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#also no idea who she will smoosh. because they are all so great
fanficwritingcentral · 5 months
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So this was another idea I had that I just decided to write out. It ended up being a bit more softer than funny which I what I was originally aiming for but oh well.
Hope you like it 😘✌️
Newage Parenting (ao3 link)
Hyacinthus learns that things have changed with child rearing in the past few thousand years from when he was alive.
"Hyacinthus, light of my life, most beautiful above all men. What. Have. You. Done?"
The greatest love of Apollo's long life stood before him, adorably dirty with mud streaked over his face hiding that horrible scar (a scar Apollo could still not bare to look at). 
Hyacinthus, ever since becoming human again, had a great love of plants and the earth, which made sense given that he was a plant for a good three thousand years. But, a great love probably put it lightly since no matter what time if you ever needed to find him, he'd always be out somewhere in the gardens of Apollo's palace or the forests surrounding it bare footed. Or even at times finding him burying his feet in the ground because he 'missed the feeling'.
But that's not what Apollo needed to focus on at the moment and he managed to pull his thoughts away from how delightfull and adorable his lover looked to what actually mattered. 
"What's the matter, my love?" Hyacinthus asked with the most sweetest look of confusion.
Apollo waved his arms in the air and gestured at the form of his beautiful daughter Kayla, standing in the grounds of his palace and hugging a brand new bow that he didn't gift her. "This!" He said, "why does Kayla have the brand new Fred Archery bow?!" 
A delightful look of realisation came across Hyacinthus' face and he turned to Kayla, "oh sweetheart, how are you liking it? Is it just as good as you said it be?" 
Kayla looked worriedly at Apollo before she turned to her step father(?) "Yes it is," she said with a small grin she got from her mortal father Darren and tightened her arms around the bow, "it's even better, thanks for getting it for me." 
Hyacinthus gave her a beautiful smile, "you're so welcome sweetheart, I'm glad you like it." 
Kayla bounced on her feet, giggling before stopping at the look her father gave her. 
"Hyacinthus," Apollo put his hands in his glorious hair, "you cannot just give my children weapons." 
"Why not? They've asked so politely." Hyacinthus asked, again looking so sweetly confused.
"They?!"
"Yes, they," he nodded, "Austin and Leo both asked for daggers to try throwing at targets, Mariah asked for a pretty gold sword, which was a little odd since I don't think it'll do too well as a defencive weapon but I wasn't about to judge and Will wanted a gun-"
With each word coming out of Hyacinthus' mouth Apollo's body began to fill with dread and he wanted nothing more than to collapse and cry, "my love, please."
"Have I done something wrong, Apollo?" 
Apollo pulled himself together and stepped closer to Hyacinthus so he could put his hands on his lover's cheeks, smooshing them slightly (he also subtly wiped some of the dried dirt off his lover's face). "My love, my darling, weapons are no longer something you can just randomly hand out to children. I've started to read parent books about this and as a parent you need to be more responsible and learn to say no."
"But they're sho adorable," Hyacinthus said, struggling to speak with his cheeks squashed, and waved a hand in Kayla's direction who looked as adorable as Hyacinthus said when Apollo stared at her, her eyes peering up from under her eyelashes and twisting a foot in the ground, "how could I shay no?"
Apollo closed his eyes, bent his head down in front of Hyacinthus and sighed, "I know love," he said quietly, "but you must be strong."
Apollo took his hands off Hyacinthus' face, brushed his hands on his pants to wipe the dirt that stuck to him and sighed again, dragging a hand through his glorious hair, "Kayla, does your father at least know you have this?" 
"Dad knows dad!" She said quickly, "I promise!"
"So if I talk to him about it, he'll know what I'm talking about?"
"He sure will!"
"Kayla." It's almost like everyone forgets he's also the god of truth.
She looked down and muttered something unintelligible.
"Kayla, speak up please." He said and raised an eyebrow.
She sighed in the exact same way Apollo did, "he knows I have a new bow but not that it's this one."
Apollo nodded and crossed his arms, "I'll have a talk with him then and your other siblings parents about the weapons then."
Kayla now looked at him with confusion, as if a thought just struck her, "dad, you've never done that before when we got weapons at camp though."
Apollo reached out and ruffled her hair, much to her grumbling annoyance, "well things change after reading every parenting book I could find, Kayla dearest." 
"And you're not gonna take it from me?" She asked quietly looking up at him from under his hand that was now stroking her hair.
He shook his head, "no Kayla, I'm not going to take your bow or your other siblings weapons from them. They're yours to keep."
Kayla squealed and wrapped her arms around him, still not letting go of her bow which was now pressed uncomfortably against his back. "Thank you, thank you dad! I love you, you're the best!"
Apollo jumped a little in surprise but smiled in delight and quickly hugged her back, pressing his nose in her hair. He caught Hyacinthus' eye as he did who was looked at them both with a soft smile.
"I'm gonna send you back to camp now, dearest, tell your siblings I said hello and that I love them." He said, still taking in how much he loves how much his children are now more freer with their physical affection towards him.
"Ok dad." And with a kiss in her hair, Apollo sent her back with a soft glow of sunlight.
Hyacinthus audibly cleared his throat and stepped towards him and took Apollo's hand into his, giving it a slight squeeze, "so weapons are no longer something we give freely to trained children?"
"Not in the mortal world, no." 
"Huh, how odd. When did that start?"
"In the past 200 years or so." 
"Huh." 
It was silent between them as they stood in the midst of Apollo's garden under the warmth of his sun.
"What about leaving them in the middle of the woods with nothing else but the clothes on their backs and a weapon in their hands for training?" Hyacinthus spoke up, breaking the silence. 
Apollo slowly turned his head to him, "what did you do?" He asked slowly.
Hyacinthus gave him a strained wide smile, "nothing." And dropped his hand before sprinting back to the palace. 
"Hyacinthus!" Shouted Apollo, chasing after him.
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talenlee · 8 months
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Feinting Couch
Ah, the age of adventure, of conquest, of nobility and of duels. Yes, the time when if someone defied you, you pulled off your glove and you threw it to the ground and demanded she meet you on the battlefield with god as your witnesses. Sublimated homosexuality and swords with reach, raucous adventure and getting out of town just ahead of the local law, it’s a question not about who did it first, but who did it best.
And the best… needs an audience.
En Garde!
Feinting Couch (prototype name) is a game (prototype) that has finally cracked a nut for me in design of representing an auction game where you’re not trying for first place, you’re trying for second. Players each play reckless duelists prone to partying hard and causing incidents all across different courts of what’s probably going to look like France, choosing each turn just how stupid they’re going to be in any given court.
Each round, players place face-down cards symbolising how their particular duelist has caused a fuss in each of a number of political courts. When everyone’s placed cards in each of the courts, players flip up their cards and see who is the most famous, the most renowned, the most rambunctious duelist in town… and then that person is immediately kicked out of town for making a fuss. If there are ties? All of you, get out, we don’t need you causing your sublimated homosexuality as metaphorised through swordplay here! Go do that in the wilds, on the highway, under the dewy rain!
Each player who remains in court, having managed to have a lot of fun but not so much fun that they ‘re the literal worst, gets to win that court. You play through three rounds of three courts, or until one player has four courts. Winner of the game is the player with the most points from their court cards, and that’s kind of the whole game.
This game has been stuck in my head for a while now because it has had a big problem with its fiction ever since it started. The first idea was that you’re all the heads of expeditions sending out Indiana Jones style explorers, going to temples, but the nature of the deadly temples meant that the first person to get to any given temple was immediately going to fucking die, and therefore, it was the second place winner of the auction who got anywhere.
Problem: Dudes raiding temples for treasures is, as themes, both very common and easily racist. It still painted the exercise of ‘go to an ancient ruin and steal stuff’ as the thing players want to do, and while it was very funny to imagine players hitting the wall and getting smooshed when they went to these places, it still was about playing interlopers stealing stuff. Throwing that theme way, I wanted to conceive of a lot of different alternative themes.
The second-place theme, ironically, was players playing bugs that wanted to make noise so they could attract mates. The noisiest bug every round gets eaten by a bird, the next noisiest is the one who attracts a mate. Kinda a fun idea, but also, do I really wanna make a game about ‘oh this is the one about bugs fucking,’ especially when a cartoony take on that would inevitably, wind up with a lot of high-femme bug art, and I dunno, it feels like a great way to be heteronormative and weirdo at the same time.
The game that I want to make now is a game about cool duelists getting into trouble and fleeing towns that are on fire. I don’t actually know that much about this period of history. I don’t know much about actual duelists. I don’t even know that much about setting towns on fire. It’s really a thing I didn’t get enough practice on when I was a kid, it’s a real shame.
I feel like this is one of those times where what I’m referring to needs pre-loading and I’m not well equipped to do it. Do you know who Juliet D’aubigny is? Do you know who Centurii-chan is? Do you know what ‘Rapier Girls’ are as a genre? Do you know someone who gets extremely hot and bothered about queers in ruffled shirts with side shaves and possibly drinking wine in an impossibly bisexual way? What about that one picture of Anne Hathaway crossdressing for a Shakespeare play? If I say ‘sexy anime Guybrush Threepwood’ have I lost you?
That’s kind of the spot aesthetically I want to land.
I have no idea how to explain it except to find someone who’s already familiar with it and say, ‘yea, that.’ If you’re reading this on tumblr and think you know someone whose art would be a fit, tell me about them so I can at the very least talk to them about what this game should look like and maybe get the right formal language about it.
The game’s form is a single deck of standard-sized playing cards in a standard tuck box deck. A standard deck of cards is 54 cards, and doesn’t tend to have a rulebook in it, but you know, sometimes. It’d be a typical mid-sized Invincible Ink game at that size, which is a good form factor for our normal needs to sell games.
This 54 cards creates a constraint on the design, and that constraint at the moment is the question of how many players can this game support?
The game loop runs:
Players play cards from their hands to each of three of courts in a blind auction. You can play multiple cards to a court, but everyone can see that you did that and everyone can see who has already bit.
The cards are revealed, those bidding cards are discarded, and players draw another set of cards to do another round of bidding.
This means the deck of cards needs to have enough cards for multiple players to engage in this loop in an interesting way that gives you strategic choices. If you all start with the same cards in each hand, then the choices become more about memorisation of patterns, rather than about bluffing with a dynamically shifting experience. Therefore, players need to have more cards available to them, for a ‘deck’ than they have in any given turn of play.
Since I want players to have unpredictable hands, that still nonetheless reward some attention paid to what players are already paying then, I want to make sure that the player’s hand size does not neatly divide into the deck size. So, if a player has 3 cards in hand, their remaining deck needs to be 4, 5, or 7 cards. If a player has 4 cards in hand, their remaining deck needs to be 5 or 7 – every card the player has will get put into their hand, but never entirely predictably.
Like, let’s say that the deck is 6 cards, and the player starts with 4 drawn. That means their first turn, entirely unpredictable, but their second turn, you know what half of it is, if you memorised those numbers. The next turn, they discard those cards, and you know half their hand again, and then you get a fresh set. This seems to reward a lot of memorisation.
We also need some cards for courts – players are going to be bidding on three at a time, after all – which means that courts need to similarly be represented in some volume.
And again, how many players can this game support?
What I want is for each player’s deck to be equal and symmetrical. Therefore, of ‘player cards,’ each player adds an extra multiple. Heads-up duel game? 54 cards could be split clean down the middle, two 27s. Bit unwieldy, not necessary, but still an option.
I asked my mastodon what a tuckbox of the type felt like to them, how many players they expected, and most people seemed to be okay with the game being for 2-4 or 2-5 players. Well, if the courts and the players occupy the same space, that means the game could be expressed as 54/6, and that’s nine cards. Nine cards is a great number for hands of four. It runs like this:
First turn, four cards, five in deck. No known information.
Second turn, four cards in hand, four in discard, one in deck. Almost complete information, but crucially not actually complete.
Third turn, four cards in hand, five in deck, and only one card in hand known. At this point the loop resets.
Okay, that means nine cards is our player count. That’s great, and now I get to throw in my next little tweak to the math of this game: Your cards are not valued 1-9. Your cards are valued -2 to 7. If you bid two cards on a Court, you’re not necessarily bidding up to a high number, you might be trying to sack out a value down to something lower.
(Oh and I think if bids for a court don’t break 0, then the court is incensed and nobody gets nothing from it so the -2 and -1 cards aren’t just inherently the best bids for things.)
Does the game need this structure of 9 player cards for 5 players and 9 court cards? Nooo it could also work out smoothly, mathematically if players had 6 cards and and then the game could handle 8 players and 6 courts, but that feels like burning space. Most groups with eight players are going to play something even looser, where physical proximity isn’t as important, like Werewolf or Resistance or Secret Hitler or something.
There, tha’ts a description of a game prototype. Now I just gotta make the thing, and that means finding artists who do this exact very specfic genre of trashy queer duelists. The fantasy is that I somehow get this blog post in front of Centurii-chan and she likes the idea enough to let me license a bunch of her art of Rapier-chan and the like. Understand even in my fantasy, I’m still paying for things, because I respect workers.
Diary out!
Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!
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ordinaryschmuck · 2 years
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Quick Thoughts On “No Normal” from Ms. Marvel
Here it is. The season finale of--
“YOU DIDN’T REVIEW LAST WEEK’S EPISODE!”
Oh, right. *Clears throat*
I liked the first half here it was about showing the love story between Kamala’s great grandma and grandpa and how her grandma had the conflict between choosing her family. As for the second half that had confusing time travel nonsense, laughably bad effects, and Kamala’s mother showing up at the exact time she needed to...I didn’t care for it.
Alright, now for the season finale of Ms. Marvel. And it’s...not great.
Now, on paper, the idea of Kamala going out of her way to save a colored powered individual from a corrupt system of authority is a great one. And, at times, it kind of works. That is, it works when it’s Kamala and Kamran, with Kamala doing her own damage control (ha) against Kamran’s attempts to really hurt people. That results in some fun and tense action. When it comes to Kamala’s friends trying to mess with Damage Control like they’re meddling kids in an episode of Scooby-Doo, it’s a little too silly. Like, nothing that they’ve done should have worked.
But the main issue that “No Normal” has isn’t anything that happens in this episode. It’s everything that happened in the series that builds up to it. Kamran having powers isn’t really a bad idea, but how he got them involved this long and convoluted process that, when you sit down and think about it, doesn’t make much sense. It’s almost as if it would have been better if he had powers to begin with. Maybe through something like, I don’t know, through a terrigen gas bomb that gave random people in the city superpowers and forcing Kamala to deal with them? Something that happened in the comics? And that you could use future series/movies to explain why such an event happened in the first place?
Just a thought.
And, hey, if they did go the terrigen gas route, it would also do a great job in building up Damage Control as the final threat. They barely got any focus in this series, all because all the attention went to the schmucks who died in the previous episode. If we spent time with Sargent What’s-Her-Face, dealing with other powered individuals and being hostile to the ones that are “coincidentally” people of color, then we’d have a decent villain that makes for the perfect antagonist for Kamala, given both characters backgrounds. But, no, we needed to have this completely unnecessary story-line smooshed into the series just so we can establish why Ms. Marvel is powerful enough to be an Avenger. By the way, can we please stop this idea that a hero needs to save the world to establish why they should be an Avenger? It hurt Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, it hurt Moon Knight, and it destroyed Ms. Marvel. A hero doesn’t need to save the world to prove that they’re worth being one of Earth’s mightiest heroes. Ant-Man, Spider-Man, and Black Panther’s solo movies were about them fighting villains who’s motivations were to give dangerous weapons to others. It’s not world ending, but it could still do a lot of damage to a lot of innocent people. And that’s fine.
Kamala didn’t need to fight these inter-dimensional beings who could potentially destroy everything in getting back home. Not when fighting Damage Control could be just as important and lead to an incredible message about a corrupt system in law enforcement. The world doesn’t need to be saved when helping a small number of people could do just as much good. After all...
“Whoever saves one person, it is as if he has saved all of mankind.”-Yusuf Khan. From the comics. Which do in fact matter.
As a whole, the finale’s a mess. Which makes sense because the whole series is a mess too.
As far as I can tell, Ms. Marvel nails the spirit of the character, but it failed the most important aspect of her.
And I do love the characters (expect for the boring and forgettable villains). Hell, I’ve kept saying that the best parts of Ms. Marvel are the moments that make these characters feel human, especially the moments involving Kamala’s friends and family and the Muslim/Arabic heritage. If this was just a series about an over imaginative girl who learned to appreciate her heritage and the people around her, it’d get an easy A for effort. But it isn’t. It’s a superhero series that tries way too hard to be grand and epic when something small and personal would have fit much better.
So, as is, I’d say Ms. Marvel’s a...5/10? Maybe a 6/10 if I wanted to be nice?
I don’t know. Phase Four of the MCU really is a mess, and it’s evident that Marvel Studios are focusing more on quantity than quality. Nothing they’ve made is really that bad, but they definitely need to take a break, take a breath, and reconsider what fans want from this franchise.
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betweentimeand42 · 3 months
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After browsing some shipping art this morning, I feel like it’s time to finally write up my Opinions on various ships in One Piece! Just to officially state which ones I like and which ones I don’t. (Tbh I’m hardly a shipper at all for this series, but there are plenty of ships I will read about or look at art for. None of this is meant to be me bashing the ship, btw, mainly just a way of organizing my thoughts on them.)
Things I Actively Ship:
ZoLu, but ONLY queerplatonic and in a very specific way that most fic I’ve found can’t satisfy. I’ve thought about writing fic myself, but currently don’t have the energy to develop my vague ideas. All I know is that I can’t get down with them doing anything traditionally romantic, but they are each other’s Person if that makes sense. That being said, most of the time I don’t ship Luffy with anyone, even in a queerplatonic sense, because I feel like the shared love between himself and his crewmates is the only kind of relationship he needs. (I headcanon Luffy as the most aroace person in the world, while Zoro is demi/bi to me.)
Nami/Vivi, but in a sort of vague way, in that I really want Nami to have a girlfriend and I feel like Vivi is the girl she has the most chemistry with. I didn't ship them when I first watched the Alabasta arc (which was aaaaages ago), because I was still stuck in my mindset of "you can't just assume a character is queer if there's no mention of it in the narrative!" (note for past me: you also can't just assume that a character is straight if there's no mention of it in the narrative, and when did Nami or Vivi ever express interest in a man?), so whenever I end up rewatching Alabasta, I'd like to focus on this ship and see if it appeals to me more than it did back then. Either way, I think they have great chemistry and I love looking at fanart of them. They're cute. (Nami is 100% a lesbian to me, while I think Vivi may be bi. Again, I'll have to rewatch Alabasta to pin down my headcanons.)
