#yep i completely changed the way i draw and color

[wukyma]

As promised, I brought my take on Trojan war Polites but it turned out a bit uhhhhhh dark. Blood tw and generally sad things, enjoy! *goes to bawl my eyes out in a corner*

○○○

I had the idea that as a child/teen Polites really loved animals and their death made him sad, but Odysseus and Eurylochus often went hunting so he accompanied them, not really thrilled about it

Since Ody said it's alright to hunt, Polites changed his mindset with time,, it kind of stuck with him during the war; while fighting humans he would see birds instead just to block out the reality that horrified him

(I tried to make him look a bit younger here than usual)

Probably he would have nightmares about it, now with actual birds (?)

And despite being sick and tired himself, Polites would still take care of others, especially Perimedes (idk in my headcanons he is the youngest one since we don't have any official ages ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(•-•)⁠_⁠/⁠¯)

Also a version with glasses! Idk why the one above seemed more natural, but I just can't leave him without them :'D

[rekino2114]

Mukuro Ikusaba. The sixteenth prompt, lying hidden somewhere in the prompt list. The one you call "your child sets up a date for you two". I make my request for her.

Cute moments with you and mukuro's child

Pairing:mukuro ikusaba x gn reader

A/n:I think this might be the best request I have ever received just because of how it was worded. Thank you so much, Anon. I am standing and applauding you you're a genius

Also I changed the prompt just to make it more general hope you don't mind

Non despair au

Prompts list

".........minako do you mind telling me what happened today at school?"

Your daughter stopped looking at the cartoon and stared straight at you while smiling.

Minako was basically a spitting image of her mother, with black hair and freckles to complete the look, the only things she seemed to have inherited by you were her eyes who were the same color as yours.

"Oh yeah, I did a drawing of us"

".....I know, I already hung it up.....I meant the other thing"

".......what other thing?"

"....the show and tell"

"....ooohhh, yeah everyone loved what I brought"

"......w-wait they did?"

"Yeah, yeah they even wanted to play with it too"

"....please tell me you didn't let them"

"Why not?"

"Cause it's-.......nevermind, why did you bring that out of all the other things?"

"....what do you mean?"

"............"

"Y/n wants to know why you brought one of my rifles to show and tell"

Your wife finally intervened and lifted you of the burden that was explaining a child why bringing a gun to school wasn't a good idea

"Cause it's mama's! And the teacher said we had to bring something that reminded us of our parents"

"OK.....but why a gun?"

"Cause I told everyone mama was the best soldier ever and had to bring proof"

".....you almost gave your teacher a heart attack, thank God it wasn't loaded"

".....what does that mean?"

"Nothing you have to worry about, just please don't do anything like that again"

".......uhhhh"

".....what's wrong minako?"

".....if I gave one of my friends one of mama's knives does that count?"

".........you did what?"

Mukuro gave her daughter a death stare, which caused her to get scared and run to her room while screaming. Your wife sighed and put a hand up to her head to indicate how frustrated she was so you put a hand on her shoulder and kissed her cheek

"Don't be too harsh to her, she didn't know it was wrong"

"....yes you're right, I just need to hide my weapons better"

"We should come back earlier by that but if we’re not here by 8 then put minako to bed"

"............."

"Y/n and I already made food for her so there should be no problems with that"

"............"

"You know my number if anything happens"

"..........."

"Junko, are you listening?"

Mukuro's sister looked up from her phone and gave the black haired girl a thumbs up

"Yep totally, don't you worry about anything"

".....what was the first thing I told you?"

"....to not put her to bed...?"

"*sighs* I'm starting to think I should have hired a babysitter"

"And refuse your sister doing it for free?"

"Listen junko I trust you so don't do anything stupid ok?"

"Are you still worried? I told you to calm down, what's the worst that can happen?"

"..........I'm gonna go"

"OK, you and y/n have a nice date, me and minako are gonna become besties in no time"

You and mukuro said hi to junko and minako and went on your date. You had a great time, but you could tell mukuro was worried about what was going on in the house, so you tried to comfort her on your way back home

"Are you worried about minako?"

"Yeah....I love junko, I really do but I don't think she's good with kids"

"She couldn't have done anything that bad right?"

".........I....wouldn't put it past her"

You two entered your house and looked around. The house looked undamaged, which was already a relief so you called minako over only for your eyes to widen when you saw her approaching with a full face of make-up and died pink hair

"........what happened?"

"Auntie junko gave me a makeover'

"......we....can see that, why?"

"She said she wanted to look pretty so I made her pretty"

"BY PUTTING MAKE-UP ON HER? SHE'S SEVEN"

"It's never too early to start"

"And what if she's allergic?"

".....wait you can be allergic to make-up?"

"YOU'RE A FASHIONISTA AND YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT!?"

Junko shrugged and mukuro sighed, hee irritation slowly dissipating

"Listen, junko, you know I love you. You're my sister and everything, but please just don't"

"Don't what?"

"Do anything like that to my child ever again"

"OK, sorry, I just wanted to have fun with her"

".....just don't"

"Got it, buuuut I think we really did become friends, if you ever need a babysitter aga-"

"I won't call you"

"Really? Come on not even once?"

"........I'll think about it"

"Great, I knew you were the best sister ever"

Junko hugged mukuro and said hi you and your daughter. While leaving, when she left, mukuro immediately grabbed minako and looked at her again

"We need to take a bath now"

"OK can I grab one of my plushies?"

".....what?"

The child went into her room that was unexpectedly filled to the brim with plushies of every type

"......I.......how?"

"Auntie junko brought me those, she said I could have tea parties with them and mama"

"........I....need to call junko, you bathe her ok?

"Yeah.....just....don't be too angry, she gave us free plushies"

".......I guess, but I'm not having tea parties with them"

"Don't worry, I'll take that burden"

[anime97-99]

🌸Sakura Haruno🌸

Hi!! So yep, I decided to make a post just about Sakura, because I honestly think she’s a super interesting character. Not just because of how she was written, but also cause it’s kinda wild how much hate a fictional girl can get just for existing.

Intro

I finally sat down to explain why I think Sakura is one of the most misunderstood characters in Naruto. I go over her growth, her struggles, and why the whole “useless” thing never really made sense to me. If you’ve ever doubted her or just felt like the hate didn’t fully add up, maybe this gives you another way to look at her. Feel free to agree, disagree, or just chill and read!!🫶

Part One: Who Is Sakura?

First her design

I know there’s a lot of controversy around her design, which I don’t find convincing. Like yeah, Sakura was never meant to be the “pretty girl,” but she was always a vital and charismatic character, Kishimoto himself said that. Personally, I think she’s beautiful. Her color palette is super harmonious, and her name fits her perfectly: Sakura, with that soft pink hair and those bright, courageous and complementary emerald eyes.

A flower that symbolizes fleeting beauty, rebirth, and inner strength in Japan.

As he said himself, Kishimoto admits he’s not great at drawing female characters. That probably means he spent most of his time practicing how to draw male characters instead of balancing both, and honestly, that’s a problem a lot of artists face. Still, there’s no real excuse if you’re planning to make a full manga, you need to be versatile if you want to be a good mangaka. But for me, the most important part of any good story is the writing. That’s why I still think Kishimoto did well, even if Sakura’s first design wasn’t that cute. He wasn’t used to drawing girls, and he improved on that a lot as the story went on.

She may not be canonically described as a stunning beauty, but her inner self blooms like a flower in spring: strong, radiant, and full of life.

Sakura doesn’t just grow, she blossoms into this beautiful woman who carries so much strength and heart.

Second her personality

She’s Yang. Yes, she’s a girl, a female character, but she’s the Yang to Sasuke’s Yin. She could easily be Naruto’s twin with how similar they are, and still, she gets called all kinds of names just because she’s a girl in a shonen. (And honestly, a big part of that comes from how Kishimoto treated her specifically, especially compared to how he wrote other male and even female characters.) That’s why she’s often compared to Kushina, by Minato and other fans, because Naruto and Sakura are almost gender-swapped versions of each other!!

Their personalities are super similar, but they’re not copies, they each have their own heart, their own story.

I think this Reddit post put it really well, Sakura is super similar to Naruto, but she’s more balanced. Part of that is because she didn’t grow up with a tragic past like Naruto or Sasuke, so her view of life is more stable and healthy. She focuses more on preserving her well-being instead of recklessly sacrificing everything she has.

🍅🍥 Sasuke and Naruto didn’t have that kind of stability at the beginning of the story. That’s why they were so impulsive and self-destructive. But when Naruto finally gained friends and a sense of family, everything changed.

Teen Naruto’s most important bond is Sasuke, because Sasuke represents what Naruto could’ve become if he had taken a darker path. For Naruto, Sasuke is the only one who truly understands Naruto’s deepest fear, the loneliness, and vice versa. So saving Sasuke is also like saving himself. Not just because he loves him (which, obviously, he does).

They’re not complete without each other. They’re two sides of the same coin, two halves of a whole, like Yin and Yang.

Adult Naruto isn’t ugly or stupid or “not Naruto.” He just grew and matured. He realized that you can’t afford to be reckless when you’ve got something to protect, especially innocent lives, people who don’t know how to defend themselves. Unlike Sasuke, who’s always been strong as hell.

🌸 Back to Sakura, honestly, I think her inner Sakura is both cute and super realistic. To me, it represents the “I”, the inner self. That part of us we don’t always show, but that’s still very real. It shows she’s not fake, she’s just navigating between what she feels and what she shows. That’s human.

A lot of people mocked her because of that back in the day like it was some goofy, unnecessary gag, but it’s one of the most psychologically rich elements of her character.

Inner Sakura is her true voice the “I” as I said. The Sakura that exists before shame, fear, social expectations. The raw, emotional part of her that feels everything, even when she tries to act composed.

She’s the fire inside, the little piece of her that refuses to shrink.

And you know what?? That’s real. So many people, especially girls, grow up learning to censor themselves. To be polite. To smile when they want to scream. Inner Sakura shows that duality: the conflict between who society wants her to be and who she really is inside.

It’s funny. It’s honest.

And it makes her feel real, even more than some of the “stoic” characters people praise for being “cool.”

Also… she literally used inner Sakura to resist Ino’s mind control jutsu in the Chunin Exams.

Sakura is a girl in a man’s world, and even with all her flaws and insecurities, she never gives up. She carves out her place, on her own terms, with her own strength.

Part Two: Sakura Haruno, The Main Female Character

In defense of Sakura, because she deserves better, you don't have to love her character, but hating her just because she's "not strong" or "useless" feels like an oversimplification.

The truth is Sakura is not only strong in her own way, she's crucial to the Naruto world.

The problem isn't her, it's the way the story handles her compared to her teammates.

Now that we’ve seen a bit of who Sakura really is, we can start unpacking even more, because trust me, there’s a lot to talk about.

Some fans feel Sakura was sidelined in favor of flashier fights and I get why that impression sticks. But here's what I found and think about her!! Let’s get to work:

Yes, she is not the strongest in combat, and?

Sakura’s role was never to be the most powerful fighter. She’s a medical ninja, and not just any medic, she’s the best of her generation, including male shinobi. That’s huge. People forget that in a war, medical support isn’t optional. It’s what keeps the entire system functioning. You can’t keep fighting if there’s no one to patch you up.

Yes, fight scenes are flashier and more hype, but the medic who actually keeps the team alive?? That’s the real MVP.

Medical ninjas are undervalued

In real-world wars, hospitals and schools are protected zones (or should be). The ninja world mirrors that, doctors are sacred. And Sakura mastered her field. She trained under Tsunade and inherited her strength, her medical expertise, and her resilience. Just because healing doesn’t explode things doesn’t make it less badass.

Also, let's not pretend she didn't fight. She took down Sasori. And yeah, maybe Chiyo did most of the puppeteering, but Sakura knew exactly what to do. She adapted, she worked with someone she had just met, and she literally trusted her with her life. That takes guts and serious skill. And she also showed her kind heart wanting to save Chiyo even if that means she dies, she is a really pure child.

She cracked the ground with her punches and treating one of the most complex venoms in record time, surpassing Chiyo, an expert in poisons, and even the genious Tsunade, all at the age of sixteen.

In the war, she destroyed dozens of enemies like it was nothing. And in Boruto she’s a close-combat monster. She’s not “just some medic” she chose to master both healing and fighting. She became the best of both worlds.

And although it’s not directly mentioned in Kishimoto’s own books, since the databook is canon thought known for being innacurate, this is still canon too. So yeah, she’s amazing, truly!!

The best medic and the best kunoichi in Naruto.

The haircut

People really underestimate how meaningful Sakura cutting her hair was. For many in real life, hair is identity. And for Sakura, it was everything:

It was pink like the cherry blossoms she’s named after.

It was what she used to hide her forehead (the reason she was bullied) her biggest insecurity, until Ino taught her to embrace herself.

She let it grow out because she heard Sasuke liked long hair, because she was a child trying to be lovable in the only way she knew how.

So when she cut it in the middle of battle, it wasn’t “just hair.” It was a symbolic breaking point. She was shedding her past, her dependency on approval, and starting to shape her own identity. That was her first true moment of strength and it had nothing to do with chakra or something more fancy.

Kishimoto messed up, but that’s on him, not her

The biggest mistake in Sakura’s arc is not her actions, it’s the lack of development around her trauma and growth. She was bullied. She struggled with self-worth. She admired Sasuke not just because he was “cool,” but because he represented everything she wasn’t and everything she wanted to be seen as. Just like Naruto with wanting to become the Hokage.

Naruto’s trauma was front and center. Sakura’s was sidelined but it was there. It just wasn’t explored enough and that’s a writing flaw, not a character flaw.

As Kishimoto recently admitted in Q&A Press Conference with Kishimoto & Ikemoto at France:

“-Is there a character or a scene in Naruto that you wish you had explored further?

Masashi Kishimoto: I would have liked to delve deeper into the character of Sakura Haruno. She's the only one whose parents weren't actually drawn. I should've talked about them earlier in the story, but I missed the chance. And it became too complicated to do so in the middle and at the end of the story. In the movie version, I showed her parents a little. But in the main story, I would've liked to develop a scene centered around Sakura's family.”

A lot of people also bring up interviews where Kishimoto seems to show “hate” or disappointment towards Sakura. But honestly, I think his feelings were more mixed than just that. It’s not that he hated her, it’s that she was hard to write. She was complex, emotional, flawed, and he struggled to make people like her.

And maybe that’s why he didn’t feel fully connected to her at first. Not because she wasn’t a good character, but because it was hard for him to understand how to balance her role, especially in a story so focused on male bonds and action. But that doesn’t mean she was a bad character, she was just challenging and complicated to deal with.

Let’s go over some of the interviews fans often mention when talking about Kishimoto’s feelings toward Sakura!!

These are from a Reddit post:

1.

Let’s start with this quote, it’s one people love to throw around without context. But they always ignore what comes right after:

It’s obvious that the way the first image was translated is meant to mislead and fuel hate against Sakura. It’s not just poor translation, it feels intentionally cruel.

2.

This is true, 100%. But that doesn’t mean she’s a horrible person because of it, or that Kishimoto hated her and made her that way on purpose. Naruto has that same trait, and he’s actually more dependent and obsessed with Sasuke than Sakura ever was. The difference is that Sakura was able to realize when it was too much and knew when to stop, to avoid hurting herself or the people she loved.

She still gets shamed for being “crazy” or “delusional” about Sasuke, while Naruto is out here like “Sasuke this, Sasuke that” 24/7. But at least Sakura isn’t suicidal over it. She shows more self-love and emotional awareness than Naruto ever did and yet she gets criticized for that too!! Because apparently, if she doesn’t blindly worship Sasuke, she’s “not loyal.” And if she dares to try and kill him to protect others, suddenly she’s “trash” for going against the poor innocent Sasuke, who, of course, never killed a fly. 🙄

Sasuke is “pure,” but that doesn’t mean he’s a good person. When he’s described as “pure as snow,” it means he’s naïve, easily influenced or tainted by ideas and beliefs, whether good or bad. It doesn’t mean he’s some kind of angel.

