#you can find guys out there who genuinely like working waste management

[professor-doc-emeritus]

I know this one guy who enjoys doing this singular menial labor task when they can set their own hours, only work to their personal standard, focus only on the aspects of the work they personally find fulfilling, only do the work either by themselves or exclusively with their close personal friends, only share the benefits of that work with either themselves or the people they personally care about, and quit whenever they stop enjoying it. This means that if we get rid of capitalism everyone would just sorta be cool about it and work the lithium mines.

[hello-nichya-here]

Did Sia insult topic of autism somehow?

Oh honey, it's sooooooooo much worse than that.

Sia wanted to make a movie about an autistic girl that manages to connect to people/feel safe and confident through music. So far, nothing outrageous, just a simple concept that would obviously put Sia's music front and center while doing something nice and educating people on autism.

There was controversy about her not casting an autistic actress as it would have been nice representation, but she could have totally gotten away with that since, come on, hollywood hasn't even figured out Rain Man isn't exactly true to life, they're not ready to have an autistic person playing an autistic character. Baby steps.

The real problem started when Sia started promoting the "charity/support group" that was helping "educate" her on the topic to make the movie. The "charity" in question was Autism Speaks - which is absolutely HATED by the autistic community for things like:

1 - Spreading the myth that autism is a mental illness that one can develop/catch like the freaking flue and potentially be cured of, instead of a neurotype, aka something starts in the woomb and cannot be "cured" because to do that you'd need to replace someone's entire nervous system, which is impossible.

2 - Using that myth to get outrageous amounts of money from people so they "search for a cure" - that doesn't exist and will never exist because curing autism is biologically impossible, AND despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of autistic people don't even want to be "cured" (plus, since said "cure" would essentially mean giving the person a new brain, it leads to the question of "Would I even be the same person, or would that just kill and replace me?")

3 - Using the myth of "We don't know what causes autism" (we do, it's genetic) to, of course, get MORE money from people so they can "do research to find the missing puzzle piece" (if you ever see autistic people complaining about a puzzle piece being used to represent the condition, that's why, it was started by Autism Speak's massive disinformation campains).

4 - Falsely "confirming" things like soy milk cause autism with one of the world's most ridiculous "research", losing only to "vaccines totally make kids autistic, buy MY vaccine instead, guys, I am totally not an unbelievably biased person, it's ALL the other doctors/scientists lying to you. GIVE ME MONEY!"

5 - Pushing the narrative of "autism is inherently a tragedy" to distract from the fact that all the money they waste on stupid shit could be used to help autistic people and their families. Instead, they focus on creating more and more panic, making parents in particular despair even more - to the point that one of their "awareness videos" includes a mother talking about how she wants to murder her autistic daughter and then kill herself... while sitting right next to said daughter.

6 - Promoting ABA "therapy" - which was created by the same guy responsible for the attrocity that is gay conversion "therapy." Both have led to unbelievably high rates of confirmed PTSD and suicidal ideation in patients (victims), and ABA in particular has been compared to literal dog training. Very fitting since it was created by a guy who famously did not believe autistic people truly counted as thinking, feeling human beings, and said as much several times. Despite that, it is still praised by some utter bastards because "it makes the patients act less autistic when they're not crying in the corner or trying to jump out a window"

So yeah, working with these guys is a genuinely horrible thing to do since they're basically a scam/hate group pretending to be a charity - and people were STILL willing to give Sia the benefit of the doubt, since Autism Speak uses all their resources to make sure they're the first thing people see when looking up how to help autistic people.

Lots of Sia's fans, both autistic and allistic, warned her repeatedly, politely, that she needed to supporting them IMMEDIATELY as their goal was the exact opposite of the one she claimed to have - aka raise awareness through an accurate portrail of autism. People were even kind enough to name organizations like ASAN as replacements to help her fix any damage done to the project.

And instead of being a decent human being, Sia decided to cry on twitter about how the mean retar-I mean, autistics were bullying her even when she was so kindly using them for her vanity project.

Because yes, that's how the movie turned out. An unwatcheable piece of garbage, with the autistic "character" being so fucking bad even the people who actively use "autistic" as insulted being offended on our behalf - and of course, she was used just a prop to show how awesome Sia's character was.

Seriously, it was so bad the actress playing the autistic girl was sobbing in between scenes because she knew how it was horrible and she didn't want to insult anyone, but Sia is literally her godmother and helped her career by putting her in nearly all her music videos so she felt obligated to go along with it.

So yeah, fuck Sia and fuck Autism Speaks.

[lilredbird101]

I Would – Sevika x OC (Delilah)

OKAY~! So this is my first actual story that I'm posting on here. I've written a lot for myself but they've all sat on my laptop. *Hides hands shaking with nerves*

This piece was inspired by the cute AF art done by @sumilane.

It involves my OC, an environmental scientist and engineer called Delilah. She's a Piltover whistleblower who ratted on the company she was working for. They'd been finding work arounds with waste disposal regulations to cut costs and now she's down in the lanes. I'm not much of a digital artist, so this is my Picrew rendition of her. Unfortunately they don't do accents of greens and blues in the hair colours, so please imagine.

Now, I know that sumilane's art has S2 Sevika hair, but let's just play around with time lines here.

Also, Delilah calls Sevika "Osavika". It's a play on the Spanish word for "bear" - "osa". No, she's not Spanish, and YES, I know Spain doesn't exist in Arcane's universe. Let me be cute XD

Anyway, here is my sappy af fanfiction!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Genuinely, fuck my life.”

Sevika knew who it was before they’d even spoken. Delilah rarely went for any other shoes than her blunnies, and the weight and pace of her gait in them was distinct. Slightly heavy with purpose but twisting and skipping around obstacles lithely. However, Sevika was usually the first seated at the Last Drop for their meetups and by now could tell Delilah’s mood from her step. Today, they trudged.

Sevika glanced her way as she shed her lab coat with stiff shoulders, sighed and slumped onto the stool next to her at the empty bar, flopping her head onto the sticky tabletop. Only Silco’s top employees could be there before evening hours, and there wasn’t anyone else around to witness the lax in professional poise. “Rough day for you too, huh?”

Delilah peered up, old bar nut crumbs sticking to her forehead, noticing a few new bruises and cuts along Sevika’s body. Her eyebrows bounced up, but not in worry – she knew Osavika could take a beating, “Oh shit. How’s the other guy?”

Sevika’s mouth twitched upwards as she reached for her bottle and another glass to pour, “Lying in an alley with many regrets and broken ribs.” She slipped the glass into Delilah’s hand, gently brushing the food from her brow. Delilah scrunched her eyes shut as they tickled her nose. “What about you? You look like shit.”

Delilah scoffed and raised the glass to her lips, knowing full well how her crumpled and stained lab coat, red eyes with dark circles, pale and sunken cheeks, cracked lips and greasy, frizz-ball hair looked. “Silco’s got me working double time until the new compound is finished. Urgh!” She grimaced at the taste of the amber liquid, “This tastes like acetone.”

Sevika reached out, “Well in that case, I’ll take it back.” Delilah snatched her hand back, smacking the hand and gave a playfully indignant look. Sevika’s shoulders bounced, chuckling, “Then don’t complain about free drinks.” Delilah smiled and nodded in thanks and a long silence hung in the air. Sevika rolled her eyes, “You can still complain about everything else if you want.” Having known each other so long by this point, their time together was always the highlight of both women’s days, and a safe venting point. Anyone who’d seen their first interactions would not believe that these where the two same people they’d seen several years ago.

Their “bond” had formed early into Delilah’s contract with Silco.

He was conducting an inspection of the labs to make sure everything was running smoothly under new management. Sevika looked her up and down. The slight little thing had the body more of a dancer than one in their dangerous business, and she moved like it to, gliding with a bounce in her step from bench to bench.

Delilah noticed her wandering eyes, “Anything wrong, Sevika?” She spoke as if each consonant and vowel deserved recognition. Delilah’s voice had lilted out from her mouth like fluttering velvet during the explanation of possible carcinogenic side effects of long-term use, and Sevika found the contrast of presence to present such a juxtaposition. Messing with this little bird will be so much fun.

Sevika leaned against a table and noticed how Delilah tensed up, glancing at the set-up behind her, “Oh nothing, twinkle-toes. Just watching your moves. With pegs like that, what were you? Some kind of ballerina in your infinite spare-time?” She jabbed.

Delilah’s face remained neutral as she collected papers to let Silco check, “Lessons from five to seventeen years. Mum insisted. Principle ballerina in my cohort for six. Why? Are you wanting lessons?”

Sevika laughed, “Certainly not.”

Delilah turned back to her; now it was her turned to look Sevika over, “Shame. I’d pay to see you in a leotard.” And just like that, she was back to her tour with Silco.

Sevika blinked, What in the…? If this little fairy wanted to try and show her up or rattle her, she had another thing coming.

For the next long while, Sevika was strutting around and poking her nose into work benches. She’d seen the woman react when she got too close to them. Delilah liked things just-so and was hyperaware of every millimetre a Bunsen or beaker budged under Sevika’s prodding. She was trying hard to concentrate on Silco’s questioning, but this woman’s damn roaming and smirking was distracting for so many reasons. The feeling built up like beetles scuttering up her back and into her brain.

While Silco was grilling Delilah on specifics, she noticed Sevika messing around with the glassware currently distilling a new shimmer formula she was testing, making a full flask under the rotary evaporator tip dangerously. She immediately turned from Silco mid-sentence, “I’m sorry, sir-,” and— SNAP! Delilah’s voice dropped like a stone, booming out in gravelly baritone built to project, “Get your paws off my equipment you bloody great bear of a bothersome bitch!” It was like a different person burst forward. Her whole posture and accent had changed to something more guttural, more feral.

Delilah stormed over and shoved between her workspace and the woman who was at least a head taller, “If you want to blow yourself up then go ahead and piss that blue-hair brat off, maybe she’ll do you a favour, but don’t go fucking around with this shit. It is volatile IN the body alone, even after testing, and I haven’t run any on this unfiltered stuff yet. I appreciate this is not your field but take some professional advice and BACK OFF.”