Ace/Law, but for me, this only works in AUs because I prefer the idea of them meeting after Marineford, and even then I don't always enjoy AUs where Ace lives because I feel like his death was too important to the narrative. However, if we're talking an AU that's set in our universe, AKA "real life," then I just think their personalities would mesh together really well, and Ace would be a great partner for Law. It seems that Ace was a really popular, lovable guy in canon (and out of universe as well, lol), and as closed-off and no-nonsense as Law can present himself, I feel like even he wouldn't be immune to Ace's charm. He'd definitely find him less annoying than Luffy, at any rate (and as an aside, I really want him to meet Luffy independently of Ace so that there can be an eventual "wait, THAT guy is your BROTHER?!" moment). I dunno, I feel like this ship does for me what LawLu does for others... I'll get into that in a moment. (To me, Ace is bisexual, and Law is gray-aro/ace. They're sort of like ZoLu in that I can't imagine them being in a traditional romantic relationship, but I can also imagine them behaving more romantically together than Zoro & Luffy would.)
Saboala (I hope that's actually the ship name, I love smooshing names together like that), but mainly queerplatonic. I loved their chemistry immediately when they were first introduced together, but somehow I just couldn't picture them being in a romantic relationship. Then it hit me that I just think Sabo is aro/aspec (and no, I don't have any evidence for this, I just feel it in my heart. I also think it would be really funny if the only ASL brother who isn't ace is the one actually named Ace). I'm not sure about Koala's orientation, but them being queerplatonic means the entire world to me. They're best friends who love each other the end. This is also one of my few One Piece ships that I want to become canon, specifically because at least in the translation of the manga that I was reading, Sabo's parents put a lot of emphasis on Sabo eventually becoming worthy of marrying a noblewoman, and that was a big part of his future that they had mapped out from his childhood. I love the idea that Sabo eventually found a partner on his own time, of his own accord, whom he loves not for her status, but for her as a person. Also I love the idea of them rejecting marriage because of that.
Usopp/Kaya, which I wholeheartedly believe will become canon at the end of the series. I mean, it DID become canon in the live-action, so... close enough? This is like... the most traditionally romantic thing that I ship in One Piece, but I can't help but think of how cute it would be for them to get married and have kids and for Usopp to regale his new family with all the stories of his life as a pirate at the end of the series, provided they get that chance of course. (To me, Usopp and Kaya are like the token straight couple of the series, with Usopp specifically being the token straight person within the Straw Hats. An argument can be made for another pairing that I'll get to in a moment, though...)
Shanks/Makino, pretty much the only thing I shipped from when I first started the series that I still ship now. And by "from when I first started the series," I mean that they had ONE interaction in episode 4, and I saw that and went "oh, she has a crush on him," and ever since I've thought they would be cute together. Even though they only knew each for a short time, as far as I'm aware, so I'm not sure how serious I imagine the relationship to be. I just know that in my head, Makino had feelings for Shanks, and Shanks enjoyed flirting with her. (I haven't given much thought to their orientations tbh, although Makino is canonically married with a baby so she's at least attracted to men. I know a lot of people ship Shanks with various male characters and see chemistry between them, but I've never been into any of those specific ships, but I wouldn't rule out him being into men and women. Idk... we'll get to more on Shanks in a moment.)
Things I Don't Actively Ship, But Enjoy Content For:
Frobin. I go back and forth on whether I prefer these two or Usopp/Kaya to be the Token Straight Couple, lol, but I mostly just don't really ship them. I think they had some very cute interactions during Enies Lobby and Thriller Bark, and a few nice ones after the timeskip, but from what I've seen so far, they just don't interact enough as a pair for me to really get onboard with this ship. (I say that with one of my ships mentioned above having 1 whole interaction, and another having never canonically met, but... you know what...) I do love that practically the entire fandom ships them, though, and I think their dynamic can be really fun. It's just not a big ship for me.
ZoSan, if only because the idea that their rivalry stems entirely from sexual tension is hilarious to me. The thing that's crucial for me to enjoy this ship, though, is if their bantering/bickering/arguments doesn't stop even after they get together. The way they take the piss out of each other is a major component of their dynamic and as long as that's still present, I can get behind fics about them. I don't actively ship this though because I prefer ZoLu so much more, and because I kind of like Sanji being a loser who thinks he's suave but can't get a date to save his life more than him being in a relationship, lmao.
LawLu. I've read fic for this ship that I've enjoyed, and I absolutely get where people are coming from since it's one of the best/most popular ship dynamics there is (grumpy/sunshine lol). But I much, much prefer Law & Luffy as platonic friends- partly because I'm not a huge fan of the age gap (not that I think a seven-year-gap is inappropriate or anything, but I don't know many people my age who are looking to date 19-year-olds, lol), and mostly because I just can't see Luffy with a partner (unless that partner is Zoro, but again, ZoLu has to be done in a super specific way for me to like it). Also, as detailed above, I like Law with Ace more.
RoZoSan. I don't know if many people ship this, but I used to be super into it from a sense of pure physical chemistry. It was sort of an off-shoot of ZoRobin, where I imagined Zoro would be attracted to Robin, and then Sanji would be attracted to Zoro, and Robin would sort of be a domme for both of them. There's one really great fic out there that goes into further details (I wish I had written it!). But yeah... I stopped shipping this when I got back into One Piece because I stopped shipping ZoRobin altogether, but it's still fun to read that fic and reminisce.
LuNa. I used to be a LuNa shipper until I got back into One Piece and realized that Nami gives off lesbian vibes to me now, and Luffy's experience of being aroace allows for no romantic possibilities, at least in my head. But I don't have a problem with this ship, I just don't see it as being realistic anymore.
Koby/Helmeppo. I might start actively shipping this if I start reading fic about them... To be honest, I'd forgotten a lot about their dynamic (I'd completely forgotten Helmeppo even existed) until I watched the live action, and then their interactions at Marineford made me go "oooh... they'd be great for each other." I just need more exposure to the ship, but I generally like it.
Things I Do Not Care For (if you like these ships, I apologize!):
Any parental/otherwise familial bond being reinterpreted as a romantic bond. Things like Ace/Luffy, Shanks/Luffy, CoraLaw, I guess SaboAce if that exists, apparently even Rayleigh/Luffy exists which makes me go ???... I dunno, you do y'all, but I just feel like it cheapens the actual relationship so much to make them into romantic bonds, even if the characters aren't blood related so ~technically~ it's okay. (Not to mention the age gaps in some of these instances, but... well, anyway.)
ZoRobin. I just don't see the appeal anymore. Maybe I would if I went back and watched some of the older arcs, but I think I used to like it based on potential sexual chemistry, and now I see Zoro as being too aspec for me to get behind that, lol.
Shanks/Buggy AND Shanks/Mihawk. I mean, they're not bad ships at all, but I like the idea of Shanks being Buddy's older brother who's always picking on him, and as for Mihawk, I just can't picture him being in a romantic relationship, for whatever reason.
SanUso. Again, not necessarily a bad ship, but I don't see any chemistry between them tbh. Feel free to prove me wrong if you'd like.
Hancock/Luffy. First off, the age gap bothers me, and secondly, I personally don't like the fact that Hancock canonically has a crush on Luffy and I'd like to ignore that as much as I can (I think that her character arc would have been equally powerful if she'd been strictly friends with Luffy, without any romantic element included). Also, Luffy has said multiple times that he's not interested, so *shrug*
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storiesofsvu · 2 years
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Calvak Ship Questions
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Rita Calhoun x Casey Novak
PRE-RELATIONSHIP
How did they first meet?
Obviously through work. There’s a couple of options I have for these two. One that they simply either worked together back when Rita was prosecution or met working a case against each other. I also LOVE the idea of them meeting post suspension. Casey gets back into the city and is trying to get attorney work wherever she can. Rita finds her resume in a stack and thinks the name is familiar, and of course the first google result is the suspension. Rita’s unsure, but lets her sit second chair on a case as a trial run, and she’s amazed at how good Casey is.
What was their first impression of each other?
Casey’s intimidated, no matter how they met. Rita’s intrigued, and definitely feels that Casey’s wardrobe needs an upgrade.
Did any of their friends or family want them to get together?
There’s some pushback on both sides. Casey’s friends are a little wishy washy simply because she’s defense. Rita’s family of course is fucking snooty and worried that Casey, who had to wait tables to put herself through law school, is taking advantage.
Who felt romantic feelings first?
Rita. As much of a shark she is, she’s also a softie.
Did either of them try to resist their feelings?
I think they both did, to a point. There was a little bit of resisting in general, and once they’ve spent a night together, there’s the “this is just a friends with benefits situation” until it’s not.
If you had told one of them that the other would be their soulmate, what would they think?
Neither of them would believe you. It takes the two of them really getting to know each other to realize how much they need each other.
What would their lives be like if they had never met?
I think they would have been fine. Like, they’re both pretty independent and strong people, they don’t *need* a partner, they’re just an added bonus in their lives.
GENERAL
Who initiated the relationship, and how did it go?
Rita definitely started flirting first, like, we all know she sees something she likes and simply goes for it. And is a natural flirt. Casey obviously gets flustered, but eventually lets her in.
Did they have an official first date? If so, what was it like?
No. it started as friends, then one drink led to another, which led to a night tangled in Rita’s sheets. It’s only the next morning they start to realize that maybe there’s something more there than just a fun wild night.
What was their first kiss like?
Fiery, passionate, unable to keep hands off each other kind of kiss.
Were they each other’s first anything (kiss, relationship, etc.)?
Not really. They met/started on later in life, though I believe they definitely could be each other’s first *true/real* loves. While they’ve loved before, and have been in love, they haven’t experienced something like this before.
What’s their height difference? Age difference?
LOL. The height difference always kills me, cause Casey’s got like, 4 inches on Rita. Lil shark is smol bean. Sometimes it infuriates Rita because she’ll be pacing and ranting about a stupid client/case and raging mad about the situation and Casey just smooshes her into a hug, burying her into her arms and chest, thus shushing her completely. She’ll let out a grumble but accept the calming embrace.
Age: Rita’s 4-7 years older than Casey.
What’s their relationship with each other’s families?
I canon Casey as having a good relationship with her entire family, she might not see them that much during the year, but every couple of years they make time for each other at least one big holiday. The Novak’s welcome Rita with open arms and at first she feels a little out of place but it doesn’t take long for her to feel like one of the family.
I canon Rita having a pretty not great relationship with her parents. Like, she hasn’t pissed them off enough to be cut off, or hated, but they’re the uppity, snooty upper east side of Manhattan type people. It’s all falsities, fake smiles, charity events and proving that they’re the best. I think she gets along better with her Dad, but around her Mom especially it’s a constant eye roll state. She usually doesn’t introduce her partners to them, and knows that Casey’s going to feel insecure around them, so she doesn’t bother taking Casey home for Christmas kinda thing.
Who takes the lead in social situations?
They’re both pretty good at taking care of themselves, used to attending galas, parties, and the such. Rita takes the lead more often than not, her social circle in Manhattan is wider, she’s more linked with literally everyone, and especially at the fancier galas, Casey lets her take the lead.
Who gets jealous easier?
I *honestly* think this would be Casey. Rita is NOT a jealous type at all, even with someone as beautiful as Casey being her partner. When Casey starts to get hit on at the bar, Rita simply smirks from across the room and watches her girl crush the idiot boys at pool or darts or buck hunter and win three rounds of drinks for free.
Casey though knows that Rita is incredibly faithful, and her sass is sometimes flirtatious, but she knows that Rita’s not going *anywhere*. It’s more at the fancier events that Casey kinda gets jealous just over how much attention Rita is getting, not that she cares about getting it herself, she just kinda, loses Rita to everyone else, and that annoys her.
Who whispers inappropriate things in the other’s ear?
Both of them. Constantly. Especially if they’re in the middle of a case against each other. Casey opens a motion from Rita to find a post it with a dirty message on it. She returns a casefile to Rita with a nude tucked inside (only when she *knows* that no one else will see it before her)
LOVE
Who said “I love you” first?
Rita certainly *felt* it first, but probably held back before saying it. I think that with the two of them they kinda *show* each other that they love each other without words before it’s something silly like Rita catching Casey dancing in her underwear in the kitchen, laughing all “god I love you.”
What are their primary love languages?
Rita (to give): giving gifts, physical touch. (Receiving): words of affirmation, physical touch.
Casey (to give):acts of service, quality time. (receiving): words of affirmation, physical touch.
Rita obviously loves to spoil & treat her partners, she’ll pick up coffee on the way to Casey’s office, see something pretty at Tiffany’s that she knows will look gorgeous on Casey and cant resist buying it for her. She’s also a very physical person when it comes to affection. A small smile, squeeze on a shoulder, or lingering touch says more from her than words ever could.
Casey amps up the acts of service with Rita because she knows the woman’s a fucking disaster in the kitchen. She’d usually be cooking and meal prepping for herself anyways, so she always makes sure Rita has something to eat during the week.
Who uses cheesy pick-up lines?
Casey….100000%. Once they’re comfortable with each other, Casey’s constantly dropping them (and probably recording them for tik tok too…) and cackling at Rita’s reactions. The not so bad ones usually just get a groan and an eye roll, but the worse ones, or more dirty ones usually get a “CASEY!” and a gasp, followed by a laugh as she realizes she’s recording.
How often do they cuddle/engage in PDA?
They’re more private about any of their physical pda. There’s light kisses, a hand resting on an arm or thigh while out with work friends. It’s a little more when it’s friends, friends, and they definitely like to link hands when walking the streets. Cuddling is something both of them really adore, but it’s usually on the couch at home after a long day.
Who initiates kisses?
Both of them, but I feel like Casey initiates more often. Rita’s one to drop a kiss to Casey’s head, or peck her cheek while Casey’s distracted working, cooking, or watching tv. But Casey will always steal a kiss whenever she gets the opportunity. Especially cause she loves the way it makes Rita smile (and sometimes blush…)
Who’s the big and little spoon?
Okay…here’s the thing, I nearly always canon Rita as the big spoon, she’s the protector of her relationship, the one who will go absolutely feral if something was to happen to them, but she also a very smol bean when it comes to Casey. And she also has a softer, more emotional side, that craves snuggles, so I believe they switch off.
What are their favorite things to do together?
They both introduce each other to a TON of new hobbies and things to do. Rita will drag Casey to hundreds of bookstores around the city, and the redhead usually finds herself just as distracted as Rita is, flipping through books for ages before they finally check out with far too many. As active as Casey is, Rita can’t match her, but they always make time for a run, some calming yoga, or a workout class at the gym together. And while Casey isn’t able to drag Rita onto the pitch or into a batting cage, she’ll still cheer her girl on from the stands, and surprise her with VIP box seats when it comes to the pros.
Who’s better at comforting the other?
With words? It’s Rita. With cuddles/actions, it’s Casey. Rita doesn’t really like to talk about her bad feelings, and it doesn’t take long for Casey to pick up on that. Rita will be grumbly, grumpy, tight lipped and tense on the couch after a bad day. Casey will simply drop down next to her, hand her a drink and tug her into her arms until Rita feels better about everything.
Who’s more protective?
Rita. Hands fucking down. She will fucking cut anyone who comes for her partner. She’s full on dropped clients because they’ve decided to make threats against Casey when she’s prosecution.
Do they prefer verbal or physical affection?
It’s a combo of both. As I went through earlier. It depends on who and what the situation is.
What are some songs that apply to their relationship, in-universe or otherwise?
What kind of nicknames do they call each other?
Rita always defaults to darling, sweetheart, my love, and other affectionate titles. Casey usually defaults to babe/baby.
Who remembers the little things?
Both of them. Rita’s got an incredible mind so she doesn’t forget shit. Casey on the other hand is a fucking hopeless romantic, so she does her best to remember as much as she can, even down to keeping a note in her phone of all the little things Rita loves.
DOMESTIC LIFE
If they get married, who proposes?
They don’t get married. They toy with the idea of it, but neither of them really care about it. If they decide to get married, Casey plans the most romantic, intimate, and personal proposal that Rita could ever imagine, and Rita’s ugly crying and saying yes before Casey can even get the words out of her mouth.
What’s the wedding like? Who attends?
They very much agree on something small, intimate, with the best of friends that they have. It’s very untraditional, neither of them are in the usual white fluffy dresses or suits. They’re very casual, it’s just a celebration of love with their closest friends.
How many kids do they have, if any? What are they like
The only kids they have are plants. And maybe…MAYBE…a cat
Do they have any pets?
See above lol. Casey has to give Rita the BIGGEST puppy dog eyes and pout that gorgeous lip, begging until Rita says yes, but ONLY to a cat. She refuses all of Casey’s other requests
Who’s the stricter parent?
To the cat? Rita. She doesn’t like it sleeping in the bed, closes the door on it most nights, and usually scoffs as it meow’s at her feet in the home office while she’s trying to finish paperwork. But eventually she gives in and they become besties.
Who worries the most?
Both of them. Casey has enough previous trauma that she’s always worried about Rita, especially working with criminals all the time. Rita on the other hand is worried about Casey working *against* criminals.
Who kills the bugs in the house?
Casey. Always. Rita cannot do bugs, or literally any kind of infestation. The first time they’re together and there’s a spider? Rita’s curled up, perched on the kitchen island SHRIEKING until Casey kills it. Casey, naturally, wants to just remove the bug to outside (even if it’s a roach…) and Rita is *insistent* on it being murdered before she lets Casey leave her sight.
How do they celebrate holidays?
Usually with just the two of them at their apartment. They enjoy and love each other’s company, and don’t need anyone else to make the day special. On other days, they celebrate with Casey’s family, and the others with their mutual friends. But as long as they have each other, they’re fine.
Who’s more likely to convince the other to come back to sleep in the morning?
Casey. Rita is extremely punctual. She’s not only early, she’s on time. Her coffee machine is set to brew exactly when she needs it, and she is going to be there to get the first cup. But when Casey lets out that little whine? Pouting up to Rita with her puppy dog eyes? Rita can’t help but sink back into the bed and snuggle into Casey.
Who’s the better cook?
Casey. Duh. Rita can barely cook a fucking eggo.
Who likes to dance?
Casey is much more prone to it, but she does manage to drag Rita into a living room dance party more than once, and honestly? Rita fucking adores it, cause as long as she’s with her love? She doesn’t care how stupid she looks, she just cares about being happy and her love being happy.
_________________ @natasha-danvers @ineedafinghug @beccabarba @thatesqcrush @altsvu @svulife-rl @oliviaswifey @bumblebear30 @enduringalexblake @nocreditinthestraightworld @infernumlilith @australiancarisi @imaginaryoperagloves @lawandorderuswnt @wandasbrat @multifandomlesbianic @drduckthief @yesterdaysgone @swimmingstudentchaos891 @ms-calhoun @alexusonfire @poisonedcrowns @1-lindsay83
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chocolatecakecas · 3 years
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To Infinity and Beyond: baby!Jack truthing Birthday Ficlet
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Today already looked like the perfect day. Warm weather, the sun shining, the birds singing, all the usual qualifications for "perfection". And if Dean had anything to say about it, it is also going to be, the perfect day.
Because Dean had planned out everything. Tents and tables spread out in the backyard of their new house, enough hamburgers and hotdogs to feed an army, a giant sheet cake in the freezer, and it looked like a Party City catalogue threw up all over their house, both inside and out. Hell, he and Cas even got a bounce house.
