#wrong fuckin season bud

[thegodwhocums]

oh shit motherfuckers, february second is THIS FRIDAY which will be my TWELVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of workign with D holy SHIT

[fandomfloozy]

Bridgerton Season 3 VASTLY overestimates how much my attention span can keep up with

Not only do I have to keep up with my main couple, but also BOTH of their families' drama, at least three other budding relationships, the Queen, and the MONDRICHES????

You know something is wrong when the character I find most compelling is fuckin Cressida Cowper

[bluewormonastring]

My live reactions to season 2 (episode 1)

SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY KIDS READ AT UR OWN RISK

Holy shit I’m so excited

Oh my god

Oh my god

Oauxbwkxjwhz

LOVE THE BLACK SCREEN W A SHARP CUT TO THE BEACH 10/10

OMG WE GET THE STEDE AND IZZY BEACH SWORD NOW? SO SOON? YOU SPOIL ME OFMD

Omg he’s been stabbed this is for sure a dream sequence

STEDE THATS MURDER EVEN IF ITS JUST IN YOUR HEAD

“You absolute twa….” BEST DYING WORDS EVER ILY IZZY ALWAYS AND FOREVER

THE SLOW RUN TOWARDS EACH OTHER OMG

AND STEDES FACE AND HIS VOICE AND AWW BABY

AWWW THE WAY THEY CRASHED INTO EACH OTHER

“BABE” HA FOWIHXBWNA I WAS NOT PREPARED

“I KNEW YOUD FIND ME LOVE”

“Fuckin love the beard mate”

Oh we’ve started farting lovely

OH MY GOD I WASNT PREPARED FOR HOW ID FEEL WHEN IT CUT TO HIM WITH EVERYONE AWW MY BABIES IVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH

“Cant be worse than you moaning ‘Ed oh ed’ all night” ILY PETE

Iconic title screen as always

“DEAR ED” AHHHH

SPANISH JACKIE ILY

Instantly taking an interest in the Swede as we knew would happen but still iconic

Ugh I love Leslie jones did I mention I love Leslie jones

Nat looks so scared aww baby

I love wee John being security

And host stede aww baby

I live for black Pete dealing with working in customer service

And all of them tbh

Aww poor buttons he needs his ocean and Livy

I’m ngl for a second I was like “where’s Fred armisen- oh wait”

ITS THE I THINK OF YOU OFTEN LINE YESS

HELLO YES I ADORE IZZY HANDS HE CAN DO NO WRONG IDC WHAT YOU SAY IVE MISSED MY BABY BOY

Ahh the wedding

“Demon? *shakes head* I’m the fucking devil” AHH

Guys were only 6 minutes in and this post is already long as shit so buckle up (if ur actually reading it lmao my ass would be like nope too long”

THERES MY VICO HELLO VICO ILY AND MY JOEL FRY ILY BABIES

Ah yes ye olde put trauma in a box in lock it

Awww fang baby boy someone give him a hug find him Lucius

Omg it’s the “you dumped him” scene

“Did everyone get some cake” because he’s still our precious little angle

HE JUST SNORTED RHINO HORN IS THAT A THING WAS THAT A THING IN HISTORY HUH

NO ITS THIS SCENE I DONT WANNA WATCH MY BABY BE SAD

Yes hello I love Izzy hands I would protect him with my life little baby boy

Vico looks so done w his ass

Someone give my baby a hug

Ily fang

The tears in his eyes during “unhand me” aww Angel

AWW IZZY

CONNOTHAN O NONNATHAN WE LOVE YOU YOU PRECIOUS LITTLE BOY UR ABSOLUTE PERFECTION YOU ANGEL

I love the friendship Jim and that girl have

Oh shit Jackie

“BOO CAKES” JACKIE

Stede honey you’re not intimidating

“I know that guy we had breakfast together” “you’ll be having a lot of breakfastes together” “oh okay 🙂” ily Swede

HIM DOING AN ED IMPRESSION LMAO “could be. Could be mate.”

“You’re my hero” 😞😕🙂😏

Swede bein a cute lil double agent

AWW SWEDE “my time with Jackie has been the happiest of my life. Her love has helped me locate parts of myself I didn’t even know existed and reclaim others that I have long missed” ILY

“Tonight is my turn to perform the husbandly duties”

“That’s another toe” ED YOU STAY AWAY FROM HIM LEAVE MY BABY ALONE

“Who am I to you” aww Izzy Angel baby he’s accepting it OMG “I have love for you Edward” IZZY YOURE SAYING IT OUT LOUD IM SO PROUD OF YOU BUD

IZZY YOU DID NOT JUST SAY TALK IT THROUGH YOU HAD TO HAVE KNOWN THAT WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA

OMG AND THE SHIFT IN THE MUSIC AS SOON AS HE SAID IT

IZZY RUN

RUN MY BABY BOY RUN

“As a crew” OH EDDDDD

ED DONT POINT A GUN AT JIM

OR ANYONE ELSE

THAT INCLUDES YOURSELF EDWARD TEACH BORN ON A BEACH

“They think ya crazy” cackling his face omg

Go taika absolutely slaying this scene

The way the camera is all like jittery is so good

Jim’s like “beard” makes their chin look like… not caved in but idk like it looks like they have a rly bad overbite yk

“Everyone knows why” “I don’t. Enlighten me” “your feelings for stede fucking bon-“ *GUNSHOT* ARE U SHITTING ME EDWARD NO WE DO BOT SHOOT FRIENDS

OH MY GOD HE MADE FRENCHIE FIRST MATE HOLY SHIT

Oh my god Izzy my poor baby Izzy oh my god how dare you hurt my Izzy

LMAO SWEDE

“FUCK THOSE HAMMIES UP” LMAO

There’s like no way there’s actually anything valuable in that chest

WE GOT TO SEE HER TAKE A NOSE FOR THE NOSE JAR YESSS

OH SHIT INDIGO

“Now give me back my blue shit STEVE”

Susan’s hot

DONT HURT SWEDE

Oh good okay we’re cool

I feel like she’s lying tho

But for now we’re cool

AWW FANG

AWW JIM COMFORTING FANG

“WANNA HEAR THE STORY OF THE WOODEN BOY” AWW

Living for vico using they them for the puppet

“DO THE VOICE” AWW

OMG VICO THATS ICONIC

AWW YAY THEYRE LAUGHING NOW THOSE ARE MY BABIES YAY

Living for buttons reuniting with the ocean

Okay roll credits cheers yall see you next episode

[yellowsomethings]

beans exchange letter 2023

hi its us thebeans you have been selected to secret us a santa !! this is going to be a bit of a tutorial letter so everyone else knows what exchange letters are like, so rest assured it will be as comprehensive as i can manage. remember that you do not need to fulfill All of the conditions the recipient lists, just at least one of them to the best of your ability. woo

want:

1. hermits

big fan of grian, scar, mumbo, ren, doc, bdubs, zed, joe hills, things of this nature. i think the slapfight goes here if it goes anywhere. we have seen seasons 6/7/8/9 and a little of season 5 so if you go before that we will probably be Confused but Willing To Roll With It. idk theres the wonderful world of hermits and crafting

2. lifes

you are probably well aware the extent to which we like the life series. things you could cover include property police kiss on the mouth secret life (or property police cold patrol new life which isn't getting its own entire bullet but it's a thing), treebark slash fairydog slash renb, toxic yaoi majorwood, the bad boys, last life grumbo, idk get silly with it !! slash p or slash r it is all good <- applies to all listed items in this letter not just here

3. empires

empires:). for season 1 there's flower husbands; you could do kathgempearl or some duo permutation; arenaduo; the whole wra tbh; smallidarizzie trio; scott and xornoth content (you could write the one billionth postcanon xornoth finds out what happened fic if you wanted). for season 2 HEAVENTRIO OBVIOUSLY; or arenaduo again or hallelujahduo or roundhousekickduo which i still need to come up with a better name for; best buds jim and joel; kathgem; pixlriffs; the crossover; fairytale trio i also like; maybe some olieddie as a treat if you're so inclined

4. eswap

free space basically. scottpearl !!!!!!! or arenaduo or kathgempearl again (or duo permutation) or pearl and pix bonding maybe idk what the state of eswap is gonna be pixwise by the end of november. or if some other part of eswap compels you then go for it. you might wanna write the watcher grian crossover idea that jay2 had that one time. up to u :D

5. pirates/rats

yeah babyyyyyy this is the writing to pander to littlesound zone. i love datastream martyn interacting with this-is-just-their-world other characters such as oli or sausage or olive or shelby or owen or scar or other people that don't start with the letters o and s. kisstrels obviously (including shep and shub); you could do property police with martyn and safety rat; farmer rat scott, baker rat lizzie, he had a pretty sweet bond with will. maybe mratyn watching as oli tries and fails to seduce the butler with cringefail affection in his eyes. maybe mratyn trying and failing to seduce one of the brown wild dogs at the edge of the grounds while scott looks on in disappointment. p!bek is canonically aroace so if you write pirate bekel you'd probably get Comments about it but like if you don't fear the fandom then fuck it. SPEAKING OF:

6. witchcraft

YURI OPPORTUNITY AGAIN BUT FOR BEK INSTEAD! beky's finally figured out her witchcraft bek au which is that el is a not-so-famous witchtuber and bek is one of her few very dedicated commenters so when el randomly stumbles across the supreme witch crown where scott dropped it then she ends up asking bek what to do and they bond from there, so you may wanna do something with that.

7. dsmp

if you are dsmp inclined and you want to go classic style then you cannot go wrong with a little bit of crimboy/clingy. bee/bench and michael could also be fun; i like niki, big q, JACK MANIFOLD, fundy, eret, hbomb, foolish, and i miss honq every day babyyyy <- not every day but often. if you'd like to add to the hit canon ao3 tag tommyinnit crashes own funeral (dream smp) then that would be very welcomed too, i canonised that shit with my bare hands

8. au ideas

well i said all of that for canon concepts but what if you want to write/draw an alternate universe? goooo fuckin crazy with it my friend. some concepts i enjoy reading are: royalty; urban/low fantasy; newly discovered/obtained superpowers; domestic roommates setting; famous & doesnt give a shit about that fame; creative type & muse; guardian angel & human. idk have fun!

9. not mcyt

i'm adding this section because i know some people will want to do this but mine will be quite short because i . do not watch anything else. uhhhh the magnus archives. moon knight 2022. i like quite a lot of musical theatre but mostly the modern post hamilton shit and i have not seen hadestown. thubs up

do not want

don't do scottpearl if it isn't eswap please! or any hermit pearl actually! uhhh nothing particularly viscerally gorey but it's ok if people die or get injured. this isn't a dnw but it is a specification, if you would like to trans some genders and neo some pronouns then you should feel absolutely free to go ahead love is love. i think i'm gonna make no nsfw a rule for the entire exchange so i don't need to clarify that. probably best to have minimal cleo inclusion if any. any fics which are specifically about the moment after a life series game where characters see each other and talk about what happened because those are weirdly common and we don't like it and it feels weird. no blinding, no throats slit, no being suffocated/choked. ummm ya if you arent sure whether something would be ok then go ahead and ask!

will write

this one is gonna be much shorter

hermits: bdubs cub doc gem scar grian joe pearl ren tango xb zed cleo

life series: scott ren martyn pearl joel grian scar bdubs lizzie skizz mumbo jimmy gem

empires 1: scott gem joey kath lizzie sausage pearl joel jimmy

empires 2: scott gem joey kath lizzie sausage pearl pix shelby joel jimmy oli

pirates: acho aimsey bek puffy eret scar guqqie martyn kyle sausage olive oli owen ros shelby scott el tubbo

rats: bek el jimmy lizzie martyn oli olive owen scott shelby tubbo

witchcraft: scott joey pris shelby el cleo

dsmp: eret callahan eryn bbh puffy phil niki karl sapnap george quackity foolish jack manifold hbomb fundy aimsey slime wilbur sam ranboo schlatt dream punz tommy tubbo techno dxd

misc: honestly i think if you asked me to write qsmp phil tubbo fit cellbit bagi bad foolish wilbur tallulah chayanne then i probably could at this point. but don't ask me to. also the afterlife/new life smp i will write for also

won't write

i'm sorry i can't write the copper people on empires i just have not seen them enough to. highly doubt my ability to write crastle/best/ties/similar groupings well. dear god please don't make me write the syndicate it won't be good for either of us. i will not write nature wives i can't do it to my girlo. pirates!scott ships also. if it's gonna get me cancelled then i may still be willing to write it but i will not post it on ao3, it's going straight into fools writing discussion channel when it goes live. i won't write . idk pregnancy? you probably weren't gonna ask for pregnancy. again feel free to ask :thumbsup:

[mindninjax]

To Shape A Home (17)

Spring- Epilogue

"Spring is a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be."

Last Season | Masterlist ||

Bakugo x Reader

Warnings: FLUFF, Time Skip

WC: 2.8k

a/n: I cannot believe it is the end yall. I’m gonna cry so much. Thank you all so fucking much for all of your comments and reblogs and likes. I have seen and appreciated every single comment. I’m so eternally grateful for all of you and your support. 💖 thank y’all for going on this journey with me!

The view is astounding. But that’s always been true of Springtime. Flowers bloom, the frost on the trees melt into the wondrous nativity of spring. The birds are back chirping and flitting happily through the sky. Buds are starting to burst on the trees and blossom the world with pastel pinks and yellows.

You’re standing beneath one of the beautiful oak trees, now in full bloom, gazing in awe at its beauty. The sun peaks through the canopy, bestowing its golden glory on your face and you close your eyes to feel its warmth on your lids.

A deep inhale and you can smell the way the sweet scent of flowers wafts gently in the breeze.  The white petals fluttering down in front of your eyes match your dress perfectly. Pink flowers are braided into your hair and sitting atop your head in a crown gathered from all of the nice spring flowers found around your hometown. A delicate blue mermaid pendant pinned to your breast tells your love story.

“Don’t tell me yer tryin’ to run away. It’s too late ya already said ‘I do’. I’ll fuckin’ hunt you down if you leave and would be well within my rights to,” a growly voice behind you says.

You turn to see Katsuki standing behind you, dressed in a black tux with a mermaid pendant of his own, pinned to his chest. His arms are crossed over his chest and he tries to look grumpy but the joy and elation in his eyes is too grand to give in to the grumpiness.

You beam and reach a hand out to him. “Pfft, if you thought you’d be able to get rid of me that easily, you thought wrong,” you snort.

He rolls his eyes playfully but grabs your hand and lets you pull him to you. He wraps an arm around the small of your back, rests a hand over yours while lightly running a finger over the diamond encrusted band on your left hand.

“What’re ya doin’ out here anyway? Everyone’s lookin’ for the Bride,'' he asks softly, tenderly, the voice he reserves only for you.

“Just wanted to step away and look at the tree again,” you reply, turning back to crane your head up and look at the blossoms on the tree again. His tree, or rather your tree now, always soothed you.

He smacks his lips playfully and gazes up at the tree as well.

“Tsk, you and this damn tree,” he tuts.

Pouting, you  push your lips out and knit your brows together. “Me and this damn tree saved your skin. So show some respect, dummy,” you say, jabbing him in the chest with a finger.