Sevika paused, registering that this noodle-armed twig had just insulted her AND ordered her about. Her condescending smirk returned, “Professional advice? I thought you were stripped of all those shiny credentials after the racket you made whistleblowing Up Top.”

“It’s called sacrifice. But then again, I hear you know a lot about that.” Delilah wasn’t shielded from water-cooler talk. She knew all about Vander and the kids, despite being from Piltover.

The corners of Sevika’s eyes tensed, making her mouth appear all the more sharp, “Careful, Sunshine. Bears can get awfully heavy-handed when upset.” Delilah didn’t ease up, she actually raised herself on her tippy toes to get closer to Sevika’s face. Adorable.

“Aww, did I upset you? Go on then, Osavika, take a swipe. Just remember that I’m now the only person on your team that actually knows how to make your fluro coke syrup from scratch.”

Sevika couldn’t believe she was actually having fun underneath her scathed pride, “There are plenty of ways to hurt someone without taking them out of commission.” She gave the balanced Delilah a small shove to the chest, sending her tippy-toes down and scuttling to right themselves.

“Ha! Try it! I’m running off a three-day shift, four hours sleep, a caffeine overdose, ire and manic fucking energy. I guarantee I’ll at least get a few bites in.”

That sent a completely new feeling to Sevika’s gut.

“Ladies!” Silco was momentarily amused, but now just perturbed by the disruption.

The two women eased back, but Delilah wouldn’t return to Silco and the conversation until Sevika moved away from the bench space. She stared her down/up until the woman stepped back. Like a cloud soothing itself after a storm, Delilah posture and voice floated back to it’s original poise and tone, “Apologies, sir. Now, you specified that you wanted a longer run of the effects per dose. Understandable, but I wanted to discuss the side-effects and “hangover” of such a dosage with you. Are you wanting your users to actually LIVE through the experience or is “single use” what you’re going for here? Because I’m going to need more time and resources if it’s the former…”

Delilah kept glancing back towards Sevika occasionally to make sure she was keeping her hands at bay… And to… No, keep your head focused… Unpack that mess of thoughts later.

It had been nearly three years since then, and each gruelling week had brought more stock to their sparring relationship. Then through the tough times it simmered down to mutual respect and appreciation, eventually into what could be called a burgeoning friendship. When Sevika had invited Delilah out for a drink after work, that friendship quickly solidified. They’d had more in common than they originally thought, and being in the same space felt natural after the first hour.

Their company became routine. After-work drinks and matches at the pool table were where it started. Delilah had a terrible poker-face compared to seasoned pros, so cards weren’t an option with more serious players as Sevika quickly found out when she made a terrible decision to fund Delilah’s first games. Teaching her how to line up the cue, take long shots and snooker fools was much easier since she was a visual learner and knew how to work angles. Getting up close and personal to show her the holds was also a bonus for Sevika, though she wouldn’t admit it.

They started not-so-discretely scheduling their rounds and duties to coincide despite their different fields, Sevika volunteering to do follow-ups in the labs just to talk, and Delilah often personally delivering updates in Silco’s office instead of using lackies. Delilah enjoyed bringing the meagre crop of veg from her balcony garden to gift Sevika and invited her over many times to excitedly show her the new sprouts of greens when they finally emerged. They even went going out to get dinner on late nights at work, ending with Sevika dropping Delilah off at home personally… For safety reasons of course.

When Delilah invited Sevika in for late night drinks her mind was flooded with how she might usually play this with other women, but as they sat on the balcony and watched the skyline, it felt too sacred a moment for that. It felt like she’d been given a rest stop or sanctuary. At some point Delilah was mentioning how much she missed her father. She wished desperately that she could return to Piltover and mess around in his workshop with him again, have a joint in the gardens or just fucking talk to him. It was her one regret of her actions.

Sevika surprised herself.

“He sounds nice. Better than mine, anyway.” Delilah cocked her head to the side, not pushing for details or denying with an, Oh he can’t be that bad. Just listening. “Strong family units are hard to find in Zaun, as I’m sure you can imagine. Even more-so when your mum has had enough of the booze and debt and walks out. He didn’t take it easy on me before and sure as Hell didn’t after… Maybe I looked a little too much like her…” She took a sip of her whiskey, but barely moved otherwise, “Got his fucking eyes though…” Her bitterness at that last fact seeped through in her tone, just a little. A cluster of decorative amber lights in the distance brought back a kind pair of irises from Sevika’s memory, and she wished with everything that she’d been given those instead. That she could still look at her before she slept… Just one last time.

Delilah let the moment sit before reaching towards her friend, brushing her cheek. Sevika was startled to feel a tear smudging against Delilah’s soft thumb. “She must have been very beautiful.”

Sevika’s eyes widened slightly in shock at the tenderness of it all, and she tried not to let her lips wobble, “… She was.”

A feeling, so strong and burning like coals rose from her gut as she looked back at Delilah and absorbed the warmth radiating off her… Then she realised…

Damn it.

Inside jokes abound by then and the two felt comfortable enough to get into each other’s space. Not because their shackled feelings were secretly eating them up on the inside. No, of course not. Certainly not because every little touch or lingering morsel of eye-contact had their nerves zinging like electricity through copper wiring.

One time, Sevika was leaning over Delilah’s shoulder to observe the notes she was showing Silco, and her exhale skimmed Delilah’s neck, wafting into her own airways. She felt a fool, but Delilah could have sworn the warmth of it had snaked into her gut and impregnated her, even though she knew the reproductive and respiratory systems weren’t linked that way. She made a mental note to set up her showcase on cramped desk corners more often.

Another time, Sevika was escorting Delilah to a nearby shimmer outlet. It was a particularly hot day and Delilah asked ever so sweetly for a sip from Sevika’s canteen. Her dry windpipe made her voice sound hypnotically smoky, and how could Sevika say no? How could she look away from the droplet that hung at the corner of her mouth, or the pink tip of her tongue that darted out to catch it? How could she not let her tastebuds linger on the remnants of coconut lip balm around the rim of her bottle later?

And don’t get any ideas. Sevika only called Delilah “Sunshine” to make fun of her untameable sun-bleached curls, not because she felt warmer and lighter when Delilah was nearby. And Delilah only added Osa to the start of Sevika’s name so frequently because of the bear joke, not because she felt safe, protected and calm whenever Sevika was around. She didn’t even know the word’s original language fully; she just thought it was an apt pun.

Their infatuation – nay – deep affections were visible to anyone who cared to look or had the time, but somehow these two women, both brilliant in their own fields, had absolutely no damn clue. Or maybe they just couldn’t risk realising. Sometimes the now is too precious to risk the what if.

Delilah let her breath out in a slow, robust, steady blow – a regular stim Sevika had noticed at work -, pulling the pencil from her hair that was holding the lengths of curls up and dropping it to the bar-top with a clatter. The release of pressure had her sighing as she ran her hands through the unwashed mess, and Sevika tried not to file the view away for later. “What am I doing here, Sevika?” The despondent tone got her attention, and she turned to face her coworker more directly. “Like, is it really all worth it? I know it is, but… Is it?”

Delilah turned to her, with such a sad, confused void of a look that Sevika didn’t know what to do with. “… You know I’m not a mind reader, right? You’ll have to give me more detail than that if you want an opinion.”

Delilah breathed again, “When you’re a kid you get told the basic outline of life people follow, and most of us just aim to be happy. Well, here I am, and I feel like I’m in limbo or hell or… Something! My plan was always to get my higher education (check), become an environmental scientist or engineer (check), and find some way to reverse the caustic pollutants that filter down into Zaun,” Delilah made a comically negative buzzer sound and took another sip. “No one gave a fuck up top, and I burnt all my bridges by pushing too hard. Now I’m working for effectively a drug lord in exchange for funding which by the time I take out my living expenses is pittance. The work conditions are shit too, I’m in constant burnout, and as a Topsider no one wants anything to do with me down here! I have no one…”

Sevika looked down at her drink, trying not to let that last remark sting.

Delilah winced, realising how that must have sounded, “Except for you.” She reached her hand out to rest ever so naturally on Sevika’s metal wrist. She didn’t know what Sevika would call their connection to anyone else or if they would ever have anything more, but she knew what it was to herself and that it was at least a deep friendship between them… And that meant the world to Delilah. Sevika was technically her superior, sure, but it hadn’t felt like that for years. To Delilah it was so much more, even if it was just wishful thinking that was becoming harder and harder to silence.

There was something niggling in how Sevika made regular check-ins at the labs, why she felt that Sevika always listened with gruff but genuine care, why Sevika had made sure no one at work or the Last Drop gave her a hard time, why Sevika’s mere presence made her feel like she was in her own secure little bubble. And that barely scratched the surface. Sevika was the best part of any days Delilah spent down in Zaun. Even if what some said was true and it was just to protect an asset of Silco’s, Delilah still felt that… “You are my rough-as-guts saving grace here, Osavika.” The nickname played on her lips deliciously.

God, that smile. Sevika did a great job of hiding it, but she couldn’t ignore the volts that trilled up her arm at Delilah’s touch. It was just phantom pains, but God! Her body gave her no choice but to return the smile in her slight way. “Good save, there Lila.”

“I mean it.” Delilah squeezed the metal before letting go, as if it would have the give or sensation of flesh. “You’re my solace.” She looked forward and took another sip.

Sevika’s tone changed, “What would you do?”

“Huh?”

“If you could choose another life?” Sevika seemed hesitant, playing with the rim of her glass. She hadn’t had many conversations like this before Delilah came along. No one really seemed to think they had other options down here, but she was curious.

Delilah shook her head, “I’ve seen too many damaged by the waste pouring from Piltover. I have a moral obligation to fix this, or at least try. I couldn’t walk away from my work now--”

Sevika cut her off, “But if you could. No moral responsibility. No rules or restrictions. No one else to answer to… What would you do?”

Delilah was taken aback. She hadn’t thought about it in so long, but an image she had as a child came back into her mind. Suddenly her eyes didn’t seem so weary.

“A little house out in nature somewhere. Lots of windows for natural light, clear skies, a little garden with a bird bath, and a water source nearby. Maybe the beach or a river. I don’t know what I’d do to support myself, but maybe I could just get by. And maybe, if I’m lucky, I could have someone to share it with.”