Sasuke being “pure as snow” doesn’t mean he’s saintly, it means he’s impressionable, easily shaped by the world around him. Snow can be beautiful, but it also melts, gets stained, or turns dangerous in a storm.

There’s a clear double standard in how Sakura’s and Naruto’s loyalty to Sasuke are seen. Naruto is praised, Sakura is shamed, when in reality, she had the strength to protect herself and others when Sasuke became dangerous. That’s not betrayal, it’s maturity.

3.

Yes, Kishimoto really said this on a 2015 Shonen Jump podcast at New York Comic Con. It was part of a Q&A where he was asked about his favorite female character, and he jokingly compared Hinata and Sakura.

He laughed about Sakura being a "hard woman" and joked that it was Sasuke's problem now. It's not a serious insult and it reflects the canon dynamic in a funny way. I get that it might come off like they're insulting Sakura or even women in general, but it really was just a light-hearted joke based on the characters' personalities and how their relationship is portrayed in the story.

He wasn't mocking women or real people, he was joking about Sakura's canon behavior as a character, especially in relation to Sasuke. It reflects how the story ended, not a commentary on women in general.

Naruto and Sakura are reflections of each other

I have said this before but this part gets ignored too often, Naruto and Sakura are two sides of the same coin. They both wanted recognition. They both were impulsive, emotional, and loyal to a fault.

Naruto wanted to be Hokage because he was rejected by the entire village.

Sakura latched onto Sasuke because she was rejected by her peers.

Their “obsessions” weren’t romantic or shallow, they were rooted in trauma. Naruto needed to prove his worth. Sakura needed to be loved and respected. Their journeys were parallel.

In the end, both of them were just chasing the same thing, acceptance. They just took different paths to find it.

They loved differently and that matters

People always compare Sakura’s love for Sasuke with Naruto’s and claim Naruto’s was “more noble” or “less shallow,” but that’s just not true, they simply loved in different ways, based on who they are and where they came from.

Naruto’s love was shaped by his loneliness. He was bullied, ignored and feared, so when he saw Sasuke, a kid who was also alone, but admired, Naruto latched onto that. He wanted to understand him. He wanted someone to understand him. He followed the classic Uzumaki/Jinchūriki love philosophy, never give up on the people you love. Fight for them, even if it kills you. His obsession with Sasuke was about love, yes, but also self-worth and connection. It was deeply rooted in trauma and identity. But it reached the obsession.

Sakura’s love started more naïvely, yes, but it evolved. She loved Sasuke when she barely knew him, like a lot of kids do. But as the story progressed, her love grew more painful, more real. It became an addition, a need, like a drug. She chose to stay by him, chose to believe in him, even when it hurt. But, unlike Naruto, she knew when to pull back, when to stop, when to care from a distance. That doesn’t make her weak. It makes her mature.

Naruto couldn't stop. That's who he is. That's who the Uzumaki are. Look at Kushina, look at Nagato, even Karin. They all loved with explosive devotion and would rather destroy themselves than let go.

Sakura broke the cycle, she loved others, but first and foremost, she chose herself. And that is not narcissism, because to truly love someone else, you have to start by loving and respecting yourself.

And that's a strength people never give her credit for.

When you hate someone, anything they do, good or bad, will be perceived negatively.

Double Standards

I know it sounds repetitive but if Naruto had been written as a girl, the fandom would have ripped her apart for obsessing over Sasuke.

Let’s be honest. People constantly mock Sakura, Karin, even Hinata, for having strong emotional attachments to boys and calls them “annoying,” “pathetic,” or “desperate.” But Naruto?? He chased Sasuke across countries, ignored death threats, risked his life dozens of times, broke down crying over him, got on his knees in the dirt for him. He’s literally canonically suicidal at one point because he can’t bring Sasuke back!!

And people call that “brotherhood” or “loyalty.” (Funny thing is, in Boruto, Naruto actually admits he doesn’t even see Sasuke as a brother, that spot belongs to Kurama)

But if Naruto had been a girl doing all that just for a boy??

They’d call her trash or useless. Just a girl…

As if being a girl is something to be ashamed of.

So don’t come for Sakura because of her feelings, Naruto did the exact same thing, but gender protected him from the judgment. The problem isn’t the emotion, it’s the way people treat girls who show it.

That’s misogyny, plain and simple. And it’s time people owned up to it.

“She thought she was on their level”

That infamous moment in the war where Sakura says she's caught up to Naruto and Sasuke!! Everyone laughs at it, but the truth is, she did. Not in flashy jutsu or superpowers but in value. She is the emotional and strategic backbone of Team 7. She saved their lives more than once. She trained herself into someone who could stand beside them, not behind them.

Sasuke and Naruto are literal gods!! The are like Tsukuyomi/Susanoo and Amaterasu. And they inherented chakras from gods. They are not ordinary humans!!

She isn't supposed to match their power she complements it. That's what makes a real team.

No Clan, no Kekkei Genkai, no Bijuu. Only will

Let’s be honest, Sakura is amazing without a famous clan, a Tailed Beast, or any special “god eyes.” She didn’t get her power handed to her by bloodline, fate, or destiny (though honestly, I get mad when people call Naruto lucky, he didn’t just get the title. He earned it. Like Neo in The Matrix, Naruto became “The One” by grinding, learning, and refusing to quit.) Sakura earned her strength with intelligence, discipline, and brutal hard work.

That’s what makes her incredible. In a world where every major hero gets a supernatural boost, she built herself up from scratch and that deserves respect, not mockery.

The misogyny in Naruto

A lot of the hate toward Sakura is rooted in misogyny plain and simple. People can excuse male characters for obsessive, reckless behavior (Naruto, Sasuke, even Kakashi, Itachi or Jiraya) but drag Sakura for having emotions, getting hurt, or caring too much.

She’s mocked for not being useful enough, but when she’s useful, people ignore it.

That’s why it’s so refreshing to see Boruto starting to shift that pattern. Female characters like Sarada, Himawari, Delta, Eida, and even Sumire or Chocho are shown with real combat power and less “damsel in distress,” more “don’t mess with me.” The next gen finally lets women be strong without making them apologize for it.

It’s no coincidence the women in Boruto are allowed to be strong, complex, and front and center in ways Sakura wasn’t back in the day.

But Sakura with the other female characters paved the way. She was a prototype of a strong kunoichi in a boy-centered world, inside of the story and outside as a shonen, and she did it with everything stacked against her. So yeah!! Kishimoto could've done a lot better with her... but I still love her exactly as she is!!

To summarize, I think Sakura is a good character overall, but a lot of her potential was wasted due to lack of motivation from the author. Kishimoto had editors, and as a shonen mangaka, he was more focused on what would appeal to male readers than on creating female characters that girls could really connect with. The infamous confession was a reckless move to try to make her more likeable and he failed hard. But thankfully, that's something we're finally seeing change in Boruto, probably because time changes and authors know there are a lot of female fans and ikemoto and him are putting more care and value in them, and that gives me hope!!

So yep!! That’s all, thank you for reading this long-ass post!! Bye!!💖

[faffreux]

can you tell us about when you fell in love with fawful? :)

Yep. In fact, I'll write a whole mini essay for you so I can add it to the FAQ section of my website coming up shortly LMAO (SINCE I NEED TO FULLY ANSWER THIS QUESTION FOR THERE ANYWAY, RIGHT???) CLICK UNDER THE READ MORE TO SEE IT BECAUSE THIS IS GOING TO BE THE LONGEST THING I'VE EVER POSTED HERE, LMAO.

To preface, I have been a fan of the M&L games going back to the early-mid 2000s when I was a kid. I had no involvement with fandom or anything of the sort back then but I used to hop on my mom's bulky computer and look up fanart and other related content as early as 2004/5 and as a result, ended up captivated by the characters long before I knew who they actually were. (As a result of this, I have the names and art styles of various old M&L fandom creators permanently ingrained in my head and often wonder where they are today since a good deal of them vanished..!) It wasn't until 2006 that I got my first handheld console (DS Lite) and of course, what did I do? Immediately begged my mom to order me a used GBA copy of Superstar Saga. 

When I finally had the game in my hands it was like coming home to a colorful world that I'd been captivated by for so long but never gotten the chance to actually explore until now. The characters felt like old friends and the Beanbean Kingdom as a location felt familiar and comforting to me. (As a side note, Popple quickly became my favorite. Shocker, right?)

I used to sketch various beans in my notebooks as well as on printer paper we had lying around the house. Long story short, I finished Superstar Saga and then a few years later in 2010 I picked up Bowser’s Inside Story and THAT’S WHEN THINGS SHIFTED–

BIS brought Fawful and his personality to life in a way that captivated my imagination like nothing else had prior. He quickly overtook Popple as my favorite character from then on forward… and that’s where it ends! Or.. is it?

Nah, that’s where it gets funky. Life got a little chaotic after that and not only did I stop playing video games altogether for many years, but I also almost completely gave up on art - the one thing I was most passionate about above all and thought I would make a career out of someday. A series of depressing events caused me to lose all hope and motivation for anything I created and the spark I’d kept inside of me for so long all but died out as a result.

We’re going to timeskip again, this time to late 2019. I’d just moved away from home permanently for the first time and had been getting settled in and no matter what I did to make my new apartment a cozy place it always felt like something was missing. My mind would keep wandering to the fact that I never made art anymore despite it having been such a key part of my life when I was younger. I so desperately wanted to change this and over the next few months the frustration only kept growing until on January 1st, 2020, I sat down in the living room with a pencil and paper in my hand and shut my eyes tightly before saying under my breath:

“I do not care what it is, I don’t care how it comes. Just please… PLEASE send me something to bring my art back. Anything… anything at all. I don’t care what I draw, I just want to be drawing again.” And with that, I placed the lead onto the paper and began to sketch…

And from there… a familiar face appeared!

(Now I could ramble to you about how much I do NOT like this drawing and how off model it is from how Fawful actually looks… but I’ll forgive myself since I hadn’t touched the M&L games in over a decade at this point and had forgotten most of Fawful’s character. And yet?? Here he was.)

How else can I explain it except that in that moment it felt like the pencil in my hand had suddenly become one of these:

A joy that I hadn’t felt in SO long suddenly filled my entire being and without wasting another second, I immediately went online and ordered both Superstar Saga and Bowser’s Inside Story to replay again. In the time waiting for the games to arrive I had started drawing daily again - sketching out various old characters of mine with dozens of doodles of the bean man stacked in between them all.

There he was… always smiling, always happy to see me, and oftentimes with his arms outstretched as if to give an encouraging hug. When the games arrived I worked through them quicker than I ever had prior - finishing up Superstar Saga in less than a week and subsequently moving onto Bowser’s Inside Story with a LOT of excitement built up for it. 

It was my first day playing and I was having the time of my life! The way Fawful looked in his little grey cloak with that enormous, charming grin of his as he bamboozled Bowser into eating the Vaccuum Shroom had me giggling with joy while words repeated in my brain over and over of: “I need to draw this later, I NEED to draw this later!!!” I WAS EXCITED ABOUT ART AGAIN… AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. I was practically hopping in my seat from the happiness I felt in my heart and chest every time Fawful appeared at this point!

This was how it felt until the moment I arrived at the Fawful Theatre and watched as he began dancing on the stage floor. THIS time.. something different came over me. If you’ve felt it before, then you’ll know what I mean when I say that it was like my entire body turned warm all at once, like some sort of flame had been lit inside. I’d never felt it for anything or anyone prior to then, and that's partly why it hit me as hard as it did. I was practically sweating.

Heck, I was so absorbed in my feelings that I had forgotten there was anyone else in the room with me! That is.. Until my roommate at the time spoke up: 

Her: Are you alright? Me: Uhhh… yeah, why? Her: You’re red as a beet. Are you sure you’re okay?

By this time I had realized what was really going on so I reassured her I was fine, grabbed my 3DS, and ran to my room to finish the playthrough on my own so I wouldn’t embarrass myself any further, hahaha.

In the days, weeks, and months following that moment I became dedicated to drawing the best art of Fawful I could possibly create! What started as a challenge to myself to ‘give back’ to the person who’d given me back the ability to create again turned into someone I genuinely could not stop drawing for how much fun I was having doing it. The desire to make better and better art in order to honor him drove me to improve at a speed I never had prior, and soon thereafter I created Jolligig as a way for me to be in this colorful world with him and to express the deepening affection I was feeling for him with every day that passed by.

By some miracle, my prayer had been answered and here it was in the form of a grinning lima bean.

[End of Part 1. Interested in the rest? Yes… there’s more, I’m sorry. Please let me know in the comments. This took a while to write so I thought splitting it up would be best if folks are interested, LOL.]

[woosh-floosh]

do you have any raw .drw files? how does its file size compare to a vector image / raster image of the same size / similar content? like ik vector files can be very small compared to a jpeg... storing timing info sounds simple to implement, but i wonder if it bloats up .drw file sizes?

Oooh, good question, and my answer uhh... got a little out of hand..

Here's the files in the folder for one of my drawings on the windows beta:

So we have the .drw file, the .sim file, a .csv file (this stores text data for my added title and description), and a .png and .sim for the thumbnail.

The .sim file is new to me, but looking at other files I believe the .sim files holds the individual layer data. Maybe the .sim stores the actual image data for display during drawing?

For example, heres the files for my haunter painting:

And here are the layers for the drawing in game (software?):

The sizes match up pretty well with the actual data on each layer!

(I should mention here that looking at file types and figuring out how they work is completely new to me so I could be getting some things wrong. I'm debating if I should reach out to the dev directly to check my work before starting this essay proper... but it's also been fun for me and my brain to try and figure this stuff out on my own)

Actually.. the sim files made me curious... if the main data is in the .drw file, what would happen if I delete the .sim files? Would the file still work?

First off, the thumbnail does not load, but the file still opens fine and the replay function still works.

And we still got all the layers no problem.

Hmm, if I save changes to the images, will it create .sim files?

It did! Huh!

Then uhh.. I don't really know what the .sim files do. If has something to do with display in game which is why the thumbnail didn't display. But I don't know where the layer files would be displaying if it's all based on the .drw. Maybe it's for file conversion? For uploading to the gallery? I don't know...

Anyways... back to the topic at hand, files sizes! The windows beta lets you export files as layered .psd files, .png files, and partial replay in uncompressed and compressed .avi!

So a quick reminder, here are the file sizes of the original image set up for Colors Live:

The .drw is pretty small!!

And here are my exports!:

The .drw is MINUSCULE compared to the .psd. And the .sim size falls between the two sizes of .png. Hmm, still don't know what's going on with that. Also for fun we can look at the size of an uncompressed two minute long .avi looks like. 4 million kilobytes, yay ^_^

Vector wise.. I'm actually not super familiar with vector programs (should probably brush up on them for this essay, huh?) so I'm not sure what exactly is comparable... I've had to use Illustrator this semester but I feel like Colors and Illustrator are approaching vector graphics in a very different way. Illustrator is saving data for vector objects, but Colors is saving data for brush strokes!

Well.. anyway we can open up one of my projects:

And we can stretch that layers panel all the way out so you can see all my layers and paths and objects:

And let's check the file size...

Yep! Pretty small!

For fun we can also convert that .psd I made into a .ai..

Yep! It's smaller!

Regarding file bloat... I think the devs did a fantastic job creating such a small file size and it's perfect for drawing on game consoles that usually have very limited space! However, my experience with Colors! 3D as a kid did have issues with file sizes.. Colors! was the biggest app on my 3DS and I constantly had to juggle uninstalling games and uploading and deleting paintings so I would have more room for new paintings. I did have quite a number of painting files... in various states of progress (as is typical) but storage space was a real issue for me. Now, were my SD cards only 2 or 4 gb big? Yes. Did I understand at the time that those were quite small for SD cards, even at the time? No. Does my experience mean anything then? I don't know.

Colors! 3D also had an issue were particularly lengthy paintings (were talking hitting the ~4 hour mark) would stop saving replay data. The replay would only play up until a certain point. I'm not sure why that is, based on what we know about .drw files I don't think it can be a limitation with the file type? That's kinda all it does? Maybe it's a limitation with the size of the 3DS memory that couldn't play the replays that long? Hitting that ~4 hour mark would also limit the amount of undos you were able to do so it could easily have to do with memory.

