#me getting this dialog like ‘oh i have a cute idea I’ll make it really quick :0)’ EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER

[ruushes]

consulting the giving-yourself-a-superhero-name expert 💀🗡️

#nox #wyll ravengard #bg3 #screaming crying throwing up trying to develop a quicker style and somehow still ending up w a light source and a background #me getting this dialog like ‘oh i have a cute idea I’ll make it really quick :0)’ EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER #my art

[nodameshield]

how are we doing? have the tears dried yet? I know mine haven’t :: 

let’s start light : research fellows count ! (also, lady, only ten years old? - I resent that).

Goh understands this?? he’s got a silly proud smile and it’s following Ash’s butchered storytelling??? love 

research fellows count ! 

perfectly attainable dream 

sure, go for it.  (look at both of their supportive lil smiles, we love best friends) 

we all know the scene that’s coming ahead, but I thought this was a beautiful demonstration of growth already on Goh’s side.

Listen before the sad part begins let us appreciate for a moment how Ash and Goh were smiling at EACH OTHER after the interview was over. cuties. 

behold : the last frame we have of baby Sobble. I’m going to miss you, bean. thank you for everything<3 (he was so proud of his good deed as well!! my very heart) 

just how fast the night changes, indeed.

Drizzle went through shock and pain at record speed and swiftly landed on anger - only to fall into ✨depression✨ just as quickly.

and then we just stayed there.

someone 

is 

(oh hey Cinderace ! good to see ya)

having  

a rough morning

 (I’m sorry, this scene was just fucking funny - the drama)

Cinderace’s proud big bro moment was just too sweet to leave out - let us not forget, he’s been a big bro since he was Raboot (and even as a temperamental Raboot, he was always gentle to Sobble). And now his baby bro has evolved as well. precious ! 

Goh handled this situation very maturely from the beginning. And here’s when the build up starts. He’s saying ‘hey, let me help you how I think you need to be helped” and he genuinely doesn’t mean any harm! naturally, his reaction is to help his Pokémon, in the way that has worked in the past.

but then he starts to understand maybe that’s not the best approach this time around.

and he’s ready to respect those new boundaries (of course, there’s no blame on Cinderace, either. Much like Goh, he - and everyone, really - was just trying to help in the way he thought was the best).

shoutout to the animation on this bit because Pikachu’s ears darting down was a delightful detail. Chloe’s expression and Grookey’s simmering down drove the point home as well.

ah, you coy little thing. Did you forget how your trainer almost left you behind because of how rebellious you were??? Because you made him feel as though you’d be better off without him?? (Cinderace has selective memory, you can’t change my mind, don’t be miss-leaded by the cuteness)

this build up was wonderful - we begin to hear all these reasons why, yeah? maybe he just wants to be alone.

maybe he’s still very afraid and careful of his surroundings, and his evolution made it worse? (he’d been popping up in random places in previous episodes, hiding, which was also great foreshadowing for this episode !) 

maybe he’s cocooning himself until he’s ready to evolve again? (which, considering his disappointment and how badly he wanted to be Inteleon already, is a very plausible reason)

but Prof. Cerise gets it right when he says ‘we can’t really know for sure’ (which ties greatly with Goh’s upcoming scene) - is it your Drizzle’s quirk? are they all like this? who cares? Isn’t wonderful how he’s a living creature? how he’s got nuances and a personality? shouldn’t that be enough of a reason to look after him, and try to help him right now?

my child, still thinking he’s got to do everything on his own.

and these two are just like ????? Goh ??? watchu talking about ???

can you imagine how MUCH this moment means to him?? he was ready to keep going alone (it’s what he knows) and even when Ash and Chloe prove him, time and time again, that he’s not alone, there’s still something in Goh coded to believe others won’t care as much/won’t be there when he needs them. and that’s why he insists: I’ve got this. I can do it alone.

and, sure, but you don’t have to. that’s the beauty of friendship.

you tell him, Chloe. (actually, without Chloe calling him out, he might have taken longer to figure out where Drizzle was. so...) // but also, it gives us a glimpse into the fact that, while Goh might have felt very lonely, Chloe has been observing and caring for him - in her way - for a long minute as well.

my very point above. 

HEY, LISTEN: he doesn’t know, either. he’s a child, words are hard, and you rotate along the four moods of childhood (happy, upset, scared, hungry (?)) and don’t ponder much on anything else because you are a child, there’s no emotional intelligence to speak of, no need for it, you’re being shaped by your environment and all the stimuli of the world being a new place. things like loneliness, confusion, anxiety... we can’t put those into words - hell, they’re fucking abstract and confusing even when we are adults.

and Goh’s stimuli and environment was, given what we know of his family life, a rather lonely one. Did his parents have a lot of spare time to take him to the park? I don’t think so. Was he good at going out there and asking other kids to play? ... probably not. 

Chloe doesn’t strike me as an extrovert, either, so even if she wanted to get close to Goh or invite him to hang out, perhaps she was too shy as well. Heck, perhaps Goh’s reaction would’ve been like the one above, he simply didn’t know. Maybe he didn’t want to ! and that’s perfectly fine as well.

am I forgiving the anipoke team for making Goh cry? no, never. but this was beautifully executed so I can grow to live with it.

“why are you depressed?” “you have nothing to be sad about!” “look at all the wonderful things you have!” “just be happy again!” - sound familiar? yeah, this was incredibly well done.

as adults, perhaps we see this and think ‘shit, how cool that they’re prodding on these topics, it’s important’ and it is !!! so important !! but if it’s this impactful as young-adults/grown-ups, imagine how impactful it must be as a child to see this and feel perceived. I’m honestly so proud of this moment, this whole episode. I’m grateful they took the time to look into this maturely. and even if children don’t do a full-fledged analysis on it, if they relate (like I know so many of us did) they won’t forget it. and that’s beautiful.

darling I’m blanking on your TW handle I’m so sorry - but someone in a tweet SO RIGHTFULLY pointed out that these are the words Goh would have needed to hear when he was younger. saying them to Drizzle it’s a full circle moment for him, he’s hearing them as well, and it’s helping both of them grow.

He’s not forcing himself as Drizzle’s trainer. Goh bears no entitlement here. He’s saying ‘Hey, if you’re comfortable, if you want to share , I’ll be here’ / as a kid, people did care for him, they kept wanting to know what was going on, but Goh couldn’t put that in words and people pestering him only made it worse, but if someone had said ‘hey, when you’re ready...’ then,,,,yeah,,,,maybe it would’ve been different. 

he’s offering that safety now to his Pokémon, something he didn’t have, but he grew to understand is what he (and now Drizzle) needed. If that doesn’t have you breaking down in a teary mess then you are stronger than I’ll ever be, because my glasses were cloudy by this point.

why, why, why. because you needed to hear all that as well, baby! so did a number of us. thank you.

I’ll say that, however it was that you connected with this moment, that’s yours to cherish. 

Personally, I too had a lonely childhood marked by parents who overworked, and I too spent a lot of time alone in kindergarten and through elementary school because it was hard to make friends (turns out i’m an extrovert, ha, talk about breaking out of your shell...) so, obviously there were easy common grounds for me in this episode.

but I LOVED to read the reactions and realize so many people still connected with it, one way or the other. So many of us felt seen and understood and acknowledged in emotions that are so hard to put into words !! 

so, again, if you identified with Goh or Drizzle or any of the topics in this episode, that’s very beautiful, and I hope the underlying message that you’re not alone gets through.

With Sobble, and now with Drizzle as well, Goh is very adamant to remind us that, however we are, that’s fine. there’s something that makes us special, regardless of other people’s opinions, or their ideas of how we *should be* // that’s the message I’m taking with me, at least.

 and i can’t wait to see how this story line evolves !! I have no doubts that, when the moment comes, Inteleon will be a wonderful addition to the team, but Drizzle is here now, and he’s plenty wonderful already x

Bonus: 

ha ha, yes. I watched this episode three times. And all three times I was a mess.

side note but a very important one: the animation, the voice acting, the dialog, the scenery of the starry night - the entire scene was so beautifully executed. so  carefully crafted. ugh, amazing. just perfect. so happy.

#all right this took forever #if you are still reading thank you #anipoke #pokemon journeys #ep 62 #we won't be forgetting this one now will we #journeyshipping #Pokémon Journeys: The Series #SatoGou #Firstfriendshipping #Goh #satoshi #Chloe #ngl Chloe was the mvp #calling Goh out on his bs #we love to see her #Goh I'm so proud of you #please keep growing #you're beautiful and i love you

[zkfanworkweek]

ZFAW Fan Content Creator Interviews: HayleyNFoster

Hey everyone! We hope you’re all excited for ZFAW, and to honor (ha!) ZFAW’s commitment to supporting and celebrating fan content creators in the Zutara fandom, we’re going to be rolling out a series of interviews with well-known and widely-beloved content creators over the next few weeks. We’ve got artists and fanfiction authors, some names you recognize as well as a few phenomenal up-and-coming talents, and we can’t wait for you to meet them all!

For the second interview in this cycle, we have our best propaganda creator and this fandom’s hottest new artist/undisputed queen of the animatic, @hayleynfoster!

1. Tell us about how you came to ship Zutara. What does this ship mean to you?

When I was around 14 or 15 and caught Avatar: The Last Airbender on television, I was drawn in by the art style, the humor, and the wonderful characters. I caught the episodes out of order, and the first one I saw and wasn’t prepared to be sucked in by was The Waterbending Scroll. It intrigued me at that age, and the line “I’ll save you from the pirates” combined with the tension between Katara and Zuko in that whole scene was electrifying. I remember my teenage self thinking these two have so much chemistry! And when I saw a commercial on Nickelodeon that featured fanart submitted by fellow Avatar fans, I realized that I could do that to! So I set about making Zutara fanart for myself. I stumbled onto Youtube, practically in its infancy, and discovered that people set clips of Zuko and Katara set to music (And this was still in season 1 days… so people who made these amvs were the real mvps because they were able to make compelling narratives in their amvs with like practically nothing to work with!). The AMVs really spurred my interest in this couple, I remember distinctly one Zutara AMV using the Dido song White Flag utterly capturing my imagination. I found fandom shortly after, getting into deviantart and forums. But the ship really began to mean something to me when, as I was working on my drawings in the computer lab at school, a buoyant presence hovered over my shoulder noticing my Zutara art on the computer screen. The girl was someone I had never really talked to and had only seen from afar but she immediately started excitedly saying she shipped Zuko and Katara too! In this simple shared obsession, I made one of the best friends I’ve ever had and we’re still friends to this day. We would theorize and fangirl over Avatar like it was nobody’s business; we poured over bootleg San Diego Comic Con footage that showed spoilers for season 2 before it aired; we lost our freaking minds when we finally saw The Crossroads of Destiny. We had watch parties every week as Season 3 of A:TLA aired, and comforted each other when the show ended as it did (much ranting was shared). Those are some of my happiest memories from high school… all because this one pairing from this wonderful show. Even though Zutara didn’t happen, we still chat every now and then about it. Zutara will probably be a lifelong obsession, always bubbling under the surface. And without it, I would have never realized that animation was a viable career path. It really did inspire everything including the work I’m doing to this day in the animation industry. I owe a lot to this ship and to Avatar: the Last Airbender.

2. What inspires you to create zutara fanworks?

The resurgence of Avatar: The Last Airbender this year really helped sort of spark that dormant love I had for Zutara. The show’s ending still disappointed me on the rewatch, but Zuko and Katara’s relationship arc was as captivating as ever, so I turned to some fanfiction and looking at people’s pretty Zutara art and AMVs to just revel in fanon instead of getting to hung up on the actual ending of the show. But then I realized, with quarantine and my work load being pretty light, I had time to actually make all new Zutara art for myself, art I was never fully capable of making as a kid, but now could do with my 7 years of industry experience and just… life experience. And I was inspired to do some corrective animatics to satisfy my own desire for a different ending. I just really like exploring these two characters, doing different and interesting things with them, and frankly I’m inspired to make cute, fluffy, romantic art simply by virtue of living in a really sad and depressing world. Things are so crazy right now, creating art about two characters I love being in love, is comforting. And it helps to have inspiring music and amazing Zutara amvs to just sort of stir up my emotions and imagery in my head to make into animatics and art.

3. Be selfish - if you could request one fanwork based on your own art/fanfic, what would it be? What would you absolutely love to see someone create?

Ohhhh… Well, It’s always nice to have people write fanfiction that puts words to my animatics. I am not that great at coming up with dialog myself, so I’ve just chosen to indulge in visuals and emotions for my boards. But when I read things like RideBoldlyRide’s take on my Reunion Animatic, it makes me pretty giddy. (They finally have voices!) :) And this is the MOST selfish thing I could request, but I’m not shy about saying how much I love well done amvs, so I will literally kill for someone to make Zutara AMVs to songs I like… Like, most of AURORA’s songs but especially Exist for Love, Sunseeker by The Naked and Famous, Promises or Take Me by Aly & AJ, Adore You by Harry Styles, Human Enough by ONR, Never Let Me Go by Florence + The Machine, and/or Almost (Sweet Music) by Hozier just… I can see the AMVs so clearly to any of these songs in my head, but I don’t have the tools or skill set at my disposal to make a compelling fan video. When I was in high school, I originally thought I wanted to go into video editing simply because I loved making very crappy AMVs (they were so bad you guys), but I figured out being a storyboard artist was more in my wheelhouse. haha

4. Any words for people who are new to the fandom and/or nervous about sharing their work for the first time?

If you’re new to the Zutara fandom, just have a good time! Don’t waste too much time arguing with people over your shipping preferences. I wasted so much of my teen years having pointless shipping wars with people on DeviantArt, and I’m just so much happier nowadays because I’m just making Zutara art in my little corner of the internet, and honestly, in the politest of ways, I don’t give a shit if people don’t like my art or Zutara. haha I think that’s sort of a key thing for people thinking of posting creative works here in the fandom, just make art for yourself, satisfy your own desires for the pairing, get your creative sparks flying, and create just for the joy of creating. It’s always nice to get comments and such, but simply making the art should be what spurs you on, not the external validation. And have a good time, don’t worry too much - I say as someone who worries about EVERYTHING. But honestly, making art for A:TLA is some of the most relaxed I’ve been because I make it just for me. I’m lucky others seem to like it too!

5. What’s an idea for a fanwork that you have but haven't gotten around to making?

I have an idea for a second generation storyline with my Zutara kids that involves Kya (the eldest firebending daughter) falling in love with an airbender boy (tentatively named Gora in my headcanon who’s a bit of a rabble rouser and one of Aang’s kids he had with a Kyoshi Warrior), and then they start a socialist revolution in the Fire Nation in order to dismantle all of the hierarchical societies across the Avatar world… Together Kya and Gora Fan the Flames of revolution… ehhhhh... Get it?? Oh! Oh, and then Katara, who had put in legit liberal reforms in her time as Fire Lady listens to her daughter after resisting in the first part of the story, but then realizes she can actually play a part in the dissolution of the royalty and is also active in the revolution realizing that moderate liberal reforms are no substitute for a society free of serving royalty (which she had always been uncomfortable with but had rationalized with herself that she was doing good in her capacity as Fire Lady.) I just feel like there’s a lot of cool potential for discussing these ideas and also having some aspirational change in the Avatar world. lol For aesthetics and just happy fluffy times, I can indulge in Fire Lady and Fire Lord Zuko stuff, but really at the end of the day, I take issue with the structures in a society that have to exist for monarchies to exist. Soooo, I kind of want to do my own corrective story for that… if I ever have the time or guts. On a less ambitious note, I would love to do a Zutara sparring animatic to practice doing action, but I need a good story; I am not good at doing fights just for fighting’s sake. Those are just some things I have rattling around in my head.  

6. Are you participating in ZFAW? If so want to give us a hint as to your plans?

Yes! The most I can say is I have one animatic almost finished and one that’s still being thumbnailed. The rest are probably going to be comics or emotive single pieces based on the fanfics I really like right now. :)

#interviews #zutara fanworks appreciation week #zfaw #hayleynfoster #zutara

[a-hidden-weeb-an-open-queer]

MHA but it's a wattpad werewolf fanfiction. P1.

As a werewolf wattpad author myself, I am taking the library to mock this strange culture phenomenon.

Warnings: Mentions of abuse and abusive fathers, nothing super graphic. Slut shaming. Possible hints at beasality (???). And no spell checking. Read at your own risk.

----I don't know how to center text lmao---------

A/N: omg guyz!!!!! im so excited to share this story idea ahhhhh but I'm also super nervous please b nice :)))))))) also to all the haters I'm sorry you're peanut butter jealous of me >:}

OoooooooO

Hello, my name is Izuku Midorya! I am a 4'1 greenette with wide beautiful jade orbs and a slim body. Sadly, I'm very ugly :( because I wear glasses and enjoy comics and other geeky things that other people don't.

Today is my first day at ForestWood High school and I'm super nervous. Everyone at my last highschool hated me because I was super ugly and shy.

"Izuku, sweetie, get up you're gonna be late to school!" My mom whispered yelled through my door.

I gasp, my jade eyes blinking open in panic. I had another nightmare about my abusive acholic dad beating me :(

"C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-Ccoming mom." I stuttered.

I slip out of the soft comforters of my bed and quickly made my way to the mirror. My messy, green hair and beautiful jade orbs staring blinking at me. I frown. My ugly freckles are ugly against my super smooth and milky skin. God, I hated how I looked.

"Honey?" My mom whispered yelled again.

My abusive acholic dad used to beat her whenever he spoke higher than a whisper so now her voice is permanently damaged and she can't speak higher than a whisper ever again. Damn him!!!!!!

"Sorry! I'll be down quickly!" I gasped.

I totally forgot it was my first day at ForestWood High school - i hope the other kids don't bully me for my super ugly glasses and totally weird hobbies like reading comics or listening to Panic At The Disco!

I quickly pull on my vans, my best pair of jeans, and the cutest long sleeve shirt I have. It has to be long sleeved cuz my abusive acholic dad left burn scars all over my arms.

I look at myself through the mirror and nod happily - I am still super ugly tho.

"Hmmmm, it feels like I'm missing something....Oh!" I pulled on my glasses, almost forgetting them. Wow I'm such a klutz!

Laughing to myself, I climb down the stairs and find my mommy in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Hi sweetie! I hope you aren't too stressed out about moving in the middle of sophomore year. It's just that we needed a new start after your abusive acholic father was arrested for a DUI." She whisper yells.

I nod. "No I understand mother."

She smiles. "Okay sweetie, so long you are happy. Do you want me to drive you?"

"No thanks" it's so lame to have your mom drive you too school, I think to myself.

My mom lays down a plate full of eggs, bacon, cheese, pancakes, sausage, and beans. I smile and take a piece of toast "thanks for breakfast mom" i say as i run outside.

"You're welcome honey!" She whisper yells back.

OoooooooooooO

Everyone is staring at me as I walk into the door of WoodForest High School. They all stare wide eyed before turning around to gossip to each other.

I nervously look down, clinching the schedule my student console gave me. Already the weirdo :( it must be the Naruto shirt I'm wearing.

Since I was looking down nervously, I didn't see the slut in front of me. I let out a gasp, body falling backwards as my papers are all scattered to the floor.

"Omg I am sooooooooooooo sorry!" I cried out, head snapping upwards.

Across from me sat the slutties person I've ever seen!!! With a skin tight, thigh high dress, super long heels, and a face full of makeup, he looked like a low-end prostitute.

"Omg! You better be sorry! My father just got me these heels! Ugh! Stupid human!!!!!" He said, beautiful blonde hair shining and gray eyes twinkling with anger.

"I-I-Im-" I stuttered.

"Just fucking shut up you stupid fucking whore omfg this is why i wanted Alpha Todorki to fucking kill all the humans and shit but nooooo that was genocide and bad. Ughhuuuy stupid ass fucking bitch." He yells down at me, standing up from the floor.

Around me the whole student body stares, most laughing or throwing in their own insults. Tears fill my jade orbs as I sniffle.

The slut huffs, spinning on his heels as he marches down the hallway. Everyone watches his ass as he goes because damn.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" A kind and gentle voice calls out. I turn to see a beautiful brownette standing before me and I blush - she's so cute and nice!

"You must be the new guy! Hi! I'm Ochako~ and the person who just rudely left you sitting on the floor is Momoma - he's sorta the Queen Bee around here. And a mythic bitch" (A/N: if you got that reference plsssssssss be my friend 😭)

Ochako helps me pick up the single piece of paper I dropped when I ran into Momoma.

"Wait, how do you know I'm knew?" I ask confused.

Ochako laughs, sounding suspiciously nervous. Weird...

"Uh....its a small town and every one sorta knows every one hahahaha! OH! It looks like you have Mr. Aizawa first period, so do I! He's sorta of a hardass but is also super kind!"

I nod, "okay!" We walk down the hallway together.

"Hey, do you think you can tell me more about this school?" I ask, not wanting to repeat the same thing I rid with MoBitch.

Ochako nods, "sure! Well this school isn't like most because we have two packs right next to each other -" ochako's eyes widen as she looks my way. I am confused. "-I mean! Not packs. No. That's weird. Wolf like. I meant...families. Two different families and we don't like each other and we don't have many outsiders hahahha"

I blink before nodding, "that makes sense. Who are these families?" I asked like a good main protagonist.

Ochako continues with the NPC dialog. "Well first you have the Todorokis - Alpha, i mean, leader Todoroki is a real hard ass. His son is unmated, I mean, is currently not in a relationship. He's weird but nice. Then there are the bakugos. Alpha...leader Bakugo is real nice! I love her cooking but her son is super mean and is a bad boy so stay away from him. He's also single."

I nod as we come up to a science classroom, "thank you."

"Well, here we are! First period of the day! Ready for hell on earth?" She asks me with a wink.

I take her arm in mine, "only if you're ready to talk along side with me."

She laughs, "of course we're best friends after all."

"I've known you for five minutes."

"What?"

"Nothing."

We step into the classroom, arm in arm. I feel ready to face any weirdos or bad boys.

OoooooooooO

A/N: omggggg that was so much fun 2 write and i feel like it was really good. Please comment and like :))))) it makes me happy and I'm very sad :(((((( love you alll!!!!!!! Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxozoozz

#i am gods creation and i exist to make him regret it #i harness my skills to harm #mha #fanfiction #ironic #its 5 am i havent slept yet and this is what i created #im still alive so y'alls are gonna have to suffer with me #someone come take away my ability to write please i enjoyed this too much #werewolf #wattpad #im not making fun of you im making fun of me #younger me would have loved this #i am not ashamed #my hero academia #story #mha fanfiction #lmao srry #one werewolf story i read the main chatacters fucked while in dog formed and i never recovered mentally #i was 12

[naralanis]

hey nara! first off, I absolutely adore your blog and your writing, Perhaps is on my comfort fics list that I pull out whenever I’m having a bad time. I also happen to be a fan of your pen instagram and I was wondering if you had any suggestions on some fountain pens for beginners? I recently bought a “Pilot MR Retro Pop” that I really enjoy but I think I’m ready to branch off a bit. Do you have any tips with practicing with fountain pens you’d be willing to share? As much as I try, my handwriting never looks as nice as I want it to with mine. No pressure to respond if not, just wanted to stop by and let you know how much I enjoy your content! Hope you have a pleasant rest of your day/night!

Oh goodness, you’re talking about fic AND fountain pens in the same ask? Stop, stop, I’m already married!

First off, thanks for reading; I’m so glad Perhaps is there for you when ya need it, it makes me really happy to hear. Seriously warms my heart!

As far as fountain pens go... ANON I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO TALK ABOUT I AM SO SORRY THIS WILL BE SUCH A LONG RIDE so I’m going to put it under the cut sorry sorry sorry in this essay I will

Hooray for the Pilot MR (or Metro, here in the US), it’s an AMAZING little pen, and if you’re calling it the MR, chances are you got it with an international standard converter, you lucky, lucky duck. I’m happy you’re enjoying it, as far as beginner pens go, this one is an excellent choice.

When you say “branching out”, this can mean one of two things. It can mean you want to branch out to other brands but a similar price range, or that you’re ready for a ‘next level’ pen. I’ll try to cover both! (I’ll link some of these models to the Goulet Pens website, but feel free to look for them elsewhere--I just really like Goulet’s very thorough descriptions)

If you’re looking to explore other pen models in the MR’s price range, there’s a metric ton of  options! Sticking with Pilot, you can try the Explorer-- a completely different, more streamlined pen than the MR, but if you’re used to the nib on your pen, you have a better idea of what to expect with it. There’s also the Kakuno, which is cheaper, but very cute with its little smiley face nibs haha

Another Japanese pen you can try: the Platinum Plaisir. Aluminum body, but do remember that Platinum nibs generally give a little more feedback than Pilot’s, which are some of the smoothest Japanese-made nibs I’ve ever seen.

You can also try the Diplomat Magnum -- it’s a a great little pen, and I love mine. Keep in mind, it is very lightweight, especially compared to the MR’s metal body, but to me that makes it great for long writing sessions. The nib is completely different--it will write a little wider, a little wetter than the MR (and any other Japanese-made pen), but it’s slightly springy and awesome to write with. Plus, it has an ink window so you can keep track of your ink!

Other options in this price range: the Jinhao 8802 (Shell or Rosewood, and the most bang for your buck imo as far as cheap fountain pens go), the Jinhao x750 or x450 (these are heavier, but they look great!), the TWISBI GO (a teeny, amazing little pen with a spring-loaded piston filling mechanism), and a Kaweco Sport (another pocket-pen, German-made, so the nib will write a little wetter/wider generally) or the Perkeo.

