#writing this fic is making me insane actually

[cantgetworsethanthistbh]

YES YES YES I GO CRAZY ABOUT IT

there was a piece of analysis in the notes of a gen fic i read a while back where it basically said that (30s!)ford was fine putting their relationship on pause until ford was ready to reconcile or needed something from stan. there was never any consideration that stan wouldn’t “want to make it up to him” or even a passing thought that stan would reject him despite presumably never mentioning stan to fiddleford or anyone in the town he lived in, and not talking about him at all with family

anyways that piece of analysis still keeps me up at night.

God its actually so insane to think about. I was mostly joking in my post, but its pretty crazy how Ford is very much aware of Stan's loyalty to him and we've seen how far he's willing to stretch it for his own benefit without anything in return. Ford is so clearly aware of the fact Stan would literally do anything for him.

I think much of it boils down to his own belief that Stan is willing to do whatever it takes keep him around. I mean, didn't Stan ruin his future prospects at his dream school specifically so they can keep adventuring together? Why would Stan deny Ford anything at that point if he's willing to cost the family literal millions for his "selfish gains"? (and again, Ford is under the impression Stan destroyed the machine on purpose and is essentially trying to baby trap him with the Stan O War lmao)

He internalizes this, like some vault in his brain that assures him he would always have his brother, even when he doesn't want him at that moment. Or at least, believes he doesn't but he does, and that is even something he's very obviously ashamed of or else he wouldnt hide the literal decades worth of memorabilia of Stan from Fiddleford or would be writing his real feelings in secret code.

But back to the point: Ford has no qualms using this to his own benefit and he does it multiple times. He does it when begging Stan to come to Gravity Falls, he does it when he expects Stan to just shut up and take the book away even without sitting him down and explaining why these journals are so important and dangerous in the first place. It's something he even utilizes right after getting out of the portal, by telling Stan to shut down his thirty year long and successful business and leave after the summer is over and Stan agrees.

But it's worth noting too that that's the last time you will ever catch Stan doing a total favor for Ford without something in return. Stan at that point is done doing things for Ford without the proper reciprication and its not like you can blame him. He has to be convinced by Mabel to save Ford again and he puts his foot down on getting that thanks he was owed over fixing the portal even though there was a literal apocalypse happening. Make no mistake though, because until then, Ford wasn't under any delusion that Stan wouldnt do anything he asks because Stan pretty much proved he would. This is also why Ford was pretty comfortable asking Stan to join the circle because other than "Who the hell would deny holding hands to save the world?" there's also a "How could Stan ever say no to me?" Having to swallow his pride for even half a second and actually reciprocate literally 1/100 of the things Stan was willing to do for him was how we got "Grammar, Stanley" lmao

and this is my own headcanon, but i suppose that other than essentially killing Stanley by erasing his mind, I think that's also a moment where the vault opens in Ford's head and he realizes he won't always have his brother like he believes he does. The same brother who travelled halfway across the country for a brother who he hadn't contacted for 10 years. The same brother who was willing to keep him fed and sheltered under a roof that legally technically is more Stan's than it is Ford's and rescind his one condition of staying away from the kids to give Dipper his blessing of hanging out with Ford. That same brother is going to forget all about that, forget his loyalty and unconditional love towards Ford and Ford realizes he loses the one person who was always willing to fight for him, more than anyone else in the world. Its really really good shit man

[fruityindividual]

you erased tonks and she's literally teddy's mom??? why do ff writers keep doing this??? this fandom is hella misogynistic let the female characters be MOMS!!

mkay. thoughts + questions below the cut xx

i do not care abt tonks enough to write abt her. i won't spend my time writing abt a character i dont find interesting just cos jkr did and u think i should.

is it ok w you if i leave tonks out of fics that don't include teddy?

is tonks' motherhood where u draw the line?

cos shes a mum?

cos being a mum is the most important aspect of her canon female character?

or am i misunderstanding you? like u've misunderstood why i chose to not include tonks in tmos?

should i have killed her off? or made her a v minor character? either way, as ppl who clearly care so deeply abt tonks, u would've been disappointed.

oh! i shouldve just written an oc kid?

so u don't mind if tonks is left out of fics that don't include teddy? cos if she's not a mum, then there's no point? or am i misunderstanding you? like u've misunderstood why i chose to not include tonks in tmos?

