#APART from this worm one which DOES NOT MISS

[lotrmusical]

never let anyone tell you that trawling through mediocre victorian poetry isn't worth it. we just happened upon an absolute BANGER of a worm poem. go read it or else 🪱🪱🪱

#was calling beckett and scouring the works of eliza cook looking for lesbianism #good amounts of lesbianism in evidence but unfortunately very little in the way of good poetry #APART from this worm one which DOES NOT MISS #eliza cook #is there a thriving eliza cook tag on tumblr. somehow i doubt it #the hand of the giant and the heart of the brave / must turn weak and submit to the worm and the grave! #not an original theme ofc but GOD the treatment is delightful. so fresh so gleeful some rlly nice use of sound. rlly solidly constructed #words #gay belligerence

[lemonlover1110]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬

Satoru Gojo

[Chapter 5] Evening Off

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Pairing: Satoru Gojo x f!Reader

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“Mommy…” Ren taps your face. Lately he’s picked up the bad habit of waking you up earlier than you’re supposed to, and it’s getting on your nerves. The first morning was because he was hungry, but lately it’s because he’s bored and wants to spend time with you– You understand where he’s coming from, you two barely spend time together and the early morning is the only time you can actually do something, but you barely sleep and you appreciate every minute of rest.

“Let’s sleep some more, buddy.” You tell him, wrapping your arm around him and cuddling him. You need to save up all your energy for tonight, after all, you’re going out with people you don’t want to go out with. You talked to your mother to take care of Ren since she’s feeling better, you also wanted to give the nanny the night off since she has her own family to take care of. 

“I’m not sleepy, mommy.” He answers while your hand begins to pet his hair. You hope that it’ll help him sleep, but once Ren wakes up, it’s hard to get him to go back to sleep. He gives you around five minutes– Five minutes in his mind, but it’s actually a minute of extra sleep before he says, “Can we play, mommy?”

“Baby, I’m so tired.” You whine, and he worms out of your embrace. You hear him walk away, and just as you’re succumbing to slumber, you hear a squeaky toy in your ear. You finally open your eyes, and you look at the little boy who looks at you with doe eyes. He just really misses you and wants to spend time with you. You get up and you begin to walk to the bathroom, “Brush your teeth before anything, Ren.”

“Okay!” He yells before he runs behind you to brush his teeth. And like that, your day gets started.

You eat breakfast, play a little with Ren, then you make lunch for the two of you, and after you play a little more, and by a little more, you mean for the rest of the day. You’re tired of playing, but he’s just so happy while he plays with you. When you finally get him to watch a show and relax, there’s a knock on the door and then someone rings the doorbell; you know it’s your mother, meaning that it’s time for you to start getting ready and actually start your day. 

You open the door, and your mother engulfs you with a hug. You hug her back, a smile coming to your face as you feel her arms around you. The smile fades as you remember that you have to go out. And your stupid self agreed to go out clubbing with them afterwards. Maybe you can cancel last minute, but you’re not sure that Mrs. Gojo would be too happy with you.

She walks inside, pulling away from the hug. She calls out Ren’s name, and the little boy goes running to his grandmother. He hugs her, and you smile as you watch the exchange. You close the door and you tell them, “I’ll start getting ready.”

They ignore you as you walk to your room and to the bathroom to take a shower and begin getting ready. You try not to spend too much time getting ready because you tell yourself that you’re not trying to impress anyone… But you are, and even though you try not to spend too much time on your makeup, you do. You take too long picking out an outfit and matching shoes. You’re not even going to comment on accessories– You don’t have a lot to pick from, yet you struggle with which ones to put on.

While you decide on the earrings, your mother walks into the room. You don’t notice her, focused on your reflection on the mirror. You’re startled when she says, “This is a nice apartment.”

“I know. I like this better than staying at her house.” You share, and she chuckles in response.

“I can only imagine the nightmare she is. Worse with age.” She responds, and you hum in response. You finally decide on the earrings and you put them on.

“She’s not so bad with Ren. Absolutely adores that boy, that I can say.” You tell her. You finally turn to look at her, a sigh leaving your lips before you roll your eyes just thinking of Mrs. Gojo. “She wants to make my life miserable though. I have no idea why she wants me to go out with her son and friends. She probably just wants me to be miserable.”

“‘Her son’ like he isn’t Ren’s father.” She quotes, and you two are so focused on your conversation that you miss the little boy that stands behind your mother, one that walked out of his room and wondered where his grandmother went. He makes his presence known when he hears the word father.

“Daddy? Are you going to see my daddy, mommy?” Ren speaks up, and you both freeze as if you had been caught red-handed. As Ren grows older, he asks more questions about his family. Thanks to what he sees on television, he knows that he’s supposed to have a father. It also doesn’t help that he sees his friends’ fathers, and he slowly realizes that he’s supposed to have one as well. Your mother turns around and smiles down at the young boy.

“How about we get some ice cream.” She offers, completely dismissing the question. He completely forgets about what he was talking about at the offer for ice cream, and you watch as he nods excitedly, a big smile coming to his face. You watch them walk away and go to the kitchen, and you end up sighing. Each day you wonder how you’ll answer the inevitable question of who his father is and where he’s at; he doesn’t know about you doesn’t seem like a good enough answer. 

You arranged a ride to take you to the restaurant that you were supposed to go to. You weren’t expecting anything fancy, just a small restaurant to eat something before getting the night started, but you’re proved wrong. Of course you are. They’re not going somewhere cheap to eat, even if they have other plans after. You’re not sure if you’re dressed right until you see Shoko who dresses in the same style. She holds a cigarette between her lips, and she throws it on the floor when she sees you walking over.

“Are we underdressed or…?” You begin and she chuckles before she pulls out the phone to look at the time. “I was expecting some cheap place… I mean they do have plans to go out afterwards right?”

“It’s funny you think that they’d step near a cheap restaurant.” Shoko responds, and you two begin to walk into the place. Shoko tells the hostess Gojo’s name for the reservation, and she walks you to your table. You find that you’re not the first ones there since Suguru is sitting at the table, scrolling through his phone. Shoko rolls her eyes before saying, “It’s a surprise that you’re here early.”

“Why do you sound irritated by that?” Suguru says, raising his brow as he look at Shoko. The man stands up from his chair to walk over to you and give you a side-hug. When he does so, he walks back to his seat, and you take a seat as well. “Did you two come here together or…?”

“We just met outside.” Shoko answers. Your leg begins to bounce as you think about what’s coming up next. Shoko notices and she’s about to ask why the hell you even decided to show up, but she puts two and two together and it all goes back to Mrs. Gojo. “How long do you think it’ll take for Sayo to realize that they were together for a bit.”

“Who?” Suguru asks, genuinely confused but then he looks at you. Suguru then chuckles before shrugging. “I mean… They are so awkward around each other, she’s bound to know something is up.”

“I’m right here. Change the topic.” You tell them. “I don’t want to talk about the Gojos. I already have enough dealing with the mother daily, I don’t want to talk about the son nor the wife.”

“How did you even end up working for her?” Suguru questions, and that’s something that Shoko also wonders; she knows that you had a son, but that’s about it. What prompted you to seek out help from Mrs. Gojo.

“A lot of bills, little money, barely any help.” You keep it vague. “What can I say? She might be a total bitch but the woman pays well.”

And just as you say so, the couple makes their presence known. Your face gets hot immediately, thinking that they heard you call Satoru’s mother a bitch. Sayo and Satoru greet everyone at the table before taking a seat. Your eyes look over Sayo, and you feel… Inferior. You know another person’s beauty doesn’t take from your own, but as you look at her, you feel as if she’s sucked the beauty out of you. She wears a white silk dress that accentuates her body, a ruby necklace around her neck with matching earrings, and red lipstick on her lips– She’s not dressed  to go out clubbing.

She looks at you and smiles. “It’s so nice to see you here.”

“How’s your cat doing? I hope he’s not too bummed out that you’re here.” Suguru mentions and you end up chuckling. Dinner would’ve been fine without Satoru and Sayo, but that’s not the reality. They’re there so it’s all too awkward, even if you try to converse. Sayo is pretty much the only one that speaks, occasionally, Suguru helps her out.

You do find out that she’s your age, of course from a wealthy family, and she’s currently a stay-at-home wife, and she’s planning on keeping it that way. She’s into painting, yoga, horseback riding, and whatever rich pastime one could think. What you find the most interesting is that apparently Sayo and Satoru met once before in their childhood: a winter that the Gojos went to Switzerland. They have a picture together from years ago. It made you comment,

“Wow, it’s like you two are soulmates.”

Sayo chuckles while Satoru’s eyes wander around. He can’t look at you straight, you don’t think he ever will again. Sayo tucks a strand of her long black hair behind her ear before she comments, “I don’t believe in soulmates, and Satoru doesn’t either.”

“Really?” You furrow your eyebrows then you look at Satoru. He would always call you his soulmate but apparently he’s changed. Or maybe he doesn’t want to admit something so foolish to his wife.

“Do you believe in soulmates?” She asks and you end up nodding. She then proceeds to ask, “Do you think you’ve met your soulmate?”

“I don’t think I have.” You answer, and you glance at Satoru who finally looks at you. You look away and your eyes land on Suguru. “How’s your residency going?”

“God, let’s not talk about that because I’ll rip my hair out.” Suguru responds, which makes Shoko say,

“Oh my God, let’s talk about it then.” She smirks while looking at Suguru, and Suguru rolls his eyes. The pair used to get along but now Shoko seems like she can’t stand Suguru.

“You’re just mad because your parents didn’t let you study medicine.” Suguru comments, and she end up scoffing. Sayo takes over the conversation before they continue bickering.

Shoko drives you and Suguru to the club that you’re going meeting Satoru and Sayo at. You’re more excited about this than dinner because you actually have the chance to get away. You’re able to let loose for the first time in five years. Of course, you’re in a private booth of the club because apparently Sayo and Satoru don’t like to be close to other people, but it’s fine. You and Shoko still get away.

You do a round of shots with Shoko, which didn’t take too much convincing from her part, and then you dance with her. You’re having fun with her, until you feel a pair of hands on your hips, and you tense up. You turn to look at who it is, brushing their hands away. You bite down your lip, holding back a smile as you put Suguru’s hands back on your hips. You begin to dance together, and when Shoko notices, she walks away not wanting to witness whatever the hell is happening.

“Why aren’t you two dancing?” Shoko asks, raising her voice so it can be heard over the music, walking back to Satoru and Sayo. She’ll sit down for a minute, have a drink, and then go back to dance. Satoru has his arm wrapped around Sayo, just looking around while she sips on her cocktail.

“Sayo doesn’t like to dance. What about you? Are you tired already?” Satoru replies, raising his voice as well, and Shoko chuckles.

“Suguru started dancing with her and I needed to get out of their way before they started making out in front of me.” Shoko says, which makes Sayo laugh while Satoru shifts in his seat. His eyes look around for you amongst the crowd of people and he finally finds you, grinding on Suguru. 

“Does she like him?” Sayo asks, and Shoko shrugs.

“I know that he likes her! Ever since we were teens!” Shoko responds, and maybe it’s the dim purple lighting that makes her eyes see things, but she swears she sees Satoru clench his jaw. She acts as if she didn’t see anything, playing it off as her own faulty eyesight before she stands up to get herself another drink. She doesn’t want to stay with Satoru and Sayo for too long; she feels too awkward when she’s alone with them.

“I’m gonna get something to drink! Will you come with me?!” You tell Suguru and he follows behind you when you grab his hand instead of letting go. And even though you came here with the Gojos, you’ve completely forgotten since you’re having fun. You finally let go of Suguru when you spot Shoko, and you hug her from behind before resting your chin on her shoulder.

“Are you drunk already? You’ve only had one shot.” Shoko comments. “Did you become a lightweight after having a baby or what—”

“Huh?!” Suguru’s eyes widen. Did he hear that right or is the music so loud that he’s mishearing things?

“What?!” Shoko turns around, and you let go of her. She acts as if she didn’t say what she just said, and she’s able to convince him that he heard wrong. And instead of getting the drink that you originally had in mind, you do another round of shots with Shoko but this time, Suguru takes one with you.

You go back to dancing with Suguru, and you try to drag Shoko with you, but she doesn’t want to join you. The next time you do see her, she’s with Sayo which you weren’t expecting. But you don’t pay much attention to them.

You’re focused on having your own fun with Suguru.

“Uhh…” Suguru’s neck hurts. He slowly opens his eyes, feeling something poking his cheek. He doesn’t remember much from last night– Just dancing with you, and maybe having a little too much to drink… Did he drive himself home? No, he’s not reckless nor irresponsible. He didn’t even take his car– Maybe it was Shoko. His head is killing him, and he wants to go back to sleep, but something keeps poking him.

