#black market maybe

[snickerdoodlles]

📓 :3

:D!

@mortimerlatrice got me thinking about a KimChay Chrestomanci AU, so more of that.

the Chrestomanci series, sidenote, is an absolutely delightful fantasy series by Diana Wynne Jones. it's composed of mostly independent stories set in a universe of 12 parallel universes (called Series), each with their own string of worlds (except Series 11). generally speaking, every person has eight identical copies borne into other series than their own, but very occasionally all nine lives will be borne into one person. this nine-life enchanter has all the power of nine magical people in them and is therefore the only person powerful enough to fill the role of Chrestomanci to regulate magical use and prevent any abuse of it across the 12 series.

which cool, very fun story premise actually, but not what I care about here. I'm setting kp in one of the series that doesn't deal much with magic because I don't care about magic meet mafia, I care about Chay having nine lives and all the ways that could make things worse.

(cw: non-permanent but slightly graphic character death under the cut. ft a dash of actual character death, but that only applies to Tawan.)

Chay doesn't have all his lives when canon starts. he lost his first one the same day he and Porsche lost their parents when he fell out of his crib trying to investigate the noise. he lost his second to food poisoning, before Porsche started working for extra food money and they had to make every scrap stretch. he lost another when a debt collector hit him too hard and snapped his neck. (Porsche wasn't home for that day. Chay told him he wasn't either.)

Chay loses his fourth life in the warehouse. it actually wasn't intentional on anyone's part -- Tawan's hired meat weren't careful enough bringing him in, and Chay's luck has his head hit a curb or scrap metal at just the right (or wrong, as it were) angle to kill him instead of concuss him, and head injuries take so long to come back from. Tawan drags out the charade because he wants Porsche desperate, not angry, and Porsche is in too deep of denial to accept the possibility of Chay actually being dead not to fall for it.

Kim arrives before Chay comes back to life. it's...bad. Porsche is screaming for him to get Chay out. Kim first checks Chay's breathing. failing to find that, he frantically (but carefully!) hauls Chay upright. that's when Chay's head flops limply to the side and reveals the dried blood down the back of his neck, which Kim had already felt grabbing but refused to process.

Kim sees red.

Tawan knifes Big. Porsche's shouts break through the fog threatening to overwhelm Kim. then Tawan gets one very distraught, very angry, very murderous Kim materializing in front of him and going right for his eyes. it doesn't matter that Tawan's the one with a weapon, he could've had an armory and that couldn't have helped him. Kim is very, very, very good at fighting, and he's on a mission to hurt. but he's also missing his control, and kicks Tawan in the kidney so hard Tawan stumbles back into a pile of scrap and, in true irony, jostles it hard enough the end of steel beam falls on his head. as discovered earlier, metal and concrete are not kind to heads, and bullet proof vests certainly can't protect from that.

it's too quick and too kind, and Kim stares at him disbelievingly, half a mind to drag Tawan out and beat out the little life he's surely still clinging to, when Chay groans. Kim first thinks he hallucinated it, but then he sees Chay move and he's so relieved he was wrong that he shoves everything else out of his mind and just gets Chay out. then everything and one trailing shouty Porsche slams back into him the minute Chay's out of his arms and with the paramedics that Kim bolts to go hide in a dark corner in his apartment and fail to process any of it.

Chay misses all of this btws. He was dead, then he was back with a headache, and he loves Porsche but he needs Porsche to please shut the fuck up and get him some tylenol.

then apartment confrontation, where Kim says I'm sorry and shoves off even quicker because all he can remember are those moments when he'd been so sure Chay was properly dead. club scene goes down even worse when Kim yells at Chay for making stupid reckless choices that could get him killed, and Chay demands to know why Kim even cares, and Kim goes pale with anger that Chay doesn't care that he (only nearly, surely) died, and it's all very terrible and ends in them storming away from each other.

then comes Yok's bar.

Chay dies. Kim had taunted them into a direct fight inside instead of picking them off outside, and it should have been fine, would have been fine, had Chay not had a bit more awareness and looked over to see Kim pinned between two guys and rushed to help only to get shot by one of the goons on the other end of the bar. he bleeds out while Kim kills off the rest.

