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gouraminnow · 6 months ago

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No Rest for the Wicked

(Slasher AU | SFW | Yandere Sabo x Reader x Yandere Koala)

You're a goth student at a small university, and end up the victim of a Halloween prank gone wrong. Luckily, the Grad Student Instructor and his partner are awfully eager to help you out.

Haven't written for fun in 4+ years and what was meant to be my silly little Halloween debut oneshot became a 6871 word monster. This is the first part of at least three, things get sketchy as we go :') Gender neutral, but Reader is meant to be goth so there are mentions of corsets and makeup. Still kept the appearance vague bc I kept thinking of the My Immortal opener whenever I started describing outfits </3

TW for: Reader injury/head trauma, bullying uuhhhhhhhhhhh the length of this damn thing. Sorry if your name is Emily. Lmk if I missed anything

You don't like Halloween much, anymore.

Granted, you dressed like it was Halloween every day, but that had always been the case. Leather, carhartt, ripped skirts and jeans, and layer upon layer of black fabric was how you liked to roll. Sometimes a corset if you felt up to it. And eclectic jewelry, because of course. You went to college somewhere small, where that sort of thing was really only seen on TV or grimy band posters. Your style alienated you but you weren’t willing to compromise, so you spent a lot of time alone. This didn’t help the general impression your peers had of you.

So you really should have questioned it when Emily, a sorority girl, suddenly started to try and befriend you. She just sat herself next to you in the library one day and introduced herself. It was strange, but you were strange too, and you didn’t want to judge based on looks. So you accepted it- and soon you struck up an awkward, but nice friendship.

You liked it.

She got you to watch one of her archetypal chick flicks, and you got her to watch a horror movie. You picked a tame one, but it still freaked her out, so you said she never had to watch those with you again. You helped her study, went to the mall, even managed to win some radio lottery for tickets to a band you didn’t care about but she adored. You didn’t end up going, but you gave the three tickets to Emily, who went with two other friends.

And then October came. And you were invited to the yearly Halloween party, at some rich guy’s house out in the woods somewhere. You thought it would be great, your everyday attire was already suitable- but you went the extra mile. You hadn’t been invited to a party like this before. You were surprised you found yourself excited to go in the first place.

And at first, it was fun. Emily gave you a ride- her costume was some cheap, bloody nurse’s dress. “I feel kinda lame standing next to you,” she had said, looking at your black platform boots, torn stockings, corset, and tastefully unbuttoned top. You had eyeball earrings and various chains around your neck and waist, and of course you’d painted your nails black. You had laughed.

“Hey, I could lend you some pieces if you want. It would be nice to not be the only freak.” It was her turn to laugh.

A little too hard, you thought, but pushed it to the back of your mind.

When you arrived at the house- a gorgeous, three-story place with a wraparound porch and a 2nd floor balcony with a staircase down into the side yard and a fortune in kitschy Halloween decorations like face webs, blood, and plenty of jack-o-lanterns of course- you could hear how loud everything was before Emily even cut the engine. She turned to you- bleached tresses catching what little light there was. “Are you nervous?” She asked, voice giddy with excitement.

“Y-yeah,” You confessed, chuckling nervously. “I don’t think I’ve been to a party since I was a kid,” you muse. You’re both quiet, for a moment. “Thank you, by the way. Not just for the party invite, but uh- the everything. It’s been nice.” Your voice is soft. Looking back, the earnestness you’d shown her makes you nauseous. She had smiled at you.

“Aw, don’t get sappy on me now. You’re my lucky charm! I couldn’t get into that concert without you!”

Your memories after that were fuzzy. You remembered the crisp night air as you crossed the lawn with Emily. You remembered the way the warmth and light of the house and enveloped you when you stepped inside. You remembered everybody staring as soon as you walked in, and the pleasant burn of whatever alcohol you had been offered- you remembered idle chatter but nothing specific-

And you remembered the costume contest Emily had urged you to participate in. You tried to say you weren’t exactly in costume, just ambiguously goth. Lots of other weak arguments too, but she insisted. You remembered that. How insistent she was. How she said this was your chance to leave your little shell and open up. That everyone there would love you. Their makeshift stage sat beneath an indoor balcony, and you’d thought it was just so party-goers on the second floor could see. A wooden table with a number of goofy props had been set off to the side. You had stood there, before a sea of drunk faces, and in the blink of an eye-

Cold

Wet

Sticky

A sharp, quick strike to the top of your head.

And then you woke up gasping, sobbing, a splitting pain in your skull and oh god, oh god oh god- Blood. So much of it. Covering you, covering the floor, and a strangled, warbling shriek clawed its way up and out of your throat- was it yours?! Was all of this- all of it yours?!

You’re- you’re dying.

Overlapping voices, Emily- “B-but it’s a joke! It w-was just a joke, wait-!”

Everything’s blurry, but there’s so much violent, viscous red, you’re dying.

You sob, trying to lurch to your feet, but someone stops you-

It’s loud. It’s so fucking loud and it hurts. Everything is blurry and bright and the screaming- you can’t process any of it- two figures in blue with tophats sit in front of you, saying something, but you don’t understand. They reach for you- both at once, and you scramble backwards into someone else- hands on your shoulders, trying to gently push you down.

Everything from then on was a whirl of pain and color and sound- no Emily. No… anybody that you could recognize. You’re lifted by the blue figures- carried through a parting crowd, into the cold sting of the night air, and into the wrong car.

“No, no,” You tried to say- this wasn’t your ride, this isn’t how you got here, but your voice didn’t feel right in your skull and it scared you, so you stopped. You end up in the backseat with the blue men, another figure driving. Was that the one you backed into?

“-you hear me?” The blue men say. It sounds like you’re underwater.

“H-huh wha- what?” You offer pathetically.

“Okay, good, that’s an actual word out of them,” A woman’s voice says from the front.

“Pretty slurred though,” The blue men respond, holding up their overlapping gloved hands and pointing four fingers skyward. “How many fingers am I holding up?” He asks you.

“Y-you’ve both guh-got four,” you say, leaning back with a whimper. Speaking hurts your head. You hear the men swear.

“Okay. A lot less good,” the woman upfront says. “Keep them awake, Sabo.”

“Yes, I know the drill,” the brothers(?) say, before turning back to you.

“You twins?” You whisper out, and get a light huff in response.

“You’re in shock,” they tell you gently. “It’s going to be alright, though. Can you tell me your name and birthday?”

You squint, stumbling through the answers to various questions. You’re slow- each word reverberating through your skull, rattling your teeth and adding to the pressure behind your eyes. But it does keep you awake until they get you to the hospital.

You woke up in a dimmed hospital room, all dull grays and white. Two people in well-made (but now bloodied) steampunk costumes sitting in chairs at your bedside. A blonde man with a blue vest and black coat, leaning on the shoulder of a smaller, ginger woman in pink, who’s reading a book. You can’t make out the title, your vision is still a bit blurry.

“Hello..?” You croak out, earning a jump from the woman before you. You squint. You think her eyes might be green.

“Oh good, you’re awake! How do you feel?” She asks softly.

“Um, bad,” you rasp. God, you feel awful. Worse than any hangover you’d ever had. “Who are you..? What… happened?” You ask, voice trailing into a scratchy whisper.

You hear her sigh softly. You wish you could tell what kind of face she was making. “My name’s Koala. My partner Sabo and I brought you here after an… accident.” She pauses, for something- you aren’t sure what. A dull pulse throbs in your head. “Do you… remember anything?”

You squint. “Um… Emily was t-taking me to a… party. I was at a party.” God, your head hurts. Just thinking about the loud music and overlapping voices makes you nauseous, and you groan. “Koala… Sabo… heard those, somewhere…” Maybe you’d met- maybe they just said their names while you were out of it. And it’s hard to tell if someone’s familiar when they just look like fuzzy shapes to you.

“It’s okay, take your time. You’ve… had a rough night. Oh- I should probably call the nurse, hold on.” You see her reach for something, and hear the soft click of a button. Then she turns to her side, shaking the figure leaning on her shoulder. “Sabo- Sabo, get up idiot, they’re awake,” she hisses, the warmth she addressed you with now replaced with irritation. The man, Sabo, sighs, sitting up with a groan. He stretches, earning a flinch from you when his back cracks loudly.

“Ah, that’s good to hear,” a gentle, sleepy voice intones, and even with the blur in your vision you can see his grin. “How are you feeling?”

��... Bad.” You repeat, earning a snort from Koala. “Weren’t there three people with me..?”

“Ah… no, you are… quite concussed, my friend.”

“Oh…” you pause, trying to focus on the fuzzy folk before you, but it’s useless. “I’ve… heard of you before, I think…”

A soft chuckle bubbles out of the man’s chest. “We’ve spoken a few times. I’m a grad student instructor, and Koala’s my partner. Does that ring a bell..?” The concerned lilt in his voice is soothing.

“I… think so…”

“Well, no need to worry about it,” Koala pipes up, crossing her arms. “You’ve got plenty of time to get your bearings.”

Shortly after that, a nurse arrived, and you went through a standard physical exam. Your reflexes were a bit slow and your vision wasn’t great, but you were far more coherent. You were exhausted though, arms trembling after just drinking a little bit of water.

The two had to gently break the news that you had been a setup, deliberately lured to that party so you could be pranked Carrie style with a bucket of fake blood. Except the bucket itself was rather heavy, striking you on the head and making you fall just right, resulting in you bashing your head once more against that stupid prop table. The woman, Koala, told you that you’d been unconscious for around ten seconds, give or take. They had rushed to your side, the room silent, until you woke up and screamed.

It was bad. Sabo and Koala both worked to get your jewelry off you, since you’d likely need an x-ray- but the biggest issue was that the fake blood dumped on you made it hard to tell where the real injury was, and how much real blood you were losing. The workers had to clean you up and your entire outfit was ruined. Your family was called, but they lived out of state and couldn’t make it to you. The hospital kept you for a few more hours, running tests and making sure there were no further complications- your benevolent saviors remaining with you the whole time. That part gave you pause. You didn’t think strangers were even allowed to do that, but you didn’t mention it. You felt wrong questioning these people.

The nurse was a kind but stern woman, making sure to speak very clearly for you. “Alright, sweetheart, here’s how this is gonna work. You clearly can’t drive, but luckily your friends here can. Once you’re home, you need to be supervised for at least three days. We’re giving you the good stuff, for pain- take one every 4-6 hours, as needed.”

