#Like Wow i thought we were exclusive enemies but i guess not :(

[yareadyfreddie]

I can't figure out if I've never come out, have always been out, or am constantly coming out.

I've never felt the need to announce myself, because I guess I feel like it's obvious, and yet I get weird or surprised looks when I mention finding a woman hot or dating a girl. "Weren't you married?" To a man is implied, even though same sex marriage has been legal in this state for over a decade. (I was married to a man, as a Cis woman, so I suppose what's obvious to me wasn't to the masses, but that's not my problem.)

I never think about beforehand, while alluding to my queerness offhand, matter-of-fact; it's only in the aftermath, getting funny looks and less than favorable reactions that I think, "should I have said that?" Not really my problem though.

The only struggle I've had, bisexuality wise, was all the gay friends I had in the 00s telling me I was straight, and that the number of girls I'd slept with meant nothing if I'd only ever seriously dated men. At the time I thought, that's fair, they would know, right? Now, looking back, I'm a little mad about it, sometimes. No one says that anymore though.

Truth is, now that I'm older, I realize that although I'm equally attracted to all genders sexually, I am romantically attracted to no one. That's the hard part.

"Weren't you married?" Yeah, and now I'm divorced. I didn't MIND being married, it was kind of fun - like having a roommate  and sex buddy all in one. (Turns out the spouse boy saw it a little differently. Luckily, he's not mad anymore, even though we're no longer roommates or sex buddies, we are the bestiest still. I think you can't go through a divorce without coming out either enemies or comrades in arms, but maybe that's just me. Maybe people shouldn't get married because of existential ennui though, or for the vine. Me, I'm people.)

Anyway, the bisexuality was never an issue, regardless of what other people thought. Whether you're a man or a woman or both or neither, yes, I will sleep with you if I think you're hot and/or funny enough. It's what comes after that's the problem. I won't remember your birthday, I will not buy you flowers, and I won't be upset if you like someone else or someone else likes you. I won't call, I won't text, and if I buy you a present just because I was thinking of you it will probably be coffee (I will randomly buy you coffee at least once a year, especially if I've forgotten you hate coffee). I have never in my life remembered an anniversary, or usually even known when it was. Sometimes, I will randomly appear for a booty call, and you'll think it's a romantic surprise, but the only surprise is it's just a booty call. I don't like to cuddle and I hate holding hands, and this seems to offend or baffle people the most  because I'm soft and small and delicate looking. But really, I just want to be left alone.

THIS was my struggle. Coming to terms with liking women wasn't a thing for me - it was as simple as kissing a girl on a dare at age 18 and thinking "oh wow, this is also hot. I've been missing out."

The Aro thing is - no one understands it. "But you dated! A LOT! You were Married!" Yeah, well, I didn't know some people just don't fall in love. I figured I'd eventually be comfortable with romance through like, exposure therapy or whatever. And maybe some Aro people are more comfy in this disease ridden social climate being exclusive (for myself, I haven't had a closed relationship since high school, but that's a whole other can of worms).

I also get: But you read romance! Excessively! Yeah, well, some people are obsessed with murder mysteries but most of them aren't murderers or detectives or little old ladies with typewriters and a suspicious trail of death. It's fun when it's other people!

Then I get: It sounds like you're emotionally constipated, immature, and need to learn to be vulnerable. Oooooh buddy. It sounds like you need to get the fuck off my dick.

Anyway.

I wish a polycule would just adopt me, like some kind of human cat or something, where I can come and go as I please without the full burden of possibly being someone's sole romantic interest. Because I do crave touch sometimes, and I do miss a steady sex partner, but I'm never going to be fully present. Going into relationships stating I'm not going to be the ideal girlfriend always ends messy, because either I'm not believed or it's taken as a challenge. It's so frustrating.

Anyway, those are the perils of being Aro but not Ace I guess.

I just needed to scream into the void a bit.

#lgbtq #coming out #aro #screaming into the void #oh and #bisexuality #i guess #me

[atrenchcoatfilledwithbeees]

L: Ah Beyond, my old arch enemy. Light: ...I thought I was your arch enemy? L: I have a life outside of you, Light.

#Are they... you know... arch enemies? #Death note #the death note #L lawliet #Light Yagami #Yagami Light #Beyond Birthday #Let's be real Light would defo be like this #Like Wow i thought we were exclusive enemies but i guess not :( #incorrect quotes #incorrect death note quotes #deathnote incorrect quotes #dn incorrect quotes #incorrect dn quotes #lawlight au #L x Light #Light x L #sry for not posting as often I'm like real tired for no reason rn lol #I am working on the part two to my youtuber au I swear lmao #Kira #the kira case #Another note #dn Light #Yagami imagay #Just bought L change the WorLd cuz i need more L content #enemies to lovers #aka the best tag

[treesnutsandleaveswrites]

Aftermath

Pairing: The Bad Batch x Reader (Polyam)

Summary: It’s been a year or so since you left the Batch (caught up with the series timeline, some SPOILERS) Warning: Mentions of death, shooting, yelling, angst, fluff, mentions of slavery, minor TBB SPOILERS

Word Count: 2048

A/N: D-5 is supposed to be a rendition of D-O, which i know isn’t really canon haha

pt xii, pt xiv

XXXXXXX

You rushed through the forest quickly, speaking into your com device.

“I’m making my way to you! Be ready!” You instructed.

“Give me a sec.”

“You have 3 feet to be ready, I’m nearly there!”

“I-”

You burst through the foliage of the forest and grabbed the blaster from your teammate’s waist before shooting the enemies chasing you. You huffed and glared back at them.

“You told me you were good at this!”

“Look, I don’t do short distances!” He tried to explain.

“You’re a damn sniper, snipers do any distance with a clear shot!” You turned to the ship to another teammate, “Everyone on board?”

“Locked and loaded. This might be our last batch for a while…”

“I know.” You sighed, “Get on, we’re leaving.”

“When the Empire said they were gonna make things better, I expected Caetum to be up and running smoothly.”

“The Empire is all the same as the others who tried to keep ‘order’.” You muttered while taking off your helmet, “Let’s just get out of here.”

“This really was your home planet?” A teammate queried.

You nodded, holding onto something as the ship took off. Once you were steady in open space, you moved to the storage part of the ship where there were multiple people huddled together.

“Is everyone alright?” You hung a small lantern to illuminate their faces more.

“Thank you…” An elderly woman said and you smiled, holding her hands in yours as you crouched down.

“I wish I could’ve saved more…”

“You have done so much for us… your name already lingers…”

“The Great Lodestar.” A man spoke up, “I heard from one of the troopers that other planets were talking about you…”

“I… have freed others, but it’s still not enough.”

“It takes time.” The woman assured, “Go and rest.”

You took a moment before leaving the storage room and making your way towards the cockpit.

“We’ve set a course for the Ocsalev System. Ready when you are, Lodestar.”

You nodded, “Make the jump.”

*******

Hunter jumped slightly from a dream in one of the chairs in front of the computers. It was always a constant dream about you… his cyare. He was sure the other boys had such dreams too. It took nearly a month for Wrecker to stop screaming your name in his sleep…

“Hunter? You okay?” Omega’s voice caught his attention as she made her way towards him from the gunner’s mount.

He nodded with a gentle smile before sitting straight up. She furrowed her brows for a moment before humming and opening the cockpit door, which urged Hunter to enter also.

“We’re almost at the coordinates Cid gave us. Odd, she never sets us up on missions where we need help from other mercenaries.” Tech remarked.

“We’re not mercenaries.” Hunter muttered but Omega giggled.

“I think you have to face it, Hunter, we are.”

He sighed before sitting in his seat as Wrecker walked in.

“We almost there yet?”

“Just approaching, it’s best you sit. No need for another head injury.” Echo joked.

“We don’t have to worry about no inhibitor chip anymore!”

“But we do have to worry about how much bacta and ice packs we use on you.” Tech rolled his eyes while easing the ship into the planet’s atmosphere, “Gentlemen, and madam, welcome to the Ocsalev System.”

They landed the Havoc Marauder at a simple docking bay before making their way into the city.

“Stay close, kid.” Hunter ordered as he led the group through the busy streets.

It was fairly crowded with people going in and out of buildings or rushing through the streets. Omega admired the commotion and looked around, but the boys made sure to urge her through the crowds. To her, this city was very different from Ord Mantell, having a lack of technology and more of a natural kick to it. Houses were built around trees and into the side of the mountain, which made Omega want to explore more.

“The device says to go in here to find this so-called ‘Kapu’.”

The batch nodded before making their way into the small shop, seeing it crowded with many different weapons and droid parts. There was an alien at the head of the shop, which boggled Omega.

“What is he? He has so many arms.”

“A besalisk…” Echo explained quietly, “The female ones have up to eight arms.”

They approached the counter as the besalisk worked on a small device, using its multiple arms to hold parts and tools. Hunter cleared his throat.

“We’re looking for Kapu. We were sent by Cid.”

The besalisk nodded while looking up at them, “Clones? Huh, never thought Cid would give clones a chance!” He laughed, “Yeah, I’m Kapu. Come with me and we’ll meet the person who’ll be joining you on your mission.” He urged them with his multiple arms while walking through the back door of the shop. There was a small transport waiting with an Ewok driver. The ewok started yelling in its native language toward Kapu.

“I told you they’d get here when they get here! And here they are! Now come on! Let’s go!” Kapu got into the passenger's seat while the Batch piled up in the back, “Better hold on to something, he’s blind in one eye.”

The batch looked at each other nervously before the transport speeded off out of the city. They arrived at the base of the mountain and followed Kapu towards the small house built into it.

“She just came back from a mission, so let’s hope she’s in a good mood.” He knocked on the door, “I’m coming in, kid!”

He swung the door open, hitting a small droid.

“Aw gee, D-5, what were you doing there?!” Kapu groaned, picking the droid up.

The batch looked around the small house. It was hardly full with anything but basic living necessities. Omega immediately noticed the armor sitting on the table, admiring the visor of the helmet. She picked it up and looked at it closely.

“Wow, this helmet is really similar to yours, Echo! But it has some modifications similar to Tech’s, like the mouth guard, and a sniper’s glass like Crosshairs.”

Kapu placed the droid down and called out again, “Girl, where are you?!”

“I’m here, hold on!” You groaned, “I literally just got back, can’t I have some time?”

“No, boys from Cid are here.”

“Cid? Since when did you start taking jobs from Cid again?”

“Just get out here!” Kapu scolded, sitting down to look at D-5.

You walked through the back door and looked at him, “Did you break my droid again?!”

“He was in the way. These are Cid’s boys.”

You looked up and your breath caught in your throat from the sight in front of you. Hunter was there with Echo and Tech behind him, who were as shocked as you. Wrecker was busy looking at the helmet with Omega, but then Echo hit the side of his head.

“Ow! I thought you said you didn’t want any more head inj-” Wrecker got up and looked at you.

“Kapu, take the kid out back, she’ll help you fix D-5…”

Omega looked to Hunter, who nodded. She followed Kapu out and you closed the door gently behind them before turning back to the batch. You then moved closer to where Hunter was still standing with his brothers.

“I… I know this looks bad…” You stuttered, tears coming to your eyes, “I-I couldn’t let you-”

Hunter had engulfed you into a tight hug and sighed into your shoulder. You were rendered speechless, but returned the hug once you processed what was happening.

“Oh, cyare…” He whispered, pulling away slightly and placing his forehead against yours, “My love…”

After he let you go, Echo hugged you tight. Then Tech. Finally, Wrecker… who kneeled down in front of you and hugged you while digging his face into your stomach.

“We thought we lost you, ad’ika.”

“I’m so sorry…” You whispered, “I should’ve left something to explain, but I didn’t want the Kaminoans to do anything to any of you…”

“It was about the inhibitor chips… wasn’t it?” Echo asked.

You looked at him for a moment before nodding, “Yes…”

“Omega told us about them.” Hunter explained as you all settled down to talk, “Order 66… that’s what they were put in for…”

“To betray the Republic.”

“No. To kill the Jedi.” Echo explained.

“The Jedi?”

“Palpatine said the Jedi betrayed the Republic… tried to assassinate him.”

You shook your head, “No. No-”

“Rex explained it to us a bit further.”

“Rex? Rex is alright?”

“Yeah… we still had the chips in because they didn’t work for us during Order 66.”

“But Rex said we needed to take them out. They were still dangerous. We learned that through Wrecker and his multiple head injuries.” Tech stated.

You took a moment before looking back to them, “Cross… on Caetum, I heard the troopers talking about their new clone commander: Crosshair…”

“Yeah, his chip was working for him, then the Kaminoans improved it’s signal and now he’s with the Empire.”

“Wait, did you say Caetum?” Wrecker asked, “You went to stop the Separatists?”

You sighed, “I needed some time to get some credits and settle… but the Empire got there before I did and nothing really improved. I just got back from one of my last missions there, liberating people so they aren’t enslaved again… But there’s still so many that need help.”

“You’ve been busy, then?” Echo smiled which caused you to smile.

“I guess… but the last mission was a mess and I can’t go back anymore. The Empire is… more controlling than the Republic. They almost caught us last time.”

“‘Us’? You have a new team?”

“No, just some other mercenaries in it for money. Nothing exclusive.”

They all nodded and Wrecker spoke up, “Then maybe you could come back with us! Be a Batcher again!”

“Let’s not get too rash, Wrecker. We still need to get this job done.”

You nodded, “We’ll talk more after. Let’s go see what we’re in for.”

Wrecker cheered and you all walked out of the house. You saw Omega and Kapu sitting against your speeder while D-5 was rolling around.

“We fixed him up.” Kapu smiled.

“Thanks, his balance module was a bit out of place, maybe that was why he got hit by the door.”

“The kid did most of the work, actually.”

You nodded and looked at her, “Omega, right?”

“Yep. And… you’re ‘cyare’ according to Hunter.”

You laughed, “To him, Wrecker, Tech, and Echo… but you can call me Lodestar.”

“Good, ‘cause that would have been weird if I had to start calling you ‘darling’ or something like that.”

You shrugged, “I wouldn’t mind.”

You both laughed before turning to Kapu with the boys as he explained the job.

*******

You fastened the last bit of your armor before picking up your helmet and heading back to your speeder. Omega was sitting in the back while helping Tech with something. Kapu lent two speeder bikes for Wrecker and Hunter to use so you all wouldn’t be packed in the speeder. You walked over to Hunter as he flipped his knife and grinned as he looked you over in slight shock.

“Weird seeing me in armor, huh?”

He smirked, “I think it’s about time, Lodestar.”

You shoved him playfully before he caught you and wrapped an arm around your waist.

“I’m surprised you all have warmed up to seeing me again. I was actually expecting to be yelled at by you or Echo.”

“We’ve been through a lot recently, yelling won’t make anything better...”

“If Crosshair were here, we’d go at it for sure.”

He nodded with a small hum, which made you cup his face, “Omega told me you had to leave him behind on Kamino… It’s okay, we’ll get him back.”

He nodded, leaning in to give you a kiss, but Kapu called.

“You better get going! Almost sundown!”

You turned to acknowledge him before turning back to Hunter, “We’ll have some time after the mission… I promise.”

You got into the speeder as Wrecker and Hunter started up their bikes.

“See you in the morning!” Kapu called, urging D-5 inside.

You put your helmet on before driving off.

XXXXXXX

Taglist: @darkangel4121 @lightning-wolffe @alucas528 @rintheemolion @shadowfoxey @butch-medusae @gabile18

#the bad batch #the bad batch x reader #bad batch #bad batch x reader #tbb polyam series #treesnutsandleaves writes #hunter #hunter x reader #crosshair #crosshair x reader #tech #tech x reader #echo #echo x reader #wrecker #wrecker x reader

[wildernessuntothemselves]

Prey for You | Part 4

Genre: Smut, angst, and some fluff this time

Word Count: 4.4k

Summary:  It has come to this. After your landlord kicks you out, you’re at Chan’s mercy. Turns out, he might not be as bad as you thought he was.

Warnings: enemies to lovers, switch!reader, switch!chan, wolf!hybrid chan, fox!hybrid reader, thigh riding, really unheathly dynamics

A/N: this part is like the opposite of a tootsie roll soft on the outside hard on the inside

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Part 5, Part 6

“This is just for a short while.” You say, swallowing the bile that has risen up in your throat as you look at the smug wolf sitting in front of you on his couch.

“Sure.” He shrugs nonchalant, but the cocky arch of his brow says otherwise and you have to squash down your pride with everything you’ve got not to jump on him. Like it or not, you’re at his mercy now that your landlord has officially evicted you. Without his gracious help, you’d now be on the streets. “I’ll find another place as soon as I can.”

“You can take all the time you need.” He opens his arms wide, going for a welcoming vibe but the stupid grin on his face counteracts it.

“No. I’ll be out of here soon.” You deadpan, not wanting to owe him more than you already do. God knows he’ll hold his over your head forever.  "And I don't feel comfortable living here for free so from now on until I leave, I'll be taking care of things around the house."

“Oh, how domestic.” He chirps sweetly.

"More like a live-in maid." You mutter under your breath but he easily hears it, the stupid grin finally dropping from his face as he sits forward and looks at you sincerely. "Don't say that. I meant what I said. You’re here as a friend."

"Yeah, sure." You snort. “You’re basically high from gloating.”

A smile tickles his lips again as he leans back. “I always enjoy the chance to one-up you, but that doesn’t mean I’m lying.”

“Wow, you really are a saint.” You jeer, grabbing your bag and heading towards the room that is to be yours.  

_________________

To your great surprise, living with Chan was actually kind of nice. Aside from the obvious perk of living in such a comfortable, beautiful house that had everything you could ever need. Chan himself was proving himself to be a quiet congenial roommate. Most importantly, he left you the hell alone for the most part, staying cooped up in his studio the majority of the day so that you barely even saw him. And despite your agreement that you’d take care of things around the house, he still did most of his things himself, picking up after himself and washing his clothes before you got the chance to. He fed himself too as indicated by the boxes of takeout from every possible fast food place filling out the trash. So you were barely wasting any time on taking care of the house, and spending most of your days following up on your studies like you so sorely needed. 

All in all, this whole arrangement was working out positively in your favor. Too positively, that you have to wonder what he was getting out of this. He can’t possibly really be doing this out of the goodness of his heart, especially since no one is even aware of this kind deed for him to gain any morality points off of it. He hasn’t even made a move on you for the whole three weeks you’d been here, seeming content to just coexist with you that you were starting to feel like you were taking advantage of him somehow. Even though this whole thing was his idea. 

Maybe that, your momentary self-doubt, is what prompted you to do what you did next. 

“Hmm, something smells nice.” Chan remarks, walking into the kitchen where you were making yourself some food. He stands behind you to take a look at what you were cooking, and you feel your heart skipping a beat at the now familiar scent of him filling your nostrils and his body being so close to you. And when he speaks, his voice deep and calm next to your ear, it makes your skin tingle. “Looks tasty too.” 

And like a teenager who had the great fortune of being noticed by the popular jock, you twist your head around to look at him, dewy-eyed as the words stumble out of your mouth before you can think them over. “Would you like to have dinner with me today?”

He pauses, looking at you curiously and you turn back to the food and continue nervously, “I mean, that junk food you eat everyday can’t be good for you.” 

“Aw, are you worried about me?” He asks cheekily, and your shoulders tense. “Never mind.” 

“No, no, I’ll have dinner with you.” He rushes to say, plopping down on a seat resolutely. “No take backsies.”

“Idiot.” You mutter, finding yourself wearing an involuntary smile because of him once again.

__________________________________ 

You’re not the best cook, you’ll be the first to admit it, but Chan praises your food like you are a world class chef. 

“Fuck off, Chan. It’s not that good.” You protest awkwardly, not really used to being complimented. But he insists, mouth full of food, “It is! It’s sublime.” 

You look down at your food to avoid eye contact with him and put on your best snooty voice. “Poor thing. Your habit of eating exclusively junk food must’ve ruined your palate to the point where you think my cooking is anything but decent.” 

“You sell yourself short. These hands--” He suddenly grabs your hands suddenly, startling you as he kisses them. “They’re magic.” 

You yank them back to your lap, flustered, the adrenaline pushing your poor fluttering heart into overdrive and making you panic. You quickly grab your fork and shove some food into your mouth trying to distract yourself from the conflicting emotions clashing in your chest, and regretting it almost immediately as your nausea swells up. 

“Is that how you woo prey?” You snark, taking a big gulp of your wine to wash down the piece of food you barely chewed. “Blatantly lie to them about their cooking skills?” 

The atmosphere fully changes as Chan drops his cheery attitude.  “Can we not talk about… that? It’s just you and me here. We don’t have to let the outside world in, do we?”

You still, your sense of danger rising up exponentially at his suggestion, and once again you find yourself wondering why he was doing this. What was his endgame here? Was he just messing with you? He puts on an honorable performance but you’ve seen him slip before. It must get tiring for him. Maybe he wants to see you hurt; it’s in his nature and he’s been repressing it for so long. You’d be the perfect victim too. No one even knows you’re here, and even if they did, they’d never believe your word over his. 

Or he could be genuine. Maybe he’s as nice as he tries to be. But that just scares you more, because how do you deal with that? You’ve never had a relationship with someone that was open and trusting. You’ve always hid behind your games. They kept you safe. No one has ever truly hurt you because you’ve never allowed someone to get close enough. But if you trust Chan, if you let him in and he betrays you… you don’t know how you’d even recover from that. 

You want to believe though. Everyone always says how much of a good person he is, how loyal, how selfless, how supportive. They can’t all be blind, right? And you’ve seen it too, in the way he always strived to protect his friends from you. He wanted the best for them. Maybe he could want the best for you too.

“Okay.” You answer in a small voice, heart pounding. 

His answering smile is bright and big, but it does nothing to assuage your fears so you settle for taking another sip of your wine. That’s what it’s made for, right?

“So, what do you actually do? I never asked.” Chan makes conversation as he gets back to his food.

You clear your throat. “I’m a waitress.” 

“Oh, and… um, is that what you want to be doing?” He asks unsurely. 

You roll your eyes at him, feeling a little at ease at his naivety. “No. Nobody wants to work in the service industry. It’s basically slavery and all your costumers are either rude or crazy. I hate it.” 

He pauses, looking like he’s thinking very hard for a moment, before he asks, perplexed. “So why do you do it?”

“To eat?” 

“Oh. Right. Of course.” His ears turn red and it’s his turn to take a big gulp of his drink. “I’m, uh, apparently an idiot. Yes, people work to afford living. Of course.” 

“I guess you’ve never had to think about that.” You note, surprised that you don’t feel any bitterness as you say it. 

“No.” He stares at the food on his plate. “I’m sorry.” 

“What are you sorry for? It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah but--”

“But I don’t have money so you feel sorry having money in front of me?” You grin, tone light, and he smiles back, face flushed as he obviously chastises himself in his head. 

“So…” He starts again, and it’s a little endearing how nervous he is. “What do you really wanna do?” 

You regard him for a second, wondering if you should really cross that line and let him in. Well, here goes nothing. 

“I’m studying to be a doctor.” 

His jaw drops to the floor. “You?”

“Yeah, shocking right?” You quip, taking another sip from your glass.

“I mean, yeah.” You would take offense at his words if it weren’t for the--you begrudgingly admit--endearing confused frown on his face. “Isn’t that a traditionally prey profession? Don’t you get, like, weird looks or something?”

“Yeah.” You snort, feeling the bitterness rise to the surface. “I get more than just weird looks. People feel the need to tell me every moment of every day how I’ll never be a good doctor. How no one will trust a fox with their life. How I should just quit and get into business or law or whatever other profession that can use my no-doubt nefarious skills.”

“That sucks.” He says then immediately cringes at his lame comment.

“Yeah, no shit. And guess who says it the most? Prey hybrids.” 

A light bulb suddenly clicks above his head. “Is that why you dislike them? They’re really not all like that--”

You interrupt him sharply, already knowing where he was going with this. “They’re not like that to you because you’re powerful and rich and you could do whatever you want, but they’re ruthless to me. They’ve always been. So yeah excuse me if I don’t care too much for your prey apologism. It’s pretty infuriating actually.”

“I really think you should--”

“What about you?” You ask pointedly, clearly wanting to change the subject. “I mean, I know that you’re a producer. I suppose this is what you’ve always wanted to be doing.” 

“Ah, yes.” He coughs, straightening in his seat as he reels back from the change of topic. “I’ve loved it since I was an angsty teen listening to hip hop and pretending like I’m so cool and gangsta.” 

The thought of little rich boy Chan swearing it up and down and acting like a thug brings an involuntary and sincere laugh out of you. It doesn’t bother Chan though. If anything, he looks content to have made you laugh. 

“Did you…” He begins after your laughter dies down, fiddling with the stem of his glass as he looks at you from under his lashes, “Have you ever listened to any of my tracks?”

“No.” You scoff, the word coming out automatically. I mean, why would you? It’s not like you like the guy. 

His face falls at your flippant answer. “Ah. Of course.” He says flatly, bringing his glass to his mouth. 

You feel a pang of guilt in your chest. Logically, you know you have no reason to feel bad. You two were never on the best of terms and you have no obligation to listen to his songs. And yet, as you look at his crestfallen face, the guilt still eats at you. 

“How about you show me some after dinner?” You find yourself suggesting and his face immediately brightens up. “Yeah! I mean… you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He interjects quickly, even though he clearly wants you to. 

