in SoN and possibly also BoO, particularly the ones Jason references by name but we never see anything of, besides at most maybe more background references. Highlight them either through the SoN trio interacting with more characters while at camp (and we’re left to glean specific details of Jason’s past through others, which would make Jason more compelling and how these details are absent from himself but present to those around him, playing into his memory loss more) and possibly also through Reyna (and maybe Nico)’s POV(s) in BoO. (And maybe if we get a Reyna POV in MoA, then there as well).

- Let Reyna use magic! We establish that she studied under Circe and then never see anything come of that other than referencing her Tragic Backstory™. It could be a fun point for Reyna and Hazel to bond over, even!

- Remove the random “Hunters of Artemis death fodder” scene with Orion in BoO. There’s no reason for that. It’s just kinda dumb and feels bad given it’s basically just “We’re gonna kill a bunch of nondescript allegedly a-spec coded characters now for no reason. <3” like ???. That served no purpose. It just felt weird.

- Also just as a like, logistics thing - change the route Team Statue takes in BoO from the huge jump over the Atlantic into Peurto Rico into them traveling up into like the UK, then over to Iceland and Greenland and then Canada and down the east coast rather than the huge jump and up the east coast. The smaller jumps make more sense given the entire POINT of their quest taking as long as it does is that Nico can’t make extremely large shadow-travel jumps at that time. Plus if they’re traveling south then they could pass through Maine and we could maybe cameo Nico’s old school and that’d be fun. The pit-stop in Puerto Rico doesn’t really give us much that we couldn’t have just gotten from Reyna explaining it anyways. If they pause in Maine that can be where Nico and Reyna have a heart-to-heart about their tragic backstories and past experiences with horrible ghosts that they had to exorcise.

- If Team Statue travels a northern route we can make jokes about Nico learning specifically 1930s British English before he moved to America. The gang goes to London and Coach proceeds to incessantly make fun of Nico for not only using British slang, but using OUTDATED British slang (which is made weirder given he doesn’t have a British accent).

- Also extremely tiny detail but a specific acknowledgement that Piper was helping out Nico once they got back to the ship when Nico’s getting rescued from the jar. Since Piper just kind of drags him off-screen. Just any kind of follow-up to that. Like Nico doing his classic “You were vaguely nice to me. I would now Die For You.” Just them having basically any kind of interaction or acknowledgement of that scene, mostly cause I think it’s funny.

- Let Annabeth keep her laptop, and get rid of the sphere of Archimedes cause it just feels kinds pointless and random? We don’t really have any emotional connection to Annabeth’s laptop (and her hat gets replaced in Demigods & Magicians anyways) so her losing it doesn’t really feel impactful at all. Maybe have Leo use Annabeth’s laptop while she’s in Tartarus and that acts as the point of guilt for him rather than weird random curse stuff with a random new introduced object. Instead of “oh no fortune cookie thing or whatever” it’s him feeling guilty he saved Annabeth’s laptop but couldn’t help Annabeth herself. Especially since Leo would also have his Ogygia identity crisis in the same book so he can feel extra bad about himself for a bit, to lead up to his role in BoO nicely (sometimes a character negatively spiraling is more narratively compelling than them having positive development for the majority of the series and that’s okay! Let him be tragic but again he gets a happy ending and an implication post-BoO that he’ll begin a road of healing/recovery surrounded by loved ones. It works out.) AND there could be a very sweet moment once Annabeth gets back from Tartarus and Leo gives her the laptop back and it’s a huge relief to her that one of her prized possessions was in safe hands while she was gone and that she has it back when she thought she might have lost it.

- Further highlight Jason’s whole Greek/Roman/etc identity crisis. Bonus points if we go further into acknowledging Jupiter/Zeus’s epithets and roles and Jason having some epiphany that the Romans look to him with the expectations of Jupiter/Juno as king and queen of the gods making him some kind of perfect leader, but he’s not that at all. He’s the son of Jove and Juno, father and mother of the gods. He doesn’t want to be a general or praetor or anything like that, he wants to spend time with his friends and family at a summer camp where they’re safe. He wants to regain the childhood he lost being raised as a perfect soldier and get the chance to go to school and learn about his long-lost family and do cheesy summer camp activities. He is a wolf but he is not a creature built for the hunt - he is part of a pack.

- Touched upon it briefly in a previous bullet point but Curse of Achilles can stay/go, does not particularly matter to me either way. I do think it’d be funny though if Percy does keep the Curse of Achilles that he also randomly gets the Nemean Lion’s pelt back. Initially maybe as like a gift from Hera/Juno to help him cover his Achilles’ Heel while he’s running around with no memory just as insurance so he doesn’t die (with bonus points of the Romans being introduced to Percy either wearing the stupidest looking coat ever or wearing just a straight up bullet-proof lion’s pelt, which would even further solidify his “Are We Sure This Guy Isn’t A God In Disguise” vibes). But then later on into the series it’s just kind of part of his outfit or maybe even a running gag. The praetors have their magic bullet-proof cloaks, Percy has a very silly looking bullet-proof fur coat that is sometimes a whole lion.

- Keep Hazel’s blackouts. There’s not really a reason for them to disappear altogether for her? They’re somewhat tied to her powers and are a consequence of her coming back from the dead, which also helps keep the concept running in the series that death is a consequence that can’t just be easily evaded, even while we’re operating with the Doors of Death being open. That way future deaths in the series don’t feel like they could be as easily negated/avoided. Also, Hazel is disabled! This is a disability of hers! Why are we somehow magically getting rid of it without even an explanation as to why? Heck, if we’re getting rid of Piper’s knife, Hazel’s dreams when she has her blackouts could be used to supplement the dagger’s insight into the future, since we’ve already established that Hazel gets prophetic dreams sometimes anyways. Also fun thematic matching for the Death Sibs with them both having disabilities and random ways to glean the future (Hazel’s blackouts, Nico talking to ghosts). Her blackouts would probably improve slightly over the course of the series but never fully disappear, and it ends up mostly a thing of she can tell when they’re about to occur and prepare quickly for that or let someone know before she passes out.

- Get rid of Frank’s curse in SoN instead of waiting until The Tyrant’s Tomb. If we’re going to get rid of it eventually anyways, do it during the big scene of him freeing Thanatos. Let him have his cool big moment of embracing his destiny and that breaking the curse the first time he does it rather than him doing it twice but it only breaking the curse the second time? Also if the curse is broken earlier on then Frank’s entire arc gets to be about him realizing he has a life to live, since in SoN a major part of his character is that he’s not afraid of death because he’s used to the idea that his curse could kill him at any point. He’s actually pretty reckless for the beginning of HoO because of that. If he realizes that he no longer is at risk of dying at any given moment because he thought about candles too hard, then that opens the opportunity of him having a whole existential crisis about what he actually wants to do with his life and him looking to the future for once.