He opens his eyes and the place is too bright. This has to be Shoko’s apartment because it certainly isn’t his. He sits up, and begins to look around. The poking on his cheek stops, instead it transfers to his ribcage. And he finally looks down.

His eyes widen at the sight. Is he still sleeping? He has to be because he’s seeing a four-year-old version of Satoru; he doesn’t remember taking any drugs last night. Suguru just stares at the little boy.

He fully wakes up when he hears,

“Are you my daddy?”

🏷 @yeagerfushiguro @luckimoon @uhremmi @conniesbbymama @mykyoon @prettyiolanthe @mc-reborn @the-loneliest-girl @cloudsinthecosmos @coffee-on-a-rainyautumn @blinkingsuns @oi-loverboy @neireav @lilith412426 @misshale21 @rivaiken @q-the-rockaholic @merlinssassybeard @ikilledsparky2 @mimizsworld @lily3847 @Teslumieres @floralsightings @Mocha-plxnet @idreamitski @creolequeen11210@jooaannnnaaa @enthusiastiics @lovinkiri @abdce12345 @bkgnotsuma @kariito-art @beelzmunchkin @satosuguswife @kurome-ga-kill @hoonberrie @mittypops @suhaaaefre @AZE107 @ackerstein @sweetshawty @saiewithakatana @psychopotatomeme @innocxntdexth @4-morant @shan-nein @marymosaa @Ditzyberry @purpleguk @basically-an-anime-stan-acct @bomjug @idkbutokaylol @rosieee491 @ieathairs @simpfully-heartbroken @witchbybirth @ddalgisworld @pinksilk @torutoji @notarshia @filmreelononescreen @Anemicjaguar @kurookinnie

#[changes] #gojo saturo #satoru gojo #gojou satoru x you #jjk satoru #gojou satoru x reader #jujutsu kaisen gojo #jjk gojo #gojo angst #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #gojo satoru #jujutsu gojo #gojo x reader #gojo fanfic

[abiiors]

birthday surprise - matty x reader

part 2 of matty's birthday weekend a/n: this is scheduled. by the time this goes up, i will (hopefully🤞🏼) be on a beach somewhere, day drunk 😌 cw: vomit (because hungover), dramatic (because sad), once again vague descriptions of depression. some kissing and suggestive stuff. idiots friends to lovers wc: 3.1k

george’s massive hand rests on matty’s back while he retches into the toilet. 

his head pounds mercilessly, the sunlight streaming in through the window is barely helping and the soured wine churning in his stomach comes back up once again, leaving him gasping for air. a loud splash echoes in the bathroom and matty groans, gagging a bit more. 

george is a good friend. he lets matty lean on him and holds the glass of water so matty can slowly sip from it.

it barely works though. he feels like shit regardless, and none of it can be cured by water or food or painkillers. 

george helps him get back to bed once matty feels slightly better. the whole time neither of them say a word. matty doesn’t know how much of last night has been told to his friend—does he know the precise way in which matty fucked up? did he see matty in the act? overhear the conversation accidentally? 

george’s face looks completely blank. he does all the right things—sets a glass of water and a few painkillers next to matty, grabs him a bucket, draws the blackout curtains. he even offers to get breakfast.

“fry up from that small cafe down the street,” he says in a hushed voice. “come on, greasy food’s good for hangovers.”

matty mumbles something like a vague yes, if only so george would step out of the house for a bit. once he’s out, matty searches for his phone, wedged somewhere between the mattress and the headboard. the sudden brightness makes him wince but once he manages to open his eyes, he checks for messages and missed calls. 

apart from one missed call from george and one from jamie, there’s nothing. 

nothing from her. 

not one message. 

the last message he’s sent to her sits at read—it’s nothing special, just the address to the pub they were going to meet at. and then… yeah, matty remembers how well that went. 

he remembers the last look on her face before she stormed off. 

then it’s just a fog.

his throat feels clogged, his eyes sting but no tears come. matty just lays there, curled up like a pathetic worm, clutching his pillow until seconds or minutes or hours later george re-enters his room. 

“right, come on,” he flings the covers off matty, making him feel a sudden draft of cold air. “i’m not getting you breakfast in bed, mate. you’re hungover, not an invalid.”

“‘m not hungry,” matty mumbles. his voice is hoarse and his throat hurts—probably the vomiting—but it’s nothing in comparison to his head. a delayed realisation hits him that he never took the painkillers. 

george huffs. “don’t be a diva.” and if matty had any strength he would absolutely be offended by that. then again maybe george doesn’t know the full extent of last night. 

“seriously george—”

“matty. you’re going to get out of bed and come to the kitchen. we are going to eat and then we are going to talk about last night.”

well… there goes that. a stubborn side of him wants to be an absolute ass and dig his feet in. say all sorts of mean things to george just so he’d leave. but isn’t that what got him here in the first place? he really isn’t in the position to hurt more people in his life. 

like a small child matty drags his feet the entire way to the kitchen, turning his nose up at the food on the table. (even though it looks really good and his stomach does growl now that he can smell the food) george doesn’t egg him on any further. he just motions to the chair and slides a mug of coffee in front of him.

“you said what?” 

it’s the eerily calm edge to george’s voice that makes matty shrink in his seat. he does feel better with some food in his stomach, physically at least. but the way george stares at him—eyes cold, lips pressed in a thin line—makes him feel sick to his stomach all over again. 

“i said– i– i said it was the first of april, i told her it was a joke.” his voice is a pathetic whisper, words drowned by shame and guilt and self-hatred. matty wishes he could go back in time and undo it all. he won’t say any of it. 

he won’t even touch the wine in the first place. 

“right after you said i love you.”

“yeah.”

“huh.”

easy for george to say that. it’s not his love life blowing up in his face right now. matty stabs the tomato next to his half-eaten toast, watching it spill its guts onto the plate. red. just like last night. 

he remembers that part of it. 

“what happened after? how did i… get home?”

george goes a bit silent for a second, not meeting matty’s eyes which sets alarm bells ringing in his head. 

“do you really not remember?”

when matty shakes his head, george just sighs and then softly says her name. “she called charli, crying a lot and i figured something went down. i called you–don’t you remember that?” when matty’s blank face gives him the answer, george continues, “you sounded really awful like… you were gasping for breath. i could barely understand you. so i thought i’d pick you up and get you home. i’m glad i did.”

in all of this the only part matty focuses on is her. and that she called charli crying a lot. of course, he thanks george but it’s only half-hearted, distracted. he can’t get the image of it out of his mind—her sobbing on the other end of the phone, barely able to get a word out. it breaks his heart all over again. 

he did that. 

this is all his fault. 

“matty… you have to make it right.”

that’s the biggest problem of it all—he doesn’t know how. what is he supposed to do, call her up and say: hey, so you know how i drunkenly said i love after which i assumed you looked at me with disgust and then i said it was all a joke and you stormed off? well it was not a joke i am seriously in love with you and i don’t know what happens to our friendship after this. 

yeah. there’s no way to put it any better. 

so he just nods. at least, that way he doesn’t have to answer to george right now. he’s figure out a way to do it later, once he doesn’t feel like a raisin. he’ll figure out a proper plan, build up the courage to call her. 

for now matty can only swallow the rest of the now-lukewarm coffee and hope that he can just sleep the rest of the day off. 

for three days after that, his messages stay on delivered. 

it’s a harrowing process, to pick up his phone and dial her number only for it to go to voicemail after the second ring. almost like she’d stabbed her thumb on the glaring red reject button. 

all his messages went unanswered too. all the—

hey

can we talk please?

please!

i just want to say sorry 

just hear me out

—all of them ignored, like all his other efforts to reach her through her friends. 

day four charli shows up at his doorstep, face twisted in a scowl, eyes like embers ready to singe him if he stepped one toe out of line, mayhem in tow. 

the puppy is his last straw. the fact that she sent mayhem back with charli instead of dropping him off herself… matty doesn’t even want to think what that means for him. for them. 

he mumbles a quiet “thanks” to charli, afraid of speaking anything louder. 

“if it weren’t for george—” she starts and swallows, as if she’s literally swallowing her anger. “nevermind. forget about it.”

and then she leaves him standing at his doorstep like a loser, mayhem’s leash in hand. 

much later he realises that the collar is different now, it’s no longer the slightly frayed old brown collar from before. this one is new. 

this one is green. a green that matches her hair… 

the thought of it makes his throat clog up with tears once again. when had she even had the time to go buy him a new collar? one to match her hair so perfectly? was it before or after he fucked up? matty scratches mayhem behind his ears who lets out a soft little whine and nuzzles him in return. maybe the puppy is sad too, maybe mayhem prefers being with her instead of being with him. 

the next few days he spends like a pig in a pigsty, surrounded by his own filth of food cartons and cigarette butts and coke cans. he makes it a mission to call her once every day—all of them go unanswered anyway so what’s the point?

by the time the seventh of april rolls around, matty doesn’t even bother thinking about his birthday anymore—there’s no pointing in celebrating it, he’s not even in the mood right now. one failed celebration is enough.

his friends, of course, have a whole different plan in mind. 

jamie shows up at his house the evening of the seventh, not ready to take no for an answer. it’s just a small dinner, he says, only friends and family. (matty knows that’s not true, knows it’s going to be a whole surprise party) but every “no” is met with a gentle refusal to accept it and so ultimately, he gives in and dresses up in his cleanest, least sad shirt. the one that least screams “i took my first shower of the week today”. 

jamie, to his credit, tries engaging him in conversation. matty, to his credit, tries not to answer in one syllable words. it gets exhausting real quick though, so they end up spending the rest of the car ride in silence.

everything that happens after is a blur in his mind—the pub looks ordinary from the outside, inconspicuous. everyone yells “surprise!” much like he predicted. matty smiles, cheery and fake. someone hands him a drink, which he tries to refuse but the person is too far away to hear him over the music now. his stomach roils at the thought of being in another pub, in the middle of another birthday party. 

he just wants to go home and curl up onto his bed and never move again. 

except…

matty’s heart stops when he spots a green head. 

he blinks rapidly, about to rub his eyes to make sure he didn’t hallucinate. maybe there are drugs in the air, maybe the (untouched) drink in his hands is actually spiked. 

but the green head moves and she steps away from behind george, a glass of some dark cocktail in her hands and her eyes trained on him. matty staggers to a stop, about to drop the glass in his hands. 

“hey…” her voice is hesitant, unsure when she first walks up to him. from behind her, george throws matty a look, his brow raised as if to say one chance, matty. better make it right.

of all the things that have happened today, this… this is the real surprise. 

matty stands there like an idiot, tongue-tied and wide-eyed, unable to come up with a simple “hi”.

“should we… uh, head outside?” it’s when she points vaguely behind her, to the smoking area, that he realises just how loud it is inside. the consistent beat of the song thumps through his chest, making him feel more anxious than ever. in a daze, he nods and then dutifully follows her outside. 

as soon as the door to the smoking area closes behind him, she whirls around, arms crossed in front of her chest, brows knit in an indecipherable expression. “talk.”

oh.

well, that’s what he had said to her hadn’t he? in all the text messages he had sent. that he just wants to talk. he just wants one chance. and now that the chance is here, his mouth's as dry as a desert. 

“i was… an idiot, no forget that, i was a real cunt to you. just like you said, i’m so sorry for the awful shit i said, i��” his words come out stilted and awkward. he has no idea where he’s going with this, he only knows he needs to earn her forgiveness somehow. 

even if he has to get on his knees. 

“i got drunk an–and cruel and said things i didn’t mean—”

“what things?”

“w-what?” 

“the things you didn’t mean,” she clears her throat, “what things were they? the part where you said i love you or–or the part where you said it was all a joke?”

matty’s insides feel like jelly all over again. it’s like he’s back where he was a week ago—just a boy, standing in front of the girl he loves, about to say the stupidest thing in the world. 

“well?”

“i didn’t mean it as a j–joke.” his voice comes out as a cowardly whisper, high pitched and barely audible. that’s no way to say the things he really wants to say! 

gathering all his courage, matty steps closer to her. to his utter surprise, she doesn’t step away. 

“it wasn’t a joke, what i said to you. i—” he chokes, nervously running a hand through his hair, wondering what the slight widening of her eyes means out of the million possibilities his brain’s already conjured up. 

“i know i was drunk and barely making sense but i meant it… i meant all of it.”

slowly, she uncrosses her arms, letting them dangle at her sides. the crease between her brows relaxes too. suddenly, it’a her taking a step forward until they’re toe-to-toe and she has to tilt her chin up to look him in the eyes. the moonlight shines bright on her face, the glitter gleams on her eyelids, and for a moment matty is completely awestruck. 

how is he meant to find words when she leaves him so completely tongue-tied?