'this fandom is misogynistic' -> 'let em be MOMS!!'

fictional characters dont actually have 2 b anything just cos you and jkr say so.

including a character solely cos shes a mum in canon isn't a v convincing reason to divorce (<-lmao) myself from wht i'd prefer writing. imo

i feel no obligation 2 write tonks just cos jkr did n u think i should. this stems from my personal belief that i can write whtevr the fuck i want.

calling a fandom as a whole 'misogynistic' but citing tonks' motherhood as ur only grievance is rly interesting. and by 'interesting,' i mean dense + annoying

fandom is 'denying tonks her motherhood?' well i also denied her a fucking existence......btw.

excluding tonks from tmos wasn't driven by my desire to 'get her out of the way' so r/s ('two gay men' <-insane three words 2 type n click send on btw anon) could raise teddy, but rather my desire to literally not write abt her at all. cos ive never rly found her an interesting character. is that wrong? i'm not convinced it is. but i dont pretend to have given this as much thought as u three big thinkers.

write ur own fics n give tonks the appreciation u think is lacking instead of whinging abt the product of my own loser daydreams in my askbox.

u'll never convince me that these sorts of asks are sent in effort to make the world a better place <3

will always welcome asks n polite discourse + treat everyone w the respect they deserve, but pls consider baiting, drama-fuelled asks like these outside of my boundaries. dont bring this shit into my house xoxo

[johnslittlespoon]

So, I've reread TAS about 6 times, maybe. With every read through, the story somehow gets better. Anyway, I gotta know: when Gale chooses the horror movie before their first kiss, did he do it with the intention of scaring John into his arms? I remember that cliché from media growing up. The guy choosing the scary movie so that he can wrap his arms around the pretty girl.

You write Gale really well, and he's doing the whole "we're taking this at your pace" thing. So I want to know if the scary movie was a calculated decision.

Also, thank you SO MUCH for writing this story; it is my current obsession.

okay gonna get into some TAS gale pov asks bc i have a few >:) but SIX TIMES???? i will literally never ever be able to wrap my head around anyone rereading my stuff, it’s so mind boggling and it makes me a little (a lot) teary wtf :’)) <33 that’s actually insane LMAO thank u this is so so sweet 😭💗 ok buckle in bc i had a lot to say oops

tbh i definitely had that cliche in mind while writing it, like as soon as i decided they’d be watching a horror movie, i knew they’d have the cliche ‘hold me i’m scared’ moment, because it would be a good way to ease into the first kiss. however i don’t think it was fully intentional on gale’s end, because really, i think gale would’ve been happy to sit through like a three hour documentary if that’s what john had wanted lol.

so i don’t think he was swaying john one way or another, but he definitely had zero complaints about having an excuse to hold john when he got scared ;) and obv at that point, gale’s not dumb (and john is not subtle lmfao), so gale was probably 99.9% certain john had feelings for him, and he was giving john every opportunity to do something about that, since gale was so stubborn about giving john space to figure things out for himself and make the first move. :)

another rereader i cryyyy <333 thank you, would also run thru a brick wall for u 😭💖 YES gale’s pov very much interests me, i’ve got a whole section for it in what i call my TAS masterdoc lmfaoo. i have a stupid amount of oneshot ideas now in his/other character’s povs that i’d love to get to at some point!

but also hey ouch thanks for hurting my heart <3 😭 i do feel like there were probably a few “oh no” moments for gale after meeting john, like the classic ‘i’m fucked’ realizations, and i think seeing him smile properly for the first time would be one of those. john’s so caught up in his own head half the time that he probably didn’t notice the way gale stopped breathing the first time he was on the receiving end of his sunshine smile :’)

i genuinely think gale’s internal monologue during that moment would just be ‘fuckfuckfuckfuck’ because really, what else can he do but fall head over heels? i’m sooo excited to dig into gale’s pov eventually, to get into how much he wrestled with himself and how he’d told himself never again after losing johnny, and then in walks this gangly, sweet, loud–mouthed college kid, and gale’s never been so happy to have his life turned upside down.

(john and gale actually do have a little bit of a conversation about this in ch11 because i couldn’t resist, but until that’s up, i leave you with the assurance that gale was smitten from day one and just trying to repress it for a multitude of reasons, but then the incident happened where gale saved him from the blind date, and it was all over from that moment on. the urge to protect john and to keep a smile on his face hasn’t left gale since that moment <3)

LOLL. definitely an admonishing “gaaaaale” moment. 

i’ve had so many questions in AO3 comments asking if i’ll write gale’s pov of the conversation he has with marge, and i 100% want to, it’s the first gale pov oneshot (aside from the smut i posted lol) i’m planning on writing for this fic. i’ll try to answer some of those other questions here just to keep them in one place:

i think marge definitely had her suspicions about gale’s feelings for john — she knows gale too well to not know when something’s up, but she also knows that gale comes to her about things on his own time, that she just has to be patient, it’s how he’s always been since they were kids. but there’s no way she wasn’t squinting at gale when she found out john had spent the weekend (multiple times) at his house.