Bonus opportunity for this - maybe Frank actually gets fire powers as a result of his curse breaking. Ares/Mars has an association with fire so it would fit for him as a son of Mars. Plus, then we could also have an even more overt dynamic of Frank and Leo acting as each other’s parallels and foils and the two of them slowly growing more used to one another and actually becoming close friends. Lots of bonding over getting used to their fire powers and overcoming their mutual fears of fire and probably also solidarity in having lost their moms. Just - the boys are bonding! The boys are bonding. Fire boys hours.

- Related to Frank’s curse, give Hazel and Frank parallel narratives of them realizing they have a future ahead of them (Hazel re: getting a second chance at life and Frank re: realizing he’s no longer at risk of spontaneously combusting) and them grappling with trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives and how they want to live them after everything is said and done. And also being motivated for once to make it out the other side in one piece because they’re determined to not waste the opportunity they’ve been given. The two of them coming to terms with realizing they have a future if they can make it through this (which is also a fun contrast to Leo and Nico actively almost sacrificing their own lives for others and having essentially an opposite character arc for the majority of the series).

- Especially while Frank (and Hazel) are having these arcs, going back to the idea of Leo getting stuck on Ogygia alone for a bit - very strongly contrasting the arcs of Frank’s mental health improving over the series while Leo’s is very steadily decreasing (until BoO at which point again the series ends with Leo getting help and beginning to improve/heal).

- Also further emphasizing Leo and Nico’s parallels throughout HoO. They’re both autistic on top of the usual adhd/dyslexia and have issues with social interactions and care a lot about Hazel and are having a majorly bad time throughout the entire quest and are pretty depressed, etc etc etc. Again, parallel narratives at the end of BoO with them healing and things looking up for them - I think I’ve mentioned that like four times now you get the idea.

- Make Frank ADHD/dyslexic. There is literally no reason for him not to be and him being the outlier for being neurotypical feels weird and doesn’t fit with the literal entire worldbuilding we have for demigods. If it’s part of “demigod instincts” or whatever then Frank should be ADHD/dyslexic! And it’s not even a “the Romans aren’t ADHD/dyslexic” because we’re explicitly told they are! They are specifically also ADHD and dyslexic! So why isn’t Frank? There’s no reason. It annoys me.

- The Frank/Hazel/Leo “love triangle” can stay but it’s significantly more one-sided. Frank is mostly just intimidated by Leo for multiple reasons (mostly fire-related reasons) and Leo is mutually intimidated by Frank (because Frank is bigger than him and Leo is scared of everyone, really, but especially people who are bigger than him, because they could beat him up. Which is basically everyone). Hazel is not romantically interested in Leo and Leo is not romantically interested in her, though they are very close and do have a very confusing time trying to figure out the whole Sammy situation. Frank still misinterprets this as Hazel and Leo being romantic. Leo does not realize Frank is misinterpreting that as them being romantic and think Frank just hates him for the general reasons that Leo has found people usually hate him for no reason over. Leo wants nothing to do with that situation though. Eventually they all sort it out and become a very strong trio.

- Again as I briefly touched upon before, maybe give Reyna a protagonist role in MOA if not an outright POV. Probably an outright POV, with the main POVs of the book being her and Annabeth. Again, themes of historical associations between Athena and Bellona and playing with that, alongside making Reyna more of a prominent player earlier on in the series and letting us see more of the Romans. Use this opportunity to heavily parallel her with Annabeth (and also highlight her parallels with Percy, and Annabeth’s parallels with Jason).

- Really I just want more Annabeth/Jason and Percy/Reyna parallels. There’s so much you can do there. The blond(e) gifted kid/smart aleck raised at camp and their best friend, the former newbie raised with a difficult home life. Percy and Reyna both have dogs (Mrs. O’Leary / Aurum and Argentium) and pegasi (Blackjack and Skippy). And a sibling they don’t see often (Tyson / Hylla). You could have notes about Jason and Thalia and Annabeth and the dynamics within that and how those internally parallel each other. Or more about when Reyna encountered Percy and Annabeth while on Circe’s Island. Really anything more about Reyna’s time on Circe’s Island. Heck maybe you could parallel that to Percy’s difficult time in school, since Circe’s whole thing was that she was training the sorceresses living there, so that’s kind of like a school environment. Paralleling first quests between Reyna and Jason with the events of the first series with Percy and Annabeth. Etc. etc. etc.

- We are taking BoO and just. Throwing it out the window, really. We don’t have time to unpack all of that. Just start mostly from scratch, same extremely rough overarching elements are there.

- Also actually just. Rework the whole main prophecy too while we’re at it. It kinda sucks. It’s just kind of a weak prophecy. “To storm or fire the world will fall” or whatever; we can do better. I don’t have the brain power to write a better prophecy right now but just [see my recent post] for notes about what I think makes for a good prophecy in the series and why the main HoO one is kinda lame.

Footnotes:

Again, I will be following this up with part 2 electric boogaloo: Things I Would Change About TOA* (*That I can say without spoiling Deadangelos too much) at some point and I will link that when I make it. If you made it this far, gold star.

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iceprincessviviane · 1 year

Text

Chapter 4 - It's a cleaning day.

Heritage series.

Pairing: Poly!BTS (Demons) x Female!Shy!Skinny!Chosen!Reader

Type: dark romance, horror au, soulmate au, poly relationship, slowburn, yandere.

Warnings: Horror themes, some religion themes (mostly demonic), gore, blood, manipulation, witchcraft, magic themes, death (side characters), mentionings of forced marriage, mentioning about past, loss, yandere, obsessive, possessive, swearing, low self-esteem,dealing with grief, sugestive content and silly jokes created by me. (If there is more to add let me know.)

Previous chapter. Next chapter.

Summary: such a big mansion needs cleaning and this is the time, Y/N will take that challenge. Also having a company during that seems like nice idea.

Author's note: That chapter can be little boring, but I love diving into details in such stories 😌 English isn't my first language so I'm sorry for any mistakes.

MINORS DNI

Next day started slowly, Y/N woke up around 9 a.m with cat still resting near her legs unbothered and curled. She carefuly got up, trying not waking it up and went straight into bathroom to take a shower. Today'll be a day when she is going to take care of mansion. The supplies were filled and she had a car on herself, so nothing was staying in a way. When she went out wearing nothing but sweatshirt, pants and lavender scent, cat lifted it's head then stretched gracefully. They both reached big kitchen when he got a bowl filled with fish and another one with water and Y/N made herself fruit salad. She also checked the list, today was a clearing day, mostly vaccuming and removing dust from the shelves in her room, than clean the bathroom. Cat jumped at her lap and demanded headscratched, which she gladly provided after ending the eating.

"I'm going to call you Ash." Y/N decided and animal just tilted it's head to right. "Your fur remind me of it's color."