(Bit off tangent but undos take soooo long in Colors. And the more undos you do the longer they take! Colors didn't official start limiting the players undos until that ~4 hour mark but they were already limited by your patience)

Anyways, I will leave you with this, a link to the documentation of the .drw file format. It's only two and half pages long which I think is pretty short? Maybe you can find more info in there that what I can parse...

[aurorathedragon45]

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents?

It's complicated

02: Who did you last say “I love you” to?

Boyfriend

03: Do you regret anything?

I regret uhhh too many things to list

04: Are you insecure?

Cripplingly

05: What is your relationship status?

Taken :3

06: How do you want to die?

Either painlessly or in the mosf painful way possible. Let me say goodbye to the people i love first

07: What did you last eat?

Fried bananas!

08: Played any sports?

Nah

09: Do you bite your nails?

Not anymore

10: When was your last physical fight?

Never. I've never physically fought anyone

11: Do you like someone?

My boyfriend :3

12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours?

I don't think so

13: Do you hate anyone at the moment?

Uhhh meh, a couple of rude kids at my school

14: Do you miss someone?

My boyfriend 😔

15: Have any pets?

Yep! 2 dogs, a cat, a sugar glider, and 3 chickens

16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment?

I'm feeling alright.

17: Ever made out in the bathroom?

Nah I've never made out in general

18: Are you scared of spiders?

I love spiders :(

19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?

Maybe..

20: Where was the last place you snogged someone?

What's snogging oh wait I looked it up. I haven't. (my boyfriend doesn't even live in the same state, dammit)

21: What are your plans for this weekend?

Homework

22: Do you want to have kids? How many?

2 kids, a boy and a girl :3

23: Do you have piercings? How many?

Nah, don't like piercings

24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)?

Art :D

25: Do you miss anyone from your past?

My leopard gecko, Sunny

26: What are you craving right now?

Boba milk tea

27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart?

Not that I know of, no

28: Have you ever been cheated on?

Nope :>

29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry?

Not that I'm aware of

30: What’s irritating you right now?

It's that time of the month :[

31: Does somebody love you?

Mhm! And I'm very grateful

32: What is your favourite color?

Used to be pink, now its green (thanks alterhumanity)

33: Do you have trust issues?

Yeah

34: Who/what was your last dream about?

Several people

35: Who was the last person you cried in front of?

In person? My english teacher. Across the screen while chatting with someone?? I don't remember, i've done it so many times

36: Do you give out second chances too easily?

Yeah,

37: Is it easier to forgive or forget?

Forgive

38: Is this year the best year of your life?

In some ways yes, in others no

39: How old were you when you had your first kiss?

Haven't kissed anyone yet

40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked?

Not that I remember

51: Favourite food?

Uh sushi ig

52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason?

Sometimes

53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night?

Scrolled tumblr

54: Is cheating ever okay?

No. If you aren't satisfied with the relationship and want to move on, just talk with the opposite party

55: Are you mean?

In my opinion, I'm a terrible person. Everyone else thinks I'm nice so its probably the depression speaking

56: How many people have you fist fought?

None

57: Do you believe in true love?

Yes :)

58: Favourite weather?

Thunderstorms/rain

59: Do you like the snow?

Yeah

60: Do you wanna get married?

YES

61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby?

Only if it's my boyfriend if someone else calls me baby I'm gonna gag

62: What makes you happy?

Drawing, my boyfriend (i mention him a lot ik), dragons, witchcraft (i really wanna get more into it)

63: Would you change your name?

Nah

64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed?

Haven't kissed anyone

65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

I'M DATING MY FORMER BEST FRIEND >:]

66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around?

Yeah

67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to?

Uhhh my grandpa

68: Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?

Probably my boyfriend.

69: Do you believe in soulmates?

Mhm!

70: Is there anyone you would die for?

YOU KNOW HIM, YOU LOVE HIM- MY-

70 horrible questions ... Fuck it

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents? 02: Who did you last say “I love you” to? 03: Do you regret anything? 04: Are you insecure? 05: What is your relationship status? 06: How do you want to die? 07: What did you last eat? 08: Played any sports? 09: Do you bite your nails? 10: When was your last physical fight? 11: Do you like someone? 12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours? 13: Do you hate anyone at the moment? 14: Do you miss someone? 15: Have any pets? 16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment? 17: Ever made out in the bathroom? 18: Are you scared of spiders? 19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? 20: Where was the last place you snogged someone? 21: What are your plans for this weekend? 22: Do you want to have kids? How many? 23: Do you have piercings? How many? 24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)? 25: Do you miss anyone from your past? 26: What are you craving right now? 27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart? 28: Have you ever been cheated on? 29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry? 30: What’s irritating you right now? 31: Does somebody love you? 32: What is your favourite color? 33: Do you have trust issues? 34: Who/what was your last dream about? 35: Who was the last person you cried in front of? 36: Do you give out second chances too easily? 37: Is it easier to forgive or forget? 38: Is this year the best year of your life? 39: How old were you when you had your first kiss? 40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked? 51: Favourite food? 52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason? 53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night? 54: Is cheating ever okay? 55: Are you mean? 56: How many people have you fist fought? 57: Do you believe in true love? 58: Favourite weather? 59: Do you like the snow? 60: Do you wanna get married? 61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby? 62: What makes you happy? 63: Would you change your name? 64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed? 65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? 66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around? 67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to? 68: Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? 69: Do you believe in soulmates? 70: Is there anyone you would die for?

[heymrspatel]

✨ artist interview ✨

i was tagged by @you-are-so-much-better-than-that @mikhailoisbaby and @deathclassic to do this artist interview that chrissy whipped up off of the popular fic writer one! thanks for the tag even if i feel like a grand ol' imposter 😅

1. Do you post on Ao3? If so, how many works do you have on AO3? If not, where do you post? i do! i didn't before, but i was bullied by tumblr into doing so after they took down the art for "cinematic" lmao! then the pals encouraged me to upload the rest! i have 4 works: cinematic, kinktober, gallacrafts, and original art.

2. What is your total art count? 83! (including the zine stickers/tattoos)

3. What are your top 5 pieces by likes/kudos? i used the helpful stats website @suzy-queued suggested!

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? yes! i still think it's insane when people choose to leave nice comments, so i try my best to respond!

5. What is your current fandom, and what was the first fandom you drew for? shameless, hi. if we're talking about art that i've shared, then it's also shameless. but the first one just for fun was harry potter (yeaaa yeaaa 🙄)

6. Have you ever received hate on any art? yep lol

7. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t drawn for yet but want to? i guess the true answer is none. however, i get the urge to draw every time i watch something that i end up loving. recently i've wanted to draw for young royals and stranger things, but i never ended up doing anything. i would also be too shy to post 😅

8. What’s your all-time favorite ship? i've had many, but based on impact and inspiration i'd have to go with ian and mickey 💙

9. Do you draw outside of fandom? i do!! it's my favorite hobby! the only difference is that outside of this space i usually just sketch. so it's very different than what i share here.

10. What’s the an art piece you’ve drawn that came out completely differently than you expected? oh probably this one! it changed quite a bit and was originally drawn flipped around. i think it tells a different story depending on which way you look at it!

11. Do you draw smut? yes! the teasing kind. the "what's that hand doing?!" kind lmao

12. Have you ever had any of your art stolen or copied? not that i know of!

13. Have you ever collaborated on a piece? yea! i've collabed on art for fics with @whatwouldmickeydo and @metalheadmickey and on the zine and timeline with @you-are-so-much-better-than-that 🥰

14. What’s an idea you have that you have yet to draw? omg i have an entire list of ideas that just exist and may never come to life lol! they range from extreme fluff to absolute filth... my notes app: -kiss on the cheek/scrunchy face -mickey's head hanging off bed/mouth open/ian's hand wrapped around the nape of his neck -holding hands at the alibi alsdkfjlk

15. What are your drawing strengths? i would say adding details and tying the story i'm trying to convey together. and i like to think that i'm ok at giving them that tender and in love feel no matter the situation.

16. What are your drawing weaknesses? all of it? haha proportions and certain angles are really hard for me. hands and noses yikes! i am also terrible at drawing from memory. i usually draw with about 20 references pulled up on my laptop. like, i am the bozo googling "table". 17. What’s your favorite art piece you’ve drawn? it's gotta be the roadtrip one! but i also really really love this one:

18. What is one thing you’d like to tell people about your art that they might not know? i love adding/repeating little details that no one would really notice unless you're zooming all the way in or seeing a few pieces as a set. i built a color palette very early on that has stayed consistent throughout. i play a lot with blues and greens as a motif. and uh i'm still learning! everyday! with every single one!

19. What inspires or motivates you to create for fandom? i genuinely love doing it! i also love a prompt, that's why i started all of this with gallacrafts. and i just really love putting them in situations i want to see them in and drawing them stupidly in love!

but, i also hoard unhinged tags in my cheeks like a chipmunk lmao every series i've done was born from people screaming a version of "YOU'RE INSANE" at me 😂

20. And finally, can you describe your process a little? Do you have a favourite place to draw? Do you play something in the background? Do you do research or just go for it? Give us a little insight. i usually draw on the couch, hunched over like a shrimp. i’m normally up really late (i see 3am too often) and that’s when i get most of my work done. i typically watch something i've seen before so that i don't have to fully pay attention or i'll listen to music. i sketch a rough draft of what i want the final piece to end up looking like, then i do a shit ton of research and pull up a stupid amount of references. i have a really creepy pinterest board full of body parts lol! then i fight for my life and rage until the line work is fully done. after that, it’s smooth sailing with coloring and shading 😌

i'm feeling a little tag shy, but i'll tag @gallawitchxx @doodlevich @y0itsbri and @grumpymickmilk if you want to play! if not i'm just giving you some flowers 💐

[sleepsentry]

I saw your “Muse” rendition of Bill and Ford for the first time a few months ago and it’s had a chokehold on me ever since. I fuckin LOVE your style I love how organic and, like, round(????) everything is,, I love your colors I love they way you draw the way faces pull and smush with expression I love just scrolling through your acct

Thank you! That "roundess" you're talking about is probably a product of me growing up with French/Belgian comics from the 1960s to 1990s (they where my dad's and grandparent's).

I loved how animated everything looked and I would try and incorporate some of that dynamism into my art.

Thanks for leaving a message! I'm very glad some of my stylistic inspiration is visibly paying off. :]

Feel free to skip the info dump below.

INFO DUMP:

They have a very dynamic and exaggerated style that is used in serious or silly tones very effectively. It works well for both and I always appreciated the more flexible attitude to tone and contents that they had, it didn't feel as sectioned into demographics as American or British stories often where.

There was no "child" or "adult" style, at least not as obviously. There where stylistic differences and tonal differences, but not as strict. Obviously I wasn't reading the stories with war and death and guns in them, there was a "kids section".

There are a lot of different series out there, but I mostly read the older ones we already owned.

There where a few series from the 2000s we had issues of but most of the "modern" comics I read where from old comic magazine issues from the early 2000s to the early to mid 2010s.

I grew up on a lot of the "classic" series:

My dad and grandparent's tastes clearly preferred the more comedic or light-hearted stories.

There where more serious stories, that where very Indiana Jones, Lupin the III, James Bonde, and other cis/hetero/male power fantasies.

Globe trotting, paternal colonial undertones, two French guys in the 70s to 90s writing about very serious issues as the backdrop of their stories.... you get the idea. --r----a----c-----i-----s-----t----

[OK so I've tried making this post ten times now and it's not been saving to my drafts. The only reason I can think of is me mentioning the "dated" elements of the older stories in their "less than kind depictions of women and minorities." Yep, changed the wording and it saved just fine. :/]

These stories where predictably shitty in that sense, in a very casual way, rather than being incredibly hateful or loud about it. An alternative flavour of horrible?

Lots of inaccurate and harmful caricatures.

On a completely different note:

If these stories where more well known in America this Z guy would be a tumblr sexy man.

And Gaston LaGaffe would be a tumblr sillyman: He's very cute. ^^

Neurodivergent King. :]

First character that made me understand what a "man" was, in a way that made sense to me.

[pastelpaperplanes]

Big Ol Ask Post Pt. 3 I think

I haven’t drawn anything other than cursed or plain technical stuff w him 😔😔 have these for now but expect more soon!

anon a way back asked what he’d look like next to Overlord being already so big compared to Megs, that’s why you see Lordie if you’re wondering why he’s thrown in that line up!

by the way I have a voice claim for the big purple simp— Jenner from NIMH, he’s so awful but that suave baritone oh it fits too well >:] it’s the ‘humble servant’ line that got to me

Yep! Pharma is absolutely in this AU—as well as the CFau and Crack one too—and in all, he’s still an estranged medic long since booted from any legal work back on Cybertron.

He lost his credibility and more all those years ago when he found himself willing to do his fair share of cutting corners and hastily concealed malpractice to expedite his dream of getting his name down in the medical books—ultimately impressing his dear Mentor Ratchet, finally, in perfecting long-since banned risky experiments and surgeries—not to mention cruel and unusual temperament with the (supposedly) taboo practice of non-medicinal mnemosurgery.

His ambitions and aggression always got the bet of him, this hasn’t changed since he found himself working in freelance outposts. Light years away from Cybertron, he’s made a name for himself as a Good Doctor—but to his under-the-table black market part-dealing clients, he’s just about as bad as a Crooked Medic can get.

Bounty hunters and Arms Dealers like him for his business, a certain DJD member likes him for the occasional berth company and seemingly never ending supply of fresh T-Cogs—but no one actually likes him for his nasty temperamental personality, save for a young and naive Ratchet once upon a time.

Pharma is a roamer, as of recent he’s been a hard to reach mech—seems as if he’s found a little project to keep himself pretty occupied in the last few decades—something about a breakthrough for aiding the Decepticon Energon Crisis :] him and a small, horrifyingly cheerful surgeon are well on their way to completing their first trial batches, it’s safe to say that their little synthetic mixture will have it’s users sated and compliant.

they’ve got that amazing ‘new car smell’ those first few weeks, and instead of chittering like an Insecticons or vibrating their wings like a seeker—they beep and squeak, sometimes even honk a horn depending on the baseline altmode coding, to get their Creators’ attention before their vocalizer truly starts to kick online

It’s cute, but loud

Much like a seeker sparkling, they have to reach a certain ‘age’ (upgrade) to be able to transform completely, in between then they’re still able to rev those engines as a warning should they need it, as well as spin their wheels should they need a getaway HEELIES IF THEYRE LUCKY WOOHOOOOO—for seekers they can hover on their thrusters!

Crusade is actually pretty formal with Megatron. But yeah as a kid, Megs was always known as Carrier, but as Sadie got older and more aware of their surroundings—they definitely came to learn the true weight of that title and the fact that they were the progeny of the faction leader, a fact they should have really held onto with more pride. Not wanting to draw more attention to the already blatant favoritism (and nepotism) Crusade made a switch to addressing Megatron as Sir, My Lord, Lord Megatron, —ect. to better fit in with their fellow troops.

It bothers Megatron more than than he lets on. Crusade shouldn’t have to hide their high ranking as his child, the heir to the faction. Megs is their Carrier and can only order them around for so long, as their Leader however—pulling rank may just allow for their infuriatingly stubborn sparkling to listen to them should a day come where even a Carrier’s plea is dismissed.

Crusade does slip up every now and then and a ‘Carrier’ will slip—often hushed and annoyed though as Megs does like to tease every now and then, gotta remind them that they’re still his baby every once in a while :’)

Optimus however—whenever him and Crusade should truly reunite, will never be called Sire by Crusade, which they so heatedly established early on—Crusade never needed one and they don’t need one now, better to not let the title trigger those long-suppressed emotions. Sure enough though Optimus will get his moment.

actually no lmfao so you’re good! Eh, I haven’t mentioned much plot w them outside of them and Megs, plus bits of potential interactions with Optimus—so the rest of Team Prime is free game :D

For what I (hopefully will have) planned, their interactions with team Prime will be eh,,,interesting to each their own to say the least. Some more stressful than others BUT let’s not get into that until I’ve worked it out—for now I’ll just mention what they’re dynamics would be like when the drama of Oh Shit Boss Bot You’ve Been Hiding a Kid For HOW LONG has died down.