“and what’s ‘it’, huh?”

the faint ringing in his ears starts up all over again and music from inside the pub floats through the walls, mellowed and somehow peaceful. this is it, he thinks. he fucked it up once, he absolutely cannot do it again. 

“i meant i… i love you. not as a friend. i mean n-no, of course, i love you as a friend but i also meant it as something more. not that you have to reciprocate! i just–it’s just what i feel—”

the rest of his words die on his lips. get cut off by someone else’s lips more like it. her lips. against his. 

matty’s eyes resemble wide saucers until her arms wrap around him, fingers tangling into his hair. her nails brushing against his scalp is what makes his body relax and suddenly matty’s kissing her back. 

tenderly, he holds her cheek, tucking away stray hair behind her ear. his other hand rests on her waist, too hesitant to grip her tightly but too scared to just let go. as if once he lets go of her, she’ll float away, far away from him again, out of his reach. matty’s sure she can feel his heart hammering in his chest. he’s not super proud of it but the kiss makes him forget all about being embarrassed. 

the feel of her tongue lighting teasing his lips is all that matters. 

she makes a sound at the back of her throat, almost a… moan and pulls away abruptly, looking shy all of a sudden. 

matty touches his lips with trembling fingers. 

“was that too—”

“are you joking?!” if he though his voice was breathy before, it has nothing on what he sounds like now. the sound that comes out of him is hoarse, like he’s struggling to breathe and it’s making him feel dizzy. the good kind of dizzy. “so i fucked up, majorly, might i add! and i get rewarded with a kiss?!”

she giggles, all anger from before melting away right in front of his eyes. “it was more to shut you up honestly, you would have been here all night. rambling.”

for the first time in a week, matty can finally breathe, can finally feel the blood in his veins flow again. for the first time in a week, matty feels like a person again. “it wasn’t a reward. just because you’re pretty and a good kisser doesn’t mean i’ll forgive you so quickly.” 

matty grins, “you think i’m pretty?” and promptly gets punched in the arm.

it takes them a moment to stop giggling, but when they finally sober up, she turns serious again. “seriously though, matty, it hurt me a lot, what you did. i think… i think i can set it aside for tonight but i’m going to need some time to figure things out. 

matty nods. of course, he knows the impact his words must have had. shame and guilt blooms deep within him, strong and acrid. 

“don't forgive me yet, love. forgive me when i earn it. forgive me when you think i’m worthy of it.”

when she kisses him again, it’s deeper than the last time. her entire body is pressed against his, so warm and soft in arms, exactly like he’s imagined countless times before. he can’t stop himself—can’t stop him from finally holding onto her waist, hand sliding down to her ass. can’t stop himself from pushing her back till her back hits the wall and a soft gasp leaves her mouth. every nerve ending in his body is on hyperdrive. everywhere she touches, electricity zings through him. 

matty slides his tongue in her mouth, pulling on her bottom lip with his teeth and soothing the sting away with his tongue. every time he feels her shiver, matty presses further into her. he just wants more and more and more—more than he can do here and now on this balcony. 

all his friends are inside for fucks sake. 

“you can start now,” she teases, smiling roguishly against his mouth. “you’d look quite nice on your knees, i think.”

blood simmers under his skin, rushing south all at once and this time it’s matty who shivers, struggling to stand upright. 

“yeah? that what you want, sweetheart?”

“take me home, please,” she says. and matty agrees in a heartbeat. 

taglist: @scooby-doodoo @partoftheairforce @justgoatsbreakinghearts0855 @beachesgetpeaches @you-muppet @mcabister @alexmarie29 @at-her-very-foreign @hfkait @squishysoupy @sierraeslaprincesa @harrie-fic-center @alien-girl-violet @thereisaplaceintheheart @kennedy-brooke @lolidontknowanymore @theoriginalwhatsername @celestcies @sugarkane1001 @ari-turner @thewaywewereinsaigon @daphnesutton @beliefandsayingsomething @ros3chu @nothingrevealedeverythingdenied @zzzhealy @mattymybeloved @fck-off @indiaamars @sofaritsalrightt @k4tie75 @wondersecret @humptyhoran @indierockgirrl @hanbiior @moreyoulove-moreyouknow @rossgirly @if-my-heart-bleeds @little-lovely-darling @abriefnirvana @renitypoem @sinarainbows @lady-may-targaryen @love4agesss @angrylittlebaldman @oneluckygirl @sinarainbows @starvchaser @noacfapologyst @abouttofillhisshoes @tbhnotthatfunny

add yourself to the taglist

#matty35 #the 1975 #matty healy #matty's birthday weekend #matty healy x reader #matty healy x you #matty x reader #matty x you

[sunflowerseedsandscience]

Various Storms and Saints- Prologue

"You still haven't told me if he's cute or not."

Scully sighed and pressed the heels of her hands against her forehead, cradling the phone in the crook of her neck. Nobody could make her regret bringing up a subject as quickly as her sister when she put her mind to it. "No, Missy, I haven't," she allowed. "Because it's irrelevant. Mulder's good looks aren't the reason I miss working with him."

"So you admit it? He is cute?"

"Missy. Can we please have a serious conversation, for once?"

"Fine, fine," Melissa acquiesced, though her tone made it clear this point would be revisited in the future. "Tell me why you miss working with him, then."

"Well... part of it is the cases we tackled together," Scully said. "The autopsies I'm stuck doing now that the X-Files are shut down seem so boring in comparison to murderous clones and mind-controlling worms in the Arctic."

Melissa whistled. "Yeah, I can see how that might be a little bit of a come down. What's the other part?"

"What other part?"

"You said the cases are part of the reason. So what's the other part?"

Scully closed her eyes. How to define this most indefinable of relationships, especially to Melissa, who so often seemed to think every person in her life fit into a neat box? "I miss the way he spoke to me," she said finally. "He never talked down to me, not even when he was standing so close I practically had to break my neck to meet his eyes. He made me feel like the things I have to say are important... that they carried real weight with him, even when he didn't agree with me." She chuckled ruefully. "Which was most of the time. He's always shown me a respect that I don't get that often, being surrounded by men in positions of authority who all love to hear themselves talk."

"That does sound like it would be tough to leave behind," agreed Melissa. "Couldn't you... I dunno, lobby to be his partner on whatever assignment he's on now, though? Then at least you'd still be working together even if it wasn't in the X-Files."

"He's working with someone else," said Scully darkly. "At least he was on his most recent case. I don't know if they're officially partners or not."

"And you don't like whoever it is," said Melissa knowingly. "I can hear it in your voice." "I don't really know anything about him," Scully admitted. "But... there's something strange about him, you know? He just makes me nervous." There had been something about Alex Krycek's fresh-faced innocence that had seemed less than genuine, even if Scully couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Bad vibes, huh?"

"Maybe." Scully sighed. "For all I know, it's just my jealousy getting in the way because I want to be the one out there with Mulder."

"See, I knew you liked him," crowed Melissa, and Scully groaned, exasperated.

"Melissa. It's not like that."

"Fine, fine, whatever you say," Melissa huffed. "Hang on a sec, okay?" The phone was muffled, as though Melissa had put her hand over the receiver. Someone's voice asked a garbled question, Melissa gave an equally garbled response, and a moment later, she was back. "Hey Danes, I gotta go, okay?"

"Wait, Melissa, what's your--"

"There's a meditation session I'm supposed to lead and they're waiting for me. I'll call you soon, okay?"

"But Melissa, where are--" There was a click, and the line went dead.

Scully dropped her bedroom extension back into its cradle on the nightstand and sank back onto her bed with a sigh, snuggling into the cardigan she'd pulled on over her work clothes when she'd walked into her apartment. She'd come home from work for lunch, having finished her morning teaching session a little early, and had been available purely by chance when Melissa called for the first time in two months. Phone conversations with her older sister, while always welcome, tended to be exhausting these days. She hadn't seen Melissa in years, not since the day after her graduation from medical school. Melissa hadn't made it to the event itself, but she'd shown up at the party her parents had thrown her afterwards. Melissa hadn't understood her sister's disappointment, and Maggie Scully, as she so often did, had defended her elder daughter to her younger.

"You know big ceremonies aren't really your sister's thing, Dana," she'd said, patting Scully's shoulder consolingly. "She barely sat through her own high school graduation. Just be thankful she's here for the celebration, all right?"

Sitting through a graduation ceremony was boring, to be sure, but that hadn't stopped Scully from doing it for all three of her siblings when they'd finished high school, plus for Bill and Charlie when they'd finished college. In her opinion, it had nothing to do with how exciting or boring the ceremony itself was, and everything to do with showing up for the people she loved when their hard work and accomplishments were recognized.

Showing up. That was something Melissa had traditionally had difficulty with, when it came down to it.

They hadn't even had a working phone number for Melissa last Christmas when Ahab had passed. Scully, tasked with handling everything while her mother waded through her initial shock and grief, had called every friend of Melissa's she could think of, trying to locate her sister, and had failed. She'd been reduced to sending a letter to Melissa's last known address in hopes it might get correctly forwarded. But it never got to her, as was evidenced three months later when Melissa had called home, chatted with Maggie cheerfully about her recent travels, and then had asked to speak to her father and had been completely lost when her mother had burst into tears.

"Free-spirited" had always been how the family had described Melissa. But deep down, in her darkest and most shameful thoughts, the word Scully sometimes landed on was "selfish."

Scully's cell phone rang, startling her out of her reverie. She half-expected it to be Mulder, begging her to do another autopsy he couldn't trust with anyone else, but it was Roy Seekamp, a fellow FBI pathologist whose office in the Hoover building was next to Scully's.

"Where are you?" asked Roy. "One of the AD's came looking for you but your office is locked. Skinner, I think his name was?"

"I came home for lunch. What's going on?"

"Something big is going down in Virginia," said Roy. "Some hostage situation with an escaped mental patient."

Scully frowned, confused. "Why would they need me for that?" she asked.

"I don't think they actually need you or anything," said Roy. "The AD was just looking for you to let you know your old partner is there on the scene."

Scully's heart skipped a beat. "Mulder is there?" She got off the bed and raced out of her bedroom, tearing off the cardigan and snatching up her bag. "What's he doing there? He's not a hostage negotiator!"

"No idea," said Roy. "I think AD Skinner just wanted you to hear it from him. You coming back to the office?"

"Yes," Scully said, pulling on her shoes. "Be there soon." She ended the call and stuffed her phone into her bag, then looked down and realized she was still clutching her cardigan. She folded it in half and draped it over the back of her couch on her way out the door.

It stayed there, untouched, for over a month.

#my fic #x-files fanfic #Various Storms and Saints #Some of y'all are gonna HATE this #angst alert #Mulder/other resolving into MSR #JUST TRUST ME I WOULD NEVER STEER YOU WRONG

[ewingstan]

Halloween and cringetober may be behind us, yet I remain, coughing this up onto your back porch. Alec Lisa and Aisha were the only ones who enjoyed the costume party. Individuals and costume explanations below the cut:

Aisha and Brian: Power and Aki Hayakawa Chainsaw Man

This one goes out to the nine-year old I work with who wore a Denji costume for the school Halloween parade. Shoutout to you guy I don't know how you're allowed to watch that its the blood and sexual fantasies show.

I feel like miss suiciding-baiting-people-on-4chan would like Power. Aki works for Brian as they carry the "supposedly normal responsible one of their batshit group who very clearly has something wrong with him" niche of their series.

I feel like CSM is something that Brian and Alec would put on in the background when they were hanging out together. It's not really either of their thing, but it good pizza night fodder. Brian freaks out when Aisha mentions watching it.

Brian agreed to be Aki after he learned he could just wear a suit instead of making a real costume. Brian obviously likes objectively ridiculous costumes but it has to be something strained through 5 layers of machismo and a 17-year-old's idea of professionalism. He'll dress like something that gets painted onto a van but if there's too much whimsy or fun he'll start to freak. So halloween costumes would be weird for him. Aki just wearing a suit and a sword seemed like a good solution for this right up until the point where he had to explain what it was. Its from, hm, y'know, uhhhh this anime that my sister likes I'm just here to match with her.

Whenever he pulls the "I'm just in costume for my sister" thing Aisha makes everyone forget she exists. No escaping the weeb allegations for you Brian.

Taylor and Lisa: Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi, Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Don't know if I need to explain this one, Worm/Madoka comparisons are almost cliche at this point

The costumes were Lisa's idea. Obviously.

The costumes were also Lisa's purchases, and enough was spent on them to make a veteran cosplayer weep. Her refusal to die her hair black would also make them weep but for different reasons.

After taking a look at herself Taylor enveloped herself in a particularly dense bug swarm for the whole night.

She eventually retreated to some side-room she found Brian hiding in and chatted with him for the rest of the party. On the condition that he make a darkness cloud for her.