Yup, today was going to be perfect, Dean thought as he surveyed the backyard. He was going to make sure of it, nothing was going to go wro-
"To infinity and beyond!"
And the next thing he knew, he had a recently turned four year old, barreling into his legs almost knocking him off the porch.
(read the rest under the cut)
He looked down to see Jack already dressed in his outfit for the day. A shirt with Buzz Lightyear's costume printed on it, complete with little cardboard Buzz wings (Cas made them), purple shorts with a purple tutu, and of course, his favorite Buzz light-up sneakers.
"I'd say that was a bit of a crash landing there, Mr.Lightyear" Dean laughed, as he bent down to right Jack's scribbled cardboard wings. Jack just ignored his reference, instead letting out an excited shriek as he took in the backyard.
Every tablecloth, plate, napkin, cup, balloon, and cardboard decoration was covered in Toy Story characters.
Toy Story, was the end all be all in their house, because they were Jack's favorite movies. So everything, was 100% Toy Story, 100% of the time, hence the party theme. And his favorite character was Buzz Lightyear, hence the costume.
"Dee where's your costume?" Jack questioned, after he finally recovered from the shock of seeing the, probably, overdecorated backyard.
"Yeah Sheriff Woody, where's your costume? It's almost one thirty" Cas called as he stepped out the backdoor. Cas was already dressed in t-shirt with Jessie's outfit printed on the front, her matching red hat, jeans and of course, cowboy boots which Dea-wait shit they only had a half an hour left.
And he hadn't even double checked th-
"The backyard and inside of the house already look incredible. Go on and get ready before everyone starts arriving" Cas smiled sweetly, knowing how worried Dean was about today.
"I will, after I chec-"
"Dean, I promise, I'll double check all the decorations, and the food. Me and the little space ranger have got it covered, right baby?" Cas supplied, looking fondly over at Jack.
"Yeah me and Da got it! Get dressed Dee" Jack cheered, as hopped down the steps and raced "flew" across the grass cardboard wings flapping behind him.
"Go get changed, cowboy. Everything already looks perfect" Cas teased, pressing a quick peck to Dean's lips. And then he was bounding down the steps towards Jack, warning him not to go near the bounce house.
So Dean reluctantly walked inside, forcing himself to ignore all of the things he wanted to check on, and instead making a beeline for their bedroom. He quickly pulled on his costume, but unlike Jack and Cas it was the real deal, not just a graphic t-shirt, Dean had the actual shirt, the vest, whole nine yards. Jack had asked if Dean would wear a real Woody costume and, hey who was he to deny his kid on his birthday?
So with a sigh, Dean made his way back to the living room so he could reorganize the snack table.
He wanted everything to be perfect today. Perfect for Jack because, this was his first real birthday party after all. And because Dean's oldest memory was of his fourth birthday, his last birthday party actually since it wasn't like they were throwing big family bashes on the road. No, birthdays were a box of cigarettes from his Dad (if he even remembered), or Dean sometimes scraping together enough money to get a cake for Sam's birthday.
Which is why today had to go smoothly. Because Jack deserved the world, he deserved to have a good life filled with memories of big family parties with fun decorations and food and laughter. And Dean could give it to him now, give him what he and Sam never had. So today had to be special, it had-needed to be perfect.
"Dean, I don't think Jack is going to care if the clouds are a little crooked" Cas pointed out, amusement dancing in his voice as he walked into the living room.
Dean huffed a laugh, but didn't stop his mission to straighten out the paper "Andy's Room" clouds taped to the wall above the table. Cas just sighed as he gently pulled his hand away from the wall, turning Dean towards him.
"Dean I know how much you want to make this day absolutely perfect for Jack, believe me I do too. But he's going to love every single second of it. He's practically bouncing off the walls already, and the party hasn't even started yet" Cas assured as he squeezed Dean's hands.
"I know, I know. But he deserves to have the best damn birthday. Especially after everything and he's just- Jack shoul-" Dean started, only to be cut off by the sound of the doorbell.
"It's Uncle Sammy and Aunt Eileen! Can I open the door, please?" Jack called from down the hall, asking for permission.
"Yeah buddy, you're allowed to open the door. Let them in" Dean shouted back, unable to help the smile pulling at his lips when he heard Jack enthusiastically telling them about "all the cool decorations".
"See? Jack is already loving it! Now relax, and enjoy the party, cowboy. Everything is going to be perfect" Cas smiled as he made his way down the hall to greet Sam and Eileen. But not before giving Dean's ass a little smack.
A few hours into the party everything was smooth sailing, and Dean had only been scolded for readjusting some decorations four times. The kids Jack invited from his class were having a great time, as where their parents, which was especially great because not a single one of them managed to see a member of Dean and Cas’ family discreetly place their weapons in the spare bedroom (Dean wasn’t a fool, it was a party full of hunters, he wasn’t just gonna make a no weapons rule because what if something happened?). So then Dean and Eileen manned the grill like champs, Cas and Garth kept an eye on the kiddos in the bounce house, Sam had handled the Buzz Lightyear shaped piñata perfectly, while Dean organized the kids, making sure Jack was the one to break it. The sun stayed shining, the birds kept singing. Everything was perfect.
Until it wasn't.
And it was all Dean’s fault.
Dean's stomach dropped as he stared down at the now smudged faces of Woody, Buzz and half of the green aliens. Because Dean just smooshed the entire left side of the cake while trying to take lid off.
He just destroyed the most important part of the party, the part Jack was most excited about. Now Dean just ruined everythi-
"-come in star command, do you read me?" Cas joked, completely startling Dean, because how long had Cas been standing there?
"Dean, what's wro-oh" Cas sighed as soon as he caught sight of the cake. 
"I friggin smooshed the whole thing with the lid. It's destroyed we can't-the party and Jack and-" Dean rambled, heart pounding against his chest, while Cas took the life from his hands and gently set it on the other side of the counter.
"Dean, stop it's okay breathe for me. It's just the cake. It's not your fault. It's still edible, we can fix this" Cas soothed as softly cupped Dean's cheeks in an attempt to ground him.
"Hey are you guys alri-oh shit" Eileen gasped as she and Sam walked through the kitchen door, which caused Dean’s heart rate to pick up again.
"It's okay, it'll be fine. We can try to scrape some of it back together with a knife" Sam offered, quickly moving Dean and Cas to the side so he could get at the cake.
But it only made the faces look completely unrecognizable.
"Damnit, what are we gonna-"
"Dee! Can we have cake now?" Jack asked as he came racing into the kitchen, and Dean, Cas, Sam and Eileen quickly huddled in front of the counter to hide the cake from sight.
"In a few minutes squish, we're still uh-getting it ready" Dean managed plastering a wide, hopefully convincing smile on his face.
"Why don't you go jump around the bounce house again, buddy?" Sam suggested, which had Jack nearly bolting out of the kitchen again with a nod
"Make sure one of your aunts or uncles, or your friends' parents are watching you!" Cas called after him, which only got a tiny "okay Da" in response.
They all let out a breath when they heard the backdoor slam, and quickly turned to look at the offending cake again.
"It's not that late, what if one of us runs to store and see if they have ano-"
"They won't, we ordered this specia-"
"And there seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere" Claire joked as she entered the kitchen and quickly surveyed the mess before her, eyes widening when she spotted the cake. And Dean normally would have teased her the reference but he was too busy, freaking the fuck out, so he chose to ignore it.
"What do we do? We can't fix this, there's no time it's completely rui-"
"Wait, dude calm down. I have an idea, hold on a minute" Claire proclaimed, and swiftly exited the kitchen, which did pretty much nothing to calm Dean's panic. In fact he was getting desperate.
"Do you think Rowena might have a spell-"
"That's not how magic works. But honestly Dean, I'm sure Jack won't even notice-"
"The kid can recite the entirety of Toy Story 2 from memory and you don't think he's gonna notice Woody is missing his entire head?"
"Alright, start grabbing the Toy Story figures and wash them off. Then we can put them all over the cake instead, and cover up the horrifyingly smeared faces" Claire ordered as she came back into the kitchen with Kaia in tow, and box of Jack's toys in hand.
And Dean could have cried from relief (he did).
"Holy shit Claire you're a genius" Dean praised, as he quickly began sifting through the box.
"I know, I know. Now c'mon, I want cake"
And a few minutes later everyone was gathered around the dining room table, singing a completely off key rendition of Happy Birthday. Jack was seated in the center of it all, with a half smooshed, slightly lopsided, plastic figure covered cake, with Dean and Cas crouching on either side of him. Jack hadn't even commented on the completely smeared face of Woody or Ham, he was just clapping along, bouncing in his seat. In fact, he the biggest smile Dean had ever seen on his face, and he teared up at the sight.
"Blow out the candles and make a wish, baby" Cas encouraged, and Jack attempted to do just that. Only succeeding when Dean secretly helped blow out the candles for him.
"Yay! To infinity and beyond!" Jack shouted again, as he stood up and jumped on his chair. The room easily erupted into laughter, while Charlie and Jody each snapped pictures from across the table.
"Alright Lightyear, let's not fall with style into the already smooshed cake" Dean joked, as he quickly stabilized Jack, which only caused everyone to burst into more laughter.
So, Dean scooped up Jack, sitting in his chair and placing him on his lap, while Sam offered to cut up the cake. And Cas took plopped down in the chair next to them, sliding him and Jack a plate.
"Are you having fun at your birthday party, baby?" Cas questioned as he handed Jack a plastic fork.
"Yeah! Claire jumped in the house with me! And Danny and Sarah and me played in the sandbox! An-and we played tag, and Aunt Donna played too! And the cake has all my friends on it, see!" Jack rushed out all in one breath, stopping to point at the now sliced cake. By "friends" he of course meant his actual Toy Story figures of course. But before Dean could even react to any of that, Cas was whispering in Jack's ear, and pulling away.
"Thank you for all the party things, Dee!" Jack beamed as he turned and threw his arms around Dean's neck.
And Dean's heart clenched as he tightly wrapped his arms around his kid, feeling a tear roll down his cheek. He looked back up to see Cas smiling widely at them, so Dean whispered something in Jack's ear too. And then Jack was off flinging himself around Cas' neck.
"Why doesn't all the family get together, I can take the photos" Marissa, the mom of one of Jack's friends offered.
And soon the three of them were surrounded by their family on all sides. Everyone laughing when Marissa suggested they all say "yeehaw" instead of cheese. Jack giggling when Claire zoomed over, and bent down so she could smoosh their faces together for the obligatory "silly face" picture. Dean quickly swiping icing on both Cas and Jack's noses, causing Cas to tip Dean's cowboy hat and Jack to shove a handful of frosting on Dean's cheek.
So maybe it wasn't the flawless, smooth sailing birthday party Dean had planned. But the weather stayed warm, the sun still shone, the birds still sang. His family laughed, and ate and had a blast.
And Jack looked about as happy as they had ever seen him, as he ran around the yard with his friends and played games with his family. Dean would even go as far to count it as a complete success. Especially since Jack asked Cas, "when can we have a big party again?", as they tucked him into bed later that night.
So as far as Dean is concerned, it was the perfect day.
Tag list:
(please let me know if you'd like to be added or removed!!💛)
@wormstacheangel @smiledean @shelikestv @chaoticdean @midnightwings-deancas @jellydeans @sunshine-jack @archervale @wikiangela @organicpurplepants @you-cant-spell-subtext-without @writtendevastation @tkdwolf2012 @doemons-blog @sinnabonka @rolling-stoned-girl @skylerkernaghan @icefire149
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i love the idea of battleworld as a concept. all these worlds just smooshed together falling apart. wish i could write a fic about it but that doesn’t seem likely anytime soon so here:
obviously a bunch of different worlds.
kate and co somehow wind up trying to organize stuff
except for gert gert is running around with old lace as queens of the dinosaurs
“godlike powers? great you’re over there with billy”
the supernatural crew is slightly uncomfortable?
“i’ve come back form the dead?”
“cool cool that’s like all of us. i mean like superpowers”
“nah sweetheart just ordinary humans” dean says and Kate grimaces at him
“no. no you’re not calling me that.”
Dr martha Jones and Claire Temple have to forcibly extract Dr Strange from the medical facility
the Swamp from MASH is there, fully intact
all of the spider people have their own little neighborhood. 
most of them are Jewish but the like third that aren’t are kosher or halal because of Spider Ham who has yet to tell them about smelling his own uncle frying or whatever that was
Parker from Leverage gets adopted into the Spider Consortium 
And they all love causing confusion with names. 
they may also be the best fed because Eliot
Hawkeye Pierce takes about two seconds to decide that Kate is the best Hawkeye.
The height difference is funny here. You have giant beanpole hawkeye, brick shithouse hawkeye, or angry vole hawkeye
“she’s the pocket version!” Doctor hawkeye beams. He loves her. he and clint and wade drink in the swamp and eventually the conversation always becomes “tall men who love kate bishop”
Some of the Enterprise crew is there. Dean Winchester is failing to not fall in love with Kirk
Bones hates EVerything. he only shares his booze with Martha, Christine, and Claire.
everyone is like “ha ha bones has a harem” fully not understanding that it is the other way around, those women have a Bones and that is THEIR apoplectic space surgeon and you WILL leave him alone, do NOT see if you can make that vein on his forehead stand out!!! no!!!
Bones is a Tall Man Who Does Not Love Kate Bishop because she is leading Chekov and Sulu into MANY BAD IDEAS that Bones has to deal with
it’s not Kate actually it’s Billy and Teddy, it’s Space Gays On Rampage but it’s easier to blame Kate than the guy with godlike powers
Spock is s u f f e r i n g because Deadpool and Gwenpool won’t leave him alone
Bones and Hawkeye Pierce don’t speak to each other al ALL outside of medical but they are best pals in it
Father Mulcahey and Matt Murdock have We are fighty catholics talks
At some point Matt and the WInchesters get into an actual physical altercation
Spider Ham really loves father mulcahey for some reason they get along really well
Father Mulcahey spends a lot of time sitting around with Erik and Charles just “these are all our idiot children now”
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anxresi · 3 years
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I could line my wall with all the posts Thomas has made about Chloe tonight. (around 50, by my count)
If you wanna read them, don’t bother.
I certainly won’t be sharing any of them
What would be the point?
Because basically, they amount to one thing...
Chloe is bad, and we’re bad people for liking her.
That’s it.
And for anyone thinking that he kids around a lot with his comments...
I’m pretty sure this is something he feels VERY strongly about.
Or he wouldn’t expand so much energy in constantly talking her down.
So no, I don’t think we’re going to get a Chloe redemption.
No, I don’t think she’ll be Queen Bee again. 
No, I can’t see any real change in her behavior.
She’ll just remain the same ol’ hatable Chloe, the ‘evil’ girl that young kids apparently ‘get’ that adults don’t understand...
Yep, apparently we’re ‘dumb’ for wanting her to improve and develop!
To provide a good example for bullies out there that they can be more than just abusers all their lives!
Children couldn’t possibly grasp the delicate subtleties of self-improvement as you grow up!
It’s all so clear now!
Stupid us!
Also, her merchandise doesn’t sell very well.
Another good case for her staying as a villain, I guess.
And she’s compared to a monster and a domestic abuser.
This damaged teenage girl.
Yeah, sounds about right.
And all those tender moments where she showed empathy and love were just ‘fake outs’ all along.
Makes total sense!
And anyone who wanted more from her is just ‘delusional’ and is ‘writing the show in their head’.
Exactly!
Except...
That’s not the way it seemed on screen at all.
When she hugged Miss Bustier
Or had a heart-to-heart with Ladybug
When she risked her life as Queen Bee
Showed genuine concern for Adrien
When she finally appreciated Jean-something
And shared moments of friendship with Sabrina
These did NOT come across as part of an elaborate plot twist
From a show which isn’t exactly known for its complex writing.
They seemed to form part of a ladder...
Which would inevitably climb to a true character shift.
Where this flawed teenage girl could take a long, hard look at her life.
And realize she didn’t HAVE to be like her awful mother.
Or as power-hungry as her father.
She could learn lessons from her favorite superhero Ladybug...
Become a better person...
And an even greater superhero.
She could still keep her sassy attitude.
Just be a bit kinder and selfless, that’s all.
But, nope.
EVERY bit of niceness we witnessed on screen...
None of it was real.
It was all influenced by ‘class’.
Even her childhood friendship with Adrien was nothing.
If he was as poor as the rest of his classmates, she would’ve bullied him too.
Straight from Thomas’s own mouth.
One of the best relationships in the show, gone just. Like. THAT.
He also said to ‘redeem’ her at this stage would be too ‘unconvincing’?
ORLY?
I hate to return to critical mode...
But the show ain’t exactly known for its consistent writing.
One minute Marinette is confident around Adrien...
Next she’s a nervous jumble of words.
It sets up two new ships for Mari and Adrien with great fanfare...
Only to ditch them both two eps later.
(Also, what the **** did they plan to do with Lila?!)
In other words, this isn’t a show that plays the long game
Whether this is to satisfy the networks’ demand to air the eps out of order idk.
The point is that trying to tell us that Chloe’s ‘arc’ was some grand scheme...
Where she’d have a few sympathetic moments only to emerge worst than ever afterwards....
I simply don’t believe it.
Either this is terrible, amateurish writing of the worst kind...
Or Thomas flexed his influence behind the scenes...
And put an abrupt end to Chloe’s development before it really got started.
It doesn’t really matter which reason I guess.
What DOES matter is this petty and spiteful man sees fit to bash her in around 70% of his online interactions right now.
He could just ignore the posts but nope, he goes right in there, full throttle. 
You can just tell how smart he is with his intimate psychological breakdowns of why Chloe is the way she is...
When we all know the actual reason... he just couldn’t be bothered.
Far better to create a whole new character, give her none of the depths that could make a developed Chloe such a pain to write...
And then 'reward’ her with the position of Queen Bee, for being super-sweet and as shallow as a puddle.
And oops, make her Chloe’s half-sister or whatever to further rub salt in Chloe stans’ wounds. 
Is the show even gonna tackle the angst that would arise from Mayor Andre discovering his beloved wife had an affair?
Or Chloe discovering her much-loved mother is in fact a cheat?
What about coping with the SHOCK revelation that she... GASP... has a long-lost sister?
Forget it. All that rich potential for human emotions sounds B O R I N G.
Don’t forget that if there’s a major event in this show that doesn’t include the words ‘Love Square’, the makers just don’t care.
Let’s cut straight to a giant golden Zoe (who now looks like a giant golden Chloe) trying to smoosh her now much smaller sister...
While Chloe pushes Marinette and her parents towards the beast to save herself. 
Because of course she does.
Never misses a trick to make Chloe look bad, does Thomas.
It’s a skill you can tell he’s very proud of.
Anyway, back to Zoe...
Despite my harsh words above, I harbor no ill-will towards you.
Your design is decent and you seem like a stand-up gal.
But I hate to say this...
You shouldn’t exist.
It was completely unnecessary from a storytelling POV to create a sibling for Chloe, and your mere presence will diminish the show.
I can say this with utmost confidence after looking at the situation from every conceivable angle...