Now, if you’d like to push your price range a little further (only a little! I promise not to break the bank!), you cannot go wrong with Lamy.I am a self-admitted Lamy fangirl, so I may be a little biased, buuuut... it is what it is, their pens are great, they’re easy to disassemble for cleaning (I go totally nuts over it and even disassemble the converters, which you absolutely don’t need to do), and their nibs are SO EASILY INTERCHANGEABLE!

You can pick up a Lamy Safari for fairly cheap nowadays (and ever cheaper look-alikes, which I will never endorse but also will not judge anyone for buying), and they come in so many colours (the O.G. 1980 colours were also just reissued!), they’re like my Pokemon because I want to catch ‘em all.

For a little more, you can get yourself a Lamy AL-Star--the same design of the Safari, but this time in aluminum, which makes it look super cool (but also prone to scratches if you’re the kind of person that puts your pen in your pocket with your keys... that’s... definitely not me...), so keep that in mind.

You can also pick yourself up a Lamy Logo, for a couple more bucks. A completely different design, but still great, particularly if you like slimmer pens.

The nibs on ALL the Lamy models (even the more expensive ones like the Studio or the Scala or even the Dialog) are interchangeable! Even the gold nib on the Dialog! The only exception is the Lamy 2000 (which is probably one of the best pens out there period, and certainly an amazing first-gold-nib pen).

The one thing that absolutely kills me about the cheaper Lamy pens is that, for the most part, none of them come with a converter--you have to buy it separately. Which is fine, it’s not super expensive, and it is widely available, but COME ON, LAMY, JUST GIMME.

If you’d like to try a cool-looking pen with a CRAZY ink capacity and a nifty piston-filling mechanism, look no further than the TWISBI ECO. I have one of these (green, obv), and I love it. Never tires me out, and I stg mine never. dries. out. I don’t know what witchcraft is involved, but it’s an amazing pen for long writing sessions.

Finally, if you’d like to try another Japanese-made pen that is a little more expensive than the Pilot MR or the Platinum Plaisir, there’s the Sailor Compass 1911. This is one of the cheapest Sailor pens I know of, and a good introduction to the brand. Keep in mind that, like Platinum, Sailor nibs will give more feedback than the Pilot you’re used to!

If you would like to push your budget even further, here are some options for fountain pens under $100 (I know, big jump, but it’s good to see what’s out there to you can compare!) from JetPens.

There are a million other brands out there that you can look at. Sheaffer makes great, very cheap and fun beginner pens (including a whole Star Wars Line! They’re adorable!). Hong Dian has a ton of pens that look sleek as hell (like the Forest Series) and they’re all like under 20 bucks. Kaco is another one that makes surprisingly good pens! Parker is also an option, with the Jotter, which is a classic-looking pen. There’s Conklin and Monteverde (which have a ton of fountain pens in a wide range of prices, but I’ve had bad luck with their nibs, so I would suggest you do some independent research on those!), as well as Noodler’s if you’d like to go crazy with some flex nibs! The fountain pen rabbit hole is bottomless. Welcome :D

As far as handwriting goes, I’m afraid I don’t have much more to say besides practice, practice, practice. I learned cursive as a child, but never got into calligraphy, really. Even today, I only just dabble, but whenever I see something I like, I usually just like to try and replicate it. Very often I’ll see a video on Instagram and go Oh my god, how the hell did they write that G, I’ve got to try that and then what follows is me going through page after page on a Rhodia pad trying to imitate them. I like janinescribbles and aidanbernal on Instagram, they’re like handwriting goals--check them out!

A lot of the time, we’re looking for more line variation to make our handwriting look prettier--that’s usually what you see in that fancy, old-timey Spencerian cursive, or even copperplate calligraphy. Unfortunately, you won’t get that with just a regular fountain pen, but there is good news!

There are a TON of different nibs out there. Stub nibs, fude nibs, flex nibs, obliques, cursive italic -- you can even get your pen ground by a professional nibmeister to fit your specifications. There are calligraphy pens (like the Lamy Joy) or pen sets (Kaweco has a Perkeo Calligraphy set, and I believe Sailor has one of their own as well). You can even check out the Pilot Parallel set -- the whole thing is like the price of a Lamy AL-Star, you just won’t do regular writing with it; it’s pretty specifically a calligraphy/lettering set. There are even flex pens in the market (though none of them are as flexy as those old, vintage gold nibs) like the Noodler’s Nib Creaper, Ahab, and Triple Tail or the Conklins with their Omniflex nib (which has been problematic in the past, but I’ve heard good things recently). It’s a whole other rabbit hole!

But honestly, don’t sweat the handwriting too much. Just write a few lines every day, try new things, and get lost for eternity on some Instagram tags!

I think this is a long enough post as it is, so I’ll stop there! SORRY. HOPE IT HELPS!

#ask naralanis and maybe she will deign to respond #anon #fountain pens #fountain pen network #fountain pen geeks #fic writing #cissamione #and all the weird things that overlap in this godforsaken blog

[duratrans]

Satoshi Mizukami Q&A, 3/3

Satoshi Mizukami recently took questions from the editor's desk, and publicly from write-ins, for an interview to celebrate the first volume of Solte going on sale (Jan 9th!). So I translated them all! It’s in three parts, so I’ll post them one by one.

Here is the third and final section, general questions of all kinds.

Q: I heard you were pretty impressed by Masakazu Ishiguro's Hero (note: Debut work in Gekkan Afternoon, 2000), and when you met him you said "You're my rival!" right to his face! Is there anyone that comes to mind you would still consider your professional rival today? A: Oof. I don't think I have that spirit in me any more. But, even while myself and so many of my friends are starting to slow down, when I see them putting out work, I do feel encouraged to stick it out.

Q: I've heard you started working to become a manga artist because you "wanted to live in a fantasy world" yourself. If you really could jump into a fictional world, what kind of work would it be? Who would you be in the story? The main character, or maybe the last boss? A: I want to live in a porno game. Somewhere with no danger or fighting.

Q: From any medium, can you think of one piece that you liked the most or inspired you? And can you explain why? A: There's probably too many to try and pick just one, but in terms of what really influenced me; For manga, late 90's Shonen Sunday and early 2000's Afternoon. Then, 90's new-wave light novels. For anime, Diebuster. In film, La Puta. A handful of Sega Saturn games. Some scifi stories on forums, and a bunch of other works on Shosetsu-ka ni Narou.

Q: What have you seen/read/played more recently that you liked the best? And can you tell us what you liked? A: Manga: Touge Oni. It was the first thing I read in a while that made me jealous. In books, The Three-Body Problem. I liked the second of the trilogy best, but they were just good page-turners. For anime, Karakuri Circus. The manga ended long enough ago that it felt like going in fresh again, so it hit just right. Really liked the OP too. Film: Interstellar. Tenet wasn't great, so I rewatched this again and still good. It's exactly the kind of movie I was wanting. Games: Ring Fit. I had the idea if I got a little bit in shape, I might get some motivation back. I feel like it might be working? Just the teensiest, slightest bit. Light novels: I Am the Only One Who Knows This World Is a Game. It's just the right amount of bonkers.

Q: If you had ultimate freedom to do any kind of manga you wanted, what would it be like? Would you want a long series, or something shorter? -Ruha A: I was going to say I haven’t exactly had any restrictions, but actually a few things did come up with Solte. But even still, I can fit in any ideas I really want to draw, so I think things are pretty good as they are.

Q: If you had to put yourself in a genre, what kind of manga artist do you think you are? Sci-fi? Or maybe romance? -Takeshi A: I'm a little surprised to see "romance", even as an example. If you ask me, you can categorize me however you want.

Q: Which character are you most attached to, out of all of your works? -Habu A: Anima from Biscuit Hammer.

Q: When you're designing your characters, how do you come up with a good balance when it comes to the composition and relationships in the cast? -Yoneko A: Oh, man. I just kinda... Feel it out.

Q: I've been a big fan of your work forever! I really like your drawing style. How do you make your art the way you do? -gum A: I dunno, that's just how it turns out when I draw. I've been telling myself "Wow, I need to work on my art" for 19 years, since the day I was first published.

Q: Has raising a child had any effect on your stories? -Tai A: It means I work less.

Q: I want to draw manga too, but I'm not very confident in my skills. Do you have any advice? -Tai Arima A: First, do you mean you're not satisfied yourself with the quality of your work, or you're just not confident enough to put it out there? Don't worry, this is always a fundamental issue for creators, things rarely come out just how you imagine them. It's like how you can only print out photos at a resolution as sharp as your camera can capture them. I recommend you start by just making something. Sit down, do it, and finish it, and you'll learn a lot from it. It'll be up to you whether you show that around, but when you start, I wouldn't necessarily make a big deal out of it, you can just work on it quietly without making a big announcement. That way, there's no pressure, and if it's not working out, you can still stop or take a break without feeling bad about it. You decide how to use your time the best.

Q: When I went to a promo event for Planet With at Loft, you and Rensuke Oshikiri (Hi Score Girl) both talked about how as you get older, you find it harder and harder to stay motivated. Have you found anything that helps you in that regard? -Tayu A: I listed to some cheerful music for a while last week and actually found it helped my mood a little.

Q: I love how expressive all of your characters are! Is there anything particular in your process for when you are working on faces and expressions? -Arbel A: I have to be careful I don't go overboard making the same expression I'm drawing.

Q: I write for a hobby, but I always have trouble planning out how the story comes together. Do you have any advice or a favorite method for composing a story? -Nigou A: I read and re-read what I've got, and anywhere I think it's getting dull, I change the scene or add some exciting development. Make the last thing you think would happen, happen. And don't worry about how to tidy everything up, that's a problem for tomorrow you. Today you just has to lay it out.

Q: Hello, Sensei. I've read all your works, and I'm a big fan, but what really impresses me is your dialog. I love how it always just flows off the page, it reads so naturally. So, my question is, when you are writing the dialog, do you just hear it unfold naturally in the character's voices, or do you write more deliberately like "oh, here they would probably say this?" That probably sounds weird to people who've never written manga, but I'd like to know about your process. P.S. Good luck with the Ring Fit grind. -Kiki A: First I decide how the dialog needs to play out in order to advance the story in the direction I want. Then, I just let the characters talk among themselves, and if it doesn't turn out right, I go back, shake things up, and try again. And sometimes I get good material, but it just needs to be trimmed or re-arranged just right.

Q: A lot of your stories have some sort of turning point where the back half really kicks it up a notch and things just keep getting more intense. Do you already have these developments planned when you start a manga? -TKO A: I usually have a few ideas but it's always pretty vague. I never know if I'm gonna wind up putting in or cutting certain scenes, so I don't worry about it too much.

Q: Do you have one favorite scene or a particular line from your own work? -yamatozo A: At the beginning of Spirit Circle volume 6, where the bad guy falls down the stairs and goes "I've made a lot of missteps".

Q: Do you have any idea of what genre you'd like to draw next? -Umehoshi A: I won't say no, but I don't want to give anything away (for my next work, or this one).

Q: If you weren't successful as a manga artist, where do you think you would be? -Ayuta A: Jail. But I'd be a model prisoner.

Q: How much longer do you think you'd like to continue as a manga artist? -Ayuta A: If I could pay the bills for the rest of my life with 24 pages a month, that's just what I'd do. At some point maybe I'll get to be unsatisfied with that and start to push myself to work more and more until I get sick of it, but no telling when that might come.

Q: How do you think of your character's names? -Takeshi A: They just come to me. I look at how I designed the characters and just imagine.

Q: I feel like some kind of forgiveness or absolution is something a lot of your characters go through. Does "forgiveness" have a special significance to you? -Bow-wow A: I'm not sure. Maybe it's me who is seeking forgiveness.

Q: Do you have a favorite phrase or motto? A: I like Shigeru Mizuki's (Gegege no Kitaro) 7 Rules of Being Happy. I don't really go around saying them or anything, but it's something I like to remind myself of, and helps me be mindful of other people. Also, I like "fortune favors the bold."

Q: You like frogs enough that you always draw yourself as one. What do you like about frogs? And do you have a favorite species? A: Frogs are cute. I like green tree frogs the best.

Q: You've drawn a lot of different youkai in Sengoku Youko, but out of all the youkai that most people know from stories, which is your favorite? Could it be the Chan Chu (chinese money toad), or possibly the oogama (monstrous giant toad)? A: My favorite youkai is Mizuki Shigeru.

Q: You've been doing Ring Fit, and eating oatmeal, are you doing anything else to help stay in shape? A: I put the Karakuri Circus season one and season two OP on a playlist and listen to it while I walk to work.

Q: If you were stranded all alone on a deserted island, what are the three things you would want to have with you? A: Really? Okay. I would bring two essential tools I can't find on an island, and a map.

Q: Do you have a favorite actor or celebrity? -Umehoshi A: Nope.

Q: What's the best kind of alcohol and snacks you've had? Where did you drink it? -Ikaninjin A: In the middle of a hellish summer and probably suffering from heatstroke at an amusement park with my kid, I had the best beer of my life in an air-conditioned food court. And the delicious spice to top it off was the bright sun knifing through the window that I just knew was tormenting everyone still outside.

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up? -Ayuta A: A youkai.

Q: What does your internal mindscape look like? -Rou A: An empty lot.

Q: Has anything happened recently that you're happy about? -Sanachan A: My son is starting to read and write.

Q: What kind of hotpot are you looking forward to this winter? -Tommy A: I'm not crazy about hotpot.

Q: I'd like to go to another event where we can toast again, would you consider it?

-Uta

A: If current events allow.

Q: How many times have you thought about quitting Ring Fit? -Honyarara A: 2 or 3 times. A week.

Q: I know you call it your "100-day Ring Fit Diary" on twitter, but since you've been taking breaks too, will you be going past 100? Will the illustrations be collected and published anywhere? -The Dieting Gentleman A: I'm going until I clear adventure mode, but it'll probably be finished by the time this article is up. I'll probably do some sets here and there. No plans for the illustrations.

Q: Do you have a favorite panel out of all your works? -Umehoshi A: You guys are really focused on my favorite everything. I have a lot of panels I like, not one in particular.

Q: Hi, I really enjoy all of your works, and there's one thing I think I notice (sorry if I'm wrong), and that's a love of glasses girls. Out of your manga so far, which is your favorite of all your glasses girls? Do you have a particular girl you've become a fan of recently? As for myself, I really like Yoru from Sanjin Sadou, so I'd love to see a story with her and her sister! -Bashi A: Glasses girls aren't particularly a thing for me.

Q: When you're doing authographs or sketches, does it bother you at all if people request characters from your past works? If I get a chance, I would probably ask for Hyou Shimaki from Biscuit Hammer, for instance. -Akasha A: If it's a promo event for a Mag Garden title, and you were to ask for a character from a Gahosha title, for instance, it might technically bump up against merchandising contracts, which makes it a little weird (I'm typically not allowed to to create any merchandise without going through the publisher), but my managing editors are usually cool enough about it. But if it's specifically a Sengoku Youko event, for instance, and I'm constantly getting asked for Biscuit Hammer drawings (let's say more than half), that would probably be an issue and they might make a rule against it for next time. Also, I tend to forget how the older characters actually looked. For personal reasons, I probably won't be doing any in-person events like this for a while, though. There's also the whole "current state of the world" thing, and my profitability and if bookstores actually want to do it, a lot of issues to solve.

Q: You usually draw Anima working out on Twitter, but did you have plans for any other characters to show up doing Ring Fit? (Like from Angel or Sanjin) -RYO A: I did, but forgot.

Q: Will you put together another oneshot collection, like Geko Geko? -Friday A: I don't know.

Q: Question! What is love? -Shirae A: To live is to love.

Q: How about this, do you have any questions you want to ask your readers? -Buriki A: Would you rather have: A. One series a month, from roughs to completion, all done by me B: Two series a month, with roughs by me and final touches by someone else

Q: I know thinking positive is half the battle, but what can I do about people who're determined to get me down? Can I give them a Samidare Punch? -Nondakure A: Your fist, and the choice of how to use it, belongs to you alone.

#mizukami satoshi #satoshi mizukami

[zen-unknown]

Creatorverse: Zen’s Backstory

Angsty backstory? Check

Way longer than it probably has to be? Check

Minimal dialog from other people cause I’m afraid of misrepresenting their characters? Check

Alright! this is Zen’s official backstory for @creatorverse! Please enjoy and leave feedback if you have any!

(also a small warning: this contains angst, which specifically includes negative self talk on Zen’s part and some violent fight scenes. if you are not comfortable with this or think it might trigger you, feel free not to read this! Take care of yourselves! <3)

________________________________________________________________

Zen wasn’t really one to put herself out there. It took so long for her to even find any civilization, and by the time she got to one, it didn’t really appeal to her. She had all the materials she needed with her bamboo, so it’s not like she needed to go somewhere to get some. Besides, she didn’t feel like she could fit into any of the communities she found. Everyone already knew each other and had such amazing creations. Throwing in her own thing seemed pointless.

And so she wandered. She went from city to city, and country to country. She’d make a place for herself on the outskirts of wherever she found herself and just…. Watched. She created when inspiration struck her and kept it all to herself. Sure, she always felt a lingering urge to share her creations. To possibly get feedback or just put it out there for the sake of sharing. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. And so she watched as creators came and went, picking up inspiration wherever she could.

The only thing that really disrupted her routine were the blockheads. They seemed to come whenever she used the CREATE button, and would come after and attack her. Without other creators to help her, she learned how to defend herself on her own. She took what she had learned from other creators and constructed weapons.

The blockheads seemed to be color coded depending on their abilities, which was typically some form of an element. To counter this, she made weapons with their own elemental abilities. If she came across a red blockhead, she’s fight it using a water based weapon. If she encountered a green blockhead, she’d equip a fire based weapon. It went on like this until she had created a small arsenal of elemental based weapons.

As she grew stronger and more experienced on her own, she eventually decided to settle down on the outskirts of Tumlier, where she could easily find inspiration in the cultures and creations of the residents there. She spent some time wandering around the outside of the city, growing as much bamboo as she could and creating a small bamboo forest. She built her home in the center, far away from the chaos of the city. It also gave her an advantage if a blockhead decided to show up.

___Timeskip___

It started out as a normal walk. Zen was lacking motivation and ideas so she figured some time to clear her head would do her good. What she wasn’t expecting was to find someone, or rather, something else in her private bamboo forest. It was in shades of pink and human shaped. At first she thought it might be a creator who somehow wandered into her home. After all, blockheads don’t have any real defining features aside from having her silhouette. She could make out clothes and hair on whatever this was. However, doubt entered her mind upon spotting the familiar rocks balanced evenly on the figure’s head.

She hesitated, but then approached silently. She let herself float just above the ground to avoid making any noise as she made her way through the bamboo and towards the figure. It was standing in a clearing with it’s back to her, seeming to be simply examining a large bamboo pole in front of it. Zen thought over her options, but wasn’t given the chance to act when the person suddenly spoke up.

“You’ve been quite busy, haven’t you?”, the pink figure spokes casually, making Zen tense up. She was sure she hadn’t made any noise while approaching. The figure seemed amused by Zen’s lack of response and chuckled. It turned around to face her, and she froze. This… whatever it was. It resembled her. Not like the others. No, this one had more than just her silhouette. This one had facial features. It had texture and life.

“... you’re another one, aren’t you? A blockhead?”, Zen spoke in as steady a tone as she could manage, but she still faltered slightly. All the other blockheads she had encountered were fairly simple in nature. They came, attacked, and were even color coded. She’s fought and killed a handful of a few types. Red, brown, green, blue. She’s even succeeded with a purple and black! But pink? What could pink mean? And why was it so… alive?

(keep reading if you’re prepared for the angst!~)

“Oh? So you know what we are then? I suppose that makes sense, considering how much trash you consistently produce. But a wonder, do you really know what I am?”, the Pink Zen tilted her head with an eerie smile. Zen’s breath hitched at her counterpart’s choice of words, but didn’t acknowledge it. This is how blockheads always are. She can handle it.

“You are nothing but another obstacle to overcome. Now leave. Or I’ll destroy you just like the rest of your kind.”, Zen glared as bamboo began sprouting around her and she gripped the closest stalk. Without missing a beat, she ripped it out of the ground and pointed the sharp head at the ever smiling blockhead threateningly. Her pink counterpart stared at the end of the bamboo and simply chuckled. She put a hand on her cheek and looked at Zen with half lidded eyes.

“That’s cute. Too bad your little stick won’t be able to do much about me.”, the pink blockhead smirked as Zen gritted her teeth. She moved the rocks on her head to hover around her protectively and glared.

“That’s enough!”, a jet of high pressure water shot out of the bamboo towards the pink entity, while Zen simultaneously shot her arm up, prompting several sharp bamboo shoots to spring from the ground behind and under it. Water collided with bamboo, causing cracks to form in the surface, but not touching the blockhead. Zen raised her guard and grabbed another bamboo pole. Her eyes shot back and forth, looking for the threat frantically. She didn’t know what abilities a pink blockhead might have, and she was getting a very bad feeling about it.

“Quit hiding you coward!”, Zen shouted as she spun around. A familiar chuckle sounded through her bamboo forest as she gripped her bamboo tighter. She wanted to avoid using the CREATE button for this fight if she could, since there was a possibility of it spawning another blockhead.

“Am I the coward though? I think we both know that’s not true~”, the sickeningly sweet voice rang in Zen’s ears as a shiver shot down her spine. She spun and shot a jet of water in the direction the voice came from, snapping several poles of bamboo in the process, but not the blockhead. Zen glared through the bamboo and held up her chosen weapons.

“I don’t want to hear it! Show yourself if you’re so sure about me!”, Zen taunted, getting more worked up than she would like to admit. This thing’s voice was having an affect on her that made her blood run cold and she wanted it gone.

“Don’t get cocky. You have no idea what I’m capable of after all. Just like everyone else… not that you're capable of much anyway. They aren’t missing much.”, the voice chided in a condescending tone. Zen’s eyes widened slightly, starting to understand what it was getting at. Not wanting to appear weak, she forced her glare to harden as she kept a defensive stance and made her way through the bamboo.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”, she stated in false confidence. Almost immediately, the voice burst into laughter, making Zen freeze at how close the voice sounded. She spun on her heels to attack, but froze as her eyes caught those of the blockhead’s. Her pink counterpart floated upside down, arching over her so that their eyes were level.

“Oh I think you do… all those creations you have locked up and hidden from the world. What’s the point? You'll never get over your fear and share them with others. They’d never like the trash you make. You understand that, yet you still continue. You even fought off my fellow blockheads to defend it all. Why?”, piercing pink eyes bore into Zen’s hazel ones as she went completely still. Her mind screamed at her to move. To attack. But she couldn’t move. She couldn’t look away. She was stuck staring into an ocean of sickly pink, listening to her own voice speak the thoughts she’s been pushing away for so long.

“You… you don’t know me. Y-You don’t…”, Zen’s mind unraveled bit by bit as her pink counterpart seemed to glow even brighter. A pink haze entered the edges of Zen’s vision as her grip on the bamboo began to loosen. Pink Zen grinned wider.

“Oh, but I do know you. In fact, I think I know you better than you know yourself. Wouldn’t you agree?”, her eyes flashed pink and Zen could only nod her head slightly. Her eyes were burning and her ears were ringing. Her body relaxed slowly as more and more pink entered her vision, tinting everything she saw with the color. Pink Zen twisted her body so that she was floating on her stomach with her arms crossed under her head.

“That’s right. I do know you better. You don't like creating. You don’t like what you create. That’s why you never share it! Littering is a crime after all. You can’t just dump trash anywhere you want and expect people to praise you~”, Pink Zen hummed. Zen nodded again as her words echoed around her head. It’s trash. All of it. She can’t possibly show anyone. She didn’t enjoy creating. She just did it out of boredom. She hated her creations. They could never compare to try creations. She made trash. Just a mess.

“Hmmm~ I have an idea! All those blockheads you fought off may be gone, but the trash they were connected to isn’t! That doesn’t seem right, now does it? Now, what do you do with trash you don’t like?”, Pink Zen asked in a sing-song tone. Zen’s mouth opened slightly.

“Throw… it out…”, she mumbled in a monotone voice. Pink Zen sighed and scoffed.

“That’s not enough. What if someone sees it in the trash? You can’t risk it! So, what should you do to make sure it’s never seen again?”, she pushed, squinting at Zen expectantly. Without skipping a beat, she responded.

“Destroy it.”, she stated in a harsher tone. The hatred and disgust for the trash she had produced, fueled by Pink Zen’s influence, solidified her decision. It all had to go. All of it. None of it could stay. It didn’t deserve to exist. Pink Zen hummed in satisfaction and nodded.

“That’s right! Now, let’s get to work. You’ve got a lot of garbage to hehe- sort through.”, Pink Zen clapped excitedly and nudged Zen back towards her home in the forest. Zen made no effort to fight back and let her pink counterpart guide the way.

___Timeskip___

Pink Zen was right. There was a lot to go through. Creation after creation was smash, torn, burnt, and in the end, deleted. It took almost a whole day to go through everything. And as the day dragged on, the pink in Zen’s vision began to waver. Her thoughts and emotions clashed as her actions began to falter. Regret, dread, doubt, fear, and anger pulled at her soul from all directions.

And then it ended. Everything was gone. The destroyed pieces never to be seen again, thanks to the DELETE button. As she gazed upon the vast emptiness that was once her beloved creations, Zen spotted something on the ground. She approached it, somewhat trembling from the strain of Pink Zen’s grasp on her mind, and stood over it.

“What is it? Oh, that old thing... Leave it. Let it be a reminder of the trash you create. Now let’s go. I have something for you to do.”, Pink Zen picked up the old stuffed figure of a red panda by a leg.