She started choking on a prawn half an hour in after remembering he could see through his darkness clouds.

Rachel and Alec: Jade Harley and Dirk Strider, Homestuck

They are not going as a matching pair. Rachel does not know that she and Alec are wearing costumes from the same comic. She does not know what Homestuck is. This is one of the many ways she's better than us.

Rachel thinks she should've just been able to wear her usual dog mask for this party. Its a costume. What do you mean it doesn't count.

And why is her usual mask not enough, but the dog ears Cassie was really excited to loan her are fine? Aren't ears less costume than a full mask?

Admittedly apart from the pseudo-mind-control Alec and Dirk don't have a lot in common. Alec probably thinks he's more like Dirk than he actually is.

Dirk is if the concept of being in your own head was a guy, nay several guys, while Alec literally has to outsource getting in touch with his emotions to other bodies. Honestly the closest worm character to Dirk would probably be Krouse, considering the whole "chessmaster-manipulator who puts everything on himself and overmanages all his relationships while self-identifying as the person who can handle being the bad guy" thing, which Alec doesn't have going on at all. However:

It let me put Alec in a silly little fancylad outfit.

(Also they're both SB&HJ fans, so honestly I think its the perfect choice).

#parahumans #brian laborn #aisha laborn #taylor hebert #lisa wilbourn #rachel lindt #alec vasil #worm #wildbow #undersiders #leo says #leo draws #cringetober #halloween

[sadquickchristmassnowman]

hii I have a community question so I thought I'd reference your encyclopedia

are there any references to music that abed listens to? I know they do it for other characters sometimes (like I'm pretty sure britta said she liked the pixies but maybe I made that up) anyway I'm trying to make a playlist about him

thanks<333

hey! thanks for the ask 💯

after sitting here and scanning my brain’s database (and searching the internet) unfortunately I haven’t come up with much… I did remember about this:

which is part of the whiteboard Abed had set up in 1x21 Contemporary American Poultry, on which he says he likes banjo music lmfao

the only other things I can think of are probably not very helpful at all, but I’m writing them down anyway lmao. he participated in defending The Barenaked Ladies from Jeff’s criticism (although, the entire group does that, and it probably doesn’t speak much to abed’s specific music taste), and maybe there’s a song he put into one of his documentaries or something? although, I’m pretty sure most of, if not all, the scoring for those is the same as the scoring for the actual show itself. he also dances to Roxanne by The Police in Remedial Chaos Theory, but, again, the whole group does, and everyone knows that song. also, at the end of 1x14 Interpretive Dance, he is shown tapdancing, and Merry Happy by Kate Nash is playing. but, I don’t think he put on the song himself— in fact I don’t think he can hear it at all, I think it’s just score. so, again, probably doesn’t speak to his actual music taste. but, in my personal opinion, that kind of music fits him the best, so I might look more into Kate Nash and related artists if I was making an Abed playlist.

so, yeah… his pop culture references don’t really seem to include music lol. there’s a chance he listens to movie soundtracks sometimes? movies like Back to the Future have some more commercialized songs on their soundtracks, so maybe he’s into that. looking more into soundtracks from classic 80’s films might help you a bit.

I did find this on his twitter (if you don’t know about the twitter character accounts lmk that’s a whole other can of worms that I am happy to open with you all) so obviously he has music he listens to, but I scrolled through all his tweets and he never mentions any specific artists or songs. lame

but yeah. sorry that this was all I could do, dude. I’m gonna open the floor to anyone who has any Vital Information™ that I missed, or for anyone who just has some headcannons or opinions on what they think Abed might listen to. thanks again for the ask and I hope this was at least semi helpful o7

(also, you’re right about Britta liking Pixies! she has a poster up in her room in the cold open of the season 2 premiere, and also there’s this Jeff quote from Digital Estate Planning: “this place is twenty cat turds and a Pixies poster away from being your apartment.” she also likes Natalie is Freezing, but they only exist in the Community universe unfortunately lol. but at least those two things give us a handle on what music Britta likes. Abed remains an enigma lmao)

#community encyclopedia #debuting this tag on thr off chance it’s useful to someone someday #community #nbc community #community nbc #abed nadir

[silentmoths]

can i request some zhongli x afab reader smut in which he makes reader cum so many times she enters subspace 👁️ + age gap and all that good stuff if u want

ohohohoho i love that ya'll know how much of a degen I am god bless you anon.

Zhongli x afab reader, not proofread in the slightest

NSFW, Implied Age gap, Teacher x student (leave me alone), overstimulation, Dacryphilia, ZL is aftercare king, College AU, praise kink.

"still there, sweetheart?" his voice sounds muffled, like your ears are stuffed with cotton. You finally blink your eyes open, the hazy outline of your professor slowly, but surely clearing as he smiles down at you.

"please..." you mumble, voice already hoarse "N'more..."

Professor Zhongli simply tilts his head at you, god even when he was smirking at you it was so violently pretty.

"No more? but we have an agreement, miss (l/n). You were the one who wanted these private tutoring sessions after all."

you were, you did want them...you'd just...never expected them to take this kind of turn.

It had started with a mock exam, one he's designed specifically for you, covering all the bases, things you knew well, things you didnt; and every question you got wrong would incur a punishment. You'd suspected something of this nature, hell he'd made it clear that this was mutually benificial...

but you hadn't expected to get fifteen whole questions wrong.

"I cant...I-it's too much-" you whine, leaning your face into his hand as it gently strokes across your cheek.

"You can, and you will." He rumbles above you "Fifteen questions, fifteen orgasms." his words make you want to cry again, your response only morphing into a choked, strangled cry as his fingers thrust right back into you.

"Come now, darling, where's the spunk from earlier? Don't tell me you're tired already? This is only number five." His words are tinged with amusement as he leans over you, he's not gentle, having already memorized exactly where your G-spot was, and had done nothing but violently abuse it since.

With each orgasm he drew from you, it became longer, and more drawn out for the next, somewhere along the line, he finally switched from his fingers to his mouth, a slightly welcome respite, if not for a new sensation. His slim fingers had done nothing but bully your insides, so his tongue felt far gentler in comparison, even with one hand pressing your thigh as far away as it can while the other rests on your stomach, keeping you pressed against his desk.

however you also come to hate that sinful tongue as instead of your G-spot, it was now your poor clit's turn to be bullied.

at some point you hear your professor mutter something about the 'main course' and how beautiful you looked crying, but you're already so far gone that it barely registers. When he finally does decide to fuck you properly, your already so wet it's nothing but an obscene, wet slide. lips press against your cheeks, kissing away your overstimulated, pleasured tears, he's saying things but you're too far gone to even register words, it's just sounds, the only difference between your own and his was his warmth, this was meant to be punishment, but even without properly hearing you could tell he was murmuring reassurance and praise, all of it lost on you for the time being, your brain might as well have been mush.

Even still, you cling to him, trusting that if his punishments tore you apart, he'd still be there to put you back together.

----

you vaugely feel a bottle pressed to your lips and take in the cool liquid, soothing your dry throat, you can feel your body absorbing the water like a sponge as your head is gently cradled against a warm chest.

"Still with me, darling?"

The noise you make in response is unintelligable, but it's there nontheless, which is enough for him.

"I'm sorry if I pushed you too far...but you did so very well for me.." and the praise is back, this time you can atleast hear what he's saying as you slowly worm your way out of the gauzy, floaty space your deep-fried brain was in.

"S'ok...s'my faut f'r getting so many wrong..." you mumble, enjoying the feeling of him slowly wiping down your poor, shaking thighs with a cool damp cloth. somewhere above you, he snorts.

"Now here's something that's confusing me, Miss (l/n) I know some of those questions you could have answered quite easily, in fact, all of them were things I know you knew...surely you didn't intentionally throw some of them, did you?" You don't respond, slumping your head into his chest again. Perhaps you had, perhaps you hadn't. He'd never know.

#moth is not silent #silentmothasks #silentmothwrites #zhongli x reader #Zhongli x reader smut

[kikiofthevast]

In planning Slay the Archivist I’ve been having a lot of Jon thoughts (below the cut because it got long)

Jon Sims is a character driven entirely by fear. His fear of spiders and trauma of his youth further isolates him from people, his fear of rejection and being known isolates him from his peers and Georgie, and his fear of the forces beyond isolates him from his coworkers (manifested in his short-fuse prickly skeptic persona).

Jon is a character who pushes people away before they can do it to him and cannot conceive that anyone can care about him.

Which is unfortunate, because his assistants do care about him!!! Not on an intimate level, but Jon and Tim at the very least are friends, and Jon respects Sasha!!!

Jon’s actual opinion of Martin in s1 is a bit cloudy, because it’s clear that Jon does not respect him or like him very much, but that mostly comes from the fact that Martin doesn’t do his job very well, or at least by the standards Jon expects based on his CV.

But on the other hand, Jon never expresses anything other than professional disdain, not necessarily personal disdain. Of course, it’s likely that Jon does truly hate Martin, but outside of the recordings in S1, Jon is significantly more generally relaxed (as shown in the tape about ostriches) and his professional academic persona is very much a mask that he puts on to alleviate his own nerves about the job.

That’s not to say Jon likes Martin very much in S1, but it says to me that he doesn’t outright hate him.

Then the worms happen.

Everything falls apart for Jon. His skeptic act isn’t keeping him safe, not like he thought it would, and Jane Prentiss is after him specifically.

Jon starts unraveling after the Prentiss attack.

Something is watching him. Someone killed Gertrude. He can’t trust anyone.

Most of his paranoia is Stranger-induced but it’s also equally a natural response. Of course, he takes it too far, and he neglects his relationships because he doesn’t think they mean anything to the people in question.

Jon is right to be paranoid, and his paranoia is validated by the fact that one of his assistants was replaced and Elias is passively manipulating him (and also killed Gertrude), but the issue is that stalking is a bridge too far.

He has a very strong connection to the Eye even early on because he needs to know everything and gain new knowledge especially about people.

Because Jon is bad at connecting with people, and he typically barely has the self-awareness to avoid sticking his foot in his mouth and he is NOT forthcoming about his trauma or struggles to any extent (we’ll come back to this) and therefore doesn’t really understand how relationships WORK.

So his breaks his slightly tenuous friendship with Tim, realizes that Martin is not as knowledgeable than he thought, and realizes that there’s a creature in his Archive that should not be there.

So he destroys the table, realizes that was also a mistake, gets chased, meets Leitner, and then is IMMEDIATELY framed for his murder.

So Jon is now on the run from the law, so he goes to the only person in his life he actually confided in to some degree, Georgie.

Georgie asks questions, but not many, and accepts that he won’t answer. She lets him stay with her and the Admiral and Jon tries not to get her involved, because he doesn’t want someone else to realize that he’s doomed everyone around him, and he doesn’t want Georgie to be doomed.

He talks to people, gets scars, tries to get away from Daisy, nearly dies to Daisy, learns that GEORGIE had an encounter and feels guilty that she gets involved, and then he gets kidnapped from Georgie’s house.

Nikola finds him and kidnaps him and he is there for a while. I don’t remember if the length of time is specified, but it’s a while, enough time for him to be missed.

Then Elias shows his true colors, Melanie and Basira are in the Archives, and Jon doesn’t know what to do.

He’s lost and doesn’t feel like he can trust anyone, and oh yeah, Tim hates his guts.

Jon goes to America, meets people, meets Gerry, burns Gerry’s page, goes to China, comes back to the Institute, and still has no idea what’s happening to him but he knows it’s bad, but feels good.

Because knowing puts him in control of a situation. Having that advantage alleviates some of his fear, and it gives him power.

Jon, who has not felt in control of anything since he picked up a Leitner as a child, craves that power.

And then there’s the Unknowing.

The Unknowing is a turning point for Jon, because arguably, the human Jonathan Sims dies in the explosion.

But his brain continues on, his consciousness continues on, and he exists in the dreams of people he watches fear and hurt over and over.

Martin spends time with him in the hospital, before he starts working in the Lonely, working to save his friends that aren’t functionally dead in a hospital bed, or already dead.

Oliver gives him a push to accept his Becoming, to wake up and live in his new existence.

And when he wakes up, everyone wishes he hadn’t.

Jon is functionally changed as a person. He wants to confide in people, wants to be someone people trust, and uh …

Yeah that’s not happening.

Elias may be in jail, but Melanie and Basira (and presumably also Martin, but it’s unclear) are still tied to the Archives due to Jon’s continuing life.

Jon is at a low point this season, and Melanie and Basira have complicated relationships with him.

Georgie has also accepted that Jon isn’t going to change, which is a shame for Jon, but well within her right as someone who has been trying to help Jon for years and never actually got through to him.

