#like I don't need a super fancy truck | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wedratherstarve · 4 months

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edit: on AO3

tw: canon-typical homophobia, medical gore (near the end). pre-dethklok magnus and murderface, just dudes bein roommates

They pay the security deposit with the last of Magnus' college fund and put Murderface's grandfather's name on the lease instead of their own. It's garbage day, so they spend their morning cruising around a neighborhood on the nice end of town, occasionally stopping to throw furniture into the back of Magnus' truck. They bribe Nathan with a case of beer to help them 'move in', and by the afternoon, it almost looks like a real home: tatty sofa, cracked TV screen, stack of amps along the wall, their own mattresses on the floors of their rooms. It's a two-bedroom, but they deserve a two-bedroom, because they're going to make it big, after all. Nathan almost has a drummer lined up, a big name supposedly, and the gigs are already being penciled in, and they know by instinct that Dethklok is going to be big. Really big. They should be living like kings.

So, on their first day in their new apartment, Murderface and Magnus sit on opposite sides of their freshly-scavenged couch and watch their cracked TV. Magnus has done some 'creative' wiring so that they can 'borrow' cable from the neighbouring apartment, but right now they're only getting one channel and it's the one where people try to sell you things. Deluxe vacuums, currently. Nathan's gone off to have some meeting with their potential new drummer, so it's just the two of them, in their new apartment, that they're now renting together, on their own personal couch. Just the two of them. Roommates. Sitting on a couch…

"Is thisch gay?" Murderface asks aloud.

Magnus glances over a him. "Excuse me?"

"Thisch is kinda gay, right? Two guys living together?"

Magnus blinks at him. "Oh, yeah, totally, man," he replies apathetically, directing his attention back to the television.

"Wait, fuck, scheriously?"

"Seriously. Says on the lease we have to suck each other off every night."

"Fuck. Thatsch not good."

"Trust me, you get used to it."

"Aw, man, this schucks! I don't wanna suck a dude off! Can't I jusch jerk you off or somethin'?"

"If you jerk me off, we don't get the security deposit back."

"Fuck the shecurity deposit. That's your money anyway."

Magnus gives Murderface one of his famous cutting glances from the corner of his eyes. Then he settles back into the couch, propping an ankle over his knee, jiggling his foot a little.

Murderface tries to mimic him, likewise sinking into the sofa, likewise crossing his legs. Super relaxed, super cool.

"I'm not suckin' nobody's pee-pee," Murderface grumbles. "My name's not even on the schtupid lease."

Magnus has already lost interest in the joke. "Oh. Sure. I guess legally, your grand-dad has to suck it."

"Dude, grossch--"

"Shut up," Magnus sits up, gestures to the TV. "Look at that."

The vacuum infomercial has ended. A man dressed as a cowboy now stands before a fake desert backdrop, delivering an inaudible monologue (the speakers on their TV are broken).

"Aw schit," says Murderface, "Now that jusch makes me homeschick."

"Keep watching, idiot," says Magnus.

Murderface keeps watching. He watches as the cowboy reaches into his hip-holster and draws a long, shiny samurai sword.

"Schit!" Murderface sits up. "That's fuckin' aweschome!"

"Right?"

"I want a fuckin' sword-holster! You know what? I'll suck you off if it means we get your money back and use it to buy a fuckin' cowboy ninja sword!"

Magnus looks thoughtful. "You know," he begins slowly, "I have some money left in my college fund."

They lock eyes. No further words need pass between them. They stand and go for the door.

Magnus and Murderface are standing before a kiosk in a shopping mall, admiring a dazzling array of knives.

They have big knives; knives with bad-ass triangular holes in them (aerodynamic!); knives with iridescent blades; knives with that fancy stripy folded-steel blades; They have hunting knives with camo-print handles, little pocket knives, Swiss army knives, pocket knives with bullets for handles, pocket knives with lighters for handles, pocket knives hidden in lipstick (for the ladies). They have knives with spikes on them and knives shaped like axes and knives with jagged serrated edges that look like shark's teeth. And, of course, they have swords.

"Schit," Murderface says, pointing, "I want that one."

"Bad quality steel," Magnus says, without looking.

"Fuck that schit, the blade is black. That means high carbon. Extra scharp."

"This is what you want," says Magnus, pointing to a plain steel hunting knife. "Utilitarian. Functional."

"Boooo-ring."

"Classy. That's a knife you can bring to a fancy dinner."

"Check out that knife," Murderface interrupts him. The knife he points to has a blade the length of his forearm, with spikes all around the base near where it connects to the handle, and several triangular holes in the centre.

"Shit," Magnus breathes. "That's a cool knife."

"So fucking cool."

"You want that one?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"But?"

"I've been thinking, we schould get a lot of knives. An aschortment of knives."

"Oh, yeah, absolutely."

"We need the right knives for the right occasions. Every knife scherves its own purposch."

"And a sword, of course."

"Two schwords! One for you, one for me."

"Three swords. We'll have to keep one by the door, in case of intruders."

"Yeah! It's a bad neighborhood, who knows what could happen."

They lock eyes. They nod. Magnus signals for the clerk.

They've just pulled onto the highway and an awful staticky death metal band is blasting over the radio when Magnus turns the volume down and says, "We should have a special dinner. To celebrate the move."

"Dude, grosch," Murderface, whose lap is currently full of knives, replies. "That's gay."

"I'm gay? You're holding a rainbow knife."

"Uh, it'sch called an oil-spill butterfly knife? It'sch limited edition?"

"Whatever, man. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. We can get steak or something. Champagne."

"Gaaaay."

"The champagne makes the lease-required dick-sucking easier, William. You'll thank me later."

Viscerally disgusted, Murderface stabs Magnus' dashboard with his newly-acquired limited-edition oil-spill butterfly knife. "Eugh, just don't call me that while you're talking about dick-sucking! You're really grosching me out."

"Whatever you say, honey."

"Hammersmith--"

Magnus turns up the radio, rolls down the window to let the wind blow in. Murderface watches him tuck his long hair behind his ear, then stabs his dashboard once more, for good measure.

They are standing in a grocery store looking at the meat cabinet. It's all very red, and fleshy, and if you think about it, it should be brutal-- a cabinet of dismembered body parts, ruthlessly torn apart, laid out like inanimate objects to be purchased for money and consumed by strangers. Brutal. And yet…

"I don't like it," Murderface declares.

Magnus is frowning at an array of whole fish. "Hm."

"It's jusch lame or something." Murderface rams his fist against the glass. "Whatsch the point of eating meat if you don't even get to kill the animal first? It's fucking bullschit!"

"Hm," Magnus repeats himself. "What about that?"

He points towards a door leading to the back room. Through it they can see a large, steel table, and on top of it is a full half of a pig, skinned and ready for butchering.

"Yeah…" Murderface says slowly, "That's pretty schick."

"You," Magnus snaps at the clerk behind the counter, "We'll take that one. Yes, that one, in the room back there…"

… Ten minutes and a great deal of haggling later, they're pushing half a pig in a cart down the cheese aisle.

"My roommate in college was a law guy," Magnus is explaining. "He went to a lot of fancy events. Showed me the ropes."

"Did you suck his hog?"

"The secret is in the cheese. You have to get the right cheese, and… olives."

Murderface leers at the cheeses before them. "This one looksch fancy," he says, grabbing a package at random.

"Good, get a hard one as well."

"We're in a groschery store, Hammerschmith, that's not appropriate."

"You know," Magnus says quite calmly, "One of these days, I am going to stab you."

Murderface grabs another package at random and throws it on top of the pig carcass. "Oh I bet you'd like that. Schtickin' things in guys."

"William," Magnus lays a hand on Murderface's shoulder. "You're fixated on my sexuality because you're insecure about yours. I get that, and I just want you to know, as a friend, that I don't mind if you're gay."

Murderface smacks his hand away. "Ughh! Don't try your shrink-school bullschit on me!"

"I fully support you and your rainbow knives."

"Shut up! What elsch do we need, olives?"

They're stopped at a gas station while Magnus fills up his truck. Murderface is standing in the wine section selecting only the finest gas station champagnes for their housewarming dinner. Which is some bullshit, now that he thinks about it. What the fuck even is champagne? Bubbly wine, right? Maybe they can just drop an alka-seltzer into a carton of Franzia. That's probably easier than trying to read the French gibberish on the labels of all these bottles.

Murderface has a carton of Franzia on his shoulder and is heading for the medicinals section when he catches sight of something truly marvelous.

There, by the door, stands a glass display cabinet. And contained within that cabinet…

"What is that?" Magnus asks, when Murderface returns to the truck.

"Behold," says Murderface, with eminent pride, "A gnife!"

Like a modern bayonet, the 'knife' is, in fact, a very small pistol, with a knife's blade inexpertly welded to the barrel. He waves it in the air so that Magnus can get a proper look.

"Damn," Magnus breathes. "That's pretty cool."

"Right?"

"I don't care for guns myself, but even I can admit-- cool."

"It's scho fucking cool."

"Where's the champagne?"

"I figured we'll just throw a little alka-seltzer in thisch boxed wine. Trailer park champagne."

"Fine, fine. Get in, let's go."

"Hold on. I didn't pay for your gasch--"

"Get in the fucking truck, William!" Magnus yells.

William hurls himself into the passenger seat, landing uncomfortably atop their pile of newly-acquired knives, and Magnus peels out of the parking lot before the cops can show.

They're back in their apartment. They've laid the pig carcass out on the card table Nathan's parents have loaned them, and Magnus is holding a samurai sword.

"Come on!" Murderface urges, hitting his fists on the edge of the table. "Cut it already!"

"Give me time," Magnus growls. He's fixated on the carcass, his eyes are wide, pupils blown with excitement. "An artist's cuts must be… precise."

"Well, be preciser faster!" Murderface complains. "I wanna see a pig get fucked up!"

"Silence, grasshopper. Watch and learn… the way of the warrior!"

With one rapid stroke, Magnus brings the sword down, fast and hard, across the pig's torso. There's a loud meaty thwack. The sword is embedded a couple of inches into jiggly pig flesh.

"Shit!" Magnus yells. "The fucking sword isn't sharp!"

"Magnus, Magnus," Murderface says soothingly, sidling over to Magnus, gently nudging him aside. "Go get yourself some wine, let the blade-maschter handle this one." He eases Magnus' hands off of the sword's handle, takes it in his own firm grasp.

Grumbling, Magnus lets himself be pushed aside. "It's a problem with the blade," he complains. "My technique was perfect. Perfect!"

"It's not a problem with your technique, it's brute schtrength that matters the most." Murderface wrenches the sword out of the pig and raises it high above his head. "Watch and learn, Hammersmith!"

He rams the sword as hard as he possibly can into the pig carcass' neck.

The entire card table buckles and collapses.

"Brute strength," Magnus echoes, observing the pile of plastic and pig meat before them. He's already poured himself another solo-cup of shitty white wine.

Murderface stares at the wreckage for a few seconds. "Schwords not sharp!" he yells. "The fucking schword's not sharp!"

"Want some cheese?"

"Fuck yes, fuck this schtupid pig! Where's my butterfly knife? I'm cuttin' some bacon…"

Magnus and Murderface sit on opposite sides of their freshly-scavenged sofa in their brand new apartment and watch infomercials on their cracked TV. There is a pile of knives and swords in-between them.

"Pasch me some cheese," Murderface says.

Magnus drives the point of the knife in his hand through a block of cheese and holds it out to Murderface. Murderface skewers it on his own knife.

A man on the TV is talking about the virtues of humidifiers. Magnus has used his technical wizardry to plug one of their amps into the TV, so they have sound now.