The figure she envisioned with her was so clear in Delilah’s mind. They seemed lighter in the open space away from carnage, smile lines growing around their mouth instead of constant frown lines on their forehead. The sun, good food and rest had softened their dark circles, and their metal claws were replaced with appendages better suited for cuddling by firelight under stars. She wished she could take them away and show them something better. Delilah tried not to blush or look towards the woman by her side.

Sevika watched her mind wandering. It seemed like such a nice vision that she was envious of whomever Delilah would share it with. “It sounds nice,” she said softly, softer than she’d meant it to come out. The vision seemed to have Sevika in a daze as she imagined Little Lila pulling up crop from the dirt, painting the delicate flowers she’d doodle in her lab notes onto the door frame, or washing clothes by the river. Whenever she walked past her at the shimmer labs, Sevika could smell the orange blossom and jasmine oil Delilah dropped into her laundry, and she imagined what it would be like to carry the same smell. Sevika tried not to be so indulgent as to insert herself there in Delilah’s fantasy, but the idea of sharing all that with her felt so easy that she almost forgot who she was in service to.

Delilah shook herself, “Yeah, well, I know I would most definitely need another person to get that idea going. Money is scarce for everyone and a freedom like that is pricy. No one in Zaun would trust each other enough outside of marriage to share funds like that. No one above or below trusts me enough to get to know me in the first place, I barely have enough free time to brush my teeth under Silco let alone go on a date, and who in their right mind would want any part of Silco’s network, anyway? There’s no way I’d be able to get close to anyone to where they’d want to spend a life with me, never mind marriage.”

It slipped out of Sevika’s mouth as naturally as breathing, “I’d marry you.”

…

The air froze.

Delilah slowly turned to look in Sevika’s grey eyes. They’d always reminded her of heavy clouds ready to cool the earth. A brewing storm ready to unleash invigorating, glorious potential energy into the air and light up the sky. She shook her head, trying to get a grip of herself. She must have heard wrong!

“I’m sorry, say that again?”

For once in her life, Sevika felt cold with fear and hot with embarrassment all at once. She scolded herself as her eyes darted down. What had she done? Why would Lovely Lila want someone like her? How could she have jeopardised this one good thing in her life. God, she was a fool!

…

But she wasn’t a coward. She’d already said it. No turning back now. Sevika brought her eyes back to Delilah’s and in a moment her turmoil was swept away in fields of pale green on an overcast day; a natural soft-fall, a masterpiece hiding intricate life beneath it made from infinite small strokes, capable of growing nearly anywhere. She could almost feel the breeze on her face as she stepped out of THEIR front door. The one with the little flowers painted on it.

“I… I’d marry you.” And then it all felt so easy, “In a heartbeat.”

Delilah’s breath caught in her chest, “You… You would…? Really?” Sevika slowly nodded. “But… WHY?” Delilah sounded utterly bewildered. Hearing this seemed so surreal to her she’d dare not trust her own senses.

Sevika reached out tentatively, giving Delilah plenty of time to pull away before her flesh hand reached hers, “Because when I’m around you I forget who I’m meant to be. I feel like the world isn’t as big, ruthless or cruel. Your laugh plays in my head as I go to sleep, and when I wake up – most often from dreams of you - I feel like I’m holding my breath until I see you again. You’re one of the first people in so long who values me as a whole, someone I can completely trust to share myself with, and I love that you trust me enough to do the same.”

Delilah couldn’t believe that such a proclamation that she’d only ever imagined in her daydreams was happening. She knew what it would be taking for Sevika to be so vulnerable, and it filled her chest with a golden joy like sunshine throwing rainbows onto a wall through hanging crystals in a window. She was only kicking herself that she hadn’t done the same sooner.

Sevika continued, “I know our situation is difficult, and I know your work is important and comes first, but… When you’re ready… When you’re ready to live for you… I will spend my days making sure that you’re happy. Until then… I’ll take any part of you that you can give, and I’ll give you anything you want of me.”

Tears that she hadn’t realised were forming finally rolled down Delilah’s cheeks. Sevika reached up to cup her face ever so gently - a tenderness that she would hesitate to show in front of others – and Delilah leaned into it like a little kitten in relief, her own palm raising to press it further. The metal of her hand cooled Delilah’s flushed flesh as she wiped away the offending droplets, and though she knew Sevika couldn’t truly feel it, Delilah pressed a kiss into it anyway. Sevika’s voice came out in a whisper, “I love you, Delilah.”

Delilah’s breath escaped in shudders as the years of yearning finally flew out of her in an explosion of butterflies. More tears flowed and she giggled at the silly worry of bringing rust to Sevika’s hand. Delilah threaded her hands into Sevika’s short locks and brought her forehead to rest on hers, tasting each other’s breath in the small space.

“Oh, good grief, Sevika… I love you too.” And in that moment their lips and hearts finally met.

[ticklinglady]

The Guild's actions during the story are so insane, when you think about them properly, you know? When I first read the arc with them, this moment hasn't really occurred to me, as I was too busy going nuts over finally seeing the names of the familiar writers, but now when I think of that... I am not sure, I comprehend how they managed to achieve such a ferocious reputation. I have already made a little post about how extremely dysfunctional the DOA members are, but at least those guys have a plan, which actually makes sense more or less, even despite the gang using cheatcodes/the Book. The same cannot be said of the Guild however archghhjkn. Like, what the hell were these guys even doing??? XD

So here are just some moments, which weirded me out the most

At first I'd like to address the entire story with everyone's favorite tsundere, Lucy Maud Montgomery. Her introduction leaves quuuuite an impression in the best way and nothing makes me happier than the fact, that she gets a chance to find happiness in the following chapters and actually becomes a reoccurring character! HOWEVER, her entire involvement with the Guild is super odd... I still can't wrap my head around her getting fired. She is a girl with a hella powerful ability, who got taken to the Guild from a terrible, terrible orphanage in order to fight for them in the war for the Book, so not only is she very strong, but she's also immensely dependant on the organisation and wouldn't do anything outside of its interests. Yet Lucy is also put under extreme pressure. As she herself puts it, the Guild doesn't tolerate failures and will kick her out the moment she screws something up.

Later we see that this is exactly what happens, when she messes up her first mission. Fitzgerald himself confirms that, since she failed and revealed her ability to the enemies, she's no longer useful, so now a powerful esper, like Lucy works for free as a... laundress?

EXCUSE ME??? WHEN HAVE THE GUILD MEMBERS EVER DONE ANYTHING, BUT FAIL AND REVEAL THEIR ABILITIES?

Let's be real, these dudes were successful like only once or twice...

This fact not only makes Fitzgerald look like an idiot for wasting such a talented and useful worker, because of one mistake, but also as one hell of a hypocrite, cause he is more than fine with everyone else fucking up. And in case of Lovecraft and Steinbeck: fucking up twice. To add to the oddity, we later learn, that Louisa genuinely cares for Lucy and despite her social anxiety actually stood up for her during the entire story, but even that wasn't enough to change Fitzgerald's mind on the issue, though Louisa is one of the few people, whose opinion he respects. Honestly, this is such a waste of a truly useful subordinate. And speaking of which....

The Guild has never even tried to implement Edgar Allan Poe during the war...

This man is actually rather op when you think of it. He can capture and neutralise literally any ability user in Yokohama (besides Dazai, Mori and Ranpo ofc) just by throwing a book at them. Seriously, as we see with Chuuya, they don't even have to read it, they just need to see the pages. Plus the book can be actually sent via email!!! So why has there been an absolute zero amount of strategies with the use of this ability??? They could actually try to catch Atsushi by sending him such email containing any of Poe's mystery stories and then safely carry him back to their base. And it doesn't have to be just Atsushi, it could be literally any of their enemies. Non-combatant, like Ranpo could use this pretty damn well to his advantage and it doesn't take a genius to understand the potential of the "Black Cat in Rue Morgue". But nooooo, it seems like everyone has just forgotten of Poe!!! (Tho to be honest, I can actually see this situation in a funny extra awfgbfggfjj. Not the main story however) The agency would never even learn of his existence, if he didn't personally decide to try to fuck Ranpo's life up. Like, what does Poe even do in the Guild? He's the master architect and, according to him, the third ranking man in the organization, but we never see him be of any use, so Idk. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Lucy at least got to do something, unlike this poor man.

Then there's the entire drama with the Guild's decision to destroy Yokohama. Where do I even begin...

First of all, Fitzgerald has no way of knowing that Atsushi is going to come to Moby-Dick to fight him. Poor guy is the Guild's primary goal and has already gotten himself captured once, so it would have been safe to assume that the ADA decided to hide him somewhere and not send him on any dangerous missions for the time being. That basically means Fitzgerald could have burned down not just Yokohama, but also the only person, who could actually help him find his precious Book.

But if we're to ignore this, let's also go with Wikipedia then~

"Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu. Yokohama is also the major economic, cultural, and commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area along the Keihin Industrial Zone."

..........................

Good luck making up for the destruction of THIS, Fitzgerald 🖕

And if this in itself wasn't bad enough, most people, including me, tend to forget that all Guild members are actually big shots in the American government, which I think is very sad. Because first of all, can you imagine any of the Guild members actually working as politicians?!! The sheer idea makes me hysterical avshbgj. Like, just consider Lovecraft working as a senator or something. This eldritch horror of a man leaves the ocean once in three years at best LMAO. Second of all, I have a feeling, that the destruction of Yokohama at the hands of influential politicians from a foreign country would have resulted in an international conflict or two~ Like as if random deranged rich Americans arriving in Japan, wreaking havoc over there and destroying the second largest city in the country wasn't bad enough, these Americans just HAD to be super influential businessmen and politicians. Louisa, my dear, I understand that it wasn't your intention, but it's as close to a declaration of war as it can get, you know? Fitzgerald may be ready to do anything to resurrect his dead daughter, but I'm not sure, that the execution of himself and the rest of the Guild at the hands of the Hunting Dogs is something he'd like.