the first time is one thing, because when gale explains that john had gotten wayyy too drunk and seemingly had some situation he didn’t want to go home to, she’d understand gale letting him crash at his. she sees how gale is with john at the beach after that, and it probably gets the wheels turning in her head, but she also knows gale to have a big heart and to be prone to taking strays in, so it could just be written off.

when she finds out that john’s been staying at gale’s every weekend after the incident with his mom, at the very least she had to have asked him who takes the couch just to watch gale squirm, which then confirmed her suspicions lol. after that it’s only a matter of time before gale spills it all to her, and her reaction will eventually be detailed in one of those gale pov oneshots :-) 

[vaguelyaperson]

idk who here on tumblr follows me from ao3, and my current wip... but my mom (the inspiring history geek of my life) is starting to recc me more books set in the ww1/ww2 era, so now I'm gathering more setting details >:)

[stoopidstapler]

SO IVE BEEN GOIN INSANE SINCE THIS TRAILER DROPPED. JUST. SIMON. SIMON. SIMON.

[shrimpchipsss]

read Living With a Tiger by x_los !

[starry-bi-sky]

mmmmmm read a disciple shen yuan/shizun luo binghe fanfic about two days ago where the first chapter was the Immortal Conference arc, and SQQ was the one who had to be pushed into the abyss (he was still the villain) except Luo Binghe was refusing and was like, lowkey losing his mind about SQQ being so close to the edge. SQQ ended up having to be the one to fall in himself because of the system's punishment system. The rest of the fic is leading up to that moment. But like, MMM i've been obsessively thinking about that first chapter for DAYS ever since.

now i've been in svsss for a grand total of *checks watch* a week. but god obsessed with that. I want to write/read a fic where disciple SQQ goes a little nuts down there. Like keep all of the things that make SQQ, SQQ, but just. Throw in a little bit more trauma in there. A little bit of a mental break. Let him go a little nuts as a treat. Just a tad unhinged. I wanna see him go, just a little, "god fuck it, i've tried so hard to change this shitty story's outcome and it feels like everything i've done has been for nothing. I'm going to die in this world no matter what I do, I've been doomed from the start, so might as well die the way I want to." and he just, breaks a little! Under all the stress.

He still retains the traits that makes shen yuan, shen yuan, like his overwhelming kindness. But he's just! yk. A little less patient. Paranoid. Jumpy. Colder. A little more aloof and closed off. A little more Shen Jiu. He's no asshole child abuser, but he was a Number One Hater in his past life and he's leaning into that old habit a little more now.

(On a totally coincidental not-at-all related note, there's not enough SJ-and-SY-are-the-same-people fics out there that i've found. This is totally unrelated...)

The Endless Abyss turns the mind into an over-sharpened blade, and SQQ is both fascinated and perhaps a little excited to explore a place that doesn't have a lot of info on it in the mortal realm, but still terrified out of his mind. And he's no Luo Binghe, he doesn't have the sheer brute strength and power to just bulldoze his way through, so he has to be a lot more sneaky and cunning if he wants to survive.

The fic itself role-swapped LBH and SQQ so that SQQ was the half-demon (which lowkey fucks) and LBH the human, but I'm equally-if-not-more obsessed with the idea that LBH remains the half-heavenly demon and SQQ the human. If only because I keep thinking about SQQ befriending some demons (particularly and specifically a group of succubi) and they grow very attached to this Human Cultivator so through magic plot stuff they create some kind of seal/illusion/talisman that makes SQQ appear as a demon because a human cultivator in the endless abyss may as well be the equivalent of putting a giant neon target on your back.

And iirc Shen Jiu was taught demonic cultivation by that one guy(?? i've only been here a week so im not caught up in ALL of the lore yet) so that could totally happen here.

(On the other end of the realms, poor Shizun Luo Binghe is just. losing his fucking mind over losing his most precious and beloved disciple. About .5 seconds from burning down the peaks himself. somebody sedate him.)

The Endless Abyss sucks and SQQ is having a really terrible time and can feel himself going lowkey mad, but also holy shit look at all this WORLD-BUILDING. look at all this flora and fauna, and oh if he had the equipment for it he'd be writing all of this down. ALL OF IT. He was kinda-sorta-already planning on never leaving the Abyss as some sort of fucked up self-exile and self-preservation thing, but now he might? actually just?? never leave if he can help it, like he lowkey likes it down here.

anyways the next time anyone ever sees SQQ again he's got hair so long its almost touching the ground and he's either in rags and half-feral or he's been completely dolled up by his adoptive succubi sisters and still about three seconds from biting anyone who tries to touch him. (he's also lowkey trying to book it back down to the abyss even if he has desperately missed all of his friends and shizun)

[essektheylyss]

One thing that I feel is really interesting and often forgotten about Essek is that fundamentally, his characterization has been from the start based upon his desperation for external perspectives and connection, which, along with much of his narrative and mechanical positioning, means that he actually has an extraordinary and almost (but not actually, as I'll show) counterintuitive capacity for both growth and trust.