“I want to.” You say firmly, and he smiles. ___________________________________

“I’m a nice guy who just has a lot of money?” You wheeze, cracking up and face flushed from the intoxication. You were somehow on Chan’s lap as the night progressed from him showing you his proudest works to his most regrettable ones.

“I know. I know. What was I thinking, right?” He laughs along with you despite his obvious embarrassment. 

You lean in close to his face, humming, "I think it's endearing." You kiss him. 

"You just like embarrassing me." He protests weakly, mouth opening against your lips. 

“Guilty.” You pull away to take his shirt off. Caressing his exposed muscles, you grin, “Hmm...yummy.” 

He bursts out laughing, “You like it?”

You shrug, “It’s not what I usually go for but I can get used to it.” 

He scoffs at that, and pulls your own shirt over your head. Tugging your bra over your breasts, he cups them in his hands and murmurs against your skin, “Well, I don’t need to get used to these.” before his mouth latches onto them. He sucks marks onto the sensitive flesh while his hands grope and knead your breasts. 

Looking up at you, he pushes your breasts together and laps his tongue over the nipples. Your arousal spikes as your gaze locks with his challenging one, and you start rocking yourself over his thigh. 

"Fuck that's hot." He mumbles, lightly tugging on your nipple with his teeth as he pulls away, making you moan out and your hips swivel down to push your core harder against his thigh. 

"Wait, wait," He pulls you to your feet, and you whine, protesting the loss. 

“Hush, baby girl.” He soothes, yanking your pants down your legs along with your underwear before he slips his hand between your legs to drag a finger up your slit, hissing when he feels your wetness. "That's what I want." He groans, pulling you back down on his thigh and using his grip on your hips to make you move over his thigh again. "Want you to ruin my pants with your cum, baby girl. Show me how much you need me."

"But I don't need you." You retort, though your hips don’t slow down. 

“Are you sure about that, my little fox?” He flexes his thigh under you, pushing it up more against your core. 

“Uh-huh.” You breathe, squeezing your eyes shut and throwing your head back. He takes the opportunity to get back to sucking on your breasts, which only makes your movements more frantic. 

“Come on, baby, tell me how good I am and I’ll help you.” He gasps between kisses. You tug on his hair, almost bouncing on his thigh now. “Why don’t you beg for it, pup?”

“Unbelievable.” He growls, pulling your head down. “You’re still so prideful even as you hump my leg like bitch.” 

Whatever stinging remark you would’ve hurled at him is muffled against his lips as he pulls you into a hungry kiss. You let him push his tongue into your mouth, taking him in and caressing it with your own before you put your hands to his chest and push him back. 

“You really want it? Want me to say how good you are for me? How wet you make me?"

He nods eagerly. 

“What a sweet pup.” You praise, “Striving so hard to please me. You’re doing so well, baby. You’ll make me cum real soon.” 

“Do it, please. I wanna see what you look like cumming up close.” 

“Keep tensing your leg like that and you’ll have me cumming in no time, puppy.” You bite your lip, small but needy moans flowing out of you. “What a good boy you are, so good.” 

“Please,” He whispers, his hands helping you move faster on his thigh. “Please, please.”

“So close---ah---oh god, so close...baby!” You gasp, grabbing onto him tightly as you finally cum, the orgasm surprisingly potent. He beams up at you, soaking up every little moan and shudder you let out. “So pretty.”

Gradually, your panting breaths turn into airy giggles as you get down from your high. You give his lips a peck before your hands fall between you and starts pulling his dick out from his sweatpants. You grin against his lips, feeling giddy. "I can’t believe I’m gonna let you fuck me in your studio. How cliche.”

His answering chuckles are punctuated with little moans as you glide your hand up and down his hard dick. “If it--ahh-- makes you feel any better, t-this is the--ahh, yeah like that, baby-- the first time I fuck anyone here.” 

You giggles increase in pitch, “You’re so full of shit, Chan.”

“I’m serious.” He whines, leaning up into your touch as you swipe your palm over the leaking head of his cock. “This is kind of a... sacred place for me."

“Yeah, right.” You roll your eyes, “It can’t be that special if you’re here with me now.”

“It is.” He insists with a pout, and continues casually as if it was nothing, “Because you’re special.” 

Your hand stills on his cock, your face turning to stone as you try and make sense of what he just said.  He's messing with you. He has to be.

Fear and uncertainty makes your stomach churn and your skin loses all color, your face getting cold and sweaty as the bile rises up in your throat. You thought you could handle this but you can’t. You’re too much of a coward to risk it and your sense of self-preservation rears its deformed head once again. 

Standing up abruptly, you croak through your suddenly dry mouth,  "I think I’m gonna go. I need to lie down" 

Chan gets up too, not letting you go. "Oh, is everything okay? Are you sick?". 

"I’m fine. I’m just..." You explain weakly, wriggling yourself out of his grip as quickly as you can in your intoxicated state. "I gotta go."

“Hey, wait!” Chan calls after you, but doesn’t try to stop you. You hear him curse out just before you get out of earshot.

____________________

You wake up with a huge headache and an even bigger feeling of dread. The events of last night coming back like a bullet shot through your chest, and you’re even more confused now with the hangover shattering any hope of a coherent thought forming in your head. 

You stumble out of bed and head to the door, resolving to get some water and some painkiller so you’d maybe start to feel like your head wasn’t likely to explode at any moment. But as you slide the door open, you hear bickering voices just outside in the living room.

"Chan, what the hell are you doing man?" You hear a familiar voice ask but your brain is too scattered to pinpoint the owner of it right now. Luckily, you don’t need to as Chan speaks up in reply, "It's fine, Jisung. It’s all under control."

"No, it's not. Isn’t that what you used to tell me? That no matter how much she makes it seem like she cares, she could flip the table on me at any moment and that I shouldn’t trust her. That’s what you said!”

You quickly pick up that they’re talking about you despite how much you don’t want to believe it. But that’s the kind of language that has always been directed at you, there is no mistaking it. Yet, against all reason, you hope it’s not true. Or at least, you hope Chan would deny it. 

He doesn’t, of course. They never do.

“I know what I said!” 

“And? Do you trust her now?” Jisung asks incredulously. 

“Of course not.” Chan vehemently denies, the resoluteness in his voice piercing straight through your heart. 

Of course not. Of course he doesn’t trust you. What a ridiculous question.  

“Jisung is right, Chan.” A new voice adds and you focus on the sound of it, trying not to break down just yet. “You’re letting her sleep under your roof, man, and you didn’t even think to tell us. Has she been messing with your head?”

They are talking about you like you are some kind of monster, some wild beast that would pounce on you the second you turned your back to it. You’d find it amusing coming from anyone else, but not from Chan, because for once in your life you wanted to believe that someone could see you as something other than what the world thought you were. You blame yourself for this one. 

“My head is fine.” Chan retorts angrily, letting out a forced sigh. “I’m just.... She was in trouble and I had to help her.” 

“Oh, you had to?” The new guy interjects mockingly, “Tell me, would she have helped you if you were in her position?”

“That’s irrelevant.” Chan protests. 

“No, it’s not. She would’ve let you suffer and laughed about it. She’s bad news, man.” 

“I think you guys are being a little harsh.” Another voice speaks up, deeper than the rest. “Maybe she’s not as bad as you think. I’m sure Chan has a good reason for trusting her.” 

“Yeah, I’m sure his dick does.” Jisung scoffs, “You know, I can’t believe you’d do this after preaching to me for hours about how I need to stay away from her and how stupid I am for letting her get to me. But hey, I’m just a stupid squirrel hybrid, right?” 

You’ve heard enough. Pushing the door the rest of the way open, you plaster a smile on your face and step into the living room, the four boys’ head snapping around to look at you. 

“Chan, you didn’t tell me we had guests.” You ponder theatrically, ignoring Chan’s dismayed exclamation of your name. "Oh hey, Sungie. I knew you'd be back for more." You wink at him and he immediately ducks behind the dark-haired stranger. 

“Please go back to your room.” Chan asks, equal measure pale and tense.

“But aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?” Your eyes flit over the three guys, stopping when you get to the blonde, freckled one. “Especially this one. What’s your name, pretty boy?”

The boy blushes at the unexpected flirtation but extends his hand out to you nonetheless. "I'm Felix." He greets you unexpectedly cheerily, and you’re even more surprised to find out that he’s the one with the deep voice.

But before you can take his hand, Chan steps between the two of you. 

"I need to talk to you." He grits, pulling you to your room and shutting the door behind you. “What are you doing?”

You shrug, feigning ignorance. “Saying hi to the guests?” 

“Now is not the time for your games.” Chan rakes his hand through his hair, stressed out, but you keep up your innocent facade and he sighs in defeat. “You know what? Just stay in your room until they leave and then we’ll talk.”

“No, we’ll talk now. Are you ashamed of me or something?" You wonder, cocking your head to the side. “I thought you said I was special to you? But apparently you say a lot of things.”

“Baby--”

“Why, Chan?” You finally let your facade drop, letting the full extent of your disappointment and sadness break through. “If you don’t want me here then why did you offer in the first place?”

“I do want you here. I just wasn’t planning on anyone finding out about this.”

You laugh in disdain, “How do you always know what to say, Chan?” 

“I’m sorry but you have to realize how bad this looks for me. I worked fucking hard to get to where I am today. There are so many people waiting for me to make the slightest mistake so they can watch me fall. And here you are… well, you don’t exactly have the best reputation. If people find out about us then--”

“Wow, you really are an angel, aren’t you?” You bite, venom lacing your every word.

He laughs cruelly. “Oh, yes, and the judgement comes out. You’re such a fucking hypocrite. You can judge everyone and treat them like shit, but as soon as someone does the same to you you’re suddenly the poor misunderstood victim that everyone bullies.”

You reel back at the harshness of his tone and words. He’s never spoken to you like that before, no matter how much he was upset at you. It was jarring. “Stop it.”  

“Why? It’s what you’re best at, darling.” He sneers, continuing to ruthlessly attack you. “You judged me before you even knew me and went about treating me like a feeble predator because that’s what you decided that I am. And now you want me to take responsibility for your actions and stand up for you when other people treat you the way you’ve been treating them? But here’s the thing, baby; maybe if you had actually been a decent person and treated others with respect, you wouldn’t be in this situation right now. Hell if you'd been a decent person, you wouldn't be having such a hard time anywhere, not with me, not with school, not--" 

"No, fuck you, chan. Don't you dare tell me this is all my fault. You know nothing about my life! I can't believe I actually--never mind.”

“No say it. You actually what? Liked me? Cared for me? Don’t make me laugh, fox. You don't give a shit about me. Every time I try to get close to you, you pull back like I make you sick. If it weren’t for me offering you a place to stay, you wouldn’t even be talking to me right now. You only care now because I have something to give you, but the second you’re done with me, you’ll throw me in the trash like you do everyone else. And I’m not going to sacrifice all that I’ve worked for to entertain you until you’re bored.”  

“You may be right. I may be as awful as you all say I am.” You smile, tears falling down your face. “But at least I'm honest with myself. You on the other hand? Under all your pretense, you're just as fucked up as I am. And one day, everyone will see you for how ugly you really are. ” 

_______________________________

A/N: sorry guys she (me) had to do it to you. leave your feedback uwu

#bangchan smut #chan smut #stray kids smut #bangchan angst #stray kids angst

[buckybabybaby]

Not So Bad

A/n: this is my one shot for @firefly-in-darkness's summer challenge. It's a couple of days late, I'm so sorry!! I wrote most of this in one go on Friday, which is the most I've written in months, so hopefully I can keep that up.

Proof read by way of a text-speech device.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/reader (gender neutral)

Word count: 1998

Warnings: none :)

Plot: stuck on a beach awaiting pick-up after a mission, you and Bucky have an interesting conversation. (Enemies to friends (to implied maybe lovers later))

Masterlist

*****

The steady lapping of the waves washing up onto the sand below is the only sound breaking the silence between you and Bucky. Seated at opposite ends of the last bench on the promenade, you are seriously considering typing up your notice the minute you get back home and walking away from The Avengers if this is the way you're going to be treated. Not only have you had to spend the last two weeks acting all lovey-dovey with Bucky for the sake of a mission, but now it's over you're stuck on a beach with him as you wait for a pick up. Because, apparently, a domestic flight back home would be too risky.

A light flickering in the distance catches your attention, and you raise your head to watch as the illuminations strung along the closest pier are extinguished one by one, until only the hazard warning at the very end remains lit, plunging the beach further into darkness.

“That'll be midnight then.”

It shouldn't, but Bucky's voice coming from beside you for the first time in hours makes you jump. Sitting up straighter, you attempt to hide your shock as you ask, “What will be?”

“The lights. The pier closes at midnight. I guess it's just you and me now.”

Looking away, you roll your eyes; this mission hasn't been easy for you, and you've had to hold yourself back from repeating that action many times during the last fortnight. Normally working with world-saving heroes is the dream job, but normally you're not sent out undercover with the formal Winter Soldier, forced to act like a honeymooning couple to infiltrate a people smuggling ring operating out of an exclusive Floridian beach resort. Though it wasn't hard to get people to talk and the mission was a success, you feel little joy in the outcome.

The reason is currently huffing next to you.

“Stop that!”

Bucky looks across at you, raising his eyebrows at your outburst. “Stop what?”

“Breathing so heavily!”

“Oh, you want me to stop breathing?”

“I wouldn't complain.”

“That'll be a first.”

Refusing to rise to the bait, you turn back to staring out to sea. How you survived pretending to be married to this man for fourteen long days, you may never know. Maybe you were an actor in another life, because every time you're alone with him it usually leads to petty squabbling, but you somehow managed to fool multiple people into believing that he was your 'amazing husband' who you were madly in love with.

To be fair to Bucky, he was very good at pretending too. The little glances and touches that made it convincing, the way he memorised your back story perfectly and never slipped up when questioned, how he succeeded to completely hide his disdain for you the whole time, it was all truly impressive. Even in private he didn't drop the act, on the slim chance of being caught out, leaving you flustered and confused.

Hence why you're sitting as far away as possible on this weather beaten bench.

As soon as the all clear had been given that you could go home, you couldn't get out of there fast enough, desperate to sleep in your own bed alone and not share one with the furnace in human form that is Bucky. Apart from the comment about the pier, he's been completely silent as you waited for the rescue boat to arrive, a jarring contrast to earlier in the day as you checked out of the hotel.

You don't like the way you miss his gentle hold and soft words. A fortnight living together has warped your emotions beyond recognition, and the return to normal life is most welcome.

From somewhere deep in the pile of luggage on the beach your phone buzzes twice, and you jump up to grab it, groaning in frustration at the message it contains.

Bucky senses the cause. “Delayed?”

“Hmm.”

“Cool.”

He says it so casually and it's like you snap. It's been ages since the two of you have been alone without the threat of eavesdroppers, all that pent up tension exploding in a mini rant.

“Well it might be cool for you, but excuse me for being annoyed. Not everyone wants to be stuck on a beach in the middle of the night.”

He shrugs, unaffected. “You kept saying you wanted to go to the beach.”

“Yeah, but not at midnight! And certainly not with you!”

“Wow, ouch.”

The genuine hurt on his face surprises you. He has always given as good as he gets, never seeming fazed by the verbal abuse you throw his way. “What, Bucky? Don't act like we get along. You hate me!”

If anything, the look of hurt deepens at your words. “Hate? I don't hate you.” He rises to stand with you on the sand. “Y/N? Is that what you think?”

You can't keep eye contact. “Why would I think anything else? We can't spend ten minutes together without arguing.”

“It's just friendly bickering.”

“Friendly?” Scoffing loudly, you walk back up to the bench, flopping down in a slouched position and resigning yourself to the wait. “If that's your idea of friendly I worry about your actual friends.”

Bucky's stood frozen where you left him but you pay him no mind. As the clouds clear above and the stars become visible, the temperature starts to drop. Shivering, you curl into a ball on the seat, too lazy to search through your suitcase for warmer clothes.

“Here.”

Blinking, you're met with Bucky's outstretched hand and the offering of his coat.

“What.” You say flatly.

“So you don't freeze,” He explains, shaking the jacket a little in your face.

You snort at his act of chivalry. “Oh, please. It's okay, the shows over. You don't need to pretend any more, we haven't got an audience here.”

He visibly holds his tongue. “Will you just take it? Stop being so stubborn.”

“Well, what about you? Don't you need it?”

“Super soldier, doll. We tend to run hotter.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” You mutter under your breath, not quietly enough.

“Oh, you did? Must have kept you nice and warm huh?”

The smirk you know so well is back and you fight your smile at the familiar tone in his voice.

“More like sleeping with a damn heater. You're lucky I didn't kick you out every night.”

“As if you could.”

“You know I could.”

He nods in agreement, remembering all the times you've beaten him in combat training. “Suppose you could've. But you didn't. That's something.”

Placing the jacket over your shoulder when you sit up, Bucky pulls it round to the front to fasten the top button, allowing you to do the rest yourself as he takes his place back on the bench. You are much closer now as you chose to sit in the middle of the seat, but you stay put as it feels rude to move away when he's been so nice.

The air is once again full of only the sounds of nature. It was true you had wanted to visit the beach during this mission, the long stretches of white sand calling your name from the hotels bedroom window, but you hadn't got the chance as the suspects you were tailing stayed around the bar and pool. As you breathe in the salty air, you decide the pain of the last fortnight was worth it for this moment, even in the middle of the night and without the longed for ice cream.

Glancing over to Bucky's relaxed form, you study his profile. Whilst you've seen it a lot recently, it still shocks you how defined his face is and the way his hair always seems to fall perfectly, no matter the time of day or weather. Even his early morning bed-hair could be classed as a tousled style others would take hours to achieve, and you can't believe you've never noticed how attractive he is. And it's not just his looks, if the way he acted his role is anything to go by. This mission has taught you one thing; who ever Bucky does end up marrying will be the luckiest person in the world.

You think of your previous conversation, still lost. Since your first meeting it's been the same, sharp tongues flinging insults at each other whenever you meet, and the others in the tower have learnt to avoid the two of you when you get going. Does Bucky really think that that's all been in jest?

Eventually, the curiosity gets the better of you. “Do you really not hate me?”

He takes a few seconds to reply, not looking at you as he says quietly, “No, of course not.”

“Okay.” You don't bring up your regular fights as evidence to the contrary, instead asking, “And you actually enjoy my company?”

“Why do you think I volunteered for this?”

“Volun-what?” That really wasn't what you expected when you started on these questions. You stare at him wide-eyed with disbelief, sure you've misunderstood. “I thought we were assigned? I definitely didn't choose to be here.”

“You were assigned. They thought you'd blend in well with the crowds here, they just needed someone to be your husband and... Here we are.”

“Huh.” You blow out a breath, overwhelmed.

“I thought it would be a way to spend time together without the usual spats.”

“That's an extreme way to spend time with someone.”

He sighs. “I know.”

“But why? With me?”

“'Cause you're fun to be with?”

“Are you telling me or asking?”

“Telling. I want to be better, nicer to you, but any time we're together, you get all defensive, and I can't help returning the sentiment.”

“So, it's my fault?”

“That's not-” He cuts himself off, stopping the argument before it can begin. “I'm sorry.”

“No, I'm sorry.” You smile at him for the first time. “You're going to have to give me a while to get used to this. I'm finding it kinda hard to believe you don't actually hate my guts.”

His own smile drops. “I'm so sorry.” Dragging a hand through his hair, he gazes at you intensely. “This is... I honestly had no idea you thought our arguments were serious. I thought-” He swallows, a self conscious grin tugging at his mouth. “Is it awful that I thought we were flirting?”

Your cheeks heat up, but you shake your head to reassure him. Thinking back, you can see why he believed that. There is a fine line between hate and love, and it makes sense now why you sought him out so often, why you gravitated to him even when it would be so easy to avoid contact, and why, if you're being honest with yourself, you didn't despise the last two weeks at all.

“So, where do we go from here?”

“First, we go home.” He gestures to the vessel you hadn't noticed bobbing in the surf, waving at the captain as the speed boat is launched to retrieve you and your belongings. “And then? Whatever you want.”

“Can we start just being proper friends?”

He reaches for your hand to help you up. “I'd like that.”

Stretching, you follow him across the beach in the gloom. Picking up your holdall and rucksack on the way, you dump them into the bottom of the boat and climb in, sitting close together on the narrow bench. The crew shout at each other over the engines roar once you're both safely on the yacht, but you tune them out, choosing to stay on deck and admire the lights along the coast. Bucky joins you after you tire of his hesitation and tug him down into the seat to you. 

As the boat starts the journey back north he glances at you through the spray of salt water, the small smile you share feels so much bigger, and your letter of resignation couldn't be further from your mind.

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky imagine #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes fanfiction #buckybabybaby

[k7l4d4]

Midnight Striga: Fairy Tail/Owl House Cross Fic Episode 6 Part 4

Hello, and let me once again introduce you to the whimsical world of Midnight Striga! Everybody Clap Your Hands!!

As Luz glanced back between Amity’s pale face, and Willow’s nearly bursting rage, the pieces started coming together. With widened eyes, she said, “Wow. She didn’t remember you at all? That is cold.” She shook her head, her cautious respect for the ambitious woman having taken a hit. She bit her lip. “Are you two going to be okay?” She hesitantly asked, her and Gus looking concerned at the reactions of the two girls.

“I-!” Willow started, before pausing, the anger draining out of her face. “I’ll be fine. They aren’t worth the effort.” She said, sounding exhausted and drained. She sighed, smoothing out her dress. “Let’s just get this night over with.”

“Indeed, let’s.” Amity stated, face regaining some hints of color. With that awkward moment finally passing, the group headed into what they assumed was the room Amity had staked out to host the Moonlight Conjuring in. Before too long, the rest of the guests had started coming in: Amelia, Cat, Selena, Bo, and Skara. There weren't many, but they came all the same.

The girls froze upon seeing Luz, Amelia audibly gulping at the sight of her. The group frantically glanced back and forth between Luz in front of them, and Skara, situated at the back. Luz resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing it wouldn’t help any. She sighed, “Okay, look, I’m not going to assume I know why you’re all freaked out over me being here, though I do have a guess. I’m the security you were promised, and as long as I’m here, I’ll keep you all safe. Okay?” She finished, a note of hesitance in her voice.

“During the attack, someone I cared about was killed.”

The group turned towards Skara, staring straight at Luz, a blank, empty look in her eyes. Bo reached out, only for her arm to be gently pushed away. She stepped forward. “His name was Batthew. He wasn’t the smartest guy in the world, and he always went overboard. And now he’s dead.” Her voice sounded hollow, like she had no hope, no joy inside of her at all.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Luz said softly. If Skara was going to blame her for her friend’s death, she wouldn’t fight it.

Skara lightly shook her head. “Don’t be, it wasn’t your fault those maniacs killed him.” She stated, getting bewildered looks from all. Tears started to prick at the corners of Skara’s eyes. “All I want to say is thank you for avenging him. Even if you didn’t fight his killer, you helped stop those sickos, and prevented any more people from feeling the hurt I felt.”

Luz blinked, feeling some measure of relief that she didn’t hate her. That relief quickly shifted to guilt when she reminded herself Skara was grateful for stopping the people who had killed her crush/boyfriend. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve seen the kind of things the Black Dogs get up to when allowed to rampage.” She shuddered at the mental image. “I was more than glad to stop them.” She said gravely. She and Skara shared a solemn nod at her words.

With that, the tension seemed to bleed out of the room. Amity’s friends were still noticeably nervous around Luz, but it wasn’t anything too bad, and a few, such as Bo, even made an active effort to talk and interact with her.

“No way! Humans don’t have healing magic!?” Bo exclaimed, eyes wide with shock.

“Well, sorta,” Luz said sheepishly, scratching her head in embarrassment. “Back in the old days, it was a pretty common tactic of warring groups to attack enemy healers to deprive the opposition of their skills, as well as destroying information sources when capturing them wasn’t an option. Because of that, a lot of forms of magic and magical arts were all but lost, including Healing.” She finished, a soft frown on her face.

“Oh my Titan, that must be horrible!” Bo said, heart aching in sympathy of those whose lives were lost because they didn’t have access to healing magic.

“Yeah, I was honestly a little shocked when I learned that the Isles had healing magic.” Luz chuckled, arms crossed over her chest. “Still, efforts have been made to bring back Healing Magic, with assistance from those practitioners still alive in the world. Last I heard, Fiore, my home country, had actually established a school exclusively for the study and research of Healing Magic!”

“Well that’s a relief,” Bo sighed. “It might’ve come late, but at least it’s there now, and people can go get treatment when they need it, right?” She inquired.

“Yeah.” Luz said, cracking a sad grin. “Just wish it had come a little sooner.” She muttered.

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing!”

Willow and Amelia were currently having a discussion about Plants. By all accounts, Willow was giving Amelia some pointers for upcoming assignments, particularly those dealing with more aggressive breeds of plants. Amelia frantically scribbled down the tips and suggestions Willow offered.

“Good, good, I can work with this!” Amelia excitedly exclaimed, relief and joy shining in her eyes. She turned to Willow, an embarrassed smile on her face. “You are seriously amazing at this!”

“It’s just some stuff I’ve pieced together in my free time.” Willow shrugged noncommittally. “I’m happy to share it if people think they need it, I just don’t see anything really special about it.”