(And here's another funny thing that stems from them being politicians 🤭 As @originalartblog wittily pointed out, Fitzgerald wasting all his money fighting sskk has probably resulted in a market crash and recession over in the USA)

I also have some other questions in regards to this entire plan, such as why did they have to waste Moby-Dick just to destroy Yokohama? Yes, it works in the short term, but in the long term they loose a super powerful fortress with the stealth mode and as the practice shows, you better have a safe base, unless you want another lemon freak to blow it all up. I mean, you could just ask Lovecraft to destroy everything for free. Or, if the device is the only way to stop the giant whale from crashing, why didn't Fitzgerald just take it to a far away bunker or something and waited things out there without the need to spend millions of dollars just to survive the explosion? (And it would have been extremely funny, if during the fight with sskk he just threw the device overboard) But I think I have already rambled for long enough already atxhghbgv XD

The Guild is an even bigger mess than the DOA and I think that's glorious 🙌

[hysteriamodes]

The thing with the Alice x Bumby ship and people who support it not only don't understand the ramifications of what Bumby did to Alice and that it's pretty obvious he was continuing with his obsession with Lizzie.

Alice looks very much like her older sister and shares personality traits with Lizzie. So Alice would have ended up the same as Lizzie, assaulted and murdered. Because in terms of the type of serial offender Bumby is, the likelihood of him repeating the same crime was extremely high.

But also they don't understand that Bumby was not only targeting Alice but children, something that you can see in actual, real-life serial offenders like the Golden State Killer, Ted Bundy, or even Richard Ramirez. These were sexual sadists, Bumby is also a sexual sadist. Not to mention, Bundy worked in a suicide prevention call center so I don't know how you cannot draw the comparison.

So, I have had the term "anti" thrown at me, and normally, genuinely, I'm of the mind "I don't like this ship, so I'm not going to read it" because policing people over fictional ships is a waste of time. And I'll be the first to admit I especially hate this ship because I HAD several Bumbys in my life. I was sexually abused as a little girl, so I especially hate this character. And we do have several CSA survivors in fandom, they have had the same feelings. If you're writing a ship that mirrors our trauma, yeah, it's gonna piss people off. But I'm not gonna be mad enough to throw out death threats.

However.

And this is a big HOWEVER.

Largely, the biggest reason as to why I don't like it because anyone who dabbles in this ship cannot manage to keep it IC (in character). They fundamentally don't understand Alice's characterization:

1. Alice is an extremely guarded individual, literally anyone around her treats her like a burden, object, or belittle her sense of being.

2. It's highly unlikely Alice is going to romantically gush over someone, much less someone she put into a position of a mentor, so the swooning doesn't make any sense to me. If you're writing Alice in a romantic relationship, you have to keep in mind that it probably took a WHILE. When I write Alice in romantic relationships, it's a slow burn build up.

3. She likely is very reluctant to share the burden of her mental illness (unless slow burn, see above), so, again, Alice is not going to be the how to open up to people so easily.

4. Alice is extremely independent, most times. You can see she'd rather do it herself, without help unless it's a necessity, and she puts more trust in herself than in people. So, it wouldn't make sense for Alice to open up to Bumby, a doctor, outside of a patient.

And like. These shippers tend to "woobify" Bumby. He's not gonna be chivalrous.

1.He's a sociopath, so his empathy is non-existent. He didn't see Lizzie as a person, he saw her as an object he was entitled to.

2. He showed little regard to Mr. Liddell, his superior, someone he kept going to see, as his mentor. He exploited that dynamic only on the account of Lizzie.

3. The man has a superiority complex, so he won't see anyone as his equal. His ego was too big and he was so full of himself and he underestimated Alice (like everyone else) and doesn't care for her, at all.

So, every time I see this ship pop up, these characters are so woefully OOC (out of character) and that shows me you didn't understand the source material.

If you're into a dark ship, that's fine, but you're essentially re-writing characters so far from the original source material that they may as well be your own characters. You can find a dark ship with Alice, but pick someone better than Bumby. Like, guys, Bumby would have done the same thing he did to Lizzie to Alice and Alice found out at the last minute before he had the chance.

Just saying as an Alice RPer.

[bengiyo]

Don't Care for an Old Man's Underwear! Ep 8 Stray Thoughts

As always, this watch was made possible by @isaksbestpillow

Last time, Kakeru revealed to Mika and Moe that he wants to go to a premier makeup school, and will finish high school to make sure he qualifies. He had a good conversation with Hasegawa after being asked if he was gay, revealing that he sometimes finds either men or women admirable in their own ways but as yet has not felt love. Hasegawa expressed his admiration for Kakeru for never playing along with boy talk that also makes him uncomfortable. Kakeru also managed to form a new friendship with his rival. Makoto is struggling at work to keep his misogynistic senior from pissing off everyone, and it seems like Haranishi suppressed him with his bra for now. Makoto also unfortunately thought Kakeru was seeing two people and put his foot in his mouth again trying to be supportive. However, he did help Daichi by reassuring him that Madoka choosing him is also a valid choice, even as we all worry about Madoka giving up on being a vet to dodge his family's disappointment. Not to be forgotten, Makoto insisted that Mika enjoy the tickets they got for her.

I like how much easier the friendship between Daichi and Makoto feels at this point. Saying they help each other feels genuine.

Oh no. Is Daichi avoiding Madoka?

Looking forward to seeing more rude men at Makoto's job!

I love that Daichi doesn't lie to Kakeru about reaching out at Makoto's request.

Kakeru admitting that he took out his frustrations on his parents feels like an important step for him.

Oh no. Daichi is pulling back from Madoka, and now he's going to think Daichi is trying to get with Kakeru because Kakeru is so cute.

Hold on, I'm suddenly invested in Furuike trying to use the contacts he's built up across his career in a digital age that cuts down on human interactions.

Ah, Furuike knows the engineer who designed the copier and is trying to protect his reputation. He's also got little left in his life besides his idea of work and the efforts they made before, so he's trying to validate that their way of doing things wasn't completely wrong. Look at this show giving this unpleasant man recognizable humanity.

Okay, I was touched by the two old guys solving a problem together.

Also feels significant that Kakeru wanted to wait to talk to Makoto.

Aw, they get to bond over having similar troubles navigating human interactions.

"I respect your grit and perseverance. In order for them not to go to waste, would you please change with me?" is basically the plea the show is making to the masculine audience.

Not me crying because this old man made tea.

Kakeru teasing about never hearing his dad complain before also feels like a moment. I wonder if we'll return to Kakeru's comment about not being an adult.

Why do both Okita men blush the same way? Lol

For saying he stumbles constantly, Makoto recognized that Kakeru didn't tell him what he really wanted from that booth.

Oh, Kakeru. Once again this show hitting queer notes left behind in romance all the time. It's easy to resent people for not being able to understand you, but that's just hiding the loneliness and disappointment you feel at not being able to connect with them, too. Kakeru admitting that he's feeling sad that he can't be the son he wanted because his father is actively trying to be a father Kakeru can love and respect got me.

As always, Daichi doesn't tell Kakeru what to think, and reaffirms that Kakeru always has a choice in how to engage with the world.

Dammit, they got me again. Madoka explaining to Makoto how hard it is to tell your parents important things about yourself because of the huge stakes, and then trying to accept being dumped, is making my chest clench.

Oh, Makoto, finally your over sharing tendencies pay off.

Wow, this man is so tall that he could see Daichi over the crowd.

Ugly crying about Kakeru and Makoto talking out the baseball thing at the festival, and then Kakeru asking his dad to teach him how to use the pop gun to get what he wants for himself.

He let his dad put the necklace on him!

Daichi and Madoka are holding hands in public!

Well well well, Kakeru still has to face the boys on the baseball team.

This has quickly become one of my favorite shows of all time. She wasn't in this episode a lot, but Mika continues to be one of my favorites because of her instincts. She could tell that Kakeru wanted to face Makoto properly, so she makes sure to check in with him first before hovering to see that they're okay. She then later insists on sending Makoto to the festival in a yukata with Kakeru because she knows they need to do that together. If she doesn't insist on Makoto going and dressing up, he doesn't have that conversation with Madoka, and he doesn't make progress with Kakeru at the booth. She helped four men with her kindness and determination, and enabled her daughter to support her brother while also receiving validation about her hobby from her dad.

Makoto has come so far. I really loved him supporting his senior through the resolution of that work problem, and still telling him that his attitude was wrong. I also liked that he also got corrected by Shimura afterwards, who insists that he use respectful honorifics for her. He's finally earned the confidence of his team by being the leader they need him to be.

This show is excellent, and I've not cried this much watching a show in a long time.

[beanghostprincess]

Sabosan Modern AU in which Luffy hosts a party in his house because Ace and Sabo are both out for the night and he thinks it's a great opportunity to turn it into fun (because he hates having the place to himself. It's boring and lonely). It's just the usual six people (East Blue crew + Vivi) but they always have so much fun anyway. So the thing is- They're drunk. Wasted. And they don't even get in trouble anyway, they're just playing silly games in the safety of their home and there's nothing wrong with that, surprisingly. It's impressive how they manage to get in more trouble when they're sober. However, Sanji is going through a rough time. He's been quiet all night and everyone knows something's wrong with him because he has been in a mood for the past week, but he's Sanji, so, he won't talk. Something something, Zoro and Sanji fight like usual but this time Sanji is drunk and honest and everything hurts, so he ends up genuinely feeling like shit and going upstairs to ignore everyone because he can't handle all of that right now. Nobody follows him because again, they're all drunk and they don't even know what to do with that and it'd be surprising if they even noticed the fight because, again, drunk and playing games. And since Sanji has always been and always will be in a romantic teenage coming-of-age movie ever since WCI happened, Sabo just casually, randomly, comes back home because of inexplicable reasons (the reason being he fought with Koala in their college dorm for setting on fire one of their books while saying the educational system is a scam and she kicked him out for the night). So the guy sees all this party they have and just goes "I'm too tired for this. Just don't break anything and God, please, don't go into Ace's room" / Usopp: Wait, why? / Sabo: You don't wanna know.