A usually touch-wary Crusade actually is the one to initiate a hug with Bulkhead, he’s the biggest and warmest and somehow is always happy to see them. Plus he tells cool recaps of Earth films and gifts them strange blobish paintings every now and then, all of which Crusade doesn’t exactly understand, but at least the colors are pretty.

Bee is annoying,,,which is what Crusade would say if confronted if they actually liked all the shenanigans Bee suggest they pull together, prank wars to the max, sparring for fun, video games?, DOUGHNUTS and RACES in the fortress halls??? Ahem. they are a super serious soldier, not a hooligan. But honestly, Bee is the one they seek out the most should they need an adventure, they missed out on a lot of this ‘fun’ growing up on the Nemesis—Bee seems to know how to balance a day of soldiering and dumbassery. sometimes.

Ratchet reminds them a bit too much of their Carrier than they’d care to admit. The medic is an old soul to his very core, perpetually tired but quick to snap into work mode, and sweet if you reallllllly squint. Sadie has been taught from day one to always respect medics, Ratchet obviously takes the cake on I’ve Seen Some Shit and for that alone Crusade both fears and admires Ratchet. Again, growing up on the Nemesis they didn’t have too many bots willing to talk much with them—but Ratchet (after he’s gone through his own lot of therapy, him AND Arcee. good lord) has a never ending pile of stories to share with them. Ratchet may throw in a few more colorful curses than necessary—which is SURPRISING bc Crusade thought they’d heard them all back home, but he’s entertaining and tells Crusade how it is, no sugarcoating. For that Crusade is grateful, there’s been too many half-truths thrown about to them in their recent years :’)

Ghost Prowl freaks them out—why does he deliberately have to be so sneaky?? Crusade has only met Prowl a fleeting handful of times (visits from the Allspark come with meaning, you know) and each time Crusade has been given nothing but odd riddles and poetic nonsense. Kidding. Prowl does like his wordplay’s but his given advice is always well meaning—the most firm and direct message Crusade has been passed though was probably most definitely “ Get those two cowards for mecha you call your Creator’s to stop fooling around with each other and SPEAK—at this rate it’s physically paining me that they haven’t begun Ritus and they’re not getting any younger”

Team Prime adores Sadie, they ask Megatron to see their sparkling photos every chance they catch him. And Crusade. hates it.

:) have

We’ve been here before, haven’t we?

[thewritetofreespeech]

MC + Cursed Toddler-fied Boys

prompt: All the boys suffer the same fate as Satan by reading ‘The Forbidden Book of Toddlerization’

Lucifer

You have to wonder why they kept so many cursed books around, just out like this. You would think, like any normal person, with this continuing to happen, that they would keep them locked up or something. But no. They just leave them out for anyone to find….

“I’m going to the meeting!” Lucifer yelled, stamping his foot. His face twist in a petulant frown. It would be rather adorable, if you hadn’t been arguing with him for the past 20 minutes

“Lucifer, we talked about this. You can’t go to the meeting. You need to stay here.”

“No! I wanna go to the meeting! It’s very important and everyone is counting on me!” His arms are wailing now as he stamped his foot more.

Of course, you couldn’t let him go to the first of the month meeting like this. His pride would be wounded beyond compare if anyone else saw him like this. But reasoning with him wasn’t working. You had to resort to more, unsavory tactic to win. “But the meeting was cancelled. Lord Diavolo called earlier to let me know.”

Lucifer stopped stamping his feet and waving his arms to look at you with a vacant expression you didn’t know he could muster. “Really?”

Gods help you. “Yes, really.”

He seemed to think about this for a moment before he beamed, “ok!” His mood instantly brightening. “I believe you, because [Y/N] would never lie to me.” ‘Forgive me Lucifer’ You think to yourself. “What are we gonna do instead then?”

“Why don’t we play a game instead to pass the time? Would you like that?”

“I know chess!” He exclaimed loudly. “Let’s play that.”

Of course, knowing and being good at it were two different things. In this state you were actually able to beat Lucifer several times. When he retuned to normal the day was ‘conveniently’ put away for sometime after.

Mammon

“Mammon. Please. I’ll just be gone for a minute.”

“Nooooooo!” Mammon wailed when you tried to get up again. Clinging to your waist tightly to keep you on the couch. “Onii-chan said you had to stay with me! Stay with me! Stay with me!”

After reading The Forbidden Book of Toddlerization, Mammon had, of course, reverted to the personality of a small child. His brother made fun of him, say ‘what’s the difference’, but Lucifer knew that this could be a disaster if he was set to wander free in this state across the Devildom. So he sat you to babysit him.

“Mammon, I promise I’ll be right back. I’m just going to get us some snacks for our movie.”

“Then let me come with you!” He whined, still clinging to you. In this state it seemed he had also taken on the personality of a baby duck. Imprinting on you and following you around everywhere you went in his room. He hadn’t left you alone for 5 seconds since he got this way. “I promise I’ll be good!”

“It’s not a question of you being good or bad Mammon-chan.” He liked to be called Mammon-chan right now. “It’s that you need to stay here. If someone sees you like this well…they could use it to tease you.”

“No…I don’t want to be teased anymore….” His voice was low, and sad. His bright eyes looking on the verge of tears, like kids do when they’re said, before he buried his face into your side. “Mammon-chan doesn’t want to be made fun of anymore. Mammon-chan also doesn’t want to be alone anymore.”

You sigh. Unable to argue with him when he was like this. Your hand lifted to pet his head, which he seemed to appreciate, before you text Satan to bring you some snacks. He was always reliable and would do it for you.

Once the affects of the book had worn off, Mammon denied any of this happening. The mere mention would cause his face to turn red and yell about how, “that didn’t happen!” You almost wish you had taken a video of it to show him. Guess you would just have to keep Mammon-chan forever in your heart.

Levi

You went to Levi’s room after class to check on him in his….condition.

Since he did remote learning a lot of the time, being an otaku, it was pretty easy to keep him away from people so they did see him in the current state he was in. Apparently as a toddler he didn’t like being around people either.

So, you had set him up comfortably in his room before heading to class. Promising to come back that afternoon to be with him.

“Levi! I’m back! How are you—what are you doing?!?!”

“Playing with my toys.” Levi replied, with an obvious expression, as a sea of toys stretch out in front of him where he laid on his belly on the floor.

Your brain stopped. Completely at a loss for words. Levi was going to kill you when he returned to normal, because toddler-Levi, left unattended, had unboxed nearly all of his figurines from their packaging. Some of which were incredibly rare, and unable to get anymore.

“I just…I mean…Why?? Why would you do this??”

“They’re my toys.” Levi replied with a pout. Sitting up. “I can do what I want with them. What’s the point in having neat toys if you aren’t going to play with them??”

He did have a point there. But adult-Levi was going to be so mad!

“Do you want to play with me?” The demon asked with a hopeful expression. “You can even be blue Ruri-chan.” The limited edition, color swap Ruri-chan from 1999. He was gonna blow a gasket!

“Yeah. Ok.” But then again, when were you ever going to be able to touch them again.

As expected, Levi totally lost it when he came to his senses. Of course, there was no one to blame but himself, in the end, so he just had to be upset and mope alone. Thankfully, none of them were broken or beyond just out of their originally packaging. He bought them all clear showcase boxes for his ‘ruined’ figurines. Some of them he could rebuy to replace; which seemed to make him happy to have two.

Satan

It had been hours since the affects of the book had taken ahold of Satan. You were starting to wonder if they would ever wear off.

Lucifer had left in search of another book, one that might help speed the process along, and left his younger brother in your care. Of course you were happy to help, but you were getting nervous you would never see the old Satan again.

“[Y/N]-chan?” You look up from your phone, waiting for Lucifer to text you back, to see the blonde demon looking timidly at you from around the corner. 

“What is it Satan?”

“Would you….read to me?” His hands holding out the small children’s book he had some how found in the piles of books covering his room.

You smile softly at him. Your heart warmed by his request. “Of course,” you tell him, and the demon scampered over to sit on the bed beside you. His long legs and body tucked neatly into you as he waited for you to tell him the story of a little lost chicken and it’s journey back home. “[Y/N] tells the best stories!”

After 3 stories, he had fallen asleep. When he woke up, Satan was back to normal. He doesn’t answer your questions on where the children’s books had come from, but you spot the red & gold spines on his book shelves sometimes.

Asmo

There was no denying that Asmo was fascinated by art and all things beautiful. He went on and on about it any chance he got. So you shouldn’t have really been surprised when his toddlerfied self just wanted to draw all day.

“Look, look [Y/N]-chan! I finished another one!”

“That’s great Asmo.” You praise. Just like you had done with all the other ones he had handed to you. “Wow! This is really great! Is that a….chicken?”

“No, silly! That’s the white horse for our carriage when we get married!” The demon beamed, then shuffled over on his knees to instruct you on his picture properly. “That’s you, and that’s me. That’s the princess carriage that’s going to ride us off into the sunset. That’s Solomon and Simeon throwing flowers at us. That’s my brothers crying because I got to marry [Y/N]-chan and they didn’t.”

“You certainly seem to have all the parts here.” You praise. Giggling at his enthusiasm and picture.

“I want to have a perfect picture of when we get married. Because I love [Y/N]-chan! And we’re gonna get married and live happily ever after.” He replied, with certainty, with a smile.

“Well, I’ll be glad for that. Why don’t you draw me our perfect house for after we get married?” Asmo scampered off and did just that.

When Asmo came to, and back to his normal self, he took all the pictures he had drawn and framed them. Forcing his brothers and Solomon to take a tour of his mini-art gallery. The piece ‘Marriage of Two Bonded Souls’ was met with some controversy.

Beel

Beel, in his younger days, seemed to have boundless energy. Or you at least had to assume he did, because ever since he had read that stupid book he had been running around.

Lucifer had told you to take him outside. Irritated at hearing his large feet clump around the house, but trying not to show it since it wasn’t his fault. He even let you both take Cerberus outside to help run Beel out. It would be good for the pup too. Get some exercise, he said.

That had been sometime ago, and it seemed baby-Beel and Cerberus were an even match in energy. They had been running around, chasing each other, and play fighting in the back yard all afternoon. You were tired just watching them.

“Beel! Do you want to come in? I think it’s time for a break.”

Both Beel and Cerberus pop their heads up, in a comical and adorable unison head tilt, before jogging over to you. “Break time means snack time right?!”

You chuckle a little. Somethings never changed. “I brought some apple slices & peanut butter for you, for now. We can get you something bigger when we go inside.”

Beel grinned and sat in the grass with the container. “I like apple slices!”

“You do hn?” You don’t think you’ve seen Beel eat an actual fruit on its own. It was usually attached to, baked in, or covered in something, to get him to eat it.

“Yep! They’re crunchy and sweet. Just like you! Though, I guess you aren’t crunchy. Do you want one of my apple slices [Y/N]?”

You blush a little at Beel’s bright, unwavering expression. How could he look so innocent while still looking like that?

He finished his apple slices, minus one, before asking if he could go play again. You let him, but then all of a sudden he spotted playing with Cerberus and stood straight up. Seeming confused on how he got out here and what was going on. “Did I eat an apple? I haven’t had one since….do you think we have more in the kitchen?”

Belphie

It was honestly hard to tell if Belphie was under the spell of the forbidden book or not. He’d been asleep for most of the time; which was not uncommon for him. Then he would wake up and whine a little about something; again, not uncommon for him. Then he would take another nap.

You had figure out that he was still under it’s spell by the requests he was making when he woke up. Juice boxes. More plushies. His ‘blankie’. Eventually it would run its course though, and Belphie would be back to his own sleepy eyed, grown up self. “[Y/N]?”

You walk over to the bed when the demon called your name. The boy half sitting up, but still tucked under his covers. “What is it Belphie?”

“I can’t sleep.” He stated. Which seemed ridiculous since he had been sleeping most of the day. “I miss Lilli. And Be-be. Can you sleep with me?”

You blink at little at the request. You supposed it made since. Kids often wanted someone to sleep with them, so they didn’t have bad dreams or could keep them safe. Maybe that’s why he had been sleeping so much. Because he hadn’t been sleeping well, just sleep.

“Sure Belphie. I’ll lay down with you.” The demon smiled softly, sleepy, before he scooted over to give you some space to lay next to him.

He slept for a while this last time. Clinging onto you in his sleep, with a soft smile on his face. When he woke up, it seemed he was back to normal. “Gosh [Y/N]. If you wanted to sleep with me, all you had to do was ask. You didn’t have to trick me with that lame book.”

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 317: My Boy Was Just Like Me

Previously on BnHA: AFO randomly blew up Lady Nagant as a good reminder of why you should never make a deal with this fucking guy, smdh. Hawks was all “well if it isn’t my two best friends, Deku and Lady Nagant, both of whom I respect and love tremendously.” Everyone was all “??” and Horikoshi was all “shh... just pretend” because it was too embarrassing for him to admit that he forgot to write a couple of set-up flashbacks I guess. Anyway so Hawks got Lady to tell them where AFO was hiding out, and everyone said goodbye to her and Overhaul, who never did get to see his boss (sorry buddy, I’ll send you a vial of my tears in the mail), and headed out to a house in the woods. AFO was all “hello Deku :) :) it sure is fun making you suffer :) :) :) anyways this is a trap”, and blew up the house. Yeah, we all here are getting reaaaaaaaal tired of your shit, AFO.

Today on BnHA: The Hawksquad and Edgeplatoon meet in a warehouse and are all “what should we do about the fact that everything sucks?” Mt. Lady is all “here’s a thought, what if we tried battling AFO with more than six people.” Hawks and Endeavor are all “great initiative, but just a friendly reminder that our friends also suck and would probably betray Deku which would suck further still.” Shouto is all “ANSWER THE PHONE DAD” and Endeavor is all “[IRONICALLY DOESN’T ANSWER THE PHONE].” Meanwhile over in Sadtown, capital of Sadland Prefecture, Japan, Deku is all “All Might, as you can clearly see I am completely fine and good, never been better in fact, definitely not caught up in the throes of an epic mental breakdown which is shutting me down emotionally, anyway so on that note I would like to leave you now goodbye!!” All Might is all “[can’t actually form any words because he’s too distraught].” Fandom is all “o(╥﹏╥)o.” Horikoshi is all “(*＾-’) 乃 [pew pew finger guns and barrel rolls into the darkness].”

sweet jesus lord

this literally doesn’t even look like Deku anymore?? this looks like Dark!Deku who shows up to fight you in that one room in the Water Temple. he looks like he’s about to crawl out of my television set and murder me with his psychic powers good lord

holy shit lmao Horikoshi is really just shrugging his shoulders and resolving last week’s cliffhanger with a single line of dialogue

fire is no one’s weakness. idk what other options you’ve got, AFO, but you’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board. maybe try bees or something. I’m just saying. we’re all expecting fire at this point but nobody is expecting bees

anyway so now they’re all sitting in some warehouse somewhere chatting about it I guess. shoutout to Horikoshi for finally giving my man Edgeshot some more dialogue at long last

well, Edgeshot, to answer your question, she exploded. so naturally she’s fine

nah just kidding, Hawks says she won’t be able to help them out much because she’s recovering from being exploded. this is the part where we all ignore the fact that Hawks got set on fire for like a full ten minutes back during the War arc and was only in the hospital for a day. anyways enjoy your temporary plot hiatus Nagant

man there’s a lot of dialogue here and I’m trying to figure out where to insert commentary but it’s kinda difficult lol. basically, Edge and the others are saying that they should gather up the other remaining heroes and get them all caught up on the whole OFA situation. which, hmmmm

like on the one hand, these guys definitely aren’t going to cut it on their own, so it’s a reasonable suggestion on the face of it. but on the other hand, do we really want to entrust the OFA secret to a bunch of other people, most of whom shat the bed during the War arc to be quite frank? is it really worth the additional risk? especially given that any one of them might go spilling the beans to the public -- or worse, betray them to AFO??

also just a quick side note here, Mt. Lady’s character development never ceases to delight me. she’s become so committed to her responsibility as a hero these days, and it fucking suits her. I genuinely consider to be one of the elites now. I mean it doesn’t hurt that all the other elites are fucking dead lol but still

wait what? Death Arms retired??