Amelia gave a rueful grin, shaking her head. “And that’s why it’s so incredible! You figured all this stuff out on your own, when it took actual, fully-trained adults years to discover this stuff!” She gave Willow a sad smile. “You really are amazing.”

Willow averted her eyes, uncomfortable. Amelia may not have been as… aggressive as Boscha was at even her best, but she was still part of the group that made her school life difficult. But… Willow couldn’t find it in her to stay mad at the girl. She certainly didn’t like her, but she didn’t dislike her either. “Thanks, I guess?” She ultimately mumbled out.

Amelia briefly searched Willow’s face in confusion, before sighing in realization. “Look, Willow? About the whole ‘Half-a-Witch’ thing…” She started, proceeding carefully at Willow’s sharp look.

“Yeah?” Willow drawled, hackles raised.

Amelia bit her lip slightly, before continuing. “I’m sorry. It was a seriously lame thing to do, and to let Boscha and Amity get away with. Even if we weren’t friends, we could’ve done something to try and make things easier for you, but we just went along with it because it was easier.” She turned clear eyes towards Willow’s suspicious gaze. “It may not mean much now, but I will try and make things up to you. If that’s okay with you?” She gave a hopeful smile.

Willow mulled it over… but she didn’t feel any suspicions rousing at Amelia’s words. Sighing, she finally said, “I’m willing to give you a chance. I really don’t know how to feel about you and the others here.” She glanced over at Luz and Bo. “I honestly only came because my parents insisted, and because Gus and Luz were going to be here. But, if you really are serious about being sorry,” She gave a hesitant grin. “I’m willing to let bygones be bygones.” The two shared a nervous laugh. A thought came to Willow. “Hey, do you know why Boscha isn’t here?” She asked.

Amelia gave a snort. “Amity didn’t invite her, and considering how she’s been acting, that’s probably for the best.” She explained, getting a look of mixed confusion and concern from Willow. She elaborated, “Boscha basically screamed her head off at Skara and sent her into tears after she burned her, and she’s been avoiding everyone ever since. And between her and Skara, every one of us chose to stick by Skara.” She finished. Willow pondered the topic. As much as Boscha had caused her grief and some heartache over the years, she didn’t wish that kind of loneliness on anyone. She’d probably talk about it with Luz later.

Gus was surprisingly hitting it off rather well with Cat and Skara. Cat had basically volunteered to be Skara’s backup nurse for when Bo wasn’t around or when Bo just needed to take a break for herself. Skara frankly thought Gus was hilarious, even if she wasn’t really in a laughing mood, as his energy and nervousness gave him a unique air to him.

“-And so yeah, Bo’s a member of the HAS!” Gus finished explaining, getting a look of shared amusement from his conversation partners. “I mean, I guess with everything that’s happened, our group and the Human Roleplay Society is gonna get a lot of dirty looks after the attack.” He concluded, a look of bashfulness and sadness filling his features.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to join the HAS to send a message.” Skara remarked, getting an incredulous look from Gus, and a snort of amusement from Cat. “I’m serious! You shouldn’t be getting harassed because of what someone else did. Plus,” She gave a nervous smile, “It’ll let me hang out with Bo more often.”

“Well, I’m never one to turn away new members!” Gus excitedly cheered.

“I’ll bet.” Cat remarked sardonically, giving a loose shrug.

Unbeknownst to any of the guests, Amity had slipped away, stalking through her home on the search for her parents. The scowl on her face would’ve sent even the toughest of the Isles’ residents backpedalling. She roughly shoved her way past the assorted Abomination servants, utterly unwilling to deal with even the slightest of delays. Eventually, she made it to her father’s workshop, him STILL tinkering over his pet project, her mother calmly sipping her tea next to him while going over some of the paperwork from the family business. “Mother, Father.” She said with tightly controlled politeness.

“Ah, Mittens! How is the party going?” Her mother cordially asked, while her father gave a grunt of acknowledgement as to her presence. Odalia stood up, moving closer, pulling Amity to her side. “I must say, I am most impressed, sweety! Cultivating new relationships for the future with exceptional individuals, a stroke of brilliance!” She said, a proud smile across her face.

“Thank you.” Amity bit out, before continuing, “But what I actually came to talk to you about is-”

“MITTENS!!” Emira’s voice rang out, accompanied by frantic pounding. “GET ME AND ED OUT OF HERE!!!”

Amity turned a confused glance towards Odalia. “Emira was rather adamant about supervising your Conjuring, and when I tried to put my foot down, she… objected, rather aggressively. I had to seal her and Edric in the panic room so they wouldn’t get up to any mischief.” Her mother sheepishly explained, looking both pleased and annoyed at the ferocity her eldest daughter had displayed.

“I can understand locking up Emira,” Amity stated, quirking an eyebrow. “But why Edric?”

“Mittens, we both know he would free her in a heartbeat, if for no other reason than because it is Emira.” Odalia drolly stated, causing a brief moment of solidarity to pass between the two. Yes, they were both very familiar with Edric’s peculiarities and the sheer depth of his loyalty to his twin. “Now, what is it you wished to speak with me about, Mittens?” Odalia finally asked, getting back on track.

Amity breathed in deep, forcibly holding back her anger. “When you spoke with Willow, you implied that you only knew her through our confrontation at school, would that be accurate?” She tersely asked, getting a look of baffled surprise from Odalia, and a raised brow from Alador.

“Well, yes! Where else would I know her from?” Odalia rhetorically asked, a note of borderline condescension coloring her voice.

“Hmm… I must say, that name does seem familiar, but I can’t recall from where.” Alador muttered.

Amity’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Here’s a hint. My fifth birthday.”

“What does that have to do with anything!?” Odalia demanded in bewilderment, even as Alador mulled the hint over.

Alador snapped his fingers in realization. “Ah yes! Now I remember! Willow was the name of one of Amity’s playmates when she was little. When we noticed that she wasn’t developing as fast as her peers, we had Amity sever ties at her… fifth… birthday- oh.” He said, his usual tired expression widening into pale realization, even as Odalia’s own face shifted into horrified realization as the implications sunk in.

“Yes, oh.” Amity echoed, a look of bitter amusement on her face. She turned on her heel. “That was all the confirmation I needed. I believe that I will spend the remainder of the evening seeing to my guests. Mother, father.” And with that, she power-walked away, ignoring her mother’s cries to come back, to talk things over, as if she would. Amity ripped her necklace off, shoving it into her pocket, in no mood to hear her mother’s voice in her head tonight. Yet another blotch had appeared in her mental image of her parents. It was honestly mostly a black smear at this point anyway.

Eda glanced out at the sky, seeing that the Night Market was about to open, if the encroaching darkness was a solid indicator. She called over her shoulder, “Come on, King! We’ve got a shady seller to see about some potions!”

“Weh! I’m ready to go!” King cried, running up to her side, putting on a look of fierce (adorable) determination. She cracked a smirk at that. The two headed out, giving Hooty permission to use any and all means to defend the house in their absence, prompting a delighted shout of excitement from the friendly, if annoying, House Demon. Neither noticed, the heavy figure moving through the branches of the trees, stalking them on their approach to town, nor its bloodthirsty grin.

Luz glanced up from her discussion with Skara at Amity’s arrival to the room. “Hey Blight!” She cheerfully called out, only for her expression to shift into concern at Amity’s gloomy demeanor. “Something wrong?”

Amity sighed, waving off her concern. “It’s nothing, just an unpleasant talk with my parents.”

“Oh no, are they kicking us out!?” Gus exclaimed, a look of panicked despair crossing his face. He turned to Willow, clinging to her dress. “This is it! The moment of hopelessness as our dreams are dashed to pieces! Willow my friend, it was fun while it lasted!” He cried, sobbing into her dress, much to Willow’s exhaustion.

“What!?” Amity asked, baffled, before shaking it off. “No, you’re not getting kicked out, I just had something unpleasant confirmed. Please, you’re free to stay.” She said, bemused at the cheer of relief Gus let out, even as Luz and Willow shook their heads in amusement at his antics.

“Well, I guess it’s about time for me to start doing the job you recruited me for.” Luz said with a joking tone, heading for the door. She flicked a finger gun towards the group. “Save me some snacks for when I get back, okay?”

“Will do!” Willow called back.

Snorting in amusement, Luz made her way to the front door, planning on crawling up to the top of the roof for a vantage point against any attackers. Plus, she thought standing on a roof by moonlight was badass. Chuckling to herself at her inner geek rearing its head, Luz pulled the door open, only to go still at what she saw. Seven humans, all standing outside the door, staring her down. However, what really drew her gaze was the figure in the center, someone she hadn’t seen in quite some time. “Neon!?” Luz exclaimed in shock.

“LuLu!” The girl exclaimed, jumping towards Luz in a flying hug. The blue-haired girl eagerly buried her face into Luz’s side, a look of childish excitement covering her face. “Oh I just knew it was you!!” She pulled back, her face puffing out in a pout. “And here you are, having a fun-time slumber party without me!” She whined, flailing her arms. Luz felt her face go deadpan, even as the others, guards she figured, sighed in exhaustion at the antics of their charge. Yup, this was definitely Neon. Neon crossed her arms, a look of defiance covering her, admittedly adorable, features. “And since I’m here, I’m gonna be joining this party, whether you like it or not!”

“There is absolutely no way I’m talking you out of this, is there?” Luz droned, already resigned to the excitable girl’s antics.

“Nope!”

Amity busied herself with the setup for the Conjuring, intently ignoring the glances the others sent her way. She wasn’t distracting herself from the confirmation that, yes, her parents were callous enough to completely disregard one of the most bitter memories in her life, not in the slightest.

“Hey, guys?” Luz’s voice called out, drawing the attention of the group to the door. “We might have a situation!” Everyone was instantly on guard; Bo, Cat, and Amelia were nervous, seriously wondering if they were in danger, while Skara and Gus grew nervous but steeled themselves, even as Willow and Amity braced themselves for an attack. “Now, don’t be alarmed, but we’ve got some… surprise guests is all!”

With that said, Luz walked into the room. Everyone instantly took note of the girl tightly clinging to Luz’s side, a thin girl, roughly around their age, with messy blue hair held up in a ponytail by a yellow ribbon, a long-sleeved purple striped shirt under a vest, a long skirt going to her calves. She was beautiful, with delicate features that screamed innocence and gentleness, with brilliant blue eyes shining outward. Following behind them were six other humans, all varying in appearance, the only commonality being the immaculate black suits they wore.

“Um, Luz?” Willow tentatively asked. “Who’s this?” She asked, gesturing to the girl tightly hugging Luz’s side.

“Ugh, everyone, this is Neon Nostrade. She’s a friend of mine from the Human Realm. Neon, these are my friends and acquaintances from the Demon Realm.” Luz intoned, introducing the girl to the group and vice versa.

“Oooh!! It’s so amazing to meet you all! I am Neon, heiress of the Nostrade family, and these are my guards!” She cheerfully announced, wildly gesturing to the group behind her. “Basho,” She pointed to the tallest, a muscular man with a cleft chin, pompadour, mustache and sideburns, who gave a friendly wave, “Piper,” a round, short figure with prominently pointed front teeth, long hair with a significant bald spot on top who gave a small nod, “Baise,” a beautiful woman whose hair was done up in an intricate braided top-knot offered a short wave, “Tocino,” A gangly fellow with bright orange hair offered a smile, “Squala,” a darker skinned man with tightly pinned back hair gave a two-fingered salute, “and Kurapika!” The last guard, a handsome young man with rich blond hair, gave a bow, a polite smile on his face. Neon turned a sweet grin to the group. “They keep me safe from meanies who wanna steal my predictions!”

The assembled witches numbly waved in greeting. They all turned to Luz, who groaned.

“Look, I have no idea how they got here, but I can vouch for Neon, and I know her dad screens her guards to an insane degree. They won’t be a risk to us.” She stated, nodding to the group.

“Oh LuLu, you say the nicest things!” Neon cheered, eagerly hugging Luz’s arm.

“LuLu?” Amity questioned.

“Uh huh, LuLu!” Neon eagerly agreed. “LuLu was my very first bodyguard! Originally, papa kept me tucked away so my future husband would be the first person outside the family to see me!” The Witches paled. “But then I figured out fun magic, and papa made a bunch more money than usual, and he said I wasn’t gonna have a husband anymore, and he had his business buddies give him LuLu to protect me!” She cheerfully explained. “After that, LuLu took me into town a bunch and I had lots of fun! I got to shop for my own clothes, and didn’t have to wear dolly dresses anymore, and got to eat yummy food that wasn’t just veggies and water, and I even met a nice man who was getting money for his sick momma’s medicine and I gave him a bunch of money, but LuLu took him into an Alley and gave him her money and got mine back!” She just kept rambling away, even as her guards slumped over in exhausted resignation, a matching expression on Luz’s face.

“Hey, Neon? We’ve got some snacks set up, if you want any.” Luz said, pointing to the tray of goodies.

“Ooh! Yummy!” Neon cheered, rushing for the treats, eagerly stuffing them into her mouth.

The blond guard, Kurapika, spoke up. “Please excuse the Young Miss. She means well, but… she doesn’t have the most experience with the real world, I’m afraid.” He formally stated, giving a deep bow to the Witches. As he pulled up, he added, “I believe it is accurate of me to say that we are very grateful for you allowing us in. When the Young Miss overheard that her friend,” he gestured to Luz, who was currently staring at a wall, dead to the world, “was going to be attending a gathering at night with a group of youths, she insisted we come.” He sighed.

“By all means, this is no trouble.” Amity stated diplomatically, compartmentalizing the barrage of information Neon had blurted out, focusing on the gentlemen before her. Noticing the nervousness of the others, she asked, “Forgive me, but our Isles have recently been attacked by a group known as Oroboros, and everyone is on edge when it comes to humans, and while I mean no offense, I have to ask, do you have any association with them?”

The guards gained matching looks of dark loathing. “No, we do not.” Kurapika stated, his voice a mask of tightly controlled cool politeness. He relaxed slightly as he explained, “We were hired to guard Miss Neon so as to keep her predictive magic from being taken, along with her. While her father is, unfortunately, a high-ranking financier for Oroboros, we fortunately exist outside of that nest of darkness’ command structure.”

Amity nodded, filing away the information. “While I’m not sure how much you can actually say, would you care to explain how you all got to the Isles?”

As Kurapika opened his mouth to reply, he was cut off by Neon’s shout. “We passed through a big gate filled with water, and then Zoop! We were on the Isles!” She cheerfully called over, before resuming stuffing her face. Her guards just sighed, nodding at her words.

“What Miss Neon says is true.” Kurapika stated with a rueful grin. “While we don’t know its precise nature, we entered this Realm through the use of a Water Magic based portal. It was… quite the experience.” He finished, a look of embarrassment crossing his features at some memory.

“Thank you.” Amity said, moving over to Luz, who was still staring a whole into the wall. She pulled in close, harshly whispering into her ear. “That girl mentioned she had been kept in seclusion until her marriage. How old was she to be during it?”

“Thirteen.” Luz growled out. “The fact creep was one of the few people I’ve killed and not regretted, at least not outside the abstract regret of killing at all. I honestly would’ve preferred to expose the corrupt monster, but I had to settle for putting him out of people’s misery.” She turned a burning glare towards Amity. “And Neon’s dad is even worse.”

#the owl house #fairy tail #owl house au #fairy tail au #owl house crossover #fairy tail crossover #luz noceda #willow park #amity blight #gus porter #odalia blight #alador blight #emira blight #edric blight #amelia the owl house #cat the owl house #selene the owl house #skara the owl house #bo the owl house #neon nostrade #kurapika #magic #king the owl house #eda clawthorne

[thegoodgayshit]

Luz’s mother really doesn’t want to send Luz to camp. She knows once she leaves, there is no going back. But Luz has a knack for getting into trouble, and one day she stumbles into the same type of people her mother would have preferred she avoided. After helping Luz dissolve her high school bully into dust, Eda and Lilith know right away that this kid is just like them - a child of the gods. So Luz hops on a Pegasus and heads to Camp Half-blood, where she embarks on a dangerous quest that makes her both friends and enemies... and she might even save Olympus along the way.

Chapter 2: I Meet the Camp's Talking Hellhound

The introduction to the camp was pretty brief. Eda more or less just waved nonchalantly with her hand to the gathering crowd.

“Luz, these are the other campers. Other campers, Luz.”

A chorus of hellos rang throughout the clearing, and Luz slowly began to relax. A lot of the campers looked like kids like her: the youngest being six or seven and the oldest being around college age. There was a huge diversity of campers, kids of all different races and ethnicities, and most of them sporting an orange shirt that Luz could now read: “Camp Half-Blood, Long Island Sound”.

“Alright, with introductions out of the way, all of you should be heading back to your activities for the day.” Eda drawled, and the crowd began to disperse. There was a handful of campers who stuck around though.

There was a girl who looked about her age with black curly hair and green eyes, and Luz thought that she looked like the friendliest person she’d ever seen. She carried a bronze Spartan kopis on her belt, and in her left hand, she was holding a pot that was growing a golden plant unlike any Luz had ever seen before.

Next to her was a skinny boy with dark brown skin and dark eyes, who was both shorter and younger than Luz herself. His hair was styled into a fashionable fade, and if Luz had to guess he was maybe twelve. He was wearing a bronze chest plate that was clearly a size too big, but despite how uncomfortable it must have been he was smiling brightly.

“Eda, I helped the naiad in the forest like you asked.” The girl said, her voice mellow and soft. “It turns out she was still upset about the visiting party ponies”.

“A centaur from the Florida chapter trampled under her tree,” the boy added. “Willow fixed up the roots super-fast!”

Eda nodded at the pair, “thanks, kids. I swear to Zeus, Fennel has some knack for holding grudges… the party ponies left three weeks ago.”

“Eda?” The noise came from a second camper, who had been standing awkwardly off to the side. She was also around Luz’s age but maybe half an inch taller. She had dyed green hair pulled half back that exposed brown roots at the top of her head, and Luz found herself looking curiously at her eyes. At first, she thought they were brown, but then she realized they were, in fact, gold like Eda’s. The girl had her arms crossed, and she was standing a noticeable distance from the other two campers. The pair shared a look with one another that Luz understood immediately, and she felt that feeling of discomfort beginning to prick at her belly, the one she often felt on the first day of a new school. Luz immediately pegged this girl as the bully type.

Eda hummed, looking up at the girl like she had just noticed she was standing there. Luz felt a small grin starting to poke at the corners of her mouth as the girl’s face began to tint red, clearly embarrassed. The girl caught Luz’s expression and her face darkened, giving Luz a glare. Luz cut the smile right away. Despite the fact that she didn’t seem to be carrying a weapon, Luz thought this girl would have no hesitation gutting her with her bare hands. If looks could kill…

“Where’s Lilith? She told me she’d train me tonight when you got back.” The girl said, turning back to Eda with an airy and impartial look.

“She’s still at Olympus,” Eda said with a shrug. “We found Luz here in Manhattan so Lily and I decided I should take her to camp. She should be meeting with the council right now.”

“Oh…” The girl said, clearly not expecting that answer.

“Anyways, since I’m back I might as well head to my cooking class,” Eda shrugged, gesturing to the three other campers. “Show Luz around camp, will you? When you’re done introduce her to Cabin Eleven.”

Eda didn’t wait for them to respond. She just turned tail and walked away, leaving Luz and the other three campers standing there a little awkwardly. Luz smiled nervously at the three of them, and the girl scoffed turning on her heel.

“She doesn’t need three tour guides. You can show her around. I have better things to do.”

As the girl walked away, Luz felt like she had been slapped. “So much for a warm welcome…”

“Ignore her,” the girl said with a shrug, shifting the pot in her hand. “Amity is just like that.”

The boy smiled and extended his hand, and Luz took it with a nervous smile. “I’m Gus from Cabin Six.”

The girl smiled brightly at her, waving with the free hand that wasn’t around the pot. “I’m Willow, from Cabin Four. Eda said your name was Luz, right?”

“Yeah, Luz Noceda,” she said, blinking at the way they introduced themselves. “From Cabin… I don’t really know what happening”.

Thank God (or… I guess… gods?) the pair laughed. Luz felt herself relax a little. She already found herself liking Willow and Gus, and she wondered if Eda had been right when she said that everybody here was a little weird.

“Don’t worry, it can be overwhelming at first, but you’ll get the hang of it,” Willow encouraged with a smile.

“Come on, we’ll show you around!” Gus said excitedly, and Luz grinning, following after them as they turned around and started to walk.

They showed Luz the archery range, and the rock climbing wall, (Luz winced thinking about how her Mami would kill her if she ever tried that, she watched another camper scrape past the lava with the hairs singed off her arms) the canoe lake, and the pavilion where Willow said everybody met for dinner. Then they guided Luz through all the cabins if they could even be called that.

“Why do they all look so different?” Luz gasped, taking in the arrangement of colors and designs that varied from cabin to cabin. Cabin Four, which Luz remembered Willow was in, was covered in flowers and tomato plants growing up the walls. It had a roof made of real grass. As they passed, Willow waved to a girl with blonde hair standing on the porch watering wildflowers.

“Each cabin represents a patron god,” Willow explained. “You get sorted based on who your godly parent is.”

Luz hummed thoughtfully, “ok I get it. So Cabin Four…”

“My mom is Demeter,” Willow said. “Goddess of the harvest”.

“Well… technically-” Gus was about to speak, but when he caught Willow’s look, he swallowed his words and quickly changed the subject.  

“And I’m Cabin Six!” He said quickly, gesturing to a different Cabin that was grey with white curtains. There was an owl design hanging over the door. “My mom is Athena, the goddess of wisdom.”

Luz noticed the awkward tension between Willow and Gus, but she was so impressed by what she just heard she let it slide.

“Wow, so you must be pretty smart then,” Luz said, and Gus’ cheeks pinked.

“I mean, not really…”

“He’s being modest,” Willow deadpanned, rolling her eyes affectionately at the younger boy. “He skipped three grades.”

“Oh wow! Good for you, Gus,” Luz said, and she meant every word. Considering Luz had barely managed to pass most of her classes, and considered a C a job well done? That really impressed her.

“So, what about you Luz?” Gus asked, now so embarrassed he had to change the subject again. “Is your godly parent your mom or dad?”

“My dad,” Luz said, humming as she looked around at all the different cabins. “I wonder which god he is?”

“Well, let’s see what kind of skills you might have!” Gus said excitedly, and the trio began to compare the different cabins to try and narrow down the results.

She saw some campers by the basketball court shooting baskets, and some of them were crazy shots too. Willow had said they were from Cabin Seven, Apollo. From what Luz remembered he was the god of music and poetry. Luz didn’t have a musical bone in her body, so she could cross that one off the list. She wondered if maybe Zeus was her dad, like Eda and Lilith, but then Willow gently explained to her that their cabin was pretty exclusive. She was a terrible swimmer and hated the water, so she was definitely not a Poseidon kid. She got pretty angry a lot, but she didn’t think that was because she was a child of Ares. Luz was pretty sure she was just frustrated with her situation at school. Maybe she belonged in the wing of the minor gods. She could see her mom falling for one of those guys… someone more lowkey. But her mom had always told her that her father was a very successful businessman… that didn’t sound lowkey.

Luz was going to raise this concern to her new friends when she noticed something she had ignored earlier. Around both Gus and Willow’s neck was a brown leather necklace, with beads strung around it. “Cool necklaces,” Luz comments, pointing to them. “Did you buy them together?”

Willow chuckled, reaching under her orange shirt to give Luz a closer look. “Nope, everybody at camp gets one when they’ve stayed for at least one summer. A different cabin every year designs the beads based on an event or memory the camp has and gives them to each camper at the end of August. I have four beads for four summers.”

Gus reaches down to show Luz his own necklace. “And I have three beads for three summers!”

Luz awed over the different designs, the art on them was so intricate and beautiful Luz couldn’t help but ask about the shared designs, especially since one of them had what looked like a hot air balloon on fire.

“Oh, that was a crazy summer,” Gus said with a grin, launching into the story.

The trio talked for so long, that soon the warning bell rang for dinner. Willow jumped up like she’d been burned.

“Oh shoot! We were supposed to introduce you to Cabin Eleven. We can go there now quickly.”

“Cabin Eleven?” Luz said with a raised brow, but she couldn’t say much else as Willow grabbed her arm and practically dragged her across the U shaped wing of cabins. Eventually, they parked her right outside one of the cabin doors, and there was a girl standing outside the porch. She had tied back brown hair and a single fishhook earring. She looked a little older than Luz, maybe sixteen. Luz immediately liked her, she looked pretty laid back and cool.

“Hi, Viney!” Gus grinned, and the girl shot him a friendly smile.

“Hey, guys! Eda told me there was a new camper, so I decided to wait around here until she showed up.”

“Sorry we’re so late, I know you need to get your cabin to dinner,” Willow said apologetically, and Viney just shrugged her shoulders.

“We’re always late. It’s no problem.” She turned to Luz, who for the first time all day didn’t feel anxious around someone new. “You must be Luz. Welcome to Cabin Eleven! I’m Viney. Hopefully, you’ll be comfortable here. All new campers stay with us until they get claimed.”

Luz had a couple of follow up questions to that, but she didn’t really have time to ask them, because Willow and Gus were now waving goodbye.

“We’ll see you later, Luz. Let us know if you need anything!” Willow said, and Luz nodded to them before they headed out, likely back to their cabins.

“If you’re looking to make friends, they’re a good start,” Viney said to Luz with a smile. “Almost everybody at camp likes Willow and Gus.”