Without even needing to watch your eps or know why you were created.
(Although, I have a pretty good idea)
Some people might say WELL GIVE HER A CHANCE!!!!
Hmm... no.
Everything the show needs to be successful with Chloe’s character...
It’s already right there.
She does not need a secret sibling
She does not require a sweeter counterpart
And she definitely DOESN’T need Thomas constantly bashing her to impressionable fans online like she’s the Antichrist personified!
Seriously dude, if you hate her so much why bother creating her?
And if you hate her so much... why spend so long talking about her?
Despite his repeated denials, I think something another user here said is very true...
She DOES live ‘rent free’ in his head.
It sickens him that, despite his best efforts, she still has so many fans.
Not to worry, Thomas.
From what I see, there are still plenty of sycophants who agree with everything you say (even if they actually don’t)
After all, it’s enough for some to get a reply from the ‘great man’ himself
Why jeopardize that by trying to engage with him in a meaningful debate?
Especially when we know how handsy he is with the ‘block’ button.
Anyway, this went on for about a thousand more words than I meant it to.
I guess me and Thomas have just ONE thing in common (Thank God)
This is a topic which we both feel VERY strongly about.
The differently is of course, I have far less power in the process, and preach to a much smaller audience.
Still, I won’t let that stop me ranting away like a loon.
Hey, if it’s good enough for him... ;)
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tlbodine · 2 years
Text
Reverse-Outlining Revision Method with Plottr
So in my editing guide, I give a step-by-step method for structural editing that I find really useful, and I wanted to do a visual follow-up to kind of show what that process looks like. I’m using Plottr for this, because I was gifted a copy of the software in exchange for them using my horror-writing beat-sheet as one of the templates, but you could just as easily do this with Scrivener, scrap paper, or any other organizational system you like. 
Whether you’re a fellow pantser who struggles with story structure (hi!) or you’re an outliner who needs to make sure your draft matches up to your vision (or the second draft has a good structure), this will work for you! 
Step One: Write a one-sentence log-line of the story + jot down the major themes 
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There’s space for this in Plottr. I’m doing Neverest.
Premise: A woman’s search for her missing husband’s body on Mount Everest sends her into the grip of ancient forces that don’t want her to leave. 
Themes: Putting your name on something doesn't make it yours; colonialism and the urge to conquer and codify; relationships as a form of control and change vs understanding
You’ll also want to write a one-page overview summary of the story, similar to what you’d put in a query letter. Here’s mine: 
One year ago, Sean Miller -- journalist and mountain climbing enthusiast -- reached the summit of Mt. Everest, and was never seen again. Unable to move on without knowing the truth of what happened, his wife Carrie flies to Nepal to meet with Sean’s best friend and former climbing partner, Tom. They assemble a small crew and begin an expedition up the peak in search of Sean’s body and a better understanding of what might have happened in his final days.
Guided by a travel journal left behind from her husband's expedition, Carrie ventures into the frozen, open-air graveyard of the world's tallest peak. But as Sean’s diary and Carrie’s experiences reveal, climbing the mountain is more than a test of endurance; it’s a battle of wills with an ancient and hostile force protecting the mountain — and the dead do not rest easy at the summit.
Doing this helps you to identify the core elements of your story -- the characters, the conflict, and the stakes. You should be able to answer the questions: who is the main character, what do they want, what’s stopping them, what happens if they succeed/fail. 
In this case: 
The main character is Carrie, the wife of a journalist who disappeared while summiting Mt. Everest (character) 
She wants to find his body and get closure about his death/understand how and why he died (what does she want)
But there are supernatural forces at work that led to his death and now have the same in store for her (conflict/stakes) 
Step Two: List out every scene in the book 
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Plottr is an outlining software, so it makes this step really easy (and conveniently color-codes things for me at the same time!). There are multiple views this can take, but this one screenshots well so I used this one for the example. 
Basically what you want to do is write down everything that happens, scene by scene. You can color-code them however you want -- in my case, I have three narrative threads, so I made a timeline for each one. Then I just mapped out all the scenes -- across 24 chapters, each dot is a scene, and you can see that some chapters have multiple scenes and also that the primary and secondary plot alternate chapters. 
When you look at it this way, you can tell really clearly that the tertiary plot needs some work -- it’s only there for four scenes in the first third of the story. I either need to cut it completely and incorporate any essential information into the other plots, or I need to expand it. 
In this particular case, I decided to expand because 1.) my word count is low, and I’d like to fill in more story and 2.) a big theme I want to explore in the story is what it’s like to love someone who’s deeply passionate about something you don’t understand -- so this tertiary plot is a great place to explore that and fill in more characterization that should add some depth to the primary and secondary stories. 
I can also see at a glance that I have a variable number of scenes in each chapter. Sometimes that makes sense (the green ones are diary entries, so it’s logical that one chapter = one entry) but sometimes it hints that those chapters could be a little thin and need more content. If I’m looking to add additional conflict, I should do it in those blue chapters that only have one dot as opposed to the ones with multiple dots! 
Step Three: Look at the overall shape and adjust for pacing and genre
Plottr has a bunch of templates pre-loaded into it that make this easy, but you can also just google various different story structures and beat sheets such as Save the Cat or the 3 Act Structure etc. But just look at the overall map of story beats and see how they line up with the outline you’ve made: 
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This is just a small snapshot view, but you get the idea -- when you look at the scenes side-by-side with the beat sheet, you can see some things. For example, it sure would make more sense if the flashback scene where Carrie decides to embark on this journey got its own chapter and lined up better with the “putting the players in action” plot point rather than being smooshed into the first chapter with the introduction to the world! The fact that I’ve got it smashed into that first chapter is probably a sign that my opening scenes/chapter itself is a bit thin and needs to be fleshed out a little more. 
Step Four: Figure out what you need to adjust and make the changes accordingly 
So after looking at everything mapped out this way, I’ve got a little list of things I need to do: 
Come up with more scenes for that red plotline
Rearrange some things a little bit to better fit the structure I want
Figure out some more blue scenes to fill in the gaps caused by rearranging things and smooth over the pacing/amp up the conflict/alleviate some areas where critique partners hae expressed confusion
I also moved around the categories in Plottr (you can drag-and-drop storylines and chapters) to make it a bit easier to see everything all at once. Basically you can edit the story’s outline first, to save you the confusion of manually moving around whole paragraphs/chapters in your actual story document. 
Now, I haven’t finished that step yet for this particular project (there’s a lot of brainstorming to do re: filling in those gaps!) BUT I did want to skip ahead to show you the next step (let’s pretend this is a TV cooking show where the finished pie is pulled right out of the oven). 
Step Five: Re-Type everything based on your new scene list
This is a really neat thing about Plottr. If you swap from the “Timeline” view to the “Outline” view, you get these editable text windows where you can type whatever you want, and it’ll keep it organized into chapters and scenes. 
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So, just pull up your original in one window, and the Plottr screen (or other outlining/drafting device) in another. Dual monitors are great for this but we make due. Now, retype the original document into the new document, making changes as you go to fit the new outline and also cleaning up language and so forth as you go. For example, this time around I’ll be changing Carrie’s blue timeline scenes to present-tense instead of past, so I’ll rewrite them in present tense in the new window. 
Once all that is said and done, in Plottr you can export the file directly into Scrivener or Word. (If you’re not using Plottr, you’ll have to figure out for your own self how to transfer the final product into a final document -- I trust you can sort through that). From there you’ve got a fresh clean copy of a second draft all ready to go for the final copy-edit/proofread/polish/formatting and then you’re off to the races! 
I hope this was helpful for you! I talk more about editing in my Gumroad guide here: https://tlbodine.gumroad.com/l/jkLpr
If you’d like to receive all of my existing + future guides and support me in making more content like this, consider subscribing to my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tlbodine
And you can pick up a copy of Plottr here: https://plottr.com/
This post isn’t sponsored or anything, but I did get a free copy of the software from the developer and I think it’s pretty neat. It’s still in beta so new features keep getting added, and the team that makes it are very nice and responsive to feedback. 
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lochrannn · 2 years
Note
For the fic ask meme: I wanted to ask about White Horses, but I think we already discussed that, and then I thought about Sun, And Moon, And Stars Decay, but you may not have got to that scene yet, so instead I'm going to ask about All Rest My Powers Defy (and the other two if you feel so inclined). :D
Thanks for your ask! I’ll give you an answer to all of them and it might end up being a bit long-winded, but sure lookit, what else would I be doing on a Sunday afternoon.
I’ll start with All Rest My Powers Defy, and to asnwer your question I have to veer dangerously close to semi publicly having an opinion on fandom disc horse, but that was a bit of a starting off point.
I’d only ever written like three fics, 15 years ago, and wasn’t particularly interested in writing fanfic until for about 4-6 months I watched the Lila/Diego well more or less dry up and it made me so sad. That combined with reading a number of neutral to negative takes on the ship that boiled down to, “maybe they can be together at some nebulous time in the future only when they have the most rational of all their faculties put together and have both grown into boring, tax-paying adults. Before then, Lila has to also serve penance for the crime of reacting to being an abused child and gaslit adult with about as much chaotic lack of self-awareness as basically all the Hargreeves do, but doing so while being a girl, and a new one at that. If these premises aren’t met, their relationship can be nothing but TOXIC(tm)”.
It’s an opinion people can have, it doesn’t take a lot of mental gymnastics, I’ll give them that. But on the other hand, they’re also just two dumb, hot characters with so much chemistry, the show basically just had to put them next to each other in a scene, so I wanted to prove these takes wrong XD
So, initially that story was going to be about Lila’s decidedly short vacation on which she makes up her mind that staying away from Diego is dumb. I initially actually just wanted to focus on Lila in London of the 70s. Maybe going to a pub and wallowing in some pints, making a couple of pub aquaintances but ultimately not having the greatest time as a single woman of colour. I remember looking at different laws pertaining to women and drinking in pubs around that time. I took those restrictions very personally XD.
Anyway, I started writing that, but then I reallised that really what I wanted was for Lila to find Diego and to smoosh them together, even if a little awkwardly and angry at first. But I’m a firm believer in them not being able to actually keep their hands off each other. I mean, please. Diego finds out Lila betrayed him and when she turns up while he’s digging a grave for his friend who was killed by her colleagues, the worst burn he can come up with is “Oh great, it’s you and your stupid face.” These two people are so in love and very salty about it XD
So yeah, then I wrote that fic in an evening and got hard into fic writing that way!
White Horses (both my most popular fic and though I love all my brain children equally, maybe also my favourite) was two fold, for one I had prompted another fic writer when they were looking for ideas to write one where Diego is recruited by the Commission before the events of S1 and they are reluctant colleagues and fall in love on a fake marriage mission. But then that never transpired and the idea kept perculating in my brain and in the end I decided to write a fic with a fake marriage mission myself but post s2. So I needed a reason why they were fake dating, that’s how I came up with the honey moon cruise and then once I had that, I very quickly had the idea for the scene where (spoiler warning for anyone who hasn’t read that fic but still might want to) Diego saves Lila from drowning with his cool comic book powers XD The rest came as a way to bring me from the premise to that scene.
And Sun and Moon and Stars Decay already had a setting because it’s a continuation of an AUgust one shot. Initially I’d thought I’d do a whole Persuasion in space thing, mostly from Lila’s perspective, her not realising that Diego isn’t indifferent to her, but still very much in love. But then Diego doesn’t lend himself to quiet indifference, Lila isn’t meak enough, and again, the two of them can’t actually not interact even when very angry with each other. That’s just not them. Not cunning enough towards each other, I guess. So I have actually changed my mind about this story multiple times and about where it would go.
Oh! But wait, I do actually remember a scene that I wanted to get to and did in the first chapter, so now the whole rest of the story is justification for that... I realise that was entirely unecessary XD. I wanted them cuddling naked, stargazing, and chatting in Lila’s cockpit!
Sorry, that was a rambly answer XD
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bluejaytaco · 3 years
Text
What up? it DND wit Jay!
(We return to the realm where we are standing in front of a giant gold gate. There's a dwarf standing in front of it with a clip board in their hand, just flipping through.)
Alabaster: (walks up) H-Hail and well met, my friend.
Dwarf: Names?
Alabaster: Oh! Um, I'm fine.
Dwarf, flipping through his clipboard: Fine.... Fine.... Nope, not seeing any "fine" here.
Art: (Walks up)....What about Ebony?
Dwarf, flipping through: Uh, yeah. We got an "ebony".... He's an orc. And considering none of you are Orcs, I doubt any of you are Ebony.
Art: Uh, that's racist.
Theodora:... Quite a detailed guest list...
Koejin: (Walks up and points at a random name) That's me.
Dwarf, looks down at the name: Your Grenadine Ceriph? High priestess in Calor? (Context: Calor is a Tiefling city. Koejin is human... well... was)
Koejin: Yeah, that's me.
Dwarf, getting sick of us: Look, I don't have tie for you people messing... (looks up at Koejin and goes silent).... You're not supposed to be here. This isn't your realm.
Koejin: Uhhh... Well, I have business with the man in charge.
Dwarf: I'm gonna have to call Pelor.
The entire group: (various ways of saying, "You do that" From "yes, please do" to "yeah, get that fucking bitch here! I wanna speak to the manager!")
Dwarf, mumbling into a sending stone before looking back at us: Is one of you named Theodora?
Theodora: Uhh.... Yeah.
Dwarf: You guys can go in. That's all I needed because now I know your names. But thanks for lying to me!
(The gates open and we all walk through. It's less blinding, but only slightly less on the other side of the gate. We see people walking around and just enjoying their afterlife. In the far off distance, there is a silhouette of a giant castle. We can also see the opening to a large garden where Pelor is standing with his arms crossed. Some of us see Alabaster's daughter, Eris, stomping on the flowers.)
Pelor, voice booming towards us: Everyone, front and center!
(All of us go with different levels of reluctance. Hennessy leads the way while Art and Jaquine kinda trail back.)
Pelor: So, what is it you need from me? (He's still standing over us while Eris continues to stamp through the flowers.)
(For a moment, we're all silent.)
Theodora: We want to speak to Thia.
Pelor: Thia is not in a place to speak. She is in my castle now, practicing her abilities for the Cleanse.
Hennessy: Is she okay? You don't have her locked up somewhere, hurt, right?
Pelor: Hennessy, my dear boy. Would you lock up a tiger in a small cage? No, you would respect the animal. Thia is in a place of comfort and has free reign.
Hennessy: She's got free reign? So she can go smoke in every room of the castle?! Even your room?!
Pelor: uhh....yes...
Hennessy: Ohh that just won't do. That smell of recreational drugs gets into the fibers and it can be a bitch to get out.
Pelor, suddenly giving off the impression he would like to hurry this along so he could go clean: It doesn't matter. She is my key to cleansing the world and making it all light. And I can save you all, if you kneel before me and accept me as your true god.
(No one kneels but Hennessy does raise an eyebrow at the "kneel" comment.)
Koejin: So how do you promise our safety.
Pelor: Well, you are excluded from this. Your friends, however, are protected because my followers will all survive.
Art: Don't you need the dark to have the light?
Pelor:... You would think that. Ticket Master would have you think that. And you, specifically, reek of him.
Art: Uh, rude?
Pelor: You know what he wants, don't you? He wants me dead so he can be the god of light. His best friend being the god of darkness would mean the two of them would take over everything. The two of them would rule all.
(Art was trying really hard to not say how he didn't see this as a bad thing, considering his bias. But somehow, as everyone was arguing against the cleanse, it was returned to the subject of Art and Ticket Master.)
Pelor: I think we've had quite enough of this talk.
Art: Yeah, let's stop talking about Ticket Master and the guy who may or may not have had sex with him.
(Pelor reacted in disgust which just turned into Art shouting "Sex with Ticket Master!" at the god of light. The tiefling was really aiming to make the god throw up.)
Koejin, joining in: There were definitely tentacles involved!
Art: Lots of tentacles! Sooooo many tentacles!!!
Pelor: Enough! All of you! (grabs Eris by the hair) If none of you will take this seriously, there is no longer a reason to speak with you.
Eris, punching at the hand: Let go! (turns to Alabaster) Daddy! I don't wanna go!
(They walk through a wall made of marble that Hennessy tries to reach through to grab for Eris. He just barely pulls his hand back before the wall solidifies again and he loses his hand.)
Vincent, rushing up to Hennessy: What did you think you were doing?!
Hennessy: The girl didn't want to go with the man! And when the girl doesn't wanna go, you don't let her go!
Vincent: You're gonna make such a great dad!
(behind the garden and before the castle there was a massive labyrinth. We walked up to see two different entrances. Koejin ends up smelling something familiar but can't really pick where it's coming from.)
Art: Hmmm (turns to Red) think you can turn into a dragon and fly up? maybe we can see where to go.
Red, not all that enthused by the idea: Uhh, yeah, I guess. Step back.
(Everyone stands back to give her enough room to transform. She flies up to the edge of the maze, but once her talons hit the edge, they shoot up another hundred feet and knock her back down.)
Red, turns back into her base form and glares at everyone: Well, that didn't help!
Art: (shrugging) well, my plans aren't ever without fault.
(Hennessy casts detect magic and, aside from nearly having his brain explode from all the god magic around, he discovers on direction is dark magic while the other is light.
We end up going towards the dark side because we figure that's where Thia might be hiding.)
(First stop is a room with a sword in a stone. Hennessy can sense that the magic is dark, but it isn't the source.)
Koejin: (climbs up and pulls the sword from the stone and holds it up in the air. She then hears the sounds of us screaming in agony.)
What we see: Koejin pulling the sword out and standing with it like she's posing.
Art: Uhhh.... what is happening?
Theodora: Koejin? You okay?
Koejin vision! Art: (melting away and falling apart) You killed us!!!!
Koejin vision! Theodora: (Also melting) You let us dieeeee!!!!
Koejin, turning to see all this: No! No, I saved Art's life so many times! (Turns to Theodora) I'm sorry! I'm sorry!
Art: Koejin.... we're fine!
Koejin: (runs up to start trying to put Art's face back together. To everyone else, she'd just smooshing his face while still holding the sword.)
Theodora: (dispels the magic from the sword and a little imp pops free)
Koejin: (can now see that everyone's okay and it still just kinda groping Art's face.)
Art:....uh, Koejin?
Koejin: Yeah.... sorry. You were melting just now.
(We talk to the little imp briefly to find that he is a prisoner in the maze. He asks if he's free to go but as soon as he does, he's struck by lightning.)
(We continue down the path for a little bit before Koejin figures out that we're going the wrong way because she can no longer smell the "smelly smell that smells." In that time, Hennessy incinerated some talking furniture which the DM disappointedly let us know that we wouldn't be seeing the IKEA Lich. I have a feeling the IKEA Lich might pop up in a future one shot.
But also, we got this exchange.)
Theodora: (casts a spell in attempt to sober Koejin.)
Koejin: (starts screaming as her skin starts to burn) Stop!
Theodora: (stops immediately) I... I was just trying to help..
Koejin: I'm the God of intemperance, Theodora! You can't just sober me up!
Theodora: What?!