Melanie projects a lot of her blame onto Jon, when she can’t take it out on Elias. A lot of her rage is being amplified by the bullet in her leg, but the impromptu surgery doesn’t make Melanie any less wary of him.

And Jon pulls Daisy out of the Buried too, and the tapes become his anchor, his connection to the Archives and the Eye strong enough to pull him out.

The Eye is also strong enough to make him need live statements. Like Daisy needs to Hunt, Jon needs to Know.

It’s treated like an addiction in the show as much as it’s treated as a necessary thing, but the important thing is that Jon now needs to hurt people in order to survive.

The issue is that he likes it, he likes causing the fear and not experiencing it. He likes witnessing and knowing and archiving it, but he hates that he likes it because it means he’s not human.

(I personally think Jon can do whatever he wants forever but that’s just me)

Jon tries not to take live statements, but he cannot resist it forever. He knows so much but it’s never enough and he wants more.

(Mr. Spider always wants more.)

Jon also clings to the last bit of the normal past he has left in Martin, who he has learned to appreciate far too late for it to mean something to him, but even when Jon is in danger, he still goes for Martin, because Martin doesn’t deserve to get hurt.

They don’t know each other well beyond a surface level, but they are also the last thing that connects them both to the Normal, the Before.

They latch onto each other and clearly care about each other, but in S5 their relationship is far from ideal even though it’s the only thing keeping them both together.

They are in love, but they’re also missing a lot of development in their relationship.

(Arguably this makes it more realistic, but that’s a whole other post)

Causing the apocalypse weighs on Jon. He damns the world to horror and fear until the End and it’s not even his fault. Of course, it was preventable, but like many things in this show, it just didn’t happen that way.

Jon Knows the new world much better than the rest of the cast. He knows there’s no hope, that there’s only the perpetrators and the victims.

And he wants to be the one on top, over Jonah. He doesn’t tell anyone that, but based purely on his previous expressions of the apocalypse feeling right to him and the way his powers and knowledge make him feel, it stands to reason he would harbor that desire even if he wouldn’t express it.

And that’s why he inevitably kills Jonah and attempts to take his place, because if they’re going to continue living in this world, he wants to Know Everything and be in the Panopticon.

It’s selfish, but Jon does it anyway, because that’s what he wants. If the world is doomed, he wants to be king of it, if only to drink in the fear until the End took them all.

But he’s also grateful when Martin stabs him, on some level. He doesn’t want the Entities pulled into different worlds, but he also to some degree doesn’t want to go beyond his current state. Becoming on par with a god does scare him, to some degree.

And so Jon dies in Martin’s arms, and with love on his lips.

He’s a complicated man, one who cares but doesn’t ever know how to show it and is an insufferable asshole who doesn’t know when to stop.

Curiosity killed this cat, but satisfaction brought him back.

#kiki talks #tma #the magnus archives #meta #jonathan sims #jarchivist #reducing jon to either solely a victim or solely a perpetrator is faulty #hes just jon yk

[lakesbian]

i havent read worm so i might be missing something but how does arguing for a characters textual traits have anything to do with aura theory?? are they implying youre forgiving her problematic aspects because you like her vibes? or are they just saying anything

AHFSDKLHSDFH i love that we somehow have a non worm reader here witnessing this. okay so basically "aura theory" is like. this really old worm discourse from way back before i was in the fandom theorizing that canonically speaking amy fell in love w/ her sister because of her sister's superpowered aura which can have some impacts on the emotions of those around her. it's provably untrue, and i certainly in no way implied that i believe it by discussing amy's textual traits, so i have no idea whymst that guy thinks he saw it in my post. but i digress. that's what aura theory is. also for context regarding the whole amy situation. her narrative is extremely homophobic, worst predatory lesbian trope on the planet, but it also unfortunately contains genuinely interesting crit of the nuclear family + cops. and she is a genuinely interesting character bc despite the homophobia inherent to her characterization she's given a lot of depth rather than just being a one-dimensional cartoon villain. so there's a lot to pick apart & analyze there and subsequently people get into debates and or arguments about her a lot. although this one is less of a debate and more some random guy doing kind of a lame job at insulting me because he's incensed i was doing aforementioned arguing for a character's textual traits

#ask

[pansear-doodles]

Heard about a comic where Hunter tells her kid what to do when they have a seizure. It sounds cool, currently trying to find it.

Theres another ask in my inbox after this stating that youve found it. Always use my tags in my blog :) (though i havent had the comic uploaded in the other sites yet)

If you want to, i can longingly ramble about my thought process on making that comic. I know its short, simple, sweet and lighthearted, but for many things ive created for rain world, there is a meaning and story (as everything ive built around the fandom has always been self indulgence and vent art)

When i made that comic, i was sleepy as hell, promised myself to go to bed so i can work on my mass attack (surprise, i still havent done that today due to all-day school, tiredness and a 6 hour video slandering toy story 4 distracting me LOL), but ive randomly thought of the comic after making some cute sleepy doodles (that of which i wont reveal because many of these doodles are for self indulgent purposes(i promise you its all sfw for those skeptical because i just dont not want to flood my blog with similar drawings of hunter and artihunter kisses lol- im doing that all for myself at least!))

A simple doodle of hunter being a parent laying on the couch (because i was sleepy and wanted to project that comforting cushiony feeling onto this to encourage myself to sleep) but then it suddenly sparked to me that ive always wanted to explore a bit more on hunter's role as a parent now that its been long established that they are arti's spouse and chose this lifestyle.

To talk about a bit of my own personal experiences, I'm familiar with living around relatives who require medical attention and support, so I kind of wanted to put that feeling to arti's kids facing the reality that their new parent has some things that pushes them back at times health-wise. My dad is diabetic (and old- hes like in his midish 60s while im 21) and hes been having his struggles. He could not do some basic things like putting his socks on and putting on his shoes without the help from someone and generally has difficulty crouching and standing up. He has to take his meds often. It is hard to see him grow depressed and grumpier over the years, but being apart from him for college makes him realize that he misses and loves me.

My grandmother is old and i think she has alzheimers (my mom is not clear on this to me since i dont generally talk about these types of serious concerning subjects to her about her own mother). Sometimes she falls without almost no warning and has to be around someone to care for her in case that happens, and yet I recognize that despite these things, she is quite sassy and pretty insistent on doing some things herself (despite my mother recognizing the risks and yelling to her about them out of care).

My own mother, while our relationship is not perfect and while i recognize that most of her parenting stuff to me have negatively affected me for the long run, i understand that she is not a flawless human being and most of what she does to me and to my dad and grandma and to anyone shes close with- she does that out of care. She nags at my dad for shutting down business opportunities because of his anger issues. Nags to my grandma who does ignorant actions. Nags to me for- well- i have to admit that I can be lazy. But i can understand all the stress that shes going through- that she has to actively take care of so many people in her life (and i have not even mentioned my brother, who is a whole can of worms that of which im not going to detail, is included) and i sort of wanted to project some part of that stressful experience onto arti and her dynamic with the other characters.

There is some form of resolution to my mother's case though- is that she has a lot of friends who help and support her. Who light her life even when shes busy all the time and goes scampering back and forth. It eases one to know that my arti does have friends, and gourmand has been most supportive of him aside from his own wifeusband. (Which leads to that panel where gourmand is shown also helping hunter and that hunter themselves encourage their child to also ask help from others and not just from their other parent(though i am probably reading a bit too much on this projection since its also just common sense to ask any grown up for help in general haha))

But back on hunter themselves and the relations they have built on their children- you guys know I love Bluey, but not only does the show introduce to me so many lighthearted concepts and coping mechanisms, but it also portrays the relations between parent and child in a way that i find quite realistic and mature. And these kinds of portrayals teach me how to write this dynamic. Hunter is like a Bandit, but I would like to work around the fact that this is Hunter's first time as a full-on parent on a committed relationship, while also having to deal with their terminal illness.

I do not think Hunter would be *the* perfect parent, but I think they would actively try to be a good one at least, and they would understand that their kids are smart and can learn how to fend for themselves from passing on what they know (ESPECIALLY considering the setting... This is still Rain World after all despite its more forgiving nature). Its something i would have wanted as a kid growing up actually- my parents actively teaching me to prepare my future circumstances instead of leaving me to figure out most things on my own or parade me with rewards and decadence expecting good outputs from me to pay it off.

But if there is one thing that they have taught me as a child that suggested that hint that I am smart if they give me the knowledge and reasoning of: are those days when they have to work, leaving only me and my brother at the house alone. They would tell me to never open the door to strangers and I would follow that no matter what.

I think, at some point, hunter and arti would teach their kids something like that. Its a slope see. Theres this short comic ive read long ago i dont remember the name of but whose plot i remember vividly: parents in a level of a video game teaching their child how to jump progressively higher and farther until the child is able to jump high and far enough to reach the other side of a giant pit thats situated so closely to their home. Thats the type of thing id like to portray. Small steps to progressively larger ones. Being taught growing up.

Many of these thoughts seem random, and theres still so much to go on i could talk about, but it all boils down to my tism and connecting some of my personal experiences onto these characters, and experiences i wish I had growing up. I do not have disabilities (or at least i think so), but i have experiences around people with disabilities and I can understand how witnessing these kinds of events involving them can be a harrowing and worrisome experience, especially when its from someone you care about.

In all honesty, i was delighted to know that there exists a disability pride month when I logged onto tumblr one day and saw my first post talking about it. Yes! I did not know it existed before. And now i have and i am glad. Theres been lots of people educating me, outside of the fandom and over the years. I dont remember what and how i was before. My back memory trauma with someone in the past has fucked me over, but its better late than never yunno

Sorry for the long ramble and sorry for being quite dramatic. I hope my words are of some interest and in good faith to you.

#ask

[aelloposchrysopterus]

From Albia with "Love"

It is an undeniable truth that Albia has a sense of humor. It is also undeniable that Albia acts with a sense of impunity because, as far as anyone knows, she is the only God-Queen left, and mere mortals have a difficult time getting her to play by their rules, let alone attempt to have any accountability.

Trelawney Thorpe likes to open her mail carefully in the event of any surprises, especially when anything is postmarked as being from Albia. It was a lesson learned the hard way. When your employer’s a millennia-old God-Queen, you have to get use to dangerous things (like, say, a cursed amulet) getting sent to your door, because of course you’ll be able to deal with it before your morning cuppa, right? Spark of the Realm and all that?

Trelawney sometimes wishes she could quit her job. She was getting jealous of the celebrity Tarvek Sturmvoraus, who just gadded about as he pleased, being a spark and saving the day and, yes, occasionally getting into trouble. For the head fashion designer of the Storm King brand, he was quite roguish — and she likes that about him.

She likes that about all of his jet-setting crowd, she can’t deny that. She likes the Gilgamesh Wulfenbach candid photos where he’s caught in dubious situations and he can’t worm his way out of it, so he just gives the camera that deadpan libertine stare of his, suit jacket hung over one shoulder only. She likes reading the Agatha Heterodyne arrest reports from each time she goes full madgirl. Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek, toasting on the runway and on the runway. She likes — and hates that she likes — that they’re all power brokers, each in their own way.

Albia knows about the folder on Trelawney’s phone labelled “Gil” that’s mostly a collection of the most roguish photos of Gil, outside the notorious nightclubs of Paris and the shadiest bars in New York, the sleaziest pubs in London and the most dubious casino backrooms of Monaco. Albia also knows that Gil is wanted by the police for questioning in an investigation into the murder of Omar von Zinzer. Albia, eternally wise, knows that Trelawney capturing Gil would greatly bolster Trelawney’s career, which is slightly stagnating after the Budapest debacle.

(What Albia doesn’t know is that Trelawney has matching folders for Agatha and Tarvek, that technically Agatha is more responsible for von Zinzer’s death than anyone else still alive, and that Trelawney really, really, really wants to quit.)

At 09:00 GMT on 20 May, Gilgamesh “Gil” Wulfenbach is spotted leaving a party in the Beverly Hills area of Los Angeles, looking severely and abnormally intoxicated.

At 20:00 GMT on 20 May, a British military flight from Los Angeles lands at Chequers.

At 01:24 GMT on 21 May, Bangladesh “Bang” DuPree, a Silicon Valley exec, reports Gil Wulfenbach missing after he failed to show up to a lunch meeting and she was unable to contact him. She is told to call again when he’s been gone for 48 hours.

At 01:47 GMT on 21 May, Agatha Heterodyne reports Gil Wulfenbach missing after he failed to return to their luxury estate in Montecito after the party. She is told to call again when he’s been gone for 48 hours and a partial transcript of her call is leaked, turning her into the front page of the next day’s tabloids.

At 06:28 GMT on 21 May, a package is dropped off at Trelawney Thorpe’s Ealing apartment, postmarked from Chequers. She moves it inside but does not open it, instead choosing to leave for her job as an MI5 analyst.