Death Arms as in the guy who was too afraid of a little fire to try and save a terrified 14-year-old kid who was slowly suffocating right before his eyes?? that Death Arms???? color me surprised. shocked, I tell you

...okay but holy fuck

Death Arms. bro. my expectations for you were low but holy shit. like I’m sorry, but I don’t even have it in me to try and pretend like I feel the slightest bit of sympathy for him or Old Man Samurai or any of those other guys today. thanks for a whole lot of nothing my dude. good riddance

(ETA: so I’m rereading this the next day and realize this comes off as kind of harsh, so let me just try to clarify. it’s not the fact that he’s quitting that bothers me, to be honest. it’s the fact that he’s quitting specifically because he feels like the public is being mean to him. that’s it.

seriously. it would be one thing if he was quitting because he was scared, because now that is human. nobody wants to die, and I doubt any amount of training can ever fully prepare someone to go up against that fear. but the thing is, he never once mentions that, or talks about the danger aspect. instead, I got the distinct vibe from this speech that Death Arms is one of those people who only became a hero because of the limelight. and I just don’t have any patience for that. if all you care about are likes and subscribes then go become a fucking youtuber or some shit. nothing wrong with that! but you didn’t; you signed up to be a hero and protect these people. they gave you their respect and admiration because they trusted you to protect them. and now that they’re no longer in the mood to worship and applaud your every move on account of them being scared shitless because they’re living in the literal end times, you decide to dip. so like okay, fine then. don’t let the door hit you on the way out. anyways lol sorry for the rant.)

anyway so yeah. perfect example of why I don’t exactly have a ton of faith in most of the remaining heroes out there lol. also let me just once again give a shoutout to my best girl Mt. Lady whom I suddenly find myself appreciating all the more

“please calm down makeste. drink some water and enjoy this fresh new jeans pun” listen Horikoshi don’t tell me what to do dammit

fine. it is a nice pun, I guess

-- damn so now Endeavor’s saying that the media is already being fed info by the retired heroes. so for some of these guys it wasn’t enough for them to abandon all the people they swore to protect and to leave their fellow heroes out in the cold; they decided they might as well actively make things worse for them while they were at it, huh. like I get wanting to spill all the dirty secrets from your old job that you just quit, but this isn’t Jeff Bezos you’re screwing over, this is a sixteen-year-old kid

-- like, yes!! this, right here!!

exactly!! let’s not forget that there are already two prior instances of this happening. Endeavor arguably deserved it, but Katsuki not so much

huh. Endeavor seems to have a more optimistic outlook regarding this than I do lol

I mean, this is the same public that didn’t hesitant to blame a kidnapped child for his own kidnapping, and then later on for being the downfall of the Symbol of Peace. but okay then

anyway so blah blah blah, more talk about how they need to use Deku as bait, which basically puts them back at square one, and then they’re all just trailing off into silence and sitting around in the dark lmao this is getting very depressing

SKDJFLSDKJ:LFKJ

SHOUTO?????

NOOOOOOOO ARE YOU KIDDING ME

OH HOW THE TURNTABLES OMG. THE GHOSTER HAS BECOME THE GHOSTEE. Endeavor you petty son of a bitch. and what a brutal cut to that flashback too. “let’s stop Touya together” nah Shouto I’ve got a better idea why don’t I abandon you in U.A. and sally off with Hawks and Jeanist to found the “let’s pretend like we’re doing something to help Deku” club, which basically consists of us sitting around making terrible decisions all day long

Shouto, honey. you deserve better my little Coca Cola can. .........but if you really do have something important you need to tell your dad you could just text it to him. all the love and support, hugs and kisses, you’re doing amazing sweetie. but if you need to pass on any vital information you can just write it down and hit send honey that’s all I’m saying love

now he’s getting another call?? -- or, no, Hawks is getting a call from All Might

ARE YOU FOR REAL HAWKS OMFG

so while you all were sitting around talking about how useless you are, the kid you’re supposed to be protecting was battling another hired gun. I see. please pardon me for one second, I have a phone call to make. the phone call is to RockLockRock and Manual. the reason for the call is to apologize for calling them the worst bodyguards ever back during the War arc. the reason for the apology is because it turns out I WAS SEVERELY MISTAKEN OMFG

JESUS CHRIST DEKU DID YOU JUST KILL THIS MAN LMAO

shoutout to Horikoshi for offscreening this fight. we get it, lol. Deku strong and scary, villains ineffectual and feeble, and AFO... [checks notes] yep, still a dick. the angst arc continues

-- the angst arc continues, SIR

jesus christ I may have to rethink all of my opinions about Deku being framed for murder in movie 3 lmao. never mind. he did it, your honor

holy fucking shit Deku. “he might blow up, so please be careful” fdlskjflk jlskdjflk lwkejflk anyway so I’ve decided the explosion running gag can stay, actually

DEKU WAIT YOU FORGOT YOUR LUNCH!!

lol why do I get the feeling some serious shit is about to go down. ALL MIGHT NEVER MIND BACK OFF I THINK HE NEEDS HIS SPACE

OH MY FUCK I GASPED OUT LOUD

NO NO NO. I KNEW THIS WAS COMING GODDAMMIT BUT NO. NEVER MIND, I CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT IT, I’M NOT READY TO CRY TODAY

shit. shit shit shit shit and OF COURSE all I can fucking think about is that stupid fucking prophecy and gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Deku please. please please please if you really are going to leave All Might here, please be so very careful in choosing your farewell words to him now because have this sudden horrible fear that this might be the last time you ever see him alive and oh god. oh god oh god

DEKU NO, YOU’RE REALLY NOT!?!?

I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYONE LESS FINE IN MY LIFE, ACTUALLY????

holy shit. and the fucking callback to the prophecy now. just in case we forgot. WHICH FYI, WE DIDN’T. but that’s basically confirming that this is all still very much on the table and HORIKOSHI NEVER FORGETS oh my god someone please hold me

and the fact that Deku’s flashing back to it now too, though?? because he never forgot either, because of course he didn’t, and now all this stuff is happening, and AFO’s words are getting to him, and this is literally his worst fear come to life and so of course he’s distancing himself from everyone, and now it’s finally come to even this. even the person he admires most

-- OKAY NO, FUCKING COME ON ALREADY I CAN’T TAKE THIS

I GET IT OH MY GOD, I ALREADY UNDERSTAND THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF THIS MOMENT WITHOUT ALL OF THE DEVASTATING FLASHBACKS THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!! YOU ACTUALLY DO WANT ME TO CRY, HUH, IS THAT IT. THIS MAN THAT HE THINKS OF AS A FATHER, THIS MAN WHO HAS BEEN EVERYTHING TO HIM SINCE HE WAS A VERY YOUNG CHILD. EVERYTHING THEY’VE BEEN THROUGH, JUXTAPOSED AGAINST EVERYTHING DEKU IS UP AGAINST, EVERYTHING THAT’S AT RISK. LET’S JUST PUT IT ALL SIDE BY SIDE. LET’S JUST PILE ON ALL OF THE FEELS

(ETA: just a quick note that even though some of the posts I’ve read have described these as All Might’s flashbacks, I’m pretty sure they are Deku’s. most of these are scenes that only he was there for, so yeah. even though All Might is the one thinking the thoughts on the next page, the flashbacks are what’s running through Deku’s mind right now, and so we’re getting that emotion from both of them, which makes it extra devastating lol.)

wait, what???

WHAT??? do you really think that’s why he’s been so determined to protect you this entire time?? simply because you’re his successor?

-- oh no wait lol I think I got that mixed up, this is All Might saying that Deku feels the need to protect him. well that makes more sense lol

oh my god I cannot

his last words. his last words to him. and we can’t even see if he is smiling, like All Might always encouraged him to do. but what are the odds he can’t actually bring himself to do it. what are the odds he’s actually crying. oh god this scene is going to rip my heart out and STOMP on it in the anime isn’t it. Deku’s VA is going to full on murder me with emotion. not that there’ll be much of me left to murder after the thorough job that Horikoshi has already done here

YOU’RE CRYING. DEKU IS LEAVING ALL MIGHT AND IGNORING HIS OUTSTRETCHED HAND AND YOU’RE CRYING. AND BY “YOU” I MEAN “ME”, FUCK

nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope no words just feels just a big ol’ pile of feels. I do not have the strength. future me... [broadly gestures] good luck with all that

(ETA: LOL, WELL THEN.

what breaks my heart here is All Might. All Might, and everything he’s been through, and history repeating itself, and forcing him to live this moment from both sides because he wasn’t strong enough to fix things.

Toshinori had only just turned eighteen when Nana died. like, I feel like we don’t mention this enough. the All Might we know is a sixty-something-year-old man, and so everyone always talks about him like he’s basically been an adult forever. but he was a child when he met Nana. and he was still just a child when she died. barely a year older than Deku is now. younger than Mirio was when we first met him.

and we don’t talk about that. we don’t talk about how devastating that was for him. and we don’t talk about how the reason he grew up to become so reserved and withdrawn -- for all that he always tried so hard to outwardly project the image of a bold, confident, smiling hero -- was specifically because of what AFO did to him. because AFO targeted him in the exact way that he is now targeting Deku. because that’s what he does. he goes after every new user of OFA, and he finds out what’s most important to them, and then he destroys it. and for Toshinori, that was Nana. if you’ve read All Might Rising, you know that AFO basically killed her in front of him (and only killed her, while letting Toshinori and Gran get away). Toshinori (while crying) later says she was like a mother to him. and interestingly enough, during this same conversation, Gran tells Toshinori that he can see “that madness in [his] eyes” when Toshi talks about becoming strong enough to defeat AFO. madness in his eyes. sound familiar??

what’s happening to Deku now is the exact same thing that happened to Toshinori when he was a boy. AFO tried every bit as hard to break him as he’s trying with Deku now. “the path you’ve chosen is a thorny one. every battle grinds away at your soul with no end in sight.” we don’t talk about how Toshinori experienced this same thing for forty fucking years. and all the while isolating himself, exactly like Deku is doing now. pushing people away, exactly like Deku. because he never had anyone who was able to reach out and pull him back. and those words that he now finds himself frozen and unable to speak -- “don’t push yourself”; “you can rest” -- are the same words that no one ever said to him until decades later, when it was already far too late to make any difference.

everything that Deku is experiencing now is what Toshinori also went through. and it’s only now, as he watches it happen to his student, the boy he loves like a son, that he’s finally starting to realize the full extent of how wrong it was. you shouldn’t have to fight alone. you shouldn’t have to bear that kind of enormous burden alone. you shouldn’t have to push yourself, and you can rest. you can rest.

but it’s too late. just as he’s finally coming to understand it all, it’s all too fucking late. and he can’t say the words, he doesn’t know how to say the words, and then just like that, Deku is gone.

and he’s alone. again.)

I can’t. this can’t be their goodbye. I’m not ready. for this to be how they finally part, and then they never see each other again except in OFA. how is that fair. how is that fair. how is that fair

fuck me. lol. how many pages are left in this thing. let’s just wrap this up lol. so now of all the times for this fucking guy to finally show up

I can’t believe Stain has been here literally this entire time hiding behind this random wall and cutting onions. that was you who was cutting the onions, right. no need to answer that we’ll just say it was

HORIKOSHI JUST END THE CHAPTER PLEASE I’M OUT OF SPOONS. YOU HURT ME SO GOOD AND I LOVE YOU FOR IT BUT YOU NEED TO LET ME GO NOW SO I CAN BEGIN THE PROCESS OF TRYING TO PUT MY LIFE BACK IN ORDER HERE. SO WHERE ARE WE CUTTING TO NOW WHAT IS HAPPENING

Stain did you also let AFO give you a new quirk. what’s with you guys. do you like blowing up

oh nvm lol because they were talking about THIS GUY ohhhhhh my fucking god

THAT’S BECAUSE HE’S SAD, LINDA!! jesus

omfg. and so yes, good, the chapter is ending here now on page 15. for once I am FULLY on board with that lmao

anyway so tune in next week for more adventures of Werewolf Deku!! that is, assuming we don’t finally cut back to U.A. at long last, which is actually a strong possibility considering that this chapter will likely mark the end of volume 31. it sure wouldn’t kill Horikoshi to start giving us some hope after everything he’s just put us through lol. KACCHAN COME GET YA BOY

[jediken0bi]

The Lucky One

Spencer Reid x Reader

Summary:

Spencer has always been good at keeping secrets. This secret just so happens to walk into the BAU to bring him his lunch. The team, supportive as ever, decides to tease him a little and Derek learns a little lesson about making assumptions.

word count: 2763

-

You and Spencer have only been officially dating for about 3 Months.

3 Months, 4 days and 13 hours you hear a voice inside your head. One that sounds suspiciously like Spencers.

You let out a small giggle before shaking your head slightly.

Things couldn't be better between the two of you. You guys had spare keys to the other persons apartment and while that might seem like a rush move for a lot of people you two have agreed that this is the easiest way to maximize your time together. So more often than not, you were staying over at each other's apartment.

You were currently on your way to bring him his lunch since he was in a rush this morning and forgot to take it.

Nothing new to either of you. He often tends to leave his lunch at home only to realize it when he's already on his break resulting in him usually buying himself a cheap sandwich or skipping lunch all together. You decided that, for once, he deserved to have a proper meal. He's been working a lot of overtime lately and it's starting to take a toll on him. On both of you really. He was constantly exhausted and you had to watch him work himself into over drive. Ever since the Hankle case, he's been scared to let even the smallest details go unnoticed which meant that he often spend much longer than the rest of the team on studying the files and trying to solve cases at the speed of light. It's something the team has noticed too over the last couple of weeks. They've been trying to get him to go out with them more often to take his mind off things but he usually rejects them by coming up with some fake excuse.

The reality was that he usually wanted to come straight home to you. He told you the reason he hasn't told the team about you two yet is their constant meddling and involvement in his life. He loves them all dearly and he wouldn't change a thing about either of them, but this was his and his only. He wasn't quite ready to give up the only thing he didn't have to share with anyone. He wanted you all to himself for as long as possible and while you can admit that you were skeptical at first, it's fair to say that you've come to understand Spencers point of view a lot better since then.

So, while you knew all about his team, they knew nothing about you. It didn't offend you though. You are confident that you and Spencer are in this for the long run.

Of course you were slightly worried about running into one of them while bringing him his lunch but that's a risk you were willing to take if it meant that Spencer didn't have to spend another day hungry and exhausted. It's not likely for him to get mad at you if it were to happen anyway. He keeps making small remarks to test the waters.

At this point, he might be scared you don't want to meet his team by the way he's tip toeing around the subject.

Finally arriving at the big scary FBI building you walk inside with caution.

Logically speaking the FBI is the last place you should feel scared to be at, but you can't help but think that this is probably the most intimidating place in the U.S. All those important people in their suits and pencil skirts and their stone cold expressions made you question how Spencer could be so different.

Before you could finish that thought you pass the security check and run straight into someone else on your way to the elevator.

You couldn't get a word out before said person started talking.

"Oh my god i am so sorry, gorgeous! I'm usually more coordinated than this i swear. It's just been a very stressful morning and now i've made yours worse by bumping into you-"

You smile widely as you realize who you must be talking to.

Tech Genius Penelope Garcia

"It's completely fine honestly! It was totally my fault anyway. It's my first time here and i'm a bit nervous"

You felt a bit rude interrupting her but based on the things Spencer told you about her this apology would've went on for at least another two minutes and you would much rather spend that elevator ride having a conversation with her.