(Buckle in. This is a long one.)

In particular, I would argue, knowing now that many places where the plot touches Ludinus have long been marked for connecting back into the current plot, that he was quite possibly built as a prime candidate for radicalization by the Ruby Vanguard. He felt isolated from his culture, he was desperate for other connection, and he was certainly of the type to believe he was too smart to be drawn into such a thing, given his initial belief that he could control the situation and the fallout. If things had gone any other way, he easily could've been on the other side by now.

As such, he has been hallmarked by being fairly open to suggestion, perhaps for this reason, but the thing about that kind of trait is that it is both how people are radicalized and deradicalized. This is certainly true of Essek, who experienced genuine kindness and quite frankly strangeness from the Nein and was able to move from the isolation the Assembly had engendered to meaningful and genuine connection, largely propelled by his own internal reflection. By the time Nein are aware of his crimes, he's already begun to express regret to an extent and, furthermore, doubt in the Assembly, including explicitly drawing a line against Ludinus, even in a position where he was on his own and probably quite vulnerable.

Similarly, when the Nein reach the Vurmas Outpost some weeks later, he has moved from regret for the position he's ended up carrying a heavy remorse. This makes sense! He's fairly introspective, seems used to spending a lot of time in his own head, and was left with plenty to mull over. It's not some kind of retcon for him to have progressed well past where the Nein left him; it just means he's an active participant in the world who has done his own work in the meantime.

This is another interesting aspect to him. I've talked about this a bit before but I cannot find the post so I'll recap here: antagonists in D&D have significantly more agency than allied NPCs. Antagonists are active forces, against which the party is meant to struggle; allies are meant to support the PCs, which means they tend to be more passive in both their actions and their character growth. Essek was both built as an antagonist, in a position that gives him significant agency, and also was then given significant opportunity to grow specifically to act as a narrative mirror for Caleb's arc. Even when he becomes a more traditional D&D ally, he still retains much of that, though he occupies a supporting role.

I believe that this is especially true because of the nature of Caleb's arc, which I've already written on; the tl;dr of this post is that Caleb is both convinced that he is permanently ruined and also desperate to prove that change is possible. Essek is that proof, because he is simply the character in a position to do so. But this also means that his propensity for introspection and openness is accentuated! He has to do the legwork on his own, for the most part, because that's where he is in the meantime.

But he still ends the campaign necessarily constricted; he is under significant scrutiny, he's at risk from the Assembly, and he goes on the run fairly soon after the story ends. He spends most of the final arc anxious and paranoid, which is valid given the crushing reality of his situation. It would be very easy to extrapolate that seven years into this reality, he would be insular, closed off, and suspicious of strangers, even in spite of the lessons he's learned from the Nein and their long term exposure.

So seeing his openness and lightness now is surprising, but at the same time, given this combination of factors in his position in the narrative over time and his defining traits, it's not by any means unreasonable.

But one thing that I found so delightful is how much trust he exhibits, which is obviously a wild thing to say about Essek in particular, given much of what he learns is both earning and offering trust, which was something he says explicitly in 2x124 that he's never really experienced: "I've never really been trusted and so I did not trust." It makes up much of the progression of his relationship with Caleb, and the trust that he is offered by the Nein in walking off the ship is the impetus he needs to grow.

But I think it's easy to talk about trust when it comes to people who have proven themselves to you or to whom you've ingratiated yourself, and that's really the most we can say about Essek by the time he leaves the Blooming Grove. There is this sense in a lot of discussion of trust (not solely in this fandom) that it is only related to either naivete or love, but there's far more to it. Trust at its best is deliberate—cultivating an openness to the world at large is a great way to combat cynicism and beget connection instead. It allows a person to maintain curiosity and be open to experience, but it can be incredibly difficult to hold onto.

It is clear that the Essek we meet now is a very pointedly and intentionally trusting individual. He trusts Caleb and by extension Caleb's trust in Keyleth, as he shows up and picks up a group of strangers from a foreign military encampment and walks in without issue. He trusts the Hells to follow his lead moving through Zadash and to exhibit enough discretion so as to avoid bringing suspicion upon all of them. He trusts that Astrid will respond well to his entrance, but he also trusts himself and the Hells enough to execute a back-up plan in the case that she doesn't. In the end, he even trusts them enough to give them his name and identity.