That’s right. That was her first creation, wasn’t it? She had first woken up in a natural bamboo forest, surrounded by a few red pandas who were sleeping on her. It was her first inspiration. She wanted to remember them, so she made the stuffed animal with whatever she could find. It was so old and worn that most of the fur had been rubbed off, and it wasn’t quite as soft as in the beginning… trash. It’s trash. Trash she needs to destroy. Zen took a few steps forward and reached out for her first creation, but Pink Zen yanked it away.

“Hey! I said no, you hear me? Don’t you dare disobey me!”, Pink Zen shouted angrily, holding the stuffed animal almost protectively out of Zen’s grasp. In response, Zen lunged at her without hesitation. Having been caught off guard, Pink Zen’s hold on her faltered and finally fell away.

Zen’s vision cleared of the pink haze and she blinked. It only took a second before everything came crashing down. Her pupils dilated and tears stung her eyes. Bamboo immediately shot up around them, with Zen pinning Pink Zen to the ground. She grit her teeth and eyed the red panda stuffed animal that was still in Pink Zen’s grasp. She was protecting it, and Zen now knew why.

She shot her hand out and tore the small animal from her pink counterparts grasp. Pink Zen practically rawred in anger and tug back. The two pulled as hard as they could, until a rip was heard. Zen was sent flying back and hit the bamboo behind her. In her hand was the stuffed red panda, but it was missing an arm.

She look up frantically, and stiffened at the sight of Pink Zen gripping a pink bloodied stump where her arm once was. She growled in pain and shot her head up, glaring daggers at Zen. she could already feel her head spinning as Pink Zen’s eyes flared up and she staggered to her feet.

“GIVE THAT TO ME NOW!”, she demanded with venom in her tone. Zen, now having better understanding of how she worked, immediately looked away from her eyes and sprinted away into the forest. A loud, ear piercing screech was heard behind her as she clutched her first creation against her chest. She knew what she had to do. She couldn’t beat this monster in battle, but she could destroy her source. It was the only option she had.

Zen made her way into a clearing and stumbled to a stop. She gasped and trembled as she heard that thing approaching quickly. Tears stung her eyes as she tore a pole of bamboo from the ground and threw the stuffed animal to her feet. She couldn’t wait for the energy for the DELETE button to return. She needed to do this now. Positioning the sharpened bamboo over the chest area and looked up for Pink Zen.

Right on cue, the pink entity came crashing through the bamboo, trailing pink blood all the way. They made eye contact for a moment before Zen pierced the stuffed animal’s chest. Almost simultaneously, a huge hole ripped through Pink Zen’s chest. She screeched in pain, but it soon turned to coughing, then sputtering. She fell forward and landed with a hard thud. Pink blood splatter upward, staining Zen’s face and clothing. Her hands trembled violently as she fell to her knees and choked up.

She felt something wrap around her wrist and looked up in fear. Pink Zen was smiling menacingly up at her as blood smeared on her wrist from her hand.

“Y-you… w-will NEVER be free o-of us. Never… F-forget this…”, her eyes rolled back into her head and her grip on Zen’s wrist slackened. But she smiled regardless. Zen stared down at her, tears streaming down her face as she trembled. She pulled her wrist from the limp, cold grasp and stood up, not bothering to wipe away the blood or tears.

Turning back, she looked down at the now destroyed stuffed red panda. Her first creation. She destroyed her first creation with her own hands. Just like the rest of her creations. She destroyed them all. Everything she had done. Everything she had worked so hard on. All that time and effort and passion, and it was gone. Zen gently picked up the stuffed animal, only for it to practically crumble at her touch. That’s it. Completely destroyed. Oh god, has she done? What does she do now?

“Nonononono….. Please no…”, Zen sobbed quietly as she ran a hand through the destroyed remains of her first creation. She stayed there for hours, letting out the grief she felt until she had no more energy and passed out.

___Timeskip___

“-is that really-”

“-pink-”

“-happened here-”

“-one hell of a fight-”

“She’s waking up!”

Voices and light flooded her senses as Zen stirred slowly. With some effort, she managed to pry her eyes open. When she did, she found two blurry figures standing over her. Immediately panicking, she shot up as bamboo sprouted to life around her, forming a makeshift wall between her and the others. Some shouts were heard as she pushed herself back frantically, her rocks already in the air and ready to shoot at any threats.

“Holy-! Whoa, did you do that without the button? That’s so cool!”, a female voice called out from… above her? Zen looked up and spotted a female with bright golden wings, flying above the bamboo. The blue hoodie and blonde hair told Zen that this was not a blockhead. Wiping her eyes of the residual sleepy blurriness, Zen blinked and looked towards the others.

Aside from the girl with the golden wings, there was another girl with brown hair and black wings, both looking at her in interest. Zen squinted and rubbed her eyes again… no, still there. Cautiously she stood up, using a rod of bamboo for support and eyed the two of them.

“Um… who are you?”, she asked, trying to keep her tone steady. Though that was pretty difficult, having just woken up after… everything that happened. There was a ‘woosh’ sound and the golden winged girl landed on the ground in front of her. Zen had to force herself not to let bamboo sprout in surprise. The girl smiled kindly at Zen and offered a hand.

“I’m Lorel! Back there is Shandy. What’s your name?”, she asked in a friendly tone. Zen glanced down at Lorel’s hand and shook it hesitantly.

“I’m… I’m Zen. What are you doing here?”, she asked rather bluntly, not really meaning too. Lorel smiled while Shandy came around the bamboo to her side.

“We noticed some serious blockhead movement in this area and came to see what was up. And it looks like we were right-”, she pointed her thumb back at the body of the pink blockhead that had caused Zen so much pain. She couldn’t help but stiffen at the sight and look away, gripping her shirt in her hands tightly.

“You beat it, didn’t you? Pink ones are super rare! I’m impressed you were able to win on your own! Oh- uh, no offense! I just meant that-!”, Zen smiled softly at Lorel’s sudden frantic politeness ramble and chuckled softly.

“Don’t worry, i got it… I can’t really say that i- well… won, though…”, Zen trailed off, biting her tongue as the memories resurfaced. She lost everything because of that monster. She couldn’t see this as a win in her eyes.

“Huh? What do you mean? You killed it, didn’t you?”, Shandy asked, gesturing both to the body and to the pink blood that had stained Zen’s skin and clothing. That’s right, she passed out without doing anything about that, didn’t she?

“I… that thing was different from the other blockheads, alright? It got in my head, made me think things I shouldn’t be thinking. I-It made me do things that I-.... It controlled me, but it lost control and I broke free. I couldn’t fight it, so I destroyed the creation it came from.”, Zen tried to summarize it without going into detail. She really didn’t want to relive any of that. Shandy and Lorel exchanged glances and seemed to have a silent agreement.

“Well… seeing as you seem to need a place to stay, and you need to recover after your fight, why don’t you come with us to Creatorverse?”, Lorel offered, moving away from the topic of what happened. Zen paused and raised an eyebrow.

“Creatorverse? What’s that?”, she asked in confusion and slight interest. Shandy and Lorel both seemed to brighten up at these and smiled.

“It's a floating city we made as a sort of rest stop or anyone to take a break from travel and such. And it seriously looks like you could use a break.”, Shandy pointed out semi-jokingly. Zen couldn’t help but let out a low chuckle as she nodded softly in agreement.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…”, she trailed off and scanned the area. As much as she used to call it home, there was literally nothing left. Just bad memories and grief. Sighing, she nodded firmly and turned back towards Shandy and Lorel.

“Okay. I’ll come with you.”, she said with a bit of confidence. They both smiled and nodded in response. Then they paused and glanced at each other, specifically their wings, and back at Zen.

“The thing is, well, Creatorverse is a floating island… so one of us is gonna have to carry you, if you don’t mind.”, Lorel explained a bit awkwardly. Zen nodded in understanding and gave a lopsided smile.

“Actually, I can take care of that part.”, she said while holding a finger up in a ‘wait’ gesture. She then moved the two largest of her rocks down towards her feet and simply hopped on them. The other two rocks hovered by her arms in case she needed to steady herself, which was highly unlikely but you never know. She moved them up and down in sync a few times before getting the right feel and nodded towards the others.

“Alright. Lead the way.”, she gestured up towards the sky with a patient smile. Shandy simply shrugged and nodded while Lorel seemed to eye the rocks with an impressed expression. And with that, the three took off. Zen looked back with a frown, vowing to herself never to let something like this ever happen again.

________________________________________________________________

AAAAAND DONE! I hope if you made it this far that you enjoyed! This is my first time sharing my writing, so I’d love any feedback I can get!

Shandy belongs to: @shandycandy278

Lorel belongs to: @onlyplatonicirl

Zen belongs to me

#Creatorverse #Creatorverse Writing #Sona backstory #ANGST #Imma just leave this novel here~ #creatorverse spoilers

[waywardfacegarden]

Hey there! I saw that "ask me about my fic" post and thought I'd ask some questions!! Specifically regarding your "The sun is too bright, it hurts" one; questions 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8? 👀

Hello there!!! First of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING, YOU’RE SO NICE!!!!! ;---; Honestly, I love you so much.

Second of all, AAAAAH, THAT FIC. I really love that one, is one of the first works I did for my boys!!!! I have a soft spot for it. (That said, I actually reread it to answer this LOL, because as much as I remembered a lot of it, I also didn’t remember a lot of specifc dialog/narration of it, haha.)

Answers under the cut because I, somehow, managed to do this unnecessarily long, LOL. I’m sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you don’t mind me babbling a lot about my own fic, haha.

1. What inspired you to write the fic this way?

Well, I was inspired to write that AU because I’m weak for the idea of Sasuke and Naruto being childhood friends!! Haha. And I just easily pictured them growing up together with their families being friends. It’s something that I think would happen in a modern au, and I really wanted to explore the relationship of two people growing up together, being there in all of their different phases (and the challenge of having to write them at different ages, because as much as the essence of who they are is the same, they don’t act exactly the same, you know?), knowing each other better than anyone else. They would come to love every single one of the aspects that makes them them; like, even if something must be annoying, it’s endearing for the other at this point, and I find that very tender and soft.

As for the way that it’s written, I find it easier to guide myself while writing if I divide the story in “short stories/scenes”, so that’s why it’s like that (if you look at my fics, I always “divide” my stories, haha). I also really like the narrative that goes, for example, “October. 1990. 15 years old.”, because, (for me at least), it’s so much easier to imagine the environment/context/scene like that? It also gives me off movie vibes, tbh😂😂

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

I apologize in advance because I’m going to make this reply excessively long, even when the ask is so simple😂😂 While I was re-reading, I found a lot of quotes/parts that I liked a lot, so please indulge myself and look at all my word vomit, lol (the parts in bold letters are what I especially love about that specific excerpt):

[[AH! AND ALSO! I realized I made a LOT of grammar mistakes in the fic when I was re-reading today, it’s kind of embarrassing ahhh, haha. It needs heavy editing, huh. But anyways, so, in some lines here, I changed some words for what I actually wanted to write/what’s grammatically correct, now that I know more about english, haha. So in some lines they’re a bit different from the actual fic.]]

My favorite, favorite line, for reason, is this one:

Sasuke’s heart flutters on his chest, like flower’s petals in the wind, like a butterfly flapping its wings.

I don’t know, I really, really, REALLY love metaphors and I like the way it was phrased here?? Like, the words I chose sound so pretty for me, haha.

My second favorite line is this one, simply because I’m a cheesy dork:

Sasuke does not know when he fell in love with Naruto; he probably was always a bit in love with him.

Another lines of narration I really, really love:

His love for Naruto reminds him of that. Destruction. Storms, tornadoes. Because it’s brutal, too intense, too strong. It is inexhaustible. It’s unexpected and unpredictable and it makes his stomach ache.

^^ That one is just. Really what I think Sasuke feels like about falling in love, and more than anything, falling in love with Naruto, so I really love it. I have an obsession on making love sound messy and chaotic, too, tbh, haha. Guilty.

[…] and his voice sounds tired, because he’s tired, he can’t stand it anymore, and he’s stupid, stupid, stupid, because Sasuke wants to cry, and because Sasuke wants to kiss Naruto while he cries because Sasuke is a damn tragedy walking, but he can’t, he can’t and that’s hard.

I really like this one because I honest to God think Sasuke is a damn tragedy walking (and I’m saying this like a good thing, he’s my favorite disaster, haha). He’s just, idk, really a disaster, and I can easily picture him having a meltdown because he loves Naruto so much that he can’t even stand it, and he’s tired of hiding it, and he’s tired of everything, and he just wants to fucking cry but he also wants to kiss Naruto AND kiss Naruto while he cries, even if that’s weird. Idk, Sasuke just strikes me as the kind of guy who would want to kiss the love of his life while crying, LOL.

[…] he’s so close that, for a moment, the only thing he can see is blue. Blue, blue, eternal, endless, inexhaustible, precious blue; that swallows him, that overwhelms him, that suffocates him.

I remember being so proud of this part because, as you can see, I’m obsessed with Naruto’s eyes😂😂 And then when I showed the story to my sister she laughed her ass off here LMAO. She gave me A Look. LOL. She saw through me like a book, she knows I just tried to sound poetic but I suck LOL. But I still really like this part.

And Naruto is smiling, and Naruto is there and everywhere and Sasuke wants to drown in him.

So he does. 

ASDJLFJLSDFKDL. The idea of Sasuke wanting to drown in Naruto is just. I love it, lol.

He kisses him as he should be kissed. […] He kisses him and Naruto kisses him back and Sasuke almost sighs. Because it feels so good to be real; because it feels like falling into bed after a long and tiring day. It feels like a hot shower against your aching body and like the emotion you feel when climbing a roller coaster.

For some reason, I love writing kisses, LOL, and I wanted to convey so much through this one. Like both of them have been wanting to kiss the other for years, now, but you could feel Sasuke’s desperation especially, and I really wanted the kiss to feel like “God, finally, finally” but also “this is it. This is what home feels like”. I feel like it probably still lacks something, but I still like how I put it into words.

[Now, I really hope you don’t hate me for this LOL, but I’ll add the complete parts I like, even when they have dialogue. It’s this case where bold letters are the lines that I especially love about the part.]

Naruto takes a step forward, a long one, and cuts the distance between them. Sasuke’s heart flutters on his chest, like flower’s petals in the wind, like a butterfly flapping its wings. Naruto is so close that Sasuke can see the three soft freckles on his cheekbones. He can distinguish each one of his golden eyelashes shining against his eyelids. He can see the way the iris in his eyes is darker on the edge; the shape of his lips, cracked, that make Sasuke’s mouth become very dry. And heck, they are moving, so Naruto is talking.

-

“Sasuke,” Naruto says, and his voice is soft and soothing in the loneliness of the hallway. His fingers are like burning embers when he places them on his shoulder. “Look at me, Sasuke.”

And Sasuke obeys. He turns around and looks at him, and Naruto has a storm inside those pretty eyes, and Sasuke just wants… he just wants… “Honestly, I would kill myself if I had that face.”

God fucking dammit.

“He was talking about you.” He answers, finally, and his voice gets stuck and tightens in his throat.

Naruto blinks, surprise flooding the light blue of his eyes. “Oh,” he says, so low that if they were not four inches away in a desolate corridor, Sasuke would not have heard it.

“Itachi is waiting for me.” He says, because he really wants to leave; he wants Naruto to stop looking at him like that.

“Itachi asked me to check up your injuries, Sasuke. Itachi is not angry. I guess he deduced what happened, he’s smart, so…”

“I’m not hurt, Naruto. Now let me go.”

Naruto stops pressing the cold gauze on the torn skin of his knuckles. The soft fabric burns and itches on his skin, but not as much as the way Naruto keeps looking at him, hell.

-

They are 15 years old and Naruto is the most beautiful boy he has ever seen. Naruto has grown up and he’s taller now, almost as tall as Sasuke is, and has the most beautiful blue, cerulean eyes (beautiful as the clear water of the lakes, beautiful as the sky on summer mornings), and long, blond eyelashes and cute lips and messy hair kissed by the sun. He’s gorgeous. And maybe Sasuke is paying too much attention, but hell, it’s hard not to.

They are 15 years old and Sasuke would hit a three-meter bully for that boy. Sasuke would do anything for that boy.

-

He says, with a smile that covers half of his face. His hair is messier than usual and several blond strands fall on his forehead. His blue eyes sparkle in the darkness. His blue shirt sticks to him in all the right angles and Sasuke thinks if you were not so damn attractive, I would surely kill you right now, you idiot. But he doesn’t say it, because of course, that’s not something you would say to your best friend.

-

“Naruto, I’m not going to get into your father’s van in the middle of the night and drive to a Waffle House at twelve in the morning.”

Naruto seems confused. He keeps his balance on the window frame and raises his hand to show him the set of keys. “No problem, Sas. I have the keys.”

- [I really like this one because just, the idea of them going to a Waffle House in the middle of the night is a favorite of mine, and the dialogue of Sasuke being like “i’m not going to drive to a waffle house at fucking 12am” and Naruto being just like “no worries, i have the keys” because he thinks the problem is that Sasuke doesn’t want to steal the car is so funny LMAO. Also, I live for Naruto calling him “Sas”.]

Damn fucking Naruto. Fuck his stupid heart. Fuck the one who decided up there that it would be a good idea to give him a nice smile and a beautiful personality and the eyes of Gods. Fuck the one who decided it would be good for Sasuke to fall in love with a stupid blonde with a heart of gold, stubborn as hell. Fuck the one who thought it would be a good idea for Sasuke to like his best friend. Fuck the one who decided that Waffle Houses could open for 24 hours. Fuck Naruto with his beautiful eyes; damn, damn, damn and fucking dammit.

- [I LAUGH SO HARD AT THIS PART. Like poor dude, he’s just so Done about having a crush and being in love with his Best Friend LMAO. I love how he curses the Gods and Everyone and Naruto Especially while also changing and going downstairs to go out with said crush.]

It’s strange that he’s so quiet, but at least Sasuke can look at him out of the corner of his eye from time to time. And when the light from the headlights on the side of the street hits him right in the face, and Sasuke can admire how beautiful he is, how stunning his eyes are and how bright they look and how his hair is gleaming and the so pretty and alluring that is the whole him, all of him… is those moments when Sasuke thinks that, maybe, it was not such a bad idea that Naruto woke him up in the middle of the night to drive to a Waffle House. Maybe, it’s not so bad that Naruto is crazy. Maybe, it’s not so bad that Sasuke is in love with him.

-

You know how in that tragic movie where the girl has cancer she says something in the beginning like “I fell in love with him like falling asleep, suddenly and without realizing it”? Yes, well. Sasuke used to make fun of that, even if Naruto thought it was very romantic. But now, as he sees his best friend smiling in a damn suit that fits his body in all the right places, now that he sees him laughing with the gym lights doing wonders on his tanned skin, now that he is listening to him talk and laugh and just being him, being happy… now he understands it. Sasuke does not know when he fell in love with Naruto; he probably was always a bit in love with him. He does not know when it happened or why, the only thing he knows now is that he is completely, totally, utterly, head-over-heels in love with him, so much so that it is ridiculous.

The realization hits him. Hard and strong against his stomach, like the thousands of stones and heaps of earth in an avalanche. Destroying cliffs, roads.

His love for Naruto reminds him of that. Destruction. Storms, tornadoes. Because it’s brutal, too intense, too strong. It is inexhaustible. It’s unexpected and unpredictable and it makes his stomach ache.

It’s like when you have a leak in your house and you do not fix it and you probably don’t realize the damage it is doing until after weeks the hole on the cement floor is too big to ignore. It’s like the snowball that is falling and growing on the steep hill that you don’t notice until it’s too late.

It’s just like that.

And the realization is so big and so brutal that it terrifies him, because Sasuke not only loves Naruto, Sasuke is in love with him. He loves every damn part of him in the rawest and realest way possible and it scares him so much that he can’t stand it.

-

“Naruto. I’m not in the mood,” he says, and his voice sounds tired, because he’s tired, he can’t stand it anymore, and he’s stupid, stupid, stupid, because Sasuke wants to cry, and because Sasuke wants to kiss Naruto while he cries because Sasuke is a damn tragedy walking, but he can’t, he can’t and that’s hard.

-

[…] he’s so close that, for a moment, the only thing he can see is blue. Blue, blue, eternal, endless, inexhaustible, precious blue; that swallows him, that overwhelms him, that suffocates him.

He’s as close as that time when they…

“Sasuke, you’re a fucking idiot.” He says, his breath warm against his own lips.

[…]

He’s as close as that time when they kissed.

Naruto is kissing him, Holy…

It’s abrupt and so sudden and Sasuke has not closed his eyes, (Sasuke can’t even believe it to begin with, because they’re kissing), but Naruto does, so he can see the thin, long golden lashes that flutter softly against his own cheekbones. They tickle him. He can see the cascade of hair on his forehead and the mess of color on his skin and everything is so familiar. The cracked feeling of his lips, the blue so close, the hair that tickles Sasuke… It’s making him dizzy. Everything is so familiar, and yet so different at the same time. It’s coarser, stronger.

Naruto doesn’t seem to know what he is doing though; he just keeps pressing his lips so hard against his that Sasuke thinks he might knock a tooth out of him. His fingers continue to cling to his tie, crumpling it between his fingernails, and it’s…

Sasuke doesn’t care. Because Naruto is kissing him, and even if he’s clumsy, Naruto is kissing him, and his heartbeat thunders into his ears, the blood rushes in his veins and everything is chaos.

With Naruto everything is chaos.

Like the storms.

Like hurricanes.

Everything is too intense and strong and…

-

“You know what?” He says, and he continues laughing, but not so much anymore. “Ino said you would make exactly that face.”

Sasuke blinks. What?

“Did you tell Ino about—” Sasuke doesn’t quite know how to define it, even if he’s supposed to be good with words, so he just manages to move his hand between them in a movement that Naruto would do, and adds, “—this?”

Naruto gives him a sideways little smile. “Actually, I told Shikamaru, Ino was just there.”

Once again. What?

“What?”

Naruto grins. Bright and toothy, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “Sasuke, teme. You’re easier to read than you think.”

Sasuke is about to yell at him because what? But then Naruto’s smile softens, and it’s sweet and tender and intimate. And the words that come out of his lips moments later roll off his tongue and roll up through the air and dance and spin and hit Sasuke with such force that he practically staggers.

“I love you too, you bastard.”

It’s too much.

And Naruto is smiling, and Naruto is there and everywhere and Sasuke wants to drown in him.

So he does. He takes a step and closes the distance between them and drowns in him.

One of his hands takes him from the suit and brings him closer while the other slips behind him and mixes with the strands of hair that are too soft against his skin. And then he kisses him again. He kisses him as he should be kissed. He kisses the brain out of him and leans against his personal space and enters his bubble of warmth, the warmth that radiates from every pore of his being. He kisses him and gets drunk with his smell and his skin and all of him.

He kisses him and Naruto kisses him back and Sasuke almost sighs. Because it feels so good to be real; because it feels like falling into bed after a long and tiring day. It feels like a hot shower against your aching body and like the emotion you feel when climbing a roller coaster.

It’s all at once.

Rawly intense and gently soothing.

It’s chaos.

And he kisses him again and again and again and again and again and again and again until he loses the count.

“You know what?” Naruto says in a moment. His voice is agitated and his breathing is uneven and unsteady and he is trying to pull more air inside of him. And his lips are a little swollen and Sasuke kisses him again, short and fast, before he speaks again, because Sasuke can’t help it and stop now. “Now that I think about it, I’m much better at expressing myself than you are.”

“Shut up, usuratonkachi.”

Naruto laughs. And it’s the most beautiful thing Sasuke has ever heard before.

ALSO. I absolutely ADORE the part where they’re 15. Like, how Sasuke keeps thinking “Naruto’s too much” because his sole presence overwhelms him, the fact that he keeps thinking about kissing him, the fact that he can’t take his eyes off him, the fact that he hit someone so freaking hard because they said they would “kill themselves if they had that [Naruto’s] face”, the fact that he was jealous of girls noticing Naruto because of his looks, because “yeah, Naruto was so goddamn attractive (he keeps thinking about touching him, wondering about how his skin would feel against his fingers, wanting to touch his face, his hair, daydreaming about his eyes. Dude is just Gone LOL), but ALSO, would yOU DUMB GIRLS HEAR ABOUT HIS STORIES ABOUT RAMEN??? WOULD YOU HEAR HIM BABBLE ABOUT HIS FAVORITE DUMB MOVIES AND POP MUSIC??? WOULD YOU??? WELL, I DO!!!! SO FUCK OFF!!!!!!” LMAO. I LIVE for Sasuke’s Gay Crisis and him realizing he finds his best friend criminally attractive and endearing. 

(I’M SO SORRY FOR MAKING THIS ANSWER SO LONG, OMG).

4. What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Because I’m predictable and also because, like I said, I’m a cheesy dork, my favorite line is: “I love you too, you bastard.” It just has so much power, for me. It’s so intimate and I love how Naruto says “too” even when Sasuke doesn’t say it out loud before, because Naruto just knows. It’s so gentle, even when he’s calling him “bastard” (that at this point is actually a pet name rather than an insult LMAO).

Bonus to:

“Sasuke, you’re a fucking idiot.” 