(This starts into a fight about how this isn't the weirdest thing we've been through while she continues to talk about how she wasn't expecting to hear her daughter was a god.)
Red: If I may, I can see where Theodora is coming from here. Be it the weirdest thing or not, finding out your child is involved in some affair with the gods can be surprising. (Shoots a look at Art) Like your son being intimately involved with a tentacle monster god.
Art:.... you weren't supposed to know about that....
Red: You were shouting about it just before while I was standing there.
Art:... right..... forgot you were there....
Red: Either way; something for us to talk about later, Sweetie.
Art rolling his eyes, sarcastically: But Mother, I love him.
((Koejin's Player: And I have to remember to write proper notes about what everyone knows and doesn't know.
DM: Eh, it's all out now))
(We head from the dark part to the light part and find ourselves walking down a hall for hours. It gets to the point where Mrs. Red starts to complain.)
Red: Ugh... when is this fucking thing going to end? Doesn't anyone have a way to move this along faster?
Art: It's going to feel like longer if you keep bitching.
Red: I don't even wanna be here!
Theodora: None of us want to be here!
Art, agreeing: Yeah, and yet, here we are! So, how about you shut your mouth for a bit while we figure out how to get home and make sure there's even a "home" to go back to!
Red:.... Actually, Art. Considering that, I think this might be a good time for you and I to talk....
(Art is pulled off to the side by Mrs. Red, Reita following. Theodora tries to usher everyone a respectful distance away to try and ensure privacy. She does her best, but pretty much everyone is still eavesdropping.)
Red: I know I haven't been the best mother... In fact, I might be the worst... But know that I will try to make this all better and I'm just looking for your forgiveness.
Art:.... you might remember us as a nice, happy little family, but let me tell you what I remember.
Koejin: You tell her, Art!
Art, ignoring her and pretending he doesn't know people are listening: ....you slicing off Reita's face, blowing up Thia's bar, threatening the lives of my friends, destroying the lives of countless different people; I could go on! You barely get to claim the title "mother!"
Red: I did what I thought was best!
Art: You entrusted your children to the God of Death and Deceit!
Red: I didn't do that! (long pause)....I did do that.
Art: Yeah, you did. So, this is how things are gonna go. We're going to go through here and make sure there's a world to get back to, we're going to go to Calor and you are going to fix this. Then we can talk about forgiveness.
Red: ....That's another thing I wanted to talk to you about. I would love... to return to our people. I know I'm a tiefling, but I still feel the rage... of a red dragon. Someone would need to take care of our people.
Art:.... the people that treated me like a pariah....
Vincent, butting in: Like Hell I'm gonna let that happen! (storms over to them and looks at Art) Look Art, I'm willing to admit you are not evil. But do you really think you can run Calor? As soon as everything gets hard you run away! Hell, you abandoned your own sister-
Reita, with a surprising amount of clarity: He didn't... abandon me. He thought I was dead.
(The remaining three tieflings turn and look at her.)
Reita: And you're not exactly one to talk; you created weapons for a tyrant and turned a blind eye to the problems in Calor. We've all done things we regret, but we learn and grow from them. How can you stand there and judge him from running from a bad situation when he was a kid? Hypocrite (shoves a slug into her mouth)
Art, smiling and a little misty-eyed: I'm so proud of you! (hugs Reita)
Reita: Uhhh, yeah. Sure.... (doesn't push him away, though)
Red:.... You're not supposed to be talking like that... how are you doing that?
Art, pulling away: Yeah, that was going to be the next part. You feeling okay?
Reita, shrugging: I feel good.... Like, really good.
Red: (grabs Reita and rips open the back of her cloak to see the stone in her spine is not glowing) This.... this isn't working. It should be working.
Art:....We should keep moving. Put a pin in this for now.
(We keep moving ahead with different twists and turns leading into random encounters. One of which is a growing garden gnome that we put Wreybar on top of so she could see over the walls. She tries to say what she sees, but speaks in a way only Wreybar understands.)
Theodora: Okay, but now how are we gonna get her down?
Red: I could probably fly up an-
Wreybar, jumping: Catch me!
Hennessy: (rushes to cast feather fall on her.)
(She floats down and lands nicely on the ground as we hear Thia's booming voice "Giant garden gnome? Goodbye giant garden gnome!" And the gnome just vanishes.)
(Wreybar starts talking in her gibberish and Koejin asks for a translator. Reita steps in and kneels down to her, nodding along by what she's saying.)
Reita: Wreybar says there's a latter coming out of a hole on the other side. It's right next to the castle. How do you guys not get that, she was speaking clearly.
Theodora: Maybe to you. Not all of us can speak Wreybar.
(We ended up getting into a few more shannanigans. At one point, Art attempted to use mislead in attempt to move through faster only to have Reita get impatient and run ahead. Art and Reita had a quick little spat about that along the lines of "by the time we find her, she'll have destroyed everything already!" "We can't find her at all if we're dead! No running ahead!" There was also a bit with Hennessy and Koejin teleporting out of the maze where they met a murder horse and a weird inky blob creature.
At that point the latter was the literally the next turn. But possibly the worst moment.)
DM: You guys come to a dead end. The smell is still coming from over it.
Koejin: Shit....
(We all check the wall to find no traps. But then... Alabaster touches it and a had grabs hold of him. It pulls itself out with his resistance and Alabaster is looking at a marble version of... himself.)
Alabaster: O-oh! Hail and well met... uh, me!
M! Alabaster: Oh! Hail and Well Met! How are you, my fine friend?
Alabaster: I'm quite well, thank you! How... who are you?
M! Alabaster: Oh, I am what remains of you. The you left behind when you left the Pelor faith!
Alabaster: Oh, I see.
M!Alabaster: Have you killed your daughter?
Alabaster: oh, no. That is.... no longer apart of the plan.
M! Alabaster: (grabs hold of Alabaster) I will do it then. I will kill your daughter. She is born of darkness, thus she must die!
(Everyone around him tenses up, but he somehow knows if he looks away, the creature will fade from his sight and go to kill Eris. He can only stare at it to hold it in place.)
Alabaster: (puts his hand to the copy's mouth and uses Create or Destroy Water)
M!Alabaster: (starts to crack and burst under the pressure. The amount of water forced inside kills the creature.)
((Create or destroy water has been a running gag in the campaign. It's been used a few times, but nothing really dark. Not like this.))
Alabaster:....(Still holding his marble copy with a stunned look.)
Art:....(walks up and pats him on the arm) You did what you had to do... Eris is safe now.
Theodora, nodding: Think of it as... you made the right choice.
Alabaster: (nods to both of them and closes the creatures eyes)
Koejin:.... we should destroy it. Just in case.
(They then proceed to break the thing into dust and we continued on our way.)
( We found the latter that brought us up to the castle. As we walk around to the entrance, Pelor stands by the door with his arms crossed.)
Pelor:.... what are you trying to accomplish here? Do you really think you can stop any of this?
Theodora: We're here to talk to Thia. Where's Thia?
Pelor, sighing: Look, last chance before I wipe you out of existence; kneel before me or leave my land and accept your fates.
Red, arms crossed(as is usual for her): Yeah, I'm not one for bowing to people. People bow to me.
Pelor: This goes for all for all of you?
(All of us agree. There will be no bowing.)
Pelor:....then so be it.
(Before he can move in to fight us, he is turned inside out and sucked into a little stone. Thia then drifts down, takes the stone, and crushes it.)
Art: ....hi, Thia....
Thia, glaring: Shut up, Art.
Art, nodding: Hmmm, mhm.
Thia: (turns to Theodora) Go home, Theodora.
(for a moment, her powers work on Theodora, but all of us stop her. This turns into a conversation about why the wipe is unnecessary. Koejin leads the conversation, then turned and asked for someone more "charisma based" to lead.
Art couldn't speak. Probably for the best. He and Thia have never really gotten along.)
Theodora: If you wipe out all existence, we won't be learning from our mistakes. Everything will end up being repeated! The war will be repeated!
Thia: Not if I don't allow free will.
Theodora: And then what is life? that's not a world; that's a simulation.
Thia:... better that than allowing a kid to grow up in the woods all alone.
Theodora:.... Thia, we can make this world better. Create a place where something like that doesn't happen. But this.... this isn't the way.
Thia:....Do all of you agree? Should I.... give up my power?
(This was a major turning point in the story. Because this is where the end boss was decided. And we told Thia to give up her power.)
Thia, nodding: Alright... let's go back home. No reason to strand ourselves here. (she opens a portal)
(We walk through to find ourselves in the tavern Thia owns. She wills away her power, but it's no big ta-do.)
Koejin: Did it work?
Thia:.... I don't know.... Art, give me some money.
Art:..... no....
Koejin: It worked!
(We all celebrate before we all notice the portal hasn't closed. When we turn and look, we see Pelor's face.... on Ticket Master's body. He throws it away like a mask and grins at us.)
Ticket Master: Guess who's the new God of Light? (smiles and waves as the portal closes)
(Outside, we hear loud banging. When we run out, we can see darkness and light bouncing off of each other before they begin to swirl and spread. They head for us.)
Theodora: (hears the voice of Bahamut and an open blue portal) Everyone! We have to go!
(Everyone dives into the portal. Art takes a moment before diving in with the group.)
(There will be one last session and we can all really feel it now. I'm kinda sad that Ticket Master is now the BBEG, but we all saw that coming. There's just a lot to figure out here.)
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uwu-shinsou · 4 years
Text
Night Owl
WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILER FOR PAST THE END OF SEASON 4!!
Summary: Shinsou has recently joined class 2-A. He’s always seemed to be a little tired, but is it your imagination or are those bags under his eyes getting darker?
Warning(s): Small use of language, that’s all!
Pairing: Shinsou Hitoshi x Reader
Genre: Fluff, honestly just fluff uwu
Word Count: 2,700+
A/N: Hello and welcome to my first bnha fic!! I’ve written quite a bit of fanfiction but this is my first time doing it on tumblr :3 Also yes, this fic is technically set in the class’s second year, and with my headcanon of Shinsou being placed into class 1-A (or I guess 2-A now) because I won’t accept it any other way. I’m also considering taking requests if anyone is interested in that (: 
You puff out your cheeks, brows furrowed deep with thought. Aizawa’s droning lecture faded into the background as your focus deepened. Chin resting in your hand, you tilted your head as your eyes burned (metaphorical) holes into the back of Shinsou’s head. While you had known of him for a while because of the sports festival, you’d only begun to actually know Shinsou much more recently. Watching him during his secret-but-obvious test for the hero course was fascinating, and it was clear to your entire class that he had the potential to become a great hero. As soon as Aizawa announced that he had passed his test, your class had been persistent in persuading your teacher to add him into your class. Something must have worked, or maybe it was just by chance, but it was announced that 1-A would be receiving a new classmate the following school year.
Unsurprisingly, Shinsou fit into your class well. He seemed a bit reluctant to try to connect at first, maybe nervous to be put into such a new atmosphere, along with the pressure of now being a part of the hero course. But really, all it took was one night of you, Kaminari, and Kirishima forcing him to play a Mario Kart tournament and he settled right in. Since then, you found yourself getting along with Shinsou pretty well. It felt like the two of you shared a sort of natural connection, and you were sure he had to feel it too.
But there was a problem. A personal problem, for you really, because Shinsou was hot. And it was fine before he joined the class, really. You were simply content to occasionally see him around school, daydream from afar of running your fingers through his luscious hair while he had no idea who you were.
It was MUCH harder to innocently have those thoughts with the two of you being friends, and when he now sat in the seat directly in front of you. It was actually harder and easier; easier to get side tracked and zone out staring at him, and a lot harder when you’d miss important parts of class or, even worse, he’d almost catch you staring. 
You couldn’t help but stare at him now, though. You’d seen him almost nod off in class at least three times today, and while Aizawa’s lectures could feel long winded, Shinsou didn’t seem the type to knock out in the middle of class. Something is definitely off about him today.
“Y/L/N.” You shot up straight in your chair at the sound of your name, panicked eyes meeting those of your teacher. “I hope you’re paying attention to class today, or do you find the back of Shinsou’s head to be more interesting?” Your cheeks flared with heat as the bell rang, saving you from having to give some kind of answer. Aizawa’s eyes glittered with something that you couldn’t quite read, but had you tensing up even more regardless. “There will be a quiz on all of this next week, so come prepared. You’re dismissed.” 
Several of your classmates groaned about the quiz the second Aizawa left the room, and you were pretty sure Kaminari was crying. But it all faded into the background as you shoved everything on your desk into your bag, prepared to make a desperate not-quite-running fast walk out of the room when Shinsou turned his chair around and planted his hands on your desk. Ah shit, I was too slow.
“Soooo y/n,” he drawled, leaning down to rest his head on his folded arms. He blinked up at you through lidded eyes, a small lazy grin resting on his face. Oh god it should be illegal to look that good. “Is there something I can help you with?”
You willed your cheeks to not become even redder and slung your bag over your shoulder. You flashed him a wide grin, “Class can get so boring when it’s not hero stuff. And I mean, can you blame me for wondering how you get your hair to look so soft?” Shinsou’s eyebrows quirked up and his grin spread further.
He sat up in his chair with a mischievous look on his face. “What can I say? Having hair this gorgeous is a burden I must bear.” 
“You poor soul, braver than Japan’s pro-heroes,” You reply, one hand on your heart and the other wiping away a fake tear. He gave a small laugh and you found yourself lost in his lovely purple eyes, eyes that took your breath away and made your heart do a flip inside your chest. But your grin slipped away as you really looked at him. Is it just me, or do the bags under his eyes seem darker than normal? 
“But really Shinsou, I kinda noticed that you almost fell asleep like three times in just the last hour and, well, I was wondering if you’re doing okay?” Your hands gripped your skirt as you looked down at your feet, toeing at the leg of your desk. “I mean, I don’t want to be too intrusive or anything, but I just wanted to let you know that if- if you need anything…” You trailed off, looking back up at him. 
His smile faltered and his eyes slid away from yours. He brought a hand up to run through his hair. “Ahh yeah, it really isn’t a big deal. I’m just a little tired.” He then stood up and grabbed his bag, backing away from your desk. “Anyway I should probably study for that quiz, I’ll see you around, y/n.” You blinked and Shinsou was already out of the room. 
You stood there for a second, feeling lost at his sudden rush to leave. I know that I was hoping to make a quick escape before too, but I don’t understand? Why did he just leave? 
You were shaken out of your stupor when a pair of hands wrapped themselves around your arm and started to tug you towards the door. 
“Hellooo?? Earth to y/n? Anyone there?” Mina called as she led you out of the classroom, waving a hand in front of your face. “Or are you too busy thinking about a certain purple haired boy named Sh-” 
“Mina!!” You hiss, cutting your friend off as she cackled to herself. “I will literally destroy you if you try to finish that sentence,” you say, shooting her your best pouty glare. She withdrew her hands from your arm, holding them up in front of her in surrender. 
“Okay, okay! Will not mention mister hot-and-broody outside of our rooms, got it,” Mina said, giving you a mock salute. You playfully slap your hands at her as she easily dances out of your reach, laughing gleefully at your feeble attempts. “Come on though, y/n/n, what was up with you today? You must have been really zoned out for Aizawa to have called you out like that during class.” The two of you passed through the doorway to outside, heading towards the dorms. 
You huff out a sigh, clasping your hands together. “I know that I probably watch him a lot more than you do, but haven’t you noticed that Shinsou has been kinda out of it this week? Like he was super into class and hung out with everyone, but now he just looks, I dunno know, exhausted? Eternally tired? I’m worried about him,” You confessed.
Mina hummed in thought, staring down the path that led towards your building. “Did you try just asking him if he was alright?”
“Yeah, I did today. He said he was fine but he was definitely lying,” you say, frustrated. “His eyes were one hundred percent more dead than they usually are. And I don’t want to seem insensitive or force it out of him, I just wish he would let me help with whatever the hell is bugging him, cause I care about him, you know?” 
You look over at Mina with big, sad puppy dog eyes. “Oh y/n/n,” she coos, wrapping her arms around your shoulders and smooshing you into her as tightly as possible. “I know you’ll find a way to help him. You’re the purest, most kind soul in our entire class. Plus your looove for Mr. Purple is stronger than any- EEEEK!” Mina shrieked as you tickled her sides.
“I WARNED YOU!! ” You shouted over your shoulder, laughing as you sprinted into your class’s dorm building, Mina yelling and giving chase just a few steps behind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You rolled over in bed, huffing out a sigh as you looked at the clock. 
2:38A.M.
“Uhhhhggg,” you groan out. You’d been trying to fall asleep since eleven, but apparently your mind was set against resting. You slapped your hand over to your bedside table, grabbing your water cup, trying to take a sip but getting nothing.
“Empty? You gotta be fucking kidding me right now,” you mutter out loud to yourself. With an annoyed sigh, you roll out of bed and make your way down to the kitchen.
You step out into the common room and stop short of the kitchen, hearing a faint sound from the living room. Did someone leave the T.V. on? Tip-toeing, you head towards the living room to turn off the television, but freeze behind the couch when you notice that it’s occupied with a lump of a person under a blanket. Who the hell is asleep on the couch?? 
And then the lump moved. 
Okay not asleep. Oh god what if they think I’m being creepy and watching them?? Gotta go gotta go gotta-
“Hey who’s there?” The muffled voice makes you stop in your tracks, and you watch the mystery person sit up and turn around.
You blink. “Shinsou. What are you doing down here still?” You ask, his face bathed in shadows from being backlit by the T.V.
“Oh, y/n/n it’s you,” he says, flopping backwards onto the couch. You make your way around the side, setting your water cup on the coffee table before collapsing down next to him. You run your gaze over his face, taking in the heavy lidded, bloodshot eyes, his messy unkempt hair. 
“Have you slept at all tonight?” You ask, trying to casually probe to see how he’s doing. “Or is it a binge-shows-until-the-sun-rises kind of night?”
He huffs an amused sigh, fixing his eyes on you from his corner of the couch. “Well I didn’t really mean to be awake still, but here I am.” You flash him a sympathetic smile. “Hey, listen,” he says, becoming a little more serious. “I know that you were worried about me in class today, and it really isn’t a big deal, but the truth is, I just sort of have a tough time getting comfortable in new places.”
“Oh,” you say quietly, putting the pieces together. “So you probably haven’t been sleeping well lately since you moved into our building.”
“Yeah not really,” he admits. “And there’s something else- but it’s stupid, really.”
“I’m sure it’s not,” you assure him, scooching closer.
“No, no it is, I shouldn’t have even brought it up,” he says, shaking his head. You do a big scooch along the couch, getting even closer and start to poke him all along his side. His mouth splits into a toothy grin as he starts to try and shove your hands away.
“Shinsoouuu,” You coo, your pokes becoming incessant as he laughs and grabs for your hands to stop you. His hands find your wrists, flipping you over and pinning you on your back. You freeze, blushing furiously and blinking up at him in surprise. You become hyper aware of the way he was straddling your body, his knees on either side of your hips. His hands held down your wrists as he leaned over you, some of his hair hanging down to tickle your face, his nose a few inches away from yours. “Well that was uh, kinda fun,” you breathe.  