At 07:13 GMT on 21 May, the business magnate Klaus Wulfenbach is interrupted during a late-afternoon meeting in Hong Kong by a call from Bang DuPree that notifies him of his son’s disappearance.

At 07:19 GMT on 21 May, Tarvek Sturmvoraus listens to a voicemail left by Agatha Heterodyne while in Lagos, preparing for a semi-major fashion show.

At 07:25 GMT on 21 May, Violetta Mondarev, an angel investor, receives a text from Tarvek Sturmvoraus and immediately books a private jet from Sofia to Paris.

At 07:33 GMT on 21 May, Xerxesphina “Seffie” von Blitzengaard, an influencer currently based in Milan, reads a screenshot of Tarvek Sturmvoraus’s text to Violetta Mondarev, sent to her by her close friend and personal self-help guru Sparafucile.

At 07:46 GMT on 21 May, Colette Voltaire, president of France, is called by Seffie von Blitzengaard during a national security meeting. She hangs up but promises to call back.

At 08:00 GMT on 21 May, Colette Voltaire calls Seffie von Blitzengaard back.

At 08:27 GMT on 21 May, Sparafucile takes a flight from Milan to Los Angeles.

At 09:01 GMT on 21 May, a very stressed Tarvek Sturmvoraus gets off the phone with Agatha Heterodyne and creates a WhatsApp group composed of himself, Agatha Heterodyne, Bang DuPree, Klaus Wulfenbach, Violetta Mondarev, Seffie von Blitzengaard, Sparafucile, Colette Voltaire, and Gil Wulfenbach’s right hand man, Ardsley Wooster.

At 09:06 GMT on 21 May, the WhatsApp group reaches the consensus that they will not find Gil Wulfenbach anytime in the next few hours. They collectively agree to take the search down a notch and amp it up once Bang DuPree and Agatha Heterodyne are able to report Gil Wulfenbach missing.

At 09:07 GMT on 21 May, Ardsley Wooster, an MI6 agent, texts his handler to make them aware of the current status of the Gil Wulfenbach situation and make sure that Queen Albia didn’t have anything to do with it.

At 09:09 GMT on 21 May, Ardsley Wooster texts his friend Trelawney Thorpe.

At 11:02 GMT on 21 May, Violetta Mondarev lands in Paris.

At 11:15 GMT on 21 May, Klaus Wulfenbach hosts a press conference in Hong Kong about his missing son, calling for his safe return.

At 11:17 GMT on 21 May, screenshots of text messages between Tarvek Sturmvoraus and Gil Wulfenbach are leaked to the tabloids.

At 11:23 GMT on 21 May, the article “Gilvek: Fact of Fiction?” is posted online, along with an accompanying quiz called “Who Said It?: Twilight, the Bard, or Gilvek?” that gives readers quotes from the leaked Tarvek Sturmvoraus-Gil Wulfenbach texts, the Twilight series, and Shakespeare plays.

At 11:36 GMT on 21 May, Tarvek Sturmvoraus takes advantage of the media storm around the leaked text messages to release an appeal he calls “Help Me Find My (and Agatha’s) Boyfriend”. The original video is viewed over 2000 times within fifteen minutes.

At 12:02 GMT on 21 May, Agatha Heterodyne releases her video, “Help Me Find My (and Tarvek’s) Boyfriend”. Her video is viewed over 2500 times withing fifteen minutes.

At 12:14 GMT on 21 May, Klaus Wulfenbach is ambushed by a reporter and admits he did not know that his son was in a polycule with Agatha Heterodyne and Tarvek Sturmvoraus.

At 12:18 GMT on 21 May, the WhatsApp group agrees to a policy of total silence following the debacle that is the tabloids trying to get in on the “Agagilvek” story.

At 12:19 GMT on 21 May, Ardsley Wooster texts Trelawney Thorpe, begging her to check her phone.

At 16:25 GMT on 21 May, Trelawney Thorpe checks her phone and leaves work early.

At 16:45 GMT on 21 May, Trelawney Thorpe arrives at her Ealing apartment.

She enters the flat carefully and gently kicks the box that arrived that morning.

It springs back.

“Bloody hell,” she mutters. She finds the nearest packing knife she has and gently cuts away the tape, taking photos as she goes. If Albia did this… Once she’s cut all the tape away, she opens the lid tenderly, hoping to not be surprised by what’s inside.

She is, of course, surprised, because who else but Albia would send a murder suspect kidnapped in a different country through the Royal Mail to the Spark of the Realm. She regains her composure rather quickly. She can’t do anything while Gil Wulfenbach is still unconscious, so she won’t do anything. She’ll just text Ardsley and hope like crazy that he’ll get here before Gil wakes up, but she knows he’s in New York right now because of course he is, so he probably won’t.

Violetta Mondarev, her one-time-flame, is, however, in Paris (they still share their locations with each other), which is close enough. While Trelawney knows that Letta would still come running if she called, she feels guilty about it. The breakup was… fine, it was just because Trelawney didn’t think she would be able to do long-distance when Letta decided she needed to be based in New York, and since the breakup was on her… Trelawney always hesitates before asking Letta for anything.

Ardsley first. Trelawney texts Ardsley Wooster the photo of Gil in the box with the caption “send help albia’s really done it this time”.

She then overcomes the fear of bothering Letta and calls Violetta Mondarev. Her contact still has a heart in it; Trelawney could never bring herself to get rid of it.

“Letta,” she says when Violetta picks up.

“Hey, Tawny!” Violetta replies, cheerful as ever. It was through Letta that Trelawney had met Tarvek and his group of friends, but Trelawney had never heard Letta as happy around all her friends as she sounded right them. “You need something?”

Trelawney swallowed her pride. “Yes. I… I… I need you to come to my flat as soon as you can. I can’t talk about it on the phone, but Letta, I need you.” Well, that was desperate.

“Okay, Tawny, I’ll be right there. I’m chartering a plane and I’ll get there in two-ish hours, okay? Everything’s going to be fine.” She could hear Letta starting to type on a computer, presumably chartering a jet.

“Thanks, Letta,” she says.

Letta laughs on the other end of the line. “Oh, it’s my pleasure. Look, see you soon, okay? I’ll be there in two hours.”

Trelawney is deprived of the ability to respond by Violetta hanging up the phone.

She paces her flat for two hours, waiting for Gil to wake up (he doesn’t) or Ardsley to respond (he doesn’t, either, because he doesn’t know what to say or who to say it to, and he can’t get over to London fast enough) or just anything at all to happen. She’s fought monsters before, she engineers fantastic contraptions to save the day on a regular basis, she’s the Spark of the Realm, she should be able to deal with anything. It’s just that, well, unconscious Gil Wulfenbach on her living room floor is a little bit outside of her comfort zone.

Violetta Mondarev, true to her word, arrives in two hours. She sees Gil lying on the floor as soon as Trelawney lets her in.

“Tawny… this is an Albia thing again, isn’t it?” She points at Gil, who’s beginning to stir a tiny bit.

Trelawney nods.

“And you called me because I’m adjacent to the Agagilvek jet-setting crew, so I’d be more able to deal with this than you?”

“Letta, I’m translucent when it comes to you,” Trelawney tries to laugh.

Violetta grins. “Oh, Tawny…” They both get lost in each other’s eyes for a few minutes.

“Ladies. What.” Gil’s voice comes up from the floor.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” Trelawney says.

“Where am I?” Gil asks.

Violetta smirks. “The floor of Trelawney Thorpe’s Ealing flat, exactly where Albia sent you.”

“Uh, I’m wanted for murder here, aren’t I?” His face is a perfect specimen of horror.

“Technically, just for questioning,” Trelawney rolls her eyes.

“And so what are we going to do?” He asks. “I don’t know about you, but I’m personally not a fan of being questioned by British police.”

“That’s unavoidable,” Violetta says. “Look, I’m going to call Agatha and Tarvek and tell them to get their butts over here, since you three were involved in that whole von Zinzer disaster. Once they’re here, Trelawney will turn you over. Klaus’ll have a panic attack and Trelawney will come clean about Albia ordering your kidnapping, okay?”

“That’s… surprisingly amenable for one of Tarvek’s Smoke Knights,” Gil says.

Violetta grins. “Tawny, you on board?”

“Yep,” Trelawney says.

Six months later, Agatha Heterodyne is throwing the party of the century in an Irish castle she somehow owns, celebrating the conclusion of the von Zinzer murder trial and the acquittal of Gil Wulfenbach. Trelawney Thorpe is there, a minor celebrity in her own right after her fiery resignation letter from her position as Spark of the Realm that had implicated Albia in various illegal acts beyond just kidnapping Gil (Interpol had given her a job offer right after that, but she’d rejected it to take time to decide what she wants to do). She stands off to the side, watching Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek Sturmvoraus lovingly and tenderly interact with each other. Some emotion deep within her is activated.

Letta’s got to be around here somewhere. She passes the buffet table, where Ardsley Wooster has gotten himself into a heated discussion with Sparafucile about where six slices of American bacon and two fried eggs is a good breakfast. Bang DuPree is over by the fountain, fighting with Zeetha Wulfenbach, Gil’s sister and Agatha’s best friend who had just returned from a twelve-month off-the-grid survival adventure with her boyfriend Axel Higgs. Over at the tennis courts, Seffie von Blitzengaard is flirting with Colette Voltaire, who is trying to not get caught in a romantic entanglement with a foreign national by the French media. Klaus Wulfenbach stares pensively into a pond, wondering where exactly everything went so wrong. She walks by Van von Mekkhan, the property manager for much of the Agagilvek set, and Moloch von Zinzer (who, despite Agatha’s involvement in his brother’s death, remains her right-hand man) trying to fix a broken window that had happened when Gil’s latest drone adventure had deviated from the flight plan. Violetta Mondarev is nowhere to be seen.

Trelawney Thorpe turns a corner of a hallway a bit too fast and collides with someone; they both skid on the stone floor, spinning slightly.

Trelawney stands up as soon as she can. “I’m so sorry —”

“Don’t be,” Violetta Mondarev says. “Tawny, I ran into you.”

“Oh, Letta, but I hit you.”

“We both hit each other, and we’ll be here all day if we want to determine whose fault that is.”

“I’d spend all day with you, Letta.”

“If this is your way of hinting to me you want to get back together, yes, Tawny.”

“I don’t care that we’d be long-distance —”

“I’m moving to London.” Violetta smiles. “I’ve been planning it for a while. We won’t be long-distance starting, oh, early next month.”

Trelawney jumps up and hugs Violetta.

“Uh, can I have a little bit less of the suffocation?” Violetta asks, gently prying Trelawny’s arms off her.

“Right, sorry, I forgot,” Trelawney says.

Two years after that, the angel investor marries the MI5 analyst-turned-spy novelist. After they return from their honeymoon, they start opening their wedding presents.

From Agatha Heterodyne, a miniature Fun Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispenser, with the attached note of “Remember Budapest, when great times were had by all”.

From Tarvek Sturmvoraus, a set of fine linen, embroidered with maps of places that he thought were significant to them.

From Gil Wulfenbach, a cardboard box with the tag “From Albia with ‘Love’” that contained the wedding cake toppers that had mysteriously disappeared after the reception, along with a letter.

Trelawney and Violetta —

Congratulations on the marriage! We’re so happy for you.

Agatha thought you’d like a memento of Budapest, which Tarvek thought was a bit tactless, but in the end, we agreed that it was certainly a memorable time for all. Tarvek went with the linen because — sorry, Trelawney — he didn’t think that the current set you have was very pretty (Gil disagreed, but we’ve all seen that coat of his, so his color sense is automatically disqualified). Gil insisted on stealing the cake toppers and doing this whole thingamajig with the box as his way of (finally) thanking you for dealing with the time Albia kidnapped him. We were all worried sick.

We hope you’ve had a wonderful honeymoon! If you’re not deathly sick of travelling by now, we’d like to invite you to join us in Geneva for the holidays this year.

Your friends,

Agatha & Gil & Tarvek

Read on AO3.

#girl genius #my fanfic #girl genius event week #may 22 prompt #agatha heterodyne #tarvek sturmvoraus #gil wulfenbach #agagilvek #gg ot3 #trelawney thorpe #violetta mondarev #trelawney/violetta #potentially evil albia #klaus wulfenbach #bang dupree #seffie von blitzengaard #colette voltaire #sparafucile #ardsley wooster #van and moloch as a cameo #modern au #where most of them are ridiculously wealthy celebs #and the rest of them are in support roles

[o-craven-canto]

Ea, Our Second Chance (12)

12. Species study: the Kurukshetran springbear

(Index)

(< 11. The early days) (> 13. Anatomy of Diplostomia)

(I messed up. At the stage of Ea’s history in which this story is set, all people outside should be wearing a carbon dioxide filter, which they clearly aren’t in the picture.)