“O-oh, that’s okay,” you stammer. Supervision? You live alone in a single-person dorm room. “I c-can… manage on my own, none of that is hard,” you try to assure her, despite how wrong it still felt just to talk. Your mouth doesn’t feel like it was yours, the delay between thought, intention, and execution of speech unsettling. The nurse clearly isn’t impressed, either.

“No. This is a head wound. If you have nobody to look after you, we will not discharge you.”

“Well, I suppose that’s where we come in. We’re already driving you home, aren’t we?” Sabo gently pipes up.

And that’s how you find yourself pushed out to the car in a wheelchair. A little excessive, you think, feeling heat rise to your cheeks at the idea of just how much these strangers- well, acquaintances, you suppose- are doing for you. When Sabo opened the door for you, you winced, seeing the dark, sticky mess you had left in his backseat. “I’m sorry about b-bleeding all over your car,” you mumble, but he waves you off.

“Please, don’t worry yourself over something like that,” he chides. “Most of that isn't even real, anyway. I can get it cleaned, it’s alright. Let’s get you home, okay?” He says, ushering you into the clean side of the backseat.

The three of you stand in front of the door to your tiny dorm room, you leaning heavily on Sabo while you struggle with your keys. He has an arm around your waist to steady you, but you still feel like you’re gonna tip over. At least it’s too early for any other students to see you- most of them are still probably sleeping off whatever parties they went through. The splitting ache in your skull made you wish the same. After a good twenty seconds of struggling with the rusted lock of your front door, Koala sighs, taking the keys from you and doing it herself in one smooth motion. You can’t help but deflate a little bit. You’re ushered inside the little space, a twin sized bed across from a couch and a single window between them. You’ve got a crappy old wardrobe that houses the clothes you wear most often, while the rest is kept in a bin that normally lay beneath your bed- but with a shaky sigh, you take in the sight of it pulled out into the open from when you had been excitedly planning your outfit last night. Dark, cobwebby drapings of tattered cloth and worn leather, both faux and authentic, haphazardly scattered about.

You set down the plastic bag your soaked clothes had been placed in, sinking to your knees with the intention of packing things up, but a hand on your shoulder stops you.

“Just leave it for now,” says Sabo, voice soft as ever. “We can get that for you later. Why don't you just lie down, hmm?” Warm gloved hands guide you to your bed, and you sigh as you sink into the comforter.

Your two guests look around your room, and you suddenly flush. Your walls are littered with flyers, artwork, band and movie posters, the latter of which are mostly pulpy horror flicks. You haven't had anyone in here in ages except-

Emily.

Your stomach lurches. You'd somehow managed not to think about her.

Koala turns to you, about to say something, but stops when she sees the tears welling up in your eyes. You don’t want to break down in front of these people. You curl in on yourself, wiping your tears frantically, willing yourself not to start bawling. Sabo and Koala are muttering something to each other, but you can’t make it out. “Sorry…” You mutter, voice thick and wobbly. “You two have, um- thank you. I’m sorry about all this. Probably not how you wanted to spend your Halloween.”

“Oh none of that now,” chides Sabo, who has made himself at home on your couch. “It certainly wasn’t part of our plan- Ow!” He winces when Koala elbows him in the ribs. “As I was saying, some things are a bit more important than crashing a party. And I’m sure you didn’t plan on having your head cracked open, so don’t talk like it’s your fault.”

“Th… thank you. Really. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you weren’t there.” They’re so… nice to you. It feels different from Emily, in a way you can’t quite articulate. Something about them just makes you feel relaxed and at ease… part of that could also be the exhaustion seeping into your bones, like water being soaked up by a thick blanket of cotton. “But what happens now..? Are you really gonna… babysit me for three days? Don’t you two have things to do? Besides, this place is tiny.”

You feel a dip in the mattress as Koala comes to sit by you, and it makes your head spin for a second. “We definitely have a few calls to make,” she sighs. “But your couch is perfectly fine- and Sabo can take the floor, because he’s such a gentleman, isn’t he?” The sly lilt has you giggling, and Sabo just huffs, taking the playful jab in stride.

“Naturally,” he tells her, and you think he might have winked.

You yawn, eyelids fluttering. “That’s… still not great. Seriously, th-this place… kind of sucks. I don’t even have a kitchen in here…”

That seems to give them pause. Koala hums. “Well… Sabo’s place has a couple guest rooms, but sometimes his brothers stay there too…”

“Wait, n-no, I c-can’t just um, intrude like that-!”

Your guests share a look. You wish you could tell what kind. “Well, we’re not leaving you here alone. It’s just not an option.” Koala asserts. You open your mouth to protest, but Sabo beats you to it.

“Look, I know we aren’t close, and this is all… very sudden. You don’t know us very well, it’s weird to stay at a stranger’s house. But…” He rubs the back of his neck. “There’s a good chance you could hurt yourself. And I wouldn’t be a very good GSI if you missed Professor Silver’s lecture next week because I left you alone.” You snort, then wince at the bolt of pain that shoots through your muddled head. “A lot has happened to you in the past twelve hours. This isn’t ideal for anyone, believe me- but we’re worried about you.”

You should have had more questions, honestly- but oversights abound when one has a traumatic brain injury. Sabo steps out to make a call, and Koala helps you pack an overnight bag. A couple changes of casual, comfortable clothes- mostly black, of course. And you finally change out of the off-white spares provided by the hospital, from loose thin overshirt and pants to some pajamas with a sweater thrown over it. Nothing particularly interesting but unfortunately, you had more pressing concerns. Sabo comes back in shortly after, nodding to his partner.

This time, instead of helping you hobble your way back down to the parking lot, Sabo just picks you up. You sputter, but he just hushes you, and Koala locks the door behind you all with your black coffin-shaped backpack slung over her shoulder.

That thing rules, you think to yourself, allowing your body to relax against Sabo. Your cheek squishes against his chest, and you catch a faint scent- the sweet, chemical tang of the fake slop that was dumped on you. Despite your discomfort, you quickly find it hard to keep yourself awake. You’re in the hallway- early morning sunlight casting a golden glow through the old dorm building. Your eyes flutter shut- then back open- you’re in the parking lot, and Koala is shuffling around in the backseat. When she moves away, you see that an old, ratty, dark brown blanket has been draped over the recently stained polyester. You hum as Sabo buckles you in, then gently lays you down, adjusting the seatbelt so it doesn’t bite into you uncomfortably.

“Poor thing,” you hear Koala coo. “So, you’re sure it was him? And what did everyone say about rescheduling..?” She continues as you drift off.

You wake up with a groan, in an unfamiliar room. The walls are a pleasant tawny color, with one cream accent wall. You’ve been tucked in underneath a comforter topped with a quilt- the scattered geometric pattern comprised of black, white, and shades of gray. It brings a smile to your face, that they went through the trouble of finding you a quilt that matched your aesthetic. You sit up slowly, groaning at the throbbing ache in your head. You blink, smacking your lips, trying to get rid of the dry, scratchy feeling in your throat. Turning to the right, there’s a bedside table- a glass of water and one of your pills left out for you, along with a small note. They’ve also been kind enough to plug your phone in for you. Extending a trembling hand, you pick up the little scrap of paper and squint at the clean, rounded handwriting.

Sabo will be back later, he’s running some errands. If you wake up before I come check on you, please take the pill I left out. I’m in the living room, which is down the hall to your right if you need anything. - Koala

You sniff, placing the note down and doing as instructed. You wince at the feeling of the sizable white pill catching on the inside of your throat on the way down, even with the water. Rubbing your throat you reach for your phone without a thought, and-

The first thing you do is wince when the light of the screen meets your eyes. When the blurriness subsides a little, you blink away the not-quite-tears of eyestrain to find 24 missed calls, and 99+ messages, the unlock screen preview shows you. You grimace, turning your attention to the time. A little over half past one, November 1st. You take a deep breath. You don’t want to think about all this. At least not alone.

You stumble to your feet to go find Koala like the note said, but you don’t really need to. She hears your door open, and comes to fetch you herself and guide you to the leather sofa. You sit sideways, with your feet up on the cushions. You’re trying to take in your surroundings when a folded knit blanket is plopped onto your lap, and she sits down with you with her knees up to her chest. You take a moment to relax, kneading the soft, blue fibers in your tired hands. “... Hi,” you rasp, then clear your throat. “Uh… this is a nice place. Thanks for letting me stay…”

“Mmm. Don’t mention it. Wasn’t really up to you, anyway.” The woman tilts her head slightly, regarding you. “... Are you feeling any better? I’m guessing you read the note?”

“Yeah, I did. And I’m mostly just… tired and sore, now. I was worried I’d be nauseous, but I’m not, so… that’s nice.”

“That is good,” she agrees, “We were a little worried you’d have trouble eating.”

“Mmmhmm.” You’re both quiet for a moment. Koala has changed into something more casual as well- a sky blue sweater that looks too big on her and loose reddish brown pants. You unfold the blanket she gave you, sighing. “Um… so, should I inform the school somehow-”

“Sabo is speaking to the faculty on your behalf, so don’t worry about that.” She has a… blunt way of speaking that sometimes takes you off guard, but you’re getting used to it quickly. Overall she’s nice. “That girl-” she spits, and you can make out a grimace- “Emily, she blew up Sabo’s school email when you didn’t answer her.”

“Oh.” You breathe. “What… did she say..?”

You hear Koala inhale, hear her start to say something, but she looks at you and pauses for a moment. Then she sighs and shakes her head, shoulders slumping. “It’s not important. Don’t worry about her.” Your brows furrow a little bit. You think that if it’s about you, you should get to know, but whatever.

“... Anything she’s got to say is probably already on my phone, anyway,” you groan, pressing your palms against your eyes.

“I thought as much,” she mumbles bitterly. “Well, listen- I’m sure your family should hear from you directly at some point today. Do you feel up to that?”

“... I don’t know.”

“Fair enough. The hospital was sure to mention that you’re stable when they contacted your parents, so at least they aren’t completely in the dark.” There’s another silence, but it’s not uncomfortable. Or maybe your head is still too muddled to feel awkward. You find yourself wishing you’d had a chance to meet under better circumstances, though, rather than ending up as a burden to these two. “Well…” she starts, “do you like tea? I know Sabo usually keeps a couple different kinds in the house.”