He kisses the tip of his index finger and pokes at where your brows are pulled together, making gentle circles there until you’ve stopped frowning. When you finally do, he pulls you closer to him, giggling.

“Yeah yer right. Wouldn’t be Paradise without it,” he shrugs.

“Still can’t believe you actually named the farm that on the deed.”

He lifts your chin, gazing into your eyes seriously. A flower from the tree flutters down between you two and he catches it before it hits the ground. Then he takes a strand of your hair without disturbing its intricate style, and adds the flower to your hair.

He bends down to place a soft kiss to your lips but before he does he says, “If yer here with me, it’s always Paradise.”

You sigh into the kiss, arms moving up his body to wrap around his neck and card your fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. When you pull back, you’re grinning.

“Alright, please give me back my non-mushy husband. I married you because you were an asshole, not because you were sweet,” you say chuckling.

You suddenly hear Hizashi calling for you from the house and you peek around Katsuki’s shoulder to see him on the porch, yelling about a toast.

Katsuki scoffs then moves his hand down to squeeze your ass. “I’m gonna make ya regret that later just you wait.”

He pulls you back toward the house, holding your hand tightly and you can see his wedding band glistening in the sun. You take one final look at the tree over your shoulder, taking in all its glory before turning back to Katsuki and saying with a grin,

“Can’t wait.

Year 3

“Fuck you mutt!” Katsuki screams at Frenchie as the dog growls ferociously at him.

This fucking dog, the nerve of him. Growling at him for tryin’ to touch his own wife. And wouldn’t you fuckin’ know it, you’re no help at all,siding with the dog instead of him.

“Katsu be nice,” you reprimand like he’s a kid. You don’t even look up from your book as you sit rocking back and forth in the rocking chair. It creaks with every movement.

Katsuki rolls his eyes, “Me? be nice? He’s the little shit that’s growling at me!” he retorts, throwing his arms up in frustration.

“He’s just being protective. Hanta said he’d get like that,” you say offhandedly, still rocking slowly in your chair and lazily flipping the page.

He pouts and glares down at Frenchie sitting next to you with his head in your lap. You’re idly rubbing his ears as your eyes flit across the pages of Wizard of OZ again. There’s a blanket over your legs and when you’re not scratching Frenchie’s ears, you’re rubbing your swollen tummy and humming quietly as you read.

“Stupid dog. It’s MY kid in there. And she’s MY wife. I should be able to touch her all I want,” he grumbles.

You chuckle and put the book down. Patting Frenchie’s head, you keep him occupied while reaching out to grab Katsuki’s hand. He puts his hand in yours instantly and you bring the back of his knuckles to your cheek and he moves to brush your soft skin gently before sighing and cupping your face in his hand.

“See, you can touch me,” you say smiling.

Katsuki groans in frustration but doesn’t dare drop your hand. “That ain’t what I meant,” he grunts.

He sighs a deep breath. He’s been on edge for a few weeks now. You’re coming up on the end of the third trimester, your belly is swollen, your ankles are swollen and Frenchie, sensing the baby is sure to be coming soon, has become more protective than ever.

He paces around the house, hovers behind you whenever you walk to do anything. He barely lets you hold or pick anything up. You haven’t seen the cows in weeks because he refuses to let you go out and tend to them.

You smile up at him and instantly his frown softens and he’s bending down in front of you, ignoring the warning growls from Frenchie. He glances at his watch.

“Ya sure ya wanna go today?” he asks for the thirteenth time today. You really should be resting. You’re eight months pregnant for fucks sake!

‘Course I do! I wouldn’t miss the Flower Dance for anything! It’s one of my favorites!” you beam.

“Yeah but ya won’t be able to do much dancin’,” he retorts.

You shrug. “I’m ok with that. I like seeing all the flowers. Plus, I’m sure Hizashi will have a bunch of questions for me about how to work Gramps’ stove, “ you reply giggling.

You’d spent a lot of time at your old farm, helping Shouta and Hizashi move in and make it their own after you’d moved in with Katsuki and gifted them your grandfather’s old farm.Though there were still things they didn’t know about it, you’d always been more than happy to help. You entrusted it to them after being married and knew they’d take the best care of it.

Katsuki only rolls his eyes but he stands and holds out his hands right as you're saying “Alright help me up!”

He hesitates and as you’re pulling yourself up, he stops you and plops you back down in the chair. His eyes meet your questioning stare.

“What’s wrong Papa Bear?” you say with a tiny smirk. The new nickname isn’t lost on him, he’s been blushing since you started using it three months ago.

He shakes his head to clear his thoughts and focus again. “I sorta gotta surprise for ya,” he says sheepishly. Your eyes grow wide.

“A surprise? What for?” you ask.

He scoffs, “Reckon I just wanted to do somethin’ special for my wife so. Why’s there gotta be a special occasion?” he asks, walking toward one of the closests.

You squint in suspicion but you smile and watch him dig through the closet and hide something behind his back. He takes a deep breath, then presents it to you. Here goes nothin’.

He places a wooden box on your lap with a golden lever sticking out of the side of it.

“It’s a box,” you say unimpressed.

“Tsk, open it idjit,”” he says, rolling his eyes. He hopes you can’t see how much of a nervous wreck he is.

Slowly you open the box and slap a hand over your mouth as you gasp. It’s a music box with words etched into the wood.

So come with me

We’ll go and see

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

There are two tiny figures in the center of the box—you as a kid with two puffs on your head holding a fishing pole and your Grandfather’s likeness—standing on a contraption that will spin when you wind up the handle and when you do, that silly song you’re always singing starts. The twinkling sound of the music box fills the silence and Katsuki watches you intently, praying that you like it.

When the box stops and he can no longer take the silence he clears his throat.

“Eiji helped with making the box and etching the quote, Hanta helped make the music portion. Oh uhh Hizashi and Shouta gave me a picture of you and your grandpa to whittle the figures, and lemme tell ya, shit is harder than it looks. But I’m awesome so I nailed it and got it all painted…” he trails off as he watches you stare at it with glassy eyes.

Do you not like it? Did he catch you in one of your mood swings?

Suddenly you look up at him. “You made this? For me?” You whisper in a tiny voice.

He smirks, “Course I did. And I was thinkin’ that uhh maybe…maybe we name the lil guy Teddy,” he says rubbing your belly with a large hand.

You tenderly put your hand over his and when he looks up at you you’re smiling warmly. Huge tears well up in your eyes and gently roll down your cheeks. Your lip trembles and a sob breaks through you. It doesn’t sound painful, in fact it sounds as if you’re laughing.

The sun shines through the window and when you look at him to mutter a tiny “thank you”, your eyes do that thing that he loves. They catch the sun and glimmer, like a crystal of amber held up to the sky. Nothing could ever compare to the look on your face right now, and he’d spend 1000 years in rehab if it meant he could always be the one to make you feel this way.

He cups your face and the kiss he bestows on you turns into a smile, the smile turns into a giggle, and finally the giggle is hearty laughter between the two of you.

“Our little Teddy,” you cry, cradling your belly. You give Katsuki a smug look before holding your hand out for him to help you back up.

“I knew you didn’t actually hate the song,” you tease.

Katsuki chuckles, pulls you up out of the chair and grabs a shawl for you to wrap around your shoulders during the festival. “Figured since you’re always singin’ it to him, might as well give ‘em the damn music box. Glad ya like it.”

“It’s perfect.”

It’s quiet.

The moon is overhead, you’re asleep in bed curled up into Katsuki’s side and his eyes shoot open at the sound of Frenchie whining and trotting down the stairs. Usually he sleeps with the two of you, at the foot of the bed, right near your feet.

Katsuki yawns, sleepily looks over to see you still sleeping peacefully, checks the time on the alarm clock, then glances at the door and the sound of paws tapping on hardwood.

“Fuckin hell French. It’s too late for this shit,” he groans. Slowly he untangles your arms from him, pulls the blanket over you and creeps out of the room and down the steps.

There’s a bluish light beckoning from downstairs and Katsuki wonders if you left a light on downstairs. He moves slowly and carefully as Frenchie continues whining. The sound is coming from the living room and as Katsuki inches closer he can swear he hears faint whistling.

Is there somebody here? The tune is one he recognizes.  It’s the tune you always whistle while doing the dishes, that you hum to yourself when you’re painting. It’s the song he heard you singing to yourself the very first time he saw you in his special fishing spot.

It’s a song you sing to his son, growing in your belly. A silly song that Katsuki teased you about knowing but also went out of his way to give to you in a homemade music box.

Katsuki shakes his head and continues down the steps, turning the corner as Frenchie’s whining gets louder. He’s sure he’s just hearing things.

“What is it, Mutt? You’ll wake Sweets up and we both know how cranky she gets when she’s woken up,” he grumbles but he stops suddenly.

There’s somethin’ that looks like it’s in the shape of an old man. Katsuki stays quiet and stunned. It’s 3AM, he didn’t wipe the sleep from his eyes before coming downstairs, or maybe he’s still dreaming. It has to be. He reaches to try and pinch himself but before he can, the figure moves and Katsuki notices he can see right through it.

He stands in shock as it moves to pat Frenchie on the head softly. Frenchie the little traitor, barks happily and wags his tail, closing his eyes as if the ghost– if he can even call it that– is actually petting him. Katsuki can’t speak for some reason. He feels frozen, like he couldn’t speak even if he wanted to. He doesn’t know if it’s fear or contentment that keeps him from yelling or threatening the thing but he stays staring at it in amazement.

Slowly it turns to look at him and Katsuki recognizes some of its features as your grandfather’s. When he is facing Katsuki completely, he smiles and Katsuki intakes a short breath.

“Tell her I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

His voice is like a ghostly echo around the room, yet soft enough that the sound won’t reach upstairs. It’s almost as if Katsuki can only hear it in his mind. Despite being weirded out, he finds himself nodding at the apparition in front of him. It’s not like he doesn’t believe that your grandpa wouldn’t be proud of you. Of course he’d tell you that. Yet when he nods, there's a warmth that surrounds him and makes him feel tingly.

The apparition smiles again, and looks as if it’s starting to fade away. Katsuki takes a step forward, voice still lost in the darkness. He wants to stop it from going and call you downstairs so you can see him for yourself. Even if this is a dream, you deserve that closure.

Instead, your grandfather’s smile only grows wider and with his last few moments he makes Katsuki swear something to him.

“Take care of her for me.”

“Always.”

His response is immediate, a sure promise that he will never break.

As your grandfather dissipates into a an array of tiny light fragments, Katsuki beckons to Frnechie who pads over to him and rubs his head against his knee. It almost feels like he’s telling him what he saw wasn’t a dream.  He slowly makes his way back upstairs with Frenchie on his heels,  climbs back into bed, and grabs you to pull close to him. You hum a little at his warmth and when he kisses your forehead, you mutter his name, like you always do.

Katsuki’s never been a man who believes in ghosts or magic so he can’t tell if what he saw was real or not. One thing was for sure. He’d promised to take care of you.

And he always keeps his promises.

END

Thank you all so so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Please if you haven’t already, check out @bakugotrashpanda Husband for Hire, which is another Stardew Valley Au fic. Trust me when I say, it’s fantastic and you’ll love it!💖

[amjustagirl]

Chapters: one. ~ two. ~ three. ~ four. ~ five. ~ six. ~ seven. ~ eight.

Word Count: 2.3k

Summary: Being with Miya Atsumu is like chasing a storm - equal parts exhilaration and danger. After all, it’s impossible to tame a storm. 

Masterlist here 

AO3 Link here

‘Y'know, when I asked you to manage 'Tsumu, I never imagined you'd manage him like this.’  Osamu states bluntly, eyebrow raised as Atsumu spends yet another evening seated right by her spot at the till, lobbing playful insults and jokes at her until she snaps at him to ‘shut up for the love of all that is holy and stop disturbing the other customers’ . 

‘Like what?!’ she splutters unconvincingly, her cheeks turning red. 

Osamu gives her a knowing look before he turns away to welcome in another batch of customers. 

Osamu closes the shop on the anniversary of its opening, and throws a small party at a rooftop bar that a friend of his owns. She’s told that her attendance is absolutely mandatory, so even though she has class early next morning, she finds herself with a drink in her hand, staring down at the crowds of downtown Osaka. If she squints, she can see a child pulling her mother to a stop, pointing overhead at the rainbow of neon street lights in awe. 

‘A hundred yen for your thoughts?’ She doesn’t need to turn around to know it’s Atsumu, his lazy drawl far more pronounced than Osamu’s. 

The child in the street below remains rooted to the spot, causing a buildup in the crowd despite her mother’s attempts to pull her away. It makes her think of the first time her parents brought her to visit the city more than a decade ago, and how overwhelmed she felt, surrounded by people and buildings tall enough to touch the sky, so different from her hometown of rolling hills and bamboo groves. 

‘Did you feel sad when you left home?’ she replies with a question of her own. 

‘Nah - was excited, really. Always dreamed of playin’ volleyball in the big leagues, so stayin’ home wasn’t gonna cut it for me, y'know?’ 

‘Heartless. Probably made your mother cry’, she accuses him, and he acknowledges it with a careless laugh. 

‘What about you? Thinkin’ about home?’ he asks, coming to stand beside her, eyes trained on the thin line separating building and sky. 

‘Leaving was necessary’, she responds simply. 

Especially with two older brothers blessed with both brain and brawn, far better suited to inherit her father’s steel forge. But while her father might spend most of the day teaching her brothers how to craft the sharpest knives, his evenings were spent at the kitchen table with her perched on his lap, learning to balance numbers in his account books. And with her schoolteacher mother drilling into her head the importance of an education, moving down to Osaka for an accountancy degree seemed less like a choice and more like an inevitable conclusion. 

He frowns at her silence. ‘Did you get kidnapped by aliens or somethin’? Usually you’d be snappin’ at me, or scolding me, or shouting at me for being a dick – completely undeserved, by the way’.

‘I just seem quiet because you talk too much. Has anyone ever told you that?’ she retorts. But there is no fire in her words, and he only chortles in response. 

They watch in silence as the crowd below them slowly starts to thin out as the dusk fades into night. The cold night air bites through her thin sweater into her skin, and she shivers, unconsciously shifting closer towards Atsumu’s warmth. He shoots her a look that’s halfway between a smile and a smirk as he slides his jacket over her shoulders, and she pretends the flush on her cheeks is from the alcohol in her drink. 

But she can’t help but lean into him, letting herself drown in the heat of his hand on her hip and the storm in his eyes. 

Osamu’s eyes cloud in disapproval when he finds out she and Atsumu are dating. ‘He’d better not run off my accountant, that’s all I can say’. 

‘Osamu! Atsumu’s your twin!’ she scolds, arm deep in a vat of rice water. 

‘Exactly’, he responds with a snort. ‘I’m not sure you realise how much of a dick ‘Tsumu can be, ‘specially when all he’s hungry for is chasing a win. I hope you’re ready to handle that.’ 

‘You’re just worried because you’re too cheap to hire a qualified accountant to do your books’ she grouses and he looks like he’s about to snark back, but the chatter of their first customers of the day entering the shop signals the end of their conversation. 

Dating Atsumu isn’t as bad as Osamu makes it out to be. She’s careful not to ask too much of him when he’s busy with training and competitions, and in any case her schedule is full enough with school and her job, but they make the effort of video calling each other at least twice a week if he’s travelling, and if he’s in town, they spend Friday nights with multiple boxes of pizza (Atsumu’s appetite is enormous) , bickering over what movie to watch next. 