(original link)

« Kurukshetran springbear (Barosternon carinatus; Diplostomia : Phoneida). Autochthonous of the red mosaic woodland of Kurukshetra land, in southwestern Inanna... It feeds mostly on mid-sized (30 to 300 kg) fauna. It awaits in a suitable place, typically the edges of a grove with a view on more open ground outside, and uses its powerful hindlimb to pounce on the prey, crushing it under its trunk. The chest of the springbear is reinforced by a thick "keel" of calcite plates. The forelimbs, extremely muscular, are used to prevent the prey from dodging the leap at the last moment, or to pummel it down if necessary. »

– fragment of encyclopedia, recovered from ruins in Toumai, circa 290 AL

« If ever find yourself losing your grasp on hope, remember: your very existence means that every single one of your billions of ancestors, from the dawn of life onward, pulled through against all odds. You have already survived hell countless times; what's one more? » – Isabela Silva, Survival Handbook

They say you never get used to it.

They say you might get used to seeing lions every day, or crocodiles, or sharks – even snakes and spiders and wasps – but the things that live on this planet, they look wrong in some horrible way, and once you've seen them out in the field you're going to see them every time you close your eyes. When you think of them, it's like a worm is gnawing in your brain. Every single Earthborn, every last one, says so.

I don't know. Spiders are pretty fucking scary, if you ask me. They really should have left them behind. But the Earthborns are always going on and on about how the blistertrees look so wrong, and the coilworms look so wrong, and the roofmoles look so wrong, and the color of the fucking sky looks so wrong. The hell does that even mean? How are they supposed to look instead? I've seen pictures of gorillas. Are you telling me those things don't "look so wrong"?

Are they being a bunch of babies? I'm sure they miss home, but goddamn it, it's been sixty years now. Or ten thousand, for all we can tell. Man the fuck up. Advisor Khand is one of them, though. And Commander Samirowa, and General Mansouri. And I don't think they need to man up more than I do. I'm just sick of it. I was born on this planet, my father was born on this planet. There is nothing wrong with being born on this planet. Give it a rest.

I'll say this, though: springbears are scary. Them and wormsharks. Giant dicks filled with teeth. They'll rip you apart one bite at a time. Imagine your flesh was made of jelly and someone came over and started tearing handfuls away, that's how wormsharks kill you. But they're not a problem as long as you stay on the dry. Springbears, though... You're walking through the woods minding your own business, with your smilk goats and whatnot, and then a rover-sized monsters falls out of the sky and crushes you. Just crushes you flat, like a boulder. Your bones snap, your guts splatter on the ground. It eats you chunk by chunk, and then licks you off its chest plates with that freaky tongue it has. You can't even see where some poor bastard was crushed before you, because everything is red and black anyway.

I think I'd rather be got by a scissorwolf. At least their jaws are sharp, they cut you in half and that's it. Thing is, predators don't actually care about killing you, just about keeping you still enough to eat you. If you can't fight back because you're dead, that's cool. If you can't fight back because all your limbs are broken, that's cool too.

I've seen two of them fighting, once. Frightful stuff. They rise on the back leg, lock their arms, and each tries to push the other on its back. I guess that's why they have armored backs; would hate to think what else they'd need to defend from. An Earthborn said they looked like bears when they locked arms like that. Wouldn't know – never seen a bear. But it's in their name, so it checks out. Anyway, you'd have to see the way their arms bulge when they're really giving everything they've got. That's the kind of strength a borehole miner should have, not a goddamn animal.

I've heard that the higher-ups, maybe Khand himself, plan to use them for training. You take a springbear that's sleeping over a meal, blindfold it (pretty sure they go by smell anyway), weigh it down, and tie it to a pillar – and I hope to God it's a well-planted pillar – with a smilk cord. Then you push some poor sod, with a weapon or not, in front of it. Juuust out of reach. If you can keep your position in front of a springbear jumping on you, you can keep your position in front of anything.

Turns out there's a trick to kill them. If you see them coming, that is. They've got their brain between their shoulders, so good luck reaching it, but there's a spot in their chest where a big blood vessel pokes out of the bone plates. If you hit it right, they lose their pressure and collapse, like shooting a football. The matter is that to do that you need to keep your cool in front of a motherfucking charging springbear. I'm not saying you can't do it, but I'd feel more comfortable on a treetop during a thunderstorm, waving a steel rod around, and saying terrible things about God's mom.

I don't look forward to my turn. But if I don't drop dead on the spot, a column of gunrovers won't look so scary anymore. Actually, you know what? Bring it on, you three-legged, slit-faced, freaky-tongued asshole. I bet YOU won't look so scary anymore. We got rid of worse stuff than you, back on Earth.

– Lieutenant Jahangir Turani, personal diary, 62 AL, late spring

#speculative biology #speculative evolution #xenobiology #alien life #worldbuilding #my work #ea our second chance

[rainbowolfe]

I have a sneaking suspicion that Ratau's crew is supposed to be a parallel of the Bishops on some level. Because why is there a crow in the ocean biome. Not that any of them seem to belong to the biome you find them in, unless everyone really does just live in a tent. There's also my belief that there's a sixth Bishop, missing for some reason. Which aligns with the missing sixth member of Ratau's crew, bargained away in a deal that made Ratau abandon his duties.

So, what would the implications be...

-Narinder is the force that brought this dysfunctional family together. (I know a lot of people assume Shamura played this role, because they're the eldest) The Bishops (+ the missing one would make five) were likely apart of different sects of one group that Narinder later took them/saved them from.

-Heket was indebted to many people (I would take that to mean she struck many bargains she never fulfilled her end of the deal for) but also had many people indebted to her. Those indebted to her may be the souls she literally devoured, represented by the eye symbols on her chest/neck.

-Heket is immune to poison, but also produces it herself (poison may not be in a literal sense here). The [Mithridatism] card would also affirm that Narinder took issue with what she had to say. The card is telling her not to fear what passes her lips, for it is the true word. ((But was it really?))

-Flinky talks funny.... Heket talks funny.... need I say more?

-Kallamar and Leshy were a duo. The dynamic between a crow and a worm would imply that Leshy was to be Kallamar's prey. I would take that to mean that Kallamar probably killed other weaker gods/crown vessels on sight, but made an exception for this one.

-[Strength From Without] is interesting as both a tarot card and in relation to Kallamar (and also possibly Leshy). As a concept it means your sense of self worth comes from and depends on those around you. As a tarot card, it gives you fervor when you're hit. Fervour is a power source that is usually gained from killing others, so to be able to (effectively) harvest your own power when someone hurts you.... I forget where I was going with that, but it makes me think if Yang's ability from RWBY.

-HOWEVER, if the earthworm isn't meant to be a stand in for the Leshyworm, then the "worm" is whoever is in Kallamar's crown. Or maybe what Kallamar's crown is made out of, hint hint, wink wink. Squids' natural prey are fish, crabs, and shrimp. And it's crabs that still persist in Anchordeep, marked with the top half of the Old Faith symbol. This would also mean that Leshy represents the follower that was lost to a bargain. Maybe the situation that brought his crown to him was just an unforeseen result of something greater going on.

-Kallamar always went overboard with his "betting" ie bargaining. Maybe he bargained with someone he shouldn't have, or he bargained away too much/something important. I bet he bargained away his Bop 👀

-Shamura has little respect for other crown bearers. They know the crowns can change people, and they're bitter about it. Of course they are, it turned the One They Loved Most against them.

-[Strength From Within] is also a non-standard way of interacting with Fervour. It replenishes over time, so you're once again using only your own power and no one else's. Fervour seems to be the physical/magical manifestation of anger and rage, which in turn fuels the use of curses. The two cards also mirror each other. Strength from Within has the enlightened/divine Sun above the clock, Strength from Without seems to put that sun inside the clock and now the skull from Ichor Earned is above it.

-sidenote, Shrumy is the only one to show a clear preference for Ratau over other crown bearers. The power, the adoration—it changes people, most likely for the worst. Something about the crowns guarantee followers, and that would even make a god a little haughty.

-Kallamar lost something to Shamura in a bargain. Hands usually represent strength or power, but it can also represent the giving of blessings or even 'ability'. So Kallamar lost half his power (only 1/4th of his power if he's got four arms truly) to Shamura, but the dynamic would imply he's more than allowed to earn/win it back. ALT: Shamura has Kallamar's other ear 😂

-Shrumy carries three accessories: Klunko's hand, a bottle of black liquid, and a knife/dagger. The knife is marked with an X, and the bottle looks sussily similar to the potion shown in The Path. Kinda funny that the turtle has the movement speed potion XD But ya know, Shamura is also notably fast. I think it's a fair assumption to make that the other two items were won from Flinky and Ratau. Maybe the potion is made from Ratau, as he does use a walking stick. And the knife would've belonged to Flinky, but don't ask me how he wielded it... but all that is to say that means that Shamura holds items that belong to their siblings, gained through bets/bargains/deals. Kallamar's (and maybe Leshy's) power, Narinder's speed/will (as in, will to keep going), and Heket's might (physical strength opposed to magical/cursed abilities).

-a sadder interpretation of that is that a deal was struck to save Shamura after a certain Waiter yoinked their skull from its proper place. And the cost were those three things. A chunk of Kallamar's power, the ability for Heket to fight, and Narinder's freedom (his free will/ability to follow his will/however you want to take that). OR. It was VERY LITERAL. And the cost was Kallamar's hands, Heket's weapons, and Narinder's feet

-Leshy, Kallamar, and Narinder are red-aligned. Shamura and Heket are purple-aligned. This could be referring to allegiance to a crown, but it could also be referring to power levels. Regular demons are red, powerful demons purple.

#cult of the lamb #cotl #cotl shamura #cotl kallamar #cotl theory #cotl narinder #cotl ratau

[dukeoftheblackstar]

Why do you even like Plo?

This is like asking me why I breathe, nonnie <": But let me try and answer this as sensible as possible ♥

Plo Koon is 385-years old

Imagine the sheer amount of knowledge in that squishy, cute head of his and you decide that of all the questions you could ask, you decided to go with whether he'd still love you if you were a worm. (1) Plo would either give you the laziest, most resigned 'Yes, dear' and go back to his naps ♥ or ... (2) Plo would exasperatedly sigh over the fact that you test his resolve in this silly, little, questions and give you the same resounding, 'No, I will not" and you will crack at it for the 128391231923th time.

There is nothing he probably can't do or know a thing or two about. Bet you my left lung that man can knit like a god.

There will always be a fine line between days of keeping himself (1) fit — which means I need to buckle tf up before I combust seeing this old man fuck someone up and be cool-dad about it <": (2) Lazy Days with Plo is my jam ♥ <-

Plo is discreet sassy. I'd go over this but I will need a year.

Plo Koon is Old Money.

If you don't know what that is, babe. Let me tell you when I say you're missing out. if you have been following me or have seen all my shit posts and tags on the Plo Koon / Kel Dor / Dorin tags, old man knees are fabulous — let me tell you why. (1) In a modern setting/au, he will enjoy short or maybe long walks that are not stressful. Will he walk under the blazing heat because the day looks great? No, neither would you bestie so sit tf down ♥ (2) Everything is made for comfort. Fuck the vow of poverty because when when you be rocking like a proper Balenciaga Sugar Daddy while traversing the Underworld, you best believe Daddy Plo be loaded AF. We're talking the Egyptian Cotton Sheets,

Plo Koon is one you would not want to shut up. Ever. At all. Like. Babe. If you ever shush this man. I will hunt you down, huntie ♥

'Ts my favorite thing in the world ♥

Plo Koon has wholesome sassy chaotic gae friends.

Plo Koon just too pure for this world ♥

Now please watch that last gif on loop and tell me that that does not make you feel things because babe, if it doesn't... Idk man. You need to get them eyes checked ♥

But in all seriousness, my love for Plo Koon is because we don't always get wholesome characters that live long and it makes you wonder what life would have been like if he did.

I'm always fascinated by age apart from it being so damn sexy.

You hear talks about clones and their strife on how hard it is being the remaining survivor and I don't want to invalidate that. Not at all. But imagine having to relieve that through centuries. Imagine how someone like Plo, who has so much appreciation for life and everything both having spent at least a few years of his life at Dorin and him returning to become a Baran Do Sage, only to constantly practice the lack of attachment?

I'm not saying that's bad or conflicting, but imagine all the things he had to repress to fulfill his purpose both as a Sage and a Jedi. And he's smart, super damn smart. Someone who's smart with a guarded heart is a lie. His heart isn't guarded, he hurts. But he he has to swallow that because he has a role to fulfill.