You nod, a soft smile quirking the corners of your mouth upwards. “Thank you, that sounds lovely,” you say, absentmindedly reaching up to trace the stitches in your head, only for Koala to lurch forward to slap your hand away.

“Don’t touch it, idiot! It’ll get worse!” She scolds you, but it doesn’t feel mean-spirited. You gingerly lower your hand and sit on it, earning a snort from her. “If that’s what it takes,” she quips, a smile in her voice. She stands, stretches, and settles with her hands on her hips. “Can I trust you not to start prying your stitches out if I leave to go put some water on?”

“Probably not.” That gets another little huff from her.

“Might have to tie your hands, then,” she muses. “Alright, listen. I’m going to go make tea. Then I’m gonna help you clean up a bit more- get the excess gunk off your face. We’ll see how you’re feeling after that. If you aren’t too out of it, I’ll help you make that phone call.”

You end up making that call after the tea is finished, opting not to keep anyone waiting. Koala has it on speaker phone, and is able to elaborate where you can’t. You don’t tell your family about… the prank, yet. You can feel Koala’s gaze on you, but she follows your lead, being vague on the details and focusing on your condition. You tell your mother there was an accident at a party, and you’re with a friend right now.

“Oh, that Emily girl, right?” Your mom asks.

You’re glad you can’t audibly wince, but you can’t really fault her for asking. “No, i-it’s someone else.”

“You’ve made other friends? Oh that’s wonderful, I’m so glad you’re finally coming out of your shell!” You lock up, eye twitching. This is a comment you do fault her for. Really? She’s on about this now? The rest of the conversation is a blur- you sit, curled up on the couch and sipping your tea while Koala takes over for you. She talks a little about herself and Sabo, and a little about you, too- mentioning some student art exhibit you’d submitted a piece to at the beginning of your time on campus, back when you were still trying to be sociable. You find heat rising to your cheeks. She was there? She remembered it? You feel guilty for not recognizing her sooner. Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, Sabo gets home, setting down some brown paper grocery bags and walking over to quietly press a kiss to Koala’s temple. The conversation ends shortly after Sabo introduces himself, winning them over just as easily as Koala had. They exchange contact info with your parents, assuring them that they would be updated. It leaves you feeling a bit… infantilized, truthfully, but everyone involved means well.

When all that is said and done, Sabo addresses you personally. “Glad to see you awake and alert. I’ve got everything for a light soup. Does that sound good?”

You nod. “Yes, thank you. L-let me know if I can help p-pay for anythi-” you’re interrupted by light, airy laughter.

“Nonsense, I’m used to paying for whatever crazy shenanigans my brothers get into, food for a couple days is nothing. And I’m willing to bet their appetites are way bigger than yours, anyway.”

Koala saunters over, wrapping an arm around his waist. “You talk like you aren’t just as bad as those two,” she says, jabbing a finger into his chest and turning her head to you. “Don’t let the clean student-faculty sweetheart image fool you, he gets into all sorts of shit,” she huffs, earning a laugh from her partner. You’re sure the smile on your face is rather dopey, but these two are cute together.

“Seeing as he’s got a concussed stranger sleeping over, yeah I’d say that tracks,” you tell her, earning a pout from the man.

“Aw, we’re not strangers anymore, are we?” Koala asks with a faux tearfulness.

“I… guess not…”

“Good,” she says, detangling herself from Sabo and pressing a kiss to his jaw before turning back to you. “Now lay back- I’m gonna clean the rest of that shit off your face now.”

“H-huh?” You sputter. She’d already mentioned doing this, but the firmness of her statement takes you off-guard. Sabo just laughs.

“Koala is very strong-willed. You won’t be winning any arguments with her, just give in now,” he says sympathetically.

There’s a sharp exhale from the woman. “I wouldn’t have to be strong-willed if you'd just listen to me the first time,” she quips, already applying drops of liquid makeup remover to a cotton ball. When had she even gotten those out?

You sit as still as possible for Koala, leaning back against the pillows piled behind you as your new friend slides onto the couch. She slots herself between your knees and looms over you, her brows furrowed as she begins to carefully, gently dab away the remnants of faux, syrupy blood still clinging to your hairline, behind your ears, and other creases in your face. Most of your makeup and the blood had been washed off in the hospital, but the priority was of course your injury. The details were left for later. She knows what she’s doing, featherlight touches soothing your frazzled mind. It just feels right- your eyes flutter shut as she reaches for your face, cool dampness of the cotton balls and makeup wipes running over your eyelids, down the sides of your nose… heart fluttering at the chuckle Koala lets out when the sharp scent of the cleaning solution makes your face scrunch up. You smile softly when you open your eyes again, earning a pause from her. She tilts her head quizzically, short ginger hair framing her round eyes…

Your vision is a little clearer now. You can see a lot better than you could when you were still in the hospital, barely coherent with a head full of static. “I was right,” you giggle, dazed voice weighed by fatigue, but the fear, anxiety, sadness- the hurt- is all finally gone. “Your eyes are green. You’re really pretty, Koala.” She jolts, face going red, turning to glare at Sabo when he laughs.

“You’re still out of it,” she hushes, but you don’t miss the shaky smile poorly hidden behind her hand.

It’s a pleasant night. Sabo starts on the food shortly after Koala finishes, and you nap on the couch as the pleasant smell of chicken and rice soup fills the house. It’s an open kitchen, so most of what Sabo does is visible the few times you drift back into consciousness. The final time you wake up, it’s to Sabo gently shaking your shoulder with a bowl of soup ready for you, along with another one of your pills. The three of you eat together in the living room, small talk petering off as it becomes clear just how tired you are. But it’s pleasant- warmth filling you as you slowly eat, eyelids growing heavier and heavier, until you find everything but the flavor of light soup and dull pulse in your skull fading away.

You’d be perfectly content to just pass out here on the couch, but Koala is insistent you get to bed properly. You’re in the bathroom, struggling to brush your teeth- the harsh scratching sound of a toothbrush resonating through your entire skull with a dizzying buzz. You aren’t looking forward to doing this again… maybe you could get away with just using mouthwash for a couple days..? Ugh, probably not… You’re leaning in close to the mirror, examining the sutures on your head. When you had struck the table, it had pulled your skin back, tearing the wound open wider. Part of it pokes down through your hairline, about two inches visibly protruding past your temple, earning a frown from you. You gingerly run your fingers over the rough stitching-

“Please don’t do that.” Despite the softness of Sabo’s voice, his sudden appearance makes you jump. “Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he says.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” You sound a little wobbly, but that’s mostly because you’re tired.

He pushes off from where he’s resting against the doorframe, stepping into the room to assess his own reflection beside you. “It will likely scar,” he says after a moment. You look at Sabo- actual Sabo, instead of his reflection- and he turns to look at you as well. The dramatic sunburst of scarring around his eye makes yours look like nothing in comparison- you feel a little self-conscious about silently fussing over yours with him right there. “But it could be worse. Easier to cover with certain hairstyles, or makeup, should you so choose.” You manage to suppress your wince. You don’t actually know how Sabo feels about his scars- you think they’re cool, but he might not. But you also don’t want to assume he’s hinting at any of his own insecurities and say something weird.

“More worried about lingering brain damage, honestly,” you eventually settle on, turning back to the mirror. “Might look kinda cool, once it heals up a bit… but it came from something really stupid.”

“You could just make something up, like I do,” he offers, earning a shaky smile from you.

“Thanks, Sabo, but I’m pretty sure everyone’s gossiping about it. By the time I get back on campus, everyone will already know…”

“Well…” he starts, your gaze following his hand as it moves up to rub your shoulder. “Good thing we won’t be here forever, hmm..?” He purrs quietly. You look to him, and any retort you had dies on your tongue. There’s an intense look in his wide eyes, paired with a small polite smile that doesn't quite match up.

“H-Huh?” You’re quiet, confused.

He takes in your response, blinking and pulling his hand away from you to rub the back of his neck. “I just mean we won’t be students here, forever… didn’t mean to sound alarming. Plenty of people out in the world you could tell a fun little lie to,” he clarifies, and you relax again. “Though you are right, it’s an oversight on my part not to consider how much people talk.”

The tension deflates immediately, and you feel a little bad. Your mind is just playing tricks on you- it’s been a rough 24 hours, after all. “Oh, haha, i-it’s fine… sorry for being jumpy. B-besides, I’m used to dumb gossip already, I-I should probably just…” You falter. His eyes aren’t as intense, but you feel like his focus is. He’s just trying to be a good listener, you tell yourself. You’re the one making things weird. You clear your throat, trying to ignore the funny feeling in your chest. “Sorry. I don’t know w-why I’m so worried, it’s all the same shit,” you try to joke. Your attempt at a chuckle is thin and reedy. The face of the man before you softens- and you realize you don’t like it. You don’t like the disdain, the laughter, the frankly juvenile way your peers treat you, but you don’t like this, either. The pitying look, like you’re a stray puppy left out in the rain. With a black, spiked collar, maybe. What’s wrong with you? Why are you so upset? Seconds after you notice the first small, watery hints of tears welling up in your eyes, you just break down.

Sabo moves swiftly, seemingly on autopilot, wrapping you up in a hug, warm hand pressing your head against his chest. It’s nice. It feels so, so nice- he’s steady and reliable, firm chest and arms keeping you snug and secure against him and you can’t help but think have I ever been held like this before? You’re embarrassed- you don’t want to behave like this, it feels so childish. But your body shudders with a cracked sob despite yourself, hands tightly balling themselves up in his shirt as he slowly sinks the both of you to the floor. “Sorry, m’sorry,” you whine into his chest. Why? Why now? The look he gave you didn’t rattle you that hard, did it? God, the pressure behind your eyes, that constricting tightness in your throat- it all makes the ache in your head bloom all the worse. He rubs your back, settling you in his lap. “I don’t know why- I d-don’t get it,” you gasp, clinging to him. The firm, hurried sound of approaching footsteps meet your ears, stopping at the doorway.

“It’s okay. Shhh, it’s alright, you don’t have to,” coos Sabo, and you feel him turning to look at Koala, no doubt coming to check on the racket you were making. “I’m sure it’s a little bit of everything. It was bound to happen at some point. You’ve been through a lot, just let it out, alright? It’s okay.” Koala approaches, shuffling past Sabo in the narrow space so she can sit adjacent to two of you.