He insists she watch as many games of his as possible, and he spends so much time crowing about his plays that she should be annoyed, but she finds herself charmed by the childlike enthusiasm in his voice. ‘That’s probably why you’re the only one that can stand him’, Osamu comments but she pays him no mind. He’s in the audience cheering for her when she graduates, and takes her out for a fancy meal when she lands her first job ( no, Osamu, working at Onigiri Miya doesn’t count, no matter what you say). 

Their paths might not always converge but when they do, there’s the quiet contentment of finding shelter in each other, and she quickly becomes addicted to the warmth of that feeling in her heart. 

‘Stop being a baby’, she scolds, as she peels back the sports tape on Atsumu’s back with deliberate care. ‘It’s your fault for going for practice with a strained shoulder and not listening to your physiotherapist!’

‘Don’t nag darlin’, I had to – it was Hinata-kun’s first practice with us!’ He’s practically buzzing in his seat with glee, and she can’t help the soft smile that grows on her face. 

‘There - all done’, she says, and she can’t help but run her hand to rest in the dip of his spine.  

‘What would I do without you?’ he asks, shooting her a roguish smile that distracts her long enough that he’s able to pull her into his lap. 

‘Idiot’, she huffs fondly, and he chuckles in reply, the sound warming her heart. ‘Hey ‘Tsumu?’ she says again, pushing his wandering hands away. 

‘You called, doll?’ he quirks an eyebrow at her, hands heavy against her hips. 

‘I love you’, she whispers against the broad expanse of his chest. 

‘I know’, he says with light laughter in his voice, and swallows her outraged cry ‘arsehole!’  by sliding his mouth over hers until her breath starts to stutter and she closes her eyes. 

There is a storm raging outside, but she pays it no mind. 

Her stomach churns when she sees the faint line on the test she bought in a panic during her lunch break, and she now wonders whether the nausea she’s been feeling the past week was not a bug she thought she caught, but actually morning sickness after all. That thought makes her feel like puking her guts out again and she does - unceremoniously every morning for weeks after that. 

Atsumu’s in the middle of a series of matches away from home, and she knows he’s warned her again and again not to distract him especially when the championship is within his team’s reach, but the rising swell of panic in her throat outwrestles any rational thought she has left in her head, so she finds herself blurting it out to him the minute they log on for their twice weekly call. 

‘You’re pregnant?’ he echoes blankly, rubbing a disbelieving hand over his face. ‘How?’ 

‘D’you remember the gala night for the opening of the season when I was on antibiotics for an ear infection?’ He nods dumbly, and she twists her fingers in her lap. ‘Yeah… Well I figure it must have happened then.’ 

The connection of their call crackles, and she strains her ears for his response. It doesn’t come. 

‘Tsumu?’ 

‘Right.’ he finally says. ‘So what are you going to do about it?’

‘I...don’t know,’ she confesses. 

They’re both barely on the cusp of adulthood, and the thought of bringing a new life into the world that she’d be wholly responsible floods her with a tidal wave of fear and dread and anxiety that does not ebb away. She’s not sure her boss will take too kindly to finding out she’s pregnant, much less so out of wedlock, especially since she’s barely a year into her job, and she doesn’t even want to think about the dishonour and shame she’ll bring to her family - though a part of her is willing to brave her father’s disapproval and her mother’s tears just to feel their arms around her again. 

But her hands are drawn to the slight swell of her belly, and perhaps it’s sentiment clouding her mind, she’s not sure she has it within her to stamp out the flicker of life budding within her after nights filled with dreams of a child with her smile and Atsumu’s eyes. 

‘Look - I’ve got to go. We’ll talk when I get home, ok?’ he mutters, logging off before she can say goodbye. 

But he doesn’t - not even when his team wins the championship and she finds out from the team’s social media that he’s returned back to Osaka. 

Her calls go unanswered, her texts remain unread, and with desperation rising in her chest she turns to Osamu - even though she initially swore to herself she wasn’t going to drag him into the messes that Atsumu tends to make. But the laws in Japan require the consent of the father if she wants to get rid of the problem (though it feels wrong to term it like that), and he’s the closest male friend she trusts enough to step up to the plate. 

‘Fuckin’ pig’ he snarls, slamming his fist down on the counter so hard it makes her jump back in shock at seeing the normally mild-mannered Osamu lose his temper and react with such obvious rage. But he calms down quickly to close his shop early and walk her home. 

‘It’ll be fine’, he promises her. ‘You’ll see’. 

She’s not sure she trusts Osamu’s definition of fine, not when Atsumu turns up on her doorstep that same night with a smear of blood under his nose and a purple bruise over his right eye. She stares at him, her arms folded across her chest.

‘What do you have to say for yourself, Miya?’, she says, and he winces at her use of his surname, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.  

‘I freaked out ok? Finding out that you got pregnant - that I’m going to be a  dad  made me panic ‘cos I’m totally not ready for that  shit  - even though Osamu’s right, I’m a piece of crap and you’re probably going through so much worse and I should do right by you -.’

‘Atsumu, what are you even saying?!’ She interrupts, exasperated. 

‘I’m asking you to jump off a cliff with me’, he says, lifting his chin to return her stare.

‘Wha-’ 

‘Marry me.’ He cuts in softly, bringing his hand to cup her face, brushing his thumb across the corner of her lip. ‘It’s gonna be one hell of a ride, but you and I - we’ll get through this together’. 

She’s struck dumb, suddenly reminded of how being with Atsumu is like chasing a storm - equal parts exhilaration and danger. While there’s the thrill of being near enough to witness the sky collapsing into a torrent of rain and hear the wind descend into howls of rage, there’s also the lingering fear that the next flash of lightning might mean pain, or even death. 

But Atsumu’s eyes are clear pools of light, and she can only see  hope  reflected within it. She wonders if it mirrors the hope in her heart too. 

So she says yes, and catches his smile in her hands. 

They hold a small wedding at the Miya family shrine with their respective families as quickly as they can before the swell of her belly is unable to be hidden by the folds of her shiro-muku, the traditional white of her kimono a stark contrast against the black and gold of Atsumu’s montsuki. Her face is hidden under the weight of her headdress and her hands tremble as she clasps her kaiken, a blade her father forged himself, and her mother’s bamboo fan to her belt. She does not breathe until she and Atsumu take their third sip of sake from the nuptial cup. 

Osamu is obviously appointed as the best man, and after the ceremony is over, he slaps Atsumu on the back before pressing a careful kiss to her cheek. ‘You’ve downgraded from being my accountant to my sister’, he tells her, and she has to hide her teary laugh behind her hands. But her heart is full and she throws her arms around his neck until Atsumu clears his throat playfully and she pulls away to greet her family. 

‘Take care of her’, her father says, the threat in his and her brothers’ eyes amplified by their wedding gift to her of their sharpest knives. Atsumu meets their gaze evenly and laughs, unfazed. 

‘I will’, he says, and he kisses her with his promise still on his lips. 

[larrythefloridaman]

Y'all like your deities with or without the shell?

Under the readmore is aaaaaaaaall color god observations and musings based on them, because I am studying to become the world's Premiere Chromatheologian and RGB Understander so under the cut is pretty much Oops! All Spoilers! up to the most recent episode of season 3.

Apparently Universal Color God Attributes:

Damage to their domain hurts them, but fixing the issue, or lashing out by using their powers destructively, can help them to repair the damage.

If they sustain enough damage, it can temporarily paralyze them and send them into a strengthened but 'exposed' state (chartreuse's spirit activation in the last fight of 19) and further damage after that will activate a failsafe, which is unique by domain but seemingly designed to give them the chance to balance things, but can get… very out of hand or backfire depending on circumstances. (see: cobalt’s failsafe sending mark's universe into a never-ending apocalyptic war because word of the cure for death became too widespread for the killing urge failsafe to affectively balance anything because every side could simply revive their fallen.)

Chartreuse's failsafe is something of a stopped time bubble quarantine where processes that require the passing of time cannot complete, allowing her the time to wear down the offending party to beat them to death or plan around finishing them.

Cobalt's is inciting war, the casualties serving to balance the scale. I'm not sure we know Crimson's yet- he's never taken enough direct damage without doing damage to compensate in order to trigger it, although i dont remember season one well enough to recall if any of the universe stuff in it tracks with the pattern bc season one is a bit fucky

Connected in a fashion that allows them to simply Sense the overall status of the others to some extent, although they don't know Why theyre in the state theyre in without asking (chartreuse [and by extension, folk, presumably on her information] confronting crimson via crimsonaut for pretending to be dead, Cobalt confronting both his siblings about how they are handling their duties improperly but not knowing about Folk. He knew about the constants deaths because hes a death god, duh, but he didnt use their names like crimson did, possibly implying they're erased upon death so thoroughly that only crimson and the constants can really recall a shattered constants' existence, not even the other guardians.)

Abilities of the guardians can be replicated by mortals through three apparent methods- through machines (dimensional bus, the time machine, presumably J0hn's part in Sephiroth's resurrection,) simply through advanced enough individual skill (Home MD curing death, potentially Dantoinette's universe portal travel, maybe Genwun's sped up time bubble that evolved them into Genfour? although that could very well have just been an illusion and theyre just like, a fuckin theater kid that was doing pretend character development for the Bit or something given GenFive turned out to be a zoroark) or through stealing some of the power of the relevant god (Dr. Order stealing Chartreuse's power, Dani maybe having stolen some of Crimson's when she beat his ass. Dani's one woman universal travel is like, wicked ambiguous)

Cobalt:

Can seemingly perceive or act through any living material. (The Tree. Cobalt instructed Larry to slap his hand on that tree, that shit glowed and he had a new deal tattoo without Cobalt ever having been physically present)

Can influence the resurrected by giving them a killing urge. Represented by an aberrant brainwave and a ringing in the undead's heads. This doesnt appear to be direct control- as the Grunk could clearly restrain himself from killing people that genuinely didn't deserve it (like nightly and cha cha, who WERE grunk event targets but not fatally so. Nagito was a crimson thing so it really doesn't count here. God poor grunk his life really is just a constant plaything in the hands of the gods huh) and Sephiroth very much had personal motivation to want to kill Folk. failsafe activates this ability on the scale of war.

Deals. The extent of what Cobalt can do with these is unclear but Iggy's god powers were taken from him as his part in the deal so what he can take isn't limited to physical things or things obviously related to his domain.

Weaknesses:

Deals. While this ability is impressive his preference for making deals for those that offend against his domain is potentially very exploitable- Larry's knowledge of the cure for death is, if word of it were to ever get out beyond Larry, wildly dangerous for this dimension, so technically the safest thing for the iron-fisted cobalt to do would be to nip the problem in the bud and get rid of him. But, fascinatingly, that wasn't even put on the table, the first thing Cobalt does is threaten J0hn, prompting Larry to make a deal. While Cobalt enforces death, he also doesn't like unnecessary death, and Larry demonstrably knows how to keep a secret for the good of the world even at great cost to himself and Cobalt is aware of this- easily clarifying to Larry the aberrant thing endangering the universe wasn't his timeloop business. So while he's clearly not letting his resurrection fuckery go unpunished, he's being pretty merciful when he doesn't have to be and from a strictly, brutally pragmatic perspective probably shouldn't be.

His control over the undead manifests as a ringing and an aberrant brainwave trackable by J0hn's equipment, and could probably therefore be accounted for and circumvented? J0hn has, wisely, largely sworn off fucking with people's brains after the sephiroth fiasco went So Wrong, So Very Wrong, Oh God Oh Fuck Someone Cool Almost Died, but if he hadn't, and if J0hn let his dislike for authority and keeping Larry safe outweigh reason like he let safety, spite and comedic value outweigh good ethical sense when reprogramming sephiroth, in theory Mr. 'hacked a time machine for breakfast?' could. y'know. probably do it. what is a god's authority to an anarchist, what better to challenge life and death than the cold and eternal machine, you get the point its a fun scenario

Olive Garden Breadsticks and Small Cute Dogs, apparently

Chartreuse's:

Time Clones: taps into parallel timelines to retrieve alternate versions of herself to utilize.

Time Travel: what it says on the tin. Travel to the past creates painful splits in the prime timeline, but through careful action and traveling back into the past, these can be weaved into a time loop. A split from the timeline is a wound, and a successful timeloop is the surgical scar it can become with attentive care, to use a medical metaphor. Carefully closed and healing. Keeping Folk here is essentially akin to chartreuse pulling out her stitches on the initial incision.

Time Stopping: creates a space wherein things that take time to complete cannot complete, where things can move, but everything within is in a perfect unchanging stasis until the bubble drops. This is the form her failsafe takes.

Timeline Creation: can create timelines from scratch.

Can fuse alternate timeline versions of the same individual to allow them to coexist. (Ryan's confirmed in the discord that Dantoinette experienced both failures in 20, because Chartreuse fused the two instances of her to save the post-raid instance from fading. Could... theoretically do this to Folk and save herself the pain, but while Folk and Therapuppy are the same person, there's seven years and untold amounts of difference deriving from the time and circumstance between them and the inherent cognitive dissonances that would result from attempting that would be wicked fucked up to inflict, and that's assuming there isn't some reason that it wouldn't be possible anyway. while the two Danis had like. A day or so's difference between them, so she could be safely fused with the only dissonant thing being that she remembers both being too slow to prevent order's time escape and beginning to dissipate post-raid, AND losing that fight to her pre-raid. RIP Dani, that perfectionism must be kicking her ass)

Weaknesses:

Unwilling to use her powers destructively in her pursuit of domain repair and thereby much easier to damage to the point of paralyzing her, making her particularly vulnerable to Power Theft

Morally Optimistic. At one point in 19, she briefly justifies Crimson's shitty evil actions to herself after experiencing for herself how Wack the kerfuffleverse is firsthand, ("and all he did was kill a couple people!" Chartreuse. Honey.) and when she fights Crimsonaut she seems to actually believe for a second that he's actually worried about her when Crimson asks if she's okay after he beats her. Additionally, as D+, she concerns herself with trying to understand doctor order's motive, and after Larry defeats Order, he makes a point of confirming she feels no remorse before making his request for what Chartreuse does with her, and appeals to the idea of letting Order fulfill her desire to be a god in a way which isn't a problem for anyone and Chartreuse is more than happy to oblige under these conditions after what Larry's done for everybody. Then immediately threatens to evaporate him for playfully teasing her about having a crush on folk. Fucked up a little bit

Crimson's:

Universe Shifting: Travel between universes.

Universe Correction: appears to replace an aberrant individual with the 'correct' version of themselves for that universe, presumably sending them back to their own. (Mario from super mario was universe corrected, but still seemingly exists in wario form as evidenced by smashup kerfuffle, and was simply temporarily replaced with his corrected universe counterpart. But like. The dimensional bus system is still active crimbo doing the Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me routine aint gonna work if they can come back with a shrug and bus fare. you're fighting the symptoms without treating the problem)

Universal Constants:

Three individuals per universe that serve as the pillars which stabilize said universe, created by absorbing red orbs Crimson creates. Becoming a constant grants power, but also makes the constant fragile, and death wipes them from the face of the multiverse, only crimson, those he's possessed and the other constants seemingly able to recall they ever existed, although some physical evidence is still left behind (Larry's record of Nagito's death, which is just as redacted as everything else relating to him but still is very much something Larry has. Kind of a Voidfish adventurezone type beat ironically enough? Taako really has seen all this shit before no wonder he peaced tf out)

To counterbalance the weaknesses the constants have, they have a sort of spidey-sense to alert them to danger, and an intrinsic bonded connection to their fellow constants, and additionally, Crimson apparently doesn't suffer any pain from the death of constants or the structural instability of a universe.