"This guysch a fuckin' idiot," Murderface announces through a mouthful of cheese. "Who needs a humidifier in fuckin' Florida?"

"As if my hair isn't ruined enough," Magnus agrees, idly stabbing the arm of the sofa.

"I thought gay guys liked big hair."

"You're thinking of glam rockers. Also, William, I'm getting pretty tired of the gay jokes."

"Hittin' a nerve, am I?"

"If you have feelings for me, sort that shit out yourself. Or at least get a new joke. You're boring the hell out of me."

Murderface bites the tip of his cheese-knife and watches Magnus through narrowed eyes.

Magnus is staring boredly at the infomercial, ramming his knife into the sofa's arm with precise rhythm. When he's not having his notorious violent outbursts, he's actually quite cool and aloof, taking every affront with casual nonchalance. It's only those who have known him for a long time, such as Murderface, who know that below the artificial calmness lies a simmering rage liable to explode at any moment. Murderface has depended on Magnus since he left his grandparents' home; Murderface has seen Magnus flip out at waitresses without warning and throw chairs through diner windows. He is Murderface's idol. He's a ticking time-bomb.

And now they've moved to Florida together, and they're renting an apartment together, and no matter what Magnus says, it really does feel kind of gay.

Murderface picks up a random knife from their pile and starts ramming it into the sofa's arm, matching the timing of it with Magnus' stabbing.

They sit there for a while, each stabbing their respective sofa arms in peaceful synchronicity.

Murderface feels Magnus glance over at him. He stabs the sofa with a little more force.

"Hey," Magnus says in a low voice. Suddenly a piece of paper lands on his lap, with 'LEASE' written at the top. No instruction needed, Murderface stabs it.

A few minutes later, Murderface pulls off his vest and throws it to Magnus' side of the couch. Magnus balls it up and stabs it.

On Magnus' turn, he throws a whole block of cheese onto Murderface's lap. Murderface puts it on the sofa's arm and proceeds to stab the absolute shit out of it. By the time he's done he's practically reduced it to paste.

Magnus has been watching him all the while, ramming his hunting knife idly again and again into the sofa cushion beside his leg. Murderface can't think of anything else to throw at him, so--

"Schtab me," Murderface says.

Magnus looks mildly surprised. And he waits only a moment before leaning over and stabbing Murderface firmly in the top of the thigh.

"Holy schit!" Murderface shouts. "Fuck! Shit! Goddammit!" He clamps his hands over the wound-- blood wells out from them immediately-- he presses down hard, hissing with pain. "Fuckin' schit, Magnus!"

"Oh, grow up," says Magnus dismissively.

"You fuckin' schtabbed me!"

"There's a first aid kit in the truck. Here are my keys."

"Fuck. You aschole."

The sofa is covered in knives and blood. Murderface is drunk off of his ass on cheap wine and alka-seltzer, pantsless, sitting on a camp chair in the kitchen of his brand new apartment. Magnus is on the ground between Murderface's knees, holding a lighter in one hand and a sewing needle in the other.

"You schure you know how to do this?" Murderface slurs.

"Of course I do," Magnus says. His elbow is resting on Murderface's un-stabbed thigh, his gaze is focused on the needle he's currently heating with the lighter.

"Yeah? Schince when?"

"I dated an EMT for three months."

"What was his name?"

Magnus puts down the lighter and picks up a packet of dental floss from the floor. Brow wrinkled with concentration, he bites off a long length of it, then threads it through the eye of the needle. Then he drops the dental floss and picks up a handle of vodka. "William?"

"What."

"Don't be a little bitch."

The pain is excruciating. It's like his entire thigh has been set on fire and is being ripped apart from the inside by a thousand hell rats from hell (fuck, good song idea.) Murderface bites down on one of his own wrists, and then buries his other hand in Magnus' hair, clutching a handful of thick curly locks. His eyes water and the tears shatter the world into kaleidoscope-colours until he squeezes them shut; when he opens them again he sees the top of Magnus' head between his own bare and bloody thighs and he's wracked with pain and the sight is delusionally sublime.

Fuck.

Maybe there is something to that shrink-school bullcrap. Murderface just let a man stab him. Is that gay? Is he gay for letting his roommate stab him and then stitch him back up? When this is done he's going to have to do some real self-inspection, or whatever it's called.

Whatever, he's getting stitched back together in his own brand new apartment. Way more metal than having some doctor do it, and Murderface is no stranger to stabbings or their aftermath. He lets himself moan in pain, leaning back in the chair. He tilts his head back, whimpers, readjusts his grip on Magnus' hair. Fucking brutal. It's like a war movie. Like one of those civil war soldiers before they invented medicine. Every stroke of the needle vibrates through his core like heavy bass.

And suddenly-- it's over, too soon it's over. Did he black out? Magnus is standing in front of him, his bare chest covered in blood, wiping his hands on his trousers. Murderface glances down and sees his bare, pudgy thigh, likewise blood-stained, with a small stab-wound in one criss-crossed by uneven stitches.

"You're alright," Magnus says reassuringly.

Murderface struggles to sit upright. "Yeah…" he chokes out. "… Schit, that's a good knife. That's fucking scharp."

"I told you. Classic hunting knife. Can't go wrong." Magnus takes a swig of the vodka, then thoughtlessly wipes his mouth. A diluted streak of pinkish blood is left across his cheek. "Can you stand?"

"Uh, give me a schecond." Murderface feels woozy. He feels very warm. He wants Magnus to stab him again. He needs another cup of wine.

"Just hurry up," says Magnus, turning away. "That samurai cowboy guy is on and I need to write down the number."

"Yeah…" Murderface sighs, slumping back in his chair. "Yeah, sure, write it down for me, too…"

It is their first night in their new apartment. Everything is covered and blood, there is a pig carcass in the centre of their kitchen, and they just know they're going to make it big.

#my fic #william murderface #magnus hammersmith #metalocalypse #don't even ask tbh

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pendragon-writes · 2 years

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𝒮𝒾𝑔𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈. 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈? 𝒜𝒹𝑜𝓅𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓅𝒶𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓈.

Marc Spector x Avatar!Teen!Male!Reader

Requested: Yes

Part 1/2

Next (Coming soon)

TW: Typical Vigilante/Marvel Violence, Bullying, Mentions of Blood

AN: I am not too familiar with their personality I want to apologize if I accidentally made them OOC. Also, I do not have DID so if I interpreted anything wrong please let me know ASAP

Well, this wasn't exactly the plan. Sure the plan may have been to infiltrate this very fancy auction but it wasn't your intention for a shootout to start. Quickly you turned to Anubis awaiting his instructions. "Now what?" He turned to you and motioned to the window behind the stolen artifact. "Grab the artifact and jump through that window". You sighed, quietly wondering how high the drop would be. "Well can you at least tell me if I can land on anything there?" Anubis walked to the window to see a pickup truck with tons of rugs in the back, when he returned to you he responded. That was the only confirmation you needed.

As you leaped forward you knocked one of the men down with a baton and the other with a random champagne glass. There were two more guards who were reloading their guns, if you made a run for it you could break the glass and jump to the truck. Just as you grabbed the artifact you noticed a man with curly dark hair and a black shirt watching as you broke the glass with your bo staff, threw a smoke bomb, and jumped. Once you landed you turned your head to see the man from before watching you from the broken window with the moon god himself Khonshu.

Marc Pov

He looked down from his spot as he watched the mysterious masked Avatar get away with what appeared to be a Jackal man. "That masked guy was an avatar right, Khonshu?" he asked him. Khonshu grumbled confirming his suspicions, muttering something about him being the god of death and being named Anubis. Since there was nothing he could do since Anubi's avatar was long gone.

°。°。°。°。°。°。

It was the next day and his hunt continued, after searching endlessly he spotted the masked person entering a building with a shadow that appeared to look like a dog not far behind. Apparently, this specific building they were breaking into was another auction but this one had the 'Sekhem scepter'. Khonshu, much to Marc's displeasure, commanded him to identify the avatar once and for all.

As Marc was about to enter Steven interjected through a window from a shop nearby. "Don't you think it's strange, I mean they seem to also be an avatar, and not just any avatar its Anubis himself!" Steven started to go on a mini info drop of the god and Marc zoned him out after a few minutes. "Hey, are you listening this is crucial!" Steven yelled. "Yeah, Anubis is the god of death so what, I can deal with it," Marc remarked. "Deal with it- Do we even know who the avatar is for all we know it could be this super powerful person with powers to summon the dead, with all these avengers and new heroes popping out we're bound to have an encounter with them" As Steven was about to add more they saw the masked person walking out with the scepter on their back and their staff on their right hand. Marc quickly rose up from his spot and shifted to Moonknight.

Once he caught up to the person they began to fight one on one, as he continued trying to throw blow after blow his moves kept on being blocked and dodged, some landing. Just as he was about to back off he was knocked down and pinned to the floor. He easily stood back up and tackled the person, ripping off their mask in the process. "Wait your just a kid?!" Marc Yelled. "Actually I'm 17, so not a kid," The now identified teen remarked. As the teen glared at him he suddenly raised his eyes.

"Dad? Nah I'm just playing with you my dad is out of the country with his secretary. You were interesting to talk to I'll give you that Moonknight but unfortunately I have a schedule I need to stick with," he used his legs to kick Marc off, put back on his mask, and jumped off the building. "Shit"

°。°。°。°。°。°。

It was a week since they last encountered them. As Marc went to feed Gus 3.0, he heard a loud crash and a lot of curse words being shouted. This quickly alarmed him so he grabbed his trusty knife and rushed to the scene. When he arrived he noticed a teenager around the age of 17 with a bleeding leg and arm. "The hell are you doing here?" He yelled at the teen. "I was being chased by these 2 guys and needed a place to hide, you don't mind do you" The teen said, shyly smiling. Marc sighed and went to the bathroom. "Stay there kid, and don't move a muscle".

When Marc returned he came back with a first aid kit and a vegan sandwich. "Here kid eat up while I patch you up, once you're done eating I want you to explain everything that happened" He instructed. The teen chuckled and nodded, and took a bite out of the sandwich.

Once he was patching him up he gingerly sat him on the couch and put on a random documentary. As Marc was about to prepare some tea he turned around and was slightly startled when he realized that same teen was no longer on the couch but instead leaning on the counter. "Holy shit- kid you scared me," "You know after feeding me and stuff I should probably now tell you my name and why I'm here" the teen ignored the fact that he clearly freaked Marc out.

"Well my name is (Y/n) and this is what happened, I was just reading my book on this tree right when all of a sudden these 2 guys came and started chucking rocks at me. I think they were guys in my class cause they looked familiar and I knew these 2 girls who I think were dating them cause they shouted to 'Leave their girls alone and that they belonged to them', and before I knew it I was being chased by them, that's when I climbed up some buildings, found your place, and broke in. Sorry about the window, I'll get that cleaned and replaced" Marc sighed at this explanation and gave the teen one of the cups. "It's fine, don't worry about that window. Do you think you'll be safe to head back?" "Probably not," The teen sadly chuckled. "Okay how about this, I walk you back since it's already getting late and tomorrow I teach you some self-defense?" Marc suggested.

"That sounds great! Thank you..." "Marc" he filled in. "Marc. Thank you Marc" the teen smiled for once. "Alright and I have a few rules before I agree to do this, one, don't come in through the window anymore, two, no scaring me like that, and three, come with a staff, you'll see why for that one tomorrow. For now, I'll walk you home"

As the two of them walked together Steven and Jake both teased the poor man whilst (Y/n) kicked a small pebble on their way back.