The pet's head tilted a little to right, like he was thinking about that, but then nuzzled head into her hand. She smiled and got that as acceptance. After the breakfast cat was allowed outside, when Y/N took vaccum, some rubbers and broom upstairs to her room. The cleaning went smoothly, the most took main area of the masterbedroom, along with it's shelves. The bathroom was suprisingly clean, so she headed to the next room. Till the noon the cleaning lasted, she was suspecting that anyway the unused rooms will again gather dust, but at least any stains or another dirty things'll be gone. Probably the specialist from goverment is used to work with little dust. The biggest challenge will be the main room in 0 level and library. Y/N made herself a break and prepare lunch for herself and Ash, but despite opening doors, the cat was missing. She was slighty worried, something could happen to him or he just left. The cats have their own paths.

Lunch wasn't big but it was a chance for her to take a breath before cleaning the last room on this side. It was a first one - office, with a lot of shelves, that big and old desk with drawers. Y/N tried to clean it carefuly and it came out that some of the drawers are closed and around were no keys. Maybe they were in the ring given by the mayor? It was to check later. Actually she could work here to prevent dust coming here again. The desk was spacious, her laptop and work things would fit perfectly. The clearing ended in late afternoon with also vacuuming big hall on the parter and then Y/N ate a dinner, for supper left once again snadwiches.

When she wanted to go nap a little, the entry phone has ringed. There was also camera to check who's outside and maybe don't bother to go whole way to the gate. To her surprise, outside were two men, one holding something looking like cooking sheet and another one currently looking at camera. She pressed button to talk, said quickly 'coming' then changed shirt to clean one and got outside.

Through gate metal rods Y/N could see them more clearly two visitors, closer one had to her surprise thin, but long coat followed by jeans and lether shoes. His skin was very pale and dark grey, longer hair almost reaching the shoulders. Taller than her and bigger, was holding serious expression. The cookies guardian had brown lether jacket and also jeans but looked more sports, had black raven hair, but cut short in modern style. He was thinnier and looked more deftly. On his was has huge smile and simple glasses. Indeed in his hands were cooking sheet. Y/N came closer with unsure steps and hesitant smile.

"Good morning!" Second one said with happy tone, causing his company to focus on a gate.

"Hi, what's the matter?" She asked in polite voice and open the gate door.

"We've heard that you are new here, so my boyfriend conviced me to come here and say hi, also hand over some of our cookies." The first said in calm and slow tone.

"That's true, actually everyone is saying that I'm new here." Y/N admitted shyly.

"Yea, the words are spreading fast, we just wanted to be nice."

"I'm Hoseak and that grumpy cat over here is Yoongi."

"Thank you, I'm Y/N L/N." They've exchanged the handshake.

"How's everything? It had to be a big change." Yoongi asked looking at the mansion.

"It was a surprise, but I'm trying to catch up with everything here, it's so new and actually quite interesting."

"We are renting cozy cabinet in the woods so it's different." Hoseok admitted and smiled. "Here there are homemade cookies, I hope you'll like them." He said and showed chococlate sweets.

"Oh thank you, but I'm afraid it's too much."

On the sheet were at least twenty. Simple with pieces of chocolate. He handed them over to her and smile has never left his face.

"If you are going to need something we can help. Living alone in such mansion as a woman can be overwhelming. Also it's age doesn't help." Yoongi offered generously.

"Once again thank you, but I'm doing fine for now. Also another residents offered me help, it's so nice. I'm not alone, I just found a stray cat and things are going all right I guess." Y/N smiled nervously.

Couple exchanged soft looks and Yoongi nodded. They seem so different, she could never guess that they were together. They were like sun and moon. The thought strike her a little, she looked at necklace, which was always with her. Men's gaze followed but she failed to notice.

"It's good to have even animal company." Yoongi said and his lips twitched.

"Oh yes, actually your hair's color remind me of Ash fur."

"Oh don't even say thay, Hobi is calling me a cat just enough times." He rolled his eyes and his boyfriend giggled softly.

"It's because you're cat darling. You like to sleep whole day, eat and when eveything is quiet. You also don't really like water."

Y/N smiled at their little bittering. It was so wholesome and calming. "Are you here on holidays?"

"Yes kind of. I'm professional dancer and Yoongi is a music producer." Hoseok explained happily.

"I think, I can imagine how you both met for the first time." She giggled softly.

"Yea, we met at work. Anyway, we just wanted to say hi and see, if you need something. We are going to go. Also be careful, becauae the weather is going to be moody this week."

"Thanks, I hope we can meet maybe in town if you want." She summed up.

They bid their goodbyes and Yoongi left his number in any case. It was so surprising and she was truly touched by all those good people living here and wanting to help her. Usually in those small towns new persons are treating with distance, but she didn't have any of it during talking with mayor or even Namjoon. That was a huge relief actually. Y/N went inside the mansion and left open kitched doors, hanging on chain, if Ash would like to come back. Now when the mansion was slight cleanier, she wanted to look at books, which should be catalogued and maybe try to open the cellars. She went upstairs to also check her laptop and wi-fi tomorrow she wanted to start a work. Her phone ringed with "mayor" name caller, she picked it up immediately.

"Good evening miss L/N. Sorry to interrupt that late."

"Good evening sir. It's okay I wasn't doing anything important."

"I got to know, that government found a specialist, but unfortunately he's abroad. He'll probably be able to show up in the next week if not later." Mayor said with slighty sad tone.

"I'm glad that we are moving with a case. If we cannot speed that it's fine." She said with small smile.

"I will keep you informed miss. Have a good night."

"Goodnight sir."

Her words were a truth, it's good if everything is moving forward even with small steps. After checking the internet connection and setting up her files and noted she went to eat something. Y/N spotted Ash sitting in main hall. Pet just cleaned itself and jumped off the sofa, to greet her. She petted cat's head softly, then going to kitchen. He followed her, but didn't seem hungry, only sipped some water. In that forested area cat could hunt something. She ate the sandwiches then closed all the doors and checked them along with windows. Y/N had Yoongi'a words in mind about the moody weather. After that she headed upstairs to get ready to sleep, cat followed her graciously. The warm shower was all she needed after whole day of cleaning. When she stepped out of the bathroom, Ash was already on the bed stretching. It's when loud bang came to their ears, cat almost jumped at the spot, when Y/N frowned and looked at the closed doors. She put on bathrobe, too a flashlight and phone into a pocket. It needed to be checked. Woman took a deep breath and stepped out of her room turning on light, which also switched up down below. It was the dim one, she didn't want to turn on proper ones. The mansion was drowning in silence, the noise earlier was loke something metal falling on the floor. Ash once again followed her with silent steps and looking down below. Y/N slowly went down by the stairs looking around but everything seemed normal. She wasn't going to yell 'is someone there?' like in those cheap horrors, it was sure that all doors and windows were closed. She was only in kitchen before so they went there. Behind the shadows were shifting and dancing, but one cat's gaze was enough to calm them. In the kitchen was clear what happend. Some bowls fell off from the cabinet without doors and it caused the whole noise. Y/N frowned she didn't even touched those during making supper. She sighed and put them on their place.