Possession: what it says on the tin! Seemingly can only be done with permission to living things- none of crimson's direct hosts seem to have entered that agreement unwillingly, Valentine lost a bet, Hamburger and Crimsonaut have been by all evidence intentional allies to Crimson- but electronics are fair game, as seen with The Guy's suit. Kinda curious how that rule applies to bitches that are half and half, like J0hn or the clonebot gang, as its unclear whether The Guy's suit was yoinkable without permission because it was mechanical or because its not sentient. could go either way but if it's the former that's potentially very frightening

Fusion: Two individuals from alternate universes can be fused into one shared body which can take on aspects of either depending on which is currently in control. (possibly allows someone who traveled into a given universe to become a fixed resident there without it being an issue for Crimson, whose job is to prevent interdimensional travel?) Monday Mark and possibly T.O.M. are our main examples.

Corruption:

Unpleasant As Hell and can even kill you instead of changing you if you cant handle it.

turns the corrupted individual into a twisted exaggeration of themself, allows them supernatural control over their shape, and makes them very difficult- if not impossible by traditional means- to kill, based on Garfield.

Subjects them to control by Crimson, but can be exorcised of this influence just like crimson's direct hosts can, although the supernatural changes to their physiology are seemingly permanent, judging from Shantae.

Notable Weaknesses:

Exorcism can be performed to free a possessed or corrupted individual of Crimson's influence. Its unclear how exorcism works/is learned in CPUK, but confirmed exorcists: dantoinette and yung papaya's snake dad, confirmed non-exorcists: folk

The universal constant orbs are physical objects so they are Very Stealable and they grant a power boost so theres literally an Incentive to beat his ass for anybody who wants to be strong and either doesnt know or doesn't care about the whole 'getting erased when you die' part

Crimson has lots of tools to create pawns, but all of them have drawbacks. Corruption could kill a potential pawn, possession generally seems to require permission, and he has no control over the constants' choices and actions

Manipulative bitch's highest stat is charisma and it shows. This motherfucker is selling snake oil. If he was mortal rather than a Whole Entire God he'd make an excellent ineffectual saturday morning cartoon supervillain and i think everyone, including him, would be happier for it, ngl

Something interesting ive realized that likely wasnt fully intentional, is that a lot of Dr. Order's creations, considering her motive, can kind of be sorted by a color god it appears to be a crude attempt at mimicking the abilities of. My Grunk is a poorly executed resurrection, the clonebot gang vs chartreuse's timeclones (this one deserves special mention because Chartreuse used this shitty attempted mimicry to her advantage with D+, very smart and ironic play, excellent job Treusy,) spirits are somewhat similar to universal constant orbs (orbs which can be absorbed to grant power, but which have physical repercussions- key differences being that spirits require activation and grow stronger while attuning to a user without being used, and having far less severe drawbacks, taking a heavy toll on the body, but only once they've worn off and without the risk of wiping yourself from the face of existence,) and she also augmented Perfect Spriteman and Larry, which kind of track as crude imitations of Crimson's corruption!

Garfield was an acerbic cat who loved food and hated mondays, now its an actively malicious ever-hungry amorphous entity whose only weakness is monday and whose only consistency in form is 'cat-like.'

Shantae was (to my extremely limited understanding of shantae,) a friendly heroic type who had to introduce herself often, and she became something akin to a biblically accurate angel that can *only* introduce herself.

The Grunks a tough but sweet and supportive single dad with stage presence and a tendency to fly off the handle when he or his family are slighted, and now he gets so hype in the audience when his son does well that he bursts into flames and ascends and we get random grunk events along with the associated murder charges when he gets mad and the target sucks enough that he doesn't hold himself back from killing them.

Perfect Spriteman and Larry fit the trend of exaggeration of already present traits- Spriteman fucking loves sprite and became something that only thinks about sprite, and Larry the Florida Man, characterized from minute one by unpredictability and who spent his first matches in the series pre-shapeshifter transformation staying alive keeping stocks for Shockingly Long even despite getting seventh, became literally physically random as well as developing the ability to regenerate, albeit with the ability to feel pain normally very much intact, unlike Garfield just... Soaking up damage like its nothing in his pursuit of Jon. The fact that Arbuckle legit defeated Garfield, even temporarily, is terrifyingly impressive honestly that dude is fucking built different for being so chronically bland

i dont think they're actually corrupted in any meaningful way we have to worry about, to be fully clear, Spriteman was cured with fucking antacids, i simply think they could be a fucked up attempt at making something that kind of seems like it from a functional standpoint, from the wannabe god doctor that brought us green clones whose only fundamental association with time was accelerated aging and who thought an actively rotting corpse thats just reanimated enough that it can throw hands was as good as curing death

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom episode 4-7 Thoughts: (under a readmore because, these got kinda long!)

-the outfit danny had to buy for dash's party. CLASSIC 2000S i cannot stop laughing. And also showing up to the party and everyone is dressed like the trio is hilarious. and further proof that everyone looks good dressed goth.

-dash has a closet full of cute lil bear plushies?? LOVE that. adorable. also his response to danny trashing his room fighting a ghost was SO valid if somone BROKE MY BED IN HALF ID BE PISSED TOO.

-technus being like 'oh smart, u should be a tutor!' then later being like 'forget tutor, be a teacher!' :) supportive king <3 I also really like his upgraded suit/design. AND SPOCK CAMEO??? HELLO??

-the music in this show is super. its so funky. I looked it up and the guy who does it, guy moon (awesome name) also did music for other cartoons like fairly odd parents, barnyard, chalkzone, billy & mandy, AND some actual movies like FIGHT CLUB??? the whiplash I got from reading that)

-sam being rich explains a lot about her, actually.

-I know the moral of the episode was supposed to be 'dont ditch your friends for popular people/spend a lot of money on clothes that arent You to Fit In'. but tbh. it wouldve been easy for danny to have been like 'well, okay, ill come but only if my friends can!' but I get. that hes 14. so. not a lot to say there.

-BOX GHOST IS BACK!!!!! also, danny sitting up and wearing the dress/wig/makeup. umm thats how I dress everyday LMFAO. unironically me. (hate the jokes that boil down to 'haha funney man in dress' tho. but this is a look)

-jazz being protective of her brother once again being like NOOO YOU GUYS BETTER NOT STAKE OUT HIS (actually haunted) LOCKER!! shes aware of how people perceive him and she wants to help :( which is also probably why she told dash to invite him to that party even tho she had no interest in going!! she wants to help him out :(

-gotta say im with tucker on the whole 'should danny use his powers to get back at bullies' debate. 100% yes. let him teach kids to fight back. making dash throw his food at paulina out of the blue? no. but when hes actually about to pick on someone? yeah! for self defense? YEAH! if dash and his friends just threw food at him, I think rather than. idk doing sneaky shit with frogs he couldve just threw it back and not pulled punches if they tried to fight. I kNOOWWW its a kids show so they are like 'if u fight back ur just as bad!! violence bad!!' but. theyre HIS POWERS. WHO CARES.

-like my only gripe is that dash really isnt LEARNING ANYTHING WHEN DANNY GETS BACK AT HIM IN THE MOST PETTY INDIRECT WAYS. whatever they had to add a bully psa episode I guess. I hate it and I hate the way cartoons usually handle it because these methods simply Do Not Work. 'aND YouRE USinG YOur poWErs FOR EVill???!' this is Not Evil. even when poindexter takes dannys body, theyre only being 'nice' bc hes stealing soda for them!! bitches deserve what they get (nothing too brutal bc theyre high schoolers but damn, if they pick on danny he doesnt need to be the 'bigger person' he needs to start biting people)

-SAM TRYING TO SMUGGLE FROGS OUT OF THE BIO LAB?? girl in middle school when we had to dissect frogs we could opt out, also, they came to us already dead and preserved...

-sidney's lingo and the fact hes in black and white is sending me. also, danny is a ghost celebrity apparently for being a halfa?? ok. thats interesting to know

-the DENTIST BEING EXCITED ABOUT THE COTTON CANDY FLOOD IS THE FUNNIEST THING SO FAR.

-I LOOOVE the trope of 'wishes gone wrong'. not crazy about the stereotypical genie, or the use of the dreamcatcher looking design. (also, I KNOW theyre scientists but the way theyre handling a cold...are the fentons ANTIVAX)

-the genie. she. whitewished paulina. JKASDFHKJ. (the ghost literally just being hello kitty???? im dying) 'why do i feel that im special and wonderful? because I AM! <3' paulina ilu self worth queen. felt bad for her also getting possessed by (2) boys later who were arguing INSIDE HER. WTF.

-imagine being the guy trapped in his now flying car. he thought danny and tucker were HALUCINATIONS. imagine being trapped in a flying car with two, what you think are imaginary arguing 14 year olds convinced ur gonna die. i WOULD say this dude is gonna need so much therapy, but he seemed totally fine and excited when they landed (I would be happy too if a chicken was on my head. chickens rule) stoner rights

-sam's bat slippers??? iconic. SO cute.

-I think desiree's backstory is so :( do all ghosts have messed up sad backstories?? poindexter's was sad too...cannot imagine box ghost has any kind of fucked up backstory. but what if. his mom got pushed off cliffs by boxes...........a la cruella... anyway her 'no man may lay a hand on me' iconic. ilu

-I know danny has no concept of how much bras cost but my god dont attack tucker with some girls bra. those are so expensive.

-its really. well its not a GOOD THING he went into the portal and got fucked up, but its good danny was the one to do it rather than sam or tucker. because even tho he was being influenced by desiree and kept getting more malicious and it prob wasnt 100% him...he sucked as a ghost like most the people he 'pranked' were innocent ppl just Chillin and he didnt want to help anyone at all. I think danny is the most responsible out of them but also, hes 14 and shouldnt HAVE to feel obligated to fight every ghost. hes a good kid and wants to, but I also feel like he feels like...responsible for the portal turning on?? because his parents did give it up,, but it was an accident and not his fault (if anything, why was the on switch on the inside. why was it that easy. why was there no safety measures. that seems like smth OSHA needs to hear about). like thats my son. hes a good boy. and hes never done anything wrong in his life, ever. if anyone hurts him im killing everyone in this room and then myself. etc.

-danny's curfew is 10PM????? DUDE. when I was 14...shit I couldn't be out that late, I had to be back at like, 8 at the latest, and my parents had to know exactly where and who I was going with, AND i had to call/text them regularly...is this a case of my parents being overbearing, or the fentons sucking??? the only time i could EVER be out that late was if I was at an overnight sleepover or smth...

-the vultures have lil fezes. why do they have fezes...theyre so fuckin funny 'ask him for directions' 'I KNOW WHERE IM GOING' these ghost vultures are my new grandpas. pick them up, put them in the adopt box.

-'I wonder why those guys were trying to waste dad!' THEYRE GHOSTS. YOUR DAD HUNTS GHOSTS. why is that not a conclusion you'd immediately jump to??

-*jazz voice, clearly disgusted* WISCONSIN???

-mrs fenton with the lab coat and leg warmers and PERM. YESSS STYLISH.

-was going to say 'ew billionaire' @vlad but. super valid he used his powers to assumedly steal and cheat to get that money, thats how all billionaires do it! but ew hes a SIMP. and spending your billions on FOOTBALL STUFF?? you are Not Valid overall. I DO respect the fact you have a castle instead of a mansion. in wisconsin. if youre going to be stupidly rich might as well go all out, torches on the wall and all. I DO like his ghost form's little kitty ears. catman. and his cape! every design can benefit from a cape. and how different his forms look, like danny looks the EXACT SAME IN BOTH FORMS ASIDE FROM COLOR CHANGES. vlad's is like,, I could believe they were different people!! also I love the drama. but dude you are fighting a 14 year old. lame. also he was like, telling danny he wanted his mom and him and like, wanted him to renounce his dad?? WHAT ABOUT JAZZ?? bitch. those r MY kids and they are both important and special. I do agree they need better parents but thats not u sir <3

-I thought vlad's 'little badger' nickname for danny came from the football mascot of the packers, but google says they have NO MASCOT?? so now I'm like?? is it because his hair is sometimes black and sometimes white?? I hate to give him props but thats a PERFECT NICKNAME. theyre also tiny and vicious!

-why did I get so excited that Skulker is back!! its been like. 2-3 eps LMAO. AND THE DAIRY KING. ICONIC I LOVE HIM. hes the nicest guy ever :) more nice ghosts please. danny cannot be fighting alone everytime with no ghost buds like every ghost being hostile sucks :(

-mr. fenton knew vlad was controlling him, but a few episodes ago he had no clue danny was doing the same thing...is it something about how malicious the ghost is?? he just seemed to think his memory had gaps the first time, this time he was INSTANTLY LIKE 'GHOST'. then again in this ep when danny did it again he was just slightly confused but not immediately freaking out like he did with vlad possessing him!!

-'my parents will accept ME NO MATTER WHAT' so. so why haven't you come out to them yet, danny?? if you really think that?? if theres no harm, and you're sure??? if vlad is a real problem, wouldnt that make dealing with him easier, to expose him???? SO WHY HAVENT YOU COME OUT YET?? COULD IT BE,, MAYBE YOU HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT WHETHER YOUR PARENTS ACTUALLY WILL ACCEPT YOU??? 🤔 ... 🏳‍🌈 I get why people say He Is Trans. I totally totally get u danny.

-sorta unrelated, but it just occurred to me in one of these eps they go to casper HIGH not casper middle school??? theyre 14?? dont highschools usually do ages 15-18? (I didnt go to hs so I might be wrong, if I am ignore this...) freshmen are usually 14-15, could just be a case of them not turning 15 yet but they will sometime in the school year (I say they because tucker said he was 14 too)? I know the show has 3 seasons, so by the end of it will they be older? thatd be neat but usually cartoon characters stay the same age...I love shows where you can see the characters age and grow up, though...three seasons seems like a long time to spend on like, 1 year...

[gar-trek]

no i care about ur tng s1 opinions !!

Well anon since you asked..... (imagine we are hiking together, lol :)

Alright... season one of TNG... well... it wasn’t great. In fact, if it was not a Star Trek show, I’m not sure I would have gotten through it at all. Now I'm not saying that I hated it, in fact there was plenty that i did actually like. But overall it just kinda boring and it was hard to really get into it. Sometimes mediocracy is a worse then just being flat out bad, ya know? To keep things comprehensive, since half of this was written in an RV and the other half is written whilst im on 3 hours of sleep, lets put my review into a nice list of things i did not like, and things i did about season one of TNG

The bad:

-I have talked about this before, but I think my main issue with TNG so far is the extremely awkward vibe it has. Shots linger way too long after characters are done talking. the jokes do not hit most the time. the dialogue is often stilted and awkward. The characters just do not feel real to me at all. It's just very very strange. I don't know if its a problem with the writing, the directing or the producing, or maybe just all three, but overall shit is just awkward all the time. I wish the charecters felt more real. Like yeah, maybe we didn't see much of Sulu in TOS, but they still managed to make him a guy you could imagine yourself meeting at a bar or whatever. what am i gonna go have some drinks with fuckin season 1 William Riker?? Nah, wtf is that bitches motivations and aspirations ?? that he wants to be captain and has blue eyes ?? what i am trying to say is that nothing feels real and no smart ass not because its a fictional sci-fi show, but because the characters all act super weird or literally just do nothing.