“We expected something like this, so don’t worry. I’m glad you aren’t bottling things up,” she says, leaning forward to wrap her arms around you both. They’re both so warm. Leaning against Sabo’s chest, Koala’s head comes to rest on your shoulder as Sabo readjusts, momentarily removing an arm to embrace his partner in return. A little bit awkward, all three of you piled onto the floor like that, but it still just feels so nice. Pleasant. You don’t know why these two have your back, but you have absolutely no doubts that they do. “Let's get you to the bedroom, alright? Much more comfortable there than a bathroom floor.” That comment is probably as much for Sabo as it is for you. You nod against his chest, and he wastes no time in sliding an arm under your knees and securing your back with the other. You sniffle and whine pathetically as he walks you back to the guest room, setting you on the bed, sitting up. You blink, hiccuping as your host pulls the covers over you. Koala approaches with a glass of water- when did she get that? And two pills. “The second is just some melatonin,” she soothes, handing the tiny puck of medicine alongside your prescribed painkiller. “You’ve been falling asleep well enough, but we thought… Well, just in case.” When had they talked about that? When you were napping? You didn’t care very much at the moment.

“Th-thank you,” you choke out, reaching your shaking hands out for the water and the medicine. You would very much like to leave the waking world- everything is suddenly so overwhelming for no reason at all. “I’m so s-sorry for the trouble.” You pop the pills into your mouth, and when you go to drink, Koala’s hands clasp themselves over yours, assisting you in raising the glass to your mouth. The cool liquid soothes your throat, and your cries taper off into sniffles.

You take a shaky breath. Both of them are looking at you, but you don’t want to meet their eyes. “It’s okay. You’re tired and hurt, it’s to be expected.” Sabo comforts you, yet again. Your stomach twists. They’re adamant that everything is okay, that you aren’t imposing, but how couldn’t you be? If everything Emily supposedly felt for you was fake, who knows what these people could be up to? You set the glass down, Koala’s hands sliding away as you brace it between your thighs. You briefly notice a roughness to her palms- they’re callused.

… You’re tired.

“Thank you,” you rasp, looking back up to your hosts. They both nod.

“Is there anything you need?” Koala asks, voice soft. None of the edge it normally carries.

“I think… I-I just want to sleep.”

“Of course,” she says, but doesn’t move. She… hovers for a moment, looking you over before standing and turning to Sabo. You can’t see her face, but there’s something unreadable in the smile Sabo gives her.

You thank them again. They bid you goodnight, and you return it.

Your consciousness fades almost as quickly as their footsteps.

#reader insert #yandere #one piece x reader #yandere Sabo #Yandere Koala #Late Halloween Special #fanfiction #blatant overuse of elipses dashes and sleep-based time skips #slasher au #but like. no slashing yet. Or the next- at least not onscreen #they're discreet :)#thanks to hannahbarberra162 for beta reading and also suggesting the title :)

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jhutchersonswife · 4 months ago

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Christmas present

ONE SHOT SMUT | 18+ | FLUFF

Santa Mike x gn!reader

summary: Mike and you have been dating for quite a while, Abby was at her friends house on Christmas Day. Mike took the opportunity to spend alone time with you and give you the best Christmas night of your life.

writers note (heyy HAPPY HOLIDAYS, this is my first fanfic, if it’s horrible i apologize help)

Mike and you have been together for a maximum 2 years, your assistance with his rent, emotional support, and intimacy helped him become a better person, a less odd one to say the least. He really appreciated you, for the help with Abby as well.

You two loved Christmas, always baked cookies for Abby to believe in ‘Santa Claus.’ She was so gullible. Every year, you guys would make gingerbread houses which Mike got for free at some shitty, sketchy Christmas event at Walmart. God, that moment was so witty. You guys made forts, and watched Home alone.

Well, Abby forced you and Mike to binge watch it with her.

This year, Mike wanted to do something special for you. To just pay back all of the things you did for him. Since Abby decided to go sleepover at her recent best friend’s house, which Mike was hesitant to let her go, he decided to have some alone time with you. He was lucky to have you, he was surprised, he’s such a whacked person.

Behind your back, he went to buy a Santa costume, not those big obese ones with jingle bells, saying ‘Ho, Ho, Ho.’

No, fuck no, he chose his style. He made himself more appealing, well, not in his eyes at least. He wore a button down white shirt—tight red boxers, that were oddly uncomfortable for him to wear, and a Santa hat.

He cleared his throat, sitting back against the couch. (He was obsessed with.) The annoying ass creaky one with the light stripes that pissed you off. Obviously, Mike set up a mistletoe on the ceiling with some tape from Dollar tree. It was romantic, well, at least he thought it was.

He jolted up, hearing the keys jingle from outside the door. You currently were using the spare key copy he gave you a year back, for emergency purposes or anything, honestly. You groan out as you walked in, shrugging off your jacket before turning your head. Only to see Mike. Eyes widen and cheeks flushed, eyelashes bashing up and down at the sight. He’s never been so sexy.

“Where’s abby? We should decorate and bake soon-” You get cut off.

“Don’t worry about that, Y/n. Come here, tell me what you want for Christmas.” He teased, a smirk forming on his lips. Your reaction was priceless, it made his tight boxers uncomfortable, feeling himself grow harder at the sight of desire in your eyes. His head titled to the side and spread his arms out, inviting you over.

A breathless chuckle escaped you, this was ridiculous yet so romantic. You two never have alone time. Never. But now, oh, you were so gonna make the time worth it. “Oh yeah?” You murmur, shooting him a smile before slowly walking over to Mike. Without a word, you crawl into his lap, straddling him. You could feel his average yet hard, twitching bulge against you. Your breath hitching.

“Mhm, that’s it. Now, honey. Tell me.”

“What do you want for Christmas?” He teased. He wasn’t the type to usually flirt, so it was amusing to watch him struggle slightly.

His eyes linger on your body, taking in your attire. It was lazy since you just got off of a quick shift at work, of course, your shitty boss forced you to work on Christmas eve. At least you got 20 more dollars. Pfft. Although, you were still sexy in that jacket—coat combo. Hot.

You bit your lip, leaning in closer. You were not gonna be patient tonight. You just got off work and now you wanted to not waste time. “You.”

Mike gasped against your lips as you crash them on his mouth, before snatching your petite waist and pulling you in closer to him. His lips move desperately against you, a desperate whine escaping you. It was embarrassing to make sounds but God, he knew you too well.

Well, technically, you two were following the Christmas rule. Both under the mistletoe. For now.

You were bent over the couch, hands on your lower back for support for Mike. His hips slowly moving back, taking a few seconds before pounding back inside you in a slow, steady pace. Causing a whimper mixed with a possessive growl that escapes him. His jaw clenched, groaning out.

“Oh, Y/n. Fuck yes.”

You gasp, eyes fluttering as you shut them close. He felt so good inside you, always stretching your hole out every time, your stress from your job fading away. Your hands clasp the edge of the sofa, eyes opening, half lidded as the only thing you really notice in the whole room is the bright, lit up Christmas tree.

Mike groaned again, his hand finding your hips, guiding them to his desire pace. His jaw clenching to keep in his pathetic whimpers, he hated how he sounded honestly. He sounded like an idiot. A horny one. His hands slid down slowly, finding your crotch and lightly pressing his index and middle finger against you.

“So wet for me, huh? I should put you on the bad list.”

You let out a stuttered moan, your body arching against his touch. The feeling was overwhelming, his fingers on your core, his cock deep inside you. Fuck. You part you lips, looking over your shoulder to glance at him. You try to speak, but all that comes out is a whimper as he sped up his fingers. You know he’s aroused, you feel his dick twitch inside of you.

“Mhm, baby. Just like that.”

He grumbled in your ear, before meeting your half lidded eyes. Oh, you look so good right now. He bit his lip, trying not to throw you against the wall and fuck you, fast and hard. But, he wanted this night to go slow. Really slow and wanted to be gentle and patient. He hasn’t had alone time/sex with you in a while.

Now, he has the chance. Especially on Christmas. Bonus. It does remind him of Abby, his concern growing at the thought of her at her friends house. What if she gets hurt? Kidnapped? Poisoned?

He shook his thoughts away, the last thing he wanted on his mind was his concern for his sister. He glanced at you, gently taking a strand of your hair, pulling it behind your ear with his free hand. He gave you a gentle look, something more than desire. He leaned down, pressing his forehead against yours.

“I love you.” He murmured, before slamming his hips against yours. A needy whine escaping him before he increased his pace a tad bit. His fingers quickening on your core, his dick moving in, out, in, out, deeper, deeper. His pre-cum coating your walls, mixed with saliva since he spit on his penis to slide into you. Making it easier to slip inside of you, to move.

You cry out, your heart beating wildly. Fuck. Oh fuck, you felt yourself getting close. Your hips fall perfectly on his cock, you feel yourself trembling. A guttural—high pitched moan escaping you. You missed this. Honestly.

“Oh god, oh god.”

He narrowed his eyes in pleasure, his fingers snaking up your neck and gripping your throat. Squeezing it, hard enough for you to still breathe. His thrusts grew sloppier, desperate. His other hand bruising into your hip, the soreness shooting through him as he groaned. Shifting his position, he flipped you over—your back slamming onto his chest, making you ride him. “Fuck.” He whimpered, his lips finding your bare shoulder and biting into it.

You didn’t hesitate; hips bouncing up and down, your jaw dropping at the sensation. You grind your hips back and forth, up and down. His cock twitched inside of you with every movement. Before you knew it, your orgasm crashed onto you. A scream escaping your lips, with his name.

You began to cream all over him, brows furrowing at the sensation before rocking your hips, causing him to groan. He hasn’t finished yet. You then gave him a kiss on his lips, before sliding down to his chest, peppering him with kisses. You feel his muscles tense under your lips before climbing off of him and going on your knees. On the old carpet.

Mike looked down at you, his penis full of your cum. It twitched at the sight of you on your knees, you couldn’t help but let out a laugh as his dick twitched right on your cheek. “Y/n. You’re killing me, babe.” He breathed, a breathless grin on his lips, it faltered, feeling your lips on his shaft. He used one hand to guide your head, trying not to hurt you, and the other clasping the couch. He swears it ripped from his grip.