He doesn't scan as someone who has spent half a dozen years living like a prey animal, afraid of any shadow he runs across in an alley, withdrawn into himself and an insular family, which would've been an easy route for him to take. He scans as someone who has learned the kind of trust borne of learned confidence and a trained eye for good will and kindness, which are crucial weapons one would need for staving off cynicism in his circumstances—as if he has survived thanks more to connection and kindness than paranoia and isolation. (If we want to be saccharine about it, he scans quite poignantly as a member of the Mighty Nein.)

So it is easy to imagine this trust and openness as a natural progression of his initial search for perspectives external to his own cultural knowledge. Though he makes those first connections with the Assembly to try to vindicate his personal hypotheses, he finds in them exposure to the deepest corruption among Exandrian mortals, which could've—and did, for a time—turned him further down that same dark path.

But it's also this same openness to exposure from the wider world that allows the Nein to influence him for the better, and in spite of the challenges he's certainly faced simply surviving over the past seven years, he seems to have held onto this openness enough to move through the world with self-assurance and a willingness to extend the kinds of trust and good will that he has been shown.

(I would be remiss not to mention that I was reminded about my thoughts on this by this lovely post from sky-scribbles and their use in the tags of 'light' to describe Essek's demeanor this episode, which is really such an apt word for it.)

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

i... wrote a smol fic (っ´▽`*)っ

also!!!!! If you haven't seen it - shoutout to first ever published fic in Ninja Showdown/My Immortal Soul tags - Lustrous Red by @missadmyre !!!

[misteria247]

Okay but Cosmo and Wanda freaking out if something happens to Timmy.

Like there's a disaster in Fairy World, I'm talking chaos and devastation type of deal. Cosmo and Wanda are trying to evacuate with their kids. Cosmo's got Peri in his arms, and Wanda's gripped Timmy's hand hard as they try to get away safely. Timmy's trying to keep his cool, to not make Peri panic, but one look at him, Wanda and Cosmo can see just how freaked out he is. He's ten after all and being surrounded by fairies who are screaming and panicking isn't great on the nerves. They struggle against the waves of fairies, when it happens.

Wanda's pushed in one direction and Timmy's suddenly caught in another direction. And to her horror she feels her eldest son's hand slip from hers. She hears his voice, panicked-

"MOM, DAD!"

And it's cracking from the sudden childish fear Timmy feels before he's suddenly gone. Swept away with the bodies of thousands of fairies, disappearing where not even his pink hat can be seen. Cosmo's head snaps around at the panicked cry only to witness his son disappearing from view. He hears Wanda's horrified scream, his own joining hers as they shout-

"TIMMY-!!"

Peri's immediately whimpering in his father's arms, realizing that somethings gone horribly wrong. Especially when he can't see his big brother. But before the family can do anything to try to reach Timmy and find him, they're dragged by the mob. Further and further away from Timmy. At this point Wanda and Cosmo are losing their cool, parental fear and panic consuming them. They fight against the swarming bodies, unable to break through. Screaming and snarling at the fairies around them to let them through because their son's back there. Scared and alone and magicless cuz he's human and not a fairy. However it's in vain.

Hours pass, the panic and evacuation having been done and over with. There's groups of fairies who are huddled together. Crying and calling of different names are heard, and with them are Cosmo and Wanda's. From the moment they'd broken free and had Peri someplace safe with their family, they'd been searching for Timmy. Refusing to stop, praying with every fiber of their being that he was somewhere with a random group of fairies. Hoping that no one would be cruel to leave a child alone in the ocean of unfamiliar faces. And yet, with every hour, they are unable to find him. With each new disappointment, they're filled with despair. Where was their son? Where was Timmy? It seems all hope is lost, until

"MOM-!! DAD-!!!"

A voice, loud and raspy from earlier shouting and oh so achingly familiar calls out. Wanda's the first one to spot him. Looking small, scared, but relieved and roughed up. Alive and breathing in the arms of none other than Jorgen was Timmy. Cosmo let's out a choked sound, and Wanda's immediately in tears, and Timmy squirms tiredly out of Jorgen's arms, and they're making a beeline for the other. Wanda and Cosmo are greeted by a tiny body colliding into their arms as they collide into Timmy. The trio are immediately in tears, clinging to one another, and Cosmo and Wanda are smothering Timmy's head and face with kisses and tears, and Timmy just clings to them. The fear and uncertainty lifting from them now that they were together again once more. Safe and sound.