An: part 2 still a wip💀

#marvel x male reader #teen!reader #teen!male reader #marvel x teen!reader #x male reader #male reader #x male!reader #male!reader #x teen!reader #marc spector x male reader #marc specter x teen!reader #avatar reader

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mysteryshoptls · 1 year

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SR Epel Felmier Masquerade Dress Personal Story: Part 2

"It was a great shop!"

(Part 1) Part 2

[City of Flowers – Topsy-Turvy Event Hall]

Malleus: Shall I place it here?

Epel: Y-Yes…

[thud!]

Stall Owner: I wasn't expecting you to lift up the whole truck and carry it all at once… Magic sure is amazing.

Epel: Well, I mean, I think Malleus-san is really the only one who can do this sort of thing…

Stall Owner: Anyway, thanks to the both of you! You really saved my hide!

Malleus: However… I opened one of the crates and took a look inside, it seems a few of the apples have been damaged.

Malleus: Was it due to the way I transported them? I seem to have caused you unneeded trouble.

Stall Owner: Oh, I think these bumps and bruises probably happened on the truck ride over. It's not your fault.

Stall Owner: This isn't nothing to worry about. Right, Epel?

Malleus: Is that so?

Epel: Yep! I mean, if these were going to be eaten as is, or made into whole candied apples, they wouldn't be able to be sold like this, but…

Epel: But since his stall is going to be selling pastries made from processed apples, this much damage isn't an issue.

Malleus: I see. So, damage does not necessarily constitute the disposal of these apples.

Epel: Oh, we couldn't do something so wasteful as to throw them away! Harveston's apples are way too delicious for that.

Stall Owner: That's that. And most of the apple pastries I have here are special made for this city, you know.

Epel: Oh, you're right. Looking at your menu, I don't think I've seen a many of these pastries before.

Epel: You've got a pound cake that looks like the Bell of Salvation. And… Is this a pie? It's kind of weird.

Stall Owner: The theme of the festival here in the City of Flowers is "Topsy-Turvy," right? That's why I switched up the pie crust and the filling.

Epel: So, you're saying that the apple filling is wrapped around the pie crust? Wow, I didn't know that kind of thing was possible!

Malleus: They are all so exquisite. The other apple pastries you have all look rather fascinating, as well.

Stall Owner: Oh yeah, I should do something as thanks for the two of you helping me. I'll treat the two of you to some Harveston apple pastries.

Epel: But don't you have to make your pastries for the festival?

Epel: I can make something for Malleus-san as thanks. Since he carried the whole truck over here, we got plenty of time.

Stall Owner: Sorry for everything… And thanks, I'll leave it to you. Feel free to use any of my cooking utensils or seasonings.

Epel: It's done! It's not as fancy as the ones you'd find at this here stall, but…

Malleus: It smells wonderful… Did you bake the apples?

Epel: Yep, I baked some thinly sliced apples with a ton of butter.

Epel: Please try it with alongside the vanilla ice cream here. It'll be super delicious!

Malleus: Is that so? Then, allow me to try some.

Malleus: ...I see, this is pretty good. It has a different flavor and texture from fresh fruit.

Epel: So, actually, I made this baked apple from the damaged apples you saw earlier. Does that make you feel a bit better?

Malleus: Ah, indeed, because it was baked, I cannot tell what it looked like prior. I understand why he said there would be nothing to worry about.

Epel: Us in Harveston have always made sure to eat all our excess apples so there's no waste.

Epel: And recently, we started selling apple juice, too…

Epel: Whenever Harveston has a festival, we have a ton of stalls lined up selling a lot more of our traditional pies or other dishes with apples in them.

Epel: They're much tastier than any quick and easy thing I can whip up… It'd be nice if you could try it sometime too, Malleus-san.

Malleus: Harveston, I see. I will remember that.

Epel: …Ah! I just realized how much time has passed. I need to head back.

Malleus: I shall also return to my group. Thank you for the meal.

Epel: No, thank you so much!

[City of Flowers]

Epel: S-Sorry to keep you waiting! Am I late…?

Azul: Not at all. It is still 30 seconds before the time we agreed on, so you're not late at all.

Epel: I can't believe you were even counting down to the seconds… I bet I'd've been in a load of trouble if I was late…!

Azul: …Oh?

Epel: …? Uhh… What's wrong?

Azul: No, nothing… I only thought I smelled the delicious fragrance of apples coming off of you.

Azul: There weren't any shops on the route we took earlier that served apples, so I'm curious, where did you have some?

Epel: Fufu, it was just a special situation that happened.

Deuce: A special situation? Why're you sounding so self-important? Oh, did you find a good shop tucked away somewhere?

Epel: A good shop…? Oh, yeah, it was a great shop! But it's almost time to meet up with everyone else, so there's not enough time to chat about it now.

Epel: I'll tell you guys just how awesome the place is later once everything settles down.

Epel: 'Sides, after everything's over… We'll still have a ton of time to enjoy this visit!

(Part 1) Part 2

#twisted wonderland #twst #epel felmier #deuce spade #azul ashengrotto #malleus draconia #twst epel #twst deuce #twst azul #twst malleus #twst translation #twst glorious masquerade

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dameronscopilot · 1 year

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Intrusively thinking about dbf!Santi on reader’s birthday… the thots won’t stop. Sorry in advance LOL.

Does he remember on his own and text you? Is it a dirty message? Does he overhear your dad call you to wish his little girl a wonderful day only to be plagued with images from thanksgiving (stuffing lmfao)? Does Santi have a gift for you, and if so, does it surpass anything your previous boyfriends have gotten you? Is it super sentimental or more on the chic sugar baby side of things? Does he plan a hotel escape for the two of you, booking something halfway for the both of you? A weekend romp in the sheets with the cheeky bastard of my dreams 😭

babe i'm sorry i left these thots on read for a bit, but okay i have some additional seasoning i'd like to add to this spicy little dish now.

-> 18+

can we just take a moment to imagine like—you don't bother making a fuss over your birthday. but Santiago still overhears your dad mention the date, so the day before, something sheer and lacy arrives in your mailbox at your off-campus apartment. you sigh fondly.

yet you don't hear from Santiago that morning as you make your way to class, and you're just a little bit put out. because clearly he's aware it's your birthday. and you know he's awake this early.

but when you stop back at home in between classes, guess who's outside leaning against his truck wearing sunglasses and offering you an easy grin?

(of course he drove hours to see you)

and when he asks if you're wearing your gift as you let him inside, you make a show of bending over in the entryway to untie your shoes, offering him a gratuitous view of what's beneath your skirt. (you nearly let him fuck you right there beside the coat rack, until you remember you have roommates.)

(and while you initially grouse about the fact that he booked a fancy airbnb when you could just sneak him into your room and call it a day, the argument dies on your lips when he lets his teeth graze over the shell of your ear and tells you that you'll need somewhere more private tonight—because he wants to h e a r you.)

#answers from the cockpit #dbf!santiago #santi thots #Santiago Garcia

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just-some-guy-joust · 1 year

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Tell us about Eden *holds up microphone to you*

Thank you all for indulging me I am going to yell about her so fucking hard <3 Same as my Amedeo rant, this one's LONG babey YIPPEE! This ended up being 34 fucking paragraphs!!!!

All art is by me, all links on character names lead to their toyhouse profiles

Content warnings: Unreality, toxic relationships, bad mental health

This is Eden! She/her, 20-22 years old (22 at time of Doomed By The Narrative), 5'1, a college student who's also in the college's gaming club! She's the best friend/sister of Aiden, another member of the club who's like super rich and inherited a fuckoff big manor from their parents (which I am mentioning exclusively for the context to explain the fact that the story is called In A Manor Of Speaking)

Eden is very very sweet and kind and energetic and fun. She's good vibes all around and she's friends with Everyone so hard. If you're familiar with my other OC I've shoved into one of my tournaments though, Amedeo, you... might know where this is going a little bit.

For a basic plot summary up until Eden has anything to do with anything, Aiden comes home one day with a demon, Viorel, who is VERY lost and confused and has no memory of how he got to the human world. They all pretty quickly discover Viorel is not the only demon coming through to the human world though. Vivian and Engel are hunting him down and don't believe him when he says he has no clue who they are. They send another demon after him to kill him, though it doesn't work well since he just befriends it and now it is also living in the manor having a good time. Afterwards, Amedeo, a member of the gamer club, starts acting... odd. He invites Aiden to hang out, and then they get kidnapped, Viorel having to go save them. It was only the first incident of many with Amedeo, and he slowly got worse, making everyone really uncomfortable and staying away from him.

Eden didn't want to sit by and watch this happen to her friend, so she tried asking it what was going on. It responded by attacking her, sending her on a trip to the hospital.

It was fine. It was ok. That was her fault, really. She should've known.

Amedeo was kicked out of the gamer club (she hadn't wanted that but she wasn't there to vote on it). Apparently he never went back to his apartment. Some time after his disappearance, Aiden died. She wasn't there when it happened. Viorel said it was Amedeo.

It was... it was fine. It was ok. It was awful. It hurt so much. Awful things kept happening to the people around her and she couldn't do anything about it. Her sibling was dead, it was getting so hard to breathe anymore.

It was fine. It was ok. Aiden... "survived" in a way. They came back as a ghost days later. Stuck in a computer, yeah, but they could still talk. They were still here. It wasn't fair of Eden to stay upset for long, not when Aiden was having the WORST time coping with their new form. So she puts on a smile and acts just like she did before. Everything's going to be alright. Even if she has to be the only one acting like it is.

More time passes. One day, she stares at the back window and finds... Amedeo. He's a mess. He looks like he's been hit with a truck, or like he's been sleeping under a bush the last several days. Frantically, Eden runs outside, chasing him down when he tries to run from her, and pulling him in for a hug. It was alright. It was going to be ok, she promised. How long has it been since you've eaten, do you need water, you can take a nap in one of the fancy beds, I promise I won't let Viorel hurt you I know you're worried, I missed you, I was worried about you, please come inside.

As time passed, things became comfortable again. Amedeo had really changed for the better and was trying so hard to make things right. Viorel built Aiden a new robotic body for them to haunt, and they were getting used to it well. The gamer club was getting back together. Eden, Viorel, and Aiden took a trip to the monster realm to learn more about Viorel's past after his sister showed up looking for him. Eden didn't... really understand what happened. Viorel was pretty upset, but she didn't know why. Just as always, she felt like she was missing something everyone else understood. This wasn't her story, after all. She was just there to smile and remind everyone it was going to be ok. She was a bright spot for them. She knew that. They returned to the human world, some new friends in tow, and things were back on track for a while.

It was fine. It was ok.

In the almost 2 years since all of this began, Reverie was the first person to ever ask her that.

Eden and Reverie begin hanging out a lot after that. Not just for the shoulder to cry on, they really do enjoy each others company. They got close, closer than Eden had ever felt with anyone. It felt... odd. She was having a really hard time naming her feelings for them. She cared about them but something was off. It was really hard to know what was nagging the back of her head. They kept bringing up weird existential ideas, never enough for a full conversation, but they really did have strange ideas about how the world functioned. She kind of liked it though. It was fun to consider the possibility. That maybe none of it was real. What a relief that could be...

"Hey. I want to show you something" Reverie told her one day. They guided her to a private room, making doubly sure no one was around. Confidently, they held out their hand. Above it, floating and glowing softly, was... a menu.

Save, load, quit, settings. A video game menu. Above their head, "player 2".

None of it was real.

Reverie is player 2 of the video game known as "In A Manor Of Speaking". They've played this game hundreds of times. Player 1... Viorel, had left them a long time ago, and has no memory of the nature of the world. So Reverie alone had been restarting the game over and over, trying to find a path that would let them finally beat the final boss and escape the game. If they could just win, they'd finally be able to leave and reenter the real world. 100% maxing out Eden's friendship level was one thing they still hadn't done, until now. They had a good feeling about this one. They were sure of it.