“Yeah, right there. Just like tha- Oh!”

He whined, his hips bucking up into your mouth. His tip hitting in the back of your throat, making you gag ever so slightly. You grab his thighs to support yourself, your tongue working on his shaft while your lips work on his leaking tip. Gargles, gasps, moans fill the small living room. Your eyes watched his, tears forming in your eyes from the gags.

His thrusts in your mouth grew much more out of control, more sloppy and desperate. Much faster. He growled out your name, grabbing your head with both of his hands now and guiding you up and down quickly, yet, it was gentle in a way. He hissed and threw his head back. His Santa hat falling off, he whimpered out and his eyes rolled in the back of his eyelids. Feeling his orgasm arriving.

“Holy shit, Y/n, I’m cumming, I’m cumming!”

He shot his load, a shout escaping him. His cum shooting into your mouth, a pleasured gasp escaping him as he loosened his grip on your head. Glancing down at you, his eyes full of adoration, exhaustion, and satisfaction. He shot you a warm, breathless smile. Which you always thought was adorable.

You lick off the cum off your finger tips, and swallow every bit of it. He always tasted sweet. You sigh, a tired smile going to your lips before falling on the cushion on the sofa, both of your body’s full of sweat. You wrap your arms around him, legs wrapping around his bare waist. The sex was amazing, holy fuck.

“I love you too.” You giggle, replying to his confession earlier.

His eyes dart to you, smirking lazily before pressing his lips against yours. Deepening the kiss, slowly. Tasting himself on your tongue. Pulling away, grabbing your chin and looking right down at you. Inhaling deeply, in piece. “We need to do this more often.”

“Seriously, where is Abby though.” You ask, genuinely curious, concerned as well.

“Doesn’t matter.” He whispered.

“It does.”

“Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, bastard.”

@anitalenia credit for the cutest dividers ever thank you 🤧

#josh hutcherson #josh hutcherson fan fiction #mike schmidt #fanfic #derek danforth #romance #fluff #smut

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dustmusings · 2 months ago

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my first rings of power OC!!!

I’ve loved drawing in this more sketchy style so much omg, did all of these with an HB pencil brush lol

and then I went ahead and rendered this one a bit

me and backgrounds are not friends so it’s just um. vague as all heck. there’s some fire and stuff, Eregion is being seiged, you get it.

Fuinhíril is a Silvan Elf from Mirkwood! who travels to the newly established Mordor in search of Adar because [redacted reasons]

how mysterious, how intriguing. I bet you’re foaming at the mouth waiting for this fic to drop lmao

but actually for those interested, this is going to be a six/seven-ish part series (depending on how I want to split up events, still undecided atm) going from around s2ep3 to after ep8. so yeah, Adar lives AU I guess, I was too weak to have him die on my watch. I don’t know how to classify it but closest would be enemies to lovers.. kinda, maybe. I’ll post the first chapter soon and then hopefully every week after that.

Oh! and the fic is called 'baby I'm the wolf' after the song/album by ha vay, it was originally inspired by the lyric "you think you've caught a lamb, but baby I'm the wolf", so maybe that gives you a little flavour of the vibes

that is all :) thank you for your time.

@lonewolflupe this is the finished drawing :)

#I need some rop mutuals bc the way I was scared to post this is… embarrassing frankly #but I was encouraged by the nice comments about the preview naturally :) thanks guys #I started learning quenya for this fic too like can we at least applaud my commitment to the bit #oc: fuinhíril #adar x fuinhíril #rings of power oc #rop oc #trop oc #rings of power #the rings of power #rings of power fanart #adar x oc #lord of the rings: the rings of power #lord of the rings #oc art #elf oc #trex scribbles

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my-rewrite-academia · 9 months ago

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Day 2

Before the Heroic Foundations, Izuku, Ochako, and Tenya are joined by Tooru and Momo. Tooru gets her quirk analysed, (might also post this analysis later), and gets super excited by it.

After lunch, 1-A's fifth period starts and then!

That's right, it's the...

Costume Analysis!

...

What, did you think I was really making them perform a scenario-based quirk battle indoors on their second day? Yeah, no.

So, All Might enters, and gives everyone the costume they sent to U.A. after being accepted. Izuku's costume is changed a lot, due to being more inspired by the pre-quirk era, and his weapon of choice.

The sketch is very sketchy, so I'll describe it. It's a green hakama with the sleeves cut off half-way at the upper arms. He also wear red bandages with a black arm brace. The arm brace had a hidden mechanic that release a blade when switched. He has a thick, red rop around his waist, which holds his katana. The trousers are black and baggy. His shoes are red, the same red as his normal trainers, that go up to half of his calf. He also has a black turtleneck underneath his hakama. Everything has carbon fibre woven into it, making it extremely durable.

All Might compliments everyone's costumes, then has them go through a set of exercises to get a feel for the movability of their costumes. He's a bit nervous, but he's doing his best.

After everyone finishes their exercises, All Might encourages them to be honest and speak up if they dislike their costumes. Izuku is volunteered by Ochako to comment on people's costumes, so he kinda, low-key rips into his classmates. They're all chill about it though. Momo is spared as she already said that she'd create a new design with functionality and style.

In the next period, All Might is swapped for Midnight, though not before he asks Izuku to meet him in the teacher's lounge after school. Midnight then helps everyone figure out how they could modify their costumes, and how practical it could be.

Ochako doesn't like her heels, and her belt is too low for her liking.

Momo finds her costume inefficient in actually using her quirk, the heels are annoying, and the breast support is awful.

Kyouka finds her boots to be bulky and heavy.

Tooru doesn't feel comfortable naked and stepping on stones would hurt.

Shouto finds the ice covering his face to be aggrivating and sees nothing else wrong with it.

RIkidou thinks his costume looks too basic and not appealing at all.

Minoru claims his costume was supposed to look like a bowl of grapes but just makes him look like a baby wearing a massive diaper.

Kouji looks like he went shopping in the kids section and it doesn't match his quirk at all.

Midnight makes a note of all those who want a costume change and speaks to them each after school, lasting roughly ten to fifteen minutes.

Shouto's only lasts two as he just decides to get rid of his ice, Rikidou decides to change his skin-tight costume to something a bit more baggy and make his shirt look like a hoodie, Ochako only wants to make her shoes flat and raise the belt a wee bit, and Kyouka spreads her amps more instead of just her boots by placing them in her gloves and shoulders too.

Momo goes through a full redesign, the concept art of which I will post after I find it. Her colour scheme stays the same, but mostly everything else changes. A black sports bra, black hot pants, a red cape over it, red boots with no heels, and a watch that holographically shows her chemical makeups of any object she inputs via voice commands.

Tooru has a suit infused with her DNA, making it so that she can use her quirk in them. She can make parts of these visible, (due to the analysis of her quirk, which I'll be posting tomorrow, along with Eijirou and Mina's), meaning that she has protection from environmental hazards, such as stones that could harm her feet.

Minoru gets rid of the bowl and wears white, baggy trousers with the same design print on the seams. He also has a yellow cape and has a slingshot made of his DNA to throw the balls further.

Kouji, as mentioned before, has a more Earth-y design. Instead of ketchup and mustard, he has a lot more green and brown in his colour scheme. His skin-tight shirt is now a green tunic with a brown strap over it and brown, leather gloves. His skin-tight trousers are now baggy, khaki trousers, and he has brown boots. He also has a mask which, when worn, amplifies his voice.

Students get a costume change:

Uraraka Ochako

Yaoyorozu Momo

Jirou Kyouka

Hagakure Tooru

Todoroki Shouto

Satou Rikidou

Mineta Minoru

Kouda Kouji

Costumes may or may not be redesigned further in the future, so don't worry if you felt as though other characters needed a redesign. Shouto, for instance, will definitely have more changes when the time comes. Additionally, the only reason so many changes were made is because this is their first draft. If and when there are more changes, there will be less of them.

Costume changes will have concept art posted sooner or later, (I get very busy and/or lazy).

A Conversation with All Might

All Might asks Izuku to see him in the teacher's office. When he does, he takes them to a private room. Izuku expects a lot. While All Might is still his favourite hero, he also told him that the quirkless cannot become heroes. Because of this, he believes that All Might is going to tell him to leave U.A. or that he will just remind him not to tell anyone about his true state.

In actuality, that does not happen.

He asks Izuku if he remembers what he told him eleven months ago, on that rooftop. He repeats what he said, that he believed a quirkless person could not become a hero, and that modern-day heroes are too busy chasing after fame that they've forgotten what heroism is about.

And that he'd forgotten it himself.

That same day he told Izuku to be realistic, he watched him run into the fray to save a boy from dying. He watched him pull the boy out of danger and urge the other heroes there to participate. He watched him act as a true hero.

That he has made many mistakes, some he may never be able to rectify. But this? He will fix it and he will fix it now. 'All throughout history, many of the greatest heroes have said the same thing! The reason they save people is simple: their legs move on their own!' The same thing that happened to Izuku.

“You can become a hero!”

Izuku cries, and All Might holds him as he does.

Then he deems Izuku worthy and offers him his quirk, if he so wishes.

Of course, Izuku freaks out. Nothing such as a passable quirk has ever been documented. He mutters and mumbles theory after theory, until All Might cuts him off, stating that while his analysis was interesting, what he says is the truth. His quirk has been passed on for generations, and he is offering it up to Izuku.

And Izuku seriously considers it. This would be an incredible aid in his journey to becoming a hero. He could save so many people with such a powerful quirk! There's no reason to deny it.

Yet, despite how useful it would be, Izuku says no.

Because there are four-year-old children, diagnosed as quirkless, and they will ask their parents the same thing Izuku asked his. 'Can I still be a hero like All Might?' And they will say 'I'm so sorry'.

It's hard to see yourself in Superman when he looks nothing like you. It's hard to see yourself in heroes when they have quirks and you don't.

In Izuku's mind, by rejecting All Might's quirk, he is saving even more people. He is saving the 20% of quirkless people from having their dreams and their lives crushed. There have only been heroes who function quirklessly, never a quirkless hero.

And Izuku wants to be the first one. He wants to be the hero who he never had.

That is why he turns All Might down.

And All Might is... disappointed, but he somewhat expected a denial. Instead of being mad or annoyed, he says that he thinks Izuku is admirable for being able to get this far on his accord and merit.