[suusoh]

would be funny, if Nina had a gf, and due to Johan's tendency to see him and nina as the same, he'd drop by casually, disguised or not, while nina is away. What's wrong? Nina is him and he's Nina! There's no complications with kissing him! You're basically kissing his sister! (Eaten ask)

your brain anon...........like EXACTLY. exactly. God this is sooo hot and weird which is johan's brand. He is karl marxing the fuck out of his sister's girlfriend. What do you mean "meet my girlfriend"? You mean meet OUR girlfriend. right? (tw: nonconsensual kissing, yandere)

Could you imagine bidding your girlfriend, Nina, goodbye after she spent the whole evening at your place? You whine and beg her to stay longer, clinging onto her, but she rolls her eyes playfully and insists she has to go.

She gives you a loving parting kiss on your lips, then plants even more– on your nose, cheeks, and finally your forehead– before she reluctantly pulls away. Any more, she jests, and she won’t be able to leave.

"You know I hate leaving you like this," she laughs softly. "But don't worry, I'll make up for today once my exams are over. Okay?"

She gives you one last final kiss before finally leaving, waving at you as she walks down the street.

You sigh and close the door, already missing her.

You really love Nina, but sometimes it feels like she doesn’t have much time for you. You understand she has her exams, a part-time job, and aikido training, which doesn’t really leave much left for you. Still, you can’t help but feel a bit greedy, wishing she’d at least dedicate a part of her to you. You're her girlfriend, after all.

You sigh one last time. No use.

She’s already spread too thin, and you know if you tell her your concern, she’ll worry and try to double her efforts to make time for you. No way in hell are you going to give her any more stress in her life. Although today was just half a day together, you're grateful. Even if it left you unbelievably craving, aching for more…

You hear a soft knock on your door. Is it Nina? Did she forget something? Oh, your prayers have been answered. You just wanted one more second with her. You open the door immediately, an excited smile on your face.

"What did you forget this ti-"

"Missing me already?"

You freeze, standing dumbfounded. In front of you is not, in fact, your girlfriend, but a tall, blonde man smiling softly at you.

"I'm… I'm sorry. I don't— Do I know you?" you ask, trying to stay cool. He must have the wrong house to ask something like that so proudly. You’ve never met him before.

His smile doesn’t falter at your question. He continues looking at you, his eye contact unwavering.

"You do." he answers, calmly leaving no explanation, still smiling softly.

You’re getting nervous. He keeps staring and smiling at you. You try to get a good look at him. Is he a mutual friend? An old classmate? A person you pissed off once? You’re at a blank. Though… the more you look at him, the more you notice how similar he looks to… to your… what the hell.

Why does he... look... a bit like Nina?

No. You chalk it off. He just has blonde hair and blue eyes, and the fact you’re missing your girlfriend terribly doesn’t help. But even then, their facial features strike a matching resemblance. It’s a bit uncanny.

You let out a nervous laugh and smile sheepishly at him. "Look, I’m really racking my brain here. Have we met before? I’m really sorry if I can’t recall…"

You give him his cue to introduce himself, to remind you who he is, to be offended at you forgetting—anything! He’s just standing there, staring down with that same smile. Your eyes dart around, seeing if this is a prank. A small uneasy pit forms in your stomach.

A beat passes by. You still wait for his reply.

You can't help but start feeling creeped out. Stupid. Always ask who’s there before opening the door. Just ask him what he wants with you and get it out of the way.

"Hey uh, I-"

He kisses you, his lips softly crashing against yours, hands gently cradling the back of your neck. He’s not forceful, but his hold is steady. You squirm and try to break free, but he quickly shushes you and holds you closer, entrapping your lips in another long kiss.

You think of quickly think of biting him, but he gently pulls away right before you can go through with the thought. His hands come up to tenderly cup your face, his thumb softly brushing against your cheek as he looks at you.

Your vision begins to blur from your tears, your legs wobbling from the fear of the situation.

"I don't know you!" you practically scream out. Your desperation kicks in as you continue to panic. "P-Please. please. please. I'm sorry. I don't know you. I don't… I don't… please… I-."

You cry softly, pleading with him. He just continues cradling your face in his hands, looking at you with that godawful eerie smile. He leans back in, slowly murmuring,

"Shh…"

He continues peppering kisses all over your wet cheeks. "You do know me," he whispers, kissing your nose. "And you know I need to make it up to you," he says, kissing your forehead. He hums softly and leaves another final chaste kiss on your lips.

"And you know I hate leaving you like this."

[biscuityskies]

Shit writing Saturday <3

Haven’t done one of these in a while! To be fair… haven’t written smth I was excited to share in a while. Here’s this!! Lmk what you think 🥰🥰

Cody continues to stare, unseeing, out the viewport.

“I don’t know these stars,” he murmurs finally.

Kenobi says nothing. Cody knows he’s listening all the same.