After all, she was the BAU sunshine.

And bright she is with her colorful clothes and awesome glasses you think to yourself in that very moment.

It was a nice change of scenery after hushing around serious looking people before.

"Well, looks like we were both a bit dazzled just then! First time huh? Yeah there's definitely something scary about this place. What's a pretty gal like you doing here on a saturday morning? Oh! Are you visiting someone special?", Garcia says in a excited tone before quickly pressing the button taking you two up to the BAU floor.

You were grateful for that because it meant you didn't have to explain why you had to go to that floor too. Of course Penelope was way too hyper to realize i hadn't pressed another button in that moment so i quickly answered her to draw her attention to something else.

"Yeah, i am. I'm bringing my boyfriend his lunch. He hasn't been taking care of himself recently and i want him to at least have a proper meal in his stomach"

Garcia smiled at you with a small nod.

"That's so cute! He is lucky to have you, sweetie. I'm Penelope Garcia by the way!"

She extends her hand and you immediately shake it with a small smile playing on your lips

"I'm Y/N. Very nice to meet you, Penelope"

Not 3 seconds later the elevator doors open and you follow Garcia out of it and straight into the bullpen.

You didn't make it very far before a guy you strongly assume to be the infamous Derek Morgan approached Garcia and, by proximity, you.

"Now that's what you wanna see first thing in the morning! How is my Babygirl?"

Yep, definitely Morgan

"Infinitely better now that i've seen you, hot stuff" says Penelope without even having to think about it.

You can't help but snort at how adorable their friendship is. They're so comfortable with each other.

Derek looks past Garcia and straight at you with curious eyes.

"Well hello mamas. Who do we have here?"

Garcia turns around and has a surprised look on her face when she finally notices you behind her.

"Y/N! I thought you were on your way to meet your boyfriend for lunch?"

I opened my mouth to explain why exactly i was there but Derek beat me to it.

"Now why don't we just forget about that boyfriend and you let me take you out for lunch instead?"

Penelope hits him in the shoulder and i just laugh. Derek looks at me smugly and raises his eyebrows as a way of asking 'What do you say?'

You're tempted to just straight up tell him who you're here for to save everyone from a potentially awkward situation but just as you start talking you see Spencer sitting at his desk focused on his paperwork.

You make the quick decision to simply show Derek instead.

Without saying another word you simply walk past him with a big smile and head towards your destination.

"Hey handsome"

Spencers head shoots up as soon as he hears the familiar sound of your voice. He stares at you with wide eyes. He's clearly shocked to see you and you don't blame him. You just hope he's happy to see you.

"Y/N! What are you doing here?"

Now, if it had been anyone else you're sure this would've sounded rude, but you know Spencer so you know he doesn't mean for it to sound accusing. He's genuinely wondering.

You put on a playful pout.

"Is that a way to talk to the wonderful person who came all the way to the fbi to bring you lunch?"

Spencer finally stands up and looks down on the bag in your hand. He smiles and suddenly it's like he's at home with you. No one else around.

He walks up to you and wraps his arms around your waist.

"No, of course not. Thank you, beautiful"

He presses a small but firm kiss to your waiting lips and you smile up at him.

"You're welcome. I know work has been rough and i thought maybe a proper lunch could make up for some of it. I know it's not a lot and it doesn't cure the bad thoughts but you should know that i made today's lunch with an extra amount of love"

You joke.

You push one of his curls out of his eyes so you can properly look at him. He was already gone by the time you woke up so this is the first you're seeing of him today. He looks tired. Exhausted. And it's breaking your heart.

He gives you a smile that reaches his eyes. The first one in days. There's a feeling of pride blooming inside of you.

"How could i say no to some extra lovin'?"

Your eyes immediately widen and a blush creeps up your face.

"Spence!" You hit his shoulder and he tumbles back a tiny bit, laughing.

"I'm sorry, love. I really am grateful for this. You didn't have to do this"

It's only then that you realize you're not in the confide space of your apartments. You're in the bullpen of the BAU surrounded by Spencers friends and second family.

Spencer seems to realize that too because he suddenly let's go of you and clears his throat.

Confused about what just happened you turn around to spot Derek, Penelope and two women who you assume must be JJ and Emily staring at you with wide unbelieving eyes.

"There ain't no way. Pretty boy!! My man!"

Derek breaks out of his shock first and proudly points between the two of you.

Garcia doesn't waste a second following his example

"Reid is the boyfriend who hasn't been taking care of himself?!"

"What?" JJ, Emily and Spencer all ask at the time.

You can't help but laugh out loud at the absurd situation you got yourself in.

You turn around to look at Spencer. One hand grabbing his chin so he looks at you.

"Yeah, that would be him"

Spencer goes beet red immediately and the team goes wild.

You only smile wider at him and he pulls you back against his chest, wrapping one of his arms back around your waist. He goes to hide his embarrassment by burying his face in your shoulder.

He hates being the center of attention especially when it comes to his team.

"Spence, i didn't know you were seeing someone! How come you hid her from us?"

JJ asks him all excited. She was clearly happy her best friend has finally found someone he loves and trusts.

Spencer grumbles and lifts his head to look at his team.

"I wasn't hiding her! I just wanted something for myself for a little while. We're all up in each others business all the time and i love you guys but it was nice not having to share this part of my life with everyone for a bit. JJ, you did the same when you started dating Will!"

The team looks at each other for a moment and suddenly they all nod understandingly

"Fair enough" they all say.

Spencer hums approvingly and you just smile at the scene before you.

That wasn't that bad! I don't even know what i was afraid of

You were about to bid your goodbyes to the team and Spence so they could get back to work when Dereks next comment urges you to stay for a little while longer.

"Now Reid don't get me wrong but how the hell did you land a smoke show like this? No disrespect kid but i admittedly tried to flirt with her before i knew who she was"

Spencer smiles uncomfortably and shifts from one foot to the other.

"I don't know i guess i was just being myself? I saw her in my favorite book store one day and i just asked her out. Unusual for me, sure, but it's like i didn't have to be afraid with her. I don't know that probably sounds weird"

Your eyes soften and you lay your hand on top of Spencers on your waist. You turn your head a little to press a small kiss to his cheek.

"It doesn't sound weird, Spence. I'm glad you asked me out. I wanted to ask you but i couldn't bring myself to build up the courage. I think you're brave for taking a risk but trust me there was no way i was going to say no to you"

Emily, JJ and Penelope all seemed to melt over the cute interaction between you two but Dereks focus was somewhere else.

He didn't mean any harm you're absolutely sure about that. Maybe it's your instinct to protect Spencer or maybe it's your way of showing him exactly what he's worth but you can't find yourself feeling sorry for what happens next.

"Hold on, you were scared to ask him out? Pretty Ricky over here intimidated you? That's got to be a first"

He laughs with no real malice behind his voice. He's just joking around after all.

Spencer looks down in slight embarrassment at his friends teasing and you decide that now is the time to show them exactly what kind of girlfriend you are.

"I'm not sure we're looking at the same person here Derek because when i was at that bookstore creepily drooling over this hot as hell 6'3 doctor with great taste in literature i knew i had to ask him out. He's the kind of man you want to spend your life with. Not some cheap fling or meaningless 2 week dating experiment. I knew that, once i had him, i was going to hold on to him. So yeah, i was intimidated. It was like staring into your future and i was scared of messing it up. I've never been happier than i am now with Spencer"

Spencer stayed silent the entire time only pressing you closer to him. Once you're finished talking he presses a long firm kiss to your head.

"It's okay. I know, love. Me too"

He whispers loud enough so you could hear it but not loud enough for the rest of the team to hear.

"Woah little mama i meant no offense! I don't call him pretty boy for nothing. I'm just playing with y'all. I love the kid and i'm happy you two have found each other"

He smiles warmly at you and you give him a smile in return.

"I know you didn't. Spence told me all about you guys. I just don't like it when people make assumptions about my relationship with him. Because if anything, i'm the lucky one.

Spencer snorts and you lightly elbow him in the stomach with a grin on your face. You both look at each other with a glint in your eyes

"Agree to disagree" you both say at the same time. It's kind of become your thing. This isn't the first time that debate has been discussed between you two.

"Oh my god they're total nerds in love. Love Nerds!"

Penelope says in a squeaky voice.

You all laugh at her enthusiasm and you turn around to look at your boyfriend once more.

"I better get going. I didn't mean to stay this long anyway. I'll see you tonight? Your place? I'll order us some chinese"

Spencer takes your hand in his and nods with a smile.

"Yeah i'll be there"

You grin and lean up to kiss him goodbye. Seconds before your lips meet you whisper

"You better be. I'm planning on cashing in that promise for some extra lovin' tonight"

You finally press a kiss to lips and turn around as he turns bright red.

"Y/N!!"

You laugh loudly.

"Two can play this game baby!"

You're practically running out of there to avoid any further questioning from his team. All you hear is a chorus of laughter and Spencers embarrassed voice as he tells them to shut up

[thenamesblurrito]

ask dump... oh god what is this. seven??

thats cumulatively about 70 asks in these dumps. whh.

answered asks include switching off senses, shields and other Enforcer gear, tunneling beastformers, tabletop and video games, social etiquette for riding on or in people, how digestible is a body, processor locations in the body, what can smelter alt modes consume, and organic evolution

this one had me waffling back and forth for awhile. i’m going to say yes, dependent on the individual, but not every sense. of course, depending on frametype, you’ll have different sensors, so that also comes into play. this also varies between root mode and alt mode senses. alt mode senses may be consciously switched on and off, or they may only function in alt mode, or they may always be on

for example, beastformers usually involuntarily lose sight in their beast mode optics when in root mode (which is why i don’t draw their beast pupils) but some like Blackarachnia or Alpha Trion actually keep conscious control of their beast form sight in root mode. i talk about it more in this article. even in root mode, optics and visors can be dimmed and brightened semi-consciously which affects the clarity and color sensitivity of their vision, but turning them completely off without shuttering them isn’t under conscious control

smell and taste are technically the same sense, chemoreception, and most people have the glossa for specific fuel-related chemoreception and then less intense, more generalized sensors inset into vents all over their body to detect air quality. some people are forged with other specialized sensors, like some beastformers or chemical processing frames. a few folks have very excellent chemoreception for no discernible reason, like Swerve who can break down the precise chemical components and general ratios of a drink just by taking one swig, which he discovers in Maccadam’s class is not universal to everyone. this is also a mostly unconscious sense, and the only way to shut it off is to shutter your vents

the senses most people can actively change sensitivity/shut off are hearing and electromagnetics, simply by “dialing down” or “tuning out” their sensitivity. everyone has a different range and lowest threshold. they can also lessen their sensitivity to gentle touch by fluffing out armor and creating distance between more sensitive inner vibratory sensors and duller, less acute outer armor receptors. like feeling a poke through a thick jacket

i had to google this guy and boy howdy his smile is the worst thing i’ve seen in my life

Enforcers use shields, yep, like riot shields. also multitools with knives, batons/nightsticks (often electrified to numb or burn out their target, not lethal the way it can be for humans), alt mode body armor for tactical driving (which is a real type of driving that is both cool and terrifying) or even vehicular battering rams, sledgehammers or other break-in tools when needing to get into a locked room, and of course their most common tools like nets, cables, and loops designed to trigger entrapment protocol. in extreme cases they’re authorized to use real weaponry, from incendiary devices to projectiles to aerosolized nanobot powder carrying a viral load of malware. this is all excused for being “necessary” to “keep the peace” of course, so it’s not forbidden in the eyes of functionism like even a good sword would be for regular people

yep, this aligns pretty well with typical Enforcer weaponry! right alongside grapeshot cannons, foam/adhesive bombs, tracking fob darts, and wire traps capable of tactile uploads of nerve-hacking code. lots of normalized police brutality here

depends on their alt mode and what they’re trying to dig through! ironically they probably won’t be anywhere near as efficient as an actual mechanimal would be, since digging mechanimals usually have their own alt modes to do things like that. some turbofox species have drill alt modes, as do borehounds, etc etc which are much better at tunneling than just paws and claws. also, the vast majority of Cybertron isn’t soil or dirt, and water erosion is not as common, so tunneling in general will probably be through solid rock and metal, shifting sand, or complex structural foundations. a dog can bury a bone in your backyard, but probably won’t get anywhere when trying to dig through half a mile of basalt!

trying to make it into and beneath buildings can be both easier and harder. easier because you know there’s empty space on the other side of the wall and sometimes you can take advantage of shoddy workmanship, harder because that isn’t a guarantee, maybe the architects decided to use titanium sheets to line this building and there’s no way you’ll break through that. a junker is far more likely to go through a vent system, fire escape, maintenance hatch, or other similar pre-made crawlspace than manually digging their way into a building. they’re also going to take advantage of the natural tunnels and substructures of the planet (eighth ask here), which can be like volcanic tunnels and rocky caves, but are just as likely to be something like the Channel Tunnel underwater highway, or subway systems miles and miles deep, or pits criss-crossed with scaffolding, or shafts of ventilation systems spreading between layers, except all of these things were formed by the planet instead of built. a lot of infrastructure taps into and takes advantage of these natural structures

i hadn’t thought too hard about this one before you asked, hm. uhhh. i don’t know if i can come up with anything specific off the top of my head so i’ll speak generally

video games are often made for immersive object interfacing via datacables, like a built in VR option, and some games are exclusively via object interface. they also can be a lot quicker/more demanding and have much busier visual displays, as mecha can take a lot of visual input at once without getting confused and have faster reaction times. there’s a pretty low threshold to make and distribute video games, since at least simple coding comes naturally to most people and it’s really not hard to whip up a quick game and throw it out into the wilds. there’s certainly a game industry that creates sprawling and complex high quality games, but the market for what we would call indie games is larger and easier to work in than it is for humans. the whole Sword Art Online premise is technically possible, but highly unlikely to actually work on even a few people at once, and the way object interface works means that a mech cannot “mentally travel” outside of a given individual system, with a closed system being most comfortable. no brain link to the internet for them, so no VR mmorpgs. (this limitation of course does not apply to Soundwave and his minicons, which is an endless source of frustration for everyone else)

board games, card games, and the like aren’t too dissimilar from what we use. mecha can build a game into a table using holoemitters, or use physical components. it’s up to personal taste and the needs of the game. generally gambling games are done with physical components to prevent hacking, or very specifically secured slot machines or other devices that cannot be easily compromised. tabletop rpgs usually come with an online hub of some sort to store and track data, provide stats, assets, and prompts, and model characters or settings to use with holoemitters or VR plugins. i don’t know enough about ttrpgs to actually flesh it out well, but the Cybertronian stand-in for D&D is called Cosmos and Canyons, and is based sort of off the mythology of the Knights of Cybertron. some of the JAAT faculty have an ongoing C&C game

depends on the individual and the culture, for both onyxoid and alt mode transportation. Sky Lynx for his part is totally fine with his friends playing horsie and riding him somewhere, as long as they ask first. it’s fun! Crucible, a former junker and current Academy maintenance worker, would probably throw someone on instinct if they tried getting up on his back. personal space and boundaries are still very much a thing, but no matter who it is, you’re gonna be considered very rude if you just hop up onto a stranger without asking

with alt modes, it’s a little different, because very few people are small/large enough to fit inside each other. sure, maybe before size classes became a thing that was possible, or maybe if a tiny size null curls up small enough, but not nowadays. the only time someone rides inside someone else is when a sparkling is carried by someone with enough alt mode storage space and isn’t uncomfortable with the sensation of someone inside them. this means that transportation isn’t so much reliant on people willing to use their own bodies as shuttles, trams, and cargo space, instead having people pilot nonliving vehicles, but functionism still dictates that transport alt modes go into transport jobs

exterior alt mode transport is a thing though! like Bumblebee on Orion here, hitching a ride on but not in someone is perfectly possible. rickshaws, trailers, and car hauler rigs are pretty common, and towing a car can be the same as a taxi ride in the right circumstance. it also very well might be getting arrested. again, personal space and boundaries are a thing, as well as culture. in Iacon it’s fine for Bumblebee to “piggyback” on Orion like that since they’re siblings, but on Caminus it would be seen as disrespectful. on Carcer, Bumblebee could probably do that to any kid he encountered and be just fine