Needless to say, Izuku cries once more and it's a happy ending!

...

This arc at least.

Conclusion:

Tooru gets her quirk analysed

All Might hosts his first class

Eight students get their costumes changed

All Might offers Izuku OfA, which is rejected

#bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #mha critical #rewrite #horikoshi critical #my rewrite academia #all might #plot #day 2 #Daily Life Arc

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tayfabe75 · 11 months ago

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Matty Healy: Cancelled on purpose?

"I'd rather be a pretend supervillain than some pretend hero." (x)

Matty Healy. If you're familiar with the name, chances are good you've already got an opinion about him. Probably a strong one, if I had to guess! Since opinions about Matty Healy tend to come in just two shades: black and white - revered and reviled. On the one hand, you've got people sleeping in tents on sidewalks, sometimes in sketchy cities and inclement weather, just for the chance to see him up close; on the other hand, you have chronically online Twitter users praying for his early demise, using AI art to bring their most depraved wishes to life. So, what's going on, exactly?

"The only fear I have is provoking ambivalence in people. I'd rather people be angry at me than be bored." (x)

And get angry they did! Matty's 2023 cancellation even earned him Pitchfork's "Villain of the Year" title! But...

Did he plan for it to happen all along?

On October 14th, 2022, Matty appears on Chicken Shop Date with Amelia Dimoldenberg. She confronts him about his plan to go on a podcast and pleads, "please don't", to which Matty replies:

"It's probably good advice."

A couple of months later in December 2022, Zane Lowe reveals that Matty meticulously planned their entire interview, lovingly describing him as a "TROLL!" Likewise, when questioned about their ambitious 'At Their Very Best' tour, Matty says that though the tour "feels loose", it's actually "very, very tight" and "very, very well-rehearsed".

Fast-forward to February 2nd, 2023: Matty makes an appearance on Q with Tom Power, where he describes his interest in the flimsy nature of interviews, saying:

"I could fuck my career, I could be a different person, I could do a Chinese accent, I could do anything!"

About a week later, on February 9th, 2023, Matty appeared on the Adam Friedland Show podcast. For context, this podcast is classified as "black comedy, blue humor, surreal humor, anti-humor, and political satire". It is associated with the "Dirtbag left", which is described as "a style of left-wing politics that eschews civility to convey a left-wing populist and anti-capitalist message using vulgarity". In other words, they're trolls. Just like Matty.

Now, to make things easier for anyone reading who wants the full context, I clipped Matty's three "unforgivable offenses" from the dreaded podcast: here is the "ghetto gaggers" moment, the "Ice Spice" moment, and the "accents" moment. I hope you can tell the difference between British and American accents…

Adam and Nick would go on to clarify that they didn't actually know which website Matty was watching. Likewise, very recently, the woman who walked in on Matty clarified that he was not even watching ghetto gaggers:

When asked about the podcast and whether he baited his fans on purpose, Matty said:

"A little bit. But it doesn't actually matter. Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, 'What's wrong, darling?' and they go, 'It's just this thing with Matty Healy.' That doesn't happen."

Yet, it does! Shortly after the podcast, Matty's fans expressed their distaste for his appearance on The Adam Friedland Show. Part of that might be because it was amplified by this tweet from Yungblud:

Interestingly, a few months prior to his tweet, Yungblud went on record stating his admiration for Matty Healy in November 2022. And after Matty's very "unserious" video response wherein he mocks Yungblud, but Dom would later go on to admit that he found the whole thing funny and that he still likes the guy.

Conveniently, Ice Spice also happened to go on record with her admiration for The 1975 shortly before the dreaded podcast, in January 2023!:

"I listen to alternative music. I feel like a lot of people wouldn't expect that. Yeah, shout out Coldplay, The 1975. Obsessed with them."

This, of course, made the joke about her sting that much more a month later… Now, if Matty simply promoted Ice Spice by praising her on his social media accounts, she might have gotten a small boost in streams, that's true. But think about that pretend villain quote again… by taking the fall for a barely offensive joke that he didn't even say, himself… Matty practically turned Ice Spice into a household name.

And before you go assuming Taylor collaborated with Ice Spice purely as damage control… well, there was a rumor about the collab almost a full month before it dropped, on April 27th. And here's what Ice Spice had to say about it:

"That was mostly through management. I was talking about how I was watching Taylor's documentary 'cause I just wanted to really take notes as an artist and stuff like that. Just like how the lifestyle is for such a big artist like her. My manager heard me talking about that and had like reached out to her team and then they had a song for me and everything just played out real good."

Ice Spice's clarification often gets ignored in favor of the more dramatic version of events. The same way Matty's apology addressing the situation from last April gets ignored by so-called journalists who are rewarded for their biases via clickbait titles.

Ice Spice also clarified that Matty apologized to her personally several times:

"I saw him at the Jean Paul Gaultier party a couple days ago, and he was like, 'Hey, you OK?' and I'm like, 'Of course.' He apologized to me a bunch of times. We're good."

Speaking of podcasts… on April 8th, The 1975 released an episode of 'A Theatrical Performance of an Intimate Moment' (filmed in March) where Matty appears to be rehearsing lines for an upcoming and seemingly "candid" interview with Caveh Zahedi:

On April 15th, Matty revealed that he inspired the rat from Flushed Away. Now, Matty probably didn't actually inspire the character of Roddy St. James (although he really was close to one of the film's writers, Ian La Frenais, who was his mother's godfather), but... with this joke, he had just cemented his own "vermin" moniker that would continue to be used to insult him to this very day (sound familiar? 🐍)

What was it Taylor said? Ah, that's right:

"If you make the joke first and you make the joke better, then it's not as funny when other people call you a name."

Almost a week later, on April 21st, Matty would go on a four-minute speech on stage in Auckland, New Zealand, "finally" providing an apology and an explanation for the whole podcast debacle:

"It's not because I'm annoyed that me joking got misconstrued, it's because I don't want Ice Spice to think I'm a dick. I love you, Ice Spice. I'm so sorry. But I don't want to be… I don't want anything to get misconstrued to be mean. I just want to say, 'Hello. This is a bit embarrassing. I'm sorry if I get it wrong. We all get it wrong'. You know? Like, I just have to do it in public and then apologize to Ice Spice, and my life's just a bit weird. But I am genuinely sorry if I've upset her because I fucking love her."

Ignoring this pre-existing apology, on May 17th, Taylor's fans (allegedly) penned the "SpeakUpNow campaign", urging Taylor to dump Matty. On May 30th, Brad Troemel published the "Taylor Swift Fan Union", a series of satirical infographics targeting Taylor's most entitled fans.

Taylor and Matty were reported to have broken up on June 5th, just one month after Taylor had the nerve to date someone of her own volition, without first seeking fan permission!

And things were about to get even worse for Matty, as his labelmate Rina Sawayama would go on to call him out at Glastonbury in June:

"I wrote this next song because I was sick and tired of micro-aggressions. So, tonight, this song goes out to a white man who watches Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters. I've had enough."

Yet… Matty resigned from his position at Dirty Hit at the beginning of April, which, at the very least, should call the ownership of Rina's masters into question. Speaking of Rina, she's historically a friend of Matty's! Here she is photographed with Matty's dog Mayhem in 2020. And when Matty took over The Face podcast, they asked some of The 1975's friends to cover their songs… Rina was selected and chose 'Love It If We Made It'.

Speaking of Matty's friends… Bleachers were hand-picked to perform at The 1975's Finsbury Park show on July 2nd, where Matty would label Jack his best friend. Yet, just one month later, Matty would be allegedly "disinvited" from Jack's wedding.

In August 2023, Bleachers would go on to join The 1975's Dirty Hit label (alongside Rina). That same month, an episode of The Ion Pack podcast featuring Matty was published, revealing that Brad Troemel "lit a fire" underneath him "massively". Yep! The guy from earlier who created the "Taylor Swift Fan Union". And, though the podcast was published in August, it was filmed all the way back in November 2022…

Brad would go on to help co-write The 1975's 'Still At Their Very Best' Tour, which would launch in September 2023 (yep, the same month as Matty and Taylor's new relationships!):

During the SATVB tour, on February 13, 2024, Matty would describe what he does on stage as "simulating a breakdown", and, as was always intended, Matty's fans largely fell into the trap he laid… (or, at least, I personally saw a lot of speculation regarding Matty's possible drug relapse and mental health issues all over Reddit and Twitter, based solely on his on-stage performance - well, that and gossip blinds, I'm sure).

But... Matty called it a year earlier, in February 2023, when he said:

"I like these lines of like, blurring between what people consider is real. Because with the internet now, there's also a forum. So, there's a lot of conversation right now about like, whether I'm back on drugs, or whether the show is real."

Remember that pesky podcast that started all this mess? The Adam Friedland Podcast? Well, it's co-created and produced by Nick Mullen. Check out this file Matty shared on December 28th, 2023:

It's a little blurry, so let me actually type it out:

UNTITLED MH PILOT "Canceled" Written by Nick Mullen

Some interesting things started happening at The 1975's shows this February. Matty began playing the clip from Q with Tom Power during Consumption (the one about how he could fuck his career and do a Chinese accent if he wanted). And, in the midst of a seemingly earnest speech, Matty breaks the fourth wall, encouraging his fans to be skeptical of things they see on screens - even seemingly sincere moments...

I'll close this out by reminding anyone who happens to have read this far that Matty grew up watching tabloids profit off of made-up lies about his parents, and the media might have destroyed his relationship with the woman of his dreams (we'll see!) Basically, if anyone has the means and motive to troll the media, it's Matty Healy.

#theory: matty's cancellation #theory: cancelled on purpose

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lonely-shine · 29 days ago

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The Land of Plenty: JAGR- character concepts I

Something new is cooking 👀

Strap in because I'm gonna tell you the story of how I came up with 'The Land of Plenty: Just Another Greek Retelling' (or JAGR, for short).

So, I first had the idea for this project a couple of years ago, prompted by a post that wondered why, in retellings of Icarus and the Sun, the Sun was always a woman, when the greek gods associated with the sun, Helios and Apollo, are both guys. I decided if I ever made my own greek myth retellings, I'd have Icarus be a engineer working on mechanical wings, and Sun a male belly dancer.