So Sabo goes upstairs to his room, hoping to get some sleep or work done (work being planning his next riot, not studying. Imagine Sabo studying, pffft) but instead, he finds a blond sitting on his bedroom floor on the verge of a panic attack, drunk, crying and begging Sabo not to kick him out because he doesn't want to go back home. Sabo has no idea why the hell he's saying that because he doesn't want to kick them out, especially Sanji, now that he's saying all of these incoherent things about being afraid to go back home. Sabo recognizes what's going on because he has gone through this himself and they also have to deal with Ace's panic attacks a lot. So he helps Sanji calm down and ends up reassuring him that no, he's not going back home tonight. He can stay all he wants. And Sanji keeps crying and whispering things and names Sabo only knows because of magazines and the news ("Vinsmoke Ichiji, next in line to preside the executive table at Germa Enterprises!" / "Commonly known as a heartbreaker, Vinsmoke Niji was recently seen on a date with one of Charlotte Linlin's daughters!" / "Accused of problematic commentaries, Vinsmoke Yonji addresses the discourse by saying, and I quote 'Who the fuck cares?'"). So, alright, Sabo is not fond of the Vinsmoke family and at first he wasn't fond of Sanji either for the same reason, but he's different from them and he has known ever since two years ago the guy came over with lots, and lots of food only because Luffy wasn't eating properly. But Sabo now knows the rich family isn't just full of shit socially but also inside, and seeing Sanji so anxious and weak about it makes his blood boil. Now is not the time to get angry, though, so he just stays by his side and waits for him to calm down, offering him a shoulder to cry on. The guy is drunk and having the breakdown of his life and the only thing Sabo can do right now is be there for him, even if he wishes he could just go over to their ridiculously huge house and burn it down. The things Sanji talks about aren't pretty. They make him want to throw up.

Sanji ends up falling asleep and Sabo takes him to his bed so he doesn't sleep, well, on the floor. Sabo goes downstairs instead. Besides, he has to clean up the mess the others made anyway.

So Sanji wakes up in a random bed, recognizing the room, and wanting to die from the hangover he's having right now. But he remembers everything, sadly, and he wants to die from embarrassment because he just vented to his friend's brother like it's nothing. They get along, but not that much to do shit like this. He wants to try and sneak out of their house before anybody notices, but of course, Sabo does. It seems the guy has a power for these things. But Sabo is extremely nice, actually, and it isn't that awkward in the end. They're alone because the others got up earlier to go home and Luffy went with them too to spend the rest of the day with Zoro (wow, who could've guessed). Sanji doesn't want to go home but he needs to get the fuck out of here because he feels like he's intruding, especially since Sabo has made breakfast (normal, regular breakfast. Nothing too special but it's way more than what he expected from these siblings). He has to finish eating and then he'll go home! But then Sabo offers him a shower and- Okay. He'll go home after having breakfast and showering! But then Sabo tells him to, please, stay, and be my guest, it's a bit boring here on my own and I want an excuse not to study. And how can Sanji say no to the guy who has helped him so much? So he stays. And one thing leads to another and it's already nighttime because they actually have a lot of things in common and they have fun together- But Sanji needs to go home. Now. Because if the news finds out about him being away for this long it's gonna be a problem and his brothers will be twice as annoying.

Sabo finally lets him go but- But there's something in his eyes when he does. He's worried sick. He's so concerned for him that it's aching inside of Sanji's heart too. Sanji wants to stay the same way Sabo wants him to not go. Almost begs him to. But he can't. But Sanji knows, then, that if he ever needs somebody to talk to, Sabo isn't that far from home anyway.

[wipverse]

random facts #3

Favorite game?

Nightmare – he is a Fossil. The guys got him Mario and it’s now the only game he plays(and he’s damn good at it). Aside from that, he plays dating sims on his phone when he’s bored(which he would never admit to)

Killer – MINECRAFT forever. He is everything your 3 week mc faze was but all the time and at max intensity. It’s his absolute favorite game because he doesn’t have to think too hard about it and can dissociate to it when he’s having a hard time. It helps that there’s no clear objective or timeline of events he’s tied to, so he can have a level of control he doesn’t irl, plus all the mods, shaders and different maps makes for an as close to happy as he could be Killer.

Dust – Mr “video games are for kids” who absolutely destroys EVERY. SINGLE. BEING. At Just Dance, Dance dance revolution and any rhythm game u can think of. But that doesn’t count…….. why? “Because I said so” -Dust

Horror– Stardew Valley, followed closely by Animal Crossing. Why? Pretty simple. Farming games first, and the controlled social aspect of friendships(and romantic interests in stardew). Stardew is not an easy game, but it’s not challenging in a way Horror can’t keep up with. Repetitive tasks and anything relating to food is his forte, after so many years of cooking and managing his own little farm(not to mention the private, quiet lessons from farmtale!sans when he goes to pick up food for his au)

(all i know about stardew i know through youtube and tiktok. keep that in mind)

Cross – used to be Mr “I can’t afford yo waste time on silly things like that” until he chilled tf out and started trying the games he saw others playing on the communal consoles. His favorite game is, unfortunately, CSGO, and he frequently plays with Killer just to absolutely annihilate the latter.

Zerox – Hue! Charming little game that has his whole heart and soul. First game they 100%ed out of pure love for it and desire for it to not end. Perfect mix between a nice, simple story with a happy ending and genuinely difficult puzzles wrapped in a fun concept!

S – He doesn’t play video games, actually. Of any kind. Yeah… not joking. Any free time he gets is spent somewhere out in nature or at Ccino's. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t get much truly free time, but Zero does bring him coffee from Ccino's often enough that it’s bearable.

Bonus

Error – The Talos Principle. Perfect, immaculate, holds up incredibly well years later. (he went against Elohim from the first word he uttered). The only thing on par with his love for this game is Road to Gehenna, so, basically, nothing beats it or comes anywhere near. 100/10, author is planning on replaying it very soon as well.

(as a little aside, Error and Zero actually form a tentative friendship over their shared love for puzzle game, though Zero is borderline bad at them.)

Dream – He’s a phone game kinda guy, let’s be honest. The only games he plays are sudoku, word-related and tetris-like. His most recent favourite is 1010

Ink – Human Fall Flat. Need I say more? Probably. The amount of puzzles he’s skipped by accidentally parkouring around/over/through them is insane, and it makes him feel Good. Plus, it has no story he’d inevitably forget.

Blue – Little Nightmares, despite what you may think at first. He finds horror games therapeutic, and worked out his frustration at feeling so metaphorically small through playing Little Nightmares 1 and 2. While 1 is his favorite by far impact-wise, he loves how the story comes full circle and the lore implications of Little Nightmares 2

[pulchrasilva]

HI I SAW IN THE TAGS YOURE MAKING A CHARACTER TELL ME ABOUT THEM (THREAT) (I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS)

YES I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT MY CHARACTER (finally)

Ok ok so she's a tiefling warlock (i almost made her a bard but then I realised I was just trying to make Noise 2 so I went with warlock instead. It didn't work very well)

So anyway, her name's Requital but she doesn't trust most people so everyone knows her as Talia (RequiTALIA get it). She's pretending to be a noble and thats the name of her alter ego.

Shes chaotic good and really hates the rich or anyone who takes advantage of others (even though she does it herself sometimes, shhh its tootally justified). I'd say her manner is like Janus Sanders but her like ideals are more Robin Hood. She loves stealing from people she thinks deserve it and she uses her noblewoman alterego to do that.

This is why Narula, an archfey, offered her a warlock pact. Narula is vengeful and wants to punish wrongdoers but she's been imprisoned in some kind of enchanted forest (this is my DMs backstory because for some reason we can't find any lore for Narula except her name) so she needed someone to do this for her. Obviously Requital was like hell yeah im doing that anyway, gimme powers. But if she gets too sidetracked or goes after someone Narula doesn't deem evil then she's gonna be in trooouble~

So yeah she's kinda bound to keep enacting her own form of justice on the world. BUT because she constantly surrounds herself with shitty people she's exacerbated her own trust issues and can't properly judge who deserves it anymore, which led to... problems.

She heard about a nobleman who was stockpiling wealth and assumed he was exploiting his people for his own gain. So she befriended him (she told herself that his kindness was just a facade like always) and stole all the money only to later learn that he wasn't hoarding the wealth. There was a blight plaguing his people and he'd been gathering funds to treat it. So by stealing the money, she'd actually prevented him from saving lives. More people died because of her AND she hurt someone who genuinely thought of her as a friend (and she maybe thought of as a friend too but she's not gonna admit that). So now she's trying to atone for that mistake.

All of her spells and stuff are about deception, illusion, disguise, etc (she's kinda useless in combat rip). So far she's made loads of people basically piss their pants with her Fey Presence. She's also scammed an elf diviner (i think they were a diviner at least?? They could tell the future and stuff) and managed to persuade them that she really was a noblewoman who was travelling and so didn't have much money with her but pretty please can she have that magic item she'll pay 25 of the 150 gold upfront and then have someone come back with the rest of the money soon (really hoping we don't see that elf again lol where am I gonna find 125 gold). One of the other party members overheard this and called bullshit so I had to roll with disadvantage but I nat 20ed and did it anyway!! (Obviously she's really pissed about that and is now holding blackmail over him)

Oh and in our session today she Fey Presence-ed a guy and then the SAME PERSON just BARGED IN and knocked out HER PRISONER!!!! and she's furious so she tried to kill him (multiple times) but his armour class is so high that all she managed to do was waste a spell slot and nearly stab herself lmao. Imagine a really angry kitten trying to scratch you but being held by the scruff of the neck thats her right now

In terms of appearance she's like kinda tall and pretty weak. Her skin is dark with bronze freckles and her eyes are jet black, her horns and tail are bronze and she wears her hair in long black locs which fade to red at the ends. Since getting to level 2 though one of her eyes has turned purple (like Narula's) and her horns have become more fey-like but she's been hiding this using Disguise Self so only she knows about it.

[liam-hartley]

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[macaronmisc]

Morning musings

How do you train your brain out of viscerally disliking something harmless? I know a lot of people decide to make their discomfort everyone else's problem and I absolutely despise that behavior. I don't ever want to make someone else feel bad because I don't like their favorite series or character or ship or whatever because I know how much it hurts!