“Not everybody though,” Luz said with a frown, remembering that other girl, Amity.

Viney shrugged, “you win some and lose some. Now come on, let me introduce you to the rest of the cabin.”

The cabin itself looked pretty unassuming from the outside. It was a light brown, it looked like it had recently been repainted, and there was a caduceus over the door. Inside, there were about a dozen bunk beds, each with a simple brown chest at the end of it. Some of the bunks were decorated with posters or pictures, but a lot of them kept a simple kind of design. Luz already liked it in here, it was homey, but not busy enough for her ADHD brain to hyper-focus on any one thing. Luz counted about eighteen campers in total, which meant there was a good number of empty beds. The campers all turned to look as Viney and Luz walked in.

“Alright Cabin Eleven,” she called to them. “This is Luz, our new undetermined camper. Play nice. We’re leaving for dinner in five minutes, so be ready.”

Luz waved awkwardly, but thankfully most of the cabin seemed just as friendly as Gus and Willow.

“Hey Luz, you can have this bed right here,” one of the boys said, gesturing to the bunk above the one he was sitting on. The boy had brown hair and a pointed nose, and he fidgeted with his hands. It didn’t bother Luz. She could relate to that.

She grinned at the nice gesture, hoping it revealed just how relieved she was. “Thanks.”

Luz walks over to the bunk and takes off her backpack, and is about to throw it on the bed when the boy shakes his head quickly.

“Don’t leave that there, it’s a rookie mistake,” he says, and Luz eyes him uncertainly.

The boy sighs and then gives her a crooked smile. “Our dad, Hermes, is the god of merchants and travelers… but also thieves. If you have anything valuable, leave it in the chest. We can share it.”

Luz understands immediately. Opening her backpack, she pulls out her sketchbook and a pack of drawing pencils, her phone charger, and her earbuds. Her phone and wallet with her MetroCard and the remaining change she has are also there, so she leaves those things in the chest and slings her backpack over the edge of the top bunk. The boy shuts it when she’s done, and tells Luz the code.

“Thanks for the warning,” Luz whispers softly, and the boy shrugs.

“Don’t mention it. We were all new once. I’m Jerbo, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Luz.”

Viney stands from the front entrance of the cabin and holds up her hand to get everyone’s attention. “Cabin Eleven! Fall in!”

The cabin falls into rank by order of seniority, so of course, Luz is last, but she doesn’t mind. Together the Hermes Cabin walks towards the pavilion, where all the other cabins have gathered for dinner. Luz spots Willow and Gus with their siblings, and then Amity sitting over at the table right next to Luz. She makes eye contact with Luz, and then scoffs, turning away. Next to her, a pair of green-haired campers that are no doubt twins say something to her, and her face goes red. She elbows the boy hard, and the girl laughs loudly.

At the head table, Eda is sitting there with Lilith, who must have gotten back while Willow and Gus were showing her around. There’s also a boy with red hair and glasses, chatting amicably with what Luz can only describe as a talking black mastiff. It has a red collar, and Luz’s mouth can’t help but drop open at the sight. But she guesses she’s seen weirder things today.

“That’s King, the camp's loyal hellhound,” Viney says from across Luz, noticing her staring. “Hellhounds are usually ten times that size, but King’s always been special.”

“He can talk.” Luz just says, and Jerbo laughs.

“Oh yeah. Thinks himself real special for being able to as well. He follows Eda around everywhere.”

"Who's the boy next to him?" Luz asks curiously.

"That's Barcus, the camp's oracle. He's human and lives here at camp during the summer. When campers go on quests they get a prophecy from him."

That is way too weird for Luz to process, and she opens her mouth to ask a hundred follow-up questions but doesn't get the chance. Eda and Lilith get to their feet, and the camp quiets. Lilith is the first to speak.

“Good evening campers. Today we welcome a new half-blood to our ranks. Everybody, please welcome Luz Noceda.”

There is a series of whispers as people turn to look at her, and some of the campers say hello and wave in her direction. Luz rubs her neck in embarrassment when Gus whoops from next to his brothers and sisters. Viney pats her back encouragingly.

“As you all know on Friday we will be having our weekly game of Capture the Flag.” Eda continues once the murmurings settle. “The captains have been randomly selected, and this time the teams will be the Hermes cabin against the Aphrodite cabin.”

Luz’s table erupts into cheers, and Viney grins from ear to ear. Luz notices the table Amity is sitting at also explodes with noise, and she looks quite pleased with herself. Luz wonders if she misheard.  

“Amity’s mom is Aphrodite?” Luz says in surprise, and Viney nods her head.

“Yeah. Why are you asking?”

“It’s just…” Luz isn’t sure what to think about that. “Isn’t she the goddess of love?”

“And beauty,” Viney says as she shoots her a sly smile. “But also passion. Be careful of what you’re assuming. Sure you get the prissy campers every once in a while, but the Aphrodite cabin can be a force to be reckoned with. The Blight siblings make sure of that.” She gestures to Amity and the two green-haired campers who had been talking to her earlier, and Luz hums as she processes this new information. Eda’s voice snaps her back to reality.

“Yes, yes, in any case, captains will have to have their teams ready by tomorrow night.” Eda continues, and she tries to speak seriously, but her smile gives away just how excited she is. “Now, it’s time we eat.”

As if Eda just spoke some kind of spell, food begins to spill out from around the entrance to the pavilion. There are these weird chicken ladies (Viney calls them Harpies) that pass around a variety of barbecued meats, fruits, vegetables, and all kinds of food that makes Luz’s mouth water. She loads her plate and then gets handed an empty goblet, and looks at it uncertainly.

“Say whatever you want, and it’ll appear,” Jerbo says helpfully, and Luz breaks into a grin.

“Lime soda!”

The goblet fills with bubbly light green liquid. Luz takes a sip and her eyes widen in awe. It’s identical to the ones her Mami buys.

Mami! She’s probably wondering where she is right now. She left her phone in the Cabin, but she makes a mental note to call her after dinner.

Before she can dig in, she sees her cabin begin to get up and make their way over to the fire. They take something off their plate and chuck it in, muttering what seems to be a prayer as they do.

“It’s an offering to the gods,” Jerbo explains quickly, before doing the same thing.

Luz approaches and doesn’t quite know what to do. But she takes a cluster of delicious-looking grapes and tosses it in the fire anyway.

Dad, if you’re listening… thank you for letting me come here. I really like it so far.  

The fire roars, and Luz is taken aback by the smell. It’s like parchment and a dewy morning before school. It’s comforting.

Eda and Lilith once again get the attention of the crowd. They raise their goblets, and all the campers follow.

“For the gods!” They say.

“For the gods!” The campers repeat.

Luz eats until she can’t eat anymore. Once you’re done dinner, the rule is campers are allowed to visit other tables. Willow and Gus join Luz at the Hermes table, and they all begin to have a steady conversation.

“So how did Eda stumble across you in Manhattan?” Viney asks, and Luz timidly launches into the story. When she’s done, Gus whistles lowly.

“You helped them kill an empousai?” He mumbles in awe. “Servants of Hecate are no easy win.”

“Gus is a fan of Hecate’s illusions,” Willow explains with a smile. “While some campers might use it for pranks, Gus uses it for showmanship.”

“We’ll let me tell you, she was scary,” Luz says with a shiver. “I don’t know what I would have done if Eda and Lilith weren’t there to save me.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Viney says, reaching over to nudge her arm. “You leaped on the back of a monster with no weapon. That’s pretty brave.”

“Or pretty stupid,” Jerbo comments teasingly.

“Don’t worry, Luz,” Willow says with a smile when her face begins to heat up in embarrassment. “Gus and I can take you tomorrow to find you some kind of weapon.”

“That sounds great,” Luz said, relieved.

Soon, the harpies began to clear the plates, and her new friends got up to head down to the campfire to sing songs and roast marshmallows. Luz was eager to join them, but she remembered the mental note she’d made earlier. Making a promise that’d she be there soon, she was about to leave the pavilion to go get her phone when she was stopped with a firm hand on her shoulder.

“Where are you running off to, kid?”

Luz turned to see Eda, standing behind her petting Owlbert who was resting on her shoulder. Luz broke into a smile.

“Oh, hi Eda. I was just heading to Cabin Eleven to pick up my-”

“I just wanted to tell you that I spoke to your mother this afternoon,” Eda said, and Luz effectively shut her mouth and raised her eyebrows. “She was pretty angry that you ran off from school, but when I told her where you were she seemed to cool down.”

“Is she ok? She’s not worried about me right?” Luz said anxiously, and Eda smiled softly.

“No, lucky for you she seemed to have realized she couldn’t keep you from camp for much longer. She just wanted me to tell you that she loves you and hopes you're being safe and that you made it through the school year. You’ll be welcomed back to the same high school in the fall.”

Luz felt relief hit her like a pound of bricks. She really didn’t want to worry about her Mami needing to find her another school. She worked full time at the hospital, she worried enough.

“I told her that we don’t allow cellphones at camp since they send out a lot of signals to monsters and that if you wanted to contact her you’d have to see me.” Eda finished, and Luz tightened her lips. She wasn’t exactly sure why cellphones weren’t allowed, but she was glad she hadn’t admitted to Eda she had one. “So I was going to ask you if you wanted to call her, but now that I see you’re running off… I’m wondering if somebody might have something they’re not supposed to have.”

Luz began to panic, but thankfully Eda just chuckled. “Well, that look says it all. Just be careful kid. I’m a fan of troublemakers myself, but my sister sure isn’t. Keep it on the down-low.”

Luz nodded quickly, and Eda chucks her one more sly smile. “Your mom sent us over some pocket money for you to get whatever you need while you’re here. It’s at the camp store, so whenever you want to go buy some clothes or whatever just give them a visit.”

The talking hellhound Luz had seen earlier made their way over to Eda and Luz, and sat down at Eda’s feet, casting a suspicious look at Luz.

“Who are you? Who dares disturb the King of Demons?”

“You’re not the King of demons, you’re King the demon,” Eda muttered to the hellhound, rolling her eyes. “There's a difference. And you came over to us."

King just looks up and her and Eda facepalms, waving her hand toward Luz in defeat. "This is Luz, our new camper.”

Now that Luz was face to face with King, she found him a lot less freaky. In fact, he was kind of adorable.

“Awww, look at this little guy!” She said cooing, reaching down to meet King at eye level. “You’re so cute!”

“I am not cute!” The hellhound barked back in annoyance, and Luz reached over and pat him on the head. Despite looking angry, the hellhound leaned into the touch.

“What a sucker,” Eda mumbled under her breath, and King made a noise of annoyance. “Anyway Luz, if you need anything don’t think twice about coming to find me. I hope you’ve noticed, but everybody here is kind of one big family. We help each other out.”

Luz felt that warm feeling again, and without even realizing she was doing it, she leaned over and hugged Eda tightly, trying to express how grateful she really was. Eda huffed in surprise, before hesitantly hugging her back.

“Thank you, Eda,” Luz whispered into her shoulder.

Eda laughed awkwardly, patting her shoulder. “Anytime, kid.”  

#the owl house #percy jackson au #luz noceda #amity blight #lumity #shelby speaks

[lucy-sky]

Opposites (Ezra x Reader)

Summary: Being a freelance digger you landed on The Green Moon in search for treasure, and found more than you expected. You meet Ezra - a man you used to work with in the past. You had a history, but this relationship led to nothing. Is it a good idea to team up with him again, or not? Soon you’ll find out. 

Words: 6 130

Warnings: Sexual content (quite fluffy, but still)

Note: Okay... I totally didn’t expect this movie to hit me THAT hard, but I guess it happened - I wrote a fic. And it’s rather long, omg. So... What you need to know about me is that I very seldom write about not Sam Rockwell characters, so this story is smth a bit out of my comfort zone. Also this is only the 2nd time I’m trying to write some kind of an action scene and it’s a real struggle for me to put such things into words (English is not my native language). Anyway, since I’m new to Pedro Pascal fandom and since I haven’t seen much content with this particular character (why though???), I’m very curious (and slightly anxious) about people’s opinions on this story. So, your feedback is greatly appreciated! But please be gentle :’D 

@biobiopsy​, you asked me to tag you, so here you go :)

That day was totally not the best in your carrier. After spending hours wandering over the wilds of The Green Moon, all you had in your case was a couple of gems. It was getting late and your filter was almost spent, but you still haven’t found a decent aurelac deposit.

After a short break you decided to head back to your ship. The filter wasn’t going to last long anyways. Maybe tomorrow you’d be luckier… But as you were just about to leave, something caught your eye. The ground… Was it what you thought it was? You got closer, took off your backpack and reached for the kit.

No way. No fucking way. It was a freaking goldmine!

Finally the fortune seemed to smile upon you! But now you had a problem: he deposit was large; getting the gems takes time, you knew from experience that rush is your worst enemy when it comes to this. Damn it! Why didn’t you just take a spare filter with you?

A sudden rustle from behind interrupted your thoughts. Your reaction was fast - you turned around abruptly, jerking out the thrower.

- Whoa, easy… Y/n??

You blinked in confusion. The man, standing in front of you, was someone you totally didn’t expect to meet right here and right now.

- Ezra?

Yes, it obviously was him. A man you used to work with about a year ago as a part of diggers team. He didn’t seem to change at all: same bold look in his dark brown eyes, same bright smile… You still remembered kissing those lips once - something you wished to forget, and almost succeeded in this… But life was never predictable.

- Damn, y/n, is it really you? Long time no see… It’s been a year, huh?

- Guess so, - you nodded, the weapon still pointed at him.

- Hey, come on, I came in peace, - Ezra chuckled, but you didn’t move.

- It’s my place, - you said harshly.

- Is it? Forgive me, but I don’t see any signs saying it’s exclusively yours.

- I got here first. The Green is big enough, go find your own.

- So we’ve just met and you’re already asking me to leave? That’s not very nice. Didn’t you miss me? - He smirked cockily.

- Not really.

- Shame. Cause I did. Where’s your team, y/n?

- I’m working for myself now.

- Oh. Why’s that?

- People can betray, - you snapped. - Don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean.

- Really? So that’s the reason you’re so mad? My so called “betrayal”?

- You stole the gems and disappeared. What else should I call it?

- Hey! Let me remind you, I didn’t take the entire harvest, just took what’s mine. I think that’s fair enough. And… Whatever you call it, you should know - it has absolutely nothing to do with you. It’s all about the asshole we used to work for these days. As far as I remember, you thought he’s an asshole too, right?

- Right. You knew that. So you could at least let me know about your plans.

- I… - He stumbled, - Only didn’t want to get you in trouble. Plus you kinda pushed me away so I didn’t want to be too persistent.

- Wow, you’re such a gentleman, - you replied sarcastically. Ezra let out an annoyed sigh.

- Anyway, I’m not here to steal anything from you. I would never do such a thing. I just wanted to offer a helping hand, - he continued.

- So far, I somehow manage without you.

- And I’ve never called it in question. But hey, this deposit… it’s really impressive. There’s more than enough aurelac for both of us, and together we can harvest it way faster. I mean… you don’t want other floaters to come across it, do you?

There was something suspicious about the way he talked… You narrowed your eyes examining his face through the glass helmet.

- You need something from me, right? Apart from the gems.

- Huh?.. - It was his turn now to look confused.

- What about your team, Ezra? - You cocked an eyebrow. - Where is it?

- I uh… See, I’m not always work in a team, sometimes I run solo as well…

- Okay. What about your ship than?

- Uh…

- Let me guess. They flew away and left you here, did they?

From his expression you could already guess the answer.

- Something like that. We had a kind of a… Misunderstanding.

- Well… Guess now you see how the karma works, - you couldn’t suppress a chuckle.

- Haha. Very funny, - he grimaced. - Look, I’m really sorry about what happened… Between us, okay? Believe it or not, I don’t wanna cause you any harm. I’m actually really glad to see you… Even though you keep pointing this thing at me. I’m not an enemy. Just think of it - we can be really helpful for each other. I’ve no doubts you are prehensile enough to understand.

“Prehensile”... Only Ezra could use such kind of a word in his regular speech... Maybe that’s why he was always good at convincing. But this time it wasn’t even about benefits or something. Was he helpful or not, one thing you knew for sure: you couldn’t leave him like that.

There was also another, less noble reason to accept his suggestion: you couldn’t stay here any longer, and leaving right now meant giving him your deposit.

- Fine, - you finally put the thrower down. - My filter is very low. Could you share?

- Sure, - Ezra smiled, his posture instantly getting more relaxed. - Although mine’s not new as well… Not much for the two people… But at least we can start working. There’s still time until it gets dark.

- Deal, - you agreed.

- Hey, y/n.

- Yes?

- I’m glad you’re doing well. Really.

“Sounds like he means it”, you thought.

- Yeah… Glad you’re doing well too… Or at least you’re alive and optimistic.

- This is the way I am, sweetheart, - he winked.

- Please don’t do that.

- What?

- Don’t call me “sweetheart”. Or I’ll change my mind about giving you a ride.

- Alright, no problem, - Ezra made a serious face. - You’re the boss.

- Let’s get to it, than.

***

Darkness already blinded the sky above The Green Moon completely when you finally reached your ship.

- So this beauty is all yours, huh? Not too bad! - Ezra nodded approvingly, looking around.

- Well, I’m actually still paying for it… But yep, it’s mine. This ship is my home, so treat it respectfully, okay?

- Of course. I bet after the harvest we’re about to get you’ll be able to pay the rest easily.

- That’s why I chose working for myself. When you work for someone, it’s exhausting as fuck, and you don’t get nearly as much profit as you expect. Plus the people are sometimes assholes. But that’s not even the point. The point is - I have no idea how much time it would take me to earn enough if I kept working like I used to.

- You’re right, that’s a hell of a job. Don’t do that anymore either… Well, maybe some occasional contract gig when I’m not occupied with something else… Only I still prefer working with partners, you know… Someone who shares my views.

- Yeah, you’re apparently too talkative to stay alone for a long time.

- What can I do? - Ezra scoffed. - I’m a heart and soul of a party.

- And here’s where it took you… - You remarked. 

He just shrugged.

- Everything happens for a reason. You got something to eat?..

After an improvised dinner you spent a couple of hours revising supplies and preparing for tomorrow. When everything was ready, you took a wise decision to get some rest. Even though you covered the deposit with mud and moss as much as you possibly could before leaving, you still had to return to the dig early, or your place could be discovered by someone else.

- Hey, can I ask you something? - You said when you both were lying on the cots opposite each other.

- Shoot.

- What were you actually going to do? I mean… You’re alone here, with no ship, with the last filter left…What was your plan?

- Plan?.. Well I thought of finding some settlers and ask them. Perhaps I could bargain for something…

- Like what?

- No idea. I’d figure something out, I always do. That’s how I survive, - Ezra shrugged.

- This is crazy.

- Maybe. But you just can’t be prepared for absolutely anything.

- I’m at least trying to.

- Yeah, right. You hate asking for help, do you? Also I think you’ve got trust issues, sweetheart.

- I just choose to rely on myself, not someone else in the first place. And I don’t consider it an issue, end of story. And by the way, what did I tell you about “sweetheart”?

- Fine, fine, whatever you say, - he threw his hands up jokingly. You rolled your eyes.

- You know what? We could actually make a great team, - Ezra suddenly went after a pause.

- Seriously? - You huffed. - What makes you think so?

- Opposites attract.

- Bullshit. Go to sleep already.

With this you turned away from him. As you closed your eyes, you could hear him chuckling. What a cocky bastard. Yet you had to admit, at least to yourself - you really kind of missed him.

***

You woke up even earlier than expected. Partly due to nervous anticipation and partly because another person’s presence on your ship next to you felt a bit awkward. 

Ezra was still asleep, and you caught yourself staring at his calm and peaceful features with a subtle tender sensation deep inside your chest… What’s wrong with you, y/n? A guy you had a vaguely romantic relationship with about a year ago appears out of the blue and you’re already melting. What a shame. And yet… You couldn’t help thinking about what may have happened if you didn’t push him away, if you weren’t afraid… What exactly you were afraid of? Getting too close?.. Perhaps he was right about trust issues though… No, this relationship would most certainly lead to nothing. You’re too different in many ways…

Opposites attract.

You shook your head. There was no time for self-scrutiny at the moment. You had to concentrate on work. Once it’s done, you’d have time to figure out your feelings. And also find out if you can really trust him or not.

Decidedly, you stood up and reached out to shake his shoulder.

- Wake up, sleeping beauty. The gems are not gonna dig themselves out.

The man let out a soft grunt.

- Seriously, Ezra. I’m not gonna tell you twice.

- Alright, alright, I’m awake, - he squinted at you. - You’re not very sweet in the mornings, you know that?

- I’ll take it as a compliment.

***

It was an extremely productive day. You had to admit: working with a partner was way more effective than doing it alone. With Ezra’s help you also managed to bring and set a tent where you could have breaks and eat without returning to the ship. It saved you lots of time.

One of today’s trophies you were particularly proud of. You already sensed something special as you pulled out a cocoon way heavier than usual. The color was slightly different as well.

- Ezra, look, - you called out. He frowned, carefully examining your finding.

- Why do you think it’s like that? - You asked.

- No idea. But we have to be careful. Let’s find out, - he reached for a knife. - Hold it like that…

You both held your breath as he made a cut.

- Ha! Perfect, - he gave you a triumphant grin.

Once the meat was removed, you saw an aurelac gem you’ve never seen before. It was huge, and almost entirely golden.

- Have you ever seen something like that? - You asked, staring at the gem in awe.

- Never. Just heard something about it. I thought it’s a myth…

- Hey.

You took your eyes off the trophy and faced him.

- We’re not splitting the gems, right? We take the harvest, return to the center, sell it and then split the reward evenly. Agreed?

- Sounds fair to me, - Ezra nodded. - I’m in.

- Awesome. Let’s get back to work than?

- Yes, Ma’am! - He replied with a chuckle. - By the way, what are you gonna do with all this money, apart from paying for the ship?

- Didn’t really think about it…

- I’d go somewhere for a nice long vacation, - he said dreamily. - Kamrea maybe… I’ve heard it’s a lovely place... Care to join me for further inspection?..

- I don’t know.

- Ah, come on! Why not?

- I’m not completely sure if I can trust you yet, - you said honestly.

- Okay… - He paused, then smiled. - Anyway, since we’re stuck together, you still have plenty of time make up your mind.

***

Walking back to the ship that night you both felt tired but pretty content. It gets dark quite fast here on The Green Moon, so you had to use flashlights. Ezra was telling you one of his many funny stories as you walked, when you suddenly heard a rustle from the bushes to the left of you.

- Hey, did you hear it? - You asked, tensing immediately, your hand slowly moving to the thrower.

He nodded, ready to grab his weapon as well.

The rustle continued.

- Who’s there? - Ezra asked out loud, pointing the gun at the bushes. - Show yourself!

At first nothing happened. You looked at each other, shrugged and decided to keep going, but once you started moving again, three silhouettes stepped out of the darkness, blocking your way. And they were pointing throwers at you as well.

- What the hell… - Ezra muttered. - Hey guys! Maybe we’ll talk like civilized people first, how ‘bout that?..

The tallest person said something, but you didn’t understand a thing - apparently these people didn’t speak your language. And they didn’t sound very friendly.

- Harvest, - you finally heard. - We need harvest.

- Sorry to upset you, buddy, but I’m afraid it’s not gonna happen. Our harvest is ours, - Ezra replied boldly.

- Ours.

The following things happened really fast: the tallest guy pointed the gun at Ezra, but he was faster and managed to injure him. Dropping the tent on the ground you rushed to the right, shooting on your way. The enemies were shooting back. One of them fell. But it was just a start: there were more of them, to the right and the left, you couldn’t tell exactly how many. All you could do at the moment was run. And shoot. It was too dark already and you had no idea if you actually managed to hurt any of them or not… Good thing they didn’t have any night vision devices either. The ship wasn’t far. You could already see it. But damn! These people just didn’t let you go. They seemed to be everywhere. Whispers and rustles of the forest and darkness didn’t help you at all. But still you managed to move forward somehow.

At some point you lost Ezra and the panic immediately started rising up inside you. In this darkness you could easily hurt each other instead of the enemies. With a shaky voice, you called out his name, knowing full well that shouting is not a good idea, but you instantly felt relieved when his hand found yours.

- I’m here. C’mon!

He pulled you with him behind the nearest tree.

- Fuck! Who the hell are they?? - You whispered frantically.

- Pretty sure they ain’t no floaters. Just bastards who don’t wanna dig but prefer ravaging the others… Fucking pirates! They found the ship and set the trap.

- But we can make it, right? It’s not that far.

- We have to. Come on, let’s go.

Still holding hands tightly you proceeded moving towards the ship.

- Ezra, look out!

You saw a pirate stepping out of the bush right behind him, and you shot. When you pulled the trigger again, you realized the thrower was empty.

- Shit!

Ezra shot a couple more times, before his thrower went off, but thankfully his shots were tidy enough to fetch down the opponent. You ran a few of meters more and hid behind the tree again, catching your breath.

- Got more cassettes? - You asked him.

He searched in his pocket.

- Just one.

Damn. The situation was getting even worse.

- Okay, got an idea, - Ezra said decidedly. - Here’s what we’re gonna do. You take the case with gems and run to the ship as fast as you can. I cover you with the thrower. Get inside and start the engine. If I won't be there in… Two minutes - you take off. Clear?