-Picard. I’m kind of turning the corner here but like... he just doesn’t do it for me as captain. I feel like since he’s the captain that makes him the “””””main character”””” and yet... what does Picard do? He’s just kinda boring. Like the man doesn’t even always bean down to the planet or whatever. And you guys already know my thoughts on his relationship with Wes... yeah :/ so no, I don’t hate Picard, I just kinda hate that he’s the captain.

-Where is the action ? Am I an old white male boomer for wishing TNG had a little more tits out violence like TOS did. I mean where is the punching? Where is the redshirt deaths and photon torpedos and shit. I need more violence, and I know that’s like, opposite of the message of Star Trek but dammit... more violence!

-Every single thing that happened to Tasha Yar in Skin of evil. I know you know :/ we all know. :/ and mini rant but in the beginning of that episode Worf and Tasha had a cute little moment and I actually thought “wow they would make a good couple actually or at least best buds” but.. well you know :/ too bad. Also I feel like they spent a lot of time trying to set up Tashas backstory and she actually had something interesting going on so like.... again too bad I guess :/

*cough cough*

anyway, here is what i did like:

-despite their awkwardness i do think some of the characters are neat. Geordi has to be my favorite, he just brings such a good vibe to the crew and I think the whole concept of his character is really interesting. I like Worf but I still feel like we don’t get enough Worf time and of course I like Data, tbh I never disliked him but he definitely grew on me more as I watched. Data does have the tendency to make me cringe... but like in the way your weird lovable friends do. And of course Wes, who deserves so much better then all the dumb ass situations they write for him.

-I think they do a good job of making it feel like the Star Trek universe without just copying everything they did in TOS. like its super different from TOS in a lot of ways, but still it feels like the same universe, and maybe even a little more true to the universe. like the prime directive thing is taken a lot more seriously, same with the federation not wanting to resort to violence right away, all that star trek jazz. its still there, its still trek.

-they don't do a bunch of annoying pandering. i feel like nowadays when they come out with remakes or spin-offs or whatever they always have to have a million callbacks like "hey remember this thing you loved?? here it is again exactly the same" because like yeah that is easy and it more fail-proof. like they could have just stuck a vulcan in the main cast, don't tell me you wouldn't have gotten Spock brain and just ate that shit up, but they were like nah and tried new stuff instead. and i respect that. because the callback episode they did do (naked now) kinda fuckin sucked. so good for them for trying to forge their own path.

okay anyway those are my general thoughts. More specifically, here are the epsidoes i think were the very worst

- Encounter at Fairpoint (literally the first episode and i kept checking my watch wondering when it would be over. it should not have been a 2 parter that was way too long. Q was annoying as hell. the main plot was not that interesting. )

- Where No One Has Gone Before (very tedious and hard to sit through. "oh we traveled too far into space.... oh we did it again! haha lol!" boring. did not like that Traveler guy sus as hell.... hated that Picard only made Wes and Ensign after the Traveler said Wes was important.)

-Skin of Evil (dumb stupid dumb)

-The Nuteral Zone ( i dont even want to get into this. i actually think this one stunk the worst and it was the last episode. so many things wrong)

annnnddd the episodes i liked!

- The Last Outpost (Ferengi Ferengi Ferengi Ferengi )

-Haven (how can you not love Lwaxana Troi this episode made me genuinely laugh so many times. lots of very good character moments here)

-Angle One (i really liked the concept of male wife girl boss society i thought it was funny and interesting)

-Conspiracy (i felt like this one actually kept me on my toes. also liked when that dude's head exploded)

annndddd that about sums it up people! was that a comprehensible review? no. was it long? yes. feel free to disagree with me or fight it out in the comments. what are your least favorite episodes from season one? do you agree with my takes here? let me know

[zmediaoutlet]

5 + 6 pwease

yayyy reasons not to do woooork anon, you’re a champ --

5. Favorite episode?

This is an impossible question and I mistrust people who can answer it easily. Surely it depends on mood, time of day, where you are in your cycle! I will say that often the answer is On The Head Of A Pin because it is pure fuckin gold but sometimes the answer is the first half of Baby, and sometimes the answer is Folsom Prison Blues, and increasingly the answer might be Carry On because that bastard is gonna sing in my heart for a year.

6. If you could rewrite one season, which one would it be? Why?

Oh man. Spoiled for choice here. I also see that a couple of other good buds in the ol’ inbox have asked a similar question so I’ll go with an easy one:

Season eight. Not, I would like to stress, because I dislike season eight! But there are ways it could have been much better, and they alll have to do with the framing of the first half. Because in my fantasy rewriting I don’t have to deal with the sad limitations of cable television, I would: -- start with an entire episode of Sam & Amelia. Showing them together in a slow, measured way, with day in the life stuff, to depict what their relationship was actually like. This’ll help with not shortchanging her character and let us understand how Sam was actually living in Kermit. Hint: miserably. Strong overtones of the s6 opener. Capstone scene would be Dean falling out of the rift in Maine, wild-eyed and crazy. -- episode 2, we actually see Sam get the phonecall/letter/whatever to go to the cabin and meet Dean. Confusion, shock, crazy hope. Maybe doesn’t tell Amelia where he’s going. Meet Dean at the cabin and Dean’s as feral and wild and PTSD-riddled as he can be, and the fight starts fast just like the canon version. Sam stays with Dean out of guilt and worry, plot continues as usual. -- rest of season can honestly continue pretty much as normal, but instead of getting those paaaaaaaainful Amelia flashbacks we’ll stick with the Purgatory flashbacks, to slowly explain why Dean’s being such a prick. Another reversal of s6 (Sam attempting to be a family man, Dean has something wrong with him). Don can come back whenever in that space, Sam and Amelia break up, blah blah. Sam and Dean reunite in dumping their respective mistresses at the same time and the season continues as expected.

The point is that season eight is *really* good, and it’s only the godawful structuring and editing choices of the first half that kinda wrecked how it was received. People said they were “ruining” Sam’s character, people got really mad at Dean not ‘understanding’ Sam, yadda yadda -- it only takes a few tweaks to make those things go away and make the whole thing go smoothly. And no more of that awful yellow filter. That goes, too.

[365days365movies]

March 13, 2021: Kwaidan: The Black Hair (1963)

Three hours of Japanese ghost stories. OK. How do I do?

Time is always a complicated mistress for me, so I really have to plan this accordingly. OK, let’s see, what do I know about Kwaidan? Well, it’s a Japanese anthology film...ahhhhhhhh, there it is!

OK, solution discovered! This film is broken up into four disparate short stories, so we’ll be tackling each one one at a time. Four shorter posts, one full movie! Nice. Now, normally, I’d go through a bit of an introduction, but I don’t know much about this film, or the short movies contained within. So, instead, let’s talk Japanese mythology.

Hate to admit it, but basically all of my knowledge of Japanese gods and folklore comes from anime. Which isn’t the worst source, necessarily...but it’s definitely not the actual source. I’ve seen Noragami Season One, I’ve watched a button of other slice-of-life and folklore-based anime, so I know a little bit. The GF is far more adept (she’s the one who got me into Noragami, amongst other things), and she’ll be watching this movie as well, when she can.

So, I’m a relative novice when it comes to these things. What makes this more interesting is the fact that these stories are based on somewhat more contemporary sources, which means that they may not borrow from Japanese mythology much at all, outside of shared themes and morality. Sound familiar?

Yeah, that basically describes Ugetsu Monogatari, which I covered a few days ago (here, here, and here, in that order). While it’s based off of a book, it shares elements seen in a lot of old Japanese folklore and traditional beliefs. Don’t needlessly pursue material goods and fame over happiness, and don’t fuck ghosts. Yeah, that’s mostly what I learned from that one.

Kwaidan, which literally means “ghost stories” in Japanese, came out over a decade later, is in color, as was directed by Masaki Kobayashi, and this is the only movie of his that I’ve ever heard of, so that’s something. In any case, I’m excited for this one! As excited as I am...worried. Because I have absolutely no idea what I’m in for. LET THE THREE HOURS COMMENCE (broken up into four palatable pieces).

The movie segments are as follows:

The Black Hair (黒髪, Kurokami)

The Woman of the Snow (雪女, Yukionna)

Hoichi the Earless (耳無し芳一の話, Miminashi Hōichi no Hanashi)

In A Cup of Tea (茶碗の中, Chawan no Naka)

We’ll start with The Black Hair, which is giving major “The Ring” vibes, just as a name. We’ll see if I’m right about that, I guess! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/4)

We start it all off with the Criterion Collection logo, and then...ink.

Ink of black, red, and blue, dropped into water set against a white background, is seen cascading down the screen over the opening credits. The titles of the four short films are also introduced, as the ink colors are mixed over a mostly silent background. And once the end, we begin with our first story.

The Black Hair

There’s a dilapidated estate, and as we travel through it, all of the background noises are amplified, and a set of doors opens, seemingly with the breeze. We enter, and a narrator tells us that there was a samurai that lived in old Kyoto, brought to financial ruin by the workings of his former master. To regain financial and social status, he’s decided to leave his wife behind. We join them now.

The samurai (Rentarō Mikuni) leaves his sobbing wife (Michiyo Aratama), refusing to rot away in the estate, no longer dilapidated, as we’ve clearly gone back in time. Despite the desperate pleading of his wife, the samurai leaves Kyoto, and cruelly shoves his wife aside, hitting her with his sheathed sword at one point. So, yeah, he’s a dick. And his quest for fortune will almost certainly be his ruination. Like I said, certain shared themes.

That’s made even clearer by the next scene, in which the samurai is now married to a wealthy woman (Misako Watanabe) that looks very much like the woman from Ugetsu, smudgebrows and...impressively long hair, GODDAMN!

The wealthy family of said daughter welcomes the samurai into the family, and he provides for her while also enjoying a higher social status as a result of the marriage. One day, he brings her to his post, and we clearly see that she’s in love with material possessions, moreso than her husband. Which, yeah, sounds familiar.

Looks like the samurai’s also starting to realize this, and he reminisces about his first wife, presumably still Kyoto. Yeah, bud, ya fucked up, don’t be a dick. Also, I assume that it attracts ghosts, since...you know, this is a ghost story. But yeah, he realizes that he still loves his first wife, patient and loving, as opposed to his cold and selfish second wife.

And so, in his heart and mind, the samurai returns to see his first wife. Meanwhile, in his new life, the samurai is constantly haunted by memories of his first wife. It interferes with his archery on horseback during an exhibition with a competitor. Dude’s fucked up.

Meanwhile, the spoiled second wife is bored, coldly dismissing her handmaidens while waiting for her new husband to attend to her. She happens upon him, asleep next to a scroll. She tries to kiss him, but the great idiot turns her away. She slaps him, upset at both his own selfish ways, and his still-lasting devotion to his wife.

He gives up on pleasing her after this, and decides to officially return to his first wife to make amends for not appreciating her in the first place. However, despite this, his duty as a samurai in the region still lasts a few years, and he’s unable to return to his first wife until that point. And when he does, the place is mostly still OK, but somewhat wrecked on the outside.

Yet, despite this, there she is, working at her loom and spinning wheel. The two are happy to see each other, and the samurai notes that she hasn’t left his mind, and apologizes for being a dick. He also notes that she hasn’t aged a day. Yeah, she’s 100% a ghost, fuck.

Anyway, he begs his definitely ghost-wife for forgiveness, which she quickly and enthusiastically gives. She even says that she never felt worthy for being his wife, and that she doesn’t deserve love from someone of his station, as compared to her own. Goddamn, dude really is a dick for leaving this ACTUAL SAINT of a woman.

He pledges to make amends, and that nothing will ever separate them again. He notes that her hair smells the same as it did before. The same glossy black hair, he notes. He compliments her looks as they kiss. And yeah, real talk, she is a GORGEOUS woman. Again, dude’s a dick. But whatever, at least they’re together again.

And the samurai’s love QUICKLY gives way to horniness, as they make their bed in the room that they “first made love in”, according to him. They pledge to be together for the present and the future, and the swordsman falls asleep with his wide watching over him.

The sun rises the next day, and the samurai wakes up next to his wife, and sees her long black hair...

AAAAAAAAAND it’s a corpse. It’s her dead fuckin’ body, and the hair’s still attached. Saw that coming...although I didn’t think my whole “don’t fuck ghosts” joke would come true that quickly.

AND THEN THE HAIR FUCKING ATTACKS HIM AND DRAINS HIS LIFE FORCE, WHAT IN THE NINE FUCKS

Yeah, no, he’s rapidly aging, and he tries to escape the estate, now obviously completely dilapidated. The now elderly samurai does get out of the estate...but he doesn’t escape.

Damn. Story Number One concluded. 

Weird-ass story, in a way, but very well-shot. as it finishes, the GF begins to elucidate on the actual cultural relationship of this story. Here she is now, actually.

Iridescent. Anyway, she told me about onryō (怨霊), vengeful spirits that come to exact revenge on those who committed wrongs on them or in general, taking their spirits from their dying bodies. Apparently, husbands wronging their wives and getting fucked over by the spirits is a common occurrance. Neat.

It’s also possibly a reference to the yōkai called the futakuchi-onna (二口女). That one, I already knew about. She’s the two-faced woman with her second face hidden behind her long hair, draped and kept down. Said hair is also prehensile! And for the record, I only knew about her because of this:

Yup, Mawile is a Steel/Fairy type Pokémon based on the futakuchi-onna. Neat, huh?

Anyway, that’s the end of the first story...shall we move on to the second one? Next up, Kwaidan: The Snow Woman! See you there!

[spaceskam]

Can I just cry for a min about the unfairness of RNM writers? They really had Michael say that that Max was the only one who never gave up on him, essentially disregarding Isobel. And then they turn around and have Max say OUT LOUD that the Evans did not adopt Michael bec he was disturbed??? And then Michelle tells Max what really happened and he calls her a liar and wld rather believe there's just smth wrong w/ him. I'm still mad at Michael but that was not cool. It just didn't sit right w/ me

OH YOU CAME TO THE RIGHT PLACE

FUCK ALLLLLL OF THAT. Isobel was the only one that never left Michael. You know how I know that without a shadow of a doubt? Because they had to put flashbacks to show that Max was suddenly a good brother. Don't get me wrong, I loved them, but we should've been able to believe that without the flashbacks. Instead, the entire first season was Max flip-flopping on whether Michael was his brother or not depending on his mood. Michael had two people, one of whom regularly changed their opinion on him daily, and we're supposed to believe he doesn't have deep-rooted abandonment issues and doesn't believe that every kind of love is conditional and the only way to receive love is to be idealistic at all times? Excuse me?