He was completely still for a moment, seeming as surprised as you were. Then he was releasing your wrists, moving back off of you and onto the couch. “Sorry, I got caught up in the moment,” he says, running his hand through his hair and averting his eyes. Your breath caught in your throat at the sight of him. Is… is he blushing?? 
“It’s okay, you really don’t need to apologize,” you say, giving him a shy smile. “I didn’t mind at all.”
Shinsou looks up at that, and seems to come to a decision. “So, the stupid thing that I mentioned? I had to leave my cat at home when I first moved into the dorms, and I sleep worse without having her to cuddle every night,” he says. “I even got this like, weighted blanket thinking that it’d help? And it kind of does but not always. It doesn’t have the same feeling, you know?”
Your heart went out to him in sympathy, understanding. It must be hard having to say goodbye to his cat. “Shinsou I-”
“And I’m sort of a night owl anyways, but without Muffin I just can’t seem to sleep well.” He concludes. “So yeah, that’s it. Silly, right?” 
You reach out and firmly take his hands in your own. “No, it’s not silly. It’s normal to feel sad having to leave your pet, I’m sure you really love Muffin” you say, looking down at your joined hands. “Sometimes it can take awhile to adjust. I know I was anxious during the first few weeks moving on campus, and it’s probably extra hard having to move again.” You look back up at him. “I just wish there was some way I could help.”
You start to pull away, but his grip on your hands tightens. “Maybe there is a way? For you to help?” he says hesitantly. Shinsou looks up at you through his lashes, eyes lidded, hair messy, cheeks flushed- and whatever it is he was about to ask you to do, you were already sold. If he keeps looking at me like that I might stop breathing.
“You could stay down here with me so I can fall asleep, just for tonight?” He asks quietly.
“Yes,” you breathe. “Of course I will.”
Shinsou worked his way back to where he’d laid his pillow on the couch, scooping his blanket up from the floor. He fluffed the pillow and moved to the inside of the couch, against the back cushions.
He looked back at you with a tired smile, and patted the space beside him. “Ready to sleep, kitten?” 
You inhaled sharply and your heart skipped a beat, every part of your body melting at the nickname. You crawled across the cushions, settling on your side facing Shinsou. He sprawled out beside you, pulling the blanket up over your bodies. He turned onto his side, his eyes meeting yours.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a sleepover,” he whispered, making you smile. He shifted a little bit, and asked, “Hey y/n, can- can I hold you?” 
“Yeah, sure,” you whisper back, face warming. He moves closer, sliding an arm around your waist and pulling you into him. You take a deep breath and close your eyes in bliss, enjoying the feeling of being held close by Shinsou. “You know,” you murmur to him. “I think I almost passed out at the new nickname.”
You feel the vibration of his laughter through his chest. “Are you saying I should call you that from now on, kitten?” You feel a big grin spread onto your face as you let the nickname sink into you.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to function right if you call me that all the time,” you mumble, nuzzling into his chest. Shinsou reaches up and runs a hand through your hair.
“Special occasions only, then,” he whispers, letting his hand fall down to your waist again and fully settling in. You feel Shinsou’s breathing evening out, the tension in his body leaving as the both of you edge towards sleep. Before drifting off, you hear Shinsou murmur, “Thank you, y/n. I’m glad I have you.”
“Always, Shinsou.”
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thiswasinevitableid · 3 years
Note
Prompt #15 Danbrey if you're feeling up to it! (NSFW or SFW! Your choice!) Hope you're having a nice day :)
Thank you! I went with SFW
Prompt 15: Nymph
Normally, Aubrey would obey the “no fires” warning sign at the edge of the woods. Both because she’s all about respecting nature and also she doesn’t want another safety lecture from Duck. Her roommate needs to study in their dorm, and she really, really needs to practice this set of tricks for her show in a few weeks. 
The card and sleight of hand tricks go well, but when she segues into her fire illusions it all goes wrong. All her flash paper gets tangled in a vine that swears wasn’t there a minute ago and any time she generates so much as a spark a bunch of leaves fly into her face.
“Ugh, come on, work with me here.”
“No.”
She spins around and discovers a tree is talking to her.
“Please work with me here?”
Golden eyes appear in the trunk, “No. You’re using fire. In the woods. The very flammable woods. So, sorry, but as long as I’m around you don’t get to run around throwing sparks.” The voice moves closer and Aubrey understands her eyes were playing tricks on her; it’s a young woman about her age who, up until a moment ago, was camouflage against the tree trunk. Her hair fades from speckled brown to blonde, and her skin is broken up in markings of different colors. Aubrey vaguely remembers Duck telling her that was how some predators avoid being seen in the forest, and wonders if she should be worried rather than noticing how her audience of one looks cute even with her arms crossed in annoyance. 
“I’m sorry, I just really need to practice for my magic show because if I bomb it’s gonna suck and no one will ever book me again. So like, what if I promise to keep the sparks small?”
The woman shakes her head. Before Aubrey can react, branches reach down and pick up all her supplies, dangling them out of reach. 
“Hey!”
“I’m not giving them back unless you say you’ll stop with the fire.”
“It’s flash paper, it barely produces any sparks at all!” She jumps, misses her deck of cards, jumps again and promptly collides with her tormentor, sending them both to the ground.
“Oops.” She tries on her best smile as the woman blinks up at her. Pink flowers bloom up her arms, which is just so fucking cool.
“Are you, like, a wood nymph or something?”
“I’m a dryad, but I think humans just call anyone who lives in the trees nymphs, so that works too.”
“That’s amazing. I wish I could do real magic. Maybe not plant magic because of my whole persona, but any kind would be super rad. Oh!” she sits up, allowing the nymph to do the same, “I know, what if you stayed and watched me practice? That way if the sparks land somewhere they shouldn’t, you can just smoosh them out like you have been. Or we could take turns doing tricks? Not that, like, your magic is like a parlor trick, but more like we could each take turns showing off? What do you think?”
“I think…” the nymph toys with a strand of hair, which shimmers to light green as she walks past a new stand of shrubs, “I think I’m not doing a great job chasing you off. But I also don’t think I want to?” She gives Aubrey a shy smile, “will you do that trick with the rings again?”
Aubrey does a mental fist-pump as her supplies are once again within reach, “You got it.”
----------------------------------------------------
“Dani, look!” Aubrey holds the pet carrier up to the tree, “I brought my assistant to meet you.”
“Wrong tree, Aubrey.” The nymph appears to her right.
“Dang. I thought I was getting better at spotting you.”
“You’ve done it on the first try twice this week, which is better than basically any other human has ever done.” They sit on the grass, which thanks to Dani’s intervention no longer irritates Aubrey’s skin or has unwanted bugs in it. She reaches into the carrier, rubbing the white rabbit’s nose “this is Dr. Harris Bonkers, right?”
“Yep! Thank you for using his full name; he worked hard for the diploma.” 
Dani laughs in a way that suggests she understands this is a joke but not what the joke is. 
“Do you want to let him out? He could nibble grass while we talk.”
“Um, I mean, he’d love that. Right up until something ate him.”
“Here, I have an idea.” Dani twirls a finger, sending up walls and ceilings out of woven branches until she, Aubrey, and the rabbit are in a beautiful gazebo of greenery.
“Wow.” Aubrey whispers as Dr. Harris Bonkers leaves his carrier to happily munch the grass and clover. 
Dani scoots closer, “Hey, Aubrey, what’s your favorite flower?”
“I like, um, I think they’re called Penstemons? I also really like cherry blossoms but they’re not in-” The entire roof of the gazebo explodes in pink petals, “season.”
Dani winks, sending the walls into bloom with bright red and deep orange flowers, “they are now.”
----------------------------------------------------------
“Can I open my eyes yet?” The nymph sits on a tree-stump, fingernails still painted deep green from two nights ago. She and Aubrey spent until about two in the morning in the nymphs’ house, since she wanted to see how human sleepovers differed from dryad ones. Aubrey suspects they both played up how much cuddling between attendees was normal for the sake of being closer. 
“Not yet, lemme just get this--hah, okay, you can look now!”
Dani uncovers her face and daffodils burst through the ground at her feet. 
Aubrey smirks, spins in her new stage outfit: a satin, flame red top, black jacket, black skirt, sparkly red fishnets, and her Doc Martens, “ta dah!”
“Wow.” Dani sighs, but says nothing else, making Aubrey a little self-conscious
“It really looks good?”
“It looks amazing, fireblossom. No one will be able to take their eyes off you.”
The nickname makes Aubrey’s face match her shirt, “Are you sure you don’t want to come? We could, like, get you a seat in a corner or something so no one would notice you look a little plant-like.”
“I wish I could, Aubrey. But I’ve got work to tend to out here. Plus, I’d be so excited to see you up there, impressing everyone, that I’d fill the whole theater with roses before I knew what I was doing.”
“Good point.” Aubrey sags a little; she’s so pumped for the show, but all she can think about is proving to Dani that all her time practicing in front of her paid off. 
“Hey” Dani hops up from her seat, cups one of Aubrey’s cheeks and kisses the other one. It tingles, like rubbing a mint leaf between her fingertips, “good luck tonight.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The show goes better than expected. There are some hiccups in her first two tricks, but her friends are in the front row and cheer her on as she gets the hang of things. By the time she hits her fiery finale, she has the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand like they’re Dr. Harris Bonkers. 
“You did great!” Duck bear hugs her in the green room as Barclay hands her flowers. 
“Glad you think so! And, um, thanks you guys. It means a lot that you gave up your Saturday night to come see my act.”
“You know we’d never miss it” Mama hugs her, “we;re so proud of you kiddo, forging your own path like this.”
“And it seems we are not the only ones who enjoyed the show. Look.” Indrid holds up a second bouquet. Tucked among the pink blooms is a card reading “fireblossom.”
“That from the gal you were tellin me about?”
“Yeah” Aubrey cradles the bunch of cherry blossom stems, “she couldn’t make it tonight but, um, I hope she can meet you guys soon. I think you’ll like her. Especially you, Duck, she’s super into plants.”
“Right on. Now, who’s up for some celebratoryholyshit” Duck stops abruptly in the door, “y’all, come look at this.”
The venue has several windows, since during the day it’s a cafe. One of these windows, with a clear view of the stage, is wreathed in honeysuckle. Stranger still is the path of flowers and leaves trailing from the crosswalk, down the opposite sidewalk, and into one of the pedestrian only paths that leads to the green belt around campus. 
“Barclay?”
“Yeah, Aubrey?”
“Please put these in a vase for me.” Aubrey hands him her bouquets and sprints out the door, a rainbow of petals coating her shoes as she runs. Soon there are no streetlights to help her navigate, just the starlight and the river of greenery beneath her feet.
“Dani!” 
The nymph, coaxing an ailing Elm back to health, turns in surprise. Aubrey throws her arms around her, ever changing hair catching in her face and mottled green dress soft under her hands. 
“You came.”
Dani snickers, “what gave it away? The fact it looked like a meadow exploded downtown?”
Aubrey giggles, pulling back to bump their noses together, “Yeah. Just...what made you change your mind.”
The nymph caresses her cheek, fingers coming away glittering from her make-up, “I couldn’t stay away. I saw all the work that went into your act and, and I, uh, I’m also just so into you, fireblossom. I wanted to be there for you, even if I wasn’t in the room.”
Aubrey’s heart threatens to burst out of her chest. To keep that from happening, she pulls Dani into a kiss. The nymph laughs against her mouth, cups the back of her head and holds her there, teasing her tongue between her lips when Aubrey parts them. By the time they separate to breathe, the taste of orange blossoms is on her tongue and her fingers are tangled in gold-green strands of hair. 
“Um, you can totally say no to this, but my friends and I are meeting at Mama’s place to celebrate the show going well. There would only be a few of us, and they’re all pretty chill.”
Dani tucks a flower behind Aubreys ear, “I’d love too, fireblossom. But first…” she grabs Aubrey, spinning and dipping her into another kiss, so deep that the stars in her eyes outshine the ones in the sky. 
When the nymph guides her back up, both of them laughing in their embrace and all Aubrey can think to say is, “wow.”
23 notes · View notes
hanadolphieron · 3 years
Text
mia as a girlfriend~
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how you met;
you met at a hotel in the bahamas, in the little club thingo they had for people who couldn’t drink but were above 18
you struck up a conversation with her while playing one of the arcade games
you lost horribly because you were a bit distracted by the pretty girl next to you
she still complimented you though:) she’s so sweet
you ended up hanging out together for the rest of the night
at one point you made her laugh so hard she started crying
poor eunji
you keep seeing each other at the hotel
and your friend groups that you travelled with have of course been told about the night at the club and have made it their mission to get you guys together
it’s awkward at first
but the absolutely delectable buffet brunch serves as a great topic of conversation whenever things get quiet
you had to shove your friends out of the picture for a day to spend time with her
because you know when you meet someone you like and get that jealous. rushed feeling and want them all to yourselves?
yeah
you and eunji in a nutshell
however, your friends are more than happy to give you two some alone time and head to another beach, raising their eyebrows aggressively as they leave
the basics;
saying she’s clingy is an understatement
is hit with random urges to smoosh you into a hug and clumsily falls over you in an attempt to smother you
sagittarius venusians have a clumsy but cool way of expressing love
like it’s an attractive way of being dumb and chaotic around each other
shows off 24/7!
wants to impress you and receive compliments ):
wants to have magical moments with you and prepares a bunch of aesthetic dates
and i mean aesthetic
like searches through social media for the magicalest, most enchanting ideas she can find
which we’ll get to in the headcannons (:
shows her affection aggressively
in her mind, she’s the one who takes control of matters in the relationship, but in reality she feels safer letting you do things first and then she follows
it depends on how far you are into the relationship though, and what time of day it is
in the dark she’s more impulsive and spontaneous, while during the day and she follows your example more
but do not bring it up!
she does not like it if people call her a follower, and she takes pride in her leadership qualities
if you want to keep eunji happy, make sure to tell her about authentic qualities that make her her
but don’t label her too much
please describe her in worldy terms, and don’t box her in
but also give her security and safety
just understand her
this sounds so complicated but eunji needs it all
will tell you what she wants though, her aries moon causes her to be upfront about her emotional needs
won’t keep secrets from you
resolves conflict in a round-about way however
it might take her a while to apologize or find a solution, as she has to deep-think about the whole situation and find all the hidden meanings behind it
but once she does that, she’ll bring it up and be so understanding of how you feel and incredibly selfless about the whole situation
on the inside she is most likely looking for your apology too though
as anyone would be
isn’t huge on typical romantic affection
more like falling all over each other and more natural physical touches rather than planned out ones
headcannons;
so getting into eunji’s thoughtful dates ideas...
one of the first outings you went on together was a trip to a drive-in movie
you went to see mean girls because reasons
reasons being it was one of the only ones being shown and both of you wanted to see a movie that you had seen before in order to make more time for snuggling and whispering to each other
you made it through nine whole minutes of the movie before you flopped on eunji’s chest, making her “uf” and then stared at her
you raised your eyebrows at her
she tried not to laugh and almost spit on your nose trying to contain herself
proceeded to laugh even harder at that and had to push you off in order to not die of suffocation from your head
you kept making each other laugh and combust from trying not to make noise and disturb the other movie-goers who were probably in the same situation as you to be honest
the two of you quieted down after a while, and you ended up cuddled into eunji’s chest while she stroked your head
so wholesome i’m crying
onto the next date-
this once consisted of returning to the hotel where you met because memories!
both of you ended up crying and confessing your love to each other about a thousand times because you guys are emotional messes and are way too attached
tries to sweet-talk the life-guard into letting both of you go down a one-person slide together because you were too scared to do it alone
they didn’t let you
which wasn’t too disappointing, as eunji would most likely yell in your ear and cause you to scream even more
you stuffed yourselves at the same brunch bouffet
and then at dinner too, with a delightfully weird mix of food- chicken fried rice, sausage pizza, snickerdoodles, one (1) carrot, and a massive fruit kebab
and a fortune cookie too
you kept trying to eat eunji’s hair because it “tastes like sodium yummy!”
she retaliated and tried to consume your’s, but missed and bit your ear instead
in a very unsexy way
luckily it didn’t bleed
but eunji still cooed over you and babyed you for the rest of the day
she didn’t let you eat her salty hair though ): said it was “too dangerous for a wee child like you”
petnames;
pumpkin-
used by both of you, but mostly you
she gets so flustered and it’s the cutest thing you have ever seen in your life
she put her hand over her mouth, blushed, and said, “pumpkin?” in the voice-crackiest voice the first time you called her it
both of you melted to say the least and collapsed onto each other
losing control of body limbs seems to be a reoccurring theme in your relationship hmm
child-
used by her of course
calls you this whenever she needs you to do something and doesn’t feel like using you know, your actual name
from across the store- “child! would you like tostitos or would you prefer to indulge on a whale-sized can of beans?”
“lettuce!”
ok i’ll stop now
60 notes · View notes
fragmentedink · 3 years
Text
Hell to Pay: Part Fifty- Three
I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, IX, IX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XVIIII, XXX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXV, XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XL, XLI, XLII, XLIII, XLIV, XLV, XLVI, XLVII, XLVIII, XLIX, XLX, LI, LII
cowritten by @lux-scriptum
Lev put his hands on his hips. Cameron and Ash had done most of the heavy lifting, and Mami and Cameron had gotten the food ready, so Lev really hadn’t done much, but it’d turned out nice, and in the end that was all Lev could ask for, really. They had indeed gone with an ocean theme, to match the nursery, and since despite Lev’s efforts to help in some way or another, Cameron had been in charge of everything and took little input, it was all rather tasteful.
Lev fussed with the placement of the snacks, even though he knew Cameron was going to come along behind him and fix it again. He felt useless, especially with Ash reminding him to not push himself.
As expected, Cameron appeared, smacking Lev’s hand away. “Knock it off,” Cameron reprimanded. “The others should be arriving soon.”
“Is Biela coming?” Lev asked. They’d sent an invite; it’d’ve been rude to not. To Lev’s knowledge, she hadn’t responded.
“Likely not. She’ll probably send Caius in her stead.”
“Mm.��� Lev had liked Caius, the one time he’d met him. He was pretty. And seemed kind. Friendly, at the very least.
Cameron lifted a brow, and grabbed Lev’s hand when Lev reached to adjust a platter of pastries. “If you don’t leave it alone, I’ll make you go baby sit Nik.”
Lev opened his mouth to argue, but Nik himself had appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand. “What’s the party for?” the pregnant omega mumbled.
“You,” Lev grumbled, making his way over to Nik. At least he was allowed to fuss over Nik, and he did so with a tiny spark of pleasure, pressing a kiss to Nik’s cheek and brushing his green and black hair from his eyes. “You’re not supposed to be awake yet. It was gonna be a surprise.”
Nik frowned sleepily at Lev. “I had to pee,” Nik complained bitterly.
“We’ve been planning for a week,” Lev informed him, before brushing his cheek lightly. “Oh well. Now I don’t have to figure out a way to get you dressed.”