An NPC. That's all she was.

It made sense. She'd always felt that way. She wasn't even important to the plot. She knew it. Of course it'd take them this long to try maxing out her friendship, she was always just a background character. None of it was real. None of it mattered. She was doing such a good job of playing her role, wasn't she? A perfect side piece in a story that isn't hers.

She went along with it. Her odd feelings about Reverie made sense now, that wasn't fully her... she was programmed to feel that way. But she still cared about them. She still wanted to help. Shoving down all the thoughts, it felt so. Easy. To dedicate herself to their goal. She loved them, she cared about them, she hated them, she looked up to them. Something about them was magnetizing and she didn't want to leave. Of course. Of course she'd help. She knew now, that's what she was supposed to do. What a relief. None of it had ever mattered. It was a kind thought to her.

Now she was able to see the save points, the HP bars above peoples heads, sometimes she caught glimpses of dialogue boxes as Reverie spoke to people. They introduced her to someone very special that only the two of them could seem to see. Elysium. She was an AI made for the game to keep it running properly, and to rewrite bits of code, to expand the world they lived in. The game was always evolving because of her. Elysium acted rather cold and grumpy a lot of the time, but there was an undeniable warmth to her that Eden admired.

Knowing about the game was terrifying, but the time she spent with Elysium and Reverie... It was wonderful. She finally felt like she was somewhere she belonged. She never felt so special than when she was with them. It was fun, to be part of the game. It was the happiest she felt in a long time.

...Right?

She still didn't smile much anymore. Reverie dismissed her various concerns often, saying it was fine, she was an NPC, she wouldn't get it. There was always this look in their eye that gave her chills. Reverie would tell her to fight that monster, it's for the EXP. When she protested, they'd tell her, what's the problem? None of this is real. I'll probably have to reload anyways, so none of this will matter in the end. Reverie would get themself in dangerous situations over and over. When Eden was worried about them, Reverie never understood. If they died, they just come back, it wasn't a big deal.

They never really did look at her, or Elysium. Every movement they made felt scripted. Every word, carefully planned. None of it mattered, to them. If Eden was uncomfortable, what did it matter? She wasn't real. She wasn't real. She knew she wasn't real.

But it was fine. It was ok.

Months passed in a blur. Eden hadn't spent much time with her other friends the entire time. She wasn't even sure what they were up to. It didn't matter. They wouldn't have changed their actions if she tried. That was never her choice. But it didn't matter. It was time. Just her and Reverie, and the final boss.

As Reverie rambled about the plan, Eden silently stared down at her palms, as always. She was so... afraid. Worried. She wished she could just give herself some reassurance. ...And the game's menu silently popped up in her hands. It held Reverie's save. ...It wouldn't hurt, she thought. She pressed the save button. It gave her a little comfort.

It was so hard to focus she hardly noticed they were in the battle with Engel now. When had they...? It didn't matter. Reverie was shouting at her, and she snapped back into reality and joined the battle, sword in hand. Engel's blank eyes stared right past her, entirely focused on Reverie. Eden, took a step, and found herself behind them. Time seemed to slow. She didn't remember getting this close to them so quickly. But it was her chance. It was her time. She raised the sword, and brought it down.

Engel's head rolled to the floor, their body collapsing next to it. Reverie and Eden froze. Neither of them dared to breathe. Eden couldn't see anything but the blood on her sword. She nearly dropped it with how heavy it suddenly felt. But quickly Reverie's arms were around her. They picked her up, yelling in excitement, looking more happy than she had ever seen them. They smiled at her so genuinely, and everything melted away. That was all she wanted. She laughed too, the image of Engel's headless corpse disappearing from her mind, losing herself in the relief. It was all over.

The area around them faded to black and white, "THE END" appearing a few feet in front of Reverie. They dropped Eden, and ran towards it, reaching for the "quit" button. And then it was gone. The quit button disappeared right before they could hit it. Leaving only "Restart" and "Reload" beside where it had been.

Eden couldn't see Reverie's face from where she was, but she could feel the chill radiating from them. They were frozen place, the room silent. Then they laughed, something hollow and empty. Then louder, crazed and desperate. They collapsed to the floor, their laughs and sobs intermingling so well Eden couldn't tell the difference between them. She tried to reach out to them, but before she could reach them, she heard them speak.

"If I can't leave, then this world might as well rot."

A folder icon flashed above their now outstretched palm and they reached into it, crushing the code within. Eden immediately felt dizzy. The world began to crumble around them, glitching out in bright colors, awful noises emanating from the edges where nothing but void lay beyond. Eden could see flashes of other places, other people. The world was collapsing in on itself as Reverie laughed. It was so hard to think. It was so hard to be. Eden reached for her sword. It didn't want to stay in her grasp, but her resolve solidifying, she forced it in her hand.

Reverie turned toward her just in time for the blade to pierce their chest. They stopped, in shock, for a struggling heartbeat.

They laughed. They grabbed Eden's hands and pulled, plunging the sword farther through their back, and putting Eden's face closer to theirs. "Do you think this matters?" they taunted through wheezing breaths. "I'll just come back! I always have. I always will! This means NOTHING Eden!"

They stood there for what felt like eternity. Eden didn't know what to say and could barely even see them through the tears in her eyes. But slowly, slowly, Reverie's laugh trailed off. And their face betrayed a sudden hint of fear.

Nothing happened.

Nothing happened as their breath hitched again and their legs gave out, dropping them to the floor. Nothing happened as they coughed up blood weakly. Nothing happened. Their HP had already dropped to 0. It never took this long. Nothing happened. Frantically they opened the menu.

It was Eden's save. No, it was Reverie's. No... the names switched back and forth, never settling in place for long. "WHat did yoU DO?" they tried their best to shift their position despite the unbearable pain, looking for Eden. They spotted her in front of the "THE END" screen, processing what she was doing moments too late. She reloaded, and everything went black.

Through a painful haze of noise and color, Eden could hear Elysium's voice. "Do you see what you've done, Reverie?" "pl...ease..." "How the hell am I supposed to fix this?! Look around you Reverie! Look what you've DONE!" "ple.....please...pl... please" "I can only think of one way to fix this. I'm going to delete you. I hope you had fun in the time you were here."

"NO!" Eden screamed out. She didn't want this. But it was all she could do as she finally slipped into what could only be compared to unconsciousness.

She awoke who knows when on a couch in Elysium's room. After making sure she was ok, Elysium explained. She explained everything. Eden trying to reload a save she made when she wasn't even a player freaked out the game so bad, on top of the code Reverie had destroyed... it was a mess. Elysium had stabilized it. Reverie was... well, not really alive, but not really dead either. They were stuck somewhere in between, in the moment they would have died if they hadn't been a player who's supposed to reload if their save wasn't corrupted. But Elysium could fix it, she was sure she could.

Eden asked if this was how this was supposed to go. Elysium sighed, and said yes.

Eden's route in the game wasn't always like this. But Reverie had become so fixated on finding their exit and treating the world around them like nothing but a toy. Elysium hadn't known what else to do. So she rewrote the code, the story, she rearranged the narrative, so Eden would be learn about the game. So she would start to glitch out the system. So she could be invisible to Engel's eyes because she was glitching out so badly, so she could finally be the one to end the game. So Reverie would finally see there was nothing else. This world was all their was.

It was never about Eden.

None of it had ever had anything to do with her.

The narrative had been rewritten just for her. The months of pain. The horrible state Eden had found herself in, agreeing to Reverie's views of the world. That she was worthless. That she was nothing. That this world was a prison. All the sweet moments, all the comfort Eden had felt in those fleeting scenes. It was all for her. None of it was for her. It was always about Reverie. She was one more piece in this awful play.

Eden bid Elysium farewell, and went home.

#asks #doomed by the narrative showdown

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littleladymab · 2 months

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FebruarOC - Carroway

Everyone's favorite, the babiest Shelby sibling!! Another for the RoomWhere crowd when they were doing their ramp up to the new setting in season 2; it took some googling but I FOUND the system! It is called Spirit of 77and was super fun and funky in a 70's funk sort of way! But we did it in space Appalachia.

Zach & Jade played the eldest and middle shelby siblings respectively. Carroway was the getaway driver because her motto is "gotta go fast". She is a professional race mech pilot (WELL professional is a loose term I think it's technically illegal) (she has a racer persona as well called White Lightning!)

As the youngest sibling, she didn't know her parents all that well, and shortly after they died her brother Samson got arrested and went away to planet jail for a long time so she just has these mythical images of her family in her mind, the way that they were always talked about giving themselves to the cause etc, and the only one she was really close to was Cooper. But because of that, and growing up in a setting where people had more important things than her to worry about (you know, like revolution), she grew into a really wild child. To the point where she was basically a thrill seeker (her Buzz in game was Thrills: "gain experience in any session where you do something just to see if you can succeed").

No one could stop her, so she just went.

So we stole a mech, in this lead-up game or w/e it's been years I can't really remember the details, and we might have Made Some Noise whoops. I do remember we had a space pick-up truck, that Carroway ISN'T allowed to drive because it is Coop's, but she had her own mech for back-up/distraction to help the pick-up truck haul ass out of there.

The Shelby's returned in the campaign proper in which we played a combo of Beam Saber and Scum & Villainy (if I remember correctly??) They needed to get to a fancy party for this really famous war profiteer in order to steal something for our crew, so Carroway used her racing persona to finagle an invitation (I think Coop was her "bodyguard" or something, they ditched her pretty early to go infiltrate, and Samson got a job as security for the party), and midway through the party we ran into the the actual crew, and thus the stories combined!

During that heist, it turned into kind of a mess, and Samson got arrested again, and Carroway was PISSED.

In the end, I don't think Carroway was a good fit for the way the story was going, partly because I was just so removed from the plot of the campaign (I didn't have time or brainpower to listen to the podcast), and Carroway's major takeaway from all of it was just "Fuck y'all and fuck the war" because it ruined her family and it ruined her childhood in a way that the other characters couldn't connect with -- they were all older, and were actively committed to the cause and participated in the war, but Carroway was between 18 (in spirit of 77) and like 23 TOPS by the end of it. And because there were just so many people at the table between the core cast + the Shelbys, it was real hard to get a word in edgewise (for me) and Carroway just simply couldn't bond with any of the others when her siblings did.

Still, I love her a lot, she was bratty but loved her siblings fiercely and was Real Good at running away from her problems because boy she could run VERY FAST (in a race mech).

Here is her pinboard, and here is her playlist! And you can check out the art that I posted previously (sorry no twitter mirror it was so long ago I don't know where it is) from my friend Elin! Her character sheet details for both systems are up for free on patreon.

#februaroc #a lil miss original #lil miss writings

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 5 months

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Community Teaching of Game Features

One of the wildest contradictions of game development comes from the question of how much to tutorialize and how to go about it.

For games with relatively simple controls like Megaman X, you can do the fancy invisible tutorial of its prologue level where it quietly teaches you individual concepts, only moving on - literally only allowing YOU to move on - when you've mastered them. Basic l/r movement? Starts you in a basic screen with nothing. Shooting? Enemy too big to jump over. Jumping? Bottomless pits. Wall-jumping? Pit that DOES have a bottom that you have to wall-jump back out of. Hollow Knight also does this beautifully. Both games have several videos, with Arin Hanson's Sequelitis vid probably being the most famous.