“When I… grew up, on Kamino. There were rare cloudless nights. The seas would still for maybe only a few hours at a time, and the clouds would part around these brilliant points of light in a pitch black sky.”

He closes his eyes. He can just about see it; the rain-slicked platform, the cadets all hushing each other as they hurried outside, hoping no longnecks would catch them, no trainers would see them. Hoping that Fett himself was asleep, that his own cadet had been enough of a handful that day that Fett wouldn’t catch them either, all of them breaking rules.

“We would find our way around the biggest stars, first. The brightest. The ones that were always there. Those were our trainers. The guiding stars to direct us to where we needed to look. And then… we started naming the other stars. And we named them after ourselves. After each other. Our batchers, our squaddies, anyone. There were so many stars in the sky… but there were so many of us, too, what felt like enough to give each of those stars a name. The command formation has me, Bly, Fox, Wolffe, and Ponds, about two fingers’ width up from the star that was Alpha-17.

“Each of those names on that report—” Strato. Pusher. Scald. Cinder. Fuck, he knew where each of their stars was.

His eyes snap open again. Unfamiliar stars fall past him. It’s a cold sort of comfort, to distance himself from the urge to scream that rises in his throat.

“Cody,” Kenobi whispers, near silent.

He drops his forehead to his knees. “A swath of the sky has gone dark,” he replies. “And there’s nothing I can do.”

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Wyll breaking up with the player character if Ulder dies so Wyll must become the Duke makes me wanna throw up sobbing because he actually thinks that just because his father's first duty being to Baldur's Gate made him a Bad Father that Wyll himself will inevitably be a Bad Lover because surely no one could match love with duty if his father couldn't, unknowing he has more love in one hand than his father had in his entire body. fuck

[beanghostprincess]

Sanuso Soulmate AU in which everyone has a bracelet painted around their wrist like some sort of tattoo but it's the color of their soul, and inside there's a circle with their soulmate's color. So, you know, if you both have the same colors but the other way around, then you know you're soulmates, yadda yadda yadda.

The Vinsmoke siblings don't have those because Judge made them that way, except Sanji. Sanji has a blue bracelet painted around his wrist and decorated with a yellow circle. Which would be great if it wasn't because he hates that color. It's always the color Judge chooses for him and it always reminds him that he can never escape that damn thing. But, well, when he escapes and meets Zeff and stays with him, the thought of having a soulmate starts being more and more appealing. He's sure she's the prettiest girl in the world! Cheerful and fun and bright like her color. He checks every girl's wrist in case he sees yellow and blue together, and sometimes he does, but it's never the same tone, and by the way the girls act around him he knows they're not his soulmates. But he doesn't lose hope. He'll find his girl someday.

Usopp doesn't really care much about it. He has a yellow bracelet and a blue circle and meh, he thought Kaya was his soulmate but turns out she isn't and that's just about it. He doesn't think much about it and he thinks that, if they're destined to be together, they'll find each other at some point. Tbh, he thinks it's stupid to be forced to be with somebody just because the universe tells you to. Even if he meets his soulmate, he'll probably choose for himself instead of jumping into a relationship like an idiot. Who does that? Forcing a relationship just because some colors tell you to?

He learns, soon enough after some years, that there's an idiot who does that and his name is Sanji. When they meet at the Baratie, Nami points out their soulmate marks (hers being orange and blue. A wonder who that tone of blue might be) Sanji is, uh, very dramatic. He starts panicking, of course, because he never thought his soulmate would be a man. And Usopp is pretty and all but- And he makes his heart go insanely fast, especially now that he knows he's definitely his soulmate. But it can't be. Really. He can't be. Usopp tells him that it's okay and that they don't even have to be soulmates. Perhaps the colors are just really similar. And if they're soulmates (thing Usopp was not expecting either) they don't really have to be if they don't want to. One thing leads to another and Luffy tells him to come with him and be his cook, and Sanji has to admit that even if it takes a lot of convincing, he goes with them. Both for Luffy and for the All Blue. And... For Usopp. He really, really wants to know more. He knows he doesn't have to listen to the universe and do whatever it wants with him, the way he doesn't have to be a Vinsmoke if he doesn't want to. But the soulmate mark- Love. It's. It's kind of a sign of not being a Vinsmoke. So he really, really wants to know about this guy before he starts panicking because it's, uh, a guy.

He's a bit too clingy with Usopp, he has to admit. He doesn't treat him like one of the girls but he definitely cares about him way more than he cares about other men. He protects him more. Keeps an eye on him. Decides to spend more time by his side. Usopp lets him know that nothing will happen between them if he doesn't want to and that he won't date Sanji just because a soulmate mark says so. Sanji accepts it gladly, but he never stops being this way. He just wants the opportunity to love somebody, Usopp doesn't have to feel the same.