I really love it LMAO. I like it because I find it funny that it’s what Naruto says just before he kisses him, but also because it’s actually so tender, too??? Like Sasuke was all “MAYBE I DON’T LIKE YOU ANYMORE, HUH?!?! MAYBE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS I FINALLY GOT TIRED OF YOU”; he’s throwing all this drama but he’s actually spilling his heart out and Naruto can see all through it, he can literally see what he’s actually thinking, and it just. Hits. Hard. So he’s just like, “I’m gonna cut this bullshit right here” and goes “Sasuke, you’re a fucking idiot”, with a tone that basically means actually that, like “sasuke, you fucking IDIOT. i KNOW. i KNOW. stop hurting yourself”, and it just gets me, haha.

“Do you want to go to the prom with me?” […] “I’m serious, Sas. I want you to go with me.”

I was so excited when I wrote those two lines. Again, I’m weak for Naruto calling him “Sas”, and I wanted so bad Naruto asking him to prom. Even if it’s not with a big gesture, it FEELS like so much for both of them. And I wanted to make sure that it sounded like he wasn’t joking around, even if he made the proposal “easier to digest” by phrasing it later like he was asking Sasuke just because he was his best friend and he wanted him to have fun with him (which, yeah, but he also knew about Sasuke being in love with him, and Naruto was, too, so he was just being assertive in the situation, trying to make it easier for Sasuke because he knows him, and he knows how big it already feels like for him just being asked as a friend).

“Because I want you to take your head out of your ass for a moment and have fun with your best friend?”

Naruto telling Sasuke to take his head out of his ass is my favorite thing ever LMAO.

7. Where did the title come from?

To be honest, I’m TERRIBLE to put titles. I always forget to name my fics, because I focus on the story itself first, haha. I always save the docs in word like “childhood friends au sns” or “christmas au” or things like that, planning to actually name them later, but I ALWAYS forget to do it. I always remember when I actually have to put a name to it because I’m about to post it on AO3 and it asks me for a title first, LOL. So, basically, this one (and all my other titles) came up last minute. I have always liked when Naruto is compared to the Sun (I do it at the end of the fic, too, haha), and I thought the fic itself revolves around Sasuke’s love for Naruto, Sasuke’s journey to get to know Naruto and fall for him, and Sasuke realizing his feelings and being constantly overwhelmed by them because of they’re so strong and so deep and because Naruto just feels like Too Much sometimes (in a good, messy way) to him. So I thought it was accurate to call it “The Sun is too bright, it hurts”, because for me, it basically encompasses what the fic is about: Naruto is too much sometimes that it actually hurts Sasuke, because he Can’t Handle Feelings and it’s Suffocating and Overwhelming and Scary, but it’s okay at the end, because Naruto feels just as much as him. (I actually wanted to add “but it’s okay” at the end, but I felt like it was too long already LOL).

8. Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

It’s not actually real people or real events, but I actually based the scene where Sasuke saves Naruto from getting run over by a car from one of my favorite, favorite scenes in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. It’s a lot like the one there in the book, but I found it a very Sasuke Thing to do, and I also liked how it lined up with the fact that “Sasuke’s feet moved on its own” in actual canon. Boy is willing to give his life for Naruto in any universe and I respect that, LOL.

The scene where people were talking shit about Naruto’s face is based from a scene I watched on the movie Wonder. I always cry with the movie and I had just watched it before writing the fic, so I wanted to write something based on that scene because it got me hard.

It’s also pretty obvious, but the accidental kiss is there because I absolutely Love it and I have mad respect for Kishimoto for that, so if I can, I’m going to make that accidental kiss happen in every single fic I write for them LOL.

Anyways, that would be all!!!!! I’m so sorry for making this hella long, lol, but I’m honestly so happy you were curious about this fic!!!! Like I said, I have a soft spot for this one, just as much as I have a soft spot for SNS. They will always be my favorite boys and my favorite ship ever. And I really enjoyed re-reading my own stuff and remembering my feelings while writing it years ago. AND IT JUST. MEANS A LOT TO ME???? This fic is from YEARS ago, and the fact that you ask about it just means more than I can express with words. SO, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING, HONESTLY.

I HOPE YOU’RE HAVING AN AMAZING DAY/NIGHT. I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BEYOND. HOPE YOU’RE SAFE, OKAY AND HAPPY. <333333333333333 LOTS OF LOVE FOR YOU!!!!!

#asks #my writing #my fics #sns #THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING YOU'RE SO SWEET I CAN'T BELIEVE IT #i love you!!! ;--; #i really really appreciate it #and i really really hope you're doing fine #SENDING YOU HUGS AND WARM POSITIVE VIBES!!!!!!!! #the sun is too bright it hurts #this is soooo criminally long tho #i'm so sorry omg #why am i like this #why do i talk a lot

[superpuppies]

Week 10/16 – 10/22/2019

At the Graveyard

Yay! Tommy and Merton are back again, this one take place after Merton Was Loved but by no means do you need to have read any of my other Tommy/ Merton stories. I simply reference some characters that are from the previous tales.

Having moved to their new city Tommy and Merton are looking for a better place to live with some space for Tommy to run free on those full moon nights, plan a wedding, work full time and try and spend some time together. While out with Lydia for work Merton thinks he might have found a place that could be a solution for 2 of those needs.

This story contains public sex & some slight restraint, so now you know.

If you would like to read this and all of 2019′s weekly writing challenge stories click HERE or continue read below for today’s tale.

Dialog prompt: “A graveyard is an odd place to meet someone and yet, here you both are.”

 Tommy glanced down at the directions on his phone again, Merton had messaged him early in the afternoon that he had found a place for him to run during the full moon and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.  Full moon was tonight and he need to go running to vent somethings, so as soon as he could he could he ran from the stadium and GPS’s Merton’s message.

When he pulled into a graveyard parking lot, he wasn’t overly surprised, the last part of Merton’s directions had been “on foot” and mostly consisted of a list of names. Merton had been going to a lot of graveyards and cemeteries lately with Lydia for work but still something about this was just weird. Locking the car, Tommy notices the sun was quickly setting so he picked up the pace.

Cresting a hill, he had to slow down to take a better look at eh fading names on the stones in the growing dark, he was in the old part of the yard and some of the stones where difficult to read even in the daylight. He was supposed to turn left at ‘Jacob McClain, so if he could just find the man. “There you are,” Tommy huffed triumphant and turned. “Merton! this is a bush!” he practically growled finding this was become far to frustrating. His phone buzzed in his hand a new text message flashing onto the screen. ‘Merton: Go through the bush.’ Tommy glared at his phone but pushed his way through the branches, they were surprisingly easy to maneuver through. Stepping out the other side Tommy found himself in a large clearing completely surrounded by the bush he had just come through a mausoleum in about halfway down in the left side and a few head stones here and there but very spacious.

Merton was sitting on the stone step of the mausoleum, a headlamp around his neck, book on his lap, basket beside him and a grind barely holding back his laughter on his face.  Merton waved at Tommy as the sun disappeared behind the bushes. It wasn’t full night yet but the wolf decided it was close enough. Tommy felt the changes over take him almost phantomlike, he was so fixated on how happy Merton looked. Seeing his mate so content helped elevate the stress of the last few months.

Merton had been in a great mood since they moved int that shitty little apartment, it was temporary while they looked for a real place and it would do for a little while but Merton had just been a bundle of happiness. He loved his new job and coworkers all a bunch of nerds geeking out about the paranormal with him and he was clearly having a blast planning the wedding. A small part of Tommy was jealous of how well Merton was doing with everything but he couldn’t be mad just because it seemed like Merton had finally hit his stride.  

“Hey Tommy,” Merton stood and kissed Tommy’s cheek. “How was your day?”

“Oh, you know,” Tommy leaned down and returned the show of affection in kind. “a lot of running and getting yelled at, You?”

“Crawling around graveyards looking for any sing of graveling. Getting dirty, thinking dirty and planning our first full moon date where we don’t have to hide you in the house of hearse the whole time.”

“You’ve been a busy boy.”

“Well you know me, can hardly sit still these days.” Merton glanced at the ground a little embarrassed. Ever since they moved into that shitty little apartment, he had been abuzz with happy, nervous energy. At times he felt like he was bouncing all over the place. “I hope you’re hungry.” He took Tommy’s paw and grabbed the basket with his other hand. “I got your favorite, it’s no Hungry Bucket but Grannis’s Kitchen Shack is supposed to have the best fried chicken in town.”

Tommy moaned appreciatively as he let Merton lead him down a small stone pathway. “You spoil me.”

“I don’t know about that; I mean if I wanted to spoil you, I’d learn how to fry chicken myself.”

“OOH-HH, Merton Chicken!” the idea alone was delicious.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Merton put down the basket on a blanket he had laid out and motioned for Tommy to sit. “we both know weird things happen I’m in the kitchen.” Merton settled next to Tommy and opened the basket.

“Yeah but so do delicious things.”

Merton smiled shyly and handed Tommy a bucket of chicken. He then pulled out a bowl and a fork for himself. He stabbed a diced veg, smiling as he watched Tommy tare into his chicken. “Good?” Tommy just nodded going in for another bite.

Lydia thought she was going to puke at how cute they were being or at least sound like they were being from her hiding spot. Merton had been acting giddy ever since they got here this afternoon and then she saw his writing out step by step directions to this spot and she decided to get to the bottom of it. Sure, she could have just asked him what was going on but where is the fun in that? So, she followed him, it had quickly become apparent that he was putting together some sort of dinner event but now it turned out to be just a date with Tommy. Nothing juicy like Merton having an affair or something. And sure, a date is a graveyard is weird but Merton is a delightfully weird dude, that’s why she loved him so much already. Alright, alright time to embarrass them, have a good laugh and head home for some dinner herself. Shifting up on to her knees she began a jovial scold. “You know a graveyard is an odd place to meet someone and yet, here you both are.” She finished brushing the dirt from her pants and looked down at them. “Oh my.”

Merton looked like he couldn’t decide if he was going to pass out or scream, while Tommy seemed genuinely surprised by her presence, oh yes and appeared to be a werewolf. Lydia stepped around the large tomb stone she had been hiding behind to get a better look at Tommy, “Fascinating.” She sank down to her knees in front of him. Tommy watched her but resumed chewing on his chicken. “No wonder you’re such an expert on Werewolves, Merton, you’re marrying one.” Lydia laughed, excitement ringing through the sound.

Tommy smiled at her in what he hoped read as warm, and tilted the bucket towards her. “Chicken?”

“Why thank you.” Lydia selected a leg from the bucket and Tommy’s smile brightened. Settling the bucket back to right he reached over and patted Merton’s leg comfortingly.

“Deep breath, Merton.” He soothed but his eyes never left Lydia.

She turned to Merton, who’s mouth was moving in staggering frantic, confusion but not making a single sound. He finally pulled in some air and asked quietly. “why are you here?”

“you were acting weird all day, so I fallowed you.” Lydia shrugged, Merton’s face fell and Tommy out right laughed.

“You probably thought you were being so cool.”

“Lydia, please, you can’t tell anyone about him. I promise he’s a good werewolf, a very, very good werewolf.” Merton grabbed her wrist, his voice pleading, his face begging just everything screaming of desperation.

“Of course, he is. She patted Merton’s hand. “I’m not going to tell anyone about your fiancée.”

“Oh, thank god!” Merton sank forward resting his head against her hand.

“You and I are going to talk about this, a lot, like, a lot.” her smile grew and she turned to Tommy. “And I have about a thousand questions.”

“Can I only answer a few tonight?” Tommy asked biting into another piece of chicken.

“Of course.”

“Then fire away.”

Lydia settled more comfortably in front of them, taking her hand back from Merton. “So, are you super-fast?”

“I’m pretty fast.”

“Are you super strong?”

“I’m pretty strong.” Tommy shrugged again.

Lydia pressed her lips together disappointed. “Okay, so you’re pretty fast and pretty strong, are you smatter?”

“Nope, that’s what I have Merton for. My sense of smell is usually really good though.”

“usually? Why only usually?”

“I didn’t smell you tonight and I should have.”

“Oh, really, I wonder why you couldn’t?”

Tommy lean forward, into her and took a lift sniff, more focused now he could easily pick her out of the surroundings. “You smell like warm earth and ink.” Sitting back with a shrug, “You must have just blended into the rest of it.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Lydia frowned and glanced at Merton who was mechanically piking at his salad.

“It’s pretty nice actually, a lot of women reek of perfume.”

“Not that, though I’ll take the complement assuming it was one,” Tommy nodded.  “the not being able to smell me.”

“Well, it’s not like you mean any harm.”

“But that’s just it, what if I did?”

“I’d smell it on you. People with bad intentions smell different.”

“What do bad intentions smell like?”

Tommy tilted his head back as he thought about it. “Kind of bitter.”

“Huh,” Lydia scratched behind her ear. “what does Merton smell like?”

Merton glanced up, curious why he had never thought to ask himself. Tommy chewed on a bite of his chicken thoughtfully then leaned over and took a deep inhale of Merton’s neck. Merton bit the inside of his cheek to quite a soft squeak. “Merton smells like candles, hair gel, coconuts, warmth, home and” he sniffed Merton again, his voice dropping a bit. “want.” Merton’s neck and cheeks tinted pink. Tommy leaned in closer and licked behind Merton’s ear. Merton out right shrieked then. “He tastes good too.” Tommy smirked at Lydia, she chuckled.

“You like to tease him.”

“Only a little, but yes, there are parts of me that like to see him a little panicked. You can’t tell me that wasn’t adorable, just look at him.” They both turned to Merton. “Cheeks flushed, panting like he just ran three miles, smelling like a sex god and all I did was lick him a little.” Tommy turned back to Lydia. “Something I’ve done a hundred times before.”

“Not in front of people!” Merton gasped out in defense.

“Only ‘cause I didn’t want to share you, oh and you didn’t let me tell anyone we were dating.”

“But now you do?” Merton asked sinking back in on himself.

“I thought she might appreciate it.” Tommy shrugged.

“Oh,” Merton looked down at the salad on his knees and told himself not to over think, it probably wasn’t what it sounded like.

Tommy frowned and gave Lydia an apologetic smile, taking Merton’s salad off his knees. He wasn’t surprised by the lack of reaction; Merton had a tendency to lose track of his surroundings when he sank into a doubt spiral. “He’s still not good about other people knowing… things.” Lydia nodded her understanding, in their short amount of time together she had very quickly learned that Merton was a sensitive soul. Tommy took Merton’s hands, “Merton. Tommy to Merton, come in Merton.” Merton glanced up at Tommy, broken eyes not really seeing as his heads whirled wildly. “Don’t do that, Merton.”

“What?” Merton asked, knowing he should be responding but not really listening. Tommy pulled Merton toward him, forcing him up onto his knees fumbling before he landed against Tommy’s chest. “What are you” Tommy pulled him in to a tender, deep kiss.

Merton let himself sink into it, shifting about so his legs were more comfortable and he ended up on Tommy’s lap. His arms wrapped around Tommy’s neck, his hands digging into fur and shirt alike.

“No wondering off without me, remember.” Tommy chastised lightly, pulling away.

“Sorry,” Merton whimpered leaning in for another kiss.

Lydia cleared her throat loudly. “Still right here.” Tommy smiled as Merton shot his eyes over his shoulder but not willing to turn his head. “So, we should do lunch this week.” Tommy wrapped his arms around Merton’s waist and put his chin on Merton’s shoulder. “I still have questions, but it’s getting late and I haven’t had dinner. So, I’ll call you.”

“Okay, sounds good.” Tommy smiled brightly at her as she stood and brushed off her knees.

“Alright, well then, you boys have fun.”

Tommy smirked as he watched her get her bearings, Merton dropped his head to Tommy’s shoulder, his face bright red. This was so embarrassing, how was it Tommy made him forget about other people, especially his boss!

“Be at the office by ten thirty, Merton.” Lydia said ducking into one of the bushes.

“Yes, ma’am.” Merton barely managed to squeak out. They heard her push through to the other side and start down the path toward the car park.

“That wasn’t so bad.” Tommy chuckled.

“I can never go to the office again.” Merton moaned sinking down on to Tommy even farther.

“Awe, don’t say that, you’ll make Lydia sad.”

“So embarrassing.”

“No, embarrassing would have been if I’d stripped you down the minute, I laid eyes on you and she was stuck in her hiding spot listening slash watching us as I went down on you or more.” Merton whimpered pathetically against Tommy’s shoulder. “What if I had knotted you,” Merton wiggled against Tommy, just the idea of knotting got him horny beyond reason. “and then she thought it was safe, came out of her hidey hole and saw us. You probably would have passed out from embarrassment. Then there we would be, you unconscious, locked onto my dick as I tried to explain to your boss that I’m a good werewolf. What would that have gotten us?”

“Me locked on your dick.” Merton groaned desperately in Tommy’s ear. He wasn’t going to say this but that was what he had been after the whole time he was planning thing date night thing of theirs.

“And a whole mess of trouble, whereas now, we have lunch date with our friend and a chance to get you locked in place.” Tommy lifted Merton’s chin giving him a wink before kissing him, pulling him in tighter.

“Behind in the dirt.” Merton groaned against Tommy’s lips.

“Wha” Tommy began but Merton pulled his shirt over his head.

“Take me from behind, face down in the dirt. Knot me.”

“So, we’re just gonna get right into it then.”

“yes.”

Tommy smirked darkly, pushed Merton from his lap and shifted on to his own knees. Kneeling over him, Tommy rolled Merton on to his stomach and lifted his hips. Once he was sure Merton had his knees under him, Tommy popped the button on Merton’s pants and yanked them down. Merton rocked with the force of it and smiled to himself.

Tommy ran his paws over the globes of Merton’s ass. Spreading them he found a small purple ring protruding from Merton’s slicked up hole. Tommy let out a hungry growl. “Such a bad boy, how long has this been inside you?” Tommy flicked the purple ring. Merton whimpered and wiggled hips. Tommy ran a paw down Merton’s spine, pushing up the back of his shirt. “Answer me.” He spanked the right side of Merton’s ass.

Merton yelped, feeling Tommy’s hand disappear for the next blow he stumbled out an answer. “Just after I texted you.”

“That’s pushing three hours.” Tommy chuckled. “You let me chit chat with your boss while this was inside you? Bad, bad, Merton.” Tommy looped his finger through the ring and began to pull. Merton tried to straighten up but Tommy pressed his shoulders down to the ground. Tommy watched Merton hole expanded to release the varying sized bumps of the butt plug. With only the last bump left Tommy paused to open his own pants, that out of the way he remover the last of the plug and smirked at the small trickle of lube dripping from Merton. Such a good boy, so well prepared.

Dropping the plug Tommy caught some of the lube in his paw and smeared it over his dick. Tommy rubbed himself over Merton’s twitching hole. Merton whimpered needy, rocking back against him. With the embarrassment completely forgotten Merton smelled like sex on a stick and Tommy wasn’t going to waist that. Tommy tightened his grip on Merton’s hips. In one smooth, slow push he eased into Merton, a possessive growl rolling his throat as he did. Merton melted around him, a desperate keening moan leaking out of him.

Fully sheathed in Merton, Tommy’s hips made a sharp shallow thrust. He smirked as Merton scratched into grass. He snapped his hips forward again, before settling on a mild pace. “Harder!” Merton snapped pushing back to meet his thrusts.

Tommy grabbed Merton’s shirt pulling him up against his chest then out of the shirt entirely. His hips picking up force and speed. He licked from Merton’s left shoulder to the back of his left ear, loving the shivers and whimpers the pulled from Merton. “What was that,” he ground his hips into Merton. Merton’s hands scratched down his sides desperate for as much contact as he could get. “I think I missed it.”

“Fuck me! Show me who I belong too. Make me your Bitch.” Tommy frowned. “carve it in to me. Knot me, God, Knot me!”

Tommy covered Merton’s mouth. Okay Merton wanted him rough, he could play rough. He would have to have a talk about that ‘bitch’ thing later preferably fallowed by some papering and spooning. Tommy picked up Merton’s shirt and used it to tie his hands behind his back, then pushed him down. “use me.” Merton moaned into the grass.

Well that’s gonna get added to the discussion. Tommy frowned again pressing Merton’s face into the ground “Shut up.” and began to fuck Merton with seemingly no regarded for Merton at all.  His movements fast, hard and violent.

Merton lost himself in it, tears welling and falling down his cheeks as twigs in the grass scratched against his face. He rocked back against Tommy, groans and moans, of encouragement spilling out off him. Tommy clamped a hand over Merton’s mouth again a frustrated growl curling in the air around them.  “Shut up.”  Tommy growled and slammed into him, Merton bit down on Tommy’s fingers. “AH, no biting!” Tommy’s vice tilted back up to its usual octave as he pulled his hand free shaking the spit from it. Ge-bus what was wrong with Merton tonight?

Tommy tightened his claws around Merton’s hips, just shy of breaking the skin. He wanted to run his hands over that beautiful skin but too much touching ruined it for Merton when he was like this. Though not touch just wasn’t an option for Tommy. Merton didn’t seem to have to much of a problem with the spanking earlier. He needed to make Merton come, was it bad that he was getting tired? No, he’s been running around all day. So, he could be tired, Right? Yeah, yeah, he could be tired. Okay so how to make Merton come? On, one of these nights he needed to come and knot Merton. Alright what was surefire way to make himself come? Merton screaming or begging his name. That’s not likely with Merton in this mood. Merton babbling incoherently while he went down on him. Well that would help with the coming but not with the knotting, probably not the best plan. Chained to a wall Merton, no, very few walls and no chains.

“No, no.” Merton cried into the grass, Tommy slowed even more and stretched over Merton’s back.  “No, Tommy, don’t...” Tommy lifted Merton’s face out of the grass turning him to get a better look. Merton’s cheeks were tear streaked and flushed his mouth gasping open eyes half glazed. “don’t stop.” Tommy felt himself grow harder, Merton groaned pressing back against him, his bound hands scratching against Tommy’s stomach. Damn it, Merton! “Don’t stop, Tommy… Tommy!”

Oh no, Tommy wrapped his left arm around Merton’s chest, using his right for leverage against the groaned. “So, dangerous.” He growled in Merton’s ear, letting the wolves instices over take him. Merton screamed in what he hopped was bliss because there was no stopping him now.

When Merton screamed again Tommy clamped a paw over his mouth with a warning growl. Merton shuttered beneath him, and that was the final push. With a howl Tommy exploded into Merton, the base of his cock expanding, locking the two men together while his seed pumped into Merton.

A scream ripped from Merton’s chest as the heat from Tommy’s ejaculate, pressure from Tommy’s knot expanding inside him and Tommy’s hand clamping tighter over his mouth pushed him over the presuppose. His back arched, his eyelids fluttered as his whole body twitched. His knees gave out under him and he and Tommy collapsed to the ground. They lay there panting, neither one sure they could move.

Tommy took his hand from Merton’s mouth and licked behind Merton’s ear. That was the taste of blissed out satisfaction he liked to find on Merton. “Good boy.” He rumbled in Merton’s ear, pulling back just enough to untie Merton’s hands. Wrapping his arms around Merton. “We have to get out of that shitty apartment, with its paper thin walls. So, I can destroy you somewhere more comfortable.”

“Agreed, but this was nice too.” Merton curled and uncurled his fists making sure blood flow was as it should be. He turned his head to look at Tommy, bringing up his right hand to cradled the back of Tommy’s head. “Thank you.”

“Anything for you,” Tommy rested his forehead against Merton’s “With maybe a few minor notes.” Merton chuckled pulling him down for a kiss.

#weekly writing #Challange #Big Wolf on Campus #Merton J. Dingle #Tommy P. Dawkins #Tommy / Merton

[wonderwomanfantasy]

Snuggle bunny

turns out I see the word fluff and just go ape shit. Also if you couldn’t tell by my last story and this one my idea of self-care is watching shit animated movies. 

Kaminari x Reader

word count: 1,000(about)

warnings: this is disgustingly cute, tooth-rotting fluff, swearing, sickness, Kaminari is kinda gross but he’s sick so he gets a pass, dialog heavy,

summary: Kaminari is a needy baby at the best of times, and when he is sick? crank that up to eleven, but he is just going to have to suffer because no way you are risking your own health just for some cuddle time.

You were about to punch your computer when Kaminari called, witch surprised you, he normally only texted you. You answered at once fearing that he had set fire to the kitchen, again. 

“Denki? Is everything okay?” you asked worriedly.

“Nooooooooooooo,” he wailed dramatically. “I'm sick,” you could hear the congestion in his voice. You laughed at him relieved. “Don't laugh this is serious!” he whined

“Sorry baby I thought something was wrong,” you explained.

“Something is wrong I'm dying!” he moaned, making you laugh again. “I didn't pull you away from work did I?” he asked sounding concerned.

“no, my computer has been acting up all day I've hardly gotten anything done,” you admitted glaring at the thousand-year-old desktop which had been loading a web page for the last half hour.

“Perfect, if you aren't doing anything you can come home and take care of me,” he chirped happily. You rolled your eyes and scoffed. “please Sweetheart I feel so bad, I need you.” you sighed and gave in.

“I'll take a half-day and come home at lunch how does that sound?”

“No that's too long!” he cried, he always turned into a baby when he got sick.

“Fine, I'll be home as soon as I can baby,” you said shutting off your crappy computer.

“will you bring me soup?”

“mmm, No.”

“(y/n)!”

“I'm kidding you, big baby,” you teased standing from your desk, you assured him you loved him and you would be home soon. You made sure to get him soup, cough drops, and other sick day necessities.

When you got home he was set up on the couch in the living room huddled in a mass of blankets and pillows with crumpled tissues surrounding him.

“you're disgusting,” you said in lew of greeting.

“awe you love me,” he rasped before sneezing so violently the lights flickered. He looked terrible he was pale with a red runny nose and dark circles under his eyes. You pressed the back of your hand to his forehead and sure enough, he was burring up even though he claimed to be freezing. You set down the grocery bag of items and started picking up the used tissues.