When you have something that makes you really happy, and other people try to make you feel like it's not okay, or twist themselves into circles doing mental gymnastics to make up reasons that you're a bad person for liking something just because they want you to not only stop liking what you like, but to feel horrible about liking it in the first place, I just want to say 'grow up already!' There are so many real world problems, people should take whatever happiness they can squeeze out of this world through storytelling and imagination. And I really love seeing people passionate about their favorite little guys.

I guess feeling like this gives me some insight into why people act utterly bonkers over things like shipping or make up rumors about creators to try and stop fandoms from growing. If you're a self absorbed person, of course you're going to think your feelings are the most important thing in the world, so feeling bad means you lash out instead of recognizing it's your own problem to manage. There will always be people with different tastes than you, and throwing temper tantrums and harassment campaigns or trying to make it some mind of morsl issue is just not going to change that fact. It's a genuine waste of energy to get upset over!

So I'm really mad I'm having this problem?! I at least know how to behave, but stopping the actual feelings causing it is something else. It's not something that I can reasonably expect to be tagged, or to just mute or block people in this case because it's relatively popular and seems to be growing. And besides, I'd rather tackle the root of the issue! I mean of course it's normal and okay to have dislikes, but they shouldn't be so strong they make you feel physically ill or ruin your mood for hours when they're literally harmless.

Argh, it's genuinely making me wonder if it's actually triggering. It would not be the first time I had a "what the fuck, REALLY?" trigger. But that wouldn't change the fact that it's my own issue.

I always worry that things I like are causing other people to feel this way, and even knowing that is genuinely not my problem, I still feel bad... until they try to make me feel bad. That isn't the solution, guys!

So how do I stop? Exposure therapy? Try to find things I can like about it? Be happy it's making other people happy? Vent to others who feel the same? That isn't working 😭 What else can I try?

[luvsturniolo]

— ★ !! reunion

pairing : matt sturniolo x fem!reader

synopsis : after years of being separated, you finally see your childhood best friend / first love again.

a/n : guys i need ideas so u should totally send me asks bc i love writing your requests :)

wc : 1.0k

you inhale deeply as you prepare yourself to exit your car. right outside, you can see the triplets' house. you used to come over every single day when you were a kid.

for eleven years, you lived directly across the street from their house. so, naturally, the group of you became inseparable. you guys also went to the same elementary and middle school, which bonded the four of you together.

out of the three brothers, you found yourself more drawn to matt. he's the one you met first, after all.

you loved nick and chris, but you genuinely felt as though you couldn't live without matt in your life – which may seem incredibly dramatic. but you were children, you didn't know any better than to get attached to whoever was nice to you.

after eleven whole years of being attached at the hip, your parents got a divorce and you had to move in with your mom. she moved away from boston and resettled into some small town in vermont. you managed to make some new friends, sure. but nobody could compare to matt.

you guys grew up together. and over time you felt like he was an extension of yourself. you had the same humor. the same preferences in food. the same favorite color. everything that made you you also made matt matt.

once you were old enough to have a phone, you tried to find matt. but it didn't work. for some reason, you were unable to track any of his social medias.

he and his brothers were trying to become youtubers when you left. and honestly, you thought they would go far. they were funny, good looking, and had a connection that drew people's attention in. but apparently they didn't follow through with their youtube dreams. if they did, you'd be able to find their socials, right?

after nine years of being separated from your best friend, you were finally moved out of your mother's house and you could go to boston as you pleased.

so here you are.

sitting in your car, outside of the triplets' old house. you drove hours to get here in the hope that they haven't moved out or anything. the chances are slim, but they're not impossible.

wiping your sweaty hands down your pants, you work up the courage to knock on the door.

you wait for a few moments and hear nothing from inside the house. looking around, you notice there aren't any cars in the drive way either. this was a waste of time.

you turn around and begin walking back toward your car, when you feel someone's arms wrap around your waist and pull you backward against their chest. instinctively thinking you're being kidnapped, you jab your elbow in their gut.

"fuck!" you turn around to see matt hunched over in pain, his arms hugging his stomach. you open your mouth to apologize but no words come out. you find yourself staring at him, admiring the man he's grown into.

he looks the same. but so different at the same time.

his hair is styled nicely rather than how it usually was a greasy mess. his jawline is sharp, stubble highlighting the shape of his face. his childlike innocence is gone, replaced with an attractive appearance that makes him literally look like your ideal type.

"holy. fucking. shit." chris utters as he exits the house. your attention is taken away from matt and refocused on chris. his eyes are widened and his is jaw slightly dropped as he stares at you in disbelief.

he rushes over to you and engulfs you into a tight hug. you laugh, wrapping your arms around him in return. "miss me?"

"of course i fucking missed you!" chris exclaims, releasing you from the hug and staring at you in complete shock. "how have you been!? it's been like ten years!"

"i've been-"

"Y/N!?" you both turn to look at the third triplet who comes sprinting out of the front door at lightning speed. nick.

he brings you into a bear hug that makes you feel like your ribs are about to break. you hug him back, wanting to cry from the safety you feel when you're with the triplets.

nick picks you up and spins you in a dramatic circle before placing your feet back on the ground.

"oh my god, i haven't seen you in so long!" nick tells her. "you're so pretty now! i mean, you were pretty back then but we were kids so it's different. but, like, you know what i mean."

you chuckle, "yes, nick. i know what you mean."

matt walks over to you guys and you find yourself staring at him again. but it's not weird because he's staring at you just the same. there's less than a foot between you two, which makes your heart speed.

after so long of miles separating you from matt, knowing that he's right in front of you is surreal.

tears prick your eyes and your throw yourself into him, wrapping your arms around his neck as you try not to cry. he hugs you back, one hand firmly holding your shoulders while the other snakes around your waist to pull you closer.

"i missed you so fucking much." he says, burying his face in the crook of your neck. he squeezes you as if you're going to turn to liquid and melt right out of his hands.

"i'm here, matt." you tell him. "i'm here."

you repeat that a few more times before he finally grasps the fact that you're standing in front of him. and this isn't a dream where you're going to disappear.

he finally breaks the hug, but still isn't ready to let you go. he cradles your face in his hands, touching you so so gently you can hardly feel him.

tears stream down your cheeks as you smile up at him. he brushes his thumb across your skin, wiping them away.

"i love you." he says. "i've loved you since were children, but i was just too afraid to say it aloud."

you lean forward and place a gentle kiss on his lips. "there was no reason to be afraid, matt. i loved you too. i never stopped."

tags : @kasqnxx @lvrsparadise @prettysturniolo

[analiavs]

In Which Harper Loses His License ???

Finally the Sky Sex is here.

Desperate to find a place he belongs, Robin leaves town and finds a mate in a certain birdperson.

Words: 2554

AO3 link for those that prefer:

In the wake of the fall he’d floundered. The subsequent upheaval had torn apart every routine he’d developed. He could no longer enter the orphanage and school was closed indefinitely. 

He was alone. His protector hadn’t wanted to deepen their relationship, only shielding him from Bailey’s wrath out of the goodness of her heart. 

She was a pillar of virtue, a lighthouse in the midst of the storm. Sydney was her fuel and he was the gull building a nest in its roof. Sheltered yet unworthy of her light. 

And so he tried to find his place in the world. First he searched in town, carefully avoiding the weird fog or other townspeople. Even though things looked different, nothing had really changed. The first place he tried was the park. He climbed on top of a statue to observe from a perch. He watched a cat man prowling around, sneaking glances at him when he thought he wasn’t looking. 

He didn’t think the stranger would be brave enough to attack him in broad daylight but it still made him anxious. He would definitely need to find a more secure place by nightfall.  

He saw Whitney, Kylar, and his protector’s twin walk into the park. He waved at them in greeting, but they didn’t notice him. Well he could always talk to them when they got closer. 

“Hey!” He was startled by a fox man yelling at him. 

“What are you doing up there? It's not allowed. Come down now!” He was dressed in a police outfit, but his vibe was worse than cops usually were. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the cat man sneak into the bushes. A setup then. 

“Oh sorry, I’ll climb down.” As much as he hated to be dishonest he needed to get out of this situation. With his wings he might be able to glide out of their range fast enough. He had never tried before, but it was preferable to waiting for them to climb up and attack him. 

He balanced carefully on the statue, extended his wings and jumped. Thankfully a well timed gust of wind propelled him forward. His would be assailants cussed and chased after him. He flapped his wings desperately and managed to reach his schoolmates.

He crashed in a heap on the ground, not a moment to soon as the cat man tried to pounce. His friends wasted no time beating the opportunist pair up.

“Thanks for the help you guys, I was so scared.” His protector’s twin giggled,

“Anything for a cutie.” She winked, “Hey if my sister’s not taking good care of you, you can always run to me.” For a second he considered it, but he already knew that their relationship style wasn’t for him. Something in him screamed for exclusivity, he yearned to find a true soulmate. 

And the thought of being in a relationship with his “exes” sister, his old bully, and the incel was off putting.

“No way, what’s a weakling like him bringing to the table.” Whitney interrupted.

“I mean flight is kinda cool, but he’s not all that good at it.” Muttered Kylar. He spoke up before they could keep calling him lame.

“Uh thanks I really appreciate it, but I’m trying to find my own way now you know?” She smiled, he wasn’t sure how genuine it was.

“Yeah bruv, I totally get it.” She sighed. “Well if you ever wanna get pegged hit my line. It’s transcendental, innit love.”  She gestured at Whitney, who looked away. He chuckled, but the hunger in her eyes made him feel cold.

It seemed like everyone had been consumed by lust, except Sidney and his protector. Next he tried the forest. It might be safer and there were trees he could climb. 

He snuck over to the forest without seeing anyone. He stared longingly at the Temple for a second before continuing on. He wasn’t very deep in the forest when he found an apple tree. He climbed up eager to pick some ripe apples for lunch.

They were just as sweet as they looked. He flapped his wings a bit. Here he felt safer than the park, but it was darker. He was gliding around the forest trying to find materials to build a nest when he heard a voice that brought chills down his back. Instinctively he hid amongst the leaves.