(warning for robo-cannibalism)   uhhhh. all of it? like the spark would be gone, and the innermost would go dead pretty quickly, but once you break down and process the materials of the frame, even that is edible. the same type of simple processing of regular fuel material can be applied to a dead frame too

just eating it “raw” could pose some dangers, not unlike kuru/prion disease. ingesting material straight from a recently dead frame without doing typical food prep might leave large enough concentrations of immune system or self repair nanites intact, which might reactivate upon being introduced to a new frame with fresh energon and life energy radiating from the spark. activating nanites programmed to one specific frame while in an alien frame is a bad idea, as mentioned in the last answer here, and they might filter into the frame’s systems and do some serious damage before caught and/or digested. letting the corpse sit for long enough would mean the nanites collapse to the point of being unable to reactivate, so that’s a simple prevention. generally, you can know a body and all its constituent components is truly dead when it no longer registers as having electrical charge or stored heat, sometimes even burning those last few drops with rigor morphis or similar reactions. there are parasites and natural decay processes that can make a corpse a little icky, like rust/oxidization, congealing oil, etc, but it’s not as fast nor as terrible as rotting flesh and can generally be reversed or cleaned out alright

(the post this is referring to)

the universal body plan of a Cybertronian puts their central processor in their helm and their spark chamber somewhere in their central mass while in root mode. this doesn’t change, no matter what body type an individual has. when transformed, a person’s helm and thus processor is usually tucked away near the middle, or at least covered by good armor to keep it protected. but this isn’t always the case, depending on what sort of transformation sequence, kibble placement, and alt mode an individual has

so a beastformer can probably get their beast head decapitated and be alright for a bit, although their senses in root mode will be severely impaired, unless their frame is such that their actual central processor will be in their beast head. that’s a much more significant and life threatening wound, but not automatically lethal! mecha can survive decapitation, although i wouldn’t say to the level of TFA’s headmastery shenanigans. Lugnut for instance lost his helm and had it reconstructed, and while most of his original face is gone, his processor survived intact and was reattached quickly enough to save his life

personal fuel intake for food is a different process from alt mode material intake. whatever you put in your mouth is going to end up in your digestive system, and whatever you put in your alt mode intakes is going to end up in your alt mode processing systems, and those two are almost always completely separate. someone whose alt mode is an energon processor, packager, metals forge, ore refinery, or smelter of some kind won’t gain any energy or benefit from what they put in their alt mode, because they don’t actually digest and absorb those materials. now, toxic waste or similar harmful stuff can hurt them, but that’s more along the lines of close exposure instead of consumption

taking Crucible for an example, as a smelter, he’s got pretty tough processing systems that can melt and break down a lot of different stuff. as a former junker, he also has a hardy digestive system with the eating habits of someone used to taking any meal offered him. be it a meal or processing material, he’s likely going to be perfectly capable of breaking it down. another smelter might not have the same tough digestive system, but can still process the same materials in alt mode just fine, or perhaps vice versa

as for chomping through a wall, i don’t think very many people are capable of that regardless of how tough they are. first of all, the amount of material you’d need to consume to create a hole large enough to fit through is going to vastly exceed the amount of material physically capable of fitting inside your frame. on top of that, while mecha can certainly chew some pretty solid/dense things, that’s in the context of a prepared meal made with small enough portions to bite through, not an entire support column as wide as they are. the materials themselves may be edible in some cases, but not in the form of a building.also, have you ever tried taking a bite out of a wall? just shoving your face up against it and trying to chomp? i’ll confess i did try it specifically for this question and couldn’t even get my teeth to connect to the surface, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(the post this is referring to)

i’m familiar with ring species, but i still think the separation of entire solar systems is a bit different than a local barrier. i think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree here. i don’t think any species is ever safe from extreme change if forced into extreme circumstances, whether or not they’re sapient. the timescale i’m working with is four billion years, too, and the sheer variety in our own ecological record shows just how much life can morph in that time. this is also assuming that culture or government doesn’t decide to deliberately harness evolution via eugenics, or that the species wasn’t already made up of multiple subspecies or breeds. idk, i just think any given sapient species has less control over their existence than they think

[fruitcoops]

did i miss something or when did Hestia tape loops’ face back together? i would read the heck outta that

Hello anon! One of my first fics was called Blood On the Ice, and it was about Remus getting injured in a game when he got hit in the face with a stick. It ended before I went into specifics about the recovery, so here’s a sequel to clarify! Hope you enjoy! Sweater Weather credit goes to @lumosinlove!

TW for blood, bruises, swelling, mentioned panic attack (previous fic)

“Easy, Loops,” Hestia murmured as she carefully taped the gash on his lip. He clenched his jaw to suppress a wince, but that just made it hurt more. His whole face throbbed with pain and he really couldn’t feel where she was touching him anymore—his left eye was completely swollen shut, and the right was on its way to join it.

“No concussion, right?” he managed around his puffy lip as she pulled away.

“Nope.”

“Didn’t think so.” Remus tentatively prodded his cheekbone and flinched at the swollen heat. “Oh, ouch.”

Hestia batted his hand away and handed him an ice pack. “Don’t poke it, dummy! You know better.”

“I do. Thanks.”

“Drink water. I’m going to get a snack and then load you up with tylenol, alright?”

“Sounds good.” His jaw was starting to ache from moving it so much, and he still tasted blood whenever his tongue touched his lips. The TV was too far away for him to make out much more than vague shapes, but the reddish blobs seemed to be doing well. “Are we winning?”

“Yep. Sirius is one away from a hat trick.”

“Really?”

“Mhmm.” Hestia pressed an open packet of goldfish into his palm. “You can still chew, right?”

“Yep. Teeth all feel fine, it’s just my…” He gestured to his general facial area and she laughed.

“Good to hear. Eat, you’ll feel better.”

He cracked a smile, or at least his best imitation of one. “Hey, that’s my line.”

Hestia kept a running commentary on the game like the absolute angel she was while he ate and took his medicine, then changed out his ice pack and made sure he didn’t accidentally fall off the PT table as he laid down. “If you wake up with anything more than a moderate headache, or if you start feeling nauseous, tell me immediately. No toughing this out, Remus.”

He gave her a look out of his less swollen eye. “Come on, H, I’m the last person—”

“You are the first person who would try to shake off a stick to the face.” She flicked him playfully on the shoulder. “I’m not falling for any of your bullshit.”

The relief was instant and magnificent as she guided the ice pack over the upper half of his face once again. “You are literally my favorite person ever.”

“That’s the tape and Tylenol talking. Take a nap. I’ll wake you when the game’s done.”

“No, you won’t.”

“True. You need rest, so go to sleep.”

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and settled back against the soft pillow, letting the rustling sounds of her moving around lull him into drowsiness. The smell of the PT room was familiar and comforting, if a bit different than before; he couldn’t smell much, though, so it may just have been in his head. Easy does it, Loops, he reminded himself. You’re going to be fine.

The panic attack had been embarrassing, to say the least. His shoulder was completely untouched, but the adrenaline and dull ache radiating through his head set his whole body on fire. His nose still pulsed with pain if he concentrated too hard.

But Hestia had been kind, and careful, and smart. She worked quickly, taping up the scrapes and his split lip before feeling for any breaks. She gave him another piece of gauze for his nose, though he didn’t really need it. First rule of PT: keep the patient’s mind off their injury. When he started hyperventilating again, she stopped working and held his hands until it passed.

Something warm laid heavy in his palm when he dragged himself back to the land of the living; his vision was still blocked out by the ice pack, but he could tell it was someone’s hand. “You’re the best PT,” he said, giving it a squeeze.

There was a low laugh. “I’d be a terrible PT.”

“Sirius? Hey!” Remus tried to smile, but stopped as soon as his face screeched in protest and the cut on his lip began to sting. It was at a horrible in-between point of numb and prickly still. “Hey, baby, did we win?”

“We did.”

“Did you get a hat trick?”

“No, I was one off.” He folded his other hand over Remus’ and rubbed his fingers gently. “You sound like you have a cold.”

“Just my nose. And cheeks. And everything else.” They both laughed and he waved toward his face. “Could you take the ice pack off? I wanna see you.”

Sirius paused. “There’s no ice pack, sweetheart. Your face is just really swollen.”

“Oh.”

“Did Hestia do a good job?”

“Of course she did,” Remus scoffed. “She’s Hestia.”

“True. Did you lose any teeth?”

“Not even one. My only badge of honor is a face full of bruises.”

“It’s quite the badge,” Sirius said under his breath. One of his hands disappeared and Remus felt something brush his cheek a moment later; he turned into it, pressing against the familiar warmth. “Can you get up? I think we should go home.”

“Yeah, for sure.” Sirius gently held on to his forearms as he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Remus stumbled a bit when he stood, but Sirius was steady and pulled him close to his side.

“Alright, this way.”

“Is Hestia in here?” Vague shapes of light made their way into his vision.

“I’m over here,” she said, touching his elbow.

“You’re the best PT ever.”

“Thanks, Loops.” He could hear a smile in her voice and gave her hand a quick pat.

Two steps later, Sirius let go of him. Startled fear bolted through Remus; the world wasn’t much more than black and blobby colors, and while the floor was solid beneath his feet, he had no guide wall. “Sirius? Where’d you go?”

“Shit, sorry.” His hands returned to Remus’ arm and waist in a smudge of motion. “I was just opening the door.”

“Don’t let go, please,” he said quietly as they walked into the hall. He was tired, in pain, and completely disoriented—he didn’t want to be alone as well.

“Hey, Loops, how’re you—holy fuck.” Kasey. Rapid footsteps and a new blur of lighter colors came closer. “Shit, man, are you alright?”

“Never better.” There was a beat of silence and he sighed, reaching out to smack Kasey on the arm. “You guys can stop talking about me while I’m right here, you know. I’ll be fine in a couple days, tops.”

“You do realize half your face is taped together, right?”

“It’s not half­—”

“It’s enough,” Sirius and Kasey said in unison.

“Hestia said two weeks.” Sirius wrapped an arm further around his waist and began walking again. Not having peripheral vision was making Remus dizzy and he pressed a hand to Sirius’ chest.

“Slow down a bit, babes.”

“Sorry.” A door opened up ahead and he heard a few new voices whispering.

Remus sighed. “Hey, guys.”

“Hey,” James said tentatively, drawing out the word. “You okay?”

“If one more person asks that, I’m going to throw something,” Remus grumbled. “Yes, I’m fine, just bruised.”

“Do we need to go beat up that rookie?”

“Please don’t, I’m sure it was an accident.”

“Alright, drive safe.”

One, two, three, four hands landed on his shoulder as the group walked past, murmuring well-wishes and clearly sending Sirius looks. He caught a flash of red and some blond—Finn and Leo, and maybe Kasey if he hadn’t left. The last person was just a blob, but Remus didn’t have the brainpower to play ‘Guess Who’ with all the brunets on the team.

The cold of the outside world was a welcome reprieve; he took a deep breath and let the chill soothe his skin, lacing his fingers with Sirius’ as they crossed the parking lot. “Sorry I’m so slow,” he said as the car’s lock clicked.

“You don’t have to apologize, mon loup,” Sirius half-laughed. “I’m just glad you’re up and moving.”

He carefully buckled his seatbelt and leaned his head back in the seat. “I look like a mess, don’t I?”

“Pretty much. You’ll heal, though.”

“Thanks for being honest.” He fumbled a hand over the gearshift and rested it on Sirius’ thigh.

“Sugarcoating never helps. Do you want your ice pack?”

“You carried it?” Remus asked, surprised. Sirius turned his hand over and placed something cold in his palm. “Thank you.”

“Ne rien.” There was a shuffle, and then the soft brush of lips over his cheekbone.

“Kissing it better?” Remus teased, pressing the blessed cold against his eye.

“Always.”

[gatorbeast]

Any way to like, catch up on sweetbeast? is there some kind of tl;dr? bte I dont mean this as rude in any way

also why am I always late to the party. the cool things where you get to Interact with Characters are all already started and like mid plot :/

yep, there’s a summary on the carrd, but ill just paste it here!

so you’ve heard of Project Sweetbeast but don’t know what’s going on with it? here’s a quick summary of what’s happened so far (what i’m calling chapter 1). PART I: RANGY DOCTOR at the very beginning, an account appears online called project-sweetbeast, and it starts sending out cryptic messages. here is the first one: < NUNTII DEVICE TEST v.X1002 > ... ... ... SEARCHING FOR CONNECTIVITY ... ... ... EXTERNAL STIMULUS NEEDED ... ... ... CONNECTION STATUS: WEAK after some people interact with the site, asking it if there’s anyone there, eventually someone responds. he seems someone frantic and surprised the message sent, and asks the viewers where he ended up. they tell him he is being broadcasted onto a website. he replies that he is broadcasting this from a sort of alternate dimension, then draws a self portrait for the viewers to see. he says his name is Dr. Hazard, and he says he is a scientist that studies portal anomalies, and now he lives inside the place these portal networks are connected to. this place is called the Lost and Found, and is a sort of “limbo” where anomalies and supernatural occurrences/reality breaking oddities go to “even out” the natural balance and keep the normal world safe. he has little conversations with the viewers and tells us a little more about his world. there are no humans, his world is inhabited by diverse animal-like humanoids called madgers (basically furries.) he also explains that portal travel is dangerous, and that anyone who goes in becomes transformed. there are two things a madger can become when they transform: MADGREMS are madgers who have come to the Lost and Found by accident, not with their consent. these look mostly like their previous selves except for some color changes and reality bending properties. MASKIES are madgers who have come to the Lost and Found on purpose, with their consent. they look similar to madgrems, but their faces are masks of any shape. they are required to keep this mask on by law to prevent “mass death and destruction”. Dr. Hazard is also a maskie, as well as all characters except one encountered so far. there is also no way out of the Lost and Found- once you’re there, you’re there forever, and you can’t travel in between portals. it turns out that so many madgers have gone here, it’s been colonized and civilized, and whole cities are built out of this “flipside world”. Hazard explains that there is a big problem going on that he needs our help with. something has put the Lost and Found off balance and portals are being opened up constantly, with pure energy and chaos leaking out into the normal world more frequently. if this happens too much, both the normal world and the Lost and Found could be completely destroyed. his job is to find out the cause of this and stop it before it’s too late, and he needs our help. but before he can explain further, he is cut off by the device he uses to communicate powering down. he explains it automatically teleports to a nearby energy hotspot and that he will be looking for the device and that hopefully, no one interacts with it in the meantime. he also says to keep sending messages so that he can track its location, and says goodbye to the viewers. PART II: THE SCARLET COUNTRY of course, someone interacts with the device. more like someones. the device sends out a keysmash, and the viewers ask who’s there, leading to the camera being turned on, revealing the device being inside someone’s mouth. a maskie is yelling at the person we’re in the mouth of to “drop it” and to “stop eating things off the ground”. they reveal themselves as Grimley, the one who tried to eat the device, a big dudebro himbo kinda guy, and begal, the smaller, grumpier one who was scolding him, wearing a cloak. Grimley is excited and talks to the viewers without questioning the fact they’re from an alternate dimension, while Begal thinks it’s just a prank and brushes it off. Begal let’s the viewer know they’re in a “stuck together” situation thanks to something called the Farley Program where older maskies teach newcomers

the ropes of living in the Lost and Found. They also tell the viewers that they’re heading to a place called the “Scarlet Country”, which is the first big city Grimley has ever been to. they enter this huge enclosed tree filled bright flashy urban crazy city, and Begal leaves Grimley with some money and the device and the viewers are left to talk to him and suggest where he should go next. He talks with the viewers and gets to know them a bit. everything’s going fine until someone asks him if he knows any “tricks”, and he takes off his mask, revealing a horrifying unsettling distorted face underneath. he seems pretty proud of himself. he heads to a store and picks up some goods, until he gets stopped by two officers and gets handcuffed. Yikes. PART III: SMELLS LIKE STARDUST Grimley is completely taken aback and asks why he’s being arrested, and they tell him it’s because he took off his mask. he is in the midst of being driven to some sort of headquarters when he tries to contact Begal with the device, but in the chaos he drops the device and it falls stories and stories down into who knows where and we lose contact with him. Soon, though, someone new contacts the device. An unknown stranger, really excited and talking strangely, starts talking to the viewers through the device about wanting to be their friend and being really cryptic and goofy in general. he reveals his name is Farley, and he’s some sort of weird reality bending critter in between the void. he keeps spouting nonsense until he shows the viewers a cool trick: he hacks two other blogs and speaks through them. he keeps talking to the viewers and having fun entertaining them, and reveals he’s basically been alive since the beginning of time and is some sort of extremely powerful entity. he eventually learns that Grimley has been arrested and gets very upset. he says he was the first person he met and that he’s a great guy and is now determined to get him out of jail, but needs to talk to his “bestest friend” to get him out. he promptly disappears The device eventually picks up a conversation between Farley and a new person, and they’re arguing over whether it’s safe to let Grimley out of prison or not. the new person is very close to Farley and is insistent on him staying careful and safe, and doesn’t want to take any risks. Farley remarks on how he’s changed. Suddenly, the stranger hears the viewers on the device and asks Farley to bring the device to him. a viewer says he would rather not, and he tells them “since when we’re you the one in control?” he then reveals himself as Dewey Stardust, some sort of famous entertainer with lots of status and power, good friends with Farley. He talks to the viewers, explaining that he’s a sort of figurehead for the police but actually dislikes them, and that he has no evil intentions with the device but is curious. And that’s chapter 1!