But back when I was playing Pokemon Emerald, I looked up how you get some of the pokemon I hadn't found yet and...there was no way to expect a person to discover the information about how they could be found in game. And when I shared this complaint with my friend with a PHD in Japanese media studies - a literal Pokemon Professor, as she bragged when she first got said degree - she said that the way I'd discovered where they were was probably the way I was supposed to. Gamefreak wants people to share wikis and talk on the playground about the Mew under the truck (it isn't) and make guides and videos about how to get all the Cursed Beasts in Scarlet/Violet and so on.

And I saw a video series from a while ago where Razbuten shared his wife's experience with learning the vocabulary of games later in life (than childhood; I'm pretty sure she's a good deal younger than I am). And something struck me during that explanation: He talked about how many of the lessons he'd probably learned from message boards, guides, or just having someone tell him "you can push b to run in Mario," but here he was trying to have her learn the same lessons in a vacuum. To his credit, one of his conclusions on the same video is, "Don't do that."

But it left me wondering: How much effort should a developer spend on teaching new players? Part of why tutorials trend toward kind of low-effort is because a game can reasonably expect that 80%+ of its audience already knows almost everything about its control scheme, if said scheme is following conventions of the genre - be that mouse-aim on a shooter, the function of HUD compasses with quest markers, or something as seemingly obvious as "press A to jump." Of the remaining 20%, 80% of them can be expected to pick up the controls of the individual game swiftly because they're relatively familiar with games in general. So in terms of True N00bs who need to be taught how to traverse a game, any game, in your tutorial? That's like 4% of your audience. Is it worth tutorializing heavily in a way that some of them won't even read and which might reduce the fun of the first level (that is, the level roughly all of your players are guaranteed to play)? It makes sense that so many tutorials end up feeling so low-effort. And on the other end, if you want one that's glorious and teaches everything while never getting in the way of great players, how much money and dev time has to go into making a masterful experience like the one that Arin Hanson gushes over in his Sequelitis video? Is that worth having one less level in your game? Two? What's the cutoff?

My suspicion is that some studios see the 4% and opt to go low-effort, and others do their best to elegantly include something that at least somewhat gives totally new players a handle on the situation.

The two bits of Secret Sauce I've taken away from this and would offer to fellow devs:

The Safe Zone. Hollow Knight has platforming areas with few or no enemies and with no penalty for falling. Super Mario 64 has the lawn in front of the palace where you can just mess around with the controls and explore.

Fun Controls. One of the things that has helped maintain Nintendo's place at or near the top of the industry for so long is that the movement style for its characters is just fun. Mario in Super Mario 64 is fun to run around the palace lawn in spite of there being no objectives there! This in turn gives incentive for players to experiment with the system and discover moves for themselves.

Blarg, this is neat but got far afield from the point.

The point was that even basic controls of your game can be community-taught, and that will usually be better than you can teach them because it can be responsive to the individual queries the player has. I've experienced the same when trying to figure out how to write a rulebook for a board game. You need one person in the community of people who plays your board game to be able to learn the game from your rulebook, if that. It's possible they'll learn from videos online anyway.

At that point, the value of having your rulebook be effective as a guidebook, a set of examples, and a place to find answers to frequently asked questions quickly gets bumped up over having it be a straightforward how-to tutorial. Doesn't necessarily change how much you write but rather changes the style of what you write, possibly even the format.

#game dev #game design

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koolkat9 · 1 year

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What are your favorite musicals and which musicals would you assign to your favorite countries based on personality? Yes, This is me asking what Music themes you'd assign them too I guess without looking at youtube and seeing videos 10 years old. I miss seeing Character Theme videos.

Oooh this is a good one! I'm also going to share musicals that make me think of some ships too because I want to ramble about the two musicals that make me think of a GerEng AU.

Okay but Characters.

Canada- Dear Evan Hansen

I know. Kind of basic. But I love DEH. "Waving Through a Window" is such a Mattie song. But what really sells the idea for me is that "So Big / So Small" is such a good song for Royal Red Bros. Francis is the dad that left, and Arthur tries to pick up the pieces, but also fails Matthew. Just the dynamic between Evan's Mom and Evan is just perfect for these two. Like Evan's mom does love Evan, but being a single mom isn't easy and to provide for him she has to work ridiculous hours so she's not there for him physically. Which is a similar postion Arthur finds himself in.

Also the lines

"That night I tucked you into bed

I will never forget how you sat up and said

'Is there another truck coming to our drive way?

A truck that will take mommy away.'"

Just hit me so hard with feels for Arthur and Matt. Just imagining a little Mattie asking Arthur one night if Arthur is going to leave him behind too. Because Francis left and Arthur seems so much more focused on Alfred. Matthew it terrified it will happen again. And it breaks Arthur's heart.

ALTERNATIVELY

Canada - Next to Normal (Specifically the song "Superboy and the Invisible Girl")

I don't know enough about what this musical is actually about other than we follow our main character Diana who is struggling with bipolar disorder and hallucinations of her dead son. And basically I think it shows how her condition affects her family?

But we did "Superboy and the Invisible Girl" for some concert once and I actually played Diana. And every time I rehearsed this song, all I could think of was ACE Family.

It is primarily Natalie, Diana's daughter, feeling neglected and ignored because of her Mother's grief over her son's death.

This line really makes me think of the two, especially after Alfred has become independent and Matthew attempts to pick up the pieces of a broken Arthur:

"Super boy and the invisible girl

He's the one you'd wish would appear

He's your hero, forever your son

He's not here, I am here"

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America - Hamliltion

For obvious reasons. American history. Main character is smart, but also so impulsive. "I'm not Throwing Away my Shot" always make me think of Al.

---

England - Mary Poppins

Of course I choose something obvious. You know how much I love Arthur with kids. And Mary Poppins is that strict parental figure, but she does want what's best for the kids in her care, and I think that's perfect for Arthur.

Also I just love imagining Arthur singing "Feed the Birds."

Also also. get 2p England involved and make Oliver Bert. So double the Englands making it more fitting. Alternatively Gilbert could be Bert to make it Pruk instead.

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GerEng - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

I have this whole musical casted with Hetalia characters. But the summary first because its probably a musical not many know. I really don't know how to encompass everything so I'm just going to steal the summary from IMDb:

"A down-on-his-luck inventor turns a broken-down Grand Prix car into a fancy vehicle for his children, and then they go off on a magical fantasy adventure to save their grandfather in a far-off land."

God I had orginally had a long decription of a cast list for this but I'll ramble about that in another post. All you need to know though:

Arthur as Caratacus Potts - The down on his luck inventor and single father. Sometimes his work distracts him, but he really does love his kids

Ludwig as Truly Scrumptious - A candy heiress who meets the Potts family after almost running over the children when they run out into the road. She and Caratacus kind of get off on the wrong foot when she argues that the kids should be in school and not running around. But after he impresses her with his inventions and she joins them on their adventure in their magic car, the two fall in love.

Peter as Jeremy and Jemimah - Because I can't think of a second child to go with Peter I just have Peter right now. Because I love GerEng being dads to him.

Anyway. The songs.

First we have "You Two" which actually makes me imagine things separate from this au. Because this is also so good for ACE Family. I ramble about it more here.

"Doll On a Music Box" One of my favourite songs to listen too to daydream about GerEng. Just them pulling the same stunt Caratacus and Truly do to rescue the kids. Also Ludwig dressed up as a doll is a nice image.

"Lovely Lonely Man" Could work for either of them, but I always have loved the idea of Ludwig singing this about Arthur. Because Ludwig fell fast just like the song suggests while Arthur took a bit of time. It's just a perfect monologue of Ludwig admitting his feelings to himself.

God I could go on but I'll save the rest for a separate post

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Okay one last one for GerEng! Music Man.

Summary from Stage Agent: "There’s trouble in River City! When smooth-talking con man Harold Hill arrives in a small, tight-knit town in Iowa, he expects to dupe its residents with his elaborate moneymaking scheme: Despite his complete lack of musical literacy, he will convince everyone that he is a brilliant bandleader and recruit all the boys in town to form a band, pocketing the cash for instruments and uniforms. The problem? Some of the town members, especially the stern librarian, Marian Paroo, don’t quite buy Harold’s story. As Harold struggles to keep his scheme afloat, he also finds himself increasingly attached to the townspeople, who have all experienced a positive change since Harold came to town. Complicating matters even more, Harold is also falling head-over-heels for the beautiful Marian."

God I could go on about this one too, but keeping it brief:

Arthur as the con man Harold Hill selfish and prideful only to have a change of heart by forming genuine connections within the town.

Ludwig as the stern yet also hopeless romantic Marian. That despite knowing Arthur is a con man sees him grow and falls for him

"Goodnight My Someone / Seventy-Six Trombones (Double Reprise)" The two leads main songs coming together with them singing each other's half way through. God I just love thinking of GerEng for this scene so much! I think its so romantic to sing each other's themes to each other.

Also "Goodnight My Someone" on its own is very fitting for Ludwig. As is Marian's chacter as whole. Both are stern indivduals, refusing to take nonsense from anyone. They seem like a stick in the mud, perhaps a little cold, but both have a sweetness deep down, longing for connection. And "Goodnight My Someone" is when we first see this side of Marian.

"Marian the Librarian" Just the back and forth and tension in this song. Hill/Arthur is kind of a dick. Flirting, but really he's just playing a game at this point and bugging Marian/Ludwig at work when they're clearly aren't having it. It's another fun scene I like imagining GerEng. Especially since Arthur is really pushing his luck angering someone who could snap him like a toothpick he'd be into that let's be honest but that's not a discussion for this blog

Thank you anon for letting me combine my love of musical theatre and my love for Hetalia together! I encourage more questions like this actually so don't be scared guys!

#hetalia #gereng #engger #geruk #royal red bros #hws canada #hws england #hws america #hws germany #musical theatre

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inkabelledesigns · 1 year

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Did not think I'd be getting emotional about Splatoon of all things, but here I am! So we just got done with the cryptid Splatfest, and this one introduced two new Squid Sisters songs. Tomorrow's Nostalgia Today is such a bop, and it has me feeling so many things, thinking about all the previous Splatfests I've played and how it hasn't stopped being fun.

I've been playing since the first game, got Splatoon back in 2015 to play with friends but didn't really get to that much. My youngest sister and I loved playing it together though, it was our game. We'd have a sleepover in the basement where we'd start playing Splatfest at midnight, go to bed, then one of us would wake up early and rank up to Queen level before the other got up, then we'd both get there before noon and call it a day. There was a magic to it that I can't really put into words, but it was special, it was our thing.

Splatoon 2 happened while I was in college. I was a little late to pick it up, but I loved it. Pearl and Marina were great, the music was lovely, and I adored Shifty Station. Came to almost every Splatfest, save for the ones where I was out of town. Didn't love playing the story mode (though I do love the story). I actually didn't finish it until relatively recently, and it wasn't even me who did it. It was my little brother. See, he asked to play the first two games after I got into 3, and so I let him borrow my copies. He finished my file, save for the final boss, where he handed me the controller and said I should have the honors. (He had already beaten it on his own file apparently.) The thrill of hearing the Spicy Calamari Inkantation was amazing, the music all throughout the boss fight had a story to it, and I was enchanted by it. Finally Callie was saved, I was so happy. I missed out on Octo Expansion (makes sense, why would I get it if I don't like the single player?), but I've been told I need to see a Let's Play of it, so that's on the to-do list. XD

Now we get to three, and my bro wanted to experience what my sister and I had growing up. Between you and me, I think he's gotten something even better. We don't do sleepovers anymore, but now we play as a team. It's myself, my bro, my sis, and my sister's husband. Sometimes they come over, and sometimes we call on the phone and play together. We've got strategies, we all play a variety of weapons (I fancy myself a bucket more often than not now!), and we have such a good time. There's a little yelling when other teams have poor sportsmanship, and sometimes we need to pause when it stops being fun, but overall? I love my squad. During the chocolate Splatfest we got a x333 battle and won, and it was one of the best multiplayer moments I've ever had, took so many pictures with Frye after that. I now take a photo every Splatfest of my octoling with my Amiibo. It's nice to have new traditions.