"The false alarm." She smiled to Ash and went back with him to her room.

The lonely lamp inside was left turned on in any case. Cat curled around her feet once again after staring intensly into dark places in the room. The night was calm and silent.

Taglist:

@lalavione1309 @hadesnewpersephone @00ihatesnaku @bangtan1325

#bts x reader #bts soulmate au #poly bts #supernatural #mystery #dark romance #yandere bts x reader #yandere bts #yandere x you #horror #demons #bts jin #bts namjoon #bts yoongi #bts hoseok #bts jimin #bts ff #bts taehyung #bts jungkook

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adobe-outdesign · 7 months

Note

I was reading your review on Shoyru and realized something I'm sure someone's already pointed out. In your list of dragon-like Neopets, Scorchio wasn't on there! Hopefully you'll tackle that one in a future review?

Scorchios are kind of your quintessential dragon Neopet. Compared to Shoyrus, Skeiths or Draiks, Scorchios don't have a super strong visual direction beyond just "bipedal dragon", which is a trait that also applies to the other three. I feel like if we're going to have four dragon pets they could've managed to vary them more, considering how many different types of dragons there are out there, but oh well.

From a visual standpoint, Scorchios have a pretty well-balanced design, detailed but not busy. They have a lined underbelly, some stripes on their wings that match the spikes on their backs and wings, and markings around their eyes.

My only visual complaint, outside of them being a bit generic, is that the peachy muzzle feels weird because it's too close to the yellow accent color to justify being a different color, and the yellow color itself is kind of a gross low-contrast mustard color instead of a nice cream or tan (the yellow Scorchio also has this color on its entire body instead of the more pure hue most yellow pets sport). Thankfully most colours fix this issue.

Scorchios also benefited from customization, even if they were saddled with a fist. The old art was incredibly dated, with little to no shading (look at those wings) and wobbly lineart. Outside of just improving the art, the customization version also fixes some of the wonkier aspects of the design, such as the weird leg anatomy, extremely tiny and dense tail spikes, and tiny eyes.

Favorite Colours:

Robot: Robot gets a spot here for not only being a good-looking colour in general, but also because you get a two-for-one deal due to the casings being removable. The cased version a perpetually pissed expression and a striking black and white Tron look, with a few dark grey and red accents. The lightbulb spikes are particularly delightful. The uncased version shows off the dark grey in full and also places more emphasis on the red accents (along with being less pissed).

Woodland: The woodland Scorchio is based off the rainbow eucalyptus, a plant that 100% looks fake but is very much real.

Not only does the dark base with green and red accents look particularly beautiful, but it also is a fun nod to the actual trees conceptually and makes for a memorable pet compared to the more generic wood-based ones. My only nitpick is that the leaf-wings don't really read as wings at all, and the random twig above the eye feels out of place and doesn't help with the wing issue. Still, it's very nice overall.

Candy: This one's relatively straightforward, but the pink and yellow palette is lovely, and the stripes really work well with the Scorchio's underbelly lines and pre-existing wing stripes. What I particularly like is that it actually has that very distinct lined texture that a lot of hard sweets have, which is detail they didn't have to add but I appreciate.

BONUS: Halloween got very close to being on the actual list, and I do really like its fun Jekyll and Hyde look, complete with skull cane (a nice way to use the fist) and formal attire. However, I had to knock it back a peg due to some weird details, like the hat absolutely not fitting the Scorchio's head correctly. The hands and feet also have fur, which not only feels random but really screws up the base color, which could've otherwise been a good option for customization in and of itself. The pink snout is also a little distracting, and probably would've worked better as a white to match the skull cane.

#neopets #neotag #scorchio #neopet reviews

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dani-says-stuff · 1 year

Text

Chernobyl

❥ Back to the Control Center

❥ Nate Hardy Masterlist

-Note: The words Baba and Babushka mean the same thing and are interchangeable

-Note: I didnt feel like embarrassing myself with my horrible spelling and grammar, so, the Baba's words will all be pre-translated and coming through Misha in English If my grandma knew how much I had to use google translate before I made this decision she'd smack me upside the head istg..

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Nate Hardy x fem!reader

Summary: Based on this request

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: sensitive topics, talk about the real events and lives of those who experienced the event, alcohol, inconsistent capitalization, my usual grammar warning

Not so much of a warning and definitely more of a heads up, this fic actually doesn’t have a lot of substance to it somehow? like somehow i managed to write 1.6k for absolute nonsense. for example, somehow, i managed to get like zero Nate scenes and neither him or Sam end up talking at all… basically huge apologies to the anon who requested this, i really struggled with this fic for some reason and i feel like it shows…

Dialogue Key:

Y/N

Colby

Misha

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It had to be one of the top experiences of your entire life thus far, and it would probably stay there for the rest of your life.

For as long as you knew the boys, this is what you all had been talking about. This was the big exploration you all had dreamed about for years, and you were finally here.

The four of you were in Ukraine, exploring Chernobyl.

As much as you had wanted to go, you'd pretty much expected that this bucket list item would have to remain undone. Yet here you were with your boyfriend and your best friends... to say it was surreal had to be an understatement.

You were able to experience the place on a personal level. You were no longer just viewing the place through photographs and video, but you were here. You were walking the streets, touching the trees, seeing everything.

Your tour guide and translator, Misha, took you through the city he used to call home. He helped share with you the story of what had happened here from the mouths of the locals. He shared several stories and several locations that allowed you to fully understand not only the location but the people who lived there. A glimpse of the lives lived, lost, and left behind.

Your group first made their way to a science lab that was created from an abandoned house in the exclusion zone. Here, the four of you were able to talk to a scientist who was researching radiation and get a more detailed explanation of what had happened here.

You all drove through the red forest area, one of the most contaminated areas in all of the exclusion zone.

You were able to go to Pripyat and explore the famous city. The very location where some of the most famous pictures were taken, and you were there.

You had been able to meet Vladimir, one of Misha's friends and a worker within the exclusion zone, who was willing to talk to you all about his experiences and how he felt after. He brought you to his old home, told you about his family, and explained what the town had been like- it was insane to hear the entire situation from the perspective of someone who was there.

Of course, when reading about the situation, you are able to feel sympathetic and you able to understand that the situation was horrible.

However, there is something about hearing the story from a human's perspective, removed from the facts and removed from the overall objectivity of the story, just the pure feeling and experience of someone there... it just adds so much gravity to the situation, so much emotion and respect for those who lived through something like this.

You walked through what was left of the abandoned restaurants, supermarkets, and hotels. Seeing the ruble and miscellaneous items left behind, scattered along the ground and placed among exposed brick.

You saw the Ferris wheel in real life. Walking through an old amusement park, one which used to be filled with laughter and children running around, left in silence with not a soul to be seen.