Aaaaand then I proceeded to leave that vague idea on the back corner of my mind, mostly forgetting about it except for brief moments in which something reminded me of it, but not for long enough for me to make any real progress, only small things (Daedalus being Icarus mentor/adoptive father rather than biological, deciding it makes the most sense for Sun to be Apollo rather than Helios, etc.)

Fast forward to last month, when I finally listened to EPIC the musical and fell in love + went into hardcore hyperfixation with it, which reawakened my love for greek mythology… and with it, this project! ❤️

I'm still in the early drafting and sketching stages, but I'm really excited about this and for the first time I feel like I might actually do something with this idea :3 For now, I can let you know that this won't have an overarching plot or be focused solely on Icarus and Sun, rather it will be different snippets in the lives of different characters, loosely based on different myths (but it will NOT be accurate to the classic myths!! I'm very much doing my own thing here!!)

So yeah! I hope I can keep sharing my progress with you all 💕💕 (also, I'm taking this as a chance to get comfortable sharing art in a more sketchy/non-polished style xD)

#art #digital art #sketch #concept art #character design #the land of plenty #jagr #jagr concept #greek mythology #greek myth retelling #icarus #daedalus #apollo

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small-sinclair · 2 years ago

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Roadside Angel: The Way You Smile

This is part 3 of the series! This is not the last part.

Lester Sinclair x reader

Tw: burned hand, mention of dead people, not proofread

Tag list: @sketchy-rosewitch, @sweetgoateelight, @justmeandmyghosties, @idorkish, @mommymilkerfanclub, @early20sfailingplenty, @shadow-h-cipher

Part 1| Part 2

It’s been two weeks since you’ve been here, so you have a month left to tell Lester ‘I love you’, but you weren’t sure if you were going to make it long enough to say it. But you were starting to find reasons to love him.

For starters, he asked Vincent, the one in the waxed mask, to let you say goodbye to your brother and William before he turned them into wax. He let you have a moment to mourn over them as he stood outside of his brother’s workshop. Vincent did a nice job on sowing Jace’s wounds and cleaning Williams body; they looked like they were sleeping.

When you were ready to leave, Lester walked out out of the maze of pipes and wires towards upstairs to the House of Wax. Before you left the room, you looked back at your brother and waved goodbye one last time.

“What’s Vincent going to do to them?” You asked softly as you went up the steps, passing waxed faces on the wall.

“He’ll put your brother in t’movies and t’other in the dining room,” Lester says as he opens the door for you. He held out his hand for you to take at the last step, but you didn’t take it. He awkwardly put his hand down. “Vince’ll make sure they’re respectful.”

You were sure if that was comforting or horrifying to say. “I hope so.”

Your footsteps echoed throughout the museum as you took a look around. It doesn’t look like anyone alive has been here for years; the mountain of dust showed along with the cobwebs. Though the place looked paused in the late 90s, the art style looked pretty new. You stopped at a chair and poked it— it’s wax.

“Is this whole place made of wax?”

Lester stopped a few feet ahead of you and turned to look at you. In the halo of dust floating around your hair, you looked just like an angel. “Yeah. The whole place ‘is.”

You gave him a doubtful look. “Bullshit.”

“Point ‘at somethin’,” he encouraged, a grin forming. “Anythin’.”

You took that invention, pointing at the floor. “Wood?”

He shakes his head. “Nope. Beeswax and soybean wax.”

“Door and bookcase— that can’t be wax!”

“Sorry, sugar,” he chimed. “Wax, too. Soy wax, actually.”

You gasped surprisingly. “The whole house!? That can’t be—“

“Wax. Beeswax, soybean wax, coconut oil wax, an’ whale oil wax as t’hardern.” Lester gives you the brightest smile. “Mama built ‘is place.”

“Your… your mother built this?”

He nodded as he paced the floors then stopping by an oil painting. “Yep, Mama built ‘is before I was born.” Then he looked back at you. “She taught Vincent everythin’ she knew!” He chuckles and shakes his head, saying to himself, “They’re smarter than me.”

You tilted your head then looked at the painting. At the corner, you saw Vincent’s name written in gold. “He does the art?”

“That’s right.”

“Bo fixes car,” you took a careful step towards him. “And what do you do?”

His smile leaves as he looks down at his dirty boots. The air became thick around you. He pushes himself away from his brother’s work and came to your side. He takes your hand. “Come on,” he mumbles. “Gotta get you home. Still need rest.”

That was two weeks ago.

Now, you barely talk to him.

He wakes up before you, cooks you breakfast and coffee, and kisses you goodbye on the hand, saying, “Be home soon, sweet pea.” Everyday, he does this. When he comes home, he kisses your hand or cheek and washes up. He talks about his day and tells you something new the loves about you.

“I love your handwriting,” he told you a couple days ago. “It’s so easy to follow and flows.”

Yesterday, he said, “I love the bread ya made last night.” He flashes a smile and said, “Promise I’ll bring home more cookin’ things ‘is weekend. Y’all can come with.”

He invited you to come with him to town last time, but you didn’t go.

Even though you don’t talk to him, he still tried his best to talk to you. He takes about his day, about the people he met, the animals and kills— but he likes it when he hears you talk. Still, you haven’t given him the satisfaction for talking or smiling. Lester would bend-over backwards just to see you smile. He’ll do anything to see you smile.

When he came home today with a wild daisy, he hung up his hat, boots off at the door, and he kissed your hand like normal. He balled up his light grey jacket and threw it in the washer. “I brought home a deer,” he says as he places the Bowie on the counter next to his pack of Reds and green lighter.“Killed jus’ twenty minutes ago, I reckon.”

You hummed to show your approval. Before you came here, you never thought of eating deer, now? You love it!

“I love the way ya sing, y/n,” he said. You lifted a brow at this one. You were finishing making dinner, something that he expects you to do, as he went on, saying, “Mama used to sing me to sleep.” He went to the kitchen sick and started washing his arms with orange soap and Goo-b-Gone. “She hated singin’ to me. Bu, you?” He glanced at you and gave a half-hearted smile. “You sound like an angel.” You couldn’t help but give a grin in return, but it fell as you continued cooking your hamburger helper.

He bit his lower lip nervously then started washing his hands again then under the finger nails. “I saw a lil’ fox today. It had the cutest tail an’ face—“

You weren’t paying attention when you grabbed the hot part of the pan. You let out a painful yelp and threw the spoon to the floor. You held your hand close to your chest as you fought back tears. Lester hurried to your side and took your hand—

“No!” You shouted, pushing him back. “Don’t fuckin’ touch me!”

He looked at you hurt and lowered his hand. He bent down, picked up the spoon, washed it off, and stands by the stove. “Run it under water at least, y/n,” he instructed. “Helps the pain.”

You did as you were told and ran it under cold water and took deep breaths through your teeth. In the silence, he said, “I know we’re supposed t’do one a day, but I love the way ya take charge of yer life.” He sounded genuine as he said, “I never… well, I wanna take charge.” He glances at you then back at dinner. “I love ‘at your strong.”

That broke the dam.

You’re supposed to hate him. He didn’t save your brother and friend. He has you here in his home, keeping a close eye on you and everything— but he’s been nothing but kind. He gives you space and never forces your to do anything. He helps clean and cooks, but you’ve taken that role to keep you busy.

But he smiles at you. It’s never forced or fake. It’s a real smile filled with tenderness and friendliness.

So how could he come from a family like that? How come he never ended up like Bo or Vincent? He doesn’t like killing or participates in the killings, so how? How didn’t he come out almost normal. Bo enjoys seeing your fear in your eyes every time he comes around. He scares you, threatens you, has once threatened to stab you if you showed weakness. Is that it? Does Lester feed off your fear?

You let a cracked cry escape and started crying against the sink. “Aw, sweet pea,” Lester sighs. He turns the stove off and moved the pan away from the burner and came to your side. “Is it that bad? Lemme see your hand—“

“Smile,” you chocked out. You met his eyes. “I-I love your smile.”

His eyes went wide in disbelief, but it softened. Hesitantly, he guided your hand back under the cold water and holds it there. Gears turned and burned with thoughts of hope and fear of you, but he’ll worry about it later. You just… you love his smile?

“Thank you, sweet pea,” he whispers. “I love your smile, too—“

“Lester,” you cut him off as far tears fell down your eyes. “Lester, I’m scared. I’m scare-scared you’ll hurt me or your brothers and Bo—“

He searched outside then looked back at you. “Rest your head on my shoulder, sugar.”

“Les—“

“Just do it. Le’me talk.”

You lean on his shoulder and allowed him to look over your burned hand. His fingers brushed over the burned mark for a moment then placed it under water once more. His eyes never left your hand, and he looked at it as if it was a fragile piece of art. He turned off the water and brought up your hand, kissing the wound as gently as he could.

“I ain’t never gonna hurt ya,” he promises. “I swore to your brother, an’ I plan on keepin’ it.” He rested his head on top of yours as he looks at the burn. “I know Bo’s been scaring you, an’ I know your scared t’death,” he closed his eyes and swallowed hard, “You ain’t got nothin’ to be afraid of when ‘m around.” He kisses your hand once more before turning to face you. He lifts your chin as he thumbed away your tears. Oddly, his rough hands were soft today. “I’ll fight them monsters, sweet pea,” he kisses your knuckles, “I swear.”

*************

After dinner and tv, he made his bed on the couch again. He fluffed his pillows and took his night medication, but he stopped when he saw you standing in the hallway between the living room and the bedroom.

He straightens himself, eyes scanning over you. “Is your hand fine?”

You nodded as you held the wrapped hand close to your chest. “Could,” you swallowed the lump on your throat, “could you sleep with me tonight?”

His eyes lit up. “You sure? I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable.”

You nodded. Standing aside, you opened up to the bedroom. “Just for the night, okay?”

He nods and takes his pillows, following you down the hall. In bed, he lays down after you made yourself comfortable and laid on his back.

Before he closed his eyes, you asked, “Promise you’ll never hurt me?”

“I promise, sugar,” he drawled, turning his head towards you. “I’ll protect you from everything wrong if ya let me.”

You laid on your side and offered a smile, and it made his heart ache for another. “Thank you, Lester.”

You started to learn to love him the next day.

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baby-xemnas · 1 year ago

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I'm not really a shipper, but that leaves me freedom for enjoying everyone's take/artwork on any ship. That said, I've actually never heard of LawBepo before seeing your stuff?? It's actually quite adorable? At least, what I see since it's only your stuff I see lol either way, I wanted to ask WHY Bepo? Like what drew you too the ship I guess?