Chay comes back to a bar full of bodies and Kim (clutching) cradling him. Kim isn't crying. he isn't really doing much of anything other than clinging and staring off into nothing with a thoroughly haunted expression.

Chay blinks and tentatively lays his fingers against Kim's cheek. "Kim?"

Kim's eyes snap to him, but still don't quite see him. he stays looking blank for a few seconds that feel like hours before saying matter-of-factly, "I've snapped."

"Kim!" Chay protests, distressed.

"It's okay," Kim says, still matter-of-fact but smiling tenderly, "better to be mad with you than without."

it takes a while to convince Kim he's not insane and that Chay's really back. Chay's not certain he fully manages it. but his death also shook loose a lot of confessions Kim normally couldn't say out loud. ("why--" Chay starts, voice cracking, "why did you say 'I'm sorry' that day?" / "You were supposed to be safe," Kim replies hoarsely, mad smile slipping for tears.) there's more clutching and clinging, this time by Chay too. both of them manage to forget they're in a bar of dead bodies until Porsche and Kinn come crashing through the door.

"Chay!" Porsche yells when he first sees him.

"Chay," Porsche pleads brokenly when he sees Chay's blood soaked shirt.

"Not mine!" Chay says quickly, and would've been given away by how fast Kim's head snaps around in any other circumstance. "See?" he says, raising his shirt to show unblemished skin, "No injury."

this does a lot to reassure Porsche, but Chay can tell Kim still thinks he's a little bit insane. Chay decides that's fine for now, because dying takes a lot out of you and apparently everyone around you too and it's unfair to expect Kim to just bounce back from him bleeding out on him, he'll work on it after a shower and dinner.

I'm not writing this AU because I only really have these two vague scenes in my head, but Chay having multiple lives making his existence in the mafia hurt more than canon's calls to me, it really does.

oh, also: in the AU source material, one of the nine-lifers has one of his lives removed and stored into a ring for safekeeping. he later gives this ring to his to-be-wife as her wedding ring. I'm not sure yet how to work that into this AU because Chay's contact with magic and other magicals would be slim to none in this, but please picture how this would absolutely wreck Kim, because there's nothing Kim wants more than to safeguard Chay but as far as he's concerned, he's already failed Chay in that regard twice. 😈

[[ ask me about fics im not writing ]]

#kinnporsche #kimchay #ask game: fics im not writing #this idea is fun but im only really here for vibes #and i already have many similar vibes in timeloop AU so im gonna stick with that one but like...so much fun 👀👀 #ANYWAYS vague possibility for how chay meets magicals: in charmed life they mention looking for a 9-lifer off world/outside of series 12 #chay's that 9-lifer in this case #originally not the candidate they wanted because he's in a different series AND a non-magical world to boot #then he gets involved with the mafia and all these government officials go Uhm #christopher: what's the problem i smuggled black market goods for years as a kid #government officials: uHM?! #christopher musing to himself: and that resulted in gabriel getting blown apart for a few days hmmm maybe not #christopher then meeting cat post apple scrumping: are all nine-lifers simply criminals as children??? is there no hope for us??????? #i love Very Specific AUs made for an audience of me and 1.5 people can u tell 😂

[quokkafoxtrot]

I love Night City Omega Neon.

#quokka plays #starfield #starfield spoilers #maybe #I’ve literally just arrived #it’s all bright colours black market #the comparisons were inevitable

[katnissandpeetamellark]

Something random I think about is that Coriolanus in canon likes cats

#it’s so weird to me how gentle he seems to be with Boa Bell #maybe— he just gets cats. they’re so cautious and calculating and have boundaries. #Coriolanus is definitely those things. he always seems to want to be the one to approach— maybe because he wants to react “right” #idk I find it funny #Coriolanus snow #boa bell #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #the hunger games #tbosas #thg #hunger games #bosas #boa bell is Pluribus Bell’s cat. neither are in the movie if you were confused by this post. #pluribus is the bar owner who sold black market goods during the war #he gives Snow the guitar for Lucy Gray in the book

[petratherrock]