So they grow closer. Become best friends, even. Inseparable. Usopp has to admit that, after all, he enjoys Sanji's company the most. And when he's not forcing the soulmate thing between them, he's a sweetheart.

Then Skypiea happens, and Usopp knows that Sanji is more than what he looks like. Water 7 comes next, and Usopp misses Sanji the most. He won't stop staring at the stupid colors. And he thinks that if he's going to leave for good, he wishes he could take Sanji with him. He guesses Sanji would say yes. But he can't do that to him, or the crew. When he joins them again, he thinks about asking Sanji out on a date or something. Or- Or at least saying that he can feel it too. But it would be like following the universe orders and he wants to be more than what the universe tells him to be. He knows soulmates aren't a bad thing (hell, Zoro and Luffy are happy and Nami and Vivi are insane about each other too) but still... Usopp thinks that they need more time. Sanji waits patiently, too, perhaps he has forgotten about it already. The thought of Sanji moving on from him bothers him in the worst of ways, and Usopp feels extremely selfish for even thinking that. So, he'll confess. At some point. Something. He doesn't know exactly what. Is he in love with Sanji? He- He isn't sure. He needs just more time.

Oh. And the universe gives them time. Two fucking years of time to think on his own. Fucking perfect. And that's when Usopp instantly regrets not saying anything, because the first night alone after so long he dreams about blue seas and blue eyes and blue skies and blue blue blue. He decides, then, that he'll grow into somebody Sanji deserves to be with. And he'll fight against the universe for keeping them apart when they were meant to be together. Sanji, during his two years in Momoiro Island, learns that liking boys perhaps isn't that weird. That it could also be a way of showing he is not a Vinsmoke, because Judge would never make somebody who has a soulmate and whose soulmate also happens to be of the same gender. Well- Talking about gender, he's- He's not so sure about that one either, but he doesn't think about it too much.

When they meet again after two years being apart, it's like they know what the other is going to say. There's a confession. It's emotional. Usopp is the one crying, surprisingly enough. But they're together, and that's what matters, right?

Except that the world sort of happens to hate Usopp, and from the moment they step in Dressrosa they don't see each other for a long time. And suddenly Sanji is getting married to some random girl? He- He just really, really, thinks the universe is against him. But there's a force of power way stronger than the universe. Way stronger that the gods. So when Luffy promises him to bring back Sanji for him, Usopp trusts him with his whole soul.

For Sanji, it's a bit weird. Whole Cake is an experience. His brothers tell him he doesn't have the right to have a soulmate so he can't complain about getting married to somebody else. Besides, as if he had any right to do so. Pudding is a gorgeous, precious girl. How can he complain? Sanji starts thinking the things his brothers tell him, somehow. How could he reject somebody like that? Besides, Usopp deserves better. And he has never been too into the soulmate thing, anyway. He'll find someone else and Sanji will get married to a pretty girl that, even if she breaks his heart, will at least keep the crew safe with the marriage. Then Luffy waits for him. And starves for him. And then his captain says something about Usopp too that Sanji does not want to hear but shatters his heart into pieces anyway. He really, really wants go back home.

And he does, after a wild ride. And he has never been happier, even if he knows this is going to hunt him for his whole life and he'll never forget what happened.

He sees Usopp when they get to Wano, and he looks happy without him. He looks like he is, yet he clearly isn't, when his eyes meet Sanji's. Usopp hugs him and kisses him and hits him and insults him and cries and tells him that he's the dumbest guy in the history of men and that he should've thought about his soulmate before pulling this self-sacrificing shit on him. And Usopp keeps yelling and he's extremely angry but Sanji kisses him anyway. And- And they're fine.

They will be fine, the universe likes it or not.

[banyanas]

i continually maintain that Disassemblers are actually pretty damn light- they fly, they're fast, they hit like runaway trains (prying open those bay doors is. kind of insane still), probably have some kind of composite armoring (at least with the very different limbs, I'd think) to account for the strain of said force, and if anything the attempt to function both with these parameters while not being bulky as hell is a contributing factor as to why they overheat so much, since they can't/don't actually use Solver.

Contrast to Copper Workers, who, while nowhere near as strong or fast, are still primarily industrial and mining workers. They're much denser in comparison to Disassemblers, especially since there's more space for functionality that isn't sacrificed for weaponry or the meatier bits of Disassemblers' whole 'biomechanical cannibalbots' nature.

Basically what I'm trying to say is Uzi definitely could heft N like a sack of potatoes. And he'd absolutely let her.

[bamboozled-distress]

replaying bsoup and why is this actually so insanely devastating, please akarsha stand up