You went inside one of the reactors-- the one that might as well be a mirror image of the very one that the explosion occurred in. Here, you all got an even clearer explanation of what happened on a mechanical level. The theory explained to your group, was that everything done by the workers theoretically should have worked, it all came down to metal tubing warping out of shape from the extreme heat released.

You were even able to enter control room 3, the room where the button that would lead to this catastrophic chain of events, was pushed that fateful day.

You entered an old kindergarten, an old stadium, and a hospital used for those who were first affected by the radiation. All of which, are almost completely overtaken by the elements. Trees, bushes, and vines overtake the areas.

You were able to enter Duga Station, a military base and a lesser-known location. The area was bathed in conspiracy. documents explaining what the building was for were almost all destroyed or archived, the building was hidden on all maps, and the soviet union itself denied its existence. All of which, aid in allowing any story or explanation of the place to run wild. Things like mind control and spy headquarters, even a conspiracy that Chernobyl was a cover-up for what was happening there.

Lastly, you all went to visit one of the last remaining villages on the outer edge of the city. Allowing you all to talk with some of the babushkas who came back to their homes, and are currently living there together.

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The car pulled up to an area blocked off by a high fence, only allowing you to see the tops of a few roofs that lay behind it. Misha walks the four of you up the small worn driveway and through the gate where you meet the first Baba, Babushka Marusya. She was an adorable old woman, dressed in vibrant purples.

After the woman speaks, Misha turns to you all, translating her words to English, "She just finished with homemade french fries for us."

Your heart melted, "Aw, thank you so much!"

"Ah, she says not to worry about it" Misha translated with a bright smile, "She says she plans to spoil you kids during your visit"

That made your heart melt even further.

Colby turns around to talk to your small group while Misha and Babushka Marusya spoke in Ukrainian, "Just tiny old ladies, full of joy"

Add that to the list of times that Colby Brock jinxed himself on camera.

Not a second later Misha turns to face Colby, looking as if he was trying his best not to laugh, "You are too attractive, she says you look like a girl" You slap your hand against your mouth to keep your laughter in as well.

The boy's arms curled in on himself, cheeks flushing pink in both embarrassment and laughter as his friends divulged into hysterics around him, "It's the long sleeve isn't it" he pouted, a call back to earlier in the day, "It's the bright blue highlighter shirt isn't it?"

You placed a hand on his shoulder rubbing it in faux sympathy, "Aw, it's ok Colby" You leaned forward, head resting against his arm, "You're the pwettiest girl I know."

His face clouded, annoyance crossing his features. "Mhm, yeah, thanks Y/N. I really appreciate that." he deadpanned, shoving you off his shoulder. A small smile crawled up the sides of his lips at his three friends' continued laughter.

Within a few minutes, Misha and Baba Marusya had a full spread ready for you all on a picnic table outside. Everything adorning the table, including the moonshine, was made by her from her own property.

As good as all of the food was, part of you couldn't wait for the car ride afterward. Misha kept refilling the boy's shot glasses, and they kept drinking them.

By the time you all would load back into the car, you were certain they'd be absolutely shitfaced.

Not you though. Not because you were better at holding your alcohol, but because every time your shot glass was refilled, you drank about half and then pawned it off to Nate.

This meant, your boyfriend was having double the shots of pure, homemade, moonshine, that the boys were having and you were having about half what they were.

You would be the most sober and camera ready for any stupid shit, he was bound to say.

Ah yes, soon you would be armed with an arsenal of material to pawn off for his embarrassment.

You were an amazing girlfriend.

Baba Marusya saw through your plan immediately. Maybe she didn't quite understand the goal of filming him later, but she definitely got what you were doing. That much became obvious when she came around to refill your glass, she placed it a little closer to him than to you, giving you a subtle wink as she walked away.

━─━────༺✧༻────━─━

After you ate—and helped clean the table despite the baba's insistence that you didn't have to—you all filed into the home to speak with both her and Baba Hanna.

They spoke to you of their lives. They talked to you about how they lived before the accident and their families. They told you stories and sang you songs of their younger years, it was both heartwarming and devastating to hear it from them. To see the joy, but also the pain they experienced when speaking of what used to be.

You found yourself hugging Babushka Marusya about halfway through her speech talking about her family and loneliness here, of course, you asked permission through Misha first, but you felt as though you had to. You weren't one of her children and you knew she had just met you, but you hoped that somehow something as simple as a hug could give her some sort of comfort.

It made you feel kind of stupid when you began to tear up in her embrace. Here this woman was, talking about how sad she was here and how much she misses her family, strong and not a waiver in her voice, and you were on the verge of breaking down. It only made it worse when she noticed your tears and began to your back, turning to try and comfort you.

She was experiencing all of these things, all of these sad feelings, and all of these broken memories, but she remained a sweet woman above it all.

It was inspiring, you knew that you would never forget this experience for as long as you live.

#nate hardy x reader #sam and colby imagine #nate hardy imagine #request

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getvalentined · 2 months

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Oooh ooh! A, C, V, W or just one or any combination of them, please! 🖤

A - Ships that you currently like a lot.

I think my "main pairings" right now would probably be Strifentine and Sephesis! I have a short list of shippery preferences over on my website, too, which I recently updated.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Va|enwind. This has less to do with me thinking it's impossible (visually, C!d is almost exactly my Vincent's type when it comes to men, I'm not kidding) than with the way fandom holds it up like it's canon while writing off the fact that C!d is canonically abusive to the woman he's been in a relationship with for who knows how long and canonically marries after Meteorfall. Rejecting such an important part of a character's story arc for shipping purposes while simultaneously relegating the character he harmed to the void of Female Characters Nobody Cares About Who Deserved What Happened To Them has left a bad taste in my mouth for decades, and that isn't gonna change any time soon.

I also used to get a lot of shit for shipping Vincent with Veld "instead," because apparently that's the "wrong" option? I once rejected a request to add this picture to a Va|enwind club gallery on devART and when the mod sent me a note asking why, I explained that it's Veld talking from out of frame, not C!d; the response was something along the lines of "Oh, okay, I didn't know you were fucking delusional." Great experiences, let me tell you.

V - Which character do you relate to most?

Vincent. Definitely. It's complicated and involves me having Body Dysmoprhic Disorder, being brought up in a cult that taught me I was going to spend eternity alone in the dark because of what I am, and the fact that I've been shot once, died a couple times, and been used for medical testing without my consent. I just didn't get any cool monster transformations out of it. (Tragic, really.)

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

Miscommunication and the Idiot Plots it creates. Hate that. Hate hate hate that. I know there are cases where a misunderstanding and a failure to discuss it are in-character, but that's not what I'm talking about. I don't even watch romcoms because this trope pisses me off so much and it's a key element to the genre.

I think the one place I've ever seen this trope used well in fanfiction is skadren's for blood and wine are red, and that's specifically because when Cloud misunderstands, he immediately removes himself from the situation and refuses to communicate with anyone. There aren't a dozen people constantly saying just the wrong thing while never questioning him about anything in order to continue the perpetuation of his assumptions while he just keeps going about his day to day life as if everything is normal and never brings it up. It is not an Idiot Plot, it's Cloud exacerbating his own clinical depression and everyone else trying to get him to stop.