Me being so petty because my TPT dream was wrecked, hating on other Jurdan fans, generalizing them into one group of people that made Holly write a disappointing TPT because of their obsession with Jurdan content and demanding Jurdan contents, not caring about the real main characters of TSH duology which are Wren and Oak, they deserve better :

THIS IS NOT ABOUT THEM

#im sorry ik not all of you are like that but I'm still pissed and bitter lemme soak in my bitterness #the prisoner's throne #the stolen heir #oak x wren #holly black #look im also a jurdan fan but i dont go around asking for them all the damn time there's time and place #tfota #we dk what made Holly write tpt the way she did. I'm just theorizing out of spite #maybe she just got bored of oak x wren and wanted it over with asap #maybe she feels oak x wren aren't as marketably popular as jurdan #maybe i need to stop thinking authors owe it to me to write a good book

[anewp0tat0]

kinda spoilers for the latest kuro arc if you aren't caught up

honestly, I'm now pretty scared that the next mini arc and series finale will be emotionally disapointing.

it's already obvious that the pacing has been bad for a very long time, and engagement gets lower and lower as we go on. but for some reason, it's never really clicked for me how emotionless I feel while reading recently.

it's probably because of how grim this orphanage mini arc is compared to the last two that it occurred to me: if I read or watched this arc consecutively in the form of a single chapter or episode, well dare that I would cry for these children, eventually. I would be riding the waves of trust and fear, and there wouldn't be enough time for me to process my feelings, leaving me a sopping mess. that's how I like to consume media.

but there's too much time in between, and so I don't... really feel anything. and this arc is sad, just as sad as those orphans during the Circus arc, but I just don't feel or even care for them a lot. to put it heavily.

this isn't a commentary on how I feel in the fandom now or anything, my point here is that so many people, me included, are looking forwards to the next mini arc with Ciel and Sebastian(especially the people who left the fandom until they return) because we're expecting new dark discoveries and emotional turmoil. this applies to the finale as well. blood, death, trauma, a moment of happiness, all that awful stuff will happen! but now I'm worried that the emotional impacts won't hit me at all, and then I'll be.... disapointed.

sad thoughts, sorry. in the end, I'll still be here. it's just weird that I only realize this now.

#sorry I don't mean to fear post. or misery post. or idk im being negative big sad. I just want to be wrong cause waiting all this time to #be let down cause yana or G fantasy made some marketing decision- or whatever is going on. idk cause there's barely any communication #between staff and fans #idk. I just hope they pull it together when it's needed and we get the grim emotional finale we all need #kuroshitsuji #black butler #ramblings #my text posts #but maybe im just complaining to myself cause at the end of the day as logical as I am i consume content with my emotions first #but at the end of the day if we don't feel anything when reading then what's the point #sorry to be such a downer here lol im sure whatever I post next will be happier #Im a worry wart. have been since the 4th grade

[characteroulette]

Some Crows! Was musing about him and a potential place for him. His design is so good, I wish I knew more about him.

#Welcome to Momo draws #Professor Layton #Crow #pl crow #Kid how do I even tag you #Smarmy lil kid who is the head of the black market. #Last Spectre #last specter #Spectre's Call #Maybe that'll work

[scarred-serafina-fan]

Ok so apparently some of yall didn't know this so I'm gonna hop on here real quick to add BILTMORE IS ALLEGEDLY HAUNTED and not only that BUT ALLEGEDLY BY GEORGE VANDERBILT anyways do with that what yall will

#im hoping maybe by Tuesday or wensday i can finish posting my serafaeden stuff btw #sorry got slammed with last minute stuff #anyways so yeah biltmore is supposedly haunted according to them #like as far as ive ever been able to tell this has all come from the biltmore company #might do a deep dive into this when i have time #serafina and the black cloak #serafina series #serafina #biltmore estate #biltmore #george vanderbilt ii #george washington vanderbilt #oh also i should add #ashville its self is known for trying to market everything as haunted like they are notorious for ghost tours and stuff #so trying to say a over 100 year old mansion is haunted so you can drag all the ghost fanatics in is not all that surprising lol

[pikkish]

I know I’m probably really late to this but if that ask game is still happening I’d like to ask desire for Caraval.