Needless to say, this funky little squid and octopus game means a lot to me. I'm so glad I get to share this with my family, but also now with my friends. We don't play together super often, but it's gotten me to be a little better at asking to play than I used to be, and we also have such a good time.

I haven't gotten the DLC, since once again with 3, single player isn't quite my vibe. It's better to play, I've at least beaten it and loved the story, but I haven't gone back and done every stage. But my brother has, so now I get to see my old stomping grounds when he's playing, and seeing the Squid Sisters share the stage with a new song hit me right in the gut. I did not expect to feel that, but after everything they've been through as characters, and how long I've spent with them on their journey and my own, seeing the two trucks combined into one stage just, it MEANS something to me. They're together again and better than ever, and it's so GOOD! AAAHHHH! I love all of our idols so much but these two have a very special place in my heart.

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #splatfest

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sunel0 · 2 years

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First Kill

A late SteoDay entry @steoevents

You can read it on AO3

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV) Relationship: Theo Raeken/Stiles Stilinski Characters: Theo Raeken, Stiles Stilinski, Tara Raeken, Allison Argent, Tracy Stewart Additional Tags: Vampire Theo Raeken, Hunter Stiles Stilinski, Adopted Stiles Stilinski, Allison Argent & Stiles Stilinski Are Siblings, Enemies, Non-Consensual Blood Drinking, Blood Drinking, Seven Minutes In Heaven Game, Tara Dies, Murder, nothing really happens they just get obsessed with killing each other Words: 7329

***

Theo was standing in front of the mirror in their ridiculously big, ridiculously bougie, and ridiculously light entrance hallway, staring down his own reflection, checking to make sure his fangs weren't showing. Which he could feel they didn't do, but he did need to do something.

Soon Tracy was going to pick him up for school, which he found unbelievably annoying, but then he did drive his truck into a tree, so it was mostly on him that it needed fixing right now.

He sighed, impatiently checking his phone.

Tracy was running late, which meant he was running late.

Tara slid behind his back, as if he couldn't hear her coming in her heels on their fancy floor a mile away, putting a hand on his shoulder in one smooth motion, placing her chin on the other, looking at both their reflections.

"Are you nervous your little girlfriend will figure out you're planning to snack on her?" she turned her head to the side, letting out a tiny laugh that purposefully sounded like silver bells or something, because she was the perfect little heiress to the family. "Literally."

Theo rolled his eyes. He was so glad sometimes that he wasn't a girl and didn't stand a chance at having a place in the vampire hierarchy. If something were to happen to Tara, the responsibility was going to go to their cousin, not Theo, since he was a guy. Which was bad for the family, Theo guessed, loosing the status and all.

"It's not going to be her."

It was Tara's turn to roll her eyes, looking as annoyed as Theo felt.

"I don't get you. She's a perfectly fine mark, and you need to get your First Kill soon, Theo," their eyes met in the mirror. "It's not something you can put off for too long," she said with intention, as if talking to a toddler who didn't understand why one shouldn't play with an electric socket.

She patted his shoulder and left, leaving him even more annoyed.

He knew perfectly well that he had to kill someone soon. He wanted to. He had been waiting for this since he could walk, basically. He felt the burn of it in the back of his throat pretty much all the time even with the pills.

But he also knew that Tracy wasn't it. He wanted his First Kill to be perfect. It couldn't just be anyone. But he didn't know who it had to be yet, he didn't see anyone who would be what he wanted.

He just knew that he would know when he needed to know. And Tara rushing him wasn't going to do anything. Theo didn't even exactly understand why she was rushing him. The thirst wasn't getting super bad (maybe just yet), the blood pills their parents got him worked fine; he wasn't female, so he wasn't in waiting for the crown of vampire royalty, even if they didn't really have any kind of proper governing structure or anything in place. He didn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of powers his mother and sister cared the most about.

There was a honk from the outside.

"Your little friend is here," Tara almost sang from the living room, as if Theo wasn't literally standing by the door. "Still alive," she added in an exaggeratedly sad voice.

Theo almost growled, throwing the door open with Tara's infuriatingly ugly laughter following him out.

***

Stiles got out of his car. More like fell out, but whatever.

"I just don't get it, like, we've trained basically our whole lives. Well, you did, but still, I've done enough, too. Why can't we go hunting with them?" he complained, throwing his hands up, accidentally sending his car keys flying.

Allison looked up at their new school, covering her eyes from the sun, while he scrambled to pick them up.

"No, I totally agree, but I also think that maybe dad and Kate know better? Since, you know, they went through this exact thing and everything."

Stiles made a vague noise. They had this argument hundreds of times by now, both with their dad and aunt and without them. On one hand, yeah, maybe it was a safety thing, maybe they weren't ready or something. But on the other…

They have been training for so long, and when Stiles - an overly traumatised and overly excited seven-year-old back then - learned that he was getting adopted into a monster hunter family, he sure as hell had hoped for some monster hunting to happen eventually. And that was ten years ago. He wasn't that far from being an adult. Maybe he should be allowed to stab an undead thing here and there? Just a little bit. As a treat.

So while Allison may be willing to comply with what their dad said (and what their mom used to say), Stiles was going to kill something. Soon. He was going to get his First Kill in this town. He decided.

So he probably didn't have much time. No one knew how soon they were going to have to move, it was up to the Hunters' Guild. Stiles had better figure it out soon. It didn't have to be something big. Just a little zombie or something.

He finally retrieved his keys and looked up at the school as well. It was huge (especially for a town of this size), and bright, and somehow way too pretentious looking for a public school, really. The sun reflecting from the banner with the school football team's name (Stiles guessed it was football) was almost blinding.

"Okay, whatever. Do you have a scheme or something? Because this place is huge."

Allison sighed and took out her phone.

***

Theo was laughing at something one of the guys on the lacrosse team said, sitting up on the table, his feet on the chair, when he smelled something.

Something that caused the world around him to go bright red like it caught fire, and his all senses to become almost painfully sharp, his throat closing up with thirst. He had to squeeze his eyes shut, his hand gripping the edge of the table under him until it was almost painful.

Everything was so much, all at once, and he was so, so, so hungry, and there was so much food around him, and he felt his fangs press against his lower lip.

He couldn't… he needed…

He couldn't think. He just needed. What did he need?

He needed his pills. That was it. He was not about to ruin his First Kill by accidentally losing control. It was not happening.

His First Kill or his whole family's lives, actually.

He forced himself to let go of the table, then he dug around in his backpack by his side blindly, almost throwing it off the table, until he felt the little container with the very red capsules, almost dropping all of them onto the floor in his haste to rip the bottle open.

As soon as he felt the cold metal taste of the blood from the capsules cover his tongue in one thick explosion, the red in his eyes dissolved slowly like fog in sunlight, like the cover of the pill did in his mouth. He drew in a loud breath.

Josh made a compassionate sound from somewhere to Theo's left.

"Migraines are rough, bro."

Theo grunted in something resembling agreement, slowly peeling his eyes open.

Only to see a pair of brown ones staring at him, squinting slightly, suspicion in them clear as day. The sunlight from the huge window to the right made them look almost golden, like that fake liquid honey in those dumd squizzy bottles; those damned lashes looked like they were borrowed from a calf.

And that was when Theo knew. He felt a smirk slowly sneak its way onto his face. That was his person.

He knew who his First Kill was going to be.

"Who is that?"

Tracy, sitting in the next row, turned around, looking where Theo was looking.

"No idea," she turned back to painting her nails, disinterested.

Well, Theo was going to find this out. It was probably polite to know the name of the guy he was going to murder.

***

Stiles watched Theo Raeken from the bleachers. He and Allison were currently having to endure watching a lacrosse practice, purely for job reasons.

Only job reasons.

The fact that the guys looked mostly nice totally didn't do anything. And it absolutely wasn't as if Stiles actually liked sports.

Really, he wasn't on any teams just because they were moving around constantly, so there was no point.

"Look, there actually are painkillers that are pink, maybe he really has migraines?" Allison asked, showing Stiles a picture of a pill on her phone. "Or maybe he's a drug addict and needed his dose," She shrugged.

You know, like rich kids do casually, hung in the air.

Stiles turned to stare at her.

"So this sounds more plausible for you than the simple explanation of him being a vampire? And the pills were way more bright red than these are anyway. They were blood red, you know," he waved his hand at his sister and turned back to squinting at Theo on the field.

Only to immediately avert his eyes, totally inconspicuously, almost falling off the bench when he saw Theo squinting back at him.

Theo smiled and waved in all of his jock glory.

Stiles was totally not looking at him anymore.

Allison raised her eyebrows at him.

"Do you actually think he's a vampire or do you just need a reason to stalk the guy?"

Stiles actually fell over in his haste to stare at her accusatory and indignant. Like he needed a reason to stalk anyone. He could stalk whoever he wanted whenever he wanted.

And anyway…

"I have taste, actually, and he's… he's…" Stiles made a face and a gesture roughly in the direction of where he presumed Theo was on the field.

Because he wasn't looking.

Allison's eyebrows climbed even higher.

"Not your type?"

"Yeah!" the skepticism in Allison's eyes made him backtrack a bit. "Well, okay, that's a lie, but I'm not having a… crush on a vampire or something! Objectively, he's attractive, but that's it."

They were so lucky there was hardly anyone on the bleachers, so they didn't really need to lower their voices. He was grateful that vampire super-hearing was only a thing of legends.

He found Theo on the field again with his eyes, shit-talking some other guy on the team, by the looks of it. Allison might not believe him, but Stiles was going to prove all of them that he was right.

And get his First Kill in the process.

***

The party seemed like an easy way out. There are ways to get people away from other people even if they weren't that into you, and Theo knew all of them, of course. After hearing that there was a party happening already, he made sure that Stiles got invited as well, watched it happen. He didn't even have to organise anything. He didn't have any guarantees that Stiles would show up, though, but Theo was willing to take these odds.

Now he was standing in the living room, his usual entourage around him, keeping up the sound bubble around him while he scanned the room almost restlessly, waiting for Stiles to show up.

For now, he chose to ignore the possibility of this not happening.

Eventually, when Theo had to go get his glass of mostly juice refilled (he knew he wasn't going to get actually drunk, his body couldn't absorb human food that well, but it was going to have some effect, and Theo wanted to remember every single second of this night crystal clear) and almost went to do it (it was annoying to get through all the people), he noticed Stiles and his sister. Theo couldn't remember her name; she was also very pretty, and betting on her was probably safer in terms of how easy it would've been to get her away from everyone, but Theo knew what he wanted.

He jumped off the closed grand piano he was sitting on, turning to Tracy.

"You know what, this is getting boring," he stretched a bit, lazily. "Maybe we should arrange a game or something. Seven minutes in heaven?" He said distractedly, knowing full well Tracy was going to jump to organize whatever he mentioned.

"Oh yeah, totally," and she was off somewhere in the crowd looking for people and a place.

Getting into the kitchen to refill his juice, he found Josh there.

"I heard Tracy was arranging some game. Should we invite the new guy? Get to know them better and everything, you know," a lazy smile definitely got his point across.

After ticking off this point of his plan, making the cogs of the party move and the clock tick its way to the hour of First Kill, Theo moved forward.

In one of the upstairs bedrooms (he felt kind of annoyed about this, he had wasted some time looking) he found Lucas.

Leaning against the wall, the picture of casual disinterest, Theo took in all the weed on the blue duvet.