“Baby has a fever,” you said sympathetically.

“Baby needs some kisses from Nurse (y/n),” he whined. He puckered his lips and made kissy noises at you while you disposed of the tissues.

“No way in hell I'm kissing you. I can't get sick,” you said crossing your arms.

“evil woman,” he pouted.

“would an evil woman have brought you the soup you like?” you asked bringing out the container of said soup, his eyes lit up.

“I love you, babe, even if you refuse to kiss me,” he said making a grabbing motion for the soup. You placed the soup into bowls and sat with him on the couch and got threw the entire container of soup and almost all of Shark Tale before he made another move on you. He had kicked off the covers during one of his hot flashes but he was starting to feel cold again, but he didn't want the blankets, he wanted you.

“(y/n) come cuddle with me,” he demanded

“Nope,” you snapped not taking your eyes off the movie. He started scooting closer to you.

“Baby pretty please with sugar on top,” he whined. You turned and upon seeing how close he was shrieked. You tried to move away but he pounced wrapping his sweaty arms around you.

“Denki!” you cried out trying to escape him but even in his weakened state he managed to hold on.

“You are going to get me sick you son of a bitch!” you screamed.

“(y/n) baby you probably already got exposed to whatever I have,” he protested, but your wiggling and screaming didn't stop. So he did the only thing he could. He stuck his tongue out and licked your cheek. You froze.

“there now you really are going to get sick so will you please just cuddle with your dying boyfriend?”

“Denki Kaminari did you just lick me?”

“Yeah, now it's cuddle time,” he said triumphantly. You whipped your cheek disguised but you relaxed in his embrace all the same.

“You are so gross. I’m going to get you back for that,” you mumbled as the movie ended

“don't be like that Snuggle Bunny,” he teased. You blushed, as you did every time he used that stupid nickname.

“what next, Over the Hedge or Mega Mind?” you asked changing the subject.

“Mega Mind obviously, but first- I want a kiss now that you've given in to my willy charms” he said wiggling his eyebrows.

“I am amazed you can still be a pervert even while sick,” you mocked before connecting your lips to his. Denki sent a little current of electricity ran through your lips making them buzz, it was an addicting habit of his, it made you want more of him just to see if you could get a bigger shock. You pulled away only when his tongue swiped across your lower lip asking for entrance to your mouth.

“oh no you don't get to make out if you're sick,” you whispered.

“why must you torture me oh cruel woman of mine?” he sighed dramatically as you got up and popped in the new movie.

“You act like I never kiss you,” you said climbing back on top of him. He opened his mouth to say something back but immediately went into a coughing fit. You rubbed his back and handed him a cough drop once he was done hacking up a lung.

“better?” you asked gently, the movie forgotten.

“I'm just fine just sleepy, will you sing me to sleep?” he begged batting his eyelashes at you. You sighed.

“Okay if you're using puppy dog eyes on me you must be tired. Let's go take a nap baby,” you said standing up and helping him to his feet.

“But we can still watch Mega Mind latter right?”

“Obviously,”

#denki #denki kaminari #Kaminari Denki #bnha kaminari #kaminari x reader #imagine kaminari #kaminari imagine #denki imagine #imagine denki #kaminari fluff #my hero academia #my hero acadamy #my hero academia imagine

[sf-akahana]

B Support (snzfic)

Fi//re Em//blem 3 Houses fic based of Dorothea's B support with Byleth.  This is written from Dorothea's perspective and I copied the lines straight from how it's written in game, so you might want to watch both the female and male version of that conversation if the dialog reads a little stiff sorry.  The voice acting in both English and Japanese is good anyway so I suggest it.  I purposefully used gender neutral pronouns so you can pick which ever version on Byleth you prefer.  Hope you enjoy my frantic 5am thirst ramblings

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I can’t help but grumble a bit to myself as I reread the notes from today’s lecture; even though I wrote everything down it feels like I didn’t retain any of it.  It’s not my fault though, Professor Byleth’s just so distracting!  How am I supposed to focus on what they’re saying when they’re looking at me like that?!  I heave a heavy sigh and try to focus my attention back on the lesson, when I’m interrupted by a familiar monotone voice.

“What’s wrong?”

I whip around in surprise - speak of the devil.  There they are with their blank expression and piercing gaze, and as our eyes meet I already start to feel my ears heat up.  Dammit.

“Professor?!  I – Oh… don’t worry.  It’s nothing.”

They quietly accept my answer and seemingly wait for me to go back to my work.  Under normal circumstances I would have appreciated it, but honestly this is getting ridiculous.  I can’t be constantly distracted by my own teacher; I have to find a way around this or else there’s no reason for me to be here!!  I take a second to gather my thoughts before I meet their eyes again.

“Actually, could we talk for a bit?  Somewhere a little more...private?”

I work hard to come across as sincere as possible; it’s too easy to let flirtation slip into a question like that and get brushed off.  Their expression barely changes, little more than raising their eyebrows, but it’s enough that I know they understood.  I don’t bother to wait for an answer as I turn around and walk out the dinning hall towards the first floor dorm rooms.  Not long after a set of footsteps click on the stone pathway just behind me.  I use the silence of our walk to come up with a good way to start this conversation, but by the time we close my bedroom door behind us I still don’t have the right words.  We stand facing each other saying nothing for a few moments before I decide to throw caution to the wind.

“I’m just gonna come right out and say it.  I find you a little difficult to be around.  I know, I know.  I’m your student and you’re just trying to watch out for me.  But the way you look at me sometimes… it’s like you’re seeing right through me.”

The change in their expression is again subtle, but I’ve always been pretty good at reading others.  They’re a person of few words, and I can see the gears turning in their head as they carefully choose the right ones.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize.  I know you don’t mean anything bad by it.  I’m just self-conscious, I guess.  The thing is, I don’t have anything to call my own.  No land, no birthright, no fortune.  Little knowledge or battle skill.  I think that’s why I always clung to my popularity as a diva.  Even after leaving the stage behind, I sort of kept up the act.  When I look at you, it’s like your eyes are accusing me… Telling me that you see right through it.  That’s what I mean when I say it’s difficult to be around you.”

I didn’t mean to get so personal with the professor and to dump all my baggage on them, but now that I’ve started I just can’t stop.  And of course, they just stand their quietly and let me ramble uninterrupted.  I take a deep breath and meet their piercing eyes again, the heat moving from my ears to my cheeks as an idea forms in my head.

“Hey, uh, this might be nuts, but maybe you could show me some kind of weakness of yours?”

“Excuse me?” Their eyes immediately widen in shock, and though not as much as other people this is the most expression I’ve gotten this whole conversation.  The reaction gives me a little confidence as I continue on with my silly request.

“You know my biggest fear.  If I know one of yours, maybe I’ll feel less, I don’t know… vulnerable.”

They look pensive for a moment, hesitation clear to see as they seemingly way the pros and cons.  I’m not oblivious as to how showing a student your weakness could be uncomfortable or embarrassing, but honestly that’s what I’m going for.  Anything to humanize them.

“Well, if it would really help...”

“Excellent.  Well then, don’t mind me.”  Just as they promised they wait patiently as I quickly try to think of something to get a reaction out of them. Something ridiculously human, something involuntary.  Tickling maybe?  Though they are wearing a lot of clothing, they might be able to endure it.  The only thing exposed is their...face - that’s perfect!!  I couldn’t quite help my grin as I fiddled through my gift drawer.  Right on top was a pretty white owl feather, the very same one Professor Byleth gave me for my birthday over tea not but a few weeks ago.  I’ve been meaning to sew into into my cap, but now I’m glad I haven’t gotten around to it yet.  I have to keep myself from skipping back across the room as I hold up the feather just above their beautifully pointed nose.

“Is this still ok, Professor?”  With a small look of reluctance, they take a deep breath and nod their head.  Though there’s no color across their cheeks, their eyes drift away from mine as I tip their chin back slightly, and I will happily take that as a show of embarrassment at this oddly intimate act.  From this angle it was hard not to notice Byleth’s beautiful skin and perfect jaw, but then no ever one said the professor isn’t attractive.  I take a deep breath of my own before stealing my nerves and starting on my work.

The first touch of the feather to their upturned nose gets little reaction, but I’m in no hurry right now.  I take my time tickling around the nostrils and up the septum.  It’s almost mesmerizing watching the muscles around the nose tick slightly at the sensation, a little scrunch of the nose here and a shallow sniff there.  Soon their nostrils are flushed pink under the attention of the feather, Byleth’s eyes squinting up at the ceiling and their arms crossed tightly across their chest to deal with the itch.  It’s only then that I decide it’s time to get the real reaction I’m looking for.

As I ease the feather slowly into their left nostril their nose immediately scrunches up, a gasp muffled through their teeth and a visible shudder tensing their shoulders.  I can feel my grin stretch across my face; this is exactly what I’m looking for.  It makes me feel in control, a little sadistic even.  I keep my fingers underneath their chin as I twirl the tickly tool deeper into their nostril, the tip of the feather brushing lightly against their sinuses, and soon I’m treated by their first desperate sound; a little whine as their nostrils flare out trying to escape the tickling.  I’m treated to more gasps and soft noises as I continue to tease the sensitive spot I found, and it isn’t long until Byleth is hitching in earnest.

“ah! hihh...hhIh-hIHh!! ehh-hIH!”

They’re shoulders are tensed up so they don’t jerk away from me and their hands have moved from their chest to hovering just below mine, ready to catch the sneezes when I finally bring it out of them.  Though it seems they were too impatient to wait for me to finish it, as a sharp sniff triggeres a desperate breath in preparation for the fit.  They quickly pushed my hands away and back up a few steps, though to my delight they don’t obscure their face as they finally tip over the edge.

“hhHIHHHhh- AT’chuhh!! A’tchh! ‘tchuh!  hehh’eTCHhu!!  hiih...hEH!  ATCHhhu!! snff snf...”

Byleth pulls a nice handkerchief out of their coat as the fit comes to an end, and I stand pink cheeked and a little speechless as they clean themselves up.  Weirdly enough I’ll say I’m even a bit starstruck.  Usually a display so dramatic and impolite would take away from one’s attractiveness, but under these circumstances I can honestly say that it kind of has the opposite effect.  I quickly shake out of my thoughts as they clear their nose a final time, and my grin quickly spreads over my face once more.

“Goddess’ blessings, wow Professor that was dramatic.  I don’t mind though, you have pretty cute sneezes.  Next time you gaze into my soul, I know just how I’ll retaliate!”  I can’t help but giggle as I tease them a little, hoping to get just one more reaction out of them.  Byleth just smiles slightly though and doesn’t rise to my bait, no pink cheeks or nothing.  I let myself pout.

“Come on!  I thought that was funny.  I swear it’s like your heart isn’t even beating.”  Without missing a beat and with a completely black expression, they come back with-

“Actually, my heart isn’t beating.”

“Ha, don’t be so silly… Huh?  It really isn’t beating?! - Is what I’d say if I were more gullible.  You’re just fooling around, Professor.  I’m not sure how you did it, but that was a good one.”

___________________________________

|                                                                     |

| Byleth and Dorothea’s                                 |

| support level is now B!                                |

| Their motivation has also increased.           |

|___________________________________|

#sneezefic #snzfic #sneeze kink

[violetsmoak]

Philtatos [7/?]

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20101543/chapters/47630773

Blanket Disclaimer

Summary: During a patrol where Red Hood and Red Robin cross paths, Jason is infected with the blood of the Eros, the ancient God of Love, who informs them that they must track down his missing bow and arrows, or Jason will go slowly mad with an obsessive desire–for Tim. Though overwhelmed by the sudden attention being paid to him, Tim sets to work trying to solve the case, before Jason succumbs to madness. In the meantime, Jason discovers that there’s more than godlike powers at work here, as well as a legacy that reaches back through the sands of time.

Rating: PG-13 (rating may change later)

Beta Reader: None at the moment.

JayTimBingo Prompts This Chapter: #fate #fatal flaw #oracle #reincarnation #secrets #undying love

First Chapter

Author's Note(s): Sorry for the delay guys. Between trying to find a place to live, and dealing with a family member with Alzheimers, the past day or so has kind of sucked. But I did finally get some time to myself to finish this chapter, so I hope you enjoy! 

Much of the dialog and imagery of Jason’s flashback is based on actual lines from The Iliad and Madeline Miller's novel The Song of Achilles. If you're looking to cry, read the latter to the end.

________________________________________________________________

Tim stares at the screen of his tablet, reading the information but none of it registering. He’s been at this too long.

Crime scene photos from the GCPD’s system and coroners reports from half a dozen murder-suicides that took place throughout the city in the past week, each one more brutal than the last. One guy took a meat pounder to his girlfriend’s head; another a fire poker to his husband’s face.

I wish I could get out there and investigate the scenes myself.

He’s been effectively benched and it’s starting to give him cabin fever, even though he knows it’s important to stay with Jason right now.

Bruce took off to Amsterdam about an hour again; like Tim, he prefers to retrace crimes from their origin. It’s how they find clues the cops miss. Dick’s doing the same right now in Gotham, revisiting all the crime scenes with Duke by his side in case his retrocognition can help them any. He has no idea where Steph is tonight, but if Barbara’s radio silence is any indicator, they’re probably working something big together.

Jason’s been sitting beside him on the couch in the study, three separate books open on his lap and a notepad where he’s jotting down various comparisons of the information.

(Because “I’m not defacing a first edition version of Les Métamorphoses, especially not one with etchings by Picasso, Tim. It’s just not done.”)

The first hour he managed to keep absorbed in his task, but Tim’s noticed him stopping more often between annotations, rubbing at a spot on his neck or over the spot in his shoulder where he was shot.

Whenever he notices Tim looking, they both immediately look away and go back to work; but after another period of research—getting shorter and shorter after each pause—Jason’s back to twitching and looking guilty.

He’s going to have his neck rubbed raw in another hour.

Despite the fact the whole thing was Tim’s idea, it’s harder to remain unaffected about the need for physical contact than he thought. And Jason notices pretty fast that Tim isn’t as at ease with the ‘treatment’ plan as he’s been insinuating.

He thought Jason putting his arm around his shoulders earlier was mostly to bother Dick, whose attempts at protectiveness had just made the situation more awkward. But when Jason does it again later, unthinkingly draping himself around Tim’s shoulder, Tim can’t help going stiff as a board.

Jason pulls away immediately, as if he’s been burned. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s…fine.”

“Stop lying, obviously you’re not,” Jason answers, shifting to the other edge of the couch to put at least three feet between them. “You don’t have to force yourself to do this. I can get through it without you.”

Tim sets aside his tablet. “Because that worked out so well the first time you tried it.”

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t matter. I’m more than capable of figuring out how to get through this without using your skin as a security blanket.” He pauses. “That came out so much disturbing than I intended.”

“How was it ever not going to sound disturbing?” Tim wonders, and then sighs. “Look, I don’t mind. The longer you stay in a healthy headspace, the more time we have to find a cure.”

“Yeah, but if you’re so friggen uncomfortable with it—”

“I’m not!”

“Bullshit.”

“No, really, it’s fine. It’s my choice.”

“Yeah, say that without flinching and maybe I’ll believe you,” Jason mutters, shoulders slumping. “If you’re going to freeze up every time I go near your personal bubble, screw it. Like I don’t feel like enough of a creep…”

Tim can see how much he hates this, the fact that he’s making Tim uncomfortable—the fact that making Tim uncomfortable upsets him at all. He’s never cared before; it’s always been a kind of unofficial hobby.

But now that his brain and hormones are becoming compromised, it’s more important to him than ever not to cross boundaries. Or at least what he perceives as boundaries.

Tim bows his head.

He’s been managing his feelings about all this by remaining clinical, dividing him from the particulars of the situation the way he’s always done. It’s the sort of thing that works on hard cases, the kind involving little kids or serial murders. He forgot that it doesn’t work so well when dealing with people.

Communication, he remembers Steph chiding him during one argument. Honesty.

Nodding to himself, Tim forces himself to appear relaxed.

“It’s not like that. I just—I’ve never been really good at all the…” He waves his hand, searching for the words, “…physical intimacy stuff.”

Jason blinks, not having expected that. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Tim shifts. “I know it’s hard to tell when I’m next to Dick or Steph or someone who…”

“Who has personal space issues?”

“Yeah. But with them I’ve gotten used to it. But with you, you’ve never exactly…”

“Put hands on you except to lay you out flat on the floor?” Jason suggests, and then turns red. “I mean beating the crap out of you! Not the other thing that…! Fuck, he wasn’t kidding about the innuendo thing, was he?”

“Oh, I don’t know. If not for everything going on, I’m pretty sure you’d still be making jokes to make everyone uncomfortable,” Tim muses, his own ears warm at the accidental image Jason’s words provided.

Jason tilts his head to one side, and then nods. “Fair.”

They smirk at each other for a moment. Then something thoughtful passes across Jason’s face.

“What?”

“When you say physical intimacy,” Jason starts slowly, “d’you mean just occupying someone else’s personal space, or…?”

He trails off, and it takes a few seconds before Tim interprets the meaning. His cheeks may actually be on fire right now. “Uh…”

“You’re kidding.”

“Well, the first one’s always kind of an issue,” Tim mumbles, looking away, “so I don’t really—like I said, I’m not used to anyone wanting to get close to me, let alone actually trying it. Which always made everything kind of awkward.”

“And the second thing?”

“…that made it awkward, too.”

“So, you haven’t—? Like, not even with Blondie?”

There’s incredulity there, but no judgment, which is somewhat of a relief; he’s too used to other guys looking like he should have his man card revoked for not pouncing on a gorgeous girl like Steph.

As if anyone would ever get away with pouncing without getting a brick to the face.

But Jason seems genuinely curious, which makes Tim want to try to answer.

“No?” Tim winces at the uncertainty in the word and glances up to make sure there’s still no judgment on Jason’s face. “Not because—not because I didn’t—or she wasn’t—we fooled around, but never—she’d already done the whole unwanted pregnancy thing. We wanted to be careful and wait until we were both sure we wanted to. And then she died, then came back because she wasn’t really dead, and we broke up. But it was a long time ago, and then we never got another opportunity because—well, there was Bruce dying and not dying, and other people dying, and then losing Robin, and just…” He lets his words trail as he realizes he’s been babbling. “Sorry. Babbling.”

Jason makes a dismissive gesture. “Nah, it’s cute.”

There’s a moment where they both process his words, and then Jason’s rubbing at his neck and Tim’s coughing because he thinks he might have choked on his tongue.

“I’m going to…” Jason stands, starts rummaging through his pockets, and then jerks his head toward the balcony, “Smoke break.”

“Right,” Tim answers, carefully neutral.

Tim doesn’t complain about the smoking, even though he hates it. Jason’s under enough stress right now, if the nicotine helps calm him even a little a bit, Tim can put up with it for the short-term.

Not like he’s going to be around once we fix all this.

He lets Jason make his escape and for the first time since the conversation began, takes a full breath.

It’s just Eros’ blood. He doesn’t actually think that.

The truth doesn’t make his heart stop fluttering.

“Fuck,” he mutters, letting his face fall into his hand; he rubs at his face in frustration.

“Wallowing in your failure as usual, Drake?”

He jumps and then shoots a glare across the room at the pint-sized bane of his existence.

“Why aren’t you out terrorizing the streets of Gotham?”

“I’m here to ensure the present status quo endures and neither you nor Todd end up compromised,” Damian retorts. Then Tim blinks, the kid smirks at him. “I’m babysitting you two morons.”

“Well my life just hit another low…”

“I have also been doing research of my own to pass the time, since my talents are being ignored in favor of mundane surveillance tasks,” the boy continues. “I was intrigued at Todd’s apparent symptoms of xenoglossia and decided to peruse the security footage to see what might have precipitated it.”

“…And?”

“It wasn’t until you arrived that it started. He called you philtatos. It means ‘most beloved’.”

Tim tries not to choke. “How do you know that?”

“Anyone who has read the Iliad in the original Greek could tell you that,” Damian drawls.

“Well, excuse me, I had an education meant for this millennium.” Tim tries not to croak, running his hands through his hair in frustrations. The strands are stringy today and he tries to remember when he washed it last was; probably before Jason was brought to the manor.

“Odd that he’d call you that, though,” Damian continues. “He has that habit of assigning the most absurd monikers to anyone within a ten-foot radius. It’s not exactly the type of thing he would say. And to you of all people.”

Tim frowns, ignoring the insult. “You think it’s a symptom of the infection?”

“Perhaps. The term itself, or the tongue in question. In case you were curious, which I doubt since unless it involves a computer your interest becomes depressingly cursory, the language Todd was mumbling in while drooling on your shoulder was Archaia Makedonike.”

“English, brat.”

“Ancient Macedonian, you classless twit. The language itself was prevalent in the Hellenistic period before giving way to its superior successor, Koine, when it was brought by the military forces of Alexander the Great.”

“Conqueror of the known world at the time—why am I not surprised you’re so well-versed.”

“Tt. Of course I am. As a child, Mother brought me on a journey to follow in his footsteps along what was once his Empire.”

You’re still a child, Tim doesn’t say, because he just doesn’t have the energy for the inevitable resulting fight. “Sounds like quality family bonding time.”

“It was meant to show me all that could be achieved in a short lifetime,” Damian sniffs. “And what could be lost just as easily.”

“Because he died young?”

“Not only that, but because of his rather questionable decisions. Like pouring a considerable amount of his treasury into a funeral monument for one of his generals. He was so besotted with the man he died less than a year later. It’s disgraceful.”

“Right, because caring about someone is a bad thing.”

“It is possible to care without being ruled by one’s emotions.”

“Yeah, you’re such an excellent example of that,” Tim deadpans. At Damian’s glare, he makes a defensive gesture with his hand. “What do you want me to say? People do weird stuff for the people they care about.”

Damian narrows his eyes. “Evidently.”

He continues to watch Tim in a way he’s not entirely sure he likes. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“It sounds like you’ve got something to say.”

Jason chooses that moment to return, although he halts in the door when he notices the way Tim and Damian are glaring at one another. “Am I walking in on something here?”

“I was simply demonstrating Drake’s continued ignorance in several arenas,” Damian replies, and pushes past Jason. “I’ve wasted enough of my day pandering to your nonsense. Shout if you need help.” His gaze lingers on Jason with disgust. “Or possibly a firehose.”

“Was that demon-speak for ‘make good choices’?” Tim calls after him and noticing Jason’s bemused expression offers a half shrug. “He will do great things.”

“See, I knew all that getting on his case was just your way of showing you like him,” Jason teases and settles back on the couch. Much closer to Tim this time, body angled toward him; he can smell leather and the acrid smell of cigarettes.

He forces a grin, “Tell no one.”

“Lips are sealed,” Jason replies, abruptly stretching out and tucking a stray strand of hair behind his ear.

The gesture would normally make Tim want to melt, to bend closer to Jason as well; at first it does, but the reason for it remains starkly in his mind, and instead his skin crawls.

The study suddenly seems too small, too close, magnified by Jason’s focus on him.

Need a distraction.

“There’s a lot of CCTV footage to go through,” he says, clearing his throat and standing quickly. He ambles over to the desk to grab Bruce’s laptop, holding up to Jason. “Feel like going through half?”

“Not particularly, but only because that’s the most boring job ever.”

“And reading scholarly articles dissecting the exact syntax of some ancient play isn’t?”

“Don’t act like if it was Klingon or something you wouldn’t have a field day.”

But Jason accepts the computer, putting his books and notes to one side. Tim exhales a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

They sit in silence again for a while, one that’s somehow more tense than earlier. Tim’s stomach keeps leaping, waiting for the next time Jason needs to reach out to him, simultaneously craving and dreading it.

So it’s no surprise that he physically jolts when Jason suddenly announces, “I think I’ve got something.”

“What?” he asks quickly, hoping his reaction wasn’t that noticeable. He moves to peek over Jason’s shoulder, considering a timestamped video of an Upper East Side apartment. There’s a crowd gathered outside as paramedics load two covered stretchers into an ambulance.

“Right there.” Jason points at a grainy image in the upper left corner, almost obscured by the lighting. “See this woman?”

Tim studies the image of the woman in a leather jacket and skin-tight pants. “Yeah?”

“That’s Carrie Cutter.”

“Carrie…” Tim consults his mental rolodex. “Carrie Cutter as in Cupid?”

“Yep.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive. I’m pretty familiar with anyone Roy might have had beef with down in his corner of the world. You know, just in case.”

Which is a smart thing to do, really, considering old enemies always have a tendency to return when they’re least expected.

And just…great. Because Carrie Cutter, along with being crazy to the point of earning honorary Arkham status, also happens to be a genetically enhanced special-ops soldier that knows how not to be found. If she’s got her hands on divine weapons somehow, it’s going to make apprehending her much more of a challenge.

Especially those weapons. If any of us get tagged with those, we’re done. I’ve been around when the Family gets turned against each other, and it’s never pretty.

The memory of Joker’s macabre dinner party still makes him gag reflexively.

Tim leans forward, balancing his weight on the desk with his palms, and studies the image again. “Could be a coincidence.”

“Has anything about all this felt coincidental to you?”

“Touché.” Tim shakes his head. “Damn. So, Cupid stole Cupid’s bow and arrows?”

What even is my life anymore?

“And the MO makes sense now, if you think about it,” Jason points out; he absently starts to rub the back of Tim’s hand with his thumb. Tim swallows and fights the conflicting urge to jerk his hand away or lean further into Jason’s space. “She has that whole crazed ‘if-I-can’t-be-happy-no-one-can’ thing going on. If she’s got Eros’ diviners, she could accomplish whatever she wants pretty easily.”