“Planning what for a week?” Nik muttered. “My birthday isn't until next week.” He pulled a face. “And I can’t even get drunk.”
“Your baby shower,” Lev said, guiltily tucking away Nik’s birthday to worry about later.
“My what?”
Lev sighed, and started herding Nik out the door. He could practically feel Cameron rolling his eyes at him. “Your baby shower. Did you think I would let you get away without one?”
Nik shrugged. “I didn’t even think about it.”
With another sigh, Lev slid his arm around Nik’s waist. “I wasn’t going to not give you one. We invited your brothers. Both of them. You deserve it.”
Nik made a face at him.
“Come on. Let's get dressed,” Lev said, bonking his shoulder with Nik’s.
---
Nik let Lev lead him back to the bedroom to get clothes. He hadn't really thought much about clothes lately and had been wearing sweats for the most part.
He thumbed through a few pairs of jeans and frowned. "None of these are going to fit, are they?"
"...Cameron went shopping."
Nik squinted and looked through his jeans once more. He pulled a pair out and stretched. "When did he do this?" Nik frowned at the alien jeans with their stretchy fabric in horror before shrugging it off and grabbing a loose black shirt to go with it.
Lev had no answer other than his own shrug and took it at face value. The idea of Cameron in a maternity store was too hilarious a thought to stay irritable at it.
Nik worked at getting himself slowly dressed. Without any coffee in his system, he was fighting the urge to just go back to bed. Though luckily enough for him, he wasn't showing nearly as much as what he had seen on the internet with people pregnant the same length as he.
"Seems like a pretty big party for like seven people." Nik said. He rubbed his eyes, pulling the last bit of sleepiness away. "Unless you decided to invite his royal prickliness too."
"Well I assume Bay is coming. Celeste too; they'll bring the babies," Lev said. "We also invited Biela too- though we don't think she'll come."
"I should hope not. I might do something hormonal like poison her sparkly punch, or something."
"Nikolas."
"Hm?" Nik started for the doorway, expecting Lev to follow him back to where he was sure the festivities would eventually begin.
By the time they got there, Bay and Nate had already arrived with Lucas sitting contently on Bay's hip chewing on a teething toy. And their boy scout was promptly hovering behind them.
"Silas," Nik said. "Didn't think you'd be here. Unless you're here because of Lev, of course."
Silas' only response was to flip him off, though it was short lived by Nate smacking him upside the head hard enough Nik heard Silas' neck pop. Nate gave Silas a dirty warning look.
Nik snorted. "Need to learn new tricks."
"Hi Silas," Lev said, from Nik’s side.
Silas gave a disgruntled, "Hey Lev."
Nate looked pleased at Silas' newfound self restraint. "The party looks great, Nik."
"I know, I did great," he said, lying through his teeth. Nik smooshed Levs face away when Lev pinched his hip. "My taste: impeccable."
Nate rose a singular groomed brow. "Oh I'm sure." He looked to Lev. "It looks great, Lev."
Already Lev had glued himself back to Nik’s side. He looked a little put out as he said honestly, “Most of the praise should go to Cameron and Ash and Mami. I wasn’t allowed to do much.”
"Well next time don't die," Ash said, appearing back in the doorway. "That way you'll actually be able to do some of the heavy lifting."
Nik frowned deeply at him, especially once Lev froze next to him and looked uncomfortable.
Ash looked perfectly unfazed.
Mami appeared a heartbeat later, to which Nate instantly perked up somehow even more. Though her eyes were trained on the well behaved six month old in Bay's arms.
The tiny woman nearly flew across the room to get to him, only for Bay to stare her down and refuse to relinquish the baby. "No."
Nate instantly jumped in. "He's still, ah, getting used to letting people hold Lucas," he said, quickly. "I can get Eden for you, if you like?"
Nik's hand flew over his mouth at the mirrored glare coming from both Mami and Bay. She sized Bay up, clearly deciding if it's worth it or not to challenge both her king and the omega that carried the partly legless bundle of joy. Bay's eyes narrowed. "I said no."
She huffed and tore her attention back to Nate who gave her a warm hug, though she was absolutely miniscule compared to Nate's height of six-two. When she pulled back, Nate went to disappear, presumably to find the little terror most likely taking a nap.
When he came back, Nate not only had Eden crawling all over him, he also had Adrien and his wife in tow. Neither of them had particularly warm or friendly looks on their faces, though that was usually par for the course for Adrien and Dyaana.
"Hello," Lev offered.
Dyaana eyed Lev, and gave him a slight smile whereas Adrien looked halfway in pain and just nodded once before coming to give Nik a hug.
Lev wisely removed himself from Niks waist before he got crushed by pure muscle. When Adrien pulled apart, Nik said, "didn't think you'd step foot in Demon Territory."
"The things you do for family," Adrien deadpanned.
Nik only grinned.
"Hey where's your clone?"
"Babysitter," Adrien said. "I'd rather not risk my two year old getting eaten by your boyfriend."
"Hey, Cameron doesn't eat infants. If he had, he would have eaten Eden," Nik said. "She's far more appealing as a meal than Mathias."
Adrien's only response to that was to roll his eyes. At that Lev decided to usher Nik to an armchair. "I am not an invalid, Lev," he said, plopping down anyways.
Lev perched on the armrest and kissed the top of Nik's hair. "I know dear."
When Adrien snorted, Nik threw him a poisonous glare. "Oh shut up."
Eden was still screeching happily in Mami's arms, getting all the attention she wanted, even though she was trying to latch her tiny teeth in Mami's shoulder. Mami easily avoided it by giving her a toy worthy of her teeth.
It was another twenty minutes before Celeste arrived. The last time he saw the witch she was about to pop. But judging by the fussy newborn in her arms, that was no longer the case. She came over to offer Nik a hug, and to show off her tiny pale baby. "We named him Dakota," she informed them.
Lev instantly cooed over him. "He’s so cute," Lev said. "Can I hold him?"
Ash found his way over to butt his nose in like he usually did. He squinted at Lev, but Celeste was already moving to hand him over. "Of course. Watch his head?"
"I know," he assured.
"Wait," Nik said, "Do you know that Ash is staying here…?"
"Yes she does," Ash said, "And she also is staying here. They both are."
Nik's brows shot up. "Is Cameron aware of this?"
Ash lifted a shoulder. "I told him."
"You 'told' him," Nik echoed.
"Dunno what you expected. I have a wife and a kid that I need to be with and I have a stubborn friend who refuses to listen to me. I told you I'm making myself everyone's problem."
Celeste looked pained. But Lev seemed perfectly blissed out; he hadn't even looked up from the fussy baby in his arms. "I don't think I'll mind having them here." He looked up at Celeste. "You've always been nice."
She gave him a tired smile. "I certainly try." She cut Ash a look. "Some people make it difficult sometimes."
Ash folded his arms. "If they don't want me to be difficult, maybe they should try to listen to me for once."
Celeste rolled her eyes but looked back to Nik. "I'm very happy for all of you. I'll help however I can."
Lev’s focus was already trained back on Dakota. Nik squirmed a little. "Thanks, I guess."
She just squeezed his hand.
---
Cyrus lit the last candle and shook out the match. He looked over at Darius as he settled on the bed. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad of an idea is this?” he asked drily.
Darius thought on that for a moment. “Probably a seven point two.”
After giving a small sigh, Cyrus laid back on the bed. “Better than I ten, I suppose.”
When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer lying on his bed. He wasn’t even in his own house anymore. The walls around him were all earthy tones, the green accents only catching his eye briefly before he settled on Asmi themself.
The god was tall, their dark skin a deeper brown than his own, and bright blue eyes that pinned him in place. After a moment where he froze -afraid, if he was willing to admit it - he dipped his head respectfully. When he looked at them again, he noted that they were still seated in their chair, face thin and tight, bags under their eyes, though they kept their chin high.
“Am I right in assuming that Darius explained what’s going on?” Cyrus ventured.
"You poisoned me once and now you want me to give you the tools to be able to do so again?"
Cyrus forced himself to keep his gaze steady. “If I do it right, it shouldn’t this time.”
"Shouldn't have happened the first time," they said flatly. "Necromancy defies balance and you weakened me for an angel who didn't bother communing with me in the first place. You didn't bother communing with me in the first place. And now that you need my help, you finally deign to bother?"
Cyrus inclined his head ever so slightly. “Ignorance is not an excuse, but it’s the only explanation I personally have.” He folded his hands carefully on his knee. “I made a promise. I don’t break them.” Asmi gave him the time he needed to gather his words. “I am sorry. For everything. I’ve never-” He paused again, frustrated by how hard it was to piece together the words. “It’s not an excuse, that I was never taught how to commune with you. Darius had to teach me, and you’re not even his god. But I want to do right by Darius. If nothing else, he’s been kind to me, and kind to everyone. I promised Cameron I would try. This is me trying. I want to make a deal that will work, not flub the spell again.”
They seemed to think on it; to weigh his words carefully. "What kind of deal?" They finally said.
“Same as the one that brought Levant back.” Cyrus considered his words and then amended, “A similar one, at least. Some sort of exchange.”
"And what's stopping you?"
Cyrus shook his head. “I don't want to risk getting the exchange wrong. That’s what released the dark magic into the earth in the first place. The spell unravelled, and I won’t let that happen again. But I won’t sacrifice Cameron Luain for this spell. It makes both this one and the one that brought Levant back completely pointless.”
Asmi nodded slowly and leaned back in their chair, blue eyes narrowed in thought. "Pick your sacrifice one last time and I will cover the remaining sacrifice to your spell. I warn you, the price will be heavy and I am not so easy to forgive the disruption you have caused me. Make sure this is worth it before you once again defy me."
Cyrus nodded slowly. “Thank you,” he said softly. When Asmi didn’t reply, Cyrus added, “If it’s not arrogant of me to ask... I’d like to talk to you again.” He cocked his head ever so slightly. “I know nothing of you, as my god or as a god in general. I’d like to fill in the gaps my education has.”
"It's not arrogant," they said. "It's what's expected of you. So yes, you may. There's plenty you need to get caught up on."
Cyrus limited himself to a small smile. “Then I look forward to speaking to you in the future,” he said politely. “Thank you, again.”
Rather than reply, they gave a tired flick of their wrist.
Cyrus blinked his eyes open to see his own ceiling. Sorin was sprawled against his side, purring as he kneaded his claws gently in Cyrus’ arm. Cyrus rolled his head until he could find Darius. “I think I got permission. I need to call Cameron.”
---
The party had been well underway when Cameron stepped out of the room. He slipped into his office several hallways down before his phone started to buzz. He didn't let it finish its first ring before answering. "Are you ready, then?"
“Sort of.” Cyrus hesitated. “I spoke with Asmi. They’ve promised as long as someone is sacrificed, they’ll take care of the rest, rather than risk the spell failing. I just don’t have anyone to sacrifice, to my knowledge.”
"Well lucky for you," Cameron said, "I currently have a spineless traitor rotting in my basement. Will that appease your morals?"
“A traitor?” Cyrus pressed mildly.
"A person who betrays a friend, country or a principle," Cameron replied, matching his tone. "A traitor."
“How did he betray you?”
"Well now, that's my business, now isn't it?"
There was a long pause, and then, “Did they kill anyone?”
"He's my employee."
The sigh the witch gave was audible through the phone even if Cameron hadn’t been a demon. “Fine. I’ve got a few things to pull together but I’m mostly ready, whenever you are.”
Cameron promptly hung up his phone and smoothed out his suit. He gave himself five heartbeats to settle before joining the festivities.
Caius had finally arrived, with many gifts in tow, despite it being demonic custom to not celebrate an infant until after its birth. Adapting to Nik’s angelic ancestry, he imagined. Cameron hadn't bothered saying as much when Lev suggested a baby-shower. If that was what the angel thought Nik needed, then he would provide.
Nik instantly eyed him from where he was, brows rose in question, but Cameron went to turn his focus to the Crown Prince currently placing the gifts along the table. "You seem to be in a rather generous mood, my prince," Cameron observed.
Caius flashed him a dazzling smile. "Why you make it sound like I'm not always in a giving mood, my loyal subject."
"I imagined a massacre would dampen your rather optimistic spirits."
Grief flickered in Caius' blue eyes. "All the more reason to celebrate a new life."
"Hm."
"I brought you all gifts," Caius said, with an echo of cheerfulness. "Including one for him."
"Much thanks." Cameron looked Nik's way to see him talking animatedly with Ash and Lev and Nate. He seemed to have been brought to a better mood with the sole focus on him. "It's always an honor to receive the eye of the crown."
Caius snorted at Cameron’s ingrained court-speak, but said nothing of it. Merely squeezed his shoulder before disappearing back into the party to give gifts to their respective recipients.
---
Admittedly, after so many months of solitude or just Cameron and Nik for company, the party was a little overwhelming. He drew comfort from the fact that Nik was right there, and Cameron lingered on the edges of the party being Cameron.
The fact that Caius was very friendly helped, though. Lev barely knew the man, but he was pretty and his smile seemed both genuine and calm. He laughed easily and didn’t seem bothered by the amount of angels in the room with him, despite being the Crown Prince of demonic territory.
At some point during the festivities, Caius pulled Lev aside, though. Lev glanced back at Nik, but let Caius with only a flustered, “Okay.”
“I got you something,” Caius said, flashing him another smile that definitely made Lev flush a little.
“Nik’s the one who’s pregnant,” Lev blurted. He flushed deeper, and then said quickly, “I don’t mean to be rude, it’s just Nik’s day, I wasn’t expecting anything.”
“I got everyone a present,” Caius said easily, unbothered.
Lev blinked down at the box, confusion at why it looked very much like a ring box catching him off guard. The brief glance up at the prince told him he was very amused, and Lev had to wonder if he was a telepath like Biela. When he opened it, though, a locket was nestled inside.
“Oh,” Lev said, picking it up gently. He thumbed it open to find a picture of Cameron, Nik, and Eden each in its own little section. “Oh.”
“Were you expecting an engagement ring?” Caius asked.
“Oh,” Lev spluttered. “No, not expected, I-” He gestured helplessly at the box, flushed deeply. “I love it, really.” He ran his finger over the picture of Nik, knowing his face was softening as he did so. “It’s perfect.”
Caius said, “Well I’m glad. You’re not an easy person to pinpoint.”
“I don’t want much,” Lev said honestly.
Caius shrugged. “Just the important things.”
Lev let his attention track through the room, hitting on Cameron, Nik, and Eden one by one. “Exactly,” he said softly. He switched his gaze back to Caius, offering him a smile. “Thank you. Truly. I love it.”
Caius winked at him, but before he said anything else, Nik made his way over. He gave Lev a pointed look. “What’s going on over here?” Nik asked. “You look like you’re about to ask his hand in marriage, Levant.”
“No,” Lev promised, tucking into Nik’s side pointedly. “I was just thanking him. He got me a gift. See?” He showed it to Nik with enthusiasm.
Nik kissed his cheek. “It’s very pretty. Where’s my attention?”
A laugh bubbled up in his throat. “You’ve got a whole party. I wasn’t gone long.” He shot Caius an apologetic look.
"Well let me make it up to you," Caius said to Nik. "As you're doing all the heavy lifting, you deserve a gift of your own, yes?"
Nik arched a brow. "I'm literally doing nothing other than being a rotisserie oven."
“Nikolas,” Lev hissed, poking him gently. “Be polite.”
Nik raised his brows but Caius only laughed. "Even still. Not easy. I understand you like music?"
"Something like that, yeah."
Caius' smile widened. "Great! I actually worked with a few different craftsmen and musicians to have something built for you. Excuse me."
When Caius disappeared back to the piles of gifts he had brought, Nik turned back to Lev. "Very pretty isn't he?"
Lev could feel heat rising in his cheeks yet again. “Yes,” Lev said primly. “There’s no need to tease"
"I have never teased you a day in your life," Nik said. "Merely stating an observation."
“You tease me daily,” Lev informed him, but he still smiled at Nik, reaching up to brush Nik’s hair from his eyes. “Every single day, Nikolas. Every day.”
“Are you calling a pregnant omega a liar?”
“Maybe so,” Lev hummed. He kissed the corner of Nik’s mouth. “Maybe so.”
Caius came back with an elegant cedar guitar. The gleaming guitar’s finish was clearly done to bring out the natural colors of the wood. Nik’s eyes trailed over the body of the guitar and rested on the careful mosaic beadwork around the hollow. “That design work is specific to Tullum,” Nik said, vaguely accusatory; though mostly amused. “Are you trying to buy me off?”
Caius seemed unbothered. “Not particularly. Just trying to gift you something you would actually enjoy. I find personal gifts are more memorable.”
“Sure,” Nik said, but he was still moving closer to run his fingers along that delicate beadwork.
“Thank you,” Lev said, since Nik didn’t seem inclined to.
Caius merely winked at him.
Lev blushed, since Nik seemed too interested in his new guitar to be embarrassed. He certainly was interested enough to take it from Caius and strum a few bars. Lev elbowed Nik gently. Nik ignored him, but Caius seemed pleased anyway.
Caius dipped himself into a mini bow. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s Cameron’s turn.”
---
Cameron led the prince back towards his office where they could be alone without prying party guests could interfere. He took the gift meant for Darius and sat it carefully on the desk, and turned back to Caius. “I received a call from the witch who will be performing the spell,” Cameron said. “I figured you would want to be informed.”
Caius slipped his hands smoothly into his pockets. “I would.” Caius cocked his head, eyeing Cameron very carefully. “You have certainly come a long way from the bastard whore I met you as.” There wasn’t any disrespect in his words, merely a statement of observation. “Now a lord in your own right, with your own family.”
“I am merely filling in a role that needed filling,” Cameron said. “Though I am grateful nonetheless.”
“Hm.”
“The resurrection,” Cameron said, pointedly, drawing attention from whatever point Caius was clearly trying to make. “Should be happening within the week.”
Caius gave him a look, but let the insolence slide. “So you have someone lined up to be slaughtered for a sacrifice?”
“Slaughtered is a large word for a demon with a weak spine, your grace.”
Caius lifted a groomed brow. “Is that so?”
“The witch’s morals interfered with choosing a warm body, and luckily enough, I happened to have a traitor rotting in my basement.”
Caius snorted. “Traitor? From the rather loud screaming, I did imagine someone was being tortured in this house.” He tapped his temple. “I’d like to see this traitor.”
With little choice to that matter, Cameron led the prince through the house, down to the basement where Sage was still chained up. Cameron had been keeping him well fed and in peak condition outside of his routine torturing. Sage rolled his head towards them, tiredly, but there was a bit of surprise - and a new found fear- flickering in his eyes when he saw Caius next to him.
Caius eyed him slowly, circling the chair bolted into the floor. The impeccable clothes tailored to Caius’ frame were a stark contrast to the sharp bleakness of the room, though Cameron knew the weight of power a good suit held, and how to weaponize it.
When Caius stopped in front of the chair, he had a small smile gracing his face. “I could hear your thoughts from upstairs,” he said. “Clearly you wanted my attention.”