"You heard Tracy is organizing something downstairs?"

Lucas nodded slowly. His pupils were huge. Maybe there was not just weed here, actually. Theo didn't know and didn't care.

"Gonna go down in a minute."

Theo almost nodded, satisfied, but stopped himself. He knew he could trust Tracy to work quickly.

Lucas did the rest of the work for him. He smirked suggestively:

"Anyone you're hoping to get?"

Theo shrugged, feigning lazy interest.

"The new guy seemed cute."

Lucas laughed a bit.

After a moment, Theo left.

Now he just needed for Stiles to agree to the game.

***

Stiles almost sighed in relief when that girl that he had seen around Theo (Allison thought her name was Tracy) invited him to that dumb game.

Who the hell was even still playing it, especially in high school? But it definitely was a great way to at least try to get Theo alone with just a little bit of luck.

Which he made sure was going to be on his side by stealing a little amulet from his father's stash of witch-hunting trophies.

A small circle gathered around the kitchen island with the bottle placed as a central piece. Stiles wasn't sure what exactly the rules were, but he guessed it was intuitive enough.

Of course Theo and several of his little pack of small town cool kids were across from Stiles. He still felt betrayed that Allison had ditched him to go talk to some guy with a jaw very noticeably to the side, but then he guessed it would've been kind of awkward to play something like this with a sibling.

Anyway, Stiles was here now, looking at the admittedly attractive smirk on the admittedly handsome face of the admittedly hot Theo Raeken (he knew what he was doing with this pink sweatshirt).

Also known as Stiles' future First Kill.

Someone was talking around him, but Stiles wasn't listening. All his thoughts were about how Theo was going to perish into dust with Stiles' silver dagger in his heart and how he was going to get the traditional Argent hunter bullet tattoo afterwards. He guessed it was going to hurt, but he couldn't wait. He already knew what design he wanted.

Stiles snapped back when someone spun the bottle. He forgot to listen to the rules they used here, but it probably wasn't that different from everyone else's.

The bottle spun and then started to slow down.

Stiles could feel Theo still smirking across the table, so full of himself (and, probably, others, or at least their blood), it was almost annoying.

Theo was watching him, too, Stiles could feel it. He guessed it was a good thing for this particular situation that he managed to capture the attention of the local Main Asshole.

The bottle between them stopped.

***

Theo felt like cackling on the inside. The bottle did what he needed it to do even without Lucas' intervention.

It looked like everything in this game was on his side.

He knew he was probably going to get in trouble for that (he was going to be the last person seen with Stiles when they would find the body, after all) but he knew Tara was going to help him out.

His First Kill was a big family occasion even though he wasn’t an heir. Pureblood traditions and all.

He slid a finger along one of the shelves, walking into the huge pantry after Stiles, and while he did manage to keep his glee quiet, he could still feel a smirk tugging on his lips. At least it wasn’t the fangs. Yet. He could feel it coming, making him feel giddy.

"Who the hell needs to have that much food?" asked Stiles, looking around and scrunching up his nose.

He looked adorable in his little red hoodie.

This was like a fairytale or something.

Theo shrugged, eyes not leaving Stiles even for a second. He could attack him right now and be over with it.

But where was the fun in that?

He came closer, every move deliberately slow, like with a snake, so it wouldn't see you.

"Well, rich people, I guess. Ours is smaller, though" because they used it just for decoration, really.

But this one was really kind of bizarre, why was there a window at all? Wasn't this counterproductive?

Stiles just looked at him.

"Or people who believe in apocalypse."

Theo nodded. He knew how to keep up a polite small talk while waiting for the dinner to be served.

"Or those."

There was a beat of silence. Stiles huffed, impatient.

"So, are we going to do anything or just stand around?" he asked, his tone just shy of business-like.

Theo let out an involuntary laugh.

"You sound so eager, I'm almost insulted," he stepped closer, stopping just on this side of invading Stiles' personal space, of crowding him against the shelves.

Stiles rolled his eyes at him.

"Okay, I'm sure at least three quarters of the people around here who are attracted to guys would fall over themselves to be in my place, but I've moved around too much to do that. Every school has someone like you, and all of you are assholes, and I’m too much of one myself for our personalities to be compatible in long term, and I’m a long term kind of guy."

Theo wasn’t sure if Stiles took a breath anywhere in this little triade, and he was sort of impressed. Maybe it could've been fun to keep Stiles around for a bit. See what else he could hold his breath for.

He stepped closer, now positively overstepping a boundary, smiling at Stiles in the sweetest way he could manage, his oh she actually has a curfew, but you're such a nice boy, of course you can bring her back after midnight smile.

"So… you don't want to make out with me?"

Stiles made a face at him.

"I didn't say that."

He grabbed Theo's shoulder, pulling him in, close, putting their mouths together.

Theo couldn't for the life of him describe what the kiss had felt like. He guessed it was a kiss.

What he could describe was the feeling of a heartbeat just under his thumb on Stiles' warm neck.

Theo let his lips slide down, leaving a kiss on Stile's jaw, before getting to his neck, fangs just scraping the sensitive skin for a second.

Stiles moved in his arms, one of his hands leaving Theo’s back for a second.

Theo pushed his fangs in, the metallic taste immediately making him forget about the party going on outside. For a second his whole world became the fresh, warm, warm, warm blood on his tongue.

And then he felt something sharp against his chest, and it burned, and he stumbled back.

There was a dagger in his chest.

He looked up at Stiles, not quite comprehending.

"You… fuck…"

Stiles looked at him, weirdly, pressing a hand against his neck.

Everything swam in front of Theo's eyes, and then the fire alarm went off, and everything went black.

***

Stiles bullied Allison into not telling anything about the party and what happened to their father (or to Kate, which was more likely; they had always been close, but after Victoria's death they became even closer; also, it was probably weird that Stiles was calling Chris his dad, but Victoria would always remain Victoria because she died before Stiles felt ready to call his adoptive parents mom and dad). He wanted Theo's disappearance to hit the news before he would say anything.

He could see it in his head (half-delirious right now with the lack of sleep right now, and he didn't even know why he slept so bed, it was like he was having some weird dreams), how he was going to be all smug about it because he got his First Kill without anyone's help.

Well, almost. Allison did cause the fire alarm to go off, so in the general chaos no one would notice him sneaking out.

He was probably going to be questioned about Theo's whereabouts, but there was no body to be found, and it's not like he realistically could've had an opportunity to do something to it between them going into that pantry and him appearing next to his car and making sure to cause a whole commotion so the most people would see him being there.

Without any traces of fang wounds that definitely should've been there, but he was going to research this on his own time. He felt it. Even Allison didn't need to know he got bitten.

Anyway, it wasn't enough to turn him, that he was sure of, so he was probably going to be fine.

Most likely.

Possibly.

Maybe everything is different with purebloods.

He pressed a hand against his neck where he could still feel Theo's warm mouth.

He was probably going to need to stop ignoring whatever the teacher wanted to inform him about.

He heard a door behind his back open.

"Sorry, I overslept."

Stiles tensed up immediately and felt Allison whipping her head to look at him, eyes probably all huge.

Because the point of yesterday's plan was to make sure that this voice was never going to sound out loud again.

"Mr. Raeken, oh, it's alright, it's just a couple of minutes, go sit down," said the teacher, smiling at Theo like he was her favourite grandchild.

Stiles watched Theo walk by him, stared at his back when he sat down two rows in front and diagonally from Stiles.

This shouldn't be possible. He used a silver dagger, he had seen his father kill vampires with it before, it worked, Stiles was sure of this. Did he do something wrong? Did he not pierce the heart? Fuck, be was so fucked now.

Theo laughed quietly at what the guy next to him said, and then turned around, his smile morphing into a smirk when he caught Stiles staring.

Stiles looked into his sparkling blue eyes, and suddenly felt threatened. Now there was actually something dangerous in there, not just an asshole jock.

Now he wasn't safe.

He did ended up just teasing a bear in spring, didn't he? But how did it not work? What did he do wrong? Where was his mistake? Stiles' mind was all over the place now, and he couldn't understand what he did wrong.

Allison was tugging on his sleeve, trying to get his attention.

Theo winked at him and turned back around to the teacher.

"Stiles, we're screwed," Allison whispered urgently.

It was so nice of her to be willing to take the fall with him.

***

Theo rubbed his forehead. He just took a pill, and the world around him was slowly becoming less red.

This was not helping his general level of annoyance.

More like rage, really.

He still couldn't exactly wrap his head around the fact that not only Stiles turned out to be a hunter (who the hell else would have had a silver dagger just laying around), he also figured Theo out just like that and ruined his favourite sweatshirt.

Not it was a matter of… honor, Theo guessed, or whatever. Who the fuck Stiles thought he was, trying to kill Theo like that.

Not that he could actually kill a pureblood vampire like that, mind you, so obviously Stiles didn't know his hunting theory too well, but this was not Theo's problem.

Also, Theo had slept like shit last night.

Tara watched him from the door of his room where he was sprawled on top of the duvet.

"You know you need to kill someone soon, right?"

Theo grunted in response. He had no patience for her right now.

He could feel her rolling her eyes at him.

"It can't be your picture-perfect First Kill or whatever you got in that big head of yours, okay? It's just something you have to do, otherwise you're just going to lose control one day and give away all of us, you dumbass."

Theo thought about Stiles' blood in his mouth. About a knife in his heart.

"It's going to be what I say it's going to be, fuck off," he sat up. "It's my First Kill, I'm going to decide how and when it's going to happen, and it's absolutely none of your business. Also, get out of my room!"

Tara stared at him, full of indignation.

"The hell, Theo? You are literally setting all of us up. You have to think about the family's safety, not just yourself! I get it, it must be a complicated concept for you to grasp, but maybe it's time to fucking learn that the world doesn't revolve around you!"

"I know that!"

Tara threw her hands up.

"Is this about the guy that stabbed you? I'm going to deal with it, it's fine, you don't have to arrange your little revenge thing!"

Theo gritted his teeth. Of course she was going to handle it, she was supposed to prove that she was going to be a good little heiress and could keep this family safe.

Theo hated the fact that he was so screwed up last night, he actually told her everything.

She could handle everyone else. Stiles was Theo's.

"You're not touching Stiles. Now, fuck off!" He threw a pillow at her.

Tara caught it with ease, rolling her eyes, closing the door and taking his pillow with her.

"You're such a baby, Jesus."

***

Stiles absolutely hated going grocery shopping. Especially after he had spent the night having a very bizarre conversation with Theo Raeken. In his dream. His subconsciousness could be so unbelievably annoying sometimes. He guessed it had this in common with Theo.

Anyway, he felt awkward with other people knowing what he was buying for some reason. But he was actively trying to get on his dad's good side before he told him he might have totally told a vampire family that they were hunters and had completely zero ideas about how to fix it.

He didn't even know why Theo didn't die. A silver dagger into the heart was how it was done, Stiles was sure of it. He heard sizzling when it went into Theo's chest, so that must mean it did do something, just not what he needed it to.

So Stiles was probably in deadly trouble now, and so he wanted to mitigate the damage as much as he could.

He also didn't have much time, so he needed to tell his dad soon. Preferably yesterday, but he blew that chance. However, he didn't think the vampires were going to wait long. Even Theo in his dream said something along these lines. Which meant Stiles knew, but he also really didn't feel like catching the hell that he was going to get when he told his dad. Even if it was deserved and the least of his worries right now, really.

Now he wasn't going to get to officially kill anything until he was like 30. Practically ancient.

He walked out of the shop with his bags and almost dropped them while trying to get his keys, as per usual.

He felt even shakier today than he normally did, that dream last night felt so weird, it was still screwing with him.