“Does she still have that obsession with Green Arrow?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Maybe we should let Oliver know she’s heading his way.”

“Or not.”

“Jason!”

“No, seriously, hear me out, this isn’t me hating on Queen.”

“Sure…”

“Look at the pattern of robberies and deaths—if she’s headed out west, she’s taking the long way and at a slow stroll. There are tons of direct flights from Amsterdam to Star City. She could be there in like a day if that’s her goal, but she’s moving so slowly—based on the places she’s hit, and how long it takes her to get there, I’d say she’s driving.” He traces a line from Europe to the East Coast. “And possibly taking a boat. Not the Carnival way, either. I know people like to go incognito sometimes, but even that’s Bruce levels of paranoid.”

“And he once rode a goat truck across the border of Qurac…”

“Also, there are more direct routes from here to the West Coast.”

“So why come to Gotham at all,” Tim says, and steeples his fingers. “Either she’s taking her time for a reason, or she was never heading for Star City.”

“Then what does she want?”

“And how has she dropped so completely off the radar since she got here?”

Jason shrugs and leans back, stretching his arms and yawning; his arm brushes against Tim’s shoulder on its way down.

“When’s the last time you slept?” Tim asks quickly, wishing his voice didn’t sound like it was squeaking.

“Like sleep or power naps? Because I’ve had a lot of those.”

Tim rolls his eyes. “If you don’t get some rest we’ll have more to worry about than accidental innuendos. You should get some sleep.”

“The irony of you telling anyone that…”

“I’ve never had to fight off an Olympian bloodborne disease.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not exactly comfortable falling asleep right now. I keep seeing weird shit.”

“Like what?”

“I…can’t even remember. The whole thing just gives me a bad feeling.”

“You want to stay in my room?” This time it’s Jason who jumps and shoots Tim a panicked look. “Not like that! I just figured; it’s got all my stuff there. People sometimes take comfort in objects, and I just figured maybe being surrounded by my stuff would help. And I somehow don’t see you as the teddy bear type.”

Jason barks out a surprised laugh. “Hey, leave Paddington out of this!”

“You didn’t actually have a stuffed toy named Paddington!”

“Not just a stuffed toy, I’ll have you know, it was actually a Paddington Bear,” Jason retorts. “My mother used to read the stories to me, and she found him in a second-hand shop the Christmas before she…” Jason trails off, the levity in his face smoothing into careful blankness. “Anyway. I pretended like I was too old for stuff like that, but I was just happy she was lucid enough to even do Christmas that year.”

Tim can’t help the way his eyes soften at the story. He’s never heard Jason say anything about his life before Bruce, at least nothing personal.

Jason seems to notice the scrutiny, because he looks away. “Anyway. Not important. But we can try that whole…staying in your room thing. It would be nice to catch some Zs.”

They pack up their things and head down the hall to Tim’s room; all the while, Tim is trying to figure out what possessed him to suggest this. It’s true, comfort objects are a thing, but he could just as easily have brought a whole bunch of his stuff to Jason’s room for the same effect.

Except Jason doesn’t go near his room unless he’s unconscious and Bruce puts him there to recover.

He flicks on the light as Jason brushes past. “I haven’t been here in a while, so Alfred’s probably changed the sheets and everything. Good to go if you want to sleep.”

“And, uh…you’ll stay, right?”

“Yeah,” Tim replies softly. “At least until you fall asleep, then I have to take care of a few things. Alfred will probably nag me to eat and shower and changes clothes or something.”

And I need to make a trip home to have a conversation with my unwanted houseguest.

“Oh, the horror,” Jason says neutrally, though he starts rubbing at the back of his neck again, irritating the already red skin there.

Tim reaches over automatically and moves his hand away. A week ago, doing that would have probably gotten him punched; now Jason simply lets him, his body unconsciously leaning toward him.

“Listen, if you wake up and I’m not in here, don’t freak out. I’m probably in the kitchen being force-fed grits or something. And if I’m not, just call me and I’ll find you. We can even FaceTime while you wait.”

“Whatever,” Jason says, trying to sound nonchalant. He plops himself down on Tim’s bed, then frowns down at the bedsheet. “Holy shit this is soft.”

“It should be, it’s got a thread count of a thousand.”

“Spoiled ass rich boy,” Jason mutters, lying back on the bed. A surprised and pleased expression appears on his face. “Okay you know what? Forget obsessing over you, I want your bedroom set.”

This time it’s Tim who gives a surprised laugh.

⁂

“I will not be humiliated before my army.”

The lord marshal’s face resembles a misshapen beat, fury twisting his features; the skin beneath his nose is raw from the scented oils he’s been using to block the acrid scent of the funeral pyres. Jason has mostly become familiar with the odor by now—smoke and burning flesh and blood.

“What humiliation is there in appeasing the gods?” he counters and is surprised his voice remains so calm and measured; Tim is a reassuring presence at his back.

“Returning Chryses’ daughter is tantamount to the theft of my rightly taken trophy,” the king of men snarls. “Find me a replacement and I may consider it, but I will not be the only man among us without a prize.”

The quiet among the men is pointed, saturated with disagreement; even the obstinate man’s brother does not stand with him on the dais where kings and their liegemen have gathered. But Jason knows no one will step forward to say anything.

Only me, as usual.

“Son of Atreus, you know as well as anyone that we take our prizes from lawful combat. There’s ample opportunity to replace the girl, or even her worth in gold, three and four times over. All of us who stand here are kings and the vassals of kings, and we don’t owe you compensation when it was you who angered the gods in the first place.”

By taking the girl whose life I was trying to save just to screw me over, I would add.

A few of the men nod at his words; in the background, the moaning cries of the dying fill the air, a cacophony that has haunted the shore for ten days since the plague hit.

“Show your men that you’re as humble in nature as you are proficient in battle, and make amends.” He doubts the pig will notice the insult there. “End this plague before more die.”

Fury contracts the other man’s pupils to fine dots. “You will learn your place, boy. Just because divine blood runs through your veins and your mother raised you to believe you are special does not mean you might speak to me as an equal.” Jason bristles but is immediately cut off again. “Silence! I have no interest in whatever clever words your puppet master would have you speak.”

The blunt insult instead of flowery political doublespeak is surprising enough to still the words on his lips. He senses when Tim stiffens; they both know that last was directed at him.

“If I hear further suggestions that I give up my property without receiving something of like value in exchange, then I will sacrifice the man who suggests it, along with Chryses’ bitch daughter to appease the gods. Perhaps you might volunteer, Peliades,” the lord marshal concludes.

“I’m not afraid of speaking up when it’s needed,” Jason growls, “and we all know you can’t afford to sacrifice me.”

“Listen to the arrogance! It is the same you have displayed from the moment you arrived here. I believe it to be high time you face consequence for your heedless words.”

“Consequence,” Jason echoes, calm; Tim shifts closer, knowing that his outward composure is a sign of danger. The men around them shift as well, some of them whispering; more than one man’s fingers twitch toward their sword. “It’s you who should think of consequence.”

“Careful,” Tim cautions in his ear, breath hot across his neck as he comes to step beside him. He has to keep from rubbing at the area with his thumb.

“Is that a threat?” the king of men demands.

“An observation. How much longer do you think these men will last, without me to lead them into battle? How many times have I been the one who turned the tides of defeat to victory, while you remained in the back ranks?”

Now the whispering is louder, angrier; voices of dissent and outrage.

“I am High King!” the older lord roars. “Every man here knelt before me when we came to these shores or swore oaths to the gods to follow my command. Even your beloved Menoitiades whom you shield as if he is your wife.” Tim clenches his fists but carefully doesn’t meet Jason’s eyes; acknowledgement of one another now will only prove the argument. “You are the only one that always considered yourself above such things.”

Jason is furious. Green like the cold sea edges around his vision, and it would be so easy to leap across the three-foot gap and snap the bastard’s neck. He could do it before anyone else might react, and he’s fast enough to get away before anyone retaliates.

But Tim isn’t.

Tim who remains tense, shoulders set and whose fingers make a minute twitching motion against his side, silently beseeching Jason to keep his calm.

It doesn’t work.

“I have nothing to prove to you, or any who swore oaths to you,” Jason snarls through gritted teeth. “The horse-tamers have never threatened my home, have never stolen our stock or torched our fields. I chose to be here, to sail to this wretched city and help your half-wit brother regain a woman who likely doesn’t wish to be reclaimed.”

More murmuring; it’s a sentiment no one has wanted to voice.

“Have a care with your words, boy; not all gods who listen are favorable to you.”

“And what would you know of the gods? I’m closer to their ilk than you ever will be, without the scandal that troubles your bloodline. If anyone should have these men’s fealty, it’s not you. Perhaps you should be the one who bends knee in appeasement.”

The crowd is outright clamoring now, supporters and enemies alike shouting over one another. The older man’s eyes widen in triumph. “You think yourself better than me? Or than the men I command?”

“No, they are my equals. You’re the dog-faced son of a bitch that isn’t fit to clean the boots of the men you profess to lead into battle.”

Exclamations of disbelief.

“That’s enough!” Tim hisses, jabbing him with an elbow.

“Yes, listen to your keeper, Peliades. He seeks to save you from being named a traitor to this army, and suffering punishment for it. Though I think we are beyond the point of playing this off as country bumpkin ignorance to custom. Your war prizes are forfeit; I will take them under tutorship until you come to your senses and offer submission to me.”

Jason’s muscles pull taut in incandescent anger. “You have no right to do that!”

“I have every right, especially since you are so keen to take mine. In fact, I demand the first woman you took as spoil at Ilion—fetch me Briseis’ daughter. She will replace the woman the gods wish me to return.”

“If you touch her, you forgo your victory in this war. I will take my ships and return to my land.”

“Flee, then, if your heart urges you! I have no fear of you—of all the kings the son of Kronos nurtures, you are the one I hate the most. Go with your ships, run with your tail between your legs. But I will have the woman before you go.”

Jason’s hand goes to his sword, but Tim’s hand is on his then.

“Leave it,” he whispers, frantic. “There are greater punishments than death. Let’s regroup and find a solution to this away from prying eyes.”

Jason knows he’s right. The men around them are filled with shock and disapproval, but none of the cowards will support him if he strikes down the king of men.

And so instead of slicing the ignorant prick’s kneecaps out from under him, Jason simply spits at his feet.

“You’re a coward with the face of a dog but the heart of a deer. You’ve never had the courage to arm for battle along with the men you boast to lead because you fear death. You’re faithless, taking the property of those who speak contrary to you, preferring to rule over a kingdom of nobodies. Your words today doom you and your men to disgraceful ends.” He glares at all the men gathered there simply watching. “I won’t fight alongside this army any longer, and without me, you’ll all fall, ground beneath the feet of the man-killing prince. The day will come when you send your toadies to me to beg, and you’ll kneel before me crying for forgiveness, but I’ll give you nothing but laughter as you bleed in the dust before me. You will all die in ignominy for what the son of Atreus does today.”

And with that, he turns on his heel and stalks away.

Tim follows, as do the rest of the men sworn to him.

“I’ll kill him,” Jason fumes under his breath when they are far enough away not to be heard. “I would have if you hadn’t stopped me.”

“I know. And then you would have been struck down, which I couldn’t allow,” Tim soothes. “Be patient. I’ll think of a plan, you know I always do.”

“And in the meantime, that sack of pig shit will take Hippodamea and vent his frustrations toward me on her,” Jason growls.

“If he rapes her, he violates the life of one who is under your gods given protection. His men and the gods will turn on him if he does. After that display, he’s not going to court anymore of their disapproval. She will be safe until you bend knee to him.”

“Which won’t happen.”

“There are more important things than your pride,” Tim reminds him, a bit of reprimand in his tone. “Don’t lower yourself to his level, to the level of men, when you are as a god.”

Jason blinks, and turns to Tim. “That’s it.”

“What?”

“I’ll go to my mother.”

Tim’s face pales. “No!”

“Why not? And it better not be because you think she hates you.”

“She does hate me, but that’s besides the point. I just…have a bad feeling. The silver-footed are like the sea—unmerciful and uncaring who they harm in their storm. That path leads to death, I think.”

“Yes. His.”

Tim is silent and continues to look worried.

“I don’t need your permission to do this,” Jason tells him, a little sour that he doesn’t have his support on this matter.

Something like hurt flickers across his face, but then Tim’s expression goes carefully blank. “I would never presume to tell you what to do.”

“That’s not what everyone on this gods forsaken beach thinks!”

“Since when have you ever cared what people think?”

“You can’t stop me doing this,” Jason snaps.

Tim looks sad now. “I know.”

He turns to leave.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to prepare Hippodamea for what’s to come. Somehow I doubt you will be able to feign sympathy long enough to shoulder that burden,” he replies coldly, and stalks away.

Jason watches him go, his righteous anger continuing to simmer, until it occurs to him that Tim is actually quite angry with him. Some of the bite goes out of his rage, and worry creeps through his body.

“No, wait,” he starts, hurrying after him. “Don’t go—”

“—Tim!”

Jason sits upright in bed, arm outstretched as if to make a grab for a hand or arm, only to grasp air.

A maelstrom of different emotions cloud his mind, blocking his awareness of the room around him for several long seconds while he fights for his bearings. Anger and hurt and guilt and fear, all tied up with longing, playing on repeat in his head.

He has the strangest compulsion to make amends for something and he doesn’t remember what.

“Fuck,” he murmurs, pulling his hand back close to his body, elbow to chest, hand pressing against his shoulder. The skin radiates heat through the cotton of his t-shirt, warmer than his normal body temperature; probably from the wound.

He is alone, surrounded by pillows and a comforter that should smell like Tim but don’t (because Alfred washed them, so they’re new), in a room that feels somehow too big (which it shouldn’t, it’s the same size as the other rooms, as his room that he never goes into if he can help it. It’s bigger than the holding cell was).

A glance at the digital clock reads two in the morning. Prime patrol time, and more importantly, four hours since he put his head down. He’s pretty sure that’s the most sleep he’s had in a week, even if it was cut short by another of those maddening dream sequences that vanish from his memory in direct relation to how awake he becomes.

Where’s Tim?

He swings his feet over the edge of the bed, ready to go looking for him in the house, before remembering what he said before he fell asleep.

Don’t freak out.

Right. No problem. Tim’s just off somewhere having a human moment, which is just as well. He probably needs a break from Jason. Jason knows he needs a break from Tim—from everyone really. He can’t remember the last time he was in someone’s constant presence.

This is a good thing, he tells himself as he glances around the room, absently picking at the dry skin on the side of his thumb. He didn’t really look around when he first walked in. His brain was still trying to process the concept of Tim being the one to suggest his room as being the best place for Jason to relax.

And the surprise that he was actually right.

Tim is everywhere in these walls—video game posters and obscure pop culture refences—and furniture. There are candid photographs of him and his friends—Jason scowls at one of him and the Super Clone standing way too close together—and half-finished projects of wire and circuit. Clothes and books are strewn across the floor and—

“Christ, kid, you’re a goddamned slob.”

He never really took note of that quirk of Tim’s before, probably because they never really hung out. His knowledge of the kid’s lifestyle was limited to his own notions of what spoiled rich boys were like, and the general observation that his replacement ran on coffee and energy drinks.

His thumb is bleeding now from his continued picking, and he wipes it angrily on his pants, standing up. He needs a distraction. Otherwise, he’s going to go looking for Tim, or blow up his phone with calls until he picks up. He needs to prove to himself that he still has some control—test how long he can manage on his own, or at least test how long it takes between Tim leaving him alone and the anxious thoughts to set in.

He’s coming back. He wanted me to be here, or he wouldn’t have suggested it.

Jason just has to be patient.

Which…yeah, that was an issue even before this fixation crap.

“Screw this, I’m not just sitting here,” he grumbles, and starts wandering around the room, sorting clothes and tools and whatever other detritus has gathered on the floor. Cleaning is both mindless and immersive, something to do with his hands instead of scratch bloody welts into his skin.

And yet, he still drops everything when his phone vibrates.

“Tim?” he asks in the same breath that he unlocks the phone.

“Sorry.” Barbara actually sounds apologetic. “Just me.”

Disappointment hits him like a punch to the face. “No, yeah, it’s fine.”

“How are you holding up?”

Of course she knows what’s going on, too.

“Spectacular,” he says dryly, running a hand through his hair. “Can we maybe can the sympathy? I’m getting enough of that over here as it is. And you never call just to check in.”

There’s a beat, and then Barbara speaks again, still in her own voice, but more businesslike. “I may have found something.”

He likes that about her. She doesn’t get upset when called out on something, nor does she spend time on bullshit.

How the hell she dated Dick so long will forever be a mystery.

“What?” he asks, studying a strip of picture booth photos of Steph and Tim; the typical assortment of funny faces, pressed close together. Jason frowns, tugging absently at his hair.

“I’m not sure it’s anything, yet,” Barbara cautions, “but it’s almost certainly related to your situation.”

“And how’s that?”

“Because it involves Carrie Cutter.”

Jason straightens up. “What?”

“As soon as you and Tim established that Cupid was involved—both Cupids, I guess—I set up a search algorithm to track her whereabouts for the past month or so.” Of course she’s been monitoring everything from her little command center; this goddamn family and their surveillance… “It’s a bit too neat, someone with her modus operandi just bumping into the real Cupid.”

“And we don’t do coincidence.”

“Exactly.”

“So, she had to be sent there by someone or something. Specifically, to steal from Eros.”

“Yeah. Still working on who, though,” Barbara agrees. “That’s not the most interesting part, though.”

Jason’s scalp is beginning to burn from the distracted tugging, but he doesn’t stop. The pain is punishing, keeps him focussed on Barbara’s voice, and not the urge to hang up on her to call Tim. “Lay it on me.”

“I’ve got newspaper reports from the village of Delphi in Greece with a woman of her description killed a blind twelve-year-old two weeks ago. Sliced her throat with one of her arrowheads and walked away, took out anyone that tried to stop her.”

“Fuck.” Jason almost bites his tongue.

Carrie Cutter’s always been a murderer, but from what he knows of her from Roy, she never hurt a kid. His fingers itch with the need to punch something; he yanks his fingers out of his hair, several strands coming away with it, and slams his fist down on Tim’s desk. It creaks at the force.

“You okay?”

“Better than she’s going to be,” he replies tightly. “What else?”

“You heard me say Delphi, right?”

There’s a pause, like she’s letting him process, which he’s glad for; he did miss that the first time. Jason thinks the news over again, remembering bits and pieces memorized from National Geographic when he was a kid.

“Delphi,” he repeats. “Like the Oracle of Delphi Delphi?”

“Exactly.”

His back goes even more rigid. “Isn’t it common in a lot of myths that people who can see the future tend to be blind?”

“Good memory.”

“So we’re thinking the kid was a seer.”

“I’m thinking the kid was the actual Oracle of Delphi.”

Jason whistles. “But there hasn’t been one of those in hundreds of years, right?”

“Not since Theodosius I closed the temple when the Pythia gave him some bad news. Five years later, he was dead, and the Visigoths had captured Rome, and after that it wasn’t safe to be an oracle. But secret societies have been started over less.”

“Still, how would someone like Carrie Cutter know or even be interested in looking up some secret oracle? Even for Queen, she’s small-time.”

“Still working on that part.”

“And if she did talk to the oracle beforehand, what did the kid tell her that made her kill her?”

“Unfortunately, there was no tech anywhere around to pick up on that. Not even tourists taking cellphone videos.”

“Fuck.”

“But lucky for us, we have someone that can sort of see ghosts.”

Jason’s eyes widen. “Duke.”

“Exactly,” Barbara says, and sounds smug, like she’s just managed a checkmate against fate or circumstance or something. “As soon as he’s done with Dick, I’m sending him on quick trip to Greece. He’ll get a kick out of the plane, I think.”

Jason winces.

It won’t be easy for the newest member of the family to watch a kid being murdered, all for Jason. Worse is the fact he’s a hundred percent sure Duke’s seen worse.

Instead of voicing that thought, however, he says, “Keep me updated.”

“Will do.”

There’s a heavy silence.

“Do you want me to stay on the line?” Barbara asks after a moment. “Until Tim gets back.”

Jason’s first instinct is a snappish retort, a denial that he needs her pity.

But his hand has found its way back into his hair, tearing at the strands as he anxiously waits for the younger man to return and for all he knows, it could be anywhere from ten minutes to ten hours before he sees him again.

He shivers at the thought.

That…would be bad.

And so he clears his throat and tells Barbara in a gruff voice, “Yeah. Okay."

⁂⁂⁂

Next Chapter

#jaytimweek2019 #jaytimweek #jaytim #jaytimbingo2019 #fanfic #jaytim fic #batfic #prompt: mythology #tim drake #jason todd #damian wayne #barbara gordon #angst #drama #romance #introspection #fate #fatal flaw #oracle #reincarnation #secrets #undying love

[alwayschoosechocolate]

Are we even speaking the same language? (Part 7)

Sophie moves to Seoul to become a language assistant at one of Seouls biggest music companies. Even though her Korean is far from perfect, she quickly seems to get along with some of the biggest stars in the company. But the language might not be the only barrier, she has to overcome.

Characters: All seven members of BTS, paring between Namjoon x main character

Word count: 6304

Genre: romance, angst, fluff, smut (only mentions so far)

Comments: When the dialog is written in cursive, it’s in Korean. When it’s bold, it’s in danish.

Masterpost with the other parts of the story, can be found here (x)

“Soph?”

Namjoons soft voice wrestled her out of the heavy clouds of sleep. She turned her head towards the sound, squinting her eyes at the daylight streaming in the room from the window. Namjoon was standing next to her bed.

“Huh?”

“I have to get to the studio. You don’t have to get up. I just didn’t want you to think, I had run out on you.” Her heart softened at his words, and she gave him a lazy smile.

“It’s okay. You want coffee, before you go?”, she yawned, sitting up.

“No, you don’t have to get up”, he told her, shaking his head with a soft smile.

She stood up to give him a hug, before moving to the kitchen to make some coffee.

“It’s okay. I need coffee anyway”, she smiled.

While the coffee was brewing, she pulled herself up on the counter and turned towards Namjoon. He stepped in the space between her legs and pulled her against him.

“Do you actually have time for coffee?”, she hummed.

He shook his head with a pout, and she couldn’t help but giggled at his innocent expression.

“You don’t have to stay. I was just offering to be nice. I can’t have you second guessing, if you should have stayed over.”

She winked at him, and he rolled his eyes at her.

“The amount of coffee you have here, doesn’t change the fact, that I enjoy being with you, and I wish I didn’t have to leave this early.”

He pressed a kiss to her blushing cheek and chuckled at her flustered reaction.

“Alright, Mr. Romantic. I’m not used to getting complimented like that all the time”, she giggled, putting her hand on his chest.

He gave her a soft smile.

“Well, get used to it. I’m not planning on changing it.”

Her eyes widened, and she hid her face against his chest. He cooed at her reaction and lifted her face to press a kiss to her lips. She hummed in response and let out a soft sigh, snuggling closer on his embrace.

“I have to go. Pdogg is waiting for me. You could stop by later, if you want?”

She lifted her head and looked at him hesitantly, biting the inside of her cheek.

“Are you sure, that would be okay? I don’t want to intrude.”

“If you’re not comfortable with it, you don’t have to come. I think, we’ll be quite busy anyway.”

He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, giving her a reassuring smile.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him.  

She pulled him in for a kiss, only meaning for it to be a peck on the lips, when she felt him tighten his grip on her hips. She pulled back and cocked an eyebrow at him. He just sighed and hung his head.

“I really don’t want to go.”

Sophie giggled and ruffled his hair a bit.

“You have to though. You have work.”

She hung herself on him and felt his hands slide to her butt, before he lifted her off the counter. She let out a little squeal and frantically grabbed his shoulders to steady herself. He smiled mischievously at her and pressed a kiss to her mouth. She giggled against his lips and tried squirming out of his hold.

“Stop. Put me down. I’m too heavy for you to carry me around.”

He tutted at her words and tightened his grip on her, carrying her to the living room under loud protests from Sophie, before slowly placing her on the couch. Her eyes were sparkling, and her teeth were showing in a wide smile. He sent her one of his dimpled smiles, and she reached up to place her finger on one of them.

“You’re not too heavy for me.”

Her smile turned soft and a blush crept up her neck.

“I told you, I’m not good with compliments.”

“And I told you, I won’t change it.”

He winked at her, before leaning down for a goodbye kiss.

He shouted a goodbye, as he closed the door, leaving Sophie on the couch. She couldn’t stop smiling, when she thought about the night before. And this morning had been so nice as well, even though it had been short. She suddenly burst out in giggles. Was this really happening?

She shook her head, as she got up to get a cup of coffee from the kitchen, grabbing her phone on the way. It was still early, so no one would be up yet, but Sophie was dying to talk to someone about what had happened, so she quickly typed out a message for Cathrine, asking if she wanted to meet up for lunch.

She poured herself a steaming cup of coffee and brought it with her back to the couch, where she snuggled up under the blanket and grabbed a book. She might as well make use of the early hours.

  Sophie left the house at 11 to meet up with Cathrine. As she walked through the streets towards the restaurant, she got a message from Namjoon.

Namjoon / 11:12am Thanks for letting me stay over.

Sophie / 11:13am Of course! Anytime.

She smiled at the screen, while she typed out the reply and pressed send.

She put her phone back in her pocket and looked up at the clouded sky. The wind was a bit cold, but Sophie didn’t care. She was walking on cloud nine, and she couldn’t wait to talk to Cathrine. When she got to the restaurant, she spotted Cathrine sitting at a table in the back of the restaurant, and she quickly made her way to her.