The plan was risky, but what else you could do? In these circumstances you just had no other choice than to trust him.

- Y/n? Can you do that?

- Yeah… Yes, I think I can, - you nodded, breathing heavily. - Let’s do it.

- Okay.

Ezra reached his pocket and recharged his thrower with a new cassette.

- Ready? - He asked and you nodded again. - Oh, wait.

He took something off his front pocket and tucked it into yours. You thought it was probably his empty cassettes to recharge on board the ship.

- There. Now go!

- Two minutes, right?

- Two minutes, - he nodded reassuringly and squeezed your hand in his for a split second. Enough to make your heart shrink. - Go!

Without further hesitation, you took a deep breath and rushed towards the ship. Your heart was hammering wildly inside your chest; all you could hear was your heavy breathing and the shots behind you. Someone wailed in pain. You were hoping with all your heart it wasn’t Ezra.

Only a few steps were separating you from the ship when suddenly a dark figure appeared right in front of you, as if out of nowhere. You had no time to think about what you were doing. As you saw the thrower pointed at you, you had to use the only possible weapon you had - the case with gems. So you did. Before the stranger managed to pull the trigger, your case crashed against the front of his helmet. You heard the sound of cracking glass and hit again; suddenly the case popped open and about a half of its content scattered to the ground. Apparently you broke the lock somehow, but there was no time to collect the stones. Taking the advantage of your enemy being disoriented, you rushed to the door and entered the security code with shaky fingers. Whoever these pirates were, they definitely weren’t smart enough to crack this code and break inside the ship.

Taking off your helmet and gloves, you ran to the cockpit, quickly started the engines, and then recharged your thrower in case if Ezra needed help.

“Two minutes.”

The time was running out. All of a sudden you realized how you’re actually afraid of losing him.

- Come on, Ezra!.. - You muttered through clenched teeth, staring at your watch. Less than half a minute left.

“I’m not gonna take off without him.”

You stood up, grabbed the thrower, and headed back to the door. A sudden loud noise following by a low grunt made you flinch.

- Ezra? - You shouted. - Ezra, is that you?

There was no answer and you felt like sinking.

- Ezra?..

- Yes, that’s me! Take off! NOW!

You let out a deep sigh of relief and ran back to the cockpit.

“Alright than… 3… 2… 1…”

- Ezra, hold onto something!

The engines roared and the ship took off. You closed your eyes, trying to breathe evenly and compose yourself.

“It’s over. We’re safe now.”

***

In a few minutes the ship left the planet’s orbit, so you could finally switch on the automatic flight control and go check on Ezra. He still wasn’t around and you worried he might be hurt. The dust of The Green Moon made every single scratch a possible lethal danger.

You found him next to the door, sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

- Ezra… Is everything alright?.. - You asked anxiously, hunkering down next to him. - Are you injured?..

He opened his eyes and looked up at you.

- I’m fine… Y/n… You won’t believe it, but… I think I twisted my ankle, - he scoffed.

For the second time tonight you didn’t know if you wanted to laugh or to cry because of relief. Unable to contain yourself, you leaned into him in a swift motion and hugged him tightly. Your reaction was so sudden it caused him jerk a little, but the next moment you felt him hugging you back.

- Hey… He whispered softly, letting his fingers run through your hair. – What did I tell you? Take off in two minutes. And how long did you wait?..

- I’ve always been stubborn, - you smirked against his shoulder.

- That’s what I always liked about you.

 ***

Later in your quarters, after you both finally got rid of the suits, you were helping Ezra to fix his ankle with a bandage.

- See, I was right, - He pointed out. - We really do make a good team. We have to think about working together in the future, huh?

- You know, I was really pissed at you, - You confessed. - When you left. I didn’t really care about the gems and stuff... But... It’s just that you simply disappeared without saying a word... As if I meant nothing for you.

You weren’t completely sure why you were telling this to him. Just a sudden desire to finally make it clear about how you felt. Ezra looked at you carefully, knitting his brow.

- I mean... I agree that it’s my fault as well, I really did pushed you away myself, so what else did I expect, but... still... - At this you stumbled, lost for words.

- Y/n, don’t. That was really shitty of me to leave like that, ‘cause it’s absolutely not true about you meaning nothing... I just... - He sighed deeply and the soft look in his brown eyes made your heart skip a beat. - I totally should have been more persistent.

Having said that, he reached out, his fingertips grazing against your cheek. A soft, barely perceptible touch, yet still so full of affection.

- I’m sorry, - he whispered, and leaned in.

The next thing you felt was his lips, warm and gentle against yours. The kiss was incredibly tender and quite chaste, but nevertheless it made you weak. Ezra pulled away a little, as if waiting for your reaction, but when you gripped onto his shoulders, he didn’t hesitate any longer. His lips crushed back on yours feverishly, his breath hot, and his tongue pushing inside your mouth decidedly, sending millions of shivers down your spine. He tasted and felt exactly the same as a year ago, but this time you both were way more desperate and needy at the sudden realization - you could have died tonight. In a way this kiss was a celebration of life, but also only now you realized very clearly how much you needed this, how long you’ve been completely on your own; and how you actually missed him, his touch and his warmth.

You gripped the back of his neck, pulling him even closer, melting against his frame with a trembling gasp as he let go of your lips only to nibble on your jawline. Your head felt light and dizzy of his closeness, sloppy kisses on your neck, tickling sensation of his facial hair against sensitive skin.

Deliriously, you let your hands wander to the hem of his shirt, slipping underneath and caressing his belly. Ezra let go of you for a moment to pull the t-shirt off over his head and toss it aside. His body was firm and tanned and you marveled at the sight. Your shirt went next, and then he pulled you back in his embrace. The skin-to-skin contact almost made you shudder, almost too much for your touch starved body. Almost unbearable, but you still craved for it. Your breath quickened as his tongue traced your collarbone while his fingers struggled to undo your bra. You reached behind your back to help him and soon your breasts were exposed to his hungry eyes, darkened with lust. You bit your lip as his thumbs brushed against your hardened nipples, it was like the sparks of electricity flashing through your body. Greedily, he kissed your lips again, pulling you down on the cot with him, on top of him.

As you straddled him, you could feel how hard he already was underneath you. Unable to let go of his lips, you started slowly grinding against him to release the pressure building in your core, earning a quiet moan from him. It encouraged you to go further and trace his neck with your tongue. You could feel him shivering, tightening his grip on your hips.

He let you explore his body for a while, tracing his chest with your fingertips, peppering his collarbones with soft kisses, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to take it for too long. It’s been a while since someone touched him with real affection. At some point he just couldn’t contain himself any longer. Letting out a low groan, he seized your waist and flipped you onto your back. Your surprised gasp was muffled by his lips capturing yours again, before moving further down your body. The tip of his tongue just barely touched a hard peak of your nipple, but it caused you whimper out loud. Tenderly, he kissed his way between your breasts and down your belly, along the hem of your sweatpants, before tugging them down slowly.

When he pressed a soft kiss on your mound through the thin cotton of your underwear, you were about to scream. There was too much of him, to many sensations at once, and your insides were tingling and aching for release, but you couldn’t get rid of a slightly awkward feeling. You’ve never been that exposed to a man before. Emotionally and physically.

Ezra seemed to feel your tension. Frowning, he looked up at you.

- Uh, y/n… did you ever…

You felt blush creeping up your cheeks.

- Sorry, I… didn’t have much time for romance… - You mumbled.

- It’s okay, - he hushed, his deep brown eyes looking at you with such warmth and affection you couldn’t help but smile. - Just relax. You won’t regret it. Trust me.

You nodded, taking a deep breath. Trust him. Yes, you did trust him.

Once your panties were gone, he positioned himself between your thighs, and his hot breath against your center made you tremble with anticipation. Then his tongue carefully slid past your folds and you almost purred at the blissful sensation. After a few long and unhurried licks he settled at your throbbing clit, sucking on it gently, and it didn’t take long before you finally exploded, writhing and moaning shamelessly, fingers entangled into his soft messy hair. He kept going through your climax, licking you clean until the overstimulation caused you flinch. You were still a panting mess when he made his way back to your parted lips.  

Slowly kissing him back, you could taste yourself on his tongue, and even though your insides still fluttered a bit in an aftermath of your climax, you still knew you needed more of him.

- You alright? - He asked quietly, stroking your cheek with his knuckles.

- Uh-huh, - you made, kissing his upper lip while reaching between your bodies to cup his bulge. He sighed, slightly bucking his hips at your touch.

- Ezra, - you whispered, your face so close to his your noses touched. – I… think you should take off your pants now…

- That makes sense, I guess, - he snickered mischievously, placing one more quick kiss on your lips before getting on his feet and tugging off his pants and underwear.

Hovering over you, Ezra pressed his forehead against yours, closing his eyes and humming softly as your fingers trailed down his torso, through the hairs on his lower belly, to stroke along his length. The throbbing, teasing sensation was driving him crazy, yet your sweet caress, so gentle and intimate, almost made him melt. He both craved for release and wanted it to last forever. He opened his eyes, met your gaze, and kissed you again, deeply and passionately, causing you tremble beneath him.

- I need you, - you breathed out against his mouth, and he obeyed. The sensation of him filling you up was overwhelming. He moved slowly at first, allowing you to adjust, but soon your moans and gasps of pleasure encouraged him to pick up the pace. Clinging to him, you enjoyed every second of this intimacy. Everything felt so good: the weight of his body on top of yours, his hot breath on your skin, quiet moans and grunts escaping him… Digging your nails into his shoulders you arched your hips to meet his thrusts, urging him to go deeper. His hand slid under the bend of your knee, lifting your leg a bit to get a better angle. You whimpered desperately, jolts of pleasure flashing deep within your core as he hit that sweet spot of yours, bringing you closer and closer to the edge. A couple more thrusts and you clenched around him, a wave of pure ecstasy washing all over your body from head to toes. Ezra felt dangerously close too. He pulled out with a groan and let go. Through the haze of your post-orgasmic bliss you could feel his warm load spilling over your belly.

He collapsed on top of you, panting, and you were simply lying like that for a while, his face buried into the crook of your neck, your fingers caressing his hair. You felt warm and sated, and completely safe in his arms. Ezra lifted his head lazily to look at you. His eyes were soft and sparkling, and you felt so much tenderness for him at the moment, that you couldn’t possibly put it into words. Instead, you kissed him. You kissed the corners of his mouth, the tip of his nose. You kissed that little wrinkle he had between his eyebrows and let your fingers run through his tousled hair. He had this little blond streak and you remembered asking him about it once, but he wasn’t sure himself when and how he actually got it. Anyway, you always found it adorable. Ezra took your hand in his and brought it to his mouth to kiss your knuckles.

- That was… Pretty intense, huh?.. - He smiled.

- Oh yes, it was.

- You know what we need right now? A shower.

- True, - you agreed. - You can go first then. The shower cabin is too small for the two of us anyways…

- Bullshit. Pretty sure we can fit. If we get close enough, - Ezra smirked. - You’re going with me, sweetheart. End of subject.

- Yes, sir, - you laughed.

Finally you could admit - you actually liked him calling you “sweetheart”. A lot.

***

You woke up lying on Ezra’s chest instead of a pillow. His calm and even breath and the warmth of his body against you felt nice and comforting, and not awkward at all this time.

In the world you lived, there was one thing you knew for sure - you had to be tough. Showing weakness was never safe. But now, with him for the first time in ages you weren’t afraid of being opened up and vulnerable. And it didn’t even matter how different you were. Yes, you’re the quiet one and he’s talkative, he’s chaotic and you’re organized, he’s spontaneous and you always need a plan… But none of these was important. The most important thing was - deep inside you both felt loneliness. Now you weren’t lonely anymore.

You felt like you could spend a lifetime just snuggling like that, it was perfection, except one thing - you realized you were hungry as a wolf. Unable to bear with the rumbling of your stomach any longer, you carefully slipped out of the bed, put on some clothes and headed to the cockpit.

Your backpack was still lying there on the floor. You opened it and grabbed a couple of protein bars and a thermos bottle. Sitting on the floor with your legs crossed, you took a sip of warm drink. Your body was aching but it was a pleasant sensation. You glanced at the timer on the dashboard to find out you still had a few hours until landing. No rush.

The case was there too, next to the backpack. You reached out and opened it. Damn. More than a half of your harvest was lost, including that rare big golden gem. You sighed. Well, at least you were alive and well… And in fact, you found something way more valuable than gemstones.

“Everything happens for a reason. “

You heard his footsteps behind you and smiled.

- Morning… - Ezra’s voice was a little hoarse after sleep. He bent down and kissed the top of your head before sitting next to you.

- Morning. Are you hungry? - You handed him a protein bar.

- I sure am, - he chucked, leaning in and gently nibbling on your exposed shoulder.

- I didn’t mean that hunger, - you scoffed.

- Well, that too, - he took a large bite of his snack.

- Hey, what’s wrong? - He frowned, as he followed your gaze and spotted the opened case.

- Well, nothing particularly terrible. It’s just… I guess your dream vacation has to wait for a while… - You shrugged, and told him what happened on your way to the ship.

- Oh yeah, I saw that guy with a smashed helmet… Almost tripped over him actually… That’s pretty badass! - He nodded in appreciation. - Um… By the way… You didn’t check the front pocket of your suit, did you?

- Nope, - you narrowed your eyes. - Why? I thought you just gave me your empty cassettes…

- There were cassettes, yes… But… There was also something else…

Intrigued, you got on your feet. Your suit was hanging next to the door. You dove your hand into the front pocket and fished out something wrapped in a piece of cloth. Carefully you unwrapped the bundle and gasped in surprise: it was the big golden gem.

- B-but… - You stuttered, turning to Ezra and giving him a questioned look. - How?... Did you steal this gem?..

- What? No! You saw all the gems when you closed the case before heading back. How could I possibly do that? Magic powers?

- Than I’m confused.

- Don’t be. It’s not the same stone, it’s another one. Remember I told you I’ve heard of these gems? Well I also heard there are usually two of them, on the opposite sides of the dig.

- Opposites… - You murmured softly and he gave you a broad smile.

- That’s right. Just like you and me, huh?

- But why didn’t you tell me?

- Just wanted to surprise you. It’s simple as that. And it seems to me that mischief managed, - he chuckled.

- Bastard, - you laughed.

- Love you too.

- Is that… A confession? - You blurted out.

- Most likely it is, - Ezra smirked, stepping closer to you and cupping your cheek. - All I know is you are way, way more precious than any gem, sweetheart. Ugh... This actually sounds a bit cheesier than I expected…

- It’s okay, - you hushed, leaning in for a kiss. - I think I can deal with it.

***

For everyone who read until the end - thank you very much for your time and patience!

#pedro pascal #prospect 2018 #ezra x reader #fanfiction #reader insert #prospect #prospect movie #ezra #ezra (prospect) #lucy tries to write

[iya5rt]

Kalopsia Project [Bakugo Katsuki x Reader – Tokyo Ghoul AU]

Epilogue – re:Kalopsia Project

Chapter Summary: Despite its ever-changing nature, life waits for nobody. It continues on, and so do you.

Quick Note!! This drawing you see here was done by the wonderful @CxldRain over on Wattpad!! Please, please, please check them out!! I am seriously so honored and thank you so much♥

Kalopsia Project Masterpost

“And now – exclusive information coming straight from the police about a discovery from a few days ago. Following an anonymous call reporting a sighting of multiple ghouls, police and Investigators from the CCG were led to the site of the raid from 4 years ago in which All Might – a renowned investigator, lost his life in a brutal fight against a skilled and feared ghoul nicknamed Endeavor by the CCG. The building, a former research facility of the CCG, which was thought to have been abandoned following the raid, was discovered to still have been in use.

“Inside, the police found traces of a fight and continuous use of the facility for the last couple of years. It resurfaced that this had been the main operating headquarters of a horrific human experimentation project. Unfortunately, no further data could be recovered and the organization responsible for this project has yet to be unveiled. The police are working together with the CCG to get to the bottom of this baffling case.

“The man thought to be the mastermind behind this inhumane act was caught at the scene. So far, his claims have been insufficient and, according to the CCG’s research department, false and contradictory. Multiple of his supposed “subjects” were discovered at the scene. Two of them appeared to have been killed by a ghoul, while the rest were temporarily incapacitated. Multiple organizations are currently looking into the matter, so stay tuned and we will keep you updated.

“Now, to have a look at the situation in the second ward. Sightings of the binge-eater ghoul which had been terrorizing the ward for a couple of months now have gone silent. No new victims have been discovered since the suspicious scene with no remains from last week. Has the threat been eliminated? Will the second ward finally be able to-“

The woman’s monotone voice coming from the small TV sharply cut off. Or rather, it was the sound of the TV instead that disappeared, as Monoma let out a frustrated sigh and set down the remote. He sure was getting quite the attention, though perhaps a news reporter wondering if he was finally dead for good wasn’t the attention he had been hoping for.

It was yet another bright and early morning at the small café which held a tiny secret most knew nothing of. The late-night venture of its staff from a couple nights ago hadn’t made it to all of the news stations quite yet (seems like the CCG still wanted to keep it under wraps as long as possible) and the concern and rumors hadn’t spread among the public for now. Of course, everything had been so carefully planned out, so as to not allow a single unsuspecting person to discover what exactly had transpired there.

One by one, the rest of Yuuei’s staff finished up their morning chores and gathered in the main area, sitting beside the counter, at the tables, or already working on preparing for the day (poor Midoriya and Todoroki had it tough).

Monoma’s eyes swept across the bunch of people and he raised a brow.

“Well, would you look at that. We’re starting any moment now, yet [L/N]-chan is nowhere to be seen.”

“She should be arriving very soon,” Ida chimed in. “Apparently she’s squeezing in some more kagune training with Bakugo-kun whenever she can.” Monoma followed up with a small hum.

“Huh, is that so…? Won’t the customers get worried she’s all bruised and beaten when they see her then?” his raised brow fell and he leaned back against the counter. Uraraka tried to stifle a giggle but failed.

“No way. Bakugo-kun’s still probably going easy on her. At least until her regeneration’s good enough, that is. And who knows,” she muttered to herself. “Maybe even after that.” Another giggle slipped out through her knowing grin. Meanwhile, Monoma’s curiosity turned into a devilish smirk.

“Betcha they’re just making out the whole time-“

Smack!

The towel easily knocked his head forward, leaving him to rub at his reddening neck, as a couple people laughed a little.

“I heard that, you know?” you reached out to retrieve your towel. Hey, he deserved much worse. You were being nice. Not minding Monoma’s pouting face, you dug around for your apron. “Once I get the hang of it, I plan to challenge you to a fight. Get back at you for that oh so pleasant “date” we had.”

“You’re welcome to do so. Any time you like, in fact.” Monoma closed his eyes and put a hand to his chest in a dramatic gesture. “I don’t plan on losing to a newbie.” His eyes looked back at you, a challenge just as clear evident in them.

Though, like you had said, that challenge would have had to wait. They weren’t wrong – you still had a long way to go before you could proclaim to have all the meticulous control over your kagune you’d need to take down somebody as experienced as him. Landing a single blow on Katsuki was already next to impossible throughout your training sessions.

But when that day was to finally come, you were determined to turn the tables on him. On both of them.

Another thought resurfaced in your mind.

“Oh, that’s right! Seems like only Kirishima-kun will make to today’s interview. I hope that won’t be a problem. The rest should manage to find a free slot by the end of the week though!”

“Interview?” Uraraka paused, just as she was putting a big mop away. Ida also looked at you with a slight tilt to his head.

“Ah, you guys were dealing with the clean-up, huh. Forgot you ran a little late. Well, you see-“ you walked towards the door, then turned to face them once again. “Once everything was done and over, Kirishima-kun and the other three somehow managed to convince Aizawa-san to let them work here! They said they’d all been looking for some part-time jobs anyway! Not sure why he insists on interviewing them but hey, I wouldn’t really mind graduating from taking out the trash!!”

With a small hop to your step, you turned the sign on the door, the word “Open!” now inviting all passer-by inside

***

“Katsuki-kun!” you called out from beside him.

His steps momentarily came to a halt, his eyes widening just enough for you to notice, only for him to shake away the surprised expression as quickly as it had crossed his features. You let out a laugh.

“I love the funny face you make when I call you that!” This time, he made a small growl.

“Well, excuse me, but it’s not my fault, now is it?” Not that his complaints were going to put an end to your constant giggles though. After a few seconds of silence on his part, just enough for the funny scene to pass, you hummed quietly.

“I still think we should’ve saved this for when I finally manage to land a hit on you during training.” Katsuki, however, only scoffed.

“Yeah, so never?”

Your small fist hit his shoulder, though he gave no sign of having even felt it. You looked around the mostly empty street, yet your eyes wandered back to him. Hands intertwining behind your back, you tilted your head in pretend curiosity, failing to hide the smile from the joke you hadn’t even made yet.

“Say, you’re not gonna try and eat me too, are you?”

With a single roll of his eyes, Katsuki replied simply.

“I’m not a cannibal.”

You paused mid-step. He noticed your hesitation and stopped too, raising a brow when he looked back. He didn’t necessarily say anything, but you had come to appreciate just how many words his face was able to convey. You didn’t need him to ask you to know he had a question.

“I guess I’m not really human anymore, huh. It’s been a few days, but the thought still feels as foreign as ever.” At the sound of Katsuki’s approaching footsteps, your eyes flicked to him.

“The hell are ya talking about?” He stopped before you, leaning his head towards yours. “With all you went through, you might just be more human than anyone else.”

The blood rose to your cheeks and you let out a laugh to hide your embarrassment.

“Wow, never knew you could be so cheesy, Katsuki-kun,” you smirked. If he was getting to embarrass you, you could easily do the same. Nonetheless, you smiled at him, putting your hands on his shoulders, and leaning in closer. “But thank you – it means a lot to me, you know?”

You pecked him on the cheek and pulled away, skipping ahead with a big smile. He didn’t like it when you saw him blushing or making a weird face, so you could at least give him the space he needs to shake it off. In no time, he was walking by your side again.

Suddenly, his eyebrows scrunched in concern and his eyes focused somewhere up ahead, as he took hold of your hand to stop you from going on by yourself.

“Act natural,” he leaned in and whispered. You followed his gaze and your heartbeat quickened at the sight of the two men clad all in white and carrying those trusty briefcases of theirs.

Passing them by took only a couple of seconds, yet it felt like you hadn’t breathed in a single time all throughout. The two of you rounded a corner, Katsuki looking back to make sure the investigators were well on their way, while you finally took a deep breath to recover.

“Gosh, my heart’s thumping,” you laughed, though the relief written across your face was clear to Katsuki.

“Well, better get used to it – this is going to be your life from now on.” He patted your back a few times.

He was right, huh?

Your path had seemingly been decided so long ago, from the moment that experiment had succeeded. A path of misery, of suffering, of tears shed alone, and of a life doomed from the start.

Yet, with the help of those you’d always thought to be your enemies, you had created a new path. One that was still rocky, rough, filled with thorns. But it was a path you had chosen by yourself. It was a path you weren’t meant to walk alone.

You turned to face Katsuki, two pairs of eyes looking straight at each other. The smile on your lips grew even larger, as you reached out for his hands with your own.

“Get used to it, you say? Hm!” By this point, you were practically grinning already. “I think I’ll manage. But you have to promise me! That you’ll stay by my side, just like I’m going to stay by yours.” Once again, you leaned in closer. “That we’ll help each through it, right?”

Katsuki shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips when he opened his eyes again.

“Sure, sure,” he breathed out.

That was more than enough.

The distance between you became smaller and smaller, until your lips finally met in the middle.

And in that moment, you realized. Both of you realized.

What an ironic situation you had been put in from the start of it all.

Yet in the end, it was an irony you both had learned to love.

~Fin~

***

Author’s Note: And so, it is… done? That’s kinda crazy.

A few quick notes before I start with all the sappy stuff. I know that this was an extremely short chapter, especially compared to last week’s beast, but I really wanted to show those two particular scenes and make it short and sweet, so I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless! Also, the chapter title! I intended for it to come off as a reference to Tokyo Ghoul:re but if you noticed, the :re is actually placed at the start. That’s because, while Kalopsia Project:re feels like a new start, re:Kalopsia Project gives me more “in response to Kalopsia Project” vibes. Not sure if that made any sense or came across nicely though.

And lastly, at first this was going to be it for sure. Done and Over. But after hearing what you guys have been saying, I’ve been considering writing a sequel to this story one day. It won’t be for a while and I’ll get into the reasons for that later, but the fact is, it will probably happen. I hope you’ll enjoy it too!

And now – thank you all so, so much. You might have noticed already that I don’t shy away from getting wordy in my notes, so please forgive me for that. I’m just infinitely grateful for all the support this story has received – this was my first proper attempt at something with a plot, and also at an AU. It was a fun experience for me and I hope you all enjoyed it too! Every single interaction makes me have this big stupid smile on my face and, while I was a little anxious about posting this story initially, you’ve made it all worth it. So thank you so much to everyone who read this story, who liked or reblogged it, and especially to anyone who stuck with it all this time. It truly means the world to me since I wouldn’t be doing this without you all♥ I hope you’re all staying safe during quarantine! 