I could go on so much about why I find him so interesting but I'm stuck in a bad vibe rn and all I can say is I love him so much because I want him to rest? Like hello?

Let that man take his goddamn afternoon nap and teas? And for someone so loved as a wholesome character, he's slept on and frankly, I don't like that.

Plus, I bet you Kel Dors got big dicks, so there's also that. ktnxbye.

#♝ #dukeoftheblackstar answers #♝-answers #plo koon

[theterribletenno]

Shamir the Wyrm Queen Warframe

Just like Max it was no surprise to me that Shamir was a favorite of the season. Since most of the other frames from this season are rather simple and old-school I am going to try to make Shamir a bit more complex.

Health: 350 (450 at rank 30) Shields: 350 (450 at rank 30) Armor: 250 Energy: 100 (150 at rank 30) Sprint Speed: 0.95

Passive: Every time Living Ground and Nightcrawlers damage an enemy Shamir has a 30% chance to generate one third of a stack of Worm Food and every time Shamir kills an enemy with damage from any ability she is guaranteed to generate one third of a stack of Worm Food. Worm Food stacks fuel or empower Shamir's abilities. Worm Food has a maximum of 100 stacks.

Ability 1: Living Ground, 25 energy. Shamir designates a patch of ground in her sight over unrestricted range with a 12 meter radius to become infested with Golden Maws for 12 seconds, turning the area into a deadly trap as her monstrous pets churn just beneath the surface, waiting to pounce and bite. While an enemy is standing in the area of Living Ground they will be bitten by a golden maw once per second inflicting 150 points each of impact, puncture, and slash damage with 25% status chance and apply one of three effects with each having a 33.3% chance of occurring. If one of the effects cannot be triggered on the target the remaining two will have 50% chance to occur and if two of the effects cannot be triggered on a target then the last one is guaranteed to occur. A. Disarm: The enemy is disarmed, causing them to drop their currently equipped ranged weapon. This effect cannot trigger on enemies without a ranged weapon, enemies that have already been disarmed, or enemies which are otherwise immune to disarming. B. Ragdoll: The enemy is ragdolled for several seconds, rendering them helpless and vulnerable to melee finisher attacks until they are able to upright themselves. This effect cannot trigger on enemies which it has already affected within the last 10 seconds, enemies with overguard, or enemies which are otherwise immune to being ragdolled. C. Bleed: The enemy is guaranteed to recieve a slash status effect from the attack in addition to its normal status chance. Apart from enemies which are immune to slash status procs there are no conditions where this effect is prevented. Holding the ability key for Living Ground will highlight its target area in Shamir's energy color for precise positioning. Up to four instances of Living Ground can be active at once and casting the ability while four instances are already active will replace the oldest one. Living Ground's damage increases by 10 points of each damage type for every stack of Worm Food Shamir currently has.

Ability 2: Leech, costs 1 worm food (or 50 energy). If Shamir does not have at least one stack of Worm Food to spend on Leech it will instead cost 50 energy to activate. Leech summons up a long and slender golden maw to wrap around the enemy closest to Shamir's crosshairs within 30 meters which staggers all enemies within an 8 meter radius and trapping the target in the Leech maw's coils for the next 20 seconds. While coiled, the enemy is completely disabled as it stays held in place by the Golden Maw, becomes invulnerable to incoming damage, and slowly has its vital fluids and energy drained creating an aura with an 8 meter radius; when Shamir or her allies stand within the aura the leech feeds its stolen vitality to them, restoring 25% of their missing health per second, while draining 1% of maximum health per second from the victim. Pressing the ability key while aiming at an enemy coiled by Leech will release the victim early before duration expires. Damage from outside sources inflicted on the victim while it was invulnerable will be dealt in full when it is released, and all status effects it received will resume their effects.

Ability 3: Nightcrawlers, costs 5 worm food. Offering up several pieces of generated Worm Food Shamir summons up one of her three unique elite Golden Maws to join her in battle. If Shamir has none of her special maws currently summoned then each one has a 33.3% chance to be summoned when Nightcrawlers is cast, if she has one summoned the remaining two have a 50% chance to be summoned and if she has two of them active the final maw will be guaranteed to be summoned. Nightcrawlers can only have three maws summoned at once. Each unique elite Golden Maw lasts for 10 seconds or until killed. These maws have health, shields, and armor equal to 2x of Shamir's and their basic attack deals 500 damage of their specified element with a guaranteed status proc. For every stack of Worm Food Shamir currently has the unique elite Golden Maws' attacks deal an additional 20 damage. When one of the maws summoned by Nightcrawlers expires or is killed it bursts, dealing 5x its normal attack damage to all enemies within 8 meters. A. Caustic Maw: Deals pure corrosive damage and prefers to target the enemy with the highest armor value nearby. This maw's acidic saliva dissolves the corpses of enemies it kills, giving them a 60% chance to drop extra loot. B. Noxious Maw: Deals pure gas damage and prefers to target groups of enemies standing close to each other. This maw's normal attacks cleave, dealing partial damage to all enemies within striking distance. C: Virulent Maw: Deals pure viral damage and prefers to target the enemy with the highest max health nearby. This maw is able to perform finisher attacks on enemies that are vulnerable to melee ground finishers, parazon mercy kills, or are currently below 20% of their max health.

Ability 4: The Wyrm Turns, costs 1 worm food per second. Shamir reveals her final form, beautiful shame of the Empire, the corpse eating golden dragon. In her Wyrm form Shamir completely shapeshifts into an orowyrm-like monster that delivers death to all foes in its sight with terrible power and grace. In her Wyrm form Shamir's health, shields, and armor are all multiplied by 3, her movement is altered to resemble that of the orowyrms of Duviri, and she loses access to her normal weaponry in exchange for a pair of exalted weapons: Dragon's Breath and Golden Fangs. -Dragon's Breath is categorized as an exalted primary beam weapon for modding purposes, a flamethrower that fires a wide and long spray of pure heat damage with very high status chance and average crit. Enemies killed by Dragon's Breath will release a fiery explosion, dealing 5% of their max health to all other enemies within 8 meters as pure heat damage with a guaranteed heat status proc. -Golden Fangs is an exalted melee weapon that deals roughly even values of impact, slash, and puncture damage and has extraordinarily high per-hit damage but very slow attack speed and very high critical chance with normal status chance. For every stack of Worm Food Shamir consumes while in her Wyrm form her exalted weapons gain 1% bonus damage up to a maximum of 100%. Kills from Dragon's Breath and Golden Fangs have a 15% chance to generate one third of a stack of Worm Food.

Subsumed ability: Nightcrawlers (Activation cost is changed to 75 energy, synergy with Worm Food is lost.)

Signature Weapon: Blackwater. Shamir's signature weapon, a melee blade-and-whip that appears to be both Orokin in origin and infested in nature, yet another piece of her beautifully ugly and royally shameful existence as undertaker of the empire. Blackwater has high attack speed at the cost of below average per-hit damage, high critical chance and critical multiplier at the cost of low status chance. Blackwater deals mostly slash damage, moderate puncture and viral, and very low impact. As a unique passive effect every time the Blackwater lands a level one yellow critical hit the status chance on the hit is multiplied by 1.5x, 2x for level two orange crits, and 2.5x for all tiers of red crit; levels three and higher. As Shamir's signature weapon when she wields it every time the Blackwater crits it has a 5% chance to increase the critical hit's level by one.

Signature Companion: Conqueror. A special sentinel born through a combination of technocyte and Tenno ingenuity, a lethal companion whose half-infested nature mirrors the Warframes it protects. Conqueror has two unique precepts: Detritivore and Omnivore. Detritivore releases a total of eight viral bolts from the sentinel, each one fired 45 degrees apart and able to seek out and strike an enemy within its own 45 degree 30 meter targeting cone. If no enemy exists within its range the bolt will continue traveling outward from its point of origin searching for an enemy to strike for up to four seconds. Upon striking an enemy each bolt does 150 viral damage with a guaranteed viral status proc and heals Conqueror for 25 points. Healing from this effect can restore health, shields, and overshields. This precept has a 12 second cooldown. Omnivore launches a spherical singularity several meters in diameter which travels slowly in the direction it was fired with infinite punch-through lasting for 8 seconds. All enemies it passes through are dealt 600 magnetic damage with a guaranteed magnetic status proc. As it travels the sphere absorbs enemy attacks that pass through it, adding 10% of the absorbed attack's damage to the sphere's own. This precept has a 30 second cooldown. Conqueror includes the robotic companion weapon the Borer. Borer is a held-beam style weapon that accepts rifle mods and deals pure corrosive damage with very high status chance but very low critical chance. Borer's beam can chain up to 3 nearby enemies within 7 meters from the initial target, with each chain doing 75% of the previous chain's damage. As Shamir's signature companion when she and Conqueror are used in tandem Conqueror's overshield cap is doubled.

Closing Notes: Shamir is named after a legendary worm from the legends of Solomon which could dissolve stone, and in some apocryphal tellings was given to Solomon by Asmodeus. After drafting a few much more simple and old-school warframes I feel that Shamir is a breath of fresh, complicated air. She's no Rube Goldberg warframe but I like the interactions of her kit. Also, yes, Leech is nearly a one-for-one copy of Garuda's Blood Altar and I'm not apologizing. The reason her signature melee weapon is a blade and whip is because of the so-called "unholy trinity" of parasitic worms; roundworms, hookworms, and whipworms; so I gave her a melee weapon with a whip and hook. Her signature sentinel is named after the Conqueror Worm, a poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

#warframe #original character #fan made

[one-winged-dreams]

Okay, never fucking mind, I have brain worms and I need to get them OUT, so I'm gonna risk passing out in my chair and eating shit for the sake of this awful fucking man

Initially, this was just supposed to be the dragon version of the Prestor and swan!insert ship. Doe-eyed idiot falls hook line and sinker for a handsome powerful man and he just is like 'okay cool whatever' and has a lot of fun just playing around with him in his weird 'i love you but i don't' way.

AND IT SORT OF STARTED THAT WAY???

PART ONE of the Nel and Dia ship progression.

(cut for length)

Step 1 ) Nel notices one of Alexstrasza's personal tenders is always stumbling over himself whenever he's around, he's wondering where he's seen him before but doesn't really think too hard about it.

Step 2 ) At some point Alex addresses Dia in front of Nel. He vaguely remembers the name from Dia's visage day when Alex asked him about his gender presentation because dragons respect trans rights in this house. He was just like "Oh, I don't know, I just let it happen. Does it look okay?" and everyone has a heart attack from how cute he is. Nel not entirely an exception but in a passing sort of 'that's interesting i guess' sort of way.

Step 3 ) Nel is progressively taking note of Dia whenever he's around because it's BRUTALLY clear that Dia is head over heels for him. Which, I mean, it wouldn't be the first time one of the regular drakes crushed on an Aspect, but he's cute and it's kind of fun to fuck with him. Because he's Nel and he's awful.

Step 4 ) At some point Dia gets sent on an errand to the Obsidian Citadel and Nel can't NOT eat the poor boy alive. The black dragons are just GLEEFULLY watching their Aspect tear this young Ruby's composure apart. Because Nel has always been described as super charming in the lore, old-god-crazy notwithstanding. And Nel, being such a CONSIDERATE and NOBLE Earth Warder, insists that Dia stay while the errand is completed. Wouldn't make sense for him to go back to the Life Shrine and then have to make the trip both ways AGAIN, right?

Step 5 ) Dia's soul leaves his body.

Step 6 ) Nel is absolutely bored out of his mind at any given moment so might as well get to know his little admirer. And the more they talk the more the cute aggression starts to build up and Nel's like "Oh I can't NOT fuck him." So he decides he's gonna shoot his shot but SLOW BURN IT.

Step 7 ) Suddenly Dia is making a lot of requests to volunteer whenever anyone needs anything from the Citadel. Alex doesn't really mind all that much but she IS squinting at Nel from across the Waking Shores.

Step 8 ) The progression of intimacy is SO long and convoluted, with one of the stages being Nel inviting Dia to sleep in his visage bed while Nel is away, he doesn't mind, he has things to attend to anyway and Dia is SO sweet and helpful, it's the LEAST he could do.

Step 9 ) Dia does VERY little sleeping that night. Nel knows this because the smell is EXTREMELY evident when he comes back. Experiment success?

Step 10 ) Little near misses of intimacy turn to intimate BONDING, turn into finally [EXPLITIVE EXPLETIVE EXPLETIVE EXPL-]

Nel is very pleased with himself, especially now that he's got a new toy that's ripe for playing with.

BUT WAIT- THERE'S MORE!

(continued in the next post)

#i just wanted to isolate the bit that WAS GOING ACCORDING TO PLAN #the gift of ruin