“Hey you!”, Cathrines happy voice greeted her.

“Hi! How are you?”, Sophie asked, sitting down across from her.

“I’m good. Very good”, she giggled.

Sophie raised an eyebrow at her and smirked.

“Wait. What do you mean ‘very good’? What happened?”

“Let’s order first, then I’ll tell you everything.” She giggled and Sophie saw the blush spreading on her cheeks.

“Ah, you guys did it?”, she gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, as a giggle escaped her lips.

“Let’s just order first”, Cathrine laughed, as she turned to the waiter, who had just walked up to the table.

The second, the waiter turned away, Sophie turned to her friend again, giving her the biggest grin, her face could hold.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” she laughed.

“How? When?” Sophie placed her chin in her hands, leaning her elbows on the table.

“Last night, actually.” Cathrine blushed. “You know, he stayed the night til Saturday?”

Sophie nodded, grinning at her.

“Actually, he ended up staying the entire weekend,” Cathrine giggled. “He only left this morning, because he had to go to the studio.”

“Oh, was he meeting up with Pdogg?”, Sophie asked, taking a sip of her coke.

Cathrine widened her eyes at her, and her face slowly split in a grin.

“You!” She smacked Sophies arm. “You were with Namjoon yesterday?”

“Well, yes. And this morning as well”, she giggled as a light blush colored her cheeks.

Cathrine smacked her arm again and laughed.

“Since when have you two been hanging out?”

“About two weeks. I’ve been to his studio most nights after work, and he has been to my place sometimes.”

They got interrupted by the food being served, and a short break erupted while they took the first few bites.

“But wait,” Cathrine exclaimed, pausing with her fork in the middle of the air. “So, have you had sex with him?”

Sophie shook her head.

“No. We kissed for the first time yesterday.”

She couldn’t help a soft smile spreading on her face from the memory. She caught Cathrine grinning at her like an idiot.

“Oh, look at miss ‘life-isnt-a-movie’ swooning over a guy.”

Sophie rolled her eyes at her.

“Shut up. I’m just making it up as I go.” She giggled. “But tell me about your weekend? It sounds so nice. What did you do? Other than jump each other?”

“Ah, we slept in Saturday. He had the day off, so I just let him sleep. We cuddled and watched movies during the day.” Cathrine looked out the window with a dreamy look. “Yeah. We just… spent time together. He is so much quieter, when you’re alone with him. It’s so cute. He just wants to cuddle and kiss. He’s cute.”

Sophie cooed at her friend, reaching over to poke her chin.

“You’re cute!”

Cathrine blushed at her words and let out a soft giggle.

“But what about you and Namjoon? Is it serious?”

Sophie shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know, to be honest. I mean, I like him, and I think he likes me too. But their lives are so busy and complicated. I’m not sure, it’s a good idea to get involved,” she said, biting the inside of her cheek.

“Well, it’s not like you’re agreeing to marry him now. Why not just take it one step at a time? I mean, since you don’t believe in love, you don’t really have anything to lose, do you?” Cathrine winked at her, and Sophie rolled her eyes at her.

“It’s not that I don’t believe in love. It’s just the idea of eternal love and soulmates, that bugs me.”

“Even better. You already know, that it won’t last forever. Why not just enjoy it while it lasts?” She took at sip of her drink. “I mean, he is really good looking. And such a nice guy. I’m having a hard time seeing a downside to this.”

Sophie laughed at her friend and shook her head, when she suddenly felt her phone vibrate. She pulled it out and saw her sisters name on the screen.

“Ah. Sorry, it’s my sister. I have to take it, is it okay?”, she asked, pointing at the screen.

Cathrine just nodded with a smile, and Sophie mouthed a thank you, getting up to answer the call.

“Hello? Line?”

“Hi. It’s me.” Her voice sounded broken and thin. Sophie furrowed her eyes as she pushed open the door to get outside.

“Hi. What’s wrong? Why are you up this early? Isn’t only 5am?”

“Yes, but I couldn’t sleep.”

“Is everything okay?” Sophie held her breath, hoping it would only by school trouble.

“I guess. It’s just. I miss you. Why can’t I come live with you? I hate being here.” Sophie let out a heavy sigh.

“I know, sweetie. But we talked about this, remember? We still have to wait a bit.” She bit the inside of her cheek. “How is she?”

“Mostly quiet. I don’t know.”

“How are you?”

“I’m okay, I guess. Just tired of all of this”, Line sighed through the phone. Sophie leaned her head on the brick wall behind her.

“I know. So am I. I’m really sorry, I can’t do any more right now.” She closed her eyes, feeling the icy guilt roll through her veins.

They spoke a bit longer back and forth, and Sophie managed to turn the conversation to school and assignments, that Line had to hand in, and she promised to help her proofread some of them next week, before saying goodbye and hanging up.

She took a few minutes to gather herself before walking back into the restaurant.

“Everything okay?”, Cathrine asked her, noticing her clouded features.

“Eh, not really. But it’s okay. You don’t need to worry.”

Cathrine tilted her head at Sophie.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Sophie bit the inside of her cheek, debating what to answer. She shook her head, before nodding and then shaking it again. Cathrine sent her a soft smile.

“You sure?”

Sophie sent her a pained look and shook her head.

“I’m not sure, if I want to talk about it. But I do need to walk. It helps me calm down. You can walk with me if you want?”

Cathrine smiled at her and nodded.

They quickly payed for their meal and left the restaurant.

They strolled through the grey streets. The first 10 minutes, none of them said anything. Sophies voice broke the silence.

“It was my sister. She’s 10 years younger than me, so she still lives at home, but she is not doing well at home. Our mom…” Sophie gritted her teeth. “She’s not the best mom.”

“When I grew up, she used to tell me, that I was too mad all the time, and that no one would ever love me, if I didn’t lighten up. And every time I tried to stand my ground with her, and tell her that she overstepped my boundaries, she told me that it was unfair of me, to burden her with how I felt. That I should respect her feelings. She told my sister, that my stepdad joined the army, because he didn’t want to spend so much time with her. She just…” Sophie sighed. “She’s not a good person.”

“She sounds like a horrible person”, Cathrine whispered. “And your sister is still living with her?”

Sophie nodded.

“Yeah. I’m trying to help her the best that I can, but it’s hard to do from here.” She groaned.

“But she isn’t your responsibility, Soph. You shouldn’t do this on your own.”

“I know. But I can’t stand the thought of Line going through this alone, like I did. I won’t let her be as affected by this as I was.”

Sophie let out a deep sigh before shaking her head.

“No more of this sad story,” she said with a soft smile to Cathrine. “Please tell me more about you and Hoseok. I need some unrealistic love story right now.”

“Are you sure?”

Sophie nodded with a smile, and Cathrine pulled her in for a hug, before going into details about her and Hoseok.

“And the sex!” She giggled and covered her mouth with her hands. “I mean, I’m not gonna give you details. But let’s just say that his moves on stage are telling.”

Sophie laughed with her friend and sent her a soft smile.

“I’m happy for you.”

Cathrine returned her smile.

“Thanks. I’m happy for you too. Whatever it is between you and Namjoon, just promise me, that you’ll try to enjoy it?”

“Yeah, I’ll try.”

They walked around a bit more just chatting, before they split up and each went home.

As Sophie walked through her front door, she felt her phone vibrate, and her face split in a grin, when she saw Namjoons name on the screen.

“Hi!”

“Hi, Soph. Sorry about running out on you this morning,” Namjoons soft voice sounded through the phone. Sophie bit her lip to keep from grinning like an idiot.

“You don’t have to apologize. I know, you guys are busy.”

“Yeah, but sometimes it would be nice with a few more hours in the day,” he chuckled.

“Ah, but knowing you, you would probably still spend them working,” she teased, earning a laugh from him.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Anyway, we’re leaving for Japan on Tuesday, but I wanted to see you before that. Do you want to come by the studio tomorrow after work?”

“Oh, I was actually planning on it,” she blushed, not sure if she had overstepped a boundary. “I mean, I have been at your studio every night the last few weeks.”

“I know. I like having you here,” he hummed down the phone, giving Sophie goosebumps.  She blushed furiously and silently appreciated that he couldn’t see her.

She heard someone calling his name in the background.

“I gotta go, but I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

She nodded, before suddenly remembering, that it was phone call, quickly saying goodbye with the promise of seeing him tomorrow.

The next day, she had a hard time concentrating on work. She kept checking her phone for texts, even though she knew, that he was in the same building and didn’t have anything new to text her about. At one point, she saw the boys walk into a briefing about their concerts in Tokyo. She only saw then briefly, but Namjoon sent her a dimpled smile across the cubicles, and Sophie blushed as she returned it.

“Look at you, all blushing”, Cathrine teased from her desk.

“Well, you’re sporting quite the blush yourself,” Sophie retorted, taking in her friends flustered state, as she giggled at her.

“I don’t know, what you mean.” Cathrine threw her a wink.

“Are you hanging out with Hoseok today?”

“Yeah, he’s coming to my place tonight. How about you? Seeing Namjoon?”

“I’m going to his studio after work.”

Cathrine cooed at her, and Sophie returned the teasing, before turning back to her screen, trying to focus on her work.

Just a few more hours.

“Ah. Hobi wrote me, that they are all still practicing in the dance studio,” Cathrine shared, waving her phone in the air. “Namjoon is gonna be there as well. Do you wanna go to the studio? We could watch them practice while we wait?”

“You sure, you don’t just want to drool over your boyfriend’s moves?” Sophie smirked at her.

“First of all, we’re not calling him that yet, because he hasn’t asked. And second of all, of course I want to go there to see him dance. I mean, have you seen him?”, Cathrine gushed, and Sophie laughed at her.

“Alright, let’s go then.”

It had been an hour, and they were still waiting for them to finish. Hoseok was quite a strict dance teacher, and he accepted nothing but perfection.

“I have never seen him so…” Sophie trailed off, observing how he was correcting the smallest details with the others. He had cursed at them several times, when they screwed up, yelled at them, and was in general being a bit intimidating.

“I know”, Cathrine agreed. “I was a bit surprised the first time I saw as well.”

Hoseok was focusing on Jin, helping him adjust his footwork. Jimin and Taehyung sat down next to the girls, and Taehyung threw his body against Sophies.

“Ah. I don’t want to practice anymore. We’ve been at it for 5 hours now,” he whined, and Sophie and Cathrine laughed at his theatricalities.

“And Hobi-hyung is scary today,” Jimin whispered, looking up towards his hyung to make sure, he wouldn’t hear it.

“How much longer are you going to practice?”, Cathrine asked, looking at her watch.

“Until Hoseok-hyung says we’re done,” Taehyung whined. “Can’t you talk to him, Noona?” He sent her the biggest puppy-eyes, and Cathrine just laughed and shook her head.

“I’m not gonna tell him, how to teach dance. This is his job. Sorry, sweetie.”

Tae just pouted at her and huffed.

“Can’t you talk to Namjoon-ah?”, Jimin asked, nudging Sophie.

“Why would that change anything?”

“Because he’s been talking about you all day, and he can’t hang out with you until he’s finished here”, Jimin smirked, and it grew to a full grin, when he saw Sophies flustered reaction. “Ah, cute! Please go talk to him,” he urged, pushing her up from the floor.

Sophie slowly shuffled closer to Namjoon and Jungkook, who were standing against the wall watching Hoseok and Jin. Namjoon saw her walking over and gave her tired smile, as she came up to them.

“Sorry, it’s taking so long. Hobi wants it perfected.” He pulled her to his side.

“It’s okay. I was just wondering how much longer, you think it’ll be?”

“Not too long,” Jungkook answered. “Jimin-sshi and I both have to practice our solo numbers as well.”

“After this?” Sophie eyes widened. She knew, they worked hard, but she hadn’t thought about how much practice went into perfecting those amazing dances.

“Yeah. We usually practice together, and we both like practicing late.” He shrugged his shoulders with a small smile.

“Okay, I know you’re all tired, but can we just get it perfect one time? Just one time, and then we’re done.” Hoseoks irritated voice cut through the room, making the boys scramble to find their places, and Sophie hurried back to Cathrine.

“He is really bossy, when he teaches.”

Cathrine nodded.

“Not gonna lie, I kinda like it,” she grinned, nose scrunching in the process.

Sophie cocked an eyebrow at her and shoved her with a laugh.

The music blasted through the speakers, and the boys went through the routine a few more times, before Hoseok was satisfied.

“Alright, that’s it! Well done! We’re done!”

At his words, they relaxed visibly, and Taehyung and Jungkook high-fived. Namjoon and Jin shared an exhausted glance, before Namjoon straightened up.

“Okay. We leave at 7am tomorrow morning, so please be ready by then.” Namjoon had obviously stepped into his leader role, now that the dance practice was out of the way. “Jimin and Jungkook, I know you have to practice, but please don’t stay too late. You’ll need the energy for the concerts.”

They both gave him a thumbs-up, before moving to the stereo to change the music. The others gathered their stuff before leaving the studio one by one. Cathrine gave Sophie a small wave before walking out hand in hand with Hoseok.

Sophie and Namjoon were the last ones to leave, saying goodbye to Jungkook and Jimin as they left the studio to walk to the elevator.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” he whispered against her hair, as he embraced her in elevator.

She just shook her head.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just happy, I get to spend some time with you.” She smiled up at him, and he pressed at soft kiss to her cheek. “I was a bit surprised to see Hobi like that though,” she chuckled.

“Yeah, he can be strict, but without him our performances wouldn’t be the same,” he shrugged, as he opened the door to his studio. “Make yourself comfortable. I’m just gonna go grab a quick shower.”

She was scrolling through her phone, when he returned, hair still damp from his shower. He sat down next to her on the couch and draped his arm around her shoulder. She cuddled into his side and slung an arm across his stomach. For a few minutes, they were quiet. Enjoying the simple pleasure of being close to each other. Namjoon let out a sigh, and Sophie lifted her head to look up at him.

“What’s up?”, she asked, lifting her hand to push his hair out of his face. He leaned into her touch.

“I’m just tired, that’s all.” He hummed at her hands through his hair.

“Maybe you should go home and get some sleep before your concerts,” she said in a soft voice, reaching his neck and massaging it gently.

He shook his head.

“Not yet. I’m gonna stay until Jimin and Jungkook are done practicing.” He winched, when she hit a tense spot in neck, and she furrowed her eyebrows at him. “And I want to spend some time with you, before I’m gone for four days.”

He smiled lazily at her, and she returned his tired smile.

“I’m glad you want to spend time with me, but you should make sure to rest as well.”

“I’m resting,” he hummed, as he burrowed his face into her chest, cuddling up to her and closing his eyes. “Look, I’m resting.”

Sophie giggled softly at him and started combing her hands through his hair and gently massaging his neck.

“Alright, but we need food. I’m starving.”

He huffed but nodded against her.

“What do you want?”, she asked, pulling out her phone to order something.

“What ever you want.”

His words were a bit slurred, and she smiled at how soft he was when he was tired. She quickly ordered some food, and put her phone down, going back to stroking his hair. She heard small snores coming from him after a few minutes, and her heart clenched. She didn’t move out of fear of waking him and just kept herself busy on her phone, while she waited for the food.

When her phone rang to let her know the food had arrived, she quietly untangled herself from him and left the studio to go pick up the delivery downstairs.

When she returned 15 minutes later, Namjoon turned towards her from his computer, looking a bit confused.

“I woke up, and you were gone,” he pouted.

She smiled at his reaction and lifted the takeout bags.

“I was just picking up the food. And I stopped by the dance studio to give Jungkook and Jimin some food as well.” She put the bags down on the table and started unpacking the food. “Now, I know that you guys are all dieting right now, so I bought some salads and stuff like that and some meat. So, there are no carbs. But…” She rummaged through one of the bags and drew out a chocolate bar with at big smile. “There is a chocolate bar. I actually bought it for me, but you can have some if you want.”

He sat down next to her pulled her in for a kiss.

“You’re amazing. Thank you.”

“It’s just food. No need to make it a big deal,” she blushed, and he cupped her face with his right hand to feel the warmth of her blushing cheeks.

“It is to me.” He sent her a dimpled smile, and she reached up to poke one of them.

“Well, you’re welcome then.”

He settled on the couch and reached for one of the food containers.

Sophie made herself comfortable on the floor next to the table.

They chatted quietly while they ate.

“So, are you looking forward to the concerts?”, she asked, placing the empty container down on the table.

He nodded, finishing the rest of his food.

“Yes. We haven’t seen the fans in a while. It’s gonna be nice to see them again. And performing on stage is always a trill.” Just thinking about it made his eyes sparkle.

She cocked her head at him with a soft smile, taking in his serene expression.

“You really love it, don’t you? Even with all the late hours and the practices and hard work?”

He looked at her with curious eyes, before nodding.

“I do. We all do. We’re lucky to be able to live our dream like this.”

“I can only imagine.” She sighed, looking down at her folded hands in her lap. “I wish, I had something I was so passionate about.”

His soft eyes observed her hands fiddling in her lap, before he reached out and pulled her up into his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Why?”

His breath fanned over on her neck, as he placed a soft kiss there. She shrugged her shoulders.

“It just seems easier, you know. To have one thing, you want so badly, that you’ll do anything for it.” She started playing with his hands on her waist. “Sometimes I wonder, if I just wasn’t meant to have strong feelings like that. Passion, love, fright.” She sighed. “Most of my life feels kinda bland. I’m just here.” She let out a dry laugh.

“Passion comes is many different forms. It doesn’t have to be a blazing fire forcing you out of your comfort zone and challenging norms. Sometimes passion is more subtle. A slow smoldering ember inside of you. Keeping you alive and pushing you forward. Passion doesn’t have to be loud and flashy, you know.”

She sank into his embrace, taking in his words.

“Can I ask you something?” Her voice only a little higher than a whisper.

“Always.”

She turned around, so she could see him, one leg on each side of his hips. He let his hands rest on her hips. Her eyes bright and curious, looking into his soft and open eyes.

“How are you doing? Are you okay?”

His brows furrowed in confusion, and for a second, she thought, that she saw hesitation in his eyes.

“I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“Because you have a lot of responsibility, and you’ve have had it since you were quite young. Taking care of the members and the group since you were what? 19? That’s gotta be tough?”

An amused smile played on his lips, and she squinted her eyes in confusion.

“Why are you smiling? I’m serious.”

He laughed and squeezed her hips lightly.

“I know. And it’s adorable. You’ve only known me a little over a month, and you’re worrying about how I have been since I was 19?” He winked at her, his eyes sparkling. “That’s so sweet of you.”

“I just want you to be okay,” she mumbled, lowering her head, suddenly a bit embarrassed by her inquiry.

He observed her for a few seconds, a soft smile still lazing his lips.

“I am. Sometimes, it’s tough. But the members are like family to me. I would do anything for them.” He lifted her head by her chin, pressing a soft kiss to her lips. “But thanks for asking.”

She nuzzled into his neck and drew a heavy breath.

“Your relationship makes me so happy. Seeing how close you are, and how you always support each other. It’s admirable,” she whispered into his skin, as his fingers drew patterns on her back. “You really have become each other’s family.”

“Yes, but you know how you sometimes get too much of your family?”

Sophie pushed herself away from his chest, so she was sitting up in his lap, and nodded at him.

“Yeah, six brothers are a lot,” he laughed with a slight eye roll.

“I can imagine! I only have two siblings, and that was a lot at times,” she laughed.

“Older or younger?”, he asked, his thumb tracing circles on her hip.

“Both younger.”

He smiled at her.

“Were you close?”

Sophie nodded quietly, her gaze distant as she hummed in assent.  

“Very.”

She looked back at him, and blushed under the intense stare, she was met with.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”, she laughed.

“I’m just observing you. Getting to know you, you know.”

He reached up to cup her face, pulling her in for a kiss. She supported her weight on his chest with one arm, and let the other wander up to the nape of his neck, pulling herself closer to him. His one hand was on her face, tracing her cheekbone with his thumb, while his other hand was roaming her thighs and butt, pulling and grabbing at the flesh it came into contact with. When his fingers traced her hipbone under her skin, she moaned softly, and he used the opportunity to deepen the kiss, licking into her mouth. She let her hand wander from his neck down his chest and abdomen until she reached his hip. She slipped her hand under his shirt and let it ghost the skin between his navel and the barrier constructed by his pants.

Sophie heard his breath catching and pulled away to give him a smirk. He met her gaze shamelessly and leaned forward to press open-mouth kisses down her neck, gently nibbling on the soft skin there. She felt his teeth graze her neck and hissed when she felt him bite down on her collarbone, before letting go and covering the area in soft kisses. The room resounded with their heavy breaths and soft moans.

“I really hate to do this,” she panted, pulling back. “But we can’t have sex here.”

Namjoon threw his head back on the couch, covering his face with his hands.

“I know. I know. I just…”, he looked through his fingers at her body on top of him and groaned. “You’re not making it easy for me.”

Sophie giggled and cupped his face, giving him a deep kiss. His hands found her hips again, grabbing them tightly and making her moan into his mouth.

“Dammit, I should never have shown you that,” she laughed, placing her hands on top of his and moving them to her thighs.

“I am very glad you showed me!” He smiled deviously, his eyes boring into hers. “Just imagine me taking you doggy-style, grabbing your hips, while pounding into you from behind.”

Sophies mouth went dry at his words and she felt her arousal stir.

“I hate you. Turning me on, when we both know, we won’t do anything until this weekend at least,” she tutted at him with an eye roll.

“This weekend, you say?” He pulled her flush against him and practically growled against her neck. Her eyelids fluttered at the feeling of the vibrations against her neck, and she tried pushing herself away from him with a hoarse laugh.

“Namjoon. Come on.” She sat up in his lap and couldn’t help a laugh tumble pass her lips at his disappointed expression. “Literally everyone knows the pass-code to your studio, and Jimin and Jungkook are gonna be done practicing any minute now. I don’t want our first time to be like this.”

He huffed at her words but gave her a nod.

“Alright. Alright. You’re right. But can’t we still make out?”

“We could,” Sophie pretended to consider the answer. “But can you keep this under control?”, she smirked, swirling her pelvis down against the bulge, she had felt through his pants the past several minutes.

“Fuck. No, not if you do that again,” he groaned, his eyes widened from her actions.

Sophie winked at him and was just about to get off his lap, when they heard someone at the door. He quickly pulled her back on him to cover up his situation.

“Hyung?” Jungkooks head popped in to the room, and his eyes widened a bit, when he spotted the couple on the couch.

Sophie threw him the most innocent smile, she could muster with Namjoons cock pressed against her core.

“What’s up, kookie?” Namjoons voice broke the silence.

“Eh. Jimin and I are done practicing. We’re headed back to the dorm, if you want to come along now?”

Sophie cocked an eyebrow at Namjoon and stifled at giggle behind her hand.

“Sure, give me like 5 minutes, then I’ll be there.” His voice, suddenly very composed and mature, threw Sophie off, and suddenly she couldn’t keep the laugh back anymore. The absurdity of the situation got to her. Namjoon just sent her a dry look, obviously not as entertained by the situation, as she was.

“Is Sophie still here?”, Jimin asked, stepping into the studio. Eyeing their position, and Sophies laughing figure, Jimin smirked at the both of them.

“Are you coming with us now, hyung?”

“He can’t stand up right now, Jimin,” Sophie laughed.

Namjoon shot her warning look, only making her laugh harder. Jimin caught their exchange and started laughing as well.

“Hyung, is she sitting on you to cover up your boner?”

Sophies eyes teared up from laughing, and she was doing her best not to expose Namjoon to his band mates. However, the exasperating look Namjoon sent Jimin was more exposing, than anything Sophie could have said, and both Jimin and Jungkook started howling with laughter.

“Alright. We’ll give you 10 minutes,” Jimin said, throwing a wink at Sophie, before closing the door behind them.

As soon as the door closed, Namjoon lifted her off his lap, almost throwing her on the couch.

“I’m sorry,” he groaned, trying to make his boner go away.

Sophie was still laughing though, and she could barely get a word out. Namjoon shot her surprised look, before looking away in annoyance.

“You’re don’t look embarrassed at all,” he huffed.

“Why would I be? They didn’t see anything.”

He looked at her with confusion written in his features.

“But they knew, what was happening, Soph.”

“Yeah, so? We’re all grown-ups. No one was naked, it’s not a big deal, babe,” she giggled, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

He couldn’t help a grin spreading on his face, as he watched her gather her things. Suddenly she straightened up, and pursed her lips in thought for a few seconds, taking in his state.

“So, I really want to kiss you goodbye, but I feel like it wouldn’t help your situation,” she laughed.

“Not really, no. But the only thing that would help, is off the table, so if I could at least get a kiss, that would be nice,” he stated, standing up from the couch.

She smacked his arm at his dry tone but stepped into his arms anyway and let his hands guide her lips to his in a deep kiss, their mouths moving against each other. He pulled back with a sigh and rested his head on her forehead. She pecked his lips one last time, before stepping away from him, putting on her coat and waiting for him to turn off the computer and lock up the studio.

He grabbed her hand as they made their way towards the ground floor, finding Jimin and Jungkook waiting for them.

“Finally,” Jimin exclaimed, pulling Sophie away from Namjoon and into a tight hug. “ I wanted to say a proper goodbye, before we left for Tokyo, and that would have been awkward to do, if she was still sitting on you, hyung.”

Sophie laughed into his embrace and pulled back to see Jimin smirking at her.

“How are you getting home, Noona?”, Jungkook asked, as he gave a hug as well.