And finally, I feel a bit odd self-promoting like that but hey, if you enjoyed this story, and especially the character writing, and are looking for something else to binge during long days at home, I do have one more story! Granted, it’s Bakugo x OC, though I always say that you can easily pretend the OC is either you or your own character, and it is canon-compliant. However, it’s also a good 4 times longer than this story! It’s also my first ever story, so the writing in some of the beginning chapters won’t be up to par with what you’ve been seeing here! But if you feel like it, I’d really appreciate it if you gave it a chance! In fact, now that “Kalopsia Project” is over, I will be returning to plotting the fourth book of that story and hopefully go back to writing it soon enough! Here’s a link to it on Wattpad/Quotev/AO3– I hope you’ll enjoy it^^ Alright, enough blabbering on my part.

Once again, thank you all so much, I love you and I stay safe and have fun~ Hopefully I’ll see you again some time! 

Bye~

(Also, I haven’t quite decided what I’m doing with this blog yet but I plan to type a probably somewhat long post once I figure it out! In the meantime, thank you all so much for the support!  And hey, @afuckingunicornn  @creativedogs  @chims-kookies  - it’s finally over huh?)

#bakugou katsuki x reader #katsuki bakugou x reader #bakugou x reader #bnha x reader #bnha tokyo ghoul au

[thecorteztwins]

🔥 villains. 🔥 the hellfire club 🔥the difference between naive and unintelligent characters

Welp, this all got STUPIDLY LONG and I’m really sorry. Under a cut because HUUUUUGE.

🔥 villains.There’s just been a robbery! All the jewels in the museum’s vault have been stolen! The culprits are….Sabretooth and Magneto!Yeah, that doesn’t sound right, does it? Thievery isn’t really something either of them do, they’re not bank robber or cat burglar types at all. And Magneto’s not a fan of Sabes to my memory, it’s unlikely he’d work with him unless it was essential to his ACTUAL goals…which this isn’t. But hey, they’re both bad guys, so they must do ALL the bad things! No matter what it is, it’s in-character if it’s evil or unlawful, right?This is the logic that I see running both often in fandom, and also sometimes with canon writers. There’s a mentality that if someone is villainous or bad in ONE way, then they must be villainous or bad in ALL ways. I think there’s always been this misunderstanding, as people do tend to think in black and white a lot, but I think it’s also increased with the rise of purity culture in Tumblr, where people/characters/works are All Good or All Bad, and if the bad guys aren’t depicted as 1000% heinously evil then it’s APOLOGISM. An example in RP would be that more than once I’d had people expect Fabian to be a racist. I can see why, given that he expresses sexism, classism, a bit of ableism, and disgust with physical mutations. But not only does he never express racism, he never expresses racism DESPITE AMPLE OPPORTUNITY. Think about it—his main antagonists are Magneto (Jewish) and Quicksilver (Jewish and Romani), he once personally fights Bishop (Black and Indigenous Australian) one on one, he’s on one team with Shinobi (half white, half Japanese), and his allies/underlings in the second-gen Acolytes included people who are African American, Moroccan (and Muslim-coded), and Inuit. And he never, ever, EVER even THOUGHT anything related to race (or religions that are usually implicitly tied to race) about ANY of them. Given how blatant his other prejudices are, I think he would very much let the reader KNOW if he were racist, anti-Semitic, etc. An example in canon…look, I’m sorry to bring up this dead horse again, but it is the best example that I presently have—Sebastian Shaw making the “women’s work” comment. As with Fabian, I get why it makes sense on the surface. He’s a powerful man, the proverbial rich old white guy, and he’s part of an organization where women walk around in lingerie as a general rule. It seems like it makes sense, it does, I grant that. But then if you actually look at his history…for 40 years of canon, he’s been allies and enemies with many powerful women, and never made a remark about their gender, never relegated lesser or menial tasks to them, never treated any of them differently as partners or foes, he actually never even flirts with any of them, be they opponents or partners in crime  (except that ONE issue when Emma is in Storm’s body and he kisses her…yeah that was a weird issue, why does a telepath need a gun to switch bodies?) Which is pretty unusual for a male Claremont villain. And he actually reacts with “I…see.” the one time a comrade makes a genuinely sexist remark. He doesn’t agree with him, he’s more like “wow ok I can’t believe he said that but I guess I’ll let it go since I want to recruit him” So, it’s actually VERY odd for him to suddenly say something like that, once you know the character. Especially since, like Fabian, he had TONS of opportunity in the past and he’s also not a character that most writers want to seem sympathetic or likeable. So it’s unlikely the writers were just trying to make him look good by playing down some secret sexist tendencies all this time or something. It’s more likely he just doesn’t have them BUT IS STILL A HORRIBLE PERSON! He just doesn’t need to be horrible in every way! Most people, even the MOST terrible, aren’t horrible in EVERY WAY POSSIBLE.That’s also why I try to avoid having Fabian being too homophobic (beyond “I can convert lesbians”) or transphobic, despite the fact that I *could* justify it (since those things are very intertwined with sexism)—because he’s awful enough. Giving him additional bigotries just seems stupidly redundant and cheap. Especially since I think people actually hate a bigoted character more than they hate a murderer; like I feel like if Duggan ever graduates to Shaw making a racist or homophobic remark, I might have to close his blog, but it’s fine to have blogs for fictional serial killers. By the same token, a villain having good traits doesn’t somehow eliminate their bad ones, especially if the good and bad traits are unrelated to each other. A mass murderer supervillain is not “actually a good guy deep down” because he loves his family; it’s actually VERY common for even genocidal dictators to care for their own. Hell, not to go all Godwin, but Hitler was an animal-lover and had a beloved dog. You can certainly point to good traits to show that a villain isn’t ALL bad (which as I just said, I support) but not being “all bad” isn’t the same as “actually a good person and just misunderstood!” Like, Shaw being an egalitarian in a lot of regards or was good to Madelyne Pryor or loved his father, doesn’t change he’s a heartless, morally bankrupt monster who abused his son and sold out an entire oppressed species (his own, no less) for his own financial gain. Mystique is an incredibly complex character, far more so than Shaw, but her love for Destiny and Rogue and many of her other good points don’t change that she hunted down other mutants for the government, abused her human son for not being a mutant, has committed rape by deception numerous times (though I think that’s due to the writers not realizing that’s a thing), constantly tries to manipulate her daughter’s life and choices, and I’m pretty sure I recall an issue where she framed a guy for domestic abuse just for funsies?Basically, villains are people. They have individual different traits and beliefs and motives, and those things will drive them towards individual different types of villainy. One villain probably won’t do the same kind of villainy that another does. Likewise, someone being a shitty person in one way, or many ways, doesn’t mean they will be in ALL ways. Pointing this out isn’t the same thing as denying their flaws or defending them, but some people do do this and that’s wrong too. Nuance needs to be allowed for. Pointing out Shaw isn’t awful in every way doesn’t mean I think he’s a misunderstood woobie whose crimes should all be forgiven. Pointing out Mystique has done awful shit doesn’t mean I think she’s pure evil and all her complex points should be ignored. It just means I don’t think characters should be strawmanned by fans OR writers as paragons or demons, especially when it contradicts what canon has actually established (with the caveat that canon is dumb sometimes too, and also some characters canonically ARE one extreme or the other, but I’m talking about ones who AREN’T)🔥 the hellfire clubI’ll give two on this! One is “unpopular” just in the sense it’s not something I’ve ever heard anyone express, but I’ve never heard an opinion in opposition to it either. The other is “unpopular” in that it does directly contradict a popularly held opinion.The first is that I think it’s stupid that Grant Morrisson made The Hellfire Club into a strip club, and it’s stupid that writers since depicted it this way. The Hellfire Club is shown in the 80s and 90s as being, first and foremost, an elite social club for the wealthiest and most powerful people in society. It’s basically a big posh country club, and most of its members are just regular people. Super duper rich people, but still normal people, lots of old money and new money and big business owners and politicians and probably royalty/nobility. Most of what they’re doing is big fancy, stuffy galas and balls, that kind of thing. But under the surface, it’s hinted that there is indeed a much more sexual underside to it. The female staff wear very fetishy maid costumes, the female Inner Circles literally have dominatrix lingerie as their getups, and while we actually never see what goes on beyond the closed doors in the 80s, nor was anything directly stated, the hints are definitely there that it’s as libertine in the private rooms as they are prim and proper in the ballrooms. We don’t know WHAT exactly is happening, only that it’s dark and decadent and surely sexual in some kind of “abnormal” (read: kink shaming) way.And then it turns out it’s just a strip club where the dancers wear corsets? Really? REALLY? I’m sorry, you expect me to belief that these oh-so-forbidden and secretive sexual delights that are available only to the richest and most powerful people in the world are…a TITTY BAR WITH NO ACTUAL TITTIES EVEN OUT???? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! It’s so fucking juvenile! It feels like something a 13 year old made up while trying to come up with the mos edgy, shocking, “sexy” thing he could. It just…doesn’t work. It doesn’t work firstly because it completely took away the whole “upper class veneer” that is as much an essential part of the HFC as the sex. In fact, I think more so. Writers, artists, and fans all like to focus on ZOMG THE SEXY COSTUMES but thematically speaking, I think the fact it’s an elite organization exclusive to the super-wealthy is much more important; that should be what they’re really about as villains, but writers end up focusing way too much on the shock value of the kink, and that’s how you wind up with stuff like this. The second reason it doesn’t work is that…it isn’t even shocking. When what they were doing was kept hidden, the reader could imagine no limit of decadence and depravity. When it’s revealed, and revealed as something that’s frankly super and common and TAME (seriously, strip clubs aren’t edgy these days) that you can get anywhere else, you’re left wondering why exactly anyone gives a shit about being in the HFC if this is all it really is? We should NEVER get to see what the HFC patrons truly do in private, and we should definitely never get shown that it’s just watching a woman pole dance with Victorian underwear on. That doesn’t make the HFC look sexual, it makes them look like PRUDES!Honestly, I do actually love the sexy sinful decadent aspect, but it’s overtaken the “extremely rich and powerful people trying to rule the world from behind the scenes through political and economic manipulation” aspect (which is far more interesting and villainous) that I kind of wish sometimes they had been created without the kink or colonial cosplay aspects, and instead had just worn some 80s powersuits.Now, here’s the “unpopular as in contradicts the popular” opinion. I see the Hellfire Club described a lot, in canon and fandom, as an organization of powerful MEN, as a bunch of MEN who just want to control others, as a BOY’S club…but aside from Sebastian Shaw, all the most prominent and effective members of the Club have been women? I mean, think about it. The names most synonymous with “Hellfire Club” in fandom are Emma Frost, Selene, Jean Grey as Dark Phoenix, and Sebastian Shaw. Shaw’s the ONLY dude that really gets any focus from writers OR fans; the women are almost always utilized more by writers and remembered more by fans. Heck, in the London Branch of the Hellfire Club, NONE of the male members of the Inner Circle even got NAMES, while ALL the women did. Now, of course, individual women in an organization being successful in said organization and beloved by fans/writers, doesn’t mean the organization itself can’t also be sexist. And like most people, the disparity between the costumes of both the Inner Circle and the mere staff does lead me to believe that it was probably founded and run only by men originally, and I bet women probably weren’t even allowed in for a long time (especially given that it was established in the 1700s) But that’s my HEADCANON. That’s what I EXTRAPOLATE. But what’s actually on the page IN THE PRESENT is women that are on equal footing with men, or superior to them. They’re not just simply ALLOWED in the Inner Circle, they’ve been dominating it from the first appearance with Emma ruling it alongside Shaw over Leland and Pierce, and then Selene coming in to challenge Shaw and Emma (with Shaw being terrified of her) in a way that none of the other members (all male—Leland, Pierce, Von Roehm) could. Gender is never brought up by anyone, even the most despicable male HFC members like Donald Pierce. So while I believe it was founded by sexist men, the Inner Circle seems pretty egalitarian now.But of course, there’s the costumes. I absolutely think it’s a sexist setup that the men get to wear (super ugly) period cosplay while the women are in fetish lingerie. It seems to be the standard uniform, and the fact that they haven’t CHANGED it shows that there’s definitely still some sexism.Except…it doesn’t seem to be a rule in-universe that the women HAVE to wear them? We actually see female members of the HFC, such as Selene, wearing clothing other than that while hanging out there; there’s actually a scene wear Selene is wearing pants and a sleeveless turtleneck with gloves. Maddy also wears a lot of black leather when she’s a member, but it doesn’t look like the Hellfire Club ladies getup, it looks like all the other stuff she was wearing in the 90s. And when Selene, Emma, etc., AREN’T in the Hellfire Club…they often still dress exactly like that, or in a similiar manner. I think it’s pretty clear that no one is MAKING them wear the uniforms, they just LIKE them, they’re probably “encouraged but optional” or something like that. And Emma even has that WHOLE DAMN SPEECH about how this is her armor, how it empowers her, etc. That said, while I don’t think any other CHARACTERS are making these women dress like that, I do think the writers/artists are. If a real woman made the speech that Emma did, I’d be like “ok sure, you go girl, do what feels empowering for you”. But Emma ISN’T a real woman. Every word in her mouth in that panel is being put there by Chris Claremont, a horny man with a dominatrix fetish who is trying to justify it by selling it as feminist. That is what it is. But just because that’s the case on a meta level…on an in-universe level, no one makes these women dress like this, and that’s very evident, and while the way they’re treated by writers/artists is definitely affected by them being women, the way other characters, including the Hellfire Club men, treats them, isn’t. At least not til shitty recent stuff. (I’ve seen some people think SHAW made the women dress like that….yeah, sure, like he could make SELENE do anything? He’s completely afraid of her but somehow can make her wear something she doesn’t want? Emma and Selene dress like that no matter where they are and whether they’re presently HFC members or not, but somehow he’s making them do that? HOW DOES ANYONE GIVE THIS GUY THAT MUCH CREDIT?)Basically, I think people are TRYING to be feminist, but it often ends up feeling like SEXISM to me? Because it’s totally ignoring and erasing the power and agency that these women exert in this organization, and often even claiming that it’s actually the men who have all the control, when aside from Shaw it’s usually the ladies running the show. It just seems disrespectful to me. It’s like, as much as people are claiming to hate a lack of agency for female characters, they seem more comfortable with that idea than a situation where women actually HAD it. Maybe it’s because they’re villains, maybe it’s because the costumes really are distracting and unequal no matter how the writers try to justify it (again, I wish they’d just gone with business suits), but there seems to be an overall fandom determination to insist on women like Emma Frost and Selene as victims or simply accomplices to a greater (male) villain, rather than embracing them as the Top Tier Bad Bitches they were/are, and, again, that seems more sexist to me than not. But I worry people will think I’m sexist if I say that. But you know me, you know I LOVE agency for female characters, and how I rail against it when see them ACTUALLY lacking it in comics, so you know it’s not that. I think it’s just a part of the rise in purity culture that even “progressive” people would rather see a woman forced or coerced to be a victim than choose of her own volition to be a villain and be GOOD at it :/🔥the difference between naive and unintelligent charactersWell, firstly, obviously there IS a difference. Naivete is just a lack of experience or learned knowledge, neither of which has anything to do with intelligence. A naive character may make mistakes in a new situation based on their lack of knowledge about it, and that may LOOK stupid to those who have this knowledge, but it’s not the same thing. I think we can agree that, say, Tony Stark isn’t stupid, but if he had to navigate in the wilderness, he might do things that experienced hikers and campers and outdoors people know are SUPER BAD IDEAS. Because this isn’t something he knows about or has experience with.So, I think considering characters who are new to this world (as is common in comics—lots of people from other dimensions, planets, and times) as stupid because they don’t know a lot of things we take as a given, is erroneous. I think it’s pretty common for fandom to look at, say, Longshot or Thor, and deem them as basically being idiots because they’re not familiar with their new environments…when in fact, we’d all be acting the same if we wound up in Asgard or Mojoworld. Not that there’s not other reasons they can’t be idiots, but not knowing what a toaster is isn’t one of them.The big difference is that naivete is a temporary state, and I think both writers and fans forget that. The character’s naivete will gradually decrease as they learn more and more. So if you’re writing an Avengers fic where Thor has been on Earth for five years so far, he probably knows what a toaster is, can order normally at a restaurant, isn’t confused by normal sights like cars or traffic lights or computers, etc., but could still be confused if he went to a Midgardian country with very different cultural norms than the ones he’s learned in the United States. Likewise, I can keep Malcolm perpetually baffled by new worlds in RP since time is kinda wobbly here and can be static or move forward or back as we like, but if I were writing him in a linear story, he would have to learn along the way about the technology and norms of other worlds as he experiences them; if he didn’t learn, THEN he would be unintelligent, not just naive. If he touches a hot stove once because he didn’t know what it was, and it burns him, that’s naive. If he touches it twice to test if it does the same thing again, that’s curious and maybe even smart, despite looking stupid to others. If he keeps doing it every day by accident, then THAT’S an idiot. Also, even a naive character may still be able to deduce that certain things are bad ideas, dangerous, etc. For instance, let’s say my character is a normal everyday girl sucked into a fantasy realm. She doesn’t understand the language, and the people around her don’t look like anything humanoid, but when all of them go quiet and still when a larger, more decorated one enters, and they all give it a lot of space, she can probably deduce that this is someone of great importance, and she probably should do what the others are doing and not risk pissing it off. She may know nothing about these beings or their customs, but she still can use her powers of observation and common sense. It may end up being a TOTALLY wrong move—for instance, maybe newcomers are meant to come introduce themselves to the leader by touching them–but it was a good, sensible guess. Whereas if she’d just walked up to the being and given it a good swift kick, that’d be unintelligent to an almost unbelievable point, and no amount of “she’s just naive!” could excuse it.Oh yeah, and optimism doesn’t automatically equate to naivete either. To be honest, I think that extreme cynicism is just as naive in its own way as thinking everything is sunshine and daisies, and I’d like to see this explored more in fiction rather than the perpetual “happy positive people are dumb and naive and just don’t know better, whereas the grumpy cynics are always smarter and more experienced” that media is so fond of.TL;DR Not only is naivete not unintelligence, it also should be a temporary state. It’s definitely cute to watch a naive character stumble around their new experiences, but in gaining those experiences, they’re going to become less naive, and make few mistakes. Naive characters should also still be capable of acting in ways that are sensible, even if they end up being wrong for the new situation. And being positive doesn’t automatically equate naivete either, nor does negativity equate to the reverse (and can be naive in itself)

#unpopular opinion #salt #meta #badmusesdoitwell

[weirdmarioenemies]

It’s a Super Mario Odyssey masterpost!

Sorry to take a break from the Halloween goodness, but it’s the one year anniversary of Super Mario Odyssey! Hard to believe it’s been a whole year, isn’t it? There’s no denying this game is absolutely, how do we put this, “perfect” for a lack of even better compliments, with some vast, detailed worlds, many small fun challenges, and of course, lots of cool new Weird Mario Enemies!

...But today, we aren’t going to talk about enemies at all, because what this game also has is some fantastic Weird Mario Friends! To put things simple, there’s a lot of kingdoms in the game, and most of them have their own NPCs that we all love as dearly as the many friends and foes and spooky tree aliens we’ve featured on this blogs in months past, so sit back, as all three WME mods talk about the wonderful new NPCs we see in this game!

Talking about Bonneters, Tostarenans, and Steam Gardeners is Mod Chikako!

Talking about Lochladies, Shiverians, and Moon Rabbits is Mod F Boy!

And talking about New Donkers, Bubblainians, and Volbonans is Mod Hooligon!

With that out of the way, let’s-a go!

Name: Bonneter

Mario’s grand adventure starts off on an EXTREMELY strong foot when he regains consciousness in a land populated by... g-g-g-g-GHOSTS! The precious Bonneters live in the delightfully spooky Cap Kingdom, where there is rarely a color present besides white, gray, or black, and the whole land is enveloped in a thick fog. To top it all off, the music is simply perfect for a spooky, yet friendly town of ghosts! Also, they all have British accents.

Of course, there is one Bonneter who stands out from the rest, and that is Cappy, Mario’s newest friend! He embodies the ability of the Bonneters to take the form of normal hats and Capture other beings. Yeah, it’s basically possessing people. It’s okay. It’s fun. 

What do you think is under their hat? Is it part of their body, or are they stylish? They don’t LOOK very natural, but Cappy has a few tufts of hair on his hat/head, so the answer is... I don’t know!

Also, there is no spooky-themed area in this game. The only ghosts in the entire game are your friends! Score one for ghosts!

Name: Tostarenan

Here they are... the first ever new characters we saw in Super Mario Odyssey! Remember that Switch trailer way back when? Where we saw like three seconds of Odyssey? Those three wonderful seconds? I do!

Tostarenans are, of course, based on calaveras, the decorative skulls used in the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead. They live in a cozy little town just as colorful as they are, and love nothing more than having fun and eating frozen- I mean, freezy treats!

As I’ve touched upon in their own post, Tostarenans have their own undead version, the Chincho! Which means... these are living skeletons! How does this work? They’re the same shape, so do they have exoskeletons? Again! I don’t know! But wow, that’s two sorta-spooky friend species already, huh? Like we said! This game is perfect!

Name: Lochlady

Lochladies are the world-famous fashion designers found in the Lake Kingdom... a Kingdom whose industry relies entirely on fashion! Peach/Mario’s very pretty wedding dress was made here. According to the brochure, they’re known for their flexibility but also their strength, and that’s kinda funny... they might look dainty, but these fish are strong! 

A fish? A mermaid? They’re really a bit of both. Of course mermaids are their main inspiration, but these things very clearly have scales, right? It’s nice that even the very-human designs in Mario are still a little bit silly. 

Though, I suppose the term “mermaid” wouldn’t really apply to them, since mer comes from the Latin for “sea”... instead, they’re named Lochladies... a loch, of course, being a Scottish word for a lake... Like Loch Ness! And Dorrie, the incredibly-Loch-Ness-Monster-inspired friend, even shows up here. If you ignore the fact that Lake Lamode is a French name, it all works out. 

Name: Steam Gardener

That’s no watering can! Just kidding, it is. But it’s also a robot! And most importantly, it’s a friend! Really just a wonderful combination of things to be. 

Steam Gardeners live in the Steam Gardens! They’re steam-powered! They garden! And they are very good at it. They come in different magnitudes of rustiness, but don’t worry! It seems they can very well go on forever as long as they stay charged. Their heads can be empty, but can also contain flowers or even seeds that they can dispense!

I really love the Steam Gardeners because they don’t really look like a character at all, you know? They look robotic, sure, but there’s not really much of a face or anything. And if you ask me, that makes them even more fun! The flashing lights seem to act as a face, if anything, since that’s what they point toward you while speaking. Oh yeah, they’re even asymmetrical! They’re really just a mishmosh of things that most people wouldn’t consider “cute”, but guess what! I think it’s precious! Sue me! (I would probably win because this isn’t a valid reason to sue someone!)

Name: New Donker

When the first trailer for Super Mario Odyssey came out, one thing that immediately caught everyone’s attention was the New Donkers! Usually, when humans appear in the Mario series, they are very heavily stylized, like ol’ Mario Mario himself! But these humans are hardly stylized at all, looking like your average businessperson you’d pull off the streets of New York in the 1950s!

Seeing Mario interacting with these much less stylized people is as jarring as it is hilarious, with lots of people questioning how this sort of image could be from a real Mario game. This is exactly the kind of off-the-wall wackiness we all appreciate over here!

...Of course, then there’s the question of if the New Donkers are technically human. We know Mario is human! We’ve gotten numerous statements from Nintendo that confirm it, aside from one old advertisement which listed him as “homo nintendonus.” What we really should be talking about is the New Donkers! We have no official source considering them humans, as they are exclusively referred to as “New Donkers” in-game. One statement from Nintendo says the reason Mario looks so different from the New Donkers is because “there’s lots of different kinds of people in the world,” but when the definition of “people” also includes dancing skeletons and garden robots, I think that it can be considered a pretty broad term.

Of course, even then, New Donkers and humans are obviously two very genetically-similar species capable of cross-breeding. How else do we explain Pauline?

Name: Shiverian

I love many many things in this big blue Earth of ours, but chubby seals are definitely way up there. So, these guys? Absolutely... wonderful. I love them. I love their dopey voices, I love their cute widdle faces. I love their cosy little town, and I love that they hold competitions where they literally roll around a racetrack, because they’re just that round and fat!! 

Shiverians are one of the few NPCs you can capture, too! When in Fat Seal form, you can compete in their Bound Bowl races... Humans aren’t allowed to participate, but the brochure makes it clear that only a fat seal man could survive such a race. 

And above all, I love their funky elder. Look at those shades. He’s a cool old man. He’s not like your grandpa- he’s hip!

Name: Bubblainian

I think one thing we can all appreciate here at Weird Mario Enemies Dot Geocities Dot Io is gastropods, no matter what shape or form they take. In Super Mario Odyssey, they take the form of giant French snails with flesh-lips, but better off to be a snail with weird flesh-lips than not be a snail at all, am I right gamers?

I’m glad that they picked snails as their “easy-going beach populace,” (though snails are a good choice for anything, really) but what stands out most about Bubblainians to me isn’t the Bubblainians themselves, but rather, one very particular run-down I had with one during my playthrough of the game!

Bubblainians hide in their shells whenever an enemy gets too close, a small detail I really love. However, one time when I was playing, I was wearing the chef outfit, and was running up to talk to one of these guys when without warning, it hid in its shell! I assume a nearby Gushen might’ve just gotten a little too close, but I just thought it was silly because these French snails were afraid of a chef!