AUGH ITS BEEN LIKE 4 MONTHS SINCE I REBLOGGED THAT MEME but yeah sure I'm always down to talk about characters!

desire: What's one thing your OC wants more than anything in the world? Are they open with that desire? Why or why not? What would they do to fulfill it?

The one thing that Caraval desires more than anything else is connection. Family. People he knows he can trust to have his back in a tight spot, and people who, in turn, he can help pull out of their own tight spots. He wants to be part of something, not necessarily something big, or grand, or world changing, but something close and purposeful. He wants community.

Unfortunately, this has been denied to him multiple times, from the family he was born into dying to illness while he was away, despite the money and medicine he sent home to them, to his reputation with the family he made in his squad being destroyed after it was discovered he was using his status as a surgeon to smuggle drugs. Follow that up with a long period of only being able to find work with the more unsavorable crowds who don't care so much about morality, and he's gotten a bit bitter and cynical. He knows family is what he wants. He just doesn't expect to really be able to get it anymore.

As for what he's willing to do for that family, should he have it, well. It's no coincidence he was discovered smuggling drugs just around the same time of his family's illness.

#pikspeak #oc:caraval #which is to say #he joined the guard > his family got sick > he started smuggling them medicine from the supplies meant for his squad > #his family died anyway > their deaths messed him up enough that he slipped up in covering his tracks and he was found out > #he was dishonorably discharged from his squad and spent time in Space Jail and lost his medical license > the only work he could find was #of questionable legality bc. well. all he knew was medicine. and he couldnt do that legally anymore. black market surgeon. #and now hes a grumpy old man who v much does not endear people with great first impressions bc why bother when most are criminals anyway #(and he makes no mistake that he is not a criminal also. he has no delusions that hes better than them.) #so he just. doesnt expect to have family anymore. contacts and clients sure. maybe even acquaintances. but no family.

[dare-g]

Human Centipede (neon rainbow variant)

#talks #the human centipede #cross stitch #wanted to see if woth various colors if it still be reconizable and i think it is #i think it is #im thinking of maybe making some for the horror market in oct #some of the og black and red and maybe some like this with various color schemes #idk well see #but also maybe not bother with this pattern cause it feels like thc has few fans nowdays #also just something todo while watching stuff so whatever

[ofmermaidstories]

kind of a cliche question but what influenced your writing style?

oh, that’s easy. it’s flowers in the attic!

i’ve talked about this book a couple of times on this blog bc it’s that formative to me. it’s written in first person POV from the perspective of a 12 year old girl and she maybe ages about, idk, two more years in the book? maybe three? the point is she’s quite young. i won’t go into detail about the plot bc it’ll involve me having to content warn for bunch of things i can’t be arsed tagging rn, but i first read this when i was like… 12? LOL. it was the book for the other girls and i of my class. we swapped the one copy between us like contraband, made the one girl among us who had seen the 1980s film of it recount all the raunchy parts, told each other the page numbers for the uh… scandalous bits. we were so obsessed with this book that we collectively got it banned from our classrooms, because it was distracting us. 💀

everything that you see in my fics these days can be traced back to that moment. the prose, the drama, all of it. all the technical stuff—writing in second person POV for example—came later, either when i was a little bit older (chuck palahniuk, diary. i was 13? 14?) or an adult. but it’s flowers in the attic that created the backbone. everything else has just been a matter of time.

#ofmermaidstories-asks #now that i think about it we really were incredibly deranged about that book LOL #but that was also the year our classes started a black market—complete with price list that got passed around—for the varying collectables #that we were all into at the time #so maybe it’s just the age-range #our poor teachers—they really had to fight us on everything that year lmfao

[saltinesinsoup]

oooo if i get this presentation done tomorrow afternoon maybe i’ll have time this weekend to read my kinda bad YA novel