“I walk home. It’s not too far.”

Namjoon furrowed his brows at her answer, and when she saw him about to argue, she quickly spoke up.

“Don’t worry. It takes like 20 minutes to walk. It’s nothing. I want to walk.”

“But it’s already dark out. Can’t you take a taxi?”

Sophie rolled her eyes at his words.

“I could. But I want to walk. I’ll text you, when I’m home.”

She quickly pecked his lips, before giving the others a wave on her way out the door.

// Part 8 //

#bts #bangtan #bts imagines #bts fanfic #bangtan imagines #bangtan fanfic #jin #suga #rm #jhope #jimin #taehyung #jungkook #kim seokjin #kim namjoon #min yoongi #jung hoseok #park jimin #kim taehyung #jeun jungkook #bts ot7 #bts fluff #bts angst #bangtan fluff #bts scenarios #namjoon imagine #namjoon fanfic #namjoon fluff #namjoon angst #namjoon smut

[mairzymarzipan]

Night of the Full Moon Character Reviews: The Carpenter(s) and the Lumberjack(s)

After yesterday’s events, I decided to push my reviews of these characters way up.

Just a note that at this point, I’m going to just sum up descriptions.  Some of them get to be really longg and sort of redundant in their wording.  

The Carpenter/The Werewolf

The Carpenter, Jerry, is a character Red might meet in the first chapter.  He’s usually very weak and a quick battle.  I can’t even remember his attacks.  His reason for fighting you is he’s worried about your safety.  When he talks to you, you can either choose to thank him, tell him you’ll protect yourself, or disregard him.  If you thank him, he stops himself from saying something.  If you disregard him, he’s hurt.

ofc if you read my post yesterday you that the big twist that he’s also the werewolf you fight in the end.  The second fight is definitely more of a challenge.  The werewolf has regenerative powers.  His main gimmick is that, on each turn, you have to pick one of seven cards, each with a different effect.  Two of them actually benefit you but most of them are a pain in the ass.  I recommend using the 90% heal and the ‘you can’t use cards’ option while you have a lot of health.

“I don’t know if it’s because he is young and shy or because he’s a werewolf, but the carpenter won’t tell Little Red Riding Hood how he feels. He was worried that on a full moon night he will turn, lose control and harm the villagers. The werewolf planned to go and spend the night in the Black Forest, but he did not expect to be pursued by hunters. He was injured and finally fell at Little Red Riding Hood’s hands...he didn’t even get the chance to say anything.”

So yeah, this is another downer ending.  Honestly, idk what is worse- killing your grandma or your childhood friend.  This is another weird instance of the text going into first person for no reason.  Who’s talking here?  The Infected?

The Carpenter description is quite a bit longer, but it summarizes to:

He’s adopted

His dad is the lumberjack

He makes beautiful furniture

He’s well liked

He’s got a secret crush on his friend, Red

He’s a werewolf

He’s kept that secret from everyone

He does not remember when he got cursed

He’s worried he might harm people when he’s a wolf

I would like to know how the heck he managed to keep the werewolf thing secret from his dad, who he lived with.  This isn’t like, oh, he has a certain opinion.  Nah- this is his body transforming every month.  How does his dad miss that?

Him being adopted also kind of hints that his bio parents are werewolves, as does this.

This is the picture you get when you toggle Jerry’s class to hard: a crying werewolf leaving a human baby at a lumberjack’s shop.

Since there’s a full moon and the werewolf is, well, a wolf, and the baby isn’t, I’m going to bet that werewolves in this world don’t start transforming until a certain age.  Jerry would be old enough to know that he has to hide himself once he starts.  One does wonder, though, why the wolf needs to leave their baby.  Does it have something to do with the arrow in their leg?

Maybe this will be like Red’s set.  Maybe we’ll get all kinds of Jerry classes and each one will display a scene of him a little older to tell a story.  

Here’s another theory: This wolf is the Cursed Werewolf, who Jerry might fight as a boss.  I mean it works just as well as Red fighting her grandma.

I must say, fighting as Jerry is pretty fun.  It feels as chaotic as a card game can be, yanno?  Like you really are a rabid wolf.  I especially love the cards you can get, though.  A lot of them have Jerry- as a wolf or a human- on them.  And they sort of humanize him a lot.  He has this whole range of emotions, whereas the cards Red appears on always makes her look like a badass.

I especially love that one.

Anyhoo, I’m gonna give Jerry 🌕🌕🌕🌕 four full moons.  He’s a cute kid, and as a werewolf, and challenging fight.  It’s clear that they’re planning to embellish on his story more.  I just do not care about the romance angle, tho, and I hate that the game does so much.

The Lumberjack

When Red encounters the Lumberjack, he’s wondering what she’s doing out so late, but isn’t really trying to stop her.  If you defeat him, he’ll tell you about Jerry going missing and ask if you’ve seen him.  He even sees he goes missing every full moon, and yet he still hasn’t put the werewolf thing together yet?  Oi.  

One bit of interesting trivia is that his dialog actually changed.  He used to say, “Who are you?  What are you doing here?”  So, I guess he used to be just, a guy, but then the programmers decided to make him important.  That’s cool.

His description tells us that the Lumberjack found Jerry in the woods, so it clashes with the illustration we saw earlier, but I’m willing to forgive that.  Also it was snowing when he found the baby.  Either it was winter or the curse was in affect even waaaaay back then.

I’ll give him 🌲🌲 two trees.  He’s a good solid character for what he is.  Obviously he is just there to be a part of Jerry’s story but he does as best as he can in a support role.  He’s just, not terribly memorable?  I’ve fought him several times but I’m struggling to remember what cards he uses.

The Crocodile

The Crocodile is a boss, so you could find him in any of the three chapters.  He makes good use of attack cards.  He also has some great lines.

“I’m more like drift wood.”

“Family means hope.”

“Crocodiles don’t cry only because...they’re never sad.”

“I could never lift an axe...”

I haven’t talked about the voice artists yet, but I feel like the crocodile gets one of the better English ones. It’s too bad these people aren’t credited! Honestly, why?

But yeah, he really does a good job of making this character sound like a real person. There’s a sense of trying to put on a brave face with self-effacing jokes while honestly being miserable.  

So anyway, this guy

“This powerful-looking crocodile was once a lumberjack. Once he learned that the identities of Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother had been exposed, he tried to help them hide. However, the church patroller had other ideas. Things didn’t end up well for the lumberjack, but Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother made it out. Now he still waits for the curse to be lifted from the Black Forest, for it afflicts many innocent people, including his out son: the carpenter, Jerry.”

Is Jerry’s dad.

Jerry’s dad in, another timeline?  This whole thing about Red and Grandma needing to hide for a while- that’s not really referenced in the other character bios.  Usually it’s just Grandma going out into the woods and Red needing to find her.  The human Lumberjack doesn’t seem very protective of Red.  He seems totally understanding of her quest and only asks if she’s seen his son.  So it doesn’t make sense for him to get turned into a croc while trying to help her the same night when he was on his own mission.  But this bio kind of gives the impression that this guy has been trapped for like, months if not years.

I can tell you that Jerry’s line got changed too.  It used to be ‘One day, my father went into the dark forest, and never came back”.  Now it’s “There are those who go into the forest and never return.”  

It almost seems like the Crocodile being Jerry’s father is something the creators want to retcon out of existence.  So far this description hasn’t changed, but I keep watching it.  

It would bum me out, to be honest, if that were the case.  The Crocodile is, honestly, my favorite character.  He’s the reason I got so swept up into the lore of this game.  Not only does he have the best lines, but his voice actor is really good.  You get the sense of a guy who’s losing hope because he lost his family, and at the same time hates himself because he wouldn’t be able to provide for them anyway.  But he’s also proud, and doesn’t want Red to know he’s cursed, and certain not a person who cries!

I also love that these two sometimes-animal people are both cursed but also both taking pains to keep the other from finding out about the curse.  Wonderful irony, there.

The obvious way to fix this situation with the two lumberdads is...with two dads.  In fact, in my fics Jerry does have two dads- a red headed guy who’s still there, and another one who’s missing.  He’s supposed to look like this.

Anyhoo, I’m going to give him 🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊 SIX big toothy lizards in the hope that the devs will save my croc son!

#mairzy posts #night of the full moon #the werewolf #the carpenter #the lumberjack #the crocodile #character reviews #jerry #theorizing

[secretgamergirl]

Let’s talk about how Ranma is trans, part 3

Continued from Part 2.

The main thing going on in Volume 21 is Ranma getting drawn into a cheerleading contest. I’m only bringing this up because my gut says there’s going to be a while because I have something to talk about, and it’s a good reminder that stuff like this is absurdly common in this series, and I’m not desperate enough for examples to need to grasp at straws like this:

Ranma’s compulsive competitive streak rationalizes everything going on this page, and doesn’t particularly provide any evidence of her actually being a girl, beyond her prioritizing this victory over the humiliation and dysphoria a boy would be subjecting himself to in going down this road (which includes spending a week dating Kuno on the next page).

Now, the fact that this arc ends with Akane giving a heavy sigh at how this was Ranma’s plan A, personally going the direct route of just throwing on some kendo gear and participating in the actual martial arts competition Ranma felt compelled to cheerlead for, inspiring Ranma to cheer for her instead, and confess her love for the mysterious stranger she thinks is some mystery guy before she’s unmasked, that’s pretty telling.

Like, I don’t actually see a longterm relationship between the two of them ultimately working out, but it’s not hard to imagine this series ending with them getting married, and I can only picture that wedding ceremony with Akane in a suit and Ranma in a big poofy bridal gown. I mean, I’ve read the actual ending, and that’s still the only way I can picture it, you know?

... oh and Volume 22 picks up from here, with the gasping crowd pondering if Ranma is in girl mode when they have sex. This is relevant here as a reminder that at this point Ranma is totally out of the closet. Everyone knows about the whole curse thing, and it’s been like 18 volumes since she last attempted to pretend she was some mysterious stranger when publicly in girl mode. Also while totally off the mark of how physically intimate these two are, I appreciate that this random guy in the crowd has my back on how obviously Akane would top. That’s generally the rule of thumb when trans women date cis women by the way. There’s obviously exceptions, and I don’t want to get too sidetracked here, but, random crowd guy’s imagination is much closer to reality than most people’s.

V22C2 however is very, very significant to my whole thesis here, being the introduction of Ranma’s mother, seen here fishing Ranma out of the river after she “accidentall” falls in by walking on a faulty chain link fence:

I already got into things with Nodoka here in part 1 of this series, but seriously, this whole arc here is hard for me to get through now. A mother who is outwardly incredibly sweet and kind, especially towards total strangers, while quietly deeply conservative about traditional gender roles, and who threatens to kill her own trans daughter if she deviates from the “manly man” role she envisions for her hits entirely too close to home for me today.

Also for some reason, since starting this series, like a dozen people have gotten upset with me for referring to Genma being abusive in the same fashion, but aside from the general abusive nature of that relationship, no, the suicide pact of manliness was totally his idea. People just edit their memories because we’re all conditioned to blame women for everything.

So now we’ve got this flashback to having an infant Ranma “sign a contract” by pouring ink on her hand and letting her slap a piece of paper as Nodaka reminds everyone how seriously she’s taking this. Ranma blurts out “Ranko” as a cover name to avoid being outed to her. Real trans people almost never go that route, but it took me years to work out what I wanted to change mine name to officially. You take your time and keep thinking about it girl.

Ranma’s reaction to this information is getting, justifiably, quite angry at Genma for making this agreement, as she is now forced to deceive her mother, instead of immediately coming out to her. By the way, here’s Ranma getting mad at Akane for referring to her as manly and handsome in boy mode. Like, yeah, mitigating factor that you’re lying to prevent her from getting murdered, but it is incredibly painful to hear that sort of misgendering crap from people you care about in any circumstances.

... OK I don’t want to waste my whole scan pasting budget on this book when there’s still so many to go in this batch, but I could paste in every page. Nabiki of all people (Akane’s sister, sells candid nudes of Ranma to dudes who have crushes on her) refuses to go along with the lie here. When asked how Ranma spends all her spare time fighting (which is technically true), she corrects that to spending all her time running around in increasingly feminine costumes. Some “they were saying Boo-urns” later, Ranma asks her what the hell, and turns out she isn’t just trying to be a jerk. Her mom’s long dead, and the thought of Ranma missing out on a serious emotional reconnection to her mother because she’s scared of how she’ll react to her “son” being a girl. On the one hand, that is a surprisingly sincere and real feeling bit of character development for an otherwise largely one-dimensional character who normally comes across as a heartless jerk. On the other hand, SCREW YOU NABIKI! YOU DO NOT OUT TRANS PEOPLE TO THEIR ABUSIVE FAMILY LIKE THAT! IT CAN GET PEOPLE KILLED, AND YOU ACTUALLY KNOW THAT!

Soun encourages her to stay closeted around her, but try and form as much of a positive connection as she can otherwise, which is a much healthier approach. Mostly this means hanging out with her in girl mode hoping she doesn’t catch on. She tries actually approaching him in boy mode, usually thwarted by shenanigans because this is a comedy. The one time she actually reaches her though, just before introducing herself as her “son,” she hears her speculating that maybe Ranma is avoiding her because Ranma really isn’t manly.

... OK I could stop this whole analysis on that first panel there. This isn’t subtext at this point. That’s not performative dialog. That’s Ranma talking to herself about how she feels better embracing her femininity, as she voluntarily activates her “curse,” having realized that she is so undeniably, fundamentally female that she can no longer convincingly pull off pretending to be a boy.At this point in the series, she’s clearly no longer an egg in heavy denial. She has had that contemplative moment every trans woman goes through eventually where we break through every lie we told ourselves about who we really are growing up, accepted who she really is, and knows you can’t ever go back at that point. Good for you Ranma, I know how hard pushing past that emotional wall can be, especially when it means alienating family like this.

The rest of that volume is light gag stuff, although there is a bit where Ranma ponders if she’s changed in some fundamental way where girls no longer like her. Volume 23 brings Pantyhose Taro back He’s still an openly transphobic creep, I still hate him. Ranma still glares at him over the slurs, but notably never tries to defend herself by claiming to be a guy. Oh and Nodoka shows up again, to teach the girls to cook. Complex feelings from Ranma there, obviously.

Also, I’m not going to throw up a scan for this one, because I’m trying to avoid pages with topless girls, but a good chunk of this volume involves Ryoga accidentally hitting Ranma with this magical Cupid’s Arrow type fishing rod, causing her to fall in love with him, and... yeah it’s made pretty clear that she prefers to be in girl mode if she’s going to sleep with someone.

Volume 24 introduces Herb, the final curse victim in the series, having fallen into the same spring Ranma did. Herb however is clearly a guy. He’s actually doubly cursed, having been hit with a magic ladle that locks people in curse forms unless hit with a matching unlocking artifact (which Ranma is also hit with, and a couple others as this arc goes on), but rather than going “Welp, I guess I’ll start wearing cute dresses and dating guys! every time I can rationalize it even a little!“ he... wears really form-concealing clothes and does his best to not even let his own underlings know he’s cursed.

That arc stretches into Volume 25, followed by a really arbitrary fight against a new teacher, with a goal of sealing away her terrifying fighting technique, just because, which everyone gives up on after a final gag. Writing gets kinda sloppy in some of these later story arcs, motivation wise. I was going to say the Herb arc makes a really strong case for genderfluid vs. female for Ranma (and again, we can totally share representation here), because other than fixing that curse freeeze, there is literally no motive for them to fight, but... that’s pretty common in the back half of the series. Fighting for fighting’s sake is Ranma’s overriding motivation in general, which is why I keep passing on using most fights as evidence.

Volume 26 is about fighting a hydra and centers characters who aren’t characters. Akane looks good in drag. See again my wedding outfit thoughts.

Volume 27 is also a lot of wacky gag stuff not really focused on Ranma. I need to break all this text up though so, Ranma buys a new bathing suit for every beach trip.

Volume 28 is 100% about some random one off villain showing up in town, pretending to be Ranma, to steal something from Nodoka. You’d think I’d have more to talk about, considering, but it doesn’t really move the plot forward at all.

Volume 29 is all throwing stories to neglected side characters.

Volume 30 starts off by giving Ryoga a new love interest, in the hopes of being able to maybe pair people off in actually healthy ways, but THE HEART WANTS WHAT IT WANTS.

Yeah that’s just a random gag to hit the reset button (Ranma helped him avoid another girlfriend-doesn’t-know-the-cute-pig-is-you thing, see) but I’m coming in way under budget on images and way too serious on tone so the shipping will continue. But seriously she misconstrues that and leaves and he can’t find her again because of the easily lost thing.

Not a whole lot more to say here. Hinako, the teacher Ranma arbitrarily fights actually comes back a LOT for a character I forgot even existed, introduced this late in the series. Nodoka shows up again towards the end here, and they go all “5 second rule!” with it but she’s kinda putting the pieces together here:

This look at the original manga run concludes next time. I mean, in the sense that I’m going to run out of manga to reread. In the sense of proving my overall point, that happened the second I hit this panel:

#trans reading #ranma 1/2 #ranma #trans

[feebledetective]

☀☀☀☀☀☀☀☀- SoaringPilot-and-LittleWing

|| Flowers Are Nice || No longer Accepting ! ||

[ Oh wORM OKAY THAT’S A LOT BUT!! I’ll do my best to try to keep this as short as I can if I have to, and we’ll start with you, Icy! ]

@soaringpilot-and-littlewing

[ Icyy, you’re as cool as ice!

My pal, my dude- I love you! I honestly think your OC’s are amazing, especially with the backstory you told me through our DM’s. I didn’t think Shoichi’s backstory could be so. Angsty but- I honestly appreciate him more now that I know more about his backstory. Tomoyo too! I like how she gets along with people like Tanaka and Komaeda, possibly even Seiji in an AU of somesort but she’s p cute!!

I have seen a bit of your art and I wanna say it’s cute! It’s old-school, and nostalgic to me, which is really neato! Keep up the great work okay! I enjoy chatting with you whenever I get the energy and time to, you’re really nice and fun to chat with. The antics the siblings can go through with Shuichi is always a nice thing to talk about! You’re a great person, and you deserve a lot of good things to happen to you!

I want to thank you for understanding my situation when I wasn’t feeling too well about a ship. I appreciate that you listened to me and you were really considerate of it, not a lot of people actually do that and I honestly admire that of you.

I know your situation isn’t going well, but I hope for the best, I’m proud you made it this far and don’t give up okay! I’m here for you and I’ll do my best to support you if needed. Thanks for being part of my life, Icy! ]

@subserviiient​

[ MCDONALD’S SNAKE- FOUND THIS ONE IN MY HAPPY MEAL!

Snake, I know we haven’t done a lot just yet, but you’ve?? Been so kind to me?? Listen you’re!! Really easy to approach, and you’re really funny honestly ! I’d love to get to know you more because you really do seem like a nice and fun pal! A grimace stan too!

I can never ever stop my McDonalds joke with you and I’m really sorry in advance if it gets old- I can stop if you want kjHNMK

I may not know a lot about Ensemble Stars, but I really like your portrayal of her. Let her mom Shuichi because he needs a mom…Whether it’s in his normal verse of Idol AU- I love the things you write about her too and she does make me laugh from time to time!

Honestly, you make me laugh, I’m so glad that we got to talk at some point and I’d love to get to know you more! So far you made me combust from the sweet things you said and I’ll die one day. 

Keep up the great work and thanks for everything, Snake! We got Grimace to thank for our friendship~ ] 

@pressmyluck​

[ Okay, I know you’re likely not going to see this now but I hope one day you’ll see this. I know your situation right now is probably not good, especially since I haven’t heard from you in a while but I am hoping you’re safe and okay because you really do deserve it!

You’re a sweet angel, you’ve supported me throughout the summer and so forth, and you made me learn a few things about myself? Honestly, I think my summer would have been a bit boring without you. I know I met lots of people but you!! You made it fun for me! We made lots of memes together, we supported each other, we talked about Seiji and Ko and just- Fun stuff! I love you!!

Your writing is amazing, this goes for all of your muses. Whether it’s Ko, Hinata, Yoosung…It’s clear that you care for them a lot! I want you to remember that roleplaying is a hobby, if people don’t like your portrayal, they’re a lost for cause. Don’t push yourself a lot, you’re good okay!!

I swear to God if I could I would have given you the biggest hug because you deserve it! Please don’t be hard on yourself for not talking to me, I promise you’re good!! I fully understand your situation and I don’t want to drain you. 

Thank you so much for everything, you precious cinnamon roll, I really hope things are going to be okay on your end and I can’t wait to hear from you again! Take care and stay safe~ ]

@rollingsnowsmasher​

[ Who is this cinnamon roll. 

Becky, please have a seat. You’re?? So nice?? Excuse mE- But for real, you have really helped my mood at some point and seeing your art is really cute. I love it! They really inspire me to try to draw, even if they’re just sketches! I may not know a whole lot of your muse’s fandom but I…I love the child…SHU-BRO IS NICE A AA,,,

Also, I know we only just started talking about this but. Do you wanna know the lvl of excitement I felt when I found out you like/know of one of my special interests- lISTEN YOU AND I ARE GONNA HAVE LOTS OF SILENT HILL TALKS OKAY…I GOT SO HAPPY WHEN I FOUND OUT YOU ALSO ROLEPLAY AS HEATHER!! A AAA YOU ARE A BLESSING TO THIS EARTH- You also know of LISA the Painful I think and I’m just. Combustion. You are a veteran if you played that game, you have my utmost respects- 

You’re such a sweetheart though, for real, you are so nice and I don’t know how or what I did to have someone like you come to my life?? lISTEN I MELTED WHEN YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO HUG ME,,,,SWEETHEART,,,, I’ll send you lots of hugs okay!! 

Beck, you’re wonderful and you are loved plus a huge blessing in planet earth, I don’t want you to ever forget that. It’s a huge pleasure to have you in my life and I’d love to get to know you more and do more with you! ]

@fvkasc​

[ hello new phone, who’s this stinku?

kJHBNSJ I KID I KID BUT- FUKASHAY!! FUKASHE!! I LOVE YOOU, YA MOOF!! This is where I don’t know if I should be serious or be fooling around but I’ll be doing both for the sake of this meme child. 

I LOVE WRITING WITH YOU….IT’S NICE….Honestly I can’t wait to write with you again and you’re getting me midly motivated to try out Hatsune Miku/Calne Ca but I’m too much of a wuss to make a blog for them so they’re exclusively private but ah. 

You’re such a sweetheart though, you made me laugh numerous times and all of the jokes we have together are honestly wild and I LOVE….. You’re a great pal, and I’m really happy to have you around! Love you so much, you egg! ]

@omghoshii​

[ Hey hey, you you, wanna ship 10 boxes at my home-

Bepsi, Bepis, Bep- You’re great! Like, holy hell I feel bad for being dead silent again because I genuinely appreciate your support and your kindness, and I want to apologize about that first. Secondly, have I ever told you that I love your Ryoma? 

It’s nice to finally find someone who also loves and appreciates Ryoma…He’S A GOOD BOI AND DESERVES SO MUCH!! Seeing him happy/feeling okay in our threads are so nice and sweet like you don’t even know how many times I smiled whenever I see him having a nice time!! He deserves a lot!! I can hear his voice in my head when readin the dialogs and you’re doing an excellent job roleplaying him. I love reading your stuff and your writing is- :insert okay hand emoji: :insert 100 emoji:

As mentioned above, I love your support and kindness. I enjoyed chatting with you and I stated this 1000000 times now but I love your hUMOR KAJSHD– I also love your art too!! It’s really cute and unique!! Would love to do more with you and I hope you’re having a proper sleeping schedule. Because I swear sometimes you would sleep when it’s 1-3PM or 11PM I– I think once I saw you went to bed at 10AM??? I COULD BE WRONG THO DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT BUT- SLEEP……

I love ya, dude! ]  

@liersymphcny​​

[ Ichiii you’re gR8-! 

We don’t have lots of threads going on and we haven’t spoke a whole lot as of recently but you’re great and I appreciate you! I love the dedication you put with your muses like- god damn that’s a lot of them how do you manage man– They’re all really good, and don’t think for a moment that your portrayal isn’t good because it iS!! IT IS AND THAT’S WHY I WANNA ROLEPLAY WITH YOU!

Your edits are also rEAL gud!! I love seeing them so keep up the excellent work okay!! You’re a really sweet and fun friend too, I enjoy chatting with you and I hope you’re doing well, hang in there, pal! It’s real nice having you around and thank you so much for everything, Ich! ]

@its-all-in-the-cards​​

[ scree lENA!! MY CHILD!! 

We haven’t done a lot yet, but listen, your interpretation of Celeste and Junko are spot-on!! I love how well you write them, and sorry in advance that we don’t have lots of threads going on-?? I’d love to have our muses interact more even if I’m clueless when it comes to ideas but it’s always nice to see you!! 

Talking to you is also really nice, you’re thoughtful, you’re caring and you’re just a lovely person okay!! I saw your cosplays and I LOVE….15/10 LISTEN I- YOU’RE DOING A FASCINATING JOB KEEP IT UP OKAY!! 

I appreciate you, Lena! Thank you so much for the nice things you say and take care! It’s Love On Lena! ]

#[ me: i'm gonna make this short. ] #[ does this even look short to you???? ] #[ i literally spent nearly 4 hours on this kjBNAK ] #[ BREAK TIME.... I'LL FINISH THE OTHER ASKS SOON THO- ] #[ thank you sm for sending them tho!! I really appreciate it Icy! <33 ] #| pda ? // | #soaringpilotandlittlewing #| Asks | #| OutOfClues |