[ for the A to Z ask game ]

#ask game #a to z ask game

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howdy-folks-its-showtime · 4 months

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It's Showtime! - May 2024 Devlog

Howdy! Cobalt here, if this devlog seems a little strange or not as well formatted as any of the others, it is because it is May 30th [for me who is writing this before publishing it] and I am sick with a fever. Out of the past three days I've been sick, today I by far feel the best but yeah I'm gonna blame any mistakes or lack of comprehensiveness on that.

Also luckily it only took one devlog for me to realize I should probably date and title these.

To start, we're almost done blocking out the first floor, it lacks a roof right now but the layout, the placement of stuff like interactables and some aesthetic things are all planned out. Once the roof textures are done I will share screenshots of it, but for now my focus is far more on programming than aesthetics for the first floor.

And in terms of programming, we have made a ton of progress! I now have a Progress Manager, it doesn't have a script of its own but manages three other script: Objectives Manager - Keeps track of which part of the game you are in for activating event and cut scene triggers. It also tells the game which character you should be playing as currently and does stuff like adjust what is in your inventory n such accordingly. Cut Scene Manager - Technically doesn't do much of anything right now because we're not yet at the stage where any cut scenes are being played. This will be working with the Objectives Manager and Event Manager to play cut scenes and manage them so it's not disorganized. Event Manager - Passes information from the Objectives Manager to things like triggers for events, such as cut scenes and animations to activate them. Has a list of all the events to make managing them easier.

These combined with the other scripts I have means adding things like animation events, cut scenes and objectives is really easy. So we will make progress on those things a lot faster.

Other important scripts I have made are: Interact - Just a script that makes an object interactable and then executes the script it's told to upon being interacted with, then deletes itself. Item Pickup - Stores an items' title, description and icon to send to the inventory manager upon being interacted with. Also destroys the item since it's no longer needed. Item Use - Upon being interacted with, searches your inventory to see if you have the object you want to use and if you do removes it from your inventory and tells the progress manager you've completed that objective. Other Use - Right now just for one use items like valves you need to turn or levers you pull when interacting. Then tells the progress manager you made progress.

I have also programmed an entire inventory system to keep track of the items you have picked up and the ones you have used. It has names, icons and descriptions. I should be able to use this same system for the tapes with some simple modifications too.

The screenshot is super rough, but don't worry, we'll use our own assets in the final product. Everything here is just placeholder stuff. Titles and descriptions may change later on too.

So what does all this mean? Well, it means upon starting up the game you are simply spawned right onto the first floor/level. You can check your inventory and see the item you start the game with. You can pick up all the items you need to turn on the ink machine [plus some bonus ones], put them on the podiums, flip the levers for the machine, see some animations and soon you'll be able to fall through the floor right in front of the entrance and we'll get started on the next section. The best part of all of this is going to be how much easier and faster it makes future progress. Now all I have to do to add a lot of things is drag the same script onto objects and modifying the scripts I have written to suit my needs as we go along. We have built the base and now it's time to build upon it, but the first step is always the hardest and now we're done with that! Thanks for all your patience with this project as always and I sincerely believe I should have way more to share by next month! For now, that's all. Thanks for reading!

#it's showtime #not ask #Devlog #bendy and the dark revival #bendy and the ink machine #batim #batdr #Bendy Encore #Bendy fangame #queer horror #indie horror game #indie horror #mascot horror #mod whirly

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lesbianchemicalplant · 2 years

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Request for Programming/CS/Math blog recommendations:

I've been looking for more programming / computer science / software dev (and also math/probability/statistics) blogs to add to my RSS reader

(I’m not very picky about adding blogs, since I can always remove them later, and it’s tough to accurately estimate “how much will I really like having this in my RSS reader?” in advance. also, most blogs aren't updated that often anyway, so it's not like I'm going to be inundated with posts regardless)

I may as well list the ones I've liked so far, and a few of the languages/topics they post about. They all post about Software Engineering In General as well as whatever I mention explicitly

Ones I’ve been following for a little while (and/or I’ve read a bunch of their older posts):

https://buttondown.email/hillelwayne – language design, formal methods, model checking (TLA+)

https://blog.plover.com – Haskell, functional programming, math, git, CLI stuff (see "subtopics" in the sidebar for tags)

https://www.johndcook.com/blog – math, probability/statistics, numerical methods

https://blog.yossarian.net – Rust, Python, cryptography (tags listed here)

https://fasterthanli.me – Rust, profiling, Go (derogatory), networking, async

https://blog.ploeh.dk – Haskell, F#, functional programming, category theory, design patterns, testing, .NET (tags here)

https://jvns.ca – networking, servers, CLI stuff, SQL

https://wunkolo.github.io – graphics, fun with intel ISA extensions / SIMD

https://randomascii.wordpress.com – profiling, performance, windows-ecosystem things, fun posts about floating point

https://esoteric.codes – esolangs

https://www.parsonsmatt.org – Haskell

Others I’ve thrown onto my RSS reader but haven’t been following for as long, or haven’t read so much from their archives yet (not an exhaustive list):

https://thephd.dev/ – C++, C, Rust

https://fa.bianp.net – machine learning, math, probability/statistics, algorithms, optimization

https://danluu.com – added on the strength of this post, basically

https://nedbatchelder.com/blog – Python

https://martinheinz.dev – Python

https://hynek.me/articles – Python

https://www.b-list.org/weblog – Python

https://blog.demofox.org – graphics, gamedev, math, algorithms

https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog – linux, sysadmin-ing, zfs, Python

For all of these blogs, I scroll past and try to ignore anything that’s not technical content (or about labor conditions / industry things)

I’m also interested in learning about things outside of the scopes / focuses of the above (e.g. I don’t really have any js blogs in there yet, but would definitely be interested!)

I would also definitely appreciate any recommendations for essays, article series, books, interesting repos, archives of blogs that are no longer active, anything along those lines

(Please no LessWronger recommendations. I’m not following any of these people for their politics, but LessWrongers will use anything and everything to plug their insufferable neo-reactionary cult shit, it’s too much to just scroll past. Unfortunately, most of the people on tumblr who post about math and/or programming are also LessWrong/SSC adherents.....Which unfortunately also means I’m unlikely to actually get any recommendations out of posting this. But you never know, worth a shot)

#programming #math #computer science #cs #(may as well Tag Post. though the number of inline links mean this post probably won't show up anyway)#my posts

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zepskies · 7 months

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Not really a question but they're a very few writers that write fanfiction that have really affected me. Not just their work but the way their work and posts reflect them and I can count on one hand how many there are and you're one of them. Your work is just so captivating, I've literally laughed out loud so many times and it is a source of comfort as right now I'm probably going through the hardest period of my life and have to start therapy even though I'm on the younger spectrum of things. I don't mean to dump here, just wanted to let you know that your work really does mean the world, it really really does.