Always curious how people get to ships they like haha. That and every time I practice Bepo I think of your Bepo so I figured I'd ask finally while I think of your art 😂 hope you don't mind.

Which that thing said, I need to throw in I'm positively alive for your art btw. It's so crisp and I love for the sketchy/black and white. Thank you for gracing my eyes with it.

thank you for the message!

(you never seen it because except for like a couple of artworks noone really done it at the scale that i have. at least not in the western part of the fandom)

what drew me to the ship is the hug on zou but back when i first got into op 8+ years ago but i wasnt open minded enough to take it seriously - it didnt spark ideas to make stuff in me back then yet - but i did love the hug A LOT

its adorable. its just the cutest ever and the single most affectionate that we see law. you cant argue with that if i try. idc how people interpret his other scenes, zou hug is the most obviously and openly shameless display of affection towards someone we see with law

look at this fucker smiling hes so content rubbing cheeks with his 22 year old male best friend

i came back FOR bepo because i heard of [manga spoilers] i saw it and thought yoo shit hype started looking things up and saw the STOP ACTING CUTE scene and it was all over. one more canon reason for me to ship them (that is ofc if u consider anime filler canon since both the scene i mentioned were toei expanding and improving upon odas ideas) but i do consider them canon if it suits me lol

AND THEN I SAW FILM RED CRUMBS OH MY GOD. OH YOU TOOK HIM TO THE CONCERT UNBELIEVABLE YOU LOVE HIM SO MUCH

basically we were given a ton of cute fanservice of bepo being law's favorite most precious guy and i always ship my ships in accordance to canon its just the type of person that i am

you need to give me a crumb of canon and ill justify the rest. a hook is always necessary and these two got plenty

also reading the novel and seeing bepo be such a precious little brother to law....yeah...cute

oh we cant forget that i also went to look at things on pixiv and japanese fans are geniuses so i got so inspired by the characterization of law being a protective nose bleeding weirdo and bepo being oblivious to it....incredible dynamic i got absolutely hooked. bepo is cute and good and precious and he is home and comfort to law

to summarize: why bepo? because canonically bepo is the only person in bepo's position. he gets special treatment from law, he is THE crewmember of his. he is what killer is do kid - we know most about them they are the closest to the captain. its simple math

finally thank you im glad you enjoy my style!!!!

#lawbepo #always been just the lineart guy and the rest is secondary #either blocked out flats or the most minimal cell shading lol #im super happy b/w style works for everybody cuz it sure works for ME

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labyrinthe-exe · 3 months ago

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laby_log 0.1

gosh. where do i even begin? yes i'm totally writing in lapslock, because that's just how i am... LOL

anyway, wow!

okay...

where do i begin?

last year i did a 100 day art challenge at the beginning of 2024, i totally knocked that out of the park. this isn't really a year wrap-up sort of post but i promise it's relevant! so, flashback to early 2024 in like april, i've been drawing 100 days back then and finished in april... and then for the rest of the year i spent it procrastinating...

i had FINALLY progressed my art, jumpstarted and kicked back into gear the budding sprouts of falling head over heels back in love with art... and i totally wanted to jump to the wind and just shout...

"HELL YEAH, I'M SO BACK!" and catapult myself into the most productive year of my life.

so did i end up actually keeping up with art? no. i arted very intermitted...ly... and then i worked on like everything else but art ( my mental health for instance, cause woo boy i went through a LOT of changes in 2024... but not gonna get into that, wow boy howdy totally a wild ride mentally... )

i ended up being inspired by artists that i follow and interact with, like wow :plead: they're literally all so amazing :sobbbb: crying all over the floor, for the fact they could all pull through, so could i!!!

i knew i wanted to do winter jam, i wanted to do and make visual novels and games... I HAVE LOTS OF AMBITIONS! but golly, gosh... am i a procrastinator... with a perfectionist streak...

i wanted to do spooktober, otome jam, etc and failed all those... that's why i was finally WINTER JAM WILL BE THE BEGINNING and it was!

in like three days i created a shitty visual novel demo called "it's only december, always december" about seasonal depression and it was like a psychological horror... i had LOFTY AMBITIONS! and it's not that i couldn't do them... its just the entire month of december was hectic... crazy... totally batshit insane... i was robbed of both time, mental energy, and my goals until i was nothing but a collection of ambition, fatigue, and all my wirings all sticking out... totally a not good sight!

but i promised myself, i will make a visual novel! so i got my ass up, collected the time that i had... and birthed up... "it's only december, always december" and finagled it on the last freaking day and WHAM BAM! that's the beginning of my wannabe villain origin story!!!

and thus after december ended ( finally ) it was decreed that january was to be born and it was 2025... THE TRUE BEGINNING of my totally super cool and amazing visual novel developer journey !!!

i decided like idk like 2-3 days into the year that i was going to make the most crazy and ambitious idea ever... for a complete newbie beginner fledgling dev... yes... i was going to make a gothic horror romance visual novel with SWAK ( sealed with a kiss jam )... with a whole whopping... you guessed it...

EIGHT WHOLE LOVE INTERESTS!

A MAP SYSTEM

POLY ENDINGS

A TOTALLY SUPER COOL PROTAGONIST ( CAIN my baby )

STAT BUILDING

AFFECTION POINTS

POINT AND CLICK MECHANICS

INSANITY COUNTERS

now if this sounds unrealistic, believe me, it is. LOL but i am nothing but incredibly idealistic... so i charged on with an idea! no programming knowledge! no idea how to make gui! and like literally no story or outline because i'm a fucking pantser! honestly, it started out pretty fun?

i concepted some gui, i made some progress and i was having fun thinking about and talking with dev friends about my totally wacky dreams! i spent the first week really researching gothic horror and like trying to get myself in gear, drawing concept art of beloved characters and trying to figure out the art direction i wanted to go for!!! this is where my first mistake was...

trying to change my art style!

my art style is naturally kind of super sketchy and retro inspired, my art direction was also super retro inspired: think matsumi inomata, castlevania, yuki nobuteru ( sorry if thats spelled horribly ) ... you know !!! vibes! but the thing is...

i'm still not a proficient artist, so consistency is something i really really struggle with UNFORTUNATELY!

pictured up here are sketches i went through, trying to design the love interests ( focalor, october ) and cain my beloved baby boy is the one that looks like griffith's child... yes i'm super aware of the resemblance but i swear they're totally not the same!

at this point, i was still super optimistic! i ended up discussing with a friend who told me some of my gui wants were possible!!! and also opening up renpy documentation and fully prepped to spam another friend w/ like a million programming questions... but also super excited to just tough it out! cause i _do_ love coding... mostly from a css/html background though...

i love learning though!

but golly, i underestimated how much the gui would send me into emotional turmoil. i was constantly second guessing myself like "does it actually look good? does it look nice? is this going to be slop just like always december was? am i going to give up? am i even cut out for game dev at all?" things like that...

keeping a positive mindset and taking care of my daily irl chores, spending time with friends, and being a cheerful person was kind of hard and especially as i hit a low point this past week...

i really really wasn't feeling up to par this week... i wondered if i sounded silly or irresponsible to my friends or like a totally dumb scatterbrain... i wondered if people looked at me like a totally naive super unrealistic nobody who would never achieve anything at all even dialing it back... i nearly spiraled!!! but...

good news though, i practically finished the gui!

but before that, i ended up drawing some more beloved characters in hopes to cheer my mood up and contemplate the story i would tell for yandere jam... and if i hadn't mentioned it before then... yes... i do plan to join jams literally all year and release a full game of always december for next winter jam!

it helps because i'm a hikikomori coded neet... i'm just trying to push myself into a more consistent schedule so thats why i'm doing the whole "go big or go home" because if i don't push myself like this, i'm just not going to do anything at all... so even if i fail or stumble, it helps me in the long run!

ta-dah!!! one part of the gui... i had so much lovely and amazing help from dev friends getting this all squared away from colors to how to shade better and encouragement to keep going! i love them so much ;--;

i spent like 2wks totally fluffing about, still haven't written jack shit ( but i'm confident in my writing ) and now venturing into sprites and background artwork!!! and since today is like 11 at night on the 17th... well i only barely hve 2 weeks left to get everything else squared away...

thank gosh, this is only supposed to be a demo! so all those lofty features i mentioned earlier... thats just for the full game! haha!

so where am i now? well...

ive made like two sprites! the gui and.... i'm a bit bummed out... i wanted to do full body but i decided today in the middle of drawing them after being unsatisfied and nearly crying over it...that i can just cut their knees off! :D ( which was suggested earlier but like in an actual cut their height down way cause they're all tall giant not human love interests )

it really sucked running into that roadbump, cause i realized i am lacking when it comes to my art... yes i know i'm improving but i am not proficient in full body and 3/4 angles and other angles at all and i really need to practice but i told myself i would try to get creative and look for other solutions... i did!

so now, i feel confident i can complete the rest of the cast... which i'm thinking that i'm cutting the demo interactables to just 4! which honestly is for the best and i can finish the next two tmrw or tonight... if i feel like drawing again..

but while i've hit hiccups and i'm not doing as much as i could be doing throughout the day... i am having a lot of fun! i'm learning a lot, what works for me and what doesn't... i'm learning that chatsims are actually massive ( i wanted to do one... i guess i'll hve to spend some time researching it ) and honestly... i haven't even TOUCHED music or audio but i'm excited to deep dive into that too...

and here's another side quest of art that i did while i was trying to improve my mood the other day... i really do yo-yo hard and while i wanted to cry today... i'm super glad i persevered... that's to say... uh... dont always do that LOL

OH! and here's what it was gonna look like if i managed to do all full bodies but i hated it cause like his feet was too big and his head was just- it was hard! okay!!! anyway... i'm also gonna have to learn proper marketing too but overall... i feel good? i feel like this year i will learn like super much like a million amount of knowledge...

i look forward to posting another log like idk next week ( don't hold me to that, i'm like all over the place... )

...and maybe i'll actually get up a site or post more art here or like on bsky... etc... but for now! i'm just doing my best to get a consistent schedule!

anyway, laby logging out <3

#labylog #labyart #labyrinthe.exe #oc #devlog #indiedev #gamedev #vndev #visual novel

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