Sage sucked in a haggard breath, trying to not look at Cameron. “Just make him kill me,” he rasped. “I’ve been here for months-”
“My sister was tortured by angels for months on end,” Caius said, unfazed. “She was whipped and beaten and carved up and she hadn’t broken. She hadn’t begged for death, or whatever pathetic attempt at mercy this is. In fact, the difference is,” he said, “this was rather well deserved. Your treasonous actions against your lord led to the events of millions of children dying, so, if you were to die, it’s going to be for something that is definitely not for your benefit.” Caius leaned forward, just enough to keep the blood from touching him. “Don’t worry, your suffering will soon end.”
Caius leaned back and turned to Cameron. “Do what you need. So long as another innocent isn’t taken from these lands, I couldn’t care less.”
Cameron’s mouth twitched, but he just inclined his head.
---
The day had been tense and heavy for Darius. Between getting everything in line with Asmi and Cyrus, and also not returning to the Manor, knowing Destris was lurking the halls, Darius had decided to spend his time that night playing a small game of fetch with Sorin in his demonic form.
A small ball of paper used a rather small amount of energy, so it was easy to keep up. Around three in the morning, they had been playing the quiet game going for the last few hours after Cyrus retired to bed. Sorin had been kind enough to keep him company while his mate slept without him.
It was then that the front door opened silently. Sorin flicked his ears at Cameron, who promptly ignored him and started his way back through the house. Darius rose to his feet and followed him back, veering around him to get to Cyrus before he did to give the witch a heads up.
He touched Cyrus’ shoulder, in effort to wake him. He blinked sleepily at Darius, eyes flashing gold from the amount of swollen magic Cyrus had building inside him. “I’m assuming Cameron is here?” The amount of pure tired that was in Cyrus’ voice didn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated by Darius.
Cameron walked into the room not even a heartbeat later. “Have I come at a bad time?” He sounded very unsympathetic.
Darius flashed Cyrus an apologetic wince.
All Cyrus said was, “No,” while rising to a sitting position. “Are you here to speak to Darius?”
If he hadn’t been watching Cameron’s every move the last five hundred years, he would have missed the way Cameron’s jaw set. “Yes.”
Cyrus gave the smallest of sighs, but stood up. “I have my supplies in my study.”
Unsurprisingly, Cameron merely turned around and most likely started towards the study. Darius simply waited patiently for Cyrus to get ready.
Cyrus rubbed at his face, stifling a yawn with his wrist as he followed Cameron. His movements were slow and heavy, but he only made his way into the study and began lighting candles while Sorin followed, tail swishing over the ground like a fluffy ginger ribbon.
Cameron stood stiffly out of the way, slender hands in his pockets while he waited, unblinkingly in pure silence. Darius did not need his magic to know that Cameron getting here was like pulling teeth.
Darius could only imagine the weight in his chest he’d be feeling at the idea of Cameron avoiding him to the point he has to force himself to be here- to speak to him.
There was relief in Cyrus’ voice as he began the incantation for Darius to manifest to Cameron. When Cameron’s pale eyes slid to him, unreadable as ever, Darius curled a lock of hair behind his ear, if only to relieve some of his own tension. “You wanted to speak with me?”
Cameron’s lips thinned.
Darius gave him the time to be able to put together the words he needed to patiently. Finally, Cameron fixed his jaw once more and said, “I am assuming you still want to be resurrected?”
“Do you still want me to be resurrected?”
Cameron’s eyes narrowed. “The Prince has gifted me papers of your reinstatement as a citizen of Razya the moment you are alive. As if you had never been dead in the first place.”
A citizen of Razya? Darius hadn’t even been considered a citizen when he was alive. Bastards hold no citizenship, no rights, no protection. He hadn’t even had a home before he had been abducted when he was a child. Merely living on the streets. A pretty child with no home was easy prey.
“That was very kind of the prince.”
“Mm.”
“Is that all you wished to tell me?” Darius asked, after a heavy silence.
“I imagine you’re aware that Nik is pregnant.”
When Darius nodded, Cameron said, “I mated him, a few weeks ago when his father tried to stake a claim on him. I used the Old Laws.”
Darius smiled. “That was kind of you,” he observed. “I’m sure Nik adores you very much. He and his child will be safe with you.” When Cameron rose a brow, Darius tried to not snort. “I will do my best to not upset the dichotomy of the house, Cameron. I have a rather pleasant personality.”
“I can see nothing going wrong with that,” Sorin said from the doorway.
Darius flicked Sorin a look. “I’m sure I have no idea what you are referring to, Sorin. I seem to get along rather fine with you.”
Sorin smiled, eyes crinkling. “True enough.”
Darius returned his attention back to Cameron, who was giving Sorin his own irritable look. Though the moment Cameron caught Darius’ eye, his expression returned to neutrality.
“I’m sure you will,” Cameron said, as if Sorin hadn’t spoken a word. “However Nik’s shrunken frontal lobe suggests he will not behave accordingly. So when he eventually does decide to overreact, I suggest you be prepared for it. He’s emotional on a good day and as he is pregnant, he’s even more so.”
“Thank you for the precaution.”
“I thought it would be beneficial.”
Cameron’s pale eyes lingered on him momentarily, flickering in the candle light, before he turned back to Cyrus who was kneeling on the ground near the candles. His eyes seemed rather unfocused. “When can we get this over with?” Cameron asked him. When Cyrus didn’t answer, Cameron moved his attention to Sorin in the doorway. “Focus your witch.”
Cameron rolled his eyes when Sorin hissed at him, but moved to crouch near Cyrus. Cyrus blinked at him, and then fixed his gaze on Cameron. “Pardon?”
“When can we get this over with?” Cameron said, irritably.
He always did detest repeating himself.
“Within the next few days,” Cyrus replied. “I’ve got everything ready. I just need to set it up.”
Cameron pulled out his phone, clearly flicking through his schedule. “I’ll give you the next two days to set up and then I will be here at seven sharp the third day. Be ready by then.”
Cameron slipped his phone into his pocket and disappeared through the door without a glace his way.
Darius bit back his sigh. “I do hope that is alright.”
Cyrus shrugged. “Not that I have much of a choice. But I’ll be fine. Once the spell is done, I’m going to take the longest nap, however.”
“And it will be the most well deserved longest nap,” Darius said, solemnly.
With a tired smile, Cyrus began extinguishing the candles, one by one, coating the room with nighttime once more.
Tagging:  @incandescent-creativity @solangelo3088 @lil-miss-red @halstudies @littleyellowdinosaur @caelisis @idreamonpaper
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So I read this very interesting post that was pro-Jonerys written around the time after season 7 aired, I think. It was very well-written and explored examples of Jon’s growing feelings for Dany all throughout season 7. But when I saw the examples used, I thought “oh man, this is the trap the show set and this awesome person unfortunately fell right into it.” Jonerys was meant to get our attention, to hide what was really happening with Dany behind the scenes so to speak but then shove it into the forefront in 8x05 so we would supposedly feel a jarring impact from Dany’s dark turn that we weren’t supposed to see coming. And while this person didn’t have season 8 to work with at the time (and I totes understand, season 7 was one big ball of confusing and guesswork not just for Jonerys but also other characters/story lines as well), I wanted to take another look at their examples (while also including some of my own) of Jon’s feelings for Dany in that 7th season.
Example 1):
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This is meant to call to the audience a growing attraction between Jon and Dany, and tension. But notice it’s the physical Davos is mentioning here. Not that Dany is a great queen or her good heart that Jon is supposedly taking interest in. It’s a physical attraction. This is also important as it will come into play later in 8x01. 
And notice how it’s Davos to bring the subject up, not Jon. This cements this is the show trying to sell the GA something, an idea, that will then later come to fruition once its “product” is sold and the GA start embracing the idea.
Example 2):
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This isn’t someone who is deep in love. Dany isn’t in love here either. This is him hoping that she’ll understand how important her joining the fight is, that these cave drawings are what will cement that joining as allies against the Night King. And it almost seems as if yes, she now understands and they can work together and you can see Jon is hopeful, which she immediately dashes when saying “I will fight for you. I will fight for the North...when you bend the knee.” You can even see Jon’s disappointment after this statement.
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This scene is not Jon being jealous. This is Jon studying the interaction between Jorah and Dany. Remember, this scene is on the heels of a semi-disagreement that Dany and Jon are having after she’s returned from the battle with the Lannister army. Dany is trying to convince him that she did the right thing and when she sees he’s not immediately agreeing, she gets annoyed and tries to convince him further. Then Jorah shows up. This is a side to Dany that Jon still has yet to see. Dany immediately becomes soft, is affected by it that we even see her eyes become slightly teary and she smiles, and even hugs Jorah by the end of it. This is still the Khaleesi, the Breaker Of Chains, the Mother Of Dragons even, but this is also Dany, young Dany who Jorah met back at her wedding to Drogo. This is the side of her Jon has never seen before, that he and (from what he sees) Tyrion and Varys have not been able to access. But suddenly Jorah shows up and she’s practically purring (that’s not a dig or a slight, it’s truth, her soft side came out in this scene, Emilia showcased the difference brilliantly). Because Jon still doesn’t have Dany’s promise of support yet and he can’t leave yet, it’s no wonder that he’s studying the one person that seems to bring out that side of her. And it’s also no coincidence that Jon ends up stepping into a role similar to Jorah’s in the last season. Jon is who Jorah would have become for Dany had she been able to return his feelings.
Example 3):
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Yes, in the 7x06 script, it is confirmed that in this moment, after seeing Dany grieving Viserion, Jon realizes he does have feelings for her. We already know there was a growing physical attraction between them as stated by Davos above but now after seeing how Dany came to save them, he realizes okay this is who Missandei was talking about, this is who Jorah is in love with. And sure enough, we see Dany pledge to fight the Night King with him, without needing him to bend the knee. This is the same Dany the audience is charmed by, the same Dany that is fiercely stanned, the Mother Of Dragons, the Khaleesi and Breaker Of Chains, the queen many have chosen. Do I think here that Jon is head over heels? No. I think he does have feelings though that are growing, that he is starting to feel love, but it’s not an all-consuming passion and love. 
Example 4) Boatsex:
Okay, before we delve into this, I want to show you something:
It is a common trope or theme that in a romance, the first kiss is shown. Whether it happens passionately or is just a small peck on the lips or an accidental smooshing, it’s always shown. Hence here are other examples of romances written on the show:
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(I couldn’t find a gif of the cave scene above)
Regardless of how these pairings above ended up, regardless of these first kisses leading right into sex or not, they had build-up before that first kiss and more importantly, that first kiss is shown. These are romantic-coded relationships meant to be read romantically by the viewers as, you guessed it, romances. 
This is not a romance:
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Gif credit
The door is closed and the next scene we get is Dany and Jon mid-makeout, naked on the bed. The first kiss is not shown. Considering how they built up other romances on the show, if Jonerys was the “it” couple and the true romance of the show, if both loved each other so passionately, this was a very important element that they “missed”. Something that has nothing to do with the chemistry between the actors or bad writing or bad editing. It was purposely “missed”.
This scene below comes after that rolling around and a lot of people think it’s Jon gazing down on his beloved before that special moment:
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I hate to burst anyone’s bubble but that’s not what this moment is. What you’re seeing is Dany is deep in this relationship happening (it’s clear as day on her face, again Emilia is just brilliant), Jon sees this and hesitates for a moment (most likely feeling somewhat guilty because his feelings are not as deep as hers but he can see how deep this is for her, notice how he keeps studying her face in the second gif), and then makes the decision to go through with it. And all during this, we have Bran’s voiceover revealing who Jon really is. Not to mention the obvious sexual positioning, it starts out with Dany on Jon’s side but over him and then he rolls them over and that’s how the sexual encounter progresses.
Dany who Doreah taught that “love comes in at the eyes”. Notice how Jon chooses to kiss Dany as they start doing the deed so their eyes are closed due to the kissing. Then compare it to the sex scene Dany has with Drogo in the tent (after Doreah’s lesson) back in season 1, where Dany is on top and in control, where she stares into Drogo’s eyes. Now rewatch the boatsex scene again. Jon was in control here. 
This moment is not meant to be read a true romantic moment. You know how I know that?
This:
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There was absolutely no reason to show us (the audience) Tyrion’s reaction during the love scene. Yes, I’m sure there is some jealousy and concern over how this will go but in order for the one true romance of the show to have their moment, why are we shown an outside character’s reaction not once but twice? It’s not as if there is a love triangle happening between Jon, Dany, and Tyrion. So why show us? Their love scene already has an “interrupting” factor with Bran’s voiceover that they try to mix in with the love theme of “Truth”, so why add this, too? 
Because it’s not going to end well. Because it’s not a pure two-sided, mutually deep romance.
And on top of that, this interview with Peter is very telling. “He loves her -- or thinks he does.” “She’s awe inspiring.” “He knows the two of them getting together could be very dangerous.” -> this relationship or getting together will not end well
“He loves her -- or thinks he does.” “She’s awe inspiring.” -> this is the way it’s been going the whole show is the arc of Dany in the show that most people feel enamored with from characters in the show to every last GA member, the Khaleesi, the Breaker Of Chains, the Mother Of Dragons - this is who Tyrion fancies himself in love with, who he supports and has faith in; this is who Jorah is head over heels in love with; this is Missandei’s queen who she & the others have chosen; this is who Jon has started to have feelings for (as per the 7x06 script confirmation) and loves by the time they get to Winterfell. In the end, though, Dany is no longer the Khaleesi or Breaker Of Chains and has even surpassed the Mother Of Dragons arc in that she uses Drogon purely as a weapon after 8x04. 
Example 5):
Going back to what Davos said up above in Example 1, we get this scene in 8x01. We see Jon and Dany being viewed by Tyrion, Davos, and Varys, while making commentary. Notice again how Davos is the one to mention a possible union of the two, ruling the 7K together. Yet, while we see what appears to be a nice moment that these guys are viewing between the couple, we purposefully are not able to hear what is being said between them, and are viewing them from a distance like these guys are. Why? Because the show is selling/pitching you the idea once again through Davos while he is selling Tyrion and Varys on the idea of a union.
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When we do eventually join Dany and Jon down there, what do we see? Dany telling Jon that Sansa doesn’t like her, Jon trying to reassure her, and then her subtly threatening if Sansa doesn’t respect her... 
All of this was to show you that from the outside looking in, Jon and Dany seem to be the perfect power couple, the ultimate romance (despite the Targaryen secret). But when we actually do go inside, not all is as it appears to be.
You know what reinforces that idea? This:
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Jon and Dany actually had a semi-romantic moment, after displaying that the actors did indeed have chemistry in their banter before Jon rides Rhaegal, and boom, Drogon “interrupts”. To the point where Jon positions Dany in between them and keeps an eye open as he kisses Dany, watching Drogon warily. Once again, not only will this romance not end well, but it’s not a true romance. Drogon is clearly watching and you almost get a sense of distrust or at the very least, wariness. If Drogon is sentient enough to not kill Jon after he kills Dany, then he is sentient enough in this scene and that begs the question, just what is he thinking? 
Example 6):
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This scene, Jon says “She shouldn’t be alone” when Varys tells him how Dany has stayed in her room, locked away in her grief. This isn’t Jon saying this because he’s love struck. This is Jon being compassionate and more importantly, because he’s thinking of a certain line said to him by this man:
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“A Targaryen alone in the world is a terrible thing.” And this is after he says, “No one to guide her.”
Jon now knows that he is the only family she has left in the world and now Jorah and Missandei are gone, leaving her with only Grey Worm, Varys, Tyrion, and himself to guide her. This is why Jon stayed by Dany’s side despite any amount of fear he had, despite her turning into dark!Dany at the end and leaving the Khaleesi, the Breaker Of Chains, and the Mother Of Dragons behind. He cared about her, plain and simple, but he was not head over heels in love. The show did a terrible job portraying that, because it was more interested in hiding Dany’s dark turn (while also giving hints so it’s weird why they chose to try to hide it at all) and keeping something also hidden about Jon (maybe pol!Jon? or maybe that Jon wasn’t as in love with her as she was with him? or maybe that he ultimately is the one to end up killing her? I don’t know, again, weird they gave all these hints but still kept it hidden, again, terrible job).
This doesn’t take away from the attraction he felt to Dany or any feelings of love that he had for her up to the end. He just wasn’t in love. Sure, he was awed by her like Tyrion, like Jorah, like mostly everyone else had been up until season 7. Dany’s line in 7x07 confirms this, when telling Jon about the dragons in the dragonpit: “They inspired awe and wonder. They were extraordinary.” And then she came to Westeros, a place where they had seen dragons before (think Aegon, the dragonpit, the dragon skulls in the basement of the Red Keep, the Targaryen tombs in the Sept, Aerys, Rhaegar), where Jon tells Dany if she uses the dragons (in 7x04) then she’ll “just be more of the same.” Dany’s line to Jon in 8x04 cinches it: “People have looked at me that way before. But never here. Never on this side of the sea.” The North (and Westeros) were never going to see her as the Khaleesi or the Breaker Of Chains. “The North remembers.” And the first thing Dany does when going to King’s Landing for a ceasefire talk, she rides Drogon to the dragonpit meeting. (It was smart and safer for her to do so, but Drogon of course lets out an intimidating roar before leaving, this is a land that is happy for Targaryens to remain out of power despite Cersei or the Starks or any other family). So it’s no surprise that Dany never experienced “love” in Westeros. Her dragons “overshadowed” her other two personas and once her dark turn happened (and lbr, she was on the verge of all season 8), there was no chance for the people to love her and accept her for either of those two arcs. Same goes for her relationship with Jon. Jon wasn’t ready to kill her after she massacred King’s Landing, he was actually defending her (which was very out of character and then was later confirmed by Bryan Cogman and Kit Harington as Jon being used as the audience mouthpiece and Tyrion was the writers’), ready to stand at her side, even if she chose to kill him later on. Only when it comes to his sisters, only when Dany unknowingly confirms that they indeed won’t have a choice in her new world, does he choose to act. 
The show’s mistake in that scene was keeping Dany a sympathetic character until the end, which negated the moral of her story. But their even bigger mistake was using dialogue to callback to season 1 Dany, the same Dany the GA and Jon cared about, in a bid to make it a more tragic moment. It made it more tragic alright, but not in the way they were hoping. 
Ship and let ship is my philosophy. So if you enjoy the idea of Jonerys, by all means, you do you. But sadly, this show really almost baited the audience with this idea of this ultimate tragic romance when it was anything but. Personally, this is why I’m anti-Jonerys. More than any other reason, this is why. The relationship wasn’t a good one for either Jon or Dany. And in my opinion, it wouldn’t have worked out even if Dany had lived, even if Dany hadn’t gone dark and burned down King’s Landing. This romance in this particular showverse was never going to be a love story for the ages. It was never meant to be.
tldr; Jon did care about Dany, had feelings, but he wasn’t in love with her. The show pulled the old bait and switch with it. They showed you a power couple that was supposed to enamor you and then break your heart, but then revealed it was never going to be the ultimate romance and negated the true moral of Dany’s story alongside Jon’s character with it.
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