#jaytalking #it’s a retelling of romeo and juliet. featuring a vague magic system of ‘witches’ #also the two families have been made russian for some reason. and also both are part of a black market/mafia deal. in NYC. it’s also modern #did i mention that? it’s absolutely really bad but man i do want to keep reading it #also it’s like. two pairs of romeo-julietness? it’s really weird #and some shit where the capulet sisters (all 7 of them) can do stuff with the dead??? #like i said. vague magic system #and there’s not even any gay romance to like. maybe make it a oh it’s bad but gay people also deserve bad gay romance :/

[sophsicle]

What American is talking about Canada? Who cares about Canada?

fair

#americans in my inbox so salty about being called aliens in human suits #like damn #ya'll are so sensiiiiitttiiiiiiiveeeeeeee #maybe i meant it as compliment #huh #why would you want to be a regular human #when instead you could be an alien masquerading as a human #i mean i didn't mean it as a compliment #BUT YOU COULD TAKE IT THAT WAY #it's fine tho #be offended #cry your bald eagle tears #i will collect them and sell them on the black market for some of that sweet sweet american money #soph rambles

[troublcmakcrs]

//i need to put tweek & craig in more video games

#misc :: ( ooc ) #//tweek & craig metro au #//two lil guys loose in an irradiated train station full of giant spiders; what crimes will they commit? #//honestly i haven't played metro yet specifically bc of the giant spiders #//even tho everything ELSE about it is SO up my alley #//i gotta be in the right headspace to tackle that one #//even the bugs in fo4 get to me sometimes if i'm not in the right mindset and there's no SPIDERS in that game #//also tweek & craig in cyberpunk #//giggling at the possibility of scavenger craig #//one of THE most violent gangs in the game below malestrom #//and true to form he's still a Lil Guy #//altho maybe a bit older than his main verse #//like pre-teen #//but still very Noticeably Young #//and he sells you black market organs that he ripped out of abdomens himself #//like HUH? how did you get here lil dude? #//pov: you're supposed to pick up an organ delivery and this lil brat-ass bitch greets you #//you think you're in the wrong place #//he says are you [name]? #//and you realize he's wearing scavver clothes #//and you're like ohhhhhh fuuuuu-

[alexa-crowe]

i got a "cooling pad" for christmas that has six fans in it and you put your computer on it. finally searched how to turn the intensity up bc the dials on the thing sure as hell aren't working. "six quiet fans" man my computers internal fans do more work than these fans. and you can't turn it up bc it you use it through a usb port lol so it can't really handle it running the fans faster.

#i'm just annoyed bc like my dad spent money on something useless for me. and i feel bad. #i have my normal fan that i use too. #i have to have the fan on and point so that it blows cool air into my computer or the stuttering while i play bg3 is off the charts #i know the solution is that i need a different computer but this computer cost like a thousand bucks #i was planning to wait a few years to get a new computer. i guess it's more like 2 years at this point lol #god the time's flown then. it's 2024 so i got this coming up on two years ago #hm. maybe more reasonable that it struggles to run bg3 than i thought #esp bc the most intense games aside from it are literally like. black flag and dai LMAO #see when i got this computer i just figured i'd be in for looooong load screens which i was fine with #esp bc that's how it was with dai on my old computer #it's just annoying to be going around act 3 of bg3 and having to be like was THIS the patch that makes it so loading in the market area #crashes the game for me... #i load in and then i have to wait a minute for everything to actually be loaded in and then as soon as i move like 10 feet in game i have t #wait for those textures to load in or have textureless blobs in my cutscenes #rambling

[batslime]

finally getting some older stained glass designs that I cut out grinded and taped, here’s a calla lily Imm gonna try to have done for mother’s day

#i think im gonna do a copper patina on this one but if i do the farmers market or smt ill probably also make some black patina ones too #stained glass #wip #most of the class is opalescent so maybe not the best sun atcher but im gonna make it a hanger anyway i think #i THOGHT itd look cool in the corners of there the sides and roof of our shed met. #but then the tornado said Bet

[asiancatboy]

ok. hair is getting permed 🙏🏽

#7 #won't lie it kinda pmo the restaurant was closed & all the train times r janky. also it's pitch black out & it's not even 5pm yet #but it's all good i'm gonna get smth when i'm back in the city #also it's late night shopping. & the market is on so maybe i will stop by there #ohihohuh so many options. i'm so hungry