[ihearthes]

Quarantine Christmas Part 1

Author: @ihearthes Pairing: Harry x y/n Rating: Fluff/Smut (Smut in Part 2) Word Count: 2826 (Part 1) Fiction Chalenge via @caitlin‘s fiction party via @sweetcreatureinthedark

December 23, 2020

My head spins as I haul my suitcase from the trunk, using two hands due to the heft of the dirty clothes inside. Setting it on the ground, I yank on the handle before grappling with the two shopping bags filled with presents, reaching back for the decorated Christmas tin that is filled with homemade cookies, fudge, and other delicacies baked by my colleagues at Apple Music. 

Wrestling with my hands full, I close the trunk with an elbow, shivering in the chilly LA air. At the front door, I want to cry. Dammit. I could clearly remember that when Glenne had given me the code for the front door and the alarm, I placed them in my phone under her contact information. 

“FUCK!” The primal scream is released from my lungs, likely scaring the neighbors if any of them are outside enjoying Christmas lights or having family celebrations on this Christmas Eve Eve. Balancing the tin of cookies on top of the suitcase, I set down the shopping bags to reach for my phone. My purse slips off my shoulder, knocking the container of sweets, and in the scramble to rescue them, I nearly fall head over heels into the bushes. 

It isn’t until I punch in the numbers and drag my personal effects inside that it occurs to me that the alarm isn’t armed. Had Glenne and Jeffrey forgotten to punch in the code before they left for Palm Springs? Deciding I don’t care, I leave everything by the door as I drag my suitcase to the main floor laundry room, dumping everything in without regard to color or type of clothing. Since we’ve been working remotely the majority of the time for the last fucking nine months, “dressing up” encompasses blue jeans and the occasional blouse, but most of my clothing is sweatpants and t-shirts. Deciding washing the blue jeans and blouses with the sweatpants and t-shirts is the worst idea ever, I fish those out before pouring laundry detergent over the remaining garments and starting the washer. 

Glancing down at the clothing currently on my body, it seems completely reasonable to drop them into the washer too. Stripping the t-shirt from my body, I toss it into the swirling water before adding my bra, socks, and leggings to the murky mix. Wearing only panties in the cool house makes my nipples bead. 

Ha! I’m sure my nips are happy to get any action after almost a year with no dating of any sort because of the fucking pandemic. Which reminds me that I’ve forgotten my vibrator at home. Shit. Of all the things I don’t mind borrowing from Glenne, I do have a line I won’t cross. 

Placing the tin of Christmas yummies on the kitchen counter, I grasp the handles of the two bags of gifts. It might be silly to put them under the tree since I’m the only one in the house, but it will make me feel better. More like I’m at home with my family in Indiana. Less like I’m stuck in quarantine in an empty house for my favorite holiday. Sniffling, I swipe at my nose with the back of my hand as I pad down the two steps into the living room to the tree. 

Kneeling at the fake tree, I reach for the switch to turn on the lights. As the colors begin blinking, I carefully withdraw each present, reading the tag before gently placing the gift under the tree. Even my brother had sent a present through the mail which must mean he misses me his year. Right now, we should be challenging each other to the most ridiculous games to see who is the best. Inevitably, he would win some while I beat him at others until eventually we declare a tie. My mother would chastise us both with a grin on her face, implicitly encouraging us to continue our “reindeer games” as my father called them. 

From behind me, I hear a shuffling sound. Hadn’t they taken Myles with them? No matter. I could use the company a dog would provide. 

“Santa, you’ve changed!” a soft voice exclaims, and I jump, twisting around to find another human wearing sweatpants and a hoodie. 

“It’s you!” Both voices exclaim simultaneously. “What the fuck are you doing here?” We both pause, “Stop saying what I’m saying!” 

Out of breath, I stare at him. The Harry Styles. Fuck. 

His eyes roam over my body, and it finally dawns on me that I’m wearing nothing but my Victoria’s Secret lace panties. Shit. 

Pacing measuredly to the couch without openly cringing, I grasp a wool throw and wrap it around my chest regally like I’ve just exited the pool at some exotic locale near the equator. My shoulders straighten, and I face him openly. 

“Are you joining Glenne and Jeffrey in Palm Springs?” My back is a board, and my tone is barely restrained. 

“Nope.” His nonchalance combined with his truncated answer pisses me off, per usual.

“So you’re flying home, waiting here for your flight tonight?” The hopeful tone is obvious to me and probably to him as well.

“No.” Those green eyes of his rake over my nearly-naked body, and I shiver. From the cold of course. Jesus. Get your heads out of the gutter!

“Watering the plants prior to returning to the Soho?”

“Uh uh.”

Delayed dread begins to fill my stomach. “You mean --” I clear my throat -- “you’re staying here?”

“Yep.”

“Shit.” Running my hand through my hair, I ponder the impact and my next steps. 

“You?” He asks politely, even though I know he doesn’t feel solicitude at this moment.

“Glenne told me I could stay here for a few days. I made arrangements for my place to be fumigated while I was in Indiana for Christmas.”

His raised eyebrow mocks me. 

“I’m not going, though. Okay?” 

“Why not?”

“Seriously? Where the fuck have you been, Styles? In case you didn’t know, there’s a global fucking pandemic, and all of Los Angeles is locked down. So no -- I am not getting on a plane with a bunch of potentially infected and contagious --” Emotion overwhelms me, and I have to stop and catch my breath. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I turn away from him so he can’t see the tears that form in my eyes. 

“Whatever, Smith.”

“My name --” I draw myself up and gather my anger around me like a cloak -- “is not Smith.”

“Yeah, right. Which bedroom are you planning to sleep in?”

“Surely you’re not suggesting we both stay here?” Appalled, I stare at him with my mouth open. “I’ll get a hotel room.” When I realize my wardrobe is in the washing machine, I softly say, “As soon as my clothes are dry.”

He shakes his head. “Don’t be ridiculous, Smith. We’ll share the space. It’s only a couple of days.”

“Excuse me!?” Anger wells up. “Only the most important days in the entire year!” Superiority makes me stand up fully to him. “Besides, I’ve been quarantining for months. No way do I want to share germs with you!”

“Oh please! As if you’ve got a monopoly on quarantining! I’m perfectly safe. We get tested every morning before we film. When was the last time you were tested?” 

“Two days ago!” She’s at her boiling point. “Look, if we're both staying here together, then we’re just going to have to avoid each other. It’s a big house. We can do that.”

“Maybe once you put some clothes on,” Harry comments, smirking in that way he has where the left side of his mouth tilts up. 

Mortified, I glance down at myself. Briefly I consider scurrying for Glenne’s closet, but I pause. Why should I rush away? Because he’s male? Because he was here first? Because he’s sexy as fuck and my panties can’t take anymore? 

“Fine,” I respond as I brush past him like the Queen of England. “I’ll find something to wear, and then we can hash out the details.”

“Great plan. I’m ordering something for dinner.”

My stomach growls, and I suddenly feel an irrational hatred for that part of my body. How I long to state that I’ve already eaten or that I plan to cook something! But alas, I’ve brought no food with me, and I’ve no clue what’s in the kitchen. If Glenne and Jeffrey even left anything. 

“Does that mean you’d like some too?” He gloats, and as much as I would like to smack the grin off his face, I’ve not eaten since a quick bite for breakfast hours before. 

Knowing I’m going to have to grovel, I face him. “I’m capable of ordering for myself.”

“Yes, but that’s not necessarily good for the environment, is it? Sending two drivers to the same address from different restaurants?” Pausing, he appears to swallow whatever snarky comment was forthcoming. “Can we agree on this one small thing? I’m thinking poke.”

Shit. Fuck. Goddammit. That’s exactly what I would have ordered. Fuck. 

Casually, I shrug. “Yeah, whatever. I can choke down some poke.” As I saunter away, tucking the ends of the makeshift shroud under my armpits, I call back to him, “Spicy please.”

Quickly I make my way to Glenne’s closet, surveying the items there. Ripping down a pair of joggers and a Full Stop Management hoodie, I drop the covering I’ve been wearing and rapidly draw the clothes over my naked body. Nothing I can do about not having a bra, but the hoodie is roomy so I worry less. 

In the bathroom, I run my fingers through my hair, combing out the curls as best I can in this environment. In no way do I want it to appear that I’m trying to look amazing for Harry. Biting my lip, I admit to myself that the opposite is true. I absolutely want him to fall at my feet. 

Which isn’t going to happen, I remind myself. Give up the ghost of a fantasy. 

Making eye contact in the mirror, I provide a pep talk for myself. “Listen,” I remind my reflection, “this is just one more fucked up situation in 2020. You’ve gotten through worse. It’s truly a giant house, so there’s no reason -- wait. Why is he staying here anyway?” For whatever reason, I had allowed him to dodge that incredibly simple question. 

Tucking my hands into the hoodie’s front pocket, I amble to the kitchen where Harry is just disconnecting his phone. 

“Food will be here in 45 minutes,” he promises. 

“Why are you staying here again? I missed your answer earlier,” I prompt. 

I’m confident I see a flash of embarrassment crossing his face as he lowers his head. “Wine?” He asks, gesturing towards the extensive rack of reds and then the chiller of whites. 

Unsure as to whether I should allow the diversion or press, I examine him. His eyes look tired and sad. His clothes, while comfortable, aren’t upbeat. Nor is his current demeanor. Is he okay? 

Planting his hands in his hoodie in an unconscious mimic of my pose, he glances at me before his eyes stray to the side, examining the marble countertop. That look tells me more than I need to know, and my empath side emerges as I toss him a life preserver. 

“With poke? I think perhaps a Reisling.” 

He nods, bending to look through the wines in the cooler before he extracts one, holding it up for me to inspect the label. My eyes start to widen at the vineyard, assuming the extravagant cost, but I calm my features. “Perf!” I declare. 

Grasping the wine opener from a nearby drawer, Harry removes the cork as I snatch two wine glasses from the cabinet and place them near him. Carefully comparing the amount in each glass, he pours enough before recorking the bottle. Taking my glass, I move into the living room where I can view the tree. It’s Christmas Eve Eve after all, and I refuse to be deterred from watching the lights twinkle and celebrating the season. 

Harry apparently has a similar idea as he fiddles with the sound system before a crackle of ‘Jingle Bell Drunk’ by RaeLynn starts playing which causes me to giggle. 

I settle on one side of the sofa, and Harry plants himself on the other side. Separately, we each take a sip of the riesling. My tongue does a happy dance at the flavor on my tongue. “This sweetness will cut the spicy quite well. Excellent choice.”

“You made the selection,” Harry reminds me, and I cringe. 

“Oh. Yeah.”

Silence descends as the song proclaims “I’ve been naughty. I’ve been nice.” 

“If there was ever a year for this song, this is it.” I announce into the quiet. 

“Yeah. It’s been quite the year.”

Sharply, I glance at him. Perhaps I had missed something? “Excuse me? You’ve had one hell of a year, Styles. Grammy nominations aside, there were how many music videos released during this global disaster? Plus a movie!”

“Agreed.” He’s quiet, his jaw clenched, and suddenly his words burst forth as though a gate at a dam has been opened. “But no tour. And almost no family time.”

Wait. Was this superstar feeling some of my emotions? He’d had a stellar year in anyone’s estimation. Maybe I could be more sympathetic. 

“Yeah. I’m sorry about tour. I had tickets to Vegas and one of the LA shows.”

His head swivels to me more swiftly than an owl focusing on prey. “You had tickets?”

“HAVE.” I swallow. “Thanks for not canceling by the way. I cannot imagine the bloodbath for getting tickets in the future. You’ve become the ‘it celebrity’.”

A blush is followed by a sheepish smile. “You can always get tickets, Smith. Just ask.”

“I don’t do that.” My voice is filled with the prickles that I feel at his words. 

“Do what?” 

“Use my privilege to get tickets to shows.”

“Oh. I…” His words trailed off. 

Suddenly, I feel less uncomfortable around him. Reaching out, I shove at his shoulder. “You’re a giant star, and you have a ton of fans who want to see you. Me? I’m just happy to be a member of the audience.”

“Really?” Incredulous is what I sense in that one word. “Why?”

“Seriously?” I’m appalled. “Do you not know what an amazing entertainer you are, Styles? Fuck. If I hadn’t been able to see your Fine Line show at the Forum last December, I probably would have cried. You know exactly what your audience wants, and you deliver it. Consistently.”

“But --”

“Hush. Don’t you dare negate your talent!” Taking another sip of wine, I reveal unabashedly, “Maybe it’s the wine talking, but I really enjoy your shows.”

“Smith?” He inquires, and my hand stalls with my wine glass halfway to my mouth.

“Yeah?”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you like my shows?”

Stalling, I run a finger through my hair and empty my wine glass before holding it out to him. “More please?”

He rises, but I can read his reluctance. Within moments, Harry is back at my side, handing me a second glass of the riesling. I can’t help but notice that he’s topped his own off too. 

“Answer the question, Smith.”

“My name isn’t Smith. In fact, there’s not a single part of my name that’s related to Smith. Why do you call me that?”

“Tell me why you like my shows, and I’ll reveal the meaning behind the nickname.”

My head feels fuzzy from the wine and the headiness of being near Harry, and I watch the lights flashing on the tree for a few minutes while Meghan Patrick belts out her version of ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ over the sound system. 

“You make your fans feel like they matter.”

“How?” His question comes rapidly, and I have to gather my thoughts. 

“You...talk to them. Listen to them. Watch them. Appreciate them. It’s rare, Harry. I mean, I’m in this business too, you know. Not every artist does what you do.”

“False.”

“I’m fucking serious, you asshole.” I gulp down more of the wine. “You make your audience feel like they’re your closest friends. I wish more artists did that. Specifically the ones I represent.”

“Oh.” His single utterance is enough, and we sit in pure tranquility for several minutes as the lights blink and Ava Max sings “Christmas Without You”. 

“Wanna watch the quintessential holiday movie?” I inquire, looking at him. 

“Which is?”

“Die Hard, of course,” is my response. “What were you thinking?”

“It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“Nope. It’s pretty good. In the top five for sure.”

“Wait. What are your top five?”

“Oh, that’s easy. ‘Die Hard’, ‘Home Alone’, ‘A Christmas Story’, ‘The Santa Clause’, and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’.

“You’re serious?”

“Deadly?” I giggle at the joke since ‘Die Hard’ is full of death. 

“Fine. But we watch ‘Wonderful Life’ afterwards.”

“Deal.”

Part 2