And then fuckinnn listen. If I were Max and I suddenly found out that I was the problem child and the person who ruined their own life based on what society had forced them to be due to that one moment, I would be in denial too. I get it, I do. That's your whole life warped and suddenly you have to face trauma, it's a mess. But the complete insistence that Michael HAD to be the problem? He's your family, bud, it shouldn't fuckin matter. Let him take care of you for 3 seconds as a 7 year old mute alien.

I'm not saying Max is a bad guy and I'm not downplaying his trauma, but his privilege shows a little too much every time he is around... Literally any other character. Which is fine when it's addressed, but usually it's excused.

I just want him and Michael to have a conversation. Not like the one in 1x11, not one that is born out of antagonist ideology and Max being all "your pain is my pain" because it's not. Max has had trauma and struggles, yes, but it's not the same and would like him to acknowledge that. Because he's acknowledged this with Liz and Rosa, but GOD FORBID MICHAEL KNOW THAT HE ISNT HATED BY THE "ONLY PERSON WHO NEVER GAVE UP"

That being said, I agree, I am also annoyed with Michael. But it was good seeing him back in character last night

[wordywarriorwrites]

Chapter 1: New Blood, Old Flame

Masterlist: The Boss of Brooklyn A03 Link Author: @wordywarriorwrites​ Summary: When it comes to being The Boss, James Buchanan “JB” Barnes rules with an iron fist. For him, there’s no room for sentiment, and certainly no time for distraction, even if it is in the form of an old flame. Steve Rogers had bowed out of the life a long time ago, but a twist of fate brings him right back into the fold, and face-to-face with a man he once loved. When a game of cat and mouse turns into a matter of life and death, both will be forced to decide whether they’ll be loyal to the business, or faithful to each other.  A/N: Bucky Barnes Mob Boss AU. Stucky. For: Star’s Multi-Fandom Follower Celebration & Sherry’s Fall Into You Challenge. Warnings: Language, violence, drug use, alcohol, smoking, explicit sexual content, illegal activities. 

Many Months Earlier…

The greed, the thirst, and the struggle – it was the ultimate, unholy trinity, and the Families lived by it.

They all died by it, too.

Bucky offered condolences he didn’t feel because that was his duty. After all, they’d put a lot of money into the dearly departed. Him, the wife, the house, the Golden Retriever – they hadn’t just looked the part. Their pedigree, educations, and backgrounds had been impeccable, they’d photographed and interviewed so well, and the polling numbers had been more than favorable.

The young senator in the coffin could’ve eventually been President of the United States, but alas, he’d gotten greedy. He’d lost sight of the bigger picture, held out his grasping hand one too many times, and when the Families admonished him and rapped his knuckles, he’d broken the cardinal rule.

He’d threatened to talk and they’d responded accordingly.

After Bucky showed feigned deference to both the corpse and the grieving widow, he planted a small tracking and listening device on her car. The boys in blue and the coroner had ruled the death accidental, but the wife hadn’t been fooled, and though they’d given her more than enough money to keep her mouth shut, she’d been in love with her husband.

Bucky had been in the business long enough to know what loss could do to someone. Anger and righteous indignation always supplanted sadness and self-preservation, and he knew just by the way she behaved at the funeral that she would go to the cops. However, given the high-profile nature of the situation, his gut instinct alone wouldn’t be enough reason for the Families to risk bloodying their hands again so soon.

This would require proof and he had a feeling he was about to get it.    

When he got back to his penthouse, Bucky immediately fired up the laptop, and plugged in a pair of headphones. Eyes glued to the screen, he held his breath; lines of text and code appeared, but in the less than a minute, they cleared, and revealed a location. A few moments later, the radio was turned down, a door open and shut, and as he’d predicted, she talked.  

“That you, JB?”

Bucky yanked the buds from his ears and slammed the laptop shut. He’d forgotten all about his latest bed warmer, and the sight of the naked man both aroused and annoyed him. Though Bucky didn’t normally double-dip with a one-night stand, violence and anger always got his blood pumping, and who he’d witnessed skulking around at the funeral had made him even hornier.

Steve Rogers had been out of the game for five years, and the last time Bucky had seen him, he’d had a duffel bag of cash slung over his shoulder and two remarkably well-made fake identities in his hand. He’d begged Bucky to leave town with him; promised they could have a normal life; insisted things would be better.

Bucky had responded in what had now become his trademark fashion – he’d been cold, blunt, and cruel. He’d called Steve’s notions of escape a pipe dream and a fairy tale. In their world, a happy ending didn’t mean riding off into the sunset; for them, it meant hopefully surviving long enough to retire, and maybe getting to die with dignity. He’d rejected love because it meant nothing to him – Steve had meant nothing to him – and within seconds of those words being spoken, Steve had taken off.

If someone had asked him if he ever expected to see or hear from Steven Grant Rogers ever again, he would have emphatically said no. Nevertheless, Bucky had seen him, and it stirred up all those pesky emotions he thought he’d buried long ago.

Though Steve should’ve stood out, he hadn’t; he’d always had an uncanny ability to camouflage himself when he wanted to, which meant he’d blended in seamlessly with the other black suits and ties, and managed to go unnoticed right up until the very end.

Their eyes had met through the sea of the griever’s tears and trembling handkerchiefs. A split-second glance was all it had taken for Bucky to understand why Steve had made an appearance. Somehow, he knew the man they’d put to rest, but unlike Bucky, he’d actually been there to pay his respects.

He’d blinked and Steve had disappeared right back into the crowd. It had only been a moment, yet somehow, even after so many years, Bucky had felt it all the way down into his marrow, and he hated both himself and Steve for it.

All Bucky had to do was push back his chair and undo his pants. The man – whose name Bucky didn’t remember or even attempt to recall – immediately went to his knees, pulled his boxers down past his erection, and deep throated him in one go. The eyes that looked up at him were brown, but Bucky pictured them blue, and imagined the locks clenched in his fist were golden blond instead of black.

This was not the mouth he wanted to fuck, but it would do, and as soon Bucky reached the brink, he pulled the man away harshly by his hair. Quick retrieval of a condom and lube from the desk drawer and then, they were both down on their knees. The erection the man sported suggested he appreciated the rough handling, and Bucky barely had to prep him before he all but begged for it.

“Give me your cock, JB,” he pleaded.

“Just shut the fuck up,” Bucky snarled as he pushed his way inside.

It was merciless and the noises the man made were pornographic. If he hadn’t been fisting his own dick and pushing his ass up higher in a silent plea for more, Bucky would have thought he was overselling his pleasure, but it seemed the more brutal Bucky was, the more he enjoyed it.

Eyes screwed up tight and breathing hard, he listened as, “JB! JB, oh, fuck, JB!” was called out again and again. It wasn’t the name he wanted to hear, who he was fucking most certainly wasn’t the man he wanted to make scream and come for him, but when needs must...

The orgasm had been phenomenal, but only because he’d thought of Steve.

Disgusted with himself, Bucky told him to get dressed, and get out. He’d just finished cleaning up when the man appeared again, and though he didn’t say a word, he pointedly placed his card on the desk, and promptly left. As soon as he heard the front door shut, Bucky picked it up; apparently, his name had been David, and he practiced criminal law.

“Go fuckin’ figure,” he muttered as he dropped it into the trash

Laptop reopened and attention refocused, he listened to the playback, and knew what he had to do. An encrypted communication with all evidence included was sent, and within five minutes, the Families responded with approval to move forward. After Bucky assured them all he would take care of the matter personally, he erased the messages, and hit the showers.

Even though he practically vibrated with the need to address the matter immediately, he didn’t. The Families had chosen him to be their leader and that meant occasionally allowing others to play in the sandbox. Bucky would need to extend a hand on this one and he already knew who his choice would be.

With a towel wrapped around his waist, Bucky stepped out of the bathroom and into the adjoining walk-in closet. The lights immediately illuminated the space and after he settled on the Armani, he dried off, and prepared to dress. He’d just selected a tie when his phone pinged, and when he glanced at the screen, he grinned.

“Speak of the devil,” he murmured as Natasha’s name popped up.

Her self-motivation was just one of the many reasons why Bucky invited her to bring her shovel and pail, and he didn’t have to wait long before she replied with a time, location, and a demand for sustenance afterward. Since it cost him nothing to cater to Natasha’s bloodlust and whims, he agreed.

With dinner plans now in play, he switched up the wardrobe. Bucky went with black-on-black Dolce and Gabbana; powerful, but understated, and the tie-tac was a small sapphire. Though he preferred to conduct such business at a distance, Natasha liked to get up close and personal, which meant he needed to bring his best cutlery. Unsure of whether or not he’d want to go on the prowl afterward, he pocketed a few condoms as well, because it was always better to be safe than sorry.

A little over an hour later, he rolled to a stop under the awning at the Four Seasons just in time for Natasha to step out onto the sidewalk. A valet opened the door for her and once she was settled, they were on their way.

“I saw him,” she confessed quietly. “And if I saw him, that means you saw him, too.”

Bucky sighed and signaled to change lanes, “I haven’t decided what to do about it yet.”  

“If you plan to resolve the problem, don’t do it yourself,” Natasha insisted. “Let me take care of it.”

It hadn’t been anything she hadn’t offered to do for him dozens of times before, yet, this time, her words made him swallow hard. The last time he’d ordered someone to be put down, he hadn’t felt a damn thing, but as Bucky merged off the highway, he couldn’t help but think it would be wrong for Natasha to be the one to do it. If that’s what it came down to, it would need to be him, because Steve wasn’t a man who could be caught unaware and wouldn’t let anyone else get close enough…

“So, the wife, too, huh?” Natasha muttered.

“You always said she was cagey,” Bucky remarked with a slight shrug.

“But we had plans for them. I didn’t want to be right.”

He pulled into the driveway, parked, and killed the engine. His car and their faces were familiar, which meant they didn’t have to be discreet in their arrival, just in the execution and exit. He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket, retrieved the knife, and placed it into Natasha’s waiting palm.

“Oh, you brought my favorite one? You really shouldn’t have.”

Bucky winked at her, “I know.”

Natasha hummed, slid the blade from the sheath, and opened the door, “Michael’s for dinner.”

“I’ll get us a table.”

The reservation had only taken a few minutes, and apparently, so had Natasha, because she returned almost as quickly as she’d left, but did not look at all satisfied.

“She’s in the wind,” she spat. “Closet empty, cash gone. She left in a hurry and made sure to leave her cell and everything else we could’ve used to track her behind.”

Bucky slammed his fist on the steering wheel, “Fuck!”

“It gets worse.”

“How?” he snarled. “How could it possibly get worse?”  

Natasha handed him the wife’s cell, which had been left unlocked, with a video ready to be played. The first couple of seconds were silent, and then, Steve’s face came into view.

“Tomorrow. Prospect Park. Three PM. Come alone.”

The or else was implied. Chapter 2: Nothing Personal

Everything: @jennmurawski13 @nerdy-bookworm-1998

Steve Rogers: @patzammit @hearttoearth The Boss of Brooklyn: @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety @captain-rogers-beard

[goldencherrymooon]

Everything is fine.

Calum was worried about you.

When you had first started seeing each other, he saw very quickly just how stubbornly independent you are. You were always quietly and fiercely determined to take care of things yourself, even if you were both well aware you would strain yourself until you can’t refuse his help. He’s constantly trying to assure you that you’re never a burden to him, because he would do anything for you if it meant making your life easier. You felt bad accepting help from anyone, feeling like they’d see you as weak. Doing whatever needs done and you wonder, do they think I’m taking advantage of them? It’s a never-ending cycle.

It’s the middle of February, and you had finally been given a break to go visit your boyfriend on tour. The trip has been planned for nearly two months, with everything ready to go and two people who have never felt so impatient in their lives. Calum and the boys were finally approaching the tail end of their world tour, and you hadn’t seen your golden boy since it began. The two of you have usually been pretty good at your routine visits in the past, but you couldn’t get the time off of your own schedule to fit it into his, and you’re feeling a strain you desperately wanted to forget. The frequency in calls, texts, FaceTiming, tweeting, snapchatting; you think you’ve doubled all previous records of yours in a timespan of three weeks.

You got a flu shot this year- you know you did it early, but at least it was out of the way, right? Flu season had come and nearly gone without hitting you, but of course you couldn’t be that lucky. It was two days before you were set to fly out to Calum when you started feeling the symptoms. You tried to rationalize them, you really did. The fatigue? You weren’t sleeping well without your boyfriend, and now the anxiety caught up to you. The body aches? Maybe you just went a little too hard at the gym this week. The stomach pains? You hadn’t stuck to the healthiest of diets this week either. It was when you felt that tickle in the back of your throat, almost unnoticeable but still enough to make speaking a little rough, that you knew you weren’t getting out of this unscathed.

The day before your trip, you had tried every over the counter and home remedy you could find to nip this in the bud, but nothing proved successful. It was the day of and you felt like you had jumped in front of a train; just barely slugging yourself around, feeling like you’re in a bit of daze, only to snap back out of it with a sneeze and heavy coughs.

You knew you probably shouldn’t be going on like this with outward denial and inward dread, but you cried yourself to sleep too many times to not be in Calum’s arms by the end of the day. He had texted you all day, from giving Roy instructions he really didn’t need to take care of Duke, through the Uber ride to the airport, and wasting your waiting time at the gate with more texting. You dodged his call, saying it would be too loud to hear him, but you really just didn’t want him to hear you. The second he heard the grit to your voice, he would be sending you back home any way he could.

Hardly ever did someone in the Hood household get sick, but when it finally happened, Calum took care of you like it was the end of your days. This trip was supposed to be nothing short of emotional and happy, finally reuniting with your love. You weren’t about to let some dumb flu virus ruin that. Everything would be fine. It had to be fine. Not a big deal, right?

Wrong. You were so, so wrong.

The brisk air of Minnesota seemed to slam into you with a force to be reckoned with. Adding snow, ice, and a temperature of 13 degrees onto what was already becoming a hideous ailment wracking through you, there was nothing to distract Calum from just how bad of shape you were in. He watched you stagger through the terminal, bloodshot eyes and a pink nose to match.

“Baby, what the hell happened to you?”

“Oh hey, babe, nice to see you too.”

Calum rolled his eyes, taking your bags from you to ease the ache in your bones. He opened his mouth to chastise you, but you cut him off. “Don’t even start with me, Cal. I was not about to skip this trip to you because of a tickly throat and some sniffles. I love you and I missed you, and it’s really not that bad.”

You couldn’t help but be irritated at your body for combusting in loud, awful, painful coughs just then. Wracking through you hard enough to hunch over and get a glassy film in your eyes. Calum looked at you incredulously as he directed you to cuddle into his shoulder as you walked, carrying half your wait to keep you steady. “We’re gonna get to the hotel, and then I’m takin’ you to the closest minor emergency room,” he said.

“What? No, that’s ridiculous. I’ll be fine babe, I just need some water and a nap before the show tonight.” You paused, a slight blush appearing as you add, “and maybe some cuddles too. Those help.”

Calum sighed, like you were the most adorable yet ridiculous person he’d ever met. Which, he can’t deny that. A small smile made it’s way to his face, grabbing your hand as he murmurs, “I may be worried because you are a fuckin’ handful, but m’so glad you’re here, angel,” before kissing your knuckles.

_

After a three-hour nap that felt stronger than any nights rest from the last week, and a steaming shower to soothe your lungs and relax the dull thudding in your limbs, you were meeting the boys in their dressing room, as they got ready for the show.