“Eden let me go! You stupid fucking asshole!” He’d never heard Bailey cuss like that before. It sounded like he needed help. He peeked an eye out to look, his caretaker was being dragged away by the biggest man he’d ever seen. And for the first time in his life he saw an emotion on Bailey’s face.

For a brief month a sick feeling of glee consumed him and just as quickly shame and self-disgust filled him. Nauseated with himself he quickly ran to get help.

He felt his protector would know what to do, so he headed for the temple. He sprinted through the woods and made it to their garden. He didn’t have to look for her, she was overseeing some initiates working in the garden. 

“Oh! It’s terrible! I saw the woodsmen and he was kidnapping Bailey! We have to help him.” He was so breathless, he could barely get the words out. The gentle smile on her face faded the second she saw him. 

“This one is delirious from the woods, I will tend to him myself. I leave you, my precious lambs, to your work.” She waved her arm at them and then dragged him away.   

“While I thank you for showing me a serious security risk, I must ask why you come here and disrupt the peace.” She was stern and disappointed. She had truly grown into her position.

“I’m serious, Bailey’s been kidnapped. We should… shouldn’t we help him?” His voice got quieter as he spoke. Her eyes were cold and he lost what was left of his nerve. 

“Help that monster? Need I remind you of the fate I saved you from, the fates I couldn’t save our brethren from. Whatever karma has in store for him isn’t enough. You disappoint me.” She spat at him. It felt like a hot poker was being driven through his heart. She continued chastising him even as her facial expressions remained neutral.

“First you refused to convert and I was disappointed. Then you refused the Temple’s protection and I was disappointed. Now you come to this sanctuary and have the gall to request I use my resources to save a monster. You have always been weak, and I sheltered you from the worldly storms. But I see now it has blinded you. Please, stop disturbing the peace with your nonsense.” Right, he was the gull unworthy of her light. His world fell away from him, his pillar shattering. He blinked his tears away quickly. Even as she dismissed him, her facial expression didn’t change.

“Right, sorry. Sorry, I really am.” He wanted to hug her, but as he stared at her cold face all he could see was Bailey. He shook as he exited the room. Then he ran and didn’t stop. Tears streamed down his face, he just ran and kept running. His adrenaline pushed him forth even breathlessness didn’t stop him. 

His frenzy finally stopped when he made it to the edge of town. He stared into the grasslands. He was lost. Too weak to help anyone, but too cowardly to change his beliefs. He would never change, grow,  or become in town. He stared into the grasslands and started walking. This time the call came from his own desire to change. 

He would never find a place that accepted him in town. And he was worthless, there was nothing to make him desirable. So he would leave and become someone worthy of loving, of keeping. 

He caught his breath and started walking. There was no one on the road, maybe everyone else had found their place. He’d walked for maybe over an hour before reaching some kind of farm. It smelled pretty musty. He originally intended to just keep walking, but he saw someone he recognized. Another fellow orphan, he hadn’t seen him in a year though.

“You’re alive! I can’t believe it! How have you been? I missed you so much!” He ran up and hugged him. Rambling off excitedly, glad to see his friends. His face landed on some suspicious white substances and he recoiled. 

“Robin! Hey! Oh whoops, I’ll get that babes.” He leaned down and licked the stuff off his cheek. 

“You're a literal bird now, amazing. What brings you to the Cowdom sweetheart?”  His voice was deep and he grabbed his hand kissing it gently. He felt his face heat up. He was really taking the sexy cowboy aesthetic to the max. He stuttered a little bit before finding his nerve.

“I’m going to be a hermit.” His friend took a minute to process it. 

“Huh?” He quickly rattled off an abridged run down of his life since the fall. His friend listened empathetically even wiping away his tears. 

“Aw darling, come here.” He cooed, he brought him over to a seat pulling him onto his lap. He rubbed his hair gently. He basked in the physical comfort. 

“If you don’t have a place to go, we’ll take you. You’d make a lovely cow.” It was tempting and for a second he was under his thrall. But then a middle aged man in a cow print bra and miniskirt came up to them. 

“Whose this hussy?” Green eyes bored into him, a cow bell tinkled as he adjusted his posture. 

“Don’t be jealous Remy, you’ll always be my favorite cow. Besides, Hot to Trot told me you’ve been naughty.” He gestured for the man to come closer. 

“No I haven’t! I was just checking if their production was up to par.” He whined as he came closer, throwing himself onto his friend’s lap. Remy pulled himself up to kiss his friend. It was very awkward watching them french kiss. He looked away and noticed the trail of… slime that had followed Remy. The puddle forming on his friend's lap was disconcerting.  …This wasn’t the place for him. He quietly slipped away and kept walking. 

His absence wasn’t even noted and he regretted glancing back; his childhood friend rearranging someone’s guts was something he could of went without seeing. He kept walking and found a huge field. With his enhanced vision he thought he saw a tower in the distance. Maybe he could live there. He headed towards there. Hopefully he would reach there before the sun went down. It seemed like it was pretty far away. He tried to fly, but he couldn’t do much more than glide a couple feet with the wind. Nevertheless he kept moving. 

The sun was beaming down on him by this point, but he kept moving. When a large shadow came over him he thought it was just a cloud, but he noticed the weird shape of it and looked up.

A giant bird man was swooping down on him. Oddly enough he didn’t feel afraid, he reached his arms and wings out towards it and let himself be plucked into the sky. The birdman spoke.

“My name is Great Hawk.”

“I’m Robin.” He clung to him. Something about him just felt right. 

“Will you be my mate?” He asked. They had just met, it sort of reminded him of Kylar. But he couldn’t believe someone wanted him.

“Really? You’re not trying to trick me are you?”

“No never. I want a mate and you reached out for me. That means we will be together forever?” He stopped to consider it. He’d been searching for a place to belong and it had literally picked him up. He couldn’t really think of any downsides. Maybe his protector was right and he was naive… but he felt as though Great Hawk was a pure soul. 

“I accept! Let's be mates!” He declared, hugging Great Hawk. 

“What joy! The moor shall hear our song!” His mate called. He hugged Great Hawk as he flew. Not long he felt a certain appendage hitting his bottom, he blushed.

He wasn’t sure what to do, he wanted to make his mate happy but he didn’t want to seem loose either. Luckily, Great Hawk spoke first,

“Apologies my mate, I’m just so happy my body can’t control itself.”

“I’m happy too.” He muttered and gently rubbed his foot against Great Hawk’s bulge. His mate cooed softly. Emboldened, he positioned his waist over the bulge and wrapped his legs against Great Hawk’s waist. His mate was so strong, even though he was affected his flight didn’t falter. He frotted against Great Hawk gently.

“Um… do you like this?” 

“Very much my mate.” He moaned a bit. He shimmied out of his pants and underwear, watching as it sank to the ground. Bare skin on bare skin, the sensation was magnified. He drove his waist up and brought the tip of Great Hawk’s dick to his rim. Up in the sky like this, he couldn’t prepare like Sirris had told them was necessary. But maybe love would give him strength.  

…Nope. It burned. He tried to relax, the breeze from the flight was peaceful. Before he knew it he had accepted the tip of Great Hawk’s dick. While painful, it was kind of good. Since he could move at his own pace, losing his virginity wasn’t so bad. 

He grinded on the tip of his dick while Great Hawk flew over the moor. As his mate started producing precum, it made the movement even easier. Soon he was sliding over more and more of Great Hawk’s dick. His partner chirped occasionally, spurring him. When he finally made it down to the base, he moaned. He tightened his legs as his body shook a bit. Great Hawk flapped his wings a bit harder to keep them balanced. 

 He clung to his mate and started bouncing. Pleasure building in his stomach, he could see why the townspeople were obsessed with sex. 

“Oh Great Hawk I love you!” He squawked in response, his own body shaking with exertion. He could feel something building in the pit of his stomach. Finally, he orgasmed. He clung tightly to Great Hawk as tremors wracked his body. He felt a wetness inside him, and knew that Great Hawk had come too. 

The afterglow left his vision spinning. He hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long time. Oh? The ground was approaching rather quickly. Great Hawk had been overwhelmed by the pleasure. As the two of them plummeted to the ground he tightened his grip and extended his own wings. 

He wouldn’t be able to take them any higher, but he was able to slow their rapid descent into a glide. Luckily they had been near that tower he’d seen and managed to land on the top of it. Finally coming back to himself, Great Hawk cawed a bit. 

“Mate you're a little scary…” He giggled, laying his head onto Great Hawk’s chest. He’d surprised himself, but being adventurous had its benefits. He felt safe and warm when Great Hawk wrapped his wings around the two of them.

[insanely-lovely-and-random]

Oooh Hell, sometimes I think maybe my brain just sees something everyone praises and loves and goes "NO. NO LIKE. BAD!"But then I thought no way fuck that, The Bear just fucking suuuucks.

I do not understand why this show has gotten such universal acclaim, I am genuinely baffled. I've been so incredibly bored throughout most of the thing.

I never worked in a kitchen, but I did do a year in college for cookery (not nearly the same thing I know) so maybe it's cause I can't relate? And honestly the restaurant business does baffle me too, I love food, but the chef life genuinely looks like it sucks in everything I've ever seen of it. Like I LOVED The Menu but that was because it was self aware of how horrible it is to work in a kitchen like that and how stupid rich people are. If this show doesn't want to do the same take I get that but for the love of God tell me why these people enjoy fucking doing this then?? Or if not enjoy why they find it worth it? Because nothing they do endears me to them or shows me why they would.

Cake guy probably comes closest but even then his turn around was so sudden and even though it showed me him becoming obsessed with his perfect doughnut I still didn't feel like I was told why he was.

I don't really care about any of the characters because I barely know them and what I do know is so. Fucking. Boring. I get it Carmy is fucked up cause of his brother, holy hell another fucking white guy who has so many problems I wanted to tear my hair out. Either try and fix your issues before subjecting your staff to your shitty managment skills or you can show me a fucked up character going through shit, that's fine but please cast somone with even an ounce of charisma, I do not get the praise around this guys preformance. I mostly wanted to slap him.

Best part was Sydney having enough of the shit, honestly found her relatable I too struggle to accept criticism but at least with her most of the time she was right and just being bloody ignored. Only sad she went back.