You know, because escargot is a dish in France that’s made from snails and...

Well, it was funny to me at least.

Name: Volbonan

My absolute favorite world in Super Mario Odyssey has to be... New Donk City. I feel that that’s most peoples’ favorite. My immediate second choice, however, is Mount Volbono, and I just love its inhabitants to death. Before I die, you’ll see me laying down, on my deathbed saying “man, I sure love the Volbonans from Super Mario Odyssey” and then I’ll be dead.

But why do I love Volbonans so much? Well, I guess it’s just that I’ve always sort of had an affinity for inanimate object creatures (anyone who’s met me knows how much I love Vanilluxe) and Volbonans are just a perfect design for a fork character! I tried a few shots at designing fork characters in the past, but I made the dire mistake of putting the face on the part with the tines, rather than the handle, a mistake which the Volbonans so excellently fix! Really, I never considered using the tines as limbs, it’s a design that works so well that I’d be cursing myself if the Volbonans weren’t so inherently blessed in and of themselves.

Throw on the chef hats and neckerchiefs, and they go from perfect to extremely perfect, having a design befitting of their hobby of cooking! It feels weird that an entire species has a life focused on cooking, but I suppose that if you’re a giant fork in a land of giant food, there’s nothing better you can do. One of the souvenirs you can buy from Mount Volbono is a set of forks based on the Volbonans themselves! Cute! A little freaky, but still cute!

I think it goes without saying that I want the Volbonans, alongside every other Odyssey NPC, to be playable in the next Mario Kart. Let me race around the whole Mario world as a giant fork or 1950′s (ambiguously) human man!

Name: Moon Rabbit

I am summoned once again from the depths of my cave to talk about Japanese folklore, because I enjoy doing that! The Dark Side stage, unlocked after you beat the game, is also known as “Rabbit Ridge”, and features food-shaped rocks and a whole lotta bunnies... Why? You may or may not have already heard of the story of the moon rabbit (it’s pretty well-known), but in case you haven’t:

According to our friends in the east, the markings of the moon kind of resemble a rabbit pounding mochi with a mortar and pestle. And yeah, I can totally see it. Of course, Mario Odyssey very prominently features hats, and it prominently features the moon in nearly every Kingdom.... and rabbits, naturally, are pulled out of hats! It works on so many levels!

The regular Moon Rabbits aren’t all that talkative, but of course, there are some fairly notable rabbits, too! Yup, the Broodals are from the Dark Side of the moon... which might even be why they look like UFOs when they fly around in their hats. I won’t talk too much about them here, but you’ve gotta wonder... why are they so much more anthropomorphic than their fellow Moon Rabbits? Is this a Goofy/Pluto scenario?

#super mario odyssey #mario #mod chikako #mod f boy #mod hooligon

[kingsofeverything]

11/11/11

@chloehl10 @ham-palpert @reminiscingintherain​ @realitybetterthanfiction​ and @laynefaire​ tagged me in this. Thanks y’all! I’m sorry I’m such a slack ass and it’s been weeeeeeks since I drafted this half finished, soooooooooo....

 I’m going to combine and put everything under a cut.

The first 11 are from @chloehl10

1. What’s your favourite fic you’ve ever written, and why?

Don’t Want Shelter because it’s the first fic I put emotional effort into. That universe, that Harry and Louis, all of it are very vivid and alive in my head. I love them.

2. Pick three words that you think describe your works overall.

Long ass sentences 👀

3. How long does it take you to write a fic?

Depends. Writing doesn’t usually take me long but editing does.

4. What’s the hardest thing about writing?

Realizing that I’m probably never going to write some of the ideas I have

5. Do you listen to music or anything while you write? What’s normal for you when you write?

I don’t usually, but sometimes. Idk that I have a normal. I really prefer to be alone and quiet.

6. How do you come up with titles for your fics?

Songs usually. Sometimes they just come to me though.

7. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to a new writer?

Get a beta. But not just a beta. Get someone who can talk fic/plot/story with you as well.

8.  How important do you think tags are when you are publishing a fic?

Very in some ways, no at all in others. I tag mainly for readers so they know enough about the fic to decide whether or not to read. I don’t tag specific sex stuff usually though every now and then I’ll throw in ‘anal fingering’ just to mix it up. I don’t tag who tops/bottoms. I do tag with fic reccers in mind thanks to B’s @nottooldforthisship instructions!

9. Do you write for fests/exchanges? If so, do you enjoy them? If not, why not?!

I have and I do but not often. I like running them and I have done exchanges in the past but it’s not really my thing to write for them. Is that weird? I feel like it is but ehhh

10. Which work of yours are you most proud of and why?

An Unbalanced Force aka marold harold because.... idk

11. What’s next for you?

Currently working on a short pwp hiccup fic

These 11 are from @ham-palpert

1. Have you ever been burned by a WIP that never updated?  If so, describe that traumatic experience.

I have not! But more in a ehhhh I’m not too bothered way. I’ve definitely read WIPs that weren’t completed but idk I guess I love on quickly lol

2.  Speaking of WIPs, do you like writing (or reading) them?  Why or why not?

I don’t write them. As in even my fics that have been posted as WIPs (DWS and HFL) we’re completely finished aside from some editing before I started posting. I change too much when I write. That padlock in TSHU? Thought of it at the end and went back to add it to the beginning.

I will sometimes read a WIP but not often. Mainly because I don’t remember anything between updates

3.  Are you a dialogue person?  An inner-monologue person?  A heavily descriptive scene-setter?  

I think I’m gonna pass? I literally have no idea. I don’t think I heavily describe scenes but I guess that depends on the scene? This is when I send for help and ask Nic

4.  Is there a scene from a fic you’ve read that you wished you’d written/thought of first?

Not really

5.  Would you rather read a 150k angsty fic, or a 10k fluffy one-shot?

10k one shot

6.  Do you enjoy writing smut scenes?  Does it make you feel super awkward?  Do you need to have a cigarette afterwards?

Sometimes smut scenes are fun to write. Especially if there’s something different about it. Sometimes I have to be in the mood. Sometimes I feel like I need to shower after lolll

7.  Do you click through the recently updated list on AO3 or read exclusively fic recs? Or a bit of both?   

Neither. I don’t read nearly as much as I used to. I’m nowhere near caught up on Big Bang.

8.  How many words, on average, do you write a week?  Do you try to stick to writing goals?  

Oh wow. Idk! I could actually figure it out since I track my words per day. When I’m steadily writing, I’d say 10k a week is average? Probably more tbh

9.  Are you someone who comments on the fics you read (and liked)?

Yes

10.  Of all the fics you’ve written, which one came to you the easiest?

marold harold I think

11.  If you had to live in one of the AUs you created, which one would it be?

Marold harold and I’d be Kate McKinnon

these 11 are from @reminiscingintherain​ 

1. Has your writing changed now from the way it was when you started? If so, how? 

yeah definitely. more plot heavy and just better overall

2. Does anyone IRL know about your writing? If so, have they read it? 

yes, but no one’s read any of it. i almost sent tshu to my therapist lol

3. Is there anything you’ve written that you wish you hadn’t? 

no

4. Do you have a set location or setting that you have to write in? A favourite cafe? The only seat that’s comfortable?

no, i will write literally anywhere. on my phone or laptop. i like writing on my back porch when it’s not a million degrees outside 

5. What are you working on? If you can (i.e., it’s not on anon!), share five lines!

5 lines from the hiccup fic: 

When he opens his mouth to answer, Louis hiccups and flattens his hand against his chest, shaking his head. He points to his mouth, hiccups again, then again, snaps his mouth shut and pushes past Harry, who turns and follows him out of the club to the relative quiet of the street.

“You can stay, Harry.” Louis shoves his hands in the pockets of his faded jeans and turns to glance at Harry, who’s walking beside him. He hiccups and groans, kicking his foot out and stomping. “Fuck me, man. This sucks.”

6. Have you ever written something for a fic, but ended up removing a whole scene in its entirety and using it for something else?

i think so but tbh i can’t remember lol

7. Are you a linear writer? Or can you write scenes out of order and put them together at the end?

i’m a linear writer, but i will skip over parts of a scene like....... i’ll write a bunch of dialogue with nothing around it and fill in later

8. Betas/Britpickers… opinions?

always always always. i would literally not write if i couldn’t have a beta lol

9. How much do/can you write on average at any given time?

huh idk. i’m a fast writer, but i’d say like probably 1.5k a day is average for me?

10. How organised are you? Do you have lists and/or spreadsheets, or do you just wing it?

i’m the worst lol i tried to organize my google docs and that lasted like a week

11. What made you start writing? 

i was bored and i thought hmmmm wonder if i could write a fic. turns out i could!

alrighty these 11 are from layne :D

1. What is your favorite trope to write? To read?

EXES/ENEMIES TO LOVERS

2. What other fandoms do you write in/have you written in?

not a one

3. What’s one fic idea you want to read, but would never write?

i honestly don’t know because i write what i want to read

4. When do you do most of your writing - morning, afternoon, night? Which time of day do you find most productive?

i think i’m most productive in the morning, but i write when i find the time

5. Writing routine? What do you drink? Do you have a go to snack?

i don’t have a routine. i usually drink water or coffee, but occasionally vodka, wine, or beer. i don’t snack while i write but now i want to

6. Have you ever been writing something and had to get up and walk away from it? What was it and why did you have to step away?

i had to walk away from tshu because it was stressing me out that i couldn’t invent time travel irl so i wrote heading for limbo for a few weeks and went back to it lol

7. What is your most favorite scene you’ve ever written?

oooooooooooooooooooooh oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh this is such a good question and i hate it lol i absolutely HATE picking favorites of anything but i’ll say that the scene from tshu when louis shows zayn his tattoo and everything right before and after that

8.  Have you ever had an ending to a story, but couldn’t figure out how to start it? I don’t mean the typical -And they lived happily ever after - but a fully fleshed out ending with your usual writing pair, but you had no idea where to start? Did you ever write it?

nooooooope

9. What is the oddest thing you’ve ever drawn inspiration from?  

idk i think being stuck in a hurricane with no power turning into don’t want shelter was pretty odd

10. You’ve accepted a prompt to write a fic using a Whitesnake song for the title. Which song do you choose, and what is your fic’s summary?

here i go again - 70s trucker au (i’m not summarizing because i’m actually planning to write this one, though the title with be different. probably.)

11. Your most recent fic is being made into a movie. What would you change your main characters’ names to and who would you fancast to play them?

ok so i’m cheating here by picking tshu instead of my most recent fic because my most recent fic is canon pwp lol and i’m sorry but i’m so lame with actors and stuff idk anyone who’d play them. and idk about names either! SORRY LAYNE

last but not least!

these 11 are from @realitybetterthanfiction​

1. What made you realize you wanted to start writing fan fiction?

we were hanging at my parents’ house during a hurricane when they had power and we didn’t, and i was bored af and i think nic had just recently published her first fic and i was like....... huh i wonder if i can do that?

2. What fic changed you as a reader or a writer?

nic’s 5 times fic called fire and ice! i remember reading it and thinking WOOHOO PWP!!!! and then crying because she snuck all these FEELINGS in. so it made me think about writing in a different way, i guess. it can be fun and emo lol

3. What is your best writer’s block buster?

idk. haven’t really tried anything.

4. What’s the last non fan fiction book you’ve read?

uhhhhhhhhhhhhh a book about physics and space science (fic research lmaoooooooooooooooo)

5. If you had or have skills like our talented artists in the fandom, what’s one scene you would like to illustrate? (Can be your own work or another’s work)

THE JUGGLING SCENE FROM STRANDED IN A DREAM

6. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?

just keep writing! you can edit later! 

7. What’s one genre you’re hesitant to write but really want to explore?

idk i don’t think i have one? maybe aliens?

8. Would you ever cowrite with someone else? And if you have, how to you divide the work?

nic and i are trying BUT IT’S HARD AND WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING 

9. Do friends outside the fandom know you write? Are they supportive? (I hope they are!!!)

no but my husband does and is

10. What is your favorite fic Niall? (give me all the Niall!)

niall and his churros!!!!! 

11. What is your favorite supernatural category (examples, vampires, ABO, werewolves, angels, aliens). And can you give a girl some recs?

vampires!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i don’t have any recs because my faves are old and everyone knows them: madalynn_bohemia’s vampire series

#11/11/11 #11 questions #i didn't make any questions or tag anyone

[chasholidays]

Time stamp, Forever and/or down in flames universe, prompt: future

Original fic here!

“I think I have a career,” says Clarke, in the same way other people might say I think I have cancer. Well, not quite that bad; there’s more shock than upset in her tone, a kind of disbelief that something like this could happen to someone like her. Pregnancy might be a better analogy, something that could be good or bad but she’s too surprised to know yet.

Regardless, he mostly finds it hilarious. “Did you not know? I thought you knew or I would have told you.”

He does get why Clarke is surprised about her career in general, he’s just not sure why it hit her now. A few months after they got married, she started a webcomic, something that’s half slice of life and half weird doodles of mythical creatures doing errands, and somehow it really took off. Raven deserves a lot of the credit for the initial jump in popularity, since Clarke is incapable of figuring out online self promotion, but once she got enough instagram followers, she stopped really needing to do much. She’s made some merchandise and takes commissions, and has enough that she can pay Raven to help with her with her homepage and other stuff.

It’s not a great career, not making her rich, but it’s enough that she’s gotten rid of most of her part-time jobs and is making a living as something like a professional artist.

It is definitely very weird and confusing; he just assumed that she would have noticed that sooner.

“I keep waiting for someone to notice I’m not actually funny,” Clarke admits.

“You’re kind of funny,” he says, and she laughs.

“Thanks, babe. Your support always means the world to me.”

He raises his arm and she tucks herself under it, snuggling in. “I think you’re funny,” he says. “But a lot of the comic is kind of–absurd,” he finally says. “It’s not about making jokes, it’s about being fucking weird. As it turns out, people think our lives are just kind of inherently funny. Which they are. You’re not coasting on unearned success here, Clarke. You work hard on your art, I know you do.”

“I know. This just wasn’t really what I pictured myself doing, I guess. I thought making it as an artist was going to be–”

“Your art hanging in a museum.”

“Something I could show my mom to prove I made the right choice.”

“And you can’t show her the webcomic?”

“I could tell her about the book.”

Bellamy freezes. “The book?”

“That’s how I know I have a career, yeah. Raven just told me. A publisher is interested in putting together a print version of the webcomic, with some exclusive content, a certain percentage of new strips, stuff like that. The email has all the details.”

“So you already agreed?”

“I wanted to surprise you. Do you not think I should do it?”

He laughs and tugs her closer. “No, of course I think that. Honestly, I’m just amazed you kept it quiet.”

She rolls her eyes. “I can keep secrets. And it wasn’t hard, I got most of the emails while you were at work. It did kind of suck to not tell you, but I got advice from Raven. And I figured it would be, you know. Cool.”

“It is cool. I’m really proud of you. Do I need to do anything? What’s your deadline? When does it get published?”

Clarke laughs, soft, and kisses his shoulder. “We’ve still got a while to go. I’m probably going to be a mess for a while while I try to get everything done.”

“You?” he teases. “A mess? What a concept.”

“Shut up. A new kind of mess. A mess with purpose. I’m turning over a new mess leaf.”

“Wow. That’s going to be something. Can’t wait to see what new horrors that will bring.”

She elbows him. “It’s going to be awesome.”

“It is.” He kisses her hair. “My wife, the published author.”

“Don’t jinx it. I still have to write the book in time.”

“You’re going to,” he says. “I’m not worried.”

“That makes one of us.”

“New leaf, remember? It’s going to be fun.”

She shakes her head, smiling a little. “Sure. Fun.”

*

There’s no particular reason that Clarke’s book should cause any kind of seismic shift in Bellamy’s life, but that’s not really the cause of the shift, he doesn’t think. It’s hard to not occasionally take a step back and think about where he is and where he’s going, and given what his actual life looks like, it’s pretty easy to feel like a lowkey failure.

Really, the odder thing is that every time he does this, he finds his life is actually in amazingly good shape. He and Clarke might not be great adults, but they’ve cleared more hurdles of adulthood than a lot of his friends have, without even trying. They’re married, they’re homeowners, they have a dog. Bellamy has a steady job in his field, and Clarke has a good gig of her own. They have a savings account that they actually put money into every month. They’re not getting rich, but they’re stable, even upwardly mobile. Against all logic and reason, he thinks he and Clarke are doing well.

Which is honestly what freaks him out the most, and what he doesn’t quite know how to explain to anyone.

“It’s like when you beat a video game and you’re running around doing all the bonus content because you’re not ready to be done yet, but you know you kind of did everything?” is the approach he tries with Miller, who does not look impressed.

“So what you’re saying is you already beat life and now you want the DLC? Yeah, I can see why you don’t want to tell people that.”

“Seriously, you know what I mean, right? I don’t know where we go from here. It’s not bad, just–weird.”

“I feel like the next logical step is kids, but I’ve met you and Clarke and I’m not convinced reproduction is a good idea.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure either. I like kids, but I don’t know if we actually need to have any of our own. I’m amazed we keep the dog alive.”

Miller snorts. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re all shocked about that one.”

“It’s not like I’m complaining. My life is awesome and I’m happy. But it’s weird feeling like I don’t have anything to work for.”

“Promotions,” Miller says. “Another dog, I don’t know. I get it,” he adds. “I’m not there yet, but it makes sense. But dude, it’s like you’ve never even seen Tangled. Find a new dream.”

He pauses. “How many times have you seen Tangled?”

“That movie is fucking solid,” says Miller. “Good luck with your stupidly perfect life.”

“Thanks. I’m doing my best with it.”

*

Clarke working on a book honestly isn’t really functionally different from Clarke working on anything else, at least not from what Bellamy can tell. Her hours are as bizarre as ever, and she still has ink-stained fingers and a penchant for falling asleep on anything.

But there is a change in her too, even if it’s harder to detect. She takes the book seriously in a way that she’s never taken anything else seriously, for all she’s always been dedicated to her art. The book means something to her that he hasn’t figured out yet, that he’s not sure how to figure out.

At least, not until his conversation with Miller, after which he asks, “So, is this book like your final boss?”

She’s reviewing some of her old comics to see which she wants to put in, almost completely engrossed. “What?”

“The book. Is it the culmination of your life or something?”

She snorts. “I hope not.”

“It’s something, though. Not that it shouldn’t be, but–”

Finally, she stands, her entire body cracking as she stretches. She’s been sitting on the floor so much he’s starting to worry about the long-term effects on her body. If they didn’t have the dog to force them to go on walks, he’s not sure how much fresh air she’d even get.

“This is a lot, even for you,” he says, and she flops onto the couch next to him.

“Yeah, I know. I think it’s probably residual–it’s an assignment, and I was a straight-A student. I want to do my best on it. And do extra credit.”

It makes sense, but it doesn’t feel quite sufficient. “Have you told your mom about it yet?”

Her discomfort is immediate and obvious as she shifts a little, frowning. Clarke and her mother are on better terms than they were when she and Bellamy first met, but it’s still hard. He remembers from his own childhood how long it can take to recover from a loss like that, how the fallout can sometimes feel even worse than the event, or at least different and awful in its own way. Clarke and her mother don’t want to be enemies, but Clarke likes her life, and he has to admit it doesn’t look great from the outside.

Even from the inside, it can sometimes be pretty grim.

“Not yet. I thought I’d just send it to her when I got author copies or whatever.”

“That won’t be for a while yet.”

“It’s not like we talk that much,” she points out. “I kept it a secret from you and we live together and talk all the time. It’s not going to be hard to not tell my mom. She asks what I’m working on and I say the usual. Which isn’t even a lie,” she adds, before he can try to protest. “Because this is definitely what I always do.”

“It is. I wasn’t going to say that. I just feel like I don’t get how you feel about this book.”

“And you want to understand every feeling I have?”

“No, fuck that. I just don’t like not knowing shit. And this one’s bugging me.”

“It’s not the only thing.” She nudges him with her elbow. “I’ve definitely noticed you acting weird too.”

“Yeah?”

“Not even going to deny it?”

“No. I’m having a weird crisis.”

“Define weird crisis. Do you want to buy a sports car?”

“Not really. But is it weird if I feel like we should be buying something? Or maybe just me, I don’t know.”

“I don’t have enough information to tell you how weird that is. What do you want to buy? Why do you want to buy it? Is this just capitalism?”

“No.” He rubs his face. “Fuck, I don’t know what I want. If I did, I would have bought it already.”

“Oh, wow, this is actually bugging you. I thought you were just being normal grumpy, but this is something different, huh?”

“Yeah. I don’t think it’s the same as your thing, though. My thing might be the next step, after you finish your book.”

“So this is a grim vision of the future, huh?”

“Learn from me.”

“You need to tell me what I’m learning first.”

“Our lives are awesome and I’m happy, but when I think about–what we’re aiming for in five years, ten years, fuck, thirty years, I have no idea what we’ll be wanting.”

“And that’s bad,” she says, slow.

“It’s weird for me,” he admits. “I think it’s just taken me a while to notice that all of the stuff I used to be working for–I’ve got it now. Good job, steady income, retirement fund. Awesome wife, nice condo, stupid dog. I’m so fucking happy, but it feels like I have everything I want.”

“You definitely don’t,” says Clarke, immediately.

He snorts. “Wow, just like that, huh?”

“I mean, I know what you mean, but what we’ve got is–the big stuff, I guess. The flashy stuff. My dad used to call it the money can’t buy happiness stuff.”

“Your dad had a name for this?”

“I mean, not this. But the general idea. He said that when people said money can’t buy happiness, they’re taking for granted all the stuff they wouldn’t have if they didn’t have money. Food and shelter and all that. So I’m going to say you are officially at the point where you have all the happiness money can buy.”

“You say that, but I don’t own a private jet.”

She rolls her eyes, as he deserves. “You don’t want a private jet.”

“No, I don’t,” he grants. “So, you’re saying that life is awesome and it’s time for me to find a new place to get validation?”

“Or just find a new hobby. Maybe you could write a book. I don’t know, you can figure it out. But I’m pretty sure in the next thirty years, we’re going to find awesome stuff to do.”

“And you’re going to prove to your mom that your life is good?”

She sighs. “I get that my life doesn’t seem great to her, but her life doesn’t seem great to me either. It would be cool if this book was, like–the intersection of what I think is good and what she does. We can all agree that a book is an accomplishment.”

“It is.” He kisses her hair. “Your mom’s going to be proud of you, no matter what. I’m pretty sure she already is.”

“And you’re going to come up with something new to want to do.” She frowns. “It’s not kids, right? This wasn’t some weird, roundabout way of telling me you think we should have a baby or something, right?”

“Honestly, I’m pretty sure we should never reproduce, yeah. Unless you want that.”

She nudges her nose under his jaw. “I think we could just get a bigger place and more pets. If we’re looking for things to aspire to.”

As aspirations go, they feel pretty small, but like Clarke said, they really have all the big stuff. They’re healthy and happy and more well off than they deserve to be. They can’t afford a house now, but in a few years, if he gets promotions and Clarke’s book does well, it’s probably within the realm of possibility.

“So, I have to find a new dream, huh?” he asks.

“And I have to write an awesome book. As problems go, they’re pretty awesome ones.”

He kisses her hair, smiling. “Yeah, you’re right. I bet we can work through it.”

After all, they are, somehow, good. They’ve got this.

#hedaoftheskaikru

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: So I’m a Spider, So What? Voice Actors Shun Horie and Kaito Ishikawa

The upcoming Crunchyroll Originals series So I’m a Spider, So What? will be making its way to Crunchyroll in January 2021 and to celebrate the upcoming release, today we are publishing some exclusive interviews with the voice cast of the show! If you want to check out the original Japanese interview, you can do so right here. In this interview, voice actors Shun Horie (Kazuya Kinoshita in Rent-a-Girlfriend, Enta Jinnouchi in Sarazanmai) and Kaito Ishikawa (Naofumi Iwatani in The Rising of the Shield Hero, Tenya Iida in My Hero Academia) talk about their upcoming roles as Shun and Hugo, giving voice acting advice to each other, and more! Also be sure to check out the interview with “I (Kumoko)” voice actor Yuuki Aoi right here!

  The translated text follows.

    The TV anime So I’m a Spider, So What? is set to begin airing in January 2021. We’ve interviewed the main cast for a special program to be aired right before the series premiere. Our second interview features Shun Horie-san, the voice of Shun, and Kaito Ishikawa-san, the voice of Hugo! What drama will unfold between Shun, with his overwhelming sense of justice, and Hugo, who sees him as his enemy?

  What was your first impression of the series?

  Horie: I read it out of a personal interest. In most isekai stories, only the main character gets reincarnated in a new world, so seeing all the main character’s classmates also get reincarnated was new to me. It’s divided between Kumoko’s side of the story and the hero’s side, and it’s also interesting how the two storylines frequently seem like they should overlap but don’t. It was like reading two fun stories in one.

  Ishikawa: I also thought the way it was divided between Kumoko’s perspective and the hero’s was really creative. It’s fun to think about which side of the story you should give more of your focus to, plus it’s interesting to see what kind of foreshadowing happens and to imagine how it’ll come into play later. It’s definitely a story that keeps you wondering what’ll happen next.

  Shun (voiced by Shun Horie)

  Then what impressions do you both have of Horie-san’s character, Shun?