“Uh. [Y/N]. When did you die and resurrect yourself?” Michael said before Cal slapped him upside the head. “Oi! Dickhead! It’s great to see you, really, but do me a favor and stay away from me.”

“Love you too Mike, always a pleasure,” you say through a laugh, rolling your eyes as he dramatically backed away from you. “I’m really not that bad, I don’t know what you’re going on about.”

Calum gives you a deadpan stare as he says, “You’re a terrible liar and I’m taking you somewhere first thing in the morning. Please, babe, just take it easy tonight.” He makes his way over to you, wrapping you up in his arms and giving light kisses to your head. Despite the front you’ve put up, you can’t help but melt in his warm embrace, snuggling as close as you can get with your eyes closed. He says quietly, just low enough for you to hear, “I know you want to make the best of this trip, and trust me when I say I do too, but your health is way too important to shrug it off. I’ve never seen you this sick and I just… Can’t help but worry ‘bout you sometimes. We have all the time in the world when the tour s’done, so don’t get stressed about being sick right now.”

It feels like butterflies have erupted from your stomach, through every inch of your body, immediately filled with so much overwhelming love for your boy. Pulling back from him just enough to look him in the eyes, you see those beautiful brown gems staring back at you with so many emotions packed into one glance, you know the words he’s trying to say. You always do.

A small knock on the door and a throat being cleared breaks you apart, with a soft glance from Ashton before he says, “Sorry to interrupt mate, but we’re on in two.” Calum returns the small smile and nod, before giving you a searing kiss on the forehead. “Love you. I love you s’much, angel. Be back soon,” he says before he’s rushing his way towards the stage, and you’re wondering how you got so lucky. _

There are only six songs left in the show when you feel an angry rumble in your stomach, reminding you that you haven’t eaten since you got off the plane. It’s the sudden and painful kind of hunger, that crept up on you until suddenly you feel like you could pass out at any moment. Taking some slow and steady breaths, you focus harder than ever on the stage as you ground yourself. It’s almost over; you can just steal some snacks when you make it to the dressing room.

There’s three songs left when you start getting a little dizzy, your mind so cloudy that you don’t even notice until you stumble to the side and just barely catch yourself. You feel a tremor starting in your fingers due to the chills running through you, but you know you’re still burning up. Crates and equipment are stacked around, giving a good place to rest against while you wait it out. You’ll be fine.

Calum thought he saw you moving out of the corner of his eye, but you seemed normal a second later. He’s been trying to keep an eye on you all night, trying to brush off the paranoia. Everything is fine. He’s almost done, and then he can dote on you as much as he wants. Almost done.

The last chorus of the night is ringing through the venue when you realize that maybe something is really wrong here. You’re scared, you’ve never felt this sick, and there’s not too many people around as the crew is preparing for the boys to come off stage. You knew the venue had an ambulance stationed around here somewhere, but you couldn’t get the words out of your chest.

The final bows are made as you hear Calum’s voice in your head, saying to you just a couple hours before, “Please, babe, just take it easy tonight.”

It feels like everything is in slow motion for the both of you as he turns on the stage, making his way off. He’s still glancing at the stage as he makes his final waves, feeling the exhilaration of another incredible show with his brothers. His head gradually makes the turn it’s been itching to make all night, squinting out as he makes eye contact with you just quick enough. He can see the heaving of your chest, the waviness of your legs. Your furrowed brows, and your mouth open in the smallest of pained ‘O’ that can’t quite make a sound. He’s seeing the panic and exhaustion in your eyes. You see his face change, going from his beautiful smiling face, to a look of fear, a look of panic that you’ve never seen before. You think he started running, but everything was spinning together, movement just becoming a blur. His chest stopped, and then felt like it cracked as he saw your eyes rolling to the back of your head.

This all happened in a span of approximately ten seconds, but you felt like it had been hours, and he shouts something out.

You didn’t quite catch that before you hit the ground. __

Your senses come back one by one, each with a moment of understanding. A few hours had passed before your eyes began fluttering. You were peaking through a heavy squint, waking up in a room that was much too bright when the world outside is still much too dark. The beeping came next, as if cotton was slowly removed from your eardrums as the steady pulses started registering in your brain. Hearing the machines running as you follow the wires, that’s when you became aware of the needles in your arm. Your mouth felt as if it had been full of sand, desperately in need of hydration. And the first thing you felt was Calum’s head resting on your thigh, and his fingers laced with yours.

He’s been weaving in and out of sleep for an hour, the tears, adrenaline, and anxiety having finally worn him down. The image of you collapsing to the ground, unconscious and drained, was stuck on a loop behind his eyelids. Your eyes rolling back, your knees giving out, your head hitting the ground; it’s haunting him. He couldn’t begin to explain the things he felt in those moments, having burned deep in his chest as he yelled out your name. It was strained, cracking at the end with a tinge of desperation. He doesn’t remember the EMTs showing up, or how he managed to answer them, or making his way to the ambulance as the gurney was loaded in. Nothing was processed until he had been stuck in a private waiting area, holding his head as the panic set in. Ashton, Luke, and Michael had immediately jumped in a car to the hospital, worried for the state the both of you were in.

Ashton is sitting in the chair next to him now in your room, and he notices you coming to. With hope shining through his weary irises, he leaned toward his best friend. The slightest touch to Calum’s shoulder had him abruptly sitting up with a sharp gasp, before his head turned to you.

Tears immediately clouded his vision as Cal whispered, “Oh thank god. F-fuck, [Y/N] you’re okay. I’m- shit, m’so sorry angel,” before kissing your hand a million times before cupping your face.

“Cal… Baby you have nothing to be sorry for, you tried to help me,” you respond through your heavy sniffles and tired voice. “It came out of nowhere, I don’t know what happened... Why am I here?”

“You were dehydrated, you didn’t have any food in your system but a lot of medication, and you’ve apparently developed pneumonia on top of the flu. They’re keeping you until mornin’ to get some fluid and antibiotics in you.” The shock settles in your features, but before anything else is said, a nurse makes her way into the room.

She gives you both a soft smile with bright eyes as she says, “Ms. [Y/L/N], I’m so glad to see you’re awake. Do you know what happened? Or, why you’re here?” You give her a small nod as Calum settles in to his chair, telling the nurse he gave you a basic rundown of the state you’re in. She nods as she looks back at you, the same gentle and kind eyes locking with yours as she says, “You gave everyone quite the scare back there. You need to take it easy the next two weeks, so the doctor has put you on at-home bed rest for at least that long. We’ll give you written instructions and treatment before you leave, but I believe Mr. Hood here will be keeping a close eye on you too.” She flashes you both a knowing look, saying to you as she makes her way out, “You’ve got a good man there, [Y/N]. I think you’ll be just fine,” before she’s gone.

Ashton had snuck out of the room at some point, but you’re still speaking in whispers when you say to Cal, “I love you, I can’t begin to tell you how much I love you. I’m so lucky to have you, t-thank you for loving me. Even when I’m a stubborn little gremlin.” Your eyes were watering again as he gave a small chuckle at your comment.

“I look forward to loving this stubborn little gremlin for the rest of my life.”

ok hi so this was my first piece of actual writing ever and i’m super nervous about it but also really proud of it so i hope u guys like it!! i’m gonna tag some of my fav writers so hope u guys are ok with that :’) (but i’m also new to this so pls suggest more)

@flannelpunkcalum @caffeinatedcalum @notoriouslyhood @calumh-excess @softiecalum @rakkaroses @calumsendgame @cosmocalum @softforcal @irwinkitten @millioncth

[robot-unicorn-attack]

CHAPTER 02 - NYX

Taglist: @ayzrules​ @bebemoon​ @jay-swagsby​ @interluxetumbra @now-on-elissastillstands @shiftyprincess  @kzombi3 @filthysoulls (written by @kzombi3)

To say that she was excited would be an understatement.

The morning of the first race of the season came upon Team Nyx faster than expected. After the fiasco at Neon Demon and her "confrontation" with Len Widowmaker, in the eyes of the public and what press was present, they had a field day and ate it up. Spinning it into something much bigger and drama laced than it really was.

It's not like the two of them had never had a spat before. Especially in public - she was the villain after all - but it just rubbed Sol the wrong way. Particularly because she really missed her one and only true friend. Still misses.

So, for the last few days after the incident leading up to the day of the race, Allryn's been running around playing firefighter - trying to squash anything that would tilt the scale of the judges and more importantly LAZER before the race. Not that he needed too. Again; villain.

So when Allryn burst through the apartment door, expecting to have to drag the, typically drunk, dark beauty from her bed he was shocked and albeit surprised to find her curled in the window space that overlooked the skyline with a holoscreen opened in front of her. The manufactured glow from the holoscreen reflected off her eyes as they quickly scanned the ever moving tabs that she was throwing around. Making it look as though those cat like eyes of hers were blinking, even when they weren't.

Being as laser focused as she was, no pun intended, she didn't even register the other body that was making it's way towards her in the early morning light that was beginning to fill her spacious loft. Allryn continued to call out to her as he made his way towards her, trying to make his presence known before giving up and just marching up to her. He didn't have time for this. Neither did she for that matter.

Sol absolutely hates it when he sneaks up on her, so what better way to get her attention other than when she's spiting venom at him for scaring her?

"Solana." A last ditch effort resulted in improved results as he poked her bare shoulder. Turning faster than any robot unicorn could, Sol whipped her head in his direction while simultaneously jumping 10 feet in the air and pulling a small black bud from her ear.

"ACK! Allryn you motherfucker!" her chest was heaving as she placed a hand trying to calm herself. The smug asshole was just laughing, clutching his sides as he bent over. Standing back up to full height he wiped the small tears that gathered in the corner of his eyes and tried to catch his breath.

"Ahh, that was well deserved."

"I'm glad you got some enjoyment outta me after all." She cooed from her spot, still curled up and still focused on the screen in front of her. The artificial light was beginning to fade as the sun light streaming in became more prominent.

A small pout took root on his face, though it's not like Sol took notice. "New playlist?" A hum was all the response he received. Sighing he took a seat in the plush chair next to her and took one of her legs and draped it over his lap. A common position that they would find themselves when the atmosphere around them was comfortable as it was in this moment.

"You know you're going to have to start sleeping before races."

"It's never been a problem before. Why break tradition?" Another sigh from the agent.

"It's not good for you. And with the shit stirring up between you and Eleni-," that earned him a quick glare over the top of the screen, "Hey, it's the press' words - not mine," he threw his hands up in defense.

 It grew silent once more. Not as comfortable but still there. "How's Caelia?"

"She's great. Really great actually." A large smile broke through his tough exterior and Sol couldn't help mimicking him.

"And the pregnancy?" at that he might as well have combusted with light he was so animated.

Sol couldn't help it, she was sucked into this vortex of good news as Allryn went on and on about how the baby was growing stronger inside his mother's womb. So much so that Sol saved and downloaded all the music she had been searching for and turned it all off to sit and listen to him ramble on. Happiness oozing from him and thus being absorbed by her.

---

A few hours later and Vespa and Asteria arrived, along with a cheery Eleos to stand guard outside the apartment. Sol rolled her eyes and told him to at least guard from inside. "At least be comfortable," she had commanded. Eleos wasn't one to deny the comfort of a couch and some reading material. Honestly, it's not like she really needs to tell him with how long they've known each other. He just likes to hear that she's concerned. Even if she won't admit it out loud.

As her team flit about her, having thrust many an energy drink into her well manicured hands, they got to work stylizing her in iconic Nyxian garb. Making sure to start with her protective gear first underneath the hyper styled mesh and leather ensemble. Unlike the first time.

Vespa got to work on accentuating those piercing orbs of hers - the gold and black around the eyes really stood out against her attire and she stood back pleased with her work. Claiming it's her finest yet, "That's what you say every time," Asteria called from behind Sol as she made sure the pieces were tailored to perfection.

"So? I'm fuckin' da vinci when it comes to painting faces. Just look at mine baby."

---

The trip to the track was filled with more energy shots to keep her awake, laughter and scripts for what to do, what to say, how to say it etc. etc. The same old, same old. Sol remembers back to her first race and how LAZER force fed her lines through a bug in her ear to make sure she played up her role as the baddest bitch in the industry. After a few lines she ignored their prompting and took the reigns. Ever since no one can deny that that title is still hers to command.

It pulls at her ego, inflating it somewhat - OK a lot - but nevertheless tugs her lips into a genuine smile of pride. She's the one who has got her this far. The only thing she can attribute to LAZER is the opportunity and Uuie.

---

Pulling up to the track went about as expected. Regardless of how early she decided to show up, there was always going to be the paparazzi and press, along with the die-hard fans of course. Sol definitely played up her persona when she stepped out of the aircar, Eleos holding the door and reaching out to take her hand in attempt to help her. She took it like she always does and shot him a "scathing" look that to others looks very on brand for the villainess, but was just an inside joke between the two.

"Nyx! Nyx! Nyx! Nyx!" the crowd chanted loudly. So loud she almost couldn't hear the burning questions that were thrust into her face by the reporters.

"Nyx, who are you wearing?!"

"Nyx what is your srategy for this race?"

"How's it feel to have the home advantage?"

"What's the scoop going on between you and your teammate, Widowmaker?"

"We haven't heard your side of the story! And Widowmaker isn't talking to anyone either!"

"C'mon give us something to work with!"

Allryn was two steps in front of her at all times, pushing others out of the way in order for them to be able to walk through - however, no one made a motion to lay a finger on the Goddess of Darkness. At least no one outside of her masochistic following. Though they probably wanted to.

Turning on a dime when she got to the doors leading into the main hall of the stadium, she spoke in her most dastardly voice, "You'll just have to keep your eyes on the track then, won't you?"

---

Inside was no different as some press with VIP privileges bombarded her with a few questions themselves. The one that stuck out the most was something she was used to hearing. Having the reputation of being someone who sabotages others for the sake of having fun as well as a potential upper hand has always loomed over her. Though it's not like they would be completely wrong. All rumors start with a little truth, don't they?

"Nyx, here early to sabotage some competitors rides?" The question was followed by a group of laughter from the surrounding area. Not like it could be true, right?

A well placed grin and piercing eyes, "Me? Never~" A purr on her lips.

And with that she continued on her way to the stalls where she was able to visit and tinker with Uuie before the race would begin. Not to mention she'd been hearing through the whisperings of others that a certain spider was lurking about. Spinning webs that she definitively wants to get caught up in.

---

Once inside the stalls she glances around quickly for the one she truly wants to see and comes up short. A defeated sigh rings out as she makes her way to Uuie, the skeletal grin of his makes her heart jump in excitement as she begins to think about jumping onto his back and riding outta this place.

"Hello my beautiful, spooky boi~" she scratches - or rather, rubs her hands quickly, up and down the front of his long face. His eyes, er, rather lights, flash and blink like a real horses and she's taken back to when she was younger and a very headstrong Len berated her for thinking that these robotic creatures were anything less than alive. Having worked with machines her whole life it was hard to see past the gears and gas, oil and pistons. But ever since that night she's held a different outlook on the mechanical beasts.