And i love how your choice of obsession is the lovely Jensen Ackles.

Please do let me know if you're still taking reqs or taglists for soldier boy!

:)x

@lifeonawhim You just made my whole week, hun! 🥹

This in particular warmed me:

Not just their work but the way their work and posts reflect them and I can count on one hand how many there are and you're one of them.

That's such an amazing compliment, and it truly means so much to me. One of the reasons why I write fanfiction along with my original stuff is not just to explore fandoms and characters that I love, but also for the reason you messaged me. I'm so glad my work has been able to brighten your day, make you laugh, distract you from your troubles in whatever small way.

Though I'm sorry that you're going through a hard time. Trust me, I've been there, and therapy can be a wonderful and essential part of working through it. Because unfortunately, being young in life doesn't always mean you can escape challenging times, anxiety, or trauma (I can relate). It's more than okay to need help, and to ask for it.

As Jared says, "Always keep fighting." 💗

And you're not "dumping" at all. Thank you very much for letting me know that my work means something to you! That encouragement is just as important for me, as a writer and a person, as is reading things that are able to comfort you when you're down.

Jensen's characters are certainly my current obsession! lol But believe me, I've had others: Loki/Tom Hiddleston, Jon Snow/Kit Harrington, Clark Kent/Tom Welling, and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier/Sebastian Stan just to name a few.

About my Tag Lists:

I've been combing through my tag lists recently to remove blogs that are no longer active or look like bots, so I was able to add you to my Soldier Boy tag list! 💜 If you would like to be added to other tag lists of mine that are still open, feel free to check out my nifty Tag List Form and add yourself.

As for requests:

So my requests are "officially" closed. I've written a lot of requests in the past year, but I still have several in my inbox because a few more trickle in lol. But since you've been so very kind, if you have a request go ahead and send it to my inbox. I can't promise that I'll get to it right away, but if an idea grabs me, I can't not do it, if that makes sense. 😉

Thank you again for sending me such a lovely message to brighten up my day!

#ask me stuff #reader appreciation #you made me smile #lovely readers #always keep fighting #jensen ackles #jensen ackles characters #dean winchester #soldier boy #soldier boy/ben #spn #supernatural #the boys #jason teague #beau arlen #alec mcdowell #boaz priestly #zepskies answers

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take-taker-taken · 1 year

Text

Part two is ready, so here we go!

WARNING - the chapters that comprise this ‘item’ in The List will contain CNC (consensual non-consent). It will mention rape. There will be humiliation. It will involve weapons - this particular part is mostly knife play. The sub will not always be treated / spoken to kindly. If you’re happy to read such things then feel free to continue.

As ever, please read the notes at the end.

The List - CNC - Part Two

You don’t know how long you’ve been in the back of the truck; it’s stopped and started a few times, probably at lights but you’ve absolutely no idea where you might be. You’ve closed your eyes - no point having them open with the material over your face - and you’re surprised at all the small sounds your ears are picking up. At one point, you think you hear Shawn’s voice but then some music comes on and drowns it out.

The covering over your head is really starting to irritate you and so you begin to rub the side of your head against the blanket, wondering if you can work it loose. After a minute or so however you give up, because it seems like it’s held in place around your neck by a drawstring, which would explain why Shawn had been able to tighten it so quickly. Your mind turns to your destination and you try to guess where they might be taking you. It seems doubtful that he’s merely taking you to his house - they’re too good at this and probably won’t want you anywhere that’s familiar. Certainly not to a hotel… not to any place with near neighbours, really. You pull against your bindings but they’re not shifting. You try working your ankles in small movements and it does seem to loosen off a little, but it’s not going to contribute to any escape attempt.

The truck slows, turns and then you’re bounced around a little as it drives over uneven ground at low speed. Your heart rate instantly picks up again because it’s clear that the next part of this scene is coming up. You wonder whether Mark is waiting because you’ve not had any evidence that he’s here with Shawn in the truck and he definitely wasn’t around in the house. The cab door opens and slams shut and then the darkness of the truck bed is removed as he rolls back the cover. You lay completely still and silent and for a few moments nothing at all happens and then you scream in shock as you’re grabbed and pulled along, the blankets easing the way and then Shawn is manhandling you up on to his shoulder again and you squeak some more.

“Knew I should have put a fucking gag on you,” he comments as he settles you on his shoulder - a more difficult task this time due to your tied position. “You move and I’ll let you fall and just drag you through the dirt.” He turns around and begins to walk as he adds, “Maybe I should do that anyway - it’s where whores like you belong.”

“Not a whore,” You’re breathing hard again and words are an effort.

“Yeah, well… we’ll see about that.” He turns abruptly, making you fear for the safety of your head, and you hear a door open - the sound of a basic latch and then his boots walking across a wooden floor. The smell of timber surrounds you and so you figure you must be in some kind of cabin. Your thoughts are interrupted as Shawn starts to lower you down before he lets go and you drop the last foot or so to the floor.

“Got a live one?”

It’s Mark.

“Oh, yeah… walked right in and back out, easy as anything.”

“She give you any trouble?” You hear his heavy footfall across the floor, getting louder as he approaches until the wooden boards beneath you shake slightly.

“Nothin’ that a couple threats didn’t quiet down. All the usual, y’know.. ‘I can give you money’, ‘you don’t have to do this’ stuff.” You’re prodded with a foot and you assume it’s Shawn as he goes on, “Hey, you’ll never guess what she said when I took her out of the truck…” He breaks out into a giggle. “She said… she said, ‘I’m not a whore!’”

Mark laughs and then he’s crouching down and working the knots that bind your legs to your wrists and you can’t help feeling some relief as the discomfort of the tie leaves you. He unwinds the rope from your ankles and then hauls you to your feet.

“She ain’t saying much now,” He comments, keeping a strong grip on the back of your neck. You try to imagine what expression he’s wearing and make a half-hearted attempt to shake free of his hold. To your surprise he lets go and then you’re just stood there between the two of them, still with the damn bag over your head and your hands tied behind your back. There’s a few seconds silence and then he speaks to you. “Well? Now what you gonna do?”

You’re at a complete loss because well - what can you do? Unsure of their exact positions, you turn your head slightly to the left and right in a bid to address them both.

“I… let me go? Please?”

“Ohh, I like the way she says ‘please’,” That’s Shawn again and it seems he’s on your right. “Let’s get her to say that some more.”

You squeak as Mark takes hold of your neck again and then the drawstring is loosened and he pulls the covering from your head. The cool air is welcome and of course it means that you finally get to see them. They’re both in jeans and t-shirts; the sleeves have been cut off Mark’s and he’s got his hair tied back with a black bandana covering the top of his head. Shawn’s hair hangs loose and he’s wearing a heavy silver chain around his neck. You don’t know how they’re doing it but they’re both exuding an air of being complete strangers to you.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Mark says. “We need some entertainment… and you’re it.” He looks across at Shawn and adds, “Shall we?”