Richie can also go jump in a hole. Oh he has a daughter he cares about you tell me via a bland ass phone call? So fucking what?? Should I care more for him now?? He's a fucking dick. Carmy shoulda fired that ass hole second he walked in the place. He's literally a waste of space in that restaurant.

For a show about cooking no where near enough food porn. For a show about trying to get your business back on top not enough shown of actual customers and running the business outside of the kitchen. If it literally just wants to be a kitchen show that's fair enough but holy hell is that a boring (and loud) show about nothing.

So yeah I really dislike The Bear basically.

The best part was cake guy and Sydney talking in episode 8. The fact it took me 8 episodes to start liking shit depresses me.

God might have to rewatch Poker Face just to sooth my brain.

[quill-pen]

Right off the bat, I'm gonna say I see their redemptions having strictly to do with real world consequences rather than spiritual playing in as well in this universe. It seems more fitting for this world. Maybe after those seven years since Marley past, the Twins finally decide to bite the bullet and accept one of those Umbrella invitations to see exactly what old Marley was into with them and to see if it's worth it still paying into the corporation. (Maybe they're restructuring their budgets and such, looking for things to cut. Marley would probably have paid into lots of vanity endeavors and the twins are cutting out the waste with him gone now.) And whatever they see and find out at this gathering (because I'm think Marley would have paid to be in pretty deep in the company--the thought of such riches and possible immortality would have been far too tempting to resist)... it isn't anything like they thought. And it definitely isn't good. And they cannot reconcile such blatant atrocities with ignorance anymore. Maybe in this universe Jen was actually a victim of something and they discover that and it spirals them? FeFe gets in touch with them and manages to convince them to stay in partnership with Umbrella but to be a double agent for the good guys. "You'll help the world far more by being friends with your enemy."

For Wolf and Bess, I can definitely see it starting out with hatred on Bess' end. Can you blame her? She's been in the middle of a hellscape some of their funding helped create. She was forced to kill the man she saw as a father after he lost himself to a sickness that turned him into a beast. She witnessed so many people die--many she knew. She nearly lost her siblings. And she lost the only place she could consider home and is now in a land she doesn't know surrounded by people who have ties to those responsible for all of her losses and all of the terror she's witnessed.

Does she really blame Wolf for all of it? Deep down, I don't think so. She knows he's probably just one cog in a far bigger machine. But she does take all of her anger out on him because he's an easy target. So what if he's trying to change what he did in the past? So what if he's trying to repent for his crimes? He was still a part of it. How could he ever have been okay with any of that?! He's as bad as any other cog in that machine: As bad as her father was!

Of course Bess doesn't discover until much later, when she and Wolf are working together to infiltrate deeper into Umbrella (Bess is in a particularly special position to do this, considering who her father was and how deeply he managed to become entrenched), that she discovers just how shallow the Twins' influence in the corp. truly was, and that his sins, while grave, are borne out of ignorance and probably some greed, but not malice or insensate evil. Plus, she does, naturally, try to see the best in people, if there's any to find, and genuinely believes people are capable of change if they truly want it. So she goes easier on him after these revelations and starts to warm up, referring to him as "Moron" in an annoyed but almost endearing way. A genuine friendship starts to form, with little blossoms of more sprouting with it. Of course they deny it, especially Wolf.

The "Wolf" nickname doesn't come out and replace "Moron" until it's been made quite clear at some Umbrella gatherings just how protective Wolf is of Bess. This is probably when Bess' finally starts to accept that that something far greater that she feels for her companion is not going away or evening out, like she thought and hoped. It just continues to grow deeper and stronger, and... she wants it. She wants him. She wants a life with him, whatever that might look like. She just wants to always be by his side and him to be by hers.

Of course Wolf can't deny that he doesn't also feel the same things she does, but, always the self-saboteur, he pushes her away and pulls back. To the point he asks for their partnership to be terminated. Bess would be devastated.

So devastated to the point, in fact, that, the next man (*coughs*BRYANT*coughs*) that invites her to be his date for an event, she takes it, without hesitation. She is finishing this particular objective, with or without Wolf by her side. If she gets to hurt him a bit in the process, she's fine with that. And, of course, she does.

Bess does manage to get in as deep as she needs to with this particular gentleman over some time. Unfortunately she gets caught, and Wolf has to help rescue her. They're both nearly lost in the process, Bess coming closer to death than Wolf as she wakes up to find him by her hospital bed days after the event. He's definitely wounded, but he's there. And, she's told, he hasn't left her side once, since she was brought to her room. The two share a long, long, long, long, long awaited moment of tenderness and reconciliation, finally acknowledging their mutual feelings and coming together.

"Please, don't pull away from me again."

"Not ever again, I promise. So long as you don't go galavanting off to play super-spy by yourself and get caught up in the hands of a raving lunatic again."

"No. I promise. ... I guess now I'm the moron, yeah?"

"... I think we're both morons, together."

"... I'd like to be morons, together."

"... Me too."

Okay, since it was brought up again, my morbid curiosity is getting to me. Tell me more of what you see in an RE Scroogeverse. 🤣

(CACKLES) YEEEES.

Many Resident Evil games/installments (with exceptions, like 4 and 8) take place mostly in the U.S., so I mostly think of our ladies coping.

Geographically, Bess would by fleeing the T-virus. (Tyrant Virus). It's the zombie-cannibal one. The virus the series is known for, haha. I'm sorry Bess. She's be escaping her city, because the solution to the virus is just nuking everything. Which is why she get's paired up with people like Jill and Carlos in the Raccoon City area, which is mid-America. (There are lots of theories on where it is, but generally Ohio-Indiana-Illinois-Missouri is the vibe.) T-virus zombies are cannibalistic and scary in hoards. Plus, the virus is fatal, and spreads WAAAY faster than A-Virus.

Connie would be fleeing the A-virus (Animality Virus). It started in Manhattan and as spread through drinking water, with a whole lot of backstory, haha. Basically, it was a cult bioterrorist attack. The city is infected but cured (in RE: Vendetta). With her money, she's probably flown out of the city, so she'd likely be coping with the crazed cult people spreading viruses more so than the zombies. We all know Orin was probably dumb enough to invest in industries that would put targets on their head. A-Virus zombies are T-virus zombies, but ... slightly smarter? They can talk and taunt before they eat you, lmao. It doesn't spread as bad as T-Virus, but the zombies are cognizant and more human. It can be cured too.

There's also the Mold, but that's Eastern European-originating (sorry Magda) that makes it to Louisiana. The Las Plagas in Spain, Uroboros in Kijuju, West Africa, etc. Fun all over the globe, just with different variants.

[caterkinnie]

"Could you please teach me how to be like you?" Vil, Rook x reader.

summary: You've always admired them from afar, how did they manage to talk to people so easily? How could they always be so confident on themselves?

genre: fluff (could be interpreted as romantic or platonic!)

was going to add Kalim as i mentioned but i didn't have any interesting ideas for him rather than "he was happy ^^", sorry.

anyways enjoy!

Well, he was surprised, most people usually found him intimidating, so hearing you asking for tips to be more confident definitely caught him off guard.

it's not like he doesn't want to help you, quite the opposite, he just didn't expect you to approach HIM, of all people.

He agrees, of course, he imagines approaching him to ask such favor already needed effort from your part, which meant you truly wanted to improve your social skills! Otherwise he definitely wouldn't have bothered in trying to help you.

He's STRICT and way too honest sometimes, his criticism is blunt but always constructive. Hard to accept but everything he says is the truth (Vil only gets nitpicky when he's in a bad mood)

Of course he still gives you a little "Good job", "Your efforts are starting to pay off" whenever you are able to talk to someone without stuttering. It's small but it really means a lot coming from him.

One of his exercises is getting you to wear clothes that make you feel good with yourself! He's very passionate when he's talking about fashion too, it's kinda endearing.

And DON'T even think of making any self-deprecating comments! He WILL scold you, that's COUNTERPRODUCTIVE and you will be punished! You will have to say good things about yourself until he's satisfied!

Even if he sounds mean he's genuinely trying to help you, you're working hard after all! And he wouldn't like to waste neither yours or his time.

But in general... He's just glad you're actually trying to fix your insecurities. He knows some people with similar struggles who would rather DIE than seek help. Sorry Idia

It just starts as him helping someone to be their best self! But soon after getting to know you, he genuinely starts to care about you.

It's not obvious to people who aren't close to him, but it's obvious he has a soft spot for you. It's something about the way he looks at you, the way his expression softens whenever you go to tell him about how you got to ask a question to professor Crewel without stuttering! Or how you could talk to your classmates without feeling anxious! It truly makes him feel proud.

BEAUTE! He actually has been keeping an eye on you since he first saw you! He finds your timid attitude absolutely beautiful (pun intended), but your determination to get rid of your shyness is even more beautiful!

Rook, just like Vil, is very happy that you asked for his advice and even if his approach is similar to vil's, he's… a lot nicer.

Maybe TOO MUCH.

We all know he can be overwhelming all the time sometimes, but he just finds everything about you so adorable!

And you're just so cute! He loves observing you, struggling when trying to buy your lunch.

Though, he's not as sadistic compared to other students so whenever you run out of social batteries, he's quick to take the lead of the situation and let you have a small break. And don't forget all the loud praises even if what you did was something small, to him, it's always a big improvement!

Like Vil, DON'T EVEN THINK OF MAKING ANY SELF-DEPRECATING COMMENTS. He has a counter-argument for any, literally any, comment it's insane. Does this guy ever run out of compliments?

(Please someone help he's been talking about you for WEEKS and is driving Vil insane.)

You might feel like someone is staring at you at random times of the day. He's just protecting you don't worry!

Overall, he's very good at this. He's an expert at redirecting conversations if anyone is making you uncomfortable, and every step is a big step! You can't feel like you aren't doing enough around this man because he will reassure you things like this need time. Very very loudly.

He's weird, yeah. But he's proud of you. Every single conversation with Rook feels like he's not telling you something, and if you ask he's amazing at dodging any questions. Really, what does he hide?

Feel free to drop tips or constructive criticism!