His pistoned legs shifted as his weight did and Sol was dragged from her trip down memory lane. "Hey, hey now. Don't worry. I haven't forgotten~" she sang as she dug around the drawers and cabinets in her stall bay. Rummaging through all the excess parts and cans of oil and grease she let out a squeal of discovery. "Just gotta hook it up and… VOILA!" Noise and tempo began to pulse through the air in waves, finding a home within Sol's body and she couldn't help but twist and curve around as she began to dance to the music. Uuie must have been cut from the same cloth as her because he enjoyed music just as much. But it wasn't always the case.

When they were first introduced he was a little wary of the black beauty. She did run up to him and throw her arms around a skeletal beast. What kind of normal being does that? It was then that they realized how similar and weird the other one was. Their first meeting was a time trial run, something LAZER was adamant about conducting. So there they were in the stall bays getting tuned up - Sol refused to let anyone work on him other than herself - and she had music softly playing. Uuie must have enjoyed the beat because as she was greasing up the gears he began to tap his hooves to rhythm. It's been tradition ever since.

As she's bouncing around, she misses the door opening to area, but snaps at attention when it shuts with a very metallic clang. Her eyes lock onto the being she most looked forward to seeing and her heart flutters in her chest and she wants to run and tackle her, but knows that that's not the best idea, given the circumstances of location. Not to mention she'd ruin her attire and she can only imagine all the shit she'd garner from Asteria and Allryn. She shudders at the thought.

She settles for a large, wide grin and continues to tinker with Uuie, hands moving deftly as if she were born to do this. Which, she kinda was. Oils probably runs through her veins more so than blood at this point. Mouth moving in sync with every word that comes through the airway.

Void whinnies and she smiles a little, picturing Len stroking her side. The small pony wall truly separating their view from one another, especially at the crouched position Sol finds herself in. After the finishing touches to Uuie, she sneaks her way into Len's bay, bumping her hip with the latter, causing her to jolt and drag her out of her thoughts.

"Loosen up, Leni~" she coos, dancing around her, "You look like you're going to a funeral," and she wasn't blind to the twitching at her lips. Not because she was staring at Len's mouth or anything… definitively… not…

Having known each other for so long, it was inevitable that they would develop their own sort of language. It was also bound to happen that with close proximity and Sol being, well, Sol, that the amount of arguments would have been quite a lot. So, in their own little language they developed different ways of apologizing. Not that either of them did of course. No, never. But, in the off chance that one needed to, there was always a sort of manner of which they would. Sol's just happens to be inserting herself in the other's company and spouting off nonsense, in a way of making Leni more comfortable. Her tone and actions always held good intentions so it was pretty easy to pick up on Leni's perspective.

"There is a significant chance I might be," she had quipped back doing that head tilt thing that made Sol swoon. It was just too fucking cute and very on brand with soft Leni from their childhood. The one that likes to get drunk and lean on Sol. One of Sol's favorites. She was so entranced she almost didn't hear her speak again about the ravines being difficult.

Sol can help but let out a cackle that's too on the line to be discernible from Sol or Nyx - but she prays that her friend knows the difference. She seems to with the stare she's giving Sol. "Like you and Void have anything to worry about~" she sang before the song changed to one that makes the list of Len's annoyances. But she doesn't seem to notice, or at least mention it. So, Sol sings along. Any response from Len is a good response in her book.

And the reaction that is elicited from Len is one that Sol did not expect. The short haired spider sings the words under her breath and something in Sol swells with giddiness. "You know the words," she breaths out and hopes to all gods that it came out sounding more leveled than it was.

Leni's gaze turns to her, a brow raised and tone that tries to mask the little playfulness that's clearly there, "I've certainly heard you play the song enough. How is your hearing still that sharp anyways? With how loud you play your music I thought you would've blown out your eardrums by now."

Another cackle but this time laced with a squeal of delight as she claps her hands together, "You filthy liar! You've always gone on and ooooon about how much you hate this song!" She giggles and throws her arms around Uuie neck, nuzzling into his neck. "I thought I would never see the day~"

---

Eventually it was time to begin. Flame showed up in all her flashiness, appeasing to the crowd as the newest and fan favorite. 'For now' Sol thought bitterly. It wasn't like she didn't like the new blood on the contrary, she liked her a lot. She just didn’t like the threat she posed to Nyx of potentially "over throwing" her…

Shaking the thoughts from her mind, she pushed on wards. The cheering of the crowd rumbled through the stadium, shaking the stands with the motion of the spectators as they stomped and shook the railings separating them from the track below. The air around them rumbled deep into her bones and she wasn't quite sure if it was the heat from the world around her or from the mechanical beasts that were lined up that caused her  blood to boil over with excitement.

Eye scanning the other racers already at the line and ready, Sol's intense gaze caught the floral presence of Aura, who avoided any and all eye contact with Lava worlder. It would have hurt her feelings had she cared enough but she just smugly placed a well to do smirk that the crowd's cheered for when the hovercams caught it, broadcasting the event to blast on the jumbo-tron screens for all to witness.

"… the ever wicked villainess Nyx in all her glory, with U-800 ready to strike-" the announcer's voice is drowned out by the raucous noise reverberating around her as Sol continues to stare around at the other racers - searching for her latest victim. Ah, there… poor sap, a no name from the citadel above the clouds. She was given explicit directions to not target any of the Big Three, for fear of having a swarm of lawyers crawl up LAZER's ass. And that was just something they could not have. However, whatever happens on the track as a result of her interference can't be faulted to her, or more importantly, LAZER.

So, she may or may not have had a hand in the tweaking of a horse or two. Maybe.

As she walked with Uuie to the start of the line, she made a subtle pass to the tubing in his exposed neck, where his audible sensors were, and tapped a small button there. This allowed Uuie to experience tunes at a very low and soft volume while he raced. Just another idiosyncratic habit the two of them formed over the years. Sol and Uuie, together on the track listening to whatever beat seemed appropriate for the moment.

Sol did however roll her eyes when she caught sight of Leni strapping into her helmet. It was something that didn't sit well with her. Something strange when she learned about all the safety equipment that went into the races upon signing onto a company. Years of running tracks and races without a care in the world, getting seriously injured, like that's part of what makes the races so alluring. It's one of the reasons that called out to Sol in the first place. Her and Leni would always berate the other when either one returned with new cuts and bruises or broken bones, doting on each other, nursing them back to health. Kissing it to make it better. She lived for those little moments.

Though she may roll her eyes at the idea of the helmet, she was so relieved to know that Leni would be safe, cranial wise cause she always knew if she was wearing one while on the tracks. Not to mention she was easy to spot. Aside from her other … assets. Sol tried her hardest to fight the sentimental smile that threatened to spill outwards as she looked at the helmet Widow was sporting. The design was only suppose to be a joke as they sat together drinking at Leni's place. The horns really tied into her Demon persona and Sol joked that it was because she was "Clever as the Devil and twice as gorgeous~"

Standing there as the stoic warrior she is Leni takes a glance at Sol, and through her holo-fitted helmet, she winks at her with eyes that burn with excitement of what is about to take place. Widow nods and even though she can't see her now covered face, she hopes that it has at least relaxed a bit. 'She's no good when she's tense~' Sol muses to herself.

 Climbing atop Uuie's frame gets easier and easier every time and like all the times before, they seem to just … fit. Like missing puzzle pieces. So snug and fitted that it's natural. His lightening mane illuminates her face and features, catching in her molten eyes that match the terrain around them. She can't wait to get this party started. And then, she didn't have too.

---

"The actual fuck?!" Sol snarls as she removes her invisible helm and chucks it into a cart stocked with spare parts and grease rags. Resulting in it crash to the concrete ground below, startling the retainer horses in their bays and stalls.

Quickly storming around the bay area she continued her tirade never once faltering in her anger. "I'm gonna blow up the judges' car." It wasn't a question. Nor was it something that could be swayed from her mind. It was a promise.

"No, Sol." Leni had been right on her heels since the final scores were announced. It was comforting to have her there with her as she was spewing curses at the lot of them. Though, she would have thought she was on her side with this. Leni was just as pissed. Sol could see it in her posture, the way she carried herself. And years with this woman has given her a leg up on everyone when it came to reading Eleni Landry like a book.

"Why not?!" She throws her arms out wide nearly clipping Leni's face as she did so. "What kind of fucking judgement was that? That was bullshit! We had the fastest time, and they put some RISE bitch and the fucking hoity toity Snow Queen at the top? I'm gonna fucking do it. I'm gonna-" though her rantings were cut off by Leni yanking her backwards by the cuff of her top and drags her into an empty room.

A look of seriousness flashes in her eyes as she stares down Sol, "You are not going to blow up the judges' aircars."

"But-"

"Not their shuttles, either."

It was almost comical to see the mighty goddess plop to the ground in all her regalia, and pout because she didn’t get her way when it came to causing collateral damage to those that wronged her. "Leni~" She whines, "that was so-fucking-unfair-," a groan slips past her lips smacking at the floor as if that was going to convince the spider to let her blow something up.

Leni just tightly folded her arms across her leather clad chest, pacing in circles around Sol as she continued to spout off different plans of mass property damage. "They were so clearly biased! They fucking cheated us! We should have been the winners!" Another groan and she went to tug at the ends of her hair.

"You were the fastest on the track, no injuries on our part! I don't understand, Leniiiiiii! Whyyyyy~" She made as if she were going to sob from the frustration.

"We should have won," Sol's ears perked up at the sound of her lover's voice in a tightly wound tone. She was about to go on about how much she agrees with her friend when the spider continued about how there must be something for them to do, how to spin it to emphasize their placements, where they stand.

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down, Leni, fucking stars. Fucking spin?" She huffed blowing one of the stray strands of hair outta her face. It was her own fault for pulling at it. "Who are you, Allryn? Since when did you care so much about winning a race?" She leaned forward to rest her arms across her knees, mumbling about how the winning portion was never a concern for her friend before but ya know, do you. Sol was way more preoccupied with more important business, like cutting a bitch.

Leni was still pacing circles around the angry black woman and more than once Sol would catch a hand twitch here and there. She would never bring it up to her unless she believed there to be a more serious cause other than angry jitters. But it had to be more than that, right? Leni doesn't just all of a sudden start caring about winning or losing races. Not at the drop of a hat. And especially doesn't talk about "spinning stories" for any type of gain. Sol doesn’t care if it's spider like or not. Leni's always been a straight shooter, well, relatively. Shit, the woman couldn't stand to know about Sol and her family's business so she would conveniently be busy elsewhere. There's even a few times where Sol is dead ass convinced that Leni called the cops on a location where Sol was meant to procure some materials. She's a fucking Robin Hood.

"OH! I could drug 'em with some synth and then watch as they go fucking insane over their poor decisions. Sneak on board their aircars and get their addresses and then strike 'em at home?! And I'm saying, I could do it, personal security systems are jack shit on those aircar models, so - Len? Leni? Are you even listening to me?"

Sol's voice must have cut through a deep thought as she witnessed Leni physically shake herself back to the present. "Don't. You can't do that."

"I absolutely can," Sol was about to go on the defensive and then it would just be another Neon Demon all over again. But the look that Leni's got across her face makes her think twice about that. There's something going on and she's going to find out.

"What the hell is wrong, Leni? What was so important about this race? You look scared and-,"

The moment was shattered when the doors opened with a clatter and Leni jumped in Sol's grasp, eyes darting to the source of the noise. LAZER agents come to grab their prized meal tickets. Their presence only served to fuel Sol's ire as she was still fired up about the outcome of the race and then for the fact that they were interrupting their moment. Not to mention, their arrival didn't seem to make Leni relax in the slightest only served to solidify to Sol that there was something more going on here.

"OUT!" The snarl that ripped from Sol did nothing to deter Allryn, however the woman just looked away and with a clear of her throat announced that they had post-race interviews to conduct in a few minutes. With a sigh, Sol stood from her seated floor position with ease and closed the gap between the two of them. Gently holding onto either side of Leni's face. Their faces mere centimeters, breath intermingling with one another. Sol rested her forehead to hers. She wanted to hold her forever, to reassure her that she was always here and always will be. But Leni isn't the type to get all mushy and tends to reject that Sol when she comes on too strong with the lovey dovey crap.

But it was as if Leni could read her mind, because in an instant, she pulled away and pressed her lips to Sol's cheek. Breath tickling her ears, "I'm fine." She was able to muster. And in that moment she knew she was being lied to. But she enjoyed the warmth that flowed through her at the contact. Something she's craved for what feels like eons.

So when she reached out to keep Len from walking away, she wrapped her arms around her. The leather jacket Leni wore, crinkled and gave under the embrace. And she smelled the same as she does every time they're together. Smoke and gas and leather and sweat and justice. It lasted only a moment and it was over just as quickly as it happened.

She slips the paper she's been carrying since the Neon incident into her slacked hand before straightening out and steadying herself before walking into the interview. Head held high, body swaggered like the Villain should be.

Lights flashed before her and all she could think about is the woman in the other room, and how she misses everything about her. From the way her skin feels under her touch, legs tangled up with one another, laughing about nothing and sitting on a roof as they watched the sky dance around them. Racing without a care in the world, dangers around every corner. Sol coming to Leni when Frankenstein fell on her and broke her arm and the big tough warrior of justice taking care of her.

Sol misses Leni and everything she represents for her.

                                                                                         - home.

[echoequinox]

SO. SVtFoE Season 4 is here, huh? Back in the saddle for trans Marco stuff I guess LMAO

(spoilers for the first two episodes of Season 4. These are just my general thoughts, not JUST trans marco stuff, but of course, from episode 1 they throw in stuff about her so like, thank god for that)

Fuckin RIGHT OUT THE GATE we get Stomco, which is. Absurd and I love it, lmfao. Like that poly feel of calling your girlfriend, hanging up with her and then immediately calling your other girlfriend, five feet away from the first? “You’ll be home at some point, right?” DOG THAT AIN’T PLATONIC

And then ALSO Marco speaking to Eric about Turdina in the third person was... very interesting. Especially since it starts with “Oh, Turdina likes to do this thing” but then very quickly falling into “I like to use glitter!”. Like, instinctively Marco is like “Oh, yes, Turdina is a separate person, who likes make-up and dresses and is a girl” but she quickly forgets the pretense and just starts in on first person pronouns, like? *chef kiss* 

Also I really like River being such a good husband, like. “MY WAIFE” 

“Yes, I hate the pie folk, but do I hate the pie folk more than I LOVE MY WAIFE?” Mood, bud. 

Also Eclipsa’s castle fucking rules. I’m horribly worried they’re going to go the route of “Actually Star was wrong to hand the castle over to monsters :T” which I doubt they’ll do, but I’m still scared. More likely than not they’ll be like “It was the right thing to do, but she was too hasty, and Eclipsa isn’t as good a person as she seemed to be” since she fuckin, uhh, seems like she may be trying to use Star to free Globgor? Like in a “steal your magic” kind of way, not a “Oh let’s hold hands and see if that works” kinda way. So oof.

Also, Glossaryk telling her “maybe going to the magic dimension to fight Toffee wasn’t a good idea”, and then her IMMEDIATELY referring to the picture she got from time travel shenanigans? VERY sus. 

So yeah, as always, from the first episode I’m fuckin STOKED for this season of Star Vs which I only recently found out was the last one?? Which fuckin... I’m big sad about. :/ But I’m sure fan works will fill the void after it’s gone.