“Wh… what do you mean?” You look from one to the other of them as you take a small step back. You don’t get an answer - Shawn just steps behind you and takes hold of your upper arms, causing you instinctively to struggle. You cry out as he laughs and then bites your neck yet again - higher up this time. “Stop, please!”

Shawn just huffs out a laugh and licks across your skin. “Stop? We’re just getting started.”

Mark has crossed to a table under the window and seems to be contemplating something. Your breath catches when he turns around with a hunting knife in his hand. Shawn tightens his grip when he feels you tense up and as Mark starts to slowly walk back over you plant your feet and try to shove back but you’re no match for Shawn’s strength, even as you wrench yourself left and right to try and escape. Mark’s left hand shoots out and he grabs your neck.

“Moving around all over the place when I’m holding this near you?” He says, lifting the knife up so that it’s right in front of your face. “Bad idea.” He holds it so that the tip is pointing directly at you and then grabs your hair to keep your head still. He draws the tip down your neck and you let out a high-pitched whine but don’t dare to speak. “You have any idea how sharp this is?” He continues, turning the blade so that it’s at perfect throat-slitting angle. Your eyes are fixed on his face, wide with fear as the cool metal presses into your skin. “It’d made a real clean cut… you probably wouldn’t even feel it open you up.” Another whimper escapes your lips and he looks at you as he takes it away from your neck. “So with that in mind, don’t you move a single fucking muscle, else you might get hurt.”

He goes to one knee and it would almost look gallant were he not holding a knife that would gut a deer. He grabs a bunch of material at the top of your sweats and then rips the knife through it, the material parting easily to show the pale skin of your thigh beneath. He sets the knife down on the floor and uses his hands to tear the fabric apart further before picking up the blade again and slicing through the waistband. He hacks cleanly through the material on your other leg and then with brute force removes them completely.

“Please…” Your voice is a whisper. “Please don’t do this. Just… if you let me go I, I won’t say anything to anyone - won’t call the police. Please -”

He stands up to tower over you, knife back in his hand and he grabs your hair again, pulling your head back.

“You think I give a fuck about police? They wouldn��t be able to find us anyway.” He puts the blade back at your throat and you close your eyes - this is harder than you thought. The words for your colours scroll through your brain and it helps to calm you; that invisible lifeline… you decide you don’t need it yet, even as he strokes the edge of the metal across your skin as he goes on. “You can scream and cry, you can beg, you can plead with us - go right ahead.” He turns the blade so that once again the very tip is pressing into your neck. “We like that,” He says, dragging the knife gently upwards and gliding it along your jaw before pressing it flat to your cheek, making you bite down on your lip in an unsuccessful bid to suppress a whimper.

“Why me?” You dare to open your eyes and he moves the knife away from your face as in perfect tag team fashion Shawn takes over and gives you a small shake.

“Because you were there, bitch.” He releases one of your arms and puts the hand around your neck, closing it tighter than he has thus far. “There you were out for a run - really caught my eye, so I followed you home. We’ve been looking for a new toy for a few days and there you were - call it fate, huh?”

You go to take a breath and have the frightening realisation that you can’t really get much air in because of his hold on you and you begin to struggle - a futile cause between Mark’s hand in your hair and Shawn’s grip on your throat. The blonde takes hold of your arm again and you gasp in some air, the breath out releasing as a sob as Mark takes a handful of your shirt and sends it the same way as your sweats until you’re stood there in the just the underwear you picked out earlier - it’s a sweet matching set, white with a purple marbling pattern that you only bought a week ago.

“Nice…” Mark takes a step back to appraise you as he twirls the knife in his big hand before slipping it into the back of his jeans. “Did you wear that especially for us?”

“Fuck you,” You snarl at him, figuring that a change of tack is required.

He just smirks. “Later.” He glances above your head and says to Shawn, “Hey, you want a go? Throw her across here.”

In response, Shawn lets go and pushes you forward at the same time as spinning you round. With your wrists still tied behind your back you stagger a bit to regain your footing and then Mark catches you and adopts the same grip on your upper arms, holding you back against him. Shawn steps forward and takes the knife from Mark’s jeans. He stands and contemplates the blade for a few moments and then raises his eyes to look at you coldly. Normally his eyes are bright and they twinkle with fun and amusement but now… there’s nothing. It’s sinister.

He traces the tip of the knife down your sternum and then back up, the metal leaving pink lines in its wake. You’re trying not to breathe too hard and watching his face, but he’s concentrating solely on the blade. He glances up and sees you looking at him.

“He’s a lot nicer than me, y’know.” He presses the blade flat against your throat, forcing your head up. “And I’m still a little pissed about you kicking me when I put you in the truck.” He slides the knife down to your shoulder and works it under the strap of your bra before he turns it to strain against the material. The strap digs into the back of your shoulder until it finally caves to the pressure and the blade slices it clean through. He repeats the action on the other side and looks annoyed when the moulded cups don’t just fall down. With a growl he wrenches them away, revealing your breasts to his gaze and then with determined movements, cuts through the band before pulling the whole torn mess from you and dropping it to the floor.

You turn your head and look off to the side, trying to make out that you couldn’t care less about the fact your clothing has been cut off. Shawn tucks the knife away behind him and grabs your breasts roughly, squeezing them to just the wrong side of uncomfortable. That said, you’re used to a rough ride now and again and privately you know that when your panties come off as they surely must, there won’t be any doubt as to how you’ve felt about things so far. Nevertheless, you do your best to try and get away, twisting left and right.

“Stop it! You’re hurting me!”

In response he takes a strong grip on your nipples and you scream - for effect rather than real objection - only to be ignored as he leans in close. “Keep telling you, bitch… I haven’t even started.”

You’re not quite sure where your next idea comes from and you certainly don’t take the time to think it through - just draw your head back slightly and then spit into his face…

TO BE CONTINUED

Previous | Next

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NOTES

Goes without saying that knife play can be hella dangerous. Again, I have taken certain liberties within the above and so don’t whatever you do use it as a how to guide. I’m not going to pontificate about the do and do nots of knife play here, because there are plentiful resources on the net if you want to find out more about it. If it’s something you’re curious about then there are ways to keep it safer (note - SAFER - not safe) and that’s to only ever place the non business-side of the knife against skin. Alternatively, another way around it is to let the sub see the knife but then blindfold them and use something else entirely to produce the sensation, such as the side of a credit card. If, as in the fic above, you’re cutting someone’s clothes off with a knife then always makes sure that you are cutting AWAY from them.

#TTT The List #the undertaker #undertaker #this character lives in my head rent free #taker smut #hbtaker #dom!taker #dom!undertaker #dom!shawn #Shawn Michaels #undertaker fanfic #taker x reader #Shawn x reader

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