  Horie: Shun is the fourth prince of the Kingdom of Analeit, and both before and after reincarnating, he’s the type whose strong sense of justice won’t let him ignore anyone who’s weak or in need. In his previous life, though, he didn’t immediately condemn people who were bullying others, but tried to approach everyone openly and without any bias. That made me think he was a very kind guy who treated others as equals.

Ishikawa: I actually auditioned for Shun’s part as well, so Horie-kun’s Shun seemed a lot softer and gentler than I was expecting. He does have the spirit for saving the weak and the strength to follow through on it, not to mention lots of friends and acquaintances who adore him, so at a glance, he seems like this amazing hero. But he also has the naivete and artlessness of an ordinary kid with a strong sense of justice who just happened to obtain incredible power.　

Horie: Right, the sound director told me about that during my audition. I tried to portray him as the archetypal hero, strong and gallant with high enthusiasm, and the sound director asked me to bring down the “strong” quality a bit. During episode 1’s recording, too, I went through a lot of adjustments with the director and other crew to make sure Shun would sound like his own brand of hero, not too strong but not too weak.　

  Ishikawa: I didn’t know that.

  Horie: Yeah. I was also told to play up 　his admiration for his older brother Julius a bit more. Once, during recording, the director asked me why I chose Shun’s part to try out for, and my answer was, “Because I seem to have a fitting voice for people with brother complexes” (lol).

  (All laugh)

  Horie: The hero side of him is important too, but they also wanted to portray the depth of his love for Julius. For that reason, I’ve been putting more emphasis on the overflowing love that Shun has, and especially his admiration for Julius.

  Hugo (voiced by Kaito Ishikawa)

  And what about Ishikawa-san’s character, Hugo?

  Ishikawa: I’m trusting that no one will get the wrong idea when I say my first impression was, “I really don’t like this guy (lol)!”

  Horie: You’ve been saying that for a long time (lol).

  Ishikawa: In total contrast with Shun, he’s an extremely self-righteous, self-obsessed guy. You really get the sense that he’s the kind of character who was designed to inspire disgust and rub people the wrong way just by watching him. As an example of one finer detail, I make sure his chewing sounds are really pronounced whenever he’s eating something. I feel like the director really wanted viewers to feel repulsed by him, and make sure everyone would perceive Shun as “good” and Hugo as “bad.” As a prince, Hugo has grown addicted to his own remarkable talents, and it’s made him arrogant, so he seems less like a mere rival and more like “THE bad guy.”

Horie: He definitely seems evil when I see him normally, but when I look at him from Shun’s perspective, I also kind of pity him. No matter how hard he tries to become stronger, there’s always going to be a hero he can never surpass, and that must be a really painful way to live life. Although Shun’s fairness and lack of bias might just irritate Hugo even more...

Ishikawa: Yeah, from Shun’s perspective, Hugo might just be someone who’s worthy of pity. But as far as Hugo’s part goes, it’s really important that all the viewers are repulsed by him, so I’ve been trying to act him out in a way that no one could have any sympathy for. To put it another way, I think it’s important to not be overly conscious of how he works and what he thinks. We already have Shun as the embodiment of goodness, and then there��s Kumoko with her positivity. If I portray him as a redeemable character, it would throw off that balance, and it’s quite clear that his bitterness toward Shun accumulates over the course of the story, so I’m taking great care to portray him as an evil character.

      Since the two of you are senpai and kouhai from the same agency, do you ever consult one another for advice or guidance during your recording sessions?

Horie: I don’t usually ask any of my senpai for advice, including Ishikawa-san. I tend to feel like I need to find all my answers for myself. What about you, Ishikawa-san?

Ishikawa: I’m the opposite. If there’s anything I’m not clear on, I’ll immediately ask for guidance. I’ve started to enjoy finding answers for myself more and more, but back when I had just made my debut, I’d go out for drinks with my senpai after every recording session and say things like, “This is the kind of expression I’m going for. Why isn’t it coming out that way? What am I doing wrong?”

Horie: Oh, wow!

Ishikawa: I tried out lots of different things, even stealing my senpai’s techniques, in the sense that I wanted to know exactly how they construct their acting. Once I knew their method, I could try it for myself and find out whether it gave my acting the senpai’s flavor or my own flavor. And if I didn’t like the result, I’d think up a new method. In a way, it’s kind of like playing a video game.

  Does everyone on the hero’s side record together?

  Ishikawa: Yes, Horie-kun and I have been recording together from the start.

  Horie: We also frequently record with Kitamura Eri-san, who plays Fei. Given the state of the world right now, we don’t all get to record together every time, but having our recording sessions separate from Yuuki (Aoi)-san, who plays Kumoko, actually worked out well since it made it easier for us to become immersed in the world that the hero’s side experiences.

Ishikawa: Apparently, keeping us separate from the actors on Kumoko’s side was what the sound director wanted in the first place.

  Horie: I’m excited to see how the two sides will eventually connect.

    Are there any characters on the hero’s side that interest you?

  Horie: Both as Shun and as a viewer, I’d have to say Hugo interests me the most. Seeing how the conflict between them unfolds creates a lot of drama, especially early in the series. Other than him... I guess I’d say Yuri.

  Ishikawa: Yuri is scary!

  Horie: She’s the one that seems the most dangerous to me. She’s a follower of the Word of God religion, but she’s a bit of a fanatic. I kind of enjoy what a mental case she is, though (lol).

Ishikawa: In terms of contrasting personality traits, I think Shun’s younger sister Sue is cute, too. She normally comes across as cool and aloof, but she’s very attached to Shun, calling him “Nii-sama” all the time.

  Horie: She’s very wary of other girls around Shun. But you know, they’re all classmates, so sometimes I wish she’d stop acting so threatening toward them and try to get along.

  Ishikawa: I’m also interested in Katia, who used to be a boy but reincarnated as a girl. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to the male spirit within her as she goes through life as a girl, what happens between her and Shun since they’re together so often, and how Higashiyama (Nao)-san will act out her thoughts and feelings.

  Thank you very much. Lastly, could you share a message with the fans who are looking forward to the anime?

  Ishikawa: As you could guess from the title, So I’m a Spider, So What? is about a spider and her fierce efforts to get by. I’m looking forward to seeing how a tiny spider’s battles might appear on the screen, and I hope all the fans will, too. Also, there’s a lot of drama unfolding in the relationships on the hero’s side, and I hope everyone will watch for that, as well.

  Horie: I think this is going to be a completely new sort of isekai series that follows two storylines at the same time. Each episode is limited to a 30-minute time slot, but the story is so dense that it surpasses that limitation, so I hope everyone will look forward to seeing how each of the characters contributes to the richness of the story.

      Kyle Cardine is an Editor for Crunchyroll. You can find his Twitter here.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[analytic-chaoticism]

HIVESWAP: ACT 1 LAUNCH TRAILER And Press Kit Analysis

When I saw this video in my subscriptions on a humble Wednesday morning I thought the game dropped without warning on a school day and I was going to hypershit into the nth dimension and I’ll be discussing the Hiveswap press-kit exclusive screenshots so buckle up this is probably going to be a thicc bih

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAEs-NlcRtU 

First, we have the thumbnail, which is great. In case anybody was confused (because I’ve seen a lot of confusion) Dammek’s beam is red, not orange, as in the red/green cherub dichotomy. I really like this piece it’s AesthetiqueTM (which is something I’ll say about this game a lot), I like how they’re just ogling each other as they hurtle through space and time, and I like how you can see Hauntswitch reversed behind Hiveswap. You just know in the Hauntswitch launch trailer we’ll get a reverse of this shot. 

Sorry that the following pictures all got compressed ew

Not much to this besides noting the sacrilegious Signless plush, which is great and I hope will be official merch one day. Just thought I’d point it out because it’s The BestTM and I’ll address now the fact that everything that was branded has been fictionalized (which would have taken a long ass time to change everything which accounts for some delay time) and I’m not sure if they were threatened with copyright or if they were just hedging their bets but that’s what’s happened. 

Oh hey look a mysterious fucking Nuclear MissileTM dropping from the fucking sky. Note that we’re working with a dark blue and light purple palette here (which will be relevant in a few frames). 

These monsters (which I call antiguardians) are either really easily startled (which makes sense because they legitimately don’t have eyes - note that the no-eyes trend has been bucked for animals and adults in Hiveswap so these things are legit just blind I think) or are just as scared as Joey as she is of them (or enemy varieties have different personalities and the T-Rex arm-leg beans are just TimidTM. I can see this one being the case and it’s cool and interesting so hopefully).

The return of the dark blue and light purple palette. We keep returning to these scenes of fear and destruction throughout the first half of the trailer, and @theenglishmanwithallthebananas and I are willing to bet the nuke from earlier was what destroyed Xefros’ neighbourhood, which would explain how everything got fucked up so quick and why he’s so scared in these sequences. 

hi,m., angery,, . 

Bye bitch. In case anyone was interested, the red and green stripes turn blue and yellow for some reason, and whether that’s a nod to trickster palettes or will be developed as colour imagery later is yet to be seen. Also this portal looks... amazing. The art in this game is phenomenal and I really really love the lighting it’s so high quality and everything is good and this portal design is rad.

The closest view of the weird neighbour mansion we’ve seen so far. I can’t say yet how prominently events on Earth will feature during Hiveswap (but for a cohesive narrative with the games playable in either order they have to affect each other somehow, especially considering how what happens on Earth has to be as important and predestined as what happens on Alternia), but we probably won’t see much of this for a while. Looks cool tho. And big. Real big. 

Every good game needs a good death screen. Now I won’t say that antiguardians can’t shapeshift, but all of the ones we’ve seen have flat teeth and don’t have mouths this big, which makes me think this is perhaps the first boss encounter of the game? A giant antiguardian? Maybe an upgrade on the centipede enemy. 

Xefros panicked, traumatized, and roughed up by the destruction of an entire fucking neighbourhood. I’m assuming that the cherub portal survived, if not all of Dammek’s hive - considering that his lusus is still around after this. I hope Xefros’ house was lucky enough to make it too if Dammek’s survived the blast, being across the street from each other and all. If it didn’t... that means bye bye sloth, which will make me real fucking sad (but doesn’t line up with concept art we’ve seen of the sloth walking with the trio, unless that’s been changed as we haven’t seen it in the trailers). Of course, this could be another neighbourhood, as we saw the destroyed areas in concept art from Dammek’s lusus’ back, meaning they already rode it somewhere. Who knows what this is. I just hope the sloth is okay. Please. Also I love Xefros’ hive???? so??????? let them be okay.

What the fuck is this Actual TesseractTM????????? We’ll come back to this later, but we will say now that it’s most likely that Joey finds this on Alternia after arriving at Dammek’s hive (considering it interacts with his doors). @theenglishmanwithallthebananas noted that it looks like a “perfectly generic object but useful” which is so true and thematically really interesting (and likely intentional). I can’t wait to see more with this Mystery BoxTM. 

In case anyone was confused like I was, Jude’s text is now light green and Joey’s light blue. This palette swap is the same as John and Jade’s and I love it. I don’t know when this change was made but I never noticed and I am here for it. There’s some gerbil tubes on the wall, so unless those are used for a transport system, the Harleclaires have more pets than Tesseract and

OH MY GOD I JUST REALIZED THEIR DOG WAS CALLED TESSERACT AND

WHAT DOES JOEY FUCKING FIND

God fucking dammit I swear to God... If the likely plot-critical Glow CubeTM is actually called ‘the tesseract’ I’m going to have a conniption of fucking course this would happen. ANYWAY. Potential rodents, not just Tesseract and the pigeons. Also notice the captain mummy off to the right who survives to become one of Grandpa’s esteemed foyer couch guests. 

This is possibly an entry-level style of puzzle, where Joey dances hard enough to JiggleTM the environment and Make Things HappenTM. A cool use of her dancing mechanic I really like it. 

Y O U T H R O L L also???????????????????? why is Dammek such a fucking nasty boy? We’ll see how fucking FilthyTM it gets in the next frame but he really needs to do some dishes (I’m not sure how he affords them all as a bronze but he also has 1000000000000 guns so hey). I love his deercat lusus so so so much and I want to know how it feels having another of the same lusus taxidermied and used as a fucking sockrack in it’s son’s basement. This is the recording area from promotional art we’ve seen, Xefros and Dammek are cool and good moirails, Dammek needs to do his laundry as well as his dishes, the Bandcestors print exists in-universe, there are some references in the other posters I don’t get, and trolls eat giant bugs in stew which is gross and I’m absolutely not here for it at all. 

Look at all these dishes. And all these guns. Wow are there a lot of guns. I mean I guess rebels need guns but... that’s still a lot to just have lying around. Maybe he has a riflekind specibus. The same dark blue/light purple sky as the missile shot is seen through the window so we definitely know the missile is on Alternia, and we can see one of Trizza’s cool imperial drones skulking around ominously too. I really love their design. Other things of note here are a potential microwave and those cool headphones which curve out for his horns. How are those sold? Horns don’t all grow in the same spot, so are headphones custom made, or are there a set amount of standard areas that horns grow from and you can get different headphone styles designed for each? It’s attached to some sort of Walkman. 

My favourite shot from this trailer. I love Xefros’ room. The lighting is again, fantastic, and also really concerning. Pool balls on the wall, on the floor, in the lights... Obvious connections to LE and it makes sense if you consider Doc Scratch’s involvement. We know Xefros is a Sports BoyTM (we can see his helmet and uniform in the back there) and we know he’s a butler (nice to see the cutlery and proper cutlery position chart on the wall) and I was thinking that billiards is a real sort of refined sport which would align with his gentlemanly image and - if he’s influenced by Doc Scratch, a very gentlemanly aesthetic’d individually who likes to raise proper servants - possible outside interference. I love his little butler suit. His bunk recuperacoon is nice. I like how the UI changes between humans and trolls. I like the telekinesis button design. I like how he has a FLARP manual (FLARPing My Chemical Bromance please), and this writing is fantastic. It really speaks to troll society in a really succinct and witty way which is reminiscent of the earlier Homestuck style and will be great for exposition and I can’t wait to see more. Cohen seems really capable and I can tell the writing will be fantastic already. Also of note is the athlete poster who seems to play the same sport he does based on the gear, and the sexy poster by his recuperacoon. His recuperacoon is a cool shape too, it actually looks really comfy in that reclined upright position. That would be so good for me RN because I am sick and My SinusesTM are Not Happy With Lying DownTM. I absolutely love Xefros’ hive (I just adore those pink and blue trees, and also treehouse houses) so I can’t wait to see more. I really just can’t wait for a lot of stuff.

Rebelgram. I wonder how many messaging systems there’ll be in this game (if we want to count Prongle as messaging). I like the style and simplicity of this UI, as well as text option convenience. Speaking of, we see some rudimentary dialogue choices which I’m sure will get more complex and interesting as the story and relationships progress. Quirk wise, it seems Xefros uses perfect grammar with no capitalization besides ‘X’, removes ‘e’ from ‘ex’ pairs, and uses ‘X’ in his emojis for his horns. I’d like to note that ‘X;)?’ is probably Joey being confused about the use of the ‘X’ as me and @theenglishmanwithallthebananas looked into together last night and Joey could very feasibly be familiar with emojis considering the date of their invention preceding 1994. I’m excited to see more websites in-game, like troll!eBay, which will potentially make for an interesting mechanic. 

Dammek’s bedroom is a mess too. We can see another gun in the foreground as Joey climbs out of this vent (presumably from the basement), and another fucking dish stack. There’s a giant hole in the floor and ceiling from the cherub portal beam. His recuperacoon is fucking WeirdTM and... I honestly have... no idea?????????????? how you get in that or why it has so many oddly placed holes (and speaking of how it retains the sopor slime?). There’s a weird magenta box there and I’m really not sure what it could be. A drum set up the back there, and... are those more guns by the window? Really. Where the fuck did he get all these guns? Troll!eBay? More posters in here: Grubbels on the ceiling on the right, some more deercat lusus stuff. Troll!Judge Dredd. Troll!Robocop. I don’t recognize the two at the back, but I do know the troll!Anarky symbol (I feel like that might specifically be a Batman reference because of the antihero/gritty-inclined superhero theme going on here? Could very easily just be a normal anarchy thing tho). 

Here we see what I think is meant to be a troll!Terminator poster which I swear we saw in HS cuz I remember those horns but I might? be crazy. Another gun is held above the door, which is locked by a biometric bypassed by the tesseract (which goes dark in the next few frames). It’s too small to see because unfortunately these screenshots all compressed, but during this sequence, the cube emits some white sparks, as if the whole ‘lime green and probably really important’ stuff didn’t already make it look related to first guardians/the Green Sun. I’m not sure why it loses power here but... I mean it’s interesting. There’s also a model of a troll getting abducted which is of course A Very Funny CoincidenceTM. From all of these posters I’m getting a very strong Lawless Law, Moral Code, Violent Disestablishment And Vigilante Action vibe for Dammek, which makes sense considering he’s a rebel (potentially a leader??? with all these weapons and the infamy of the Grubbels? with in-world merch? how is that allowed?), and I’m sniffing some Mind on this boy, but obviously that’s super tentative bare bones. 

Wow this is beautiful. 

Fucking same.

So that’s the trailer! I figure I might as well also go over the presskit while we’re here: 

https://www.hiveswap.com/press-kit

None of the info provided here is new, but to recap: Hiveswap takes place in 1994 as a prequel to HS and the birth + arrival of the beta kids on Earth, who will get here in... two years. Enough time for Grandpa to pack up shop and ditch the wife (is Anna Claire still alive?). Every item combination is possible with unique flavour text (I can’t wait to extend the standard 4-5 hour play by testing everything), there’s at least one third wave ska song, frenemies is a possible relationship option (quadrants please and thank you), and Hiveswap and Hauntswitch will be playable in either order. Moving on to those good exclusive screenshots: 

So many dead animals. I find the bear/deer combination quite tasteful myself, as well as the bull head and hooves mounted above the fucking door. Wow that wolf, am I right? Really happy to see ‘play haunting x’ is still a thing, and I’m excited to see what recurring commands/gags pop up in these games. The rug coordination in this household is awful but I love it and the texturing on these things is fantastic. I’d also like to draw your attention to the corned of the shot, in the back corner above the arrow on the piano and behind the stair rails: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVEQ3v9RRR0

It’s this monster from the concept art in the asset reel that came out oh my God 2 years ago. Anyway, it looks lime green in the former screenshot, and if there’s one thing I know about exotic snake monsters (which we’ll get back to in a second) and Grandpa, this is probably a new denizen minion, and subsequently a hint at a new denizen design! Nothing else on Earth looks this cool, right? With the colouration and AesthetiqueTM I considered this being an Abraxas minion but Abraxas looks - from Jake’s browser - to be bird themed so that doesn’t quite line up, but the prospect of finding minions for more denizens and thus new denizen designs in the Harlehouse is really exciting to me. Basically this is all just Really Fucking ExcitingTM. Also trust me to focus on this one background thing.

Here we see the fight with the centipede antiguardian in the basement which we see later that Joey is in to turn the power back on:

I’m still really here for dance combat and this game’s beautiful art and insane attention to detail. Most of note for me here are the Typheus minion head and what I’m 100% positive is a Cetus minion head (purple narwhal AKA purple whale AKA Cetus). Although Cetus was never shown Rose’s browser showed a human woman head so if denizen minions can vary a bit from their denizens design then perhaps that snake on the stairs up there is related to Abraxas. I feel like of all the denizens to include a nod to, the one associated with the cherubs - so potentially a Yaldabaoth minion too? - makes sense. 

More messy rugs and I still love how ugly and tasteless it is. I also love this little blue lady corner with the tiger skin armchair by the French doors we’ve got here. There is so much illegal game in this house. 

God bless these family photos (pretend Joey is standing on those stairs a little more - I’m fine with the models not quite lining up considering it’s 2D). As we saw in the photo of Grandpa and the buffalo by the piano, it seems Joey and Jude specifically decorate Grandpa’s hunting photos. But I don’t think this is because it unnerves them:

Once again the art and lighting in this game is phenomenal. But Joey seems quite excited by all these dead things so no I don’t imagine the hunting bothers her very much. That’s funny to me because Joey wants to be a vet, so maybe the excitement is just standard for one of her dance cycles and she’s not actually normally very happy about all the dead things. I guess we’ll see. Note the katana below the orange cat. @Dirk next time Grandpa. It’s cool to see more nods to the alphas and the environmental storytelling is going to be great in this game. 

I like how Jude’s calling the antiguardians the cryptid vanguard and I almost want to do the same. 

I only just realized that we’ve seen all this gerbil tubing before but it’s what got me to freak out about Tesseract so I’ll leave that in there. I’m still not really sure how the combat system works at all from what we’ve seen but it looks interesting UI-wise and I really like the death bubbles that pop up at collision points. It’s a cool skull graphic I think we only saw once in Homestuck, and that one on the left looks a bit like the ~ATH face.

Also wow that bat thing has a manly chin.

I love Jude a lot. 

These theatrical encounter screens are still great.

All in all: WOW! SO MUCH STUFF! WOW! GREAT! I’M! E!X!C!I!T!E!D IF YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED. Hopefully you enjoyed my thoughts and I’ve pointed out some details or ideas you might have missed. I’m also sorry for being too lazy to edit out the YT bars on the trailer screenshots but hey whatever.

This game looks so fantastic and I can’t believe it’s going to be here in 13 days after I’ve waited for so long (since 2013) and I’m just... yeah this is going to be cool. 

Stay tuned for more Hiveswap theorizing and coverage, which will only increase by a Whole Fucking LotTM when the game actually comes out. Hopefully I’ll be hot on the scene the day it drops but that’s also a Friday so I might lose some time at school but we’ll see how it goes. 

For reference, I will be tagging Hiveswap spoilers as ‘HS spoilers’ and/or ‘Hiveswap Spoilers’ in the future. 

My Hiveswap theories are here:

Antiguardians: http://analytic-chaoticism.tumblr.com/post/164851214030/hiveswaps-antiguardians-possibly-solving

Horror: http://analytic-chaoticism.tumblr.com/post/158878144610/hiveswap-and-horror-possibility-of-scary-segments

Plot: http://analytic-chaoticism.tumblr.com/post/155283894895/hiveswap-cherubs-fantrolls-first-guardians

The Handmaid/Doc Scratch: http://analytic-chaoticism.tumblr.com/post/154670995195/the-handmaid-in-hiveswap-homestuck-ancestors-in

God Tiers: http://analytic-chaoticism.tumblr.com/post/151553862535/tentative-hiveswap-classpecting 

#Hiveswap #Joey Claire #Jude Harley #Xefros Tritoh #Dammek #Me #Hiveswap theory #I'm sorry that the images on this are so bad oops #It's probably hard to actually see what I'm talking about and I probably should've included timestamps

[tyrajin]

Tyrathan headcanon: A different POV

[this is kind of Tyrajin but only marginally hence the title] Now I’ll admit I’m not /quite/ up to date with WoW lore, but tell me please, how many ‘working class’ human characters are there currently?? Clearly fleshed out ones, I mean.

'Cause I don’t think there’s a lot.

I might be totally wrong about this ofc, but I like to headcanon most of the human population of Azeroth as……. not the smartest / most educated bunch out there, let’s just say. How many of them have actually gone to school / received proper education (& not just arms training)? How many of them have even met a member of the Horde outside the battlefield (and closer up then 5 yards / in passing)? How many have ever even thought to question the 'hatred’ they’re supposed to have for The Enemy?

Of course, there are exceptions. Tyrathan, for example. My headcanon is that his parents never sent him to school (not enough money and/or didn’t deem it important) and died in a raid when he was still young(-ish), but he never let any of that temper his inherent curiousity and will to live / explore / understand. [see my headcanon about how he loves to travel & learn other peoples’ cultures & languages] He has always been one of the blessed few who actually asked more than once why they were even fighting. He might not have made a lot of friends with that attitude, but that sure as hell wasn’t going to deter him either. Neither was it when guys he hooked up with occasionally denied it all come morning, fearing punishment / social exclusion. The singular only time he gave in to social pressure was when everyone just kept bugging him about getting married, like c'mon, how can you be in your late twenties and not yet have found a single woman who likes you???? ('It’s not about that’, he tries to argue, but they won’t listen, and then he meets Sayla (my hc for his wife’s name) and goes 'oh she’s hot, and nice I guess, is this love??? oh wth I’ll give it a go, maybe ppl will stop bothering me then.’)

….. What I’m trying to say is that I basically headcanon 70-80% (the ones we see least/nothing about in the lore) of the humans of Azeroth as a pretty closed-minded (read: racist & homo-/biphobic), not very well educated society Tyrathan is a blessed (but lonely) exception from.

And that’s, in a way, a blessing, when he (see my happy!AU) gets all his knowledge of the inner workings of that vastly ignored but actually p important group of people through to Vol'jin (or, well, directly to Varian [Tyr just venting all his years of frustration & anger at him in the sassiest way possible is my guiltiest pleasure of a fic fantasy tbh]), basically surmising smth like 'if we want peace, we’ve got to start with /education/’.

Idk, just, Tyrathan Khort, man. He gives me Feelz.

#tyrathan khort #tyrajin #i guess???? #WoW #tw ranting about humanity's uglier sides #ONCE MORE & FOR ALL #I'M NOT CLAIMING TO BE RIGHT ABOUT THIS LIKE; AT ALL #IT'S JUST A HEADCANON AND ANY AND ALL OPINIONS ON IT ARE VERY WELCOME