It was kind of Friday evening, so there wasn't much place in the parking lot in front of the shop or in the street, so he had to park in the back alley, which was sort of convenient as he could put his bag on his knee against the wall to make it a bit easier to reach his pocket.

He heard heels clicking on the asphalt behind him, but didn't have time to turn around and look, as someone pressed on his neck, forcing him to lean his head to the side, and then there was sharp pain in his neck.

Familiar pain.

He tried to make a sound, and the person behind him (he could only tell that they had kind of small hands and were shorter than he was) hummed gently, as if to say "shh", and then he lost consciousness.

***

"I think your sister just kidnapped me," said Stiles, frowning.

Theo scoffed.

"She wouldn't."

Theo was lying. She totally would. He could even kill Stiles on the family's behalf.

Theo really had to get going with his plan, Tara wouldn't wait much longer.

"Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened, and now I'm dreaming about you again," Stiles sat down on the fallen tree trunk.

They were in what looked like an abandoned garden. Everything was kind of rotten. Theo didn't know why his subconsciousness was doing this. Also, it wasn't Stiles dreaming about him, it was Theo dreaming about Stiles.

"No…" Theo didn't have time to finish.

A bird flew right over his head, screaming like it was insane. Like the birds did around here.

It wasn't in the dream, though. So he woke up.

Blinking awake, he looked at the pool and considered it. Maybe trying to do his homework outside wasn't his brightest idea.

It's not like it was hot enough for the pool. It's just that it symbolized everything that annoyed Theo about trying to concentrate outside, which was primarily the noise, which wasn't apparently stopping him from falling asleep.

Everything made a fucking noise. Birds in the neighbour's little garden. The trees and the bushes. The insects.

The fucking pool and the fucking wind.

But he kind of failed to concentrate in his room as well. He kept thinking about Stiles' mouth under his lips. About the slightly rough skin of his neck under his teeth.

About his blood on Theo's tongue.

Theo slammed his textbook in his lap shut.

He had been this fucking close to his First Kill, he had to get it now. There was literally no other option. The fucker had to die, and Theo was going to be the one to do it. Maybe that was going to stop these weird dreams.

Like hell Tara would just kidnap anyone.

Anyway. If before Theo might have considered letting it go in case of a failure, after that dagger pierced his skin there was just no other option for him. Stiles was going to be his first, and that was it. As simple as this.

He might need to really hurry up though, there was always a possibility that the hunters wouldn't stay to actually try to destroy Theo and his family but choose to run, and then it was going to be a hassle to deal with. Also, there was Tara.

Theo couldn't really go away chasing someone right now, he had school. Tara, however, could do whatever the fuck she wanted.

He heard the sound of heels clicking on the tile around the pool and rolled his eyes. He knew this sound anywhere. That was just what he needed right now. Tara and her bullshit.

"Fuck off," he didn't even look up at her, slamming his textbook again, this time open, the edge jamming into his thigh, in order to scowl at it like he was actually reading it.

Tara laughed her silver bell laugh.

"Still being a huge baby, I see. Come, I have a surprise for you."

"Go away."

"No, come with me, it won't take too long, I'm sure you'll be finished really quickly," she said with a weird intonation and laughed again.

There was something in her tone that suggested that there was a nice virgin girl waiting for him in the woods to do whatever he desired to, or something.

Theo scowled even deeper. He wanted Stiles, not that.

Also, like hell he would be finished quickly.

"No."

Tara almost stomped her feet, Theo could feel it.

"Come on, you're literally not doing anything, just sulking here because you got too bored sulking in your room."

Jesus, his sister was so annoying, he would make a great heiress.

"You'll like it," she added.

Theo squized his eyes shut for a second.

Okay, Tara wasn't leaving him alone apparently. It was easier to give in, he knew it, he grew up with her. He closed his textbook again with a sigh and stood up, tossing it on the lounge chair he had been on.

"Okay, whatever. I don't have much time," that was mostly a lie if one didn't consider thinking about the ways to get to Stiles a hobby.

Which it was. Theo was going to go into town to try to stalk Stiles out today. He was working on his hobby, he didn't have time.

Hunting was a hobby, right? So were specific types of hunting.

Tara smirked at him. He felt that familiar almost rage at the thought that he smirked the same way. He needed to unlearn it, right this second.

"You're going to like it," she said again.

***

Stiles slowly came to. He was confused about what exactly was happening. He felt dizzy and there was something on his wrists. He had the weirdest dream about Theo again.

He slowly blinked his eyes open. Someone was yelling. He couldn't open his mouth. He thought there was something over his mouth.

"What the fuck were you even thinking?!"

Okay, that voice Stiles recognised, although the intonations were new.

Someone was very angry. Someone who was supposed to be very dead.

"That you were going to fuck all of us over with your idiotic stubbornness, you dumb ass!"

She definitely said it in two separate words.

"You…" it sounded like Theo couldn't find words to describe what she was; it looked like it too, his face flushed with, presumably, rage. "You had no right," he gritted through his teeth eventually, way quieter than the rest of their nice sibling chat.

Stiles guessed they were talking about him, and he did not want to know why exactly. But then, it was pretty obvious, considering his hands were bound and there was some tape on his mouth. There was also blood on his shirt, but he didn't feel hurt. So the marks must've disappeared the way Theo's did. Because Tara definitely bit him to knock him out.

Did Theo's sister bit him? She had to, Stiles definitely had felt this exact same thing before, and that was at the party.

Tara moved closer to Theo, getting in his face, hissing something too low for Stiles to hear over the sound of the creek running under the bridge Theo and his sister were arguing on.

Theo grabbed her shoulder.

Stiles decided that this was about time he concentrated on his restraints, since both of his captors were distracted. Although he guessed it was just Tara who was his main captor.

He guessed they were fighting now, judging by the sounds of it, like, physically, but he was too busy trying to pry the little blade he had on his forearm down and then cutting the tape with it.

It didn't actually take very long, and he finished right in time with the end of the fight on the bridge.

The last bit of the tape fell apart.

There was a gasp, a huge splash and a quiet shit, and then there was only the sound of the creek.

Stiles looked up.

Theo was standing on the bridge with his hands covered in blood and a couple of rips in his shirt. He was staring down at the water with huge eyes.

There was a spill of red on the dark water, slowly getting bigger and longer as the water flowed further away.

Theo's sister was nowhere to be seen.

"Tara? Theo? Children, where are you?" Someone called from somewhere in the woods.

"Shit," said Theo again.

That was an admirable lack of reaction to killing his own sister.

Stiles squinted at the water, one part of his brain trying to understand what exactly happened (he should have watched the fight), so he could use it later, since it looked like standard methods didn't work; another part of his brain was concentrating hard on keeping as quiet as possible, and slowly getting away.

It was pretty dark in the forest already, so it was mostly the sound he was worried about. Vampires were way cooler in books.

"Kids?" Someone asked, stepping from behind the trees.

Theo looked white as a sheet and frozen, staring at the person coming.

Stiles wanted to bolt, but made himself walk on silent feet. He desperately hoped no one was going to follow him in the commotion he could hear starting behind his back.

"Theo? Why are you covered in blood? What the hell happened?" Asked someone.

Stiles didn't hear Theo's answer.

***

It has been two days since Tara kidnapped him and apparently got fucking killed by her little brother. The fuck. Did Theo kill his sister over Stiles?

Stiles' weird dreams became more vivid, now actually seeming to happen in real places. Theo was there sometimes, not always, though. According to him, he was the one sleeping and seeing Stiles, not the other way around. So he told Stiles that there were technically legends about vampires biting someone the wrong way and getting a mental connection to them, but it had to be on the neck, and usually when a vampire did that to you, you were dead, so there wasn't much evidence. He also told Stiles what, according to him (Stiles' dream!Theo), had happened to Tara, and, well, Stiles guessed his brain made the only thing that made sense with his knowledge and what he saw about what went wrong when he tried to kill Theo. Apparently, according to his brain, purebloods could only be killed one way, and it had nothing to do with silver.

What Stiles did know for sure, from real sources, was that Theo was now a wanted person among vampires for killing a pureblood, and so now hunters were trying to get to him before the vampires did to use as leverage. What for, exactly, was a mystery for Stiles, but his dad did whatever the Guild wanted.

But Theo was Stiles'. Only his.

So Stiles thanked everything that was there to thank that his father was predictable enough for Stiles to guess his password.

Stiles knew what he was doing was wrong. It went against everything his dad taught him and what the Guild stood for.

He was screwing with the data so they couldn't find Theo.

He knew they were getting close, he saw the maps. He knew it was absurd to believe his dreams, but it was the best he could do right now. He recognised the place Theo was in in his last dream, and he also knew where his father was searching. He didn't understand how or why, but the feeling that Theo was actually there was so strong he couldn't even question it. He knew it was probably his brain mixing up everything and making him believe what he wanted to believe, or whatever.

But Theo was his responsibility now. He was Stiles' fuck-up, and Stiles was going to fix it. The Guild void fuck off and die, they weren't going to use the fact that Theo was already separated from his own kind for their own needs. Stiles was going to kill him.

Or at least try out the theory his brain provided in his dream. Although it was kind of hard to set up. But Stiles could always knock Theo out with a nicely placed silver dagger and just a couple of herbs.

Anyway. Stiles wasn't going to let the Guild get to Theo. Theo was his to kill and only his. It felt personal now that he even got kidnapped for him. And Stiles didn't like leaving a mess, and Theo was his mess.

So Stiles wiped a detail here and there, changed some numbers. He was going to be the one to get to Theo. He was going to be the one to figure out how to kill a pureblood.

***

It was just a couple of hours later that they figured it out.

Well, Kate did. Stiles had never liked her much.

He did expect them to find out, but not this fast. He hoped he had some time to set something up in order to clean his name or something.

He didn't.

What he also didn't take into account was how high profile this case was with the Guild.

And exactly how much of a bitch Kate was.

Stiles knew what it meant. They all did. He was going to be judged. And the Guild didn't take kindly to saboteurs. Especially the ones potentially connected to the enemy (he asked his dad about it, apparently, there were actually legends like that in their books, although Stiles could swear he hadn't heard anything like that; it was before Kate decided to check their data again).

Stiles didn't have time for that. He had a mission to complete, and the Guild was just going to take up his time.

So he got half an hour of sleep in, got some stuff and sneaked away.

He was going to deal with the consequences later. After he got his First Kill on his own terms and cleaned up his mess. Right now, he had a mission.

***

Theo waited, leaning against a tree near the edge of the woods on the side of the road leading out of town.

He knew where he needed to be. They had an agreement.

It was funny, actually, how both of them ended up the prey in their families' hunts.

Theo killed a pureblood. Stiles prevented a killing of a pureblood.

Adorable, really. Red sting and everything.

Considering that Stiles was now potentially the only human who knew how to kill someone like Theo because Theo didn't realise in time that it wasn't just his subconsciousness.

And yet, here they were. Both having to run away, both absolutely refusing to give up. Both determined to make the other their First Kill.

Neither of their lives was going to be easy until they figured it out. Surviving off pig blood wasn't fun, but it was a matter of principle now.

Stiles' ancient jeep rolled up next to Theo.

Theo felt a smirk slowly appear on his face.

Stiles lowered the window.

"Well, I guess we are both unbelievably deeply fucked now and are currently making it worse."

Theo rolled his eyes.

"We are both dead anyway, might as well die in the right hands."

Stiles almost smiled at him. It wasn't a nice smile.

Theo felt almost giddy looking at it for some reason.

He got in the car.

#teen wolf #steo #steoday #stiles stilinski #theo raeken #my fandom #my writing stuff #my aesthetic stuff #blood tw

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