#but to say that neither of them are 'selling' their work well enough to you bc it 'looks like theyre acting'?????? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

heliads · 1 year

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Hello <3 I was wondering if maybe you could write a charles leclerc fic?? Reader could be in charge of social media and fans start to realise that charles flirts with whoever is behind the camera? Sorry if its too vague, but I love your writing and had to send something in

i cheered audibly when i saw this, please let me write more f1 fics

masterlist

When you were just getting started with your career, someone once asked you if you’d ever consider running a social media campaign for something cute, like a zoo or rescue company. You answered them with a firm no; everyone knows animals never work on camera the way you want them to, and you didn’t want that sort of stress in your life.

You think the universe must be laughing at you, because funnily enough, what you’re doing right now is exactly like herding cats, but you don’t even get adorable animals for your troubles. No, the Formula One media circus is a nightmare, but it’s a well televised nightmare, and that means your job as head of social media for the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team entails a great deal more metaphorical manhandling of the drivers than you’d ever envisioned.

It’s not even metaphorical all the time, the manhandling. Sometimes it’s just you sending out a great deal of mass emails when someone says something they probably shouldn’t or the Ferrari TikTok page is going through a content drought, but sometimes it’s more. Sometimes it’s like today, when you’re forcing the two drivers to go through yet another competition so the YouTube channel can get another push of subscribers.

You’ve done a lot of careful research over the months that you’ve been here, all dedicated to finding out just what sells the best, so to speak. As of late, you’ve learned that the viewers at home really like competitions and challenge videos. Apparently seeing two men who are obviously great friends go head to head over something as pointless as music trivia or Ping Pong is the pinnacle of motorsport content.

It’s not like you’re complaining. More views means a better paycheck for you at the end of the year. The fans like what you’re producing, and Ferrari likes the fans. It all works out in the end, and who are you to deny the Tifosi their favorite entertainment?

Of course, if you were to actually tell the two red-suited drivers that you refer to them as content and entertainment in the private recesses of your own mind, they probably wouldn’t be too happy. That’s why you keep that to yourself. Besides, they’re your friends. Charles and Carlos may make a lot of problems in your life, but who doesn’t? You’re not exactly perfect either.

You don’t have to be perfect, though, you just have to come up with good ideas and let the boys be funny on their own. Charles said he liked that best about you, actually, that you let them do their own thing most of the time. The previous social media managers had tried to get them to fit this specific picture of what a Ferrari driver should be, but you never did that. You just wanted them to be them.

You’re perfectly willing to brush that off as a compliment to a coworker, though. In truth, you’re working constantly to paint these two in the best possible light. It gets stressful sometimes, constantly wracking your brain to make each video work, each post take off. You are affecting how millions of people see Charles and Carlos. Hell, you’re practically filtering their legacy all by yourself.

It’s not a task you take lightly, to say the least. Maybe that’s why Ferrari is content to keep you around. This is a job that you’d like to extend as long as you can. Just like Charles has worked with overly pushy social media handlers, you’ve worked with total diva clients. Neither of the Ferrari drivers are like that in the slightest, which you appreciate more than anything.

That isn’t to say that they only ever make your life easy. Right now, for instance, you’ve been begging them to focus for the better part of ten minutes. It’s like working with elementary schoolers. You put anything in front of them and they’re totally distracted before you’ve so much as told them what they’re supposed to be doing.

Today’s video of choice is a long-anticipated cooking video. Charles versus Carlos, the drivers have been given a mystery basket of ingredients à la Chopped. They’ll have half an hour to come up with a dish of choice, and if the time crunch weren’t enough to stress them out, you’ll be judging their culinary creations when time is called. It’s the perfect setup for a hit video, so if all goes well, you’ll see this on the trending page soon enough.

That is, if you manage to survive this encounter long enough to post the results. By the time you manage to wrangle the drivers’ attention back to you, Charles has attempted to learn the contents of the bag through interpretive dance and hand gestures with the cameramen and Carlos has accidentally turned his stove on thrice. The third time the fires clicked on, he almost set a napkin ablaze. Both drivers are red faced from trying not to break into mad laughter again.

You clap your hands once. “Alright, are we finally ready to get started?”

Carlos nudges Charles in the side. “Look, she’s disappointed in you already and she hasn’t even tasted your cooking. This means I am going to win by a lot.”

Charles scoffs, but you swear his barely suppressed smile drops in a second when Carlos mentions your disappointment. “Y/N would never be disappointed in me,” he protests, “I am her favorite, obviously.”

He turns to you, raising his hands in your direction as if asking you to prove his point. You shake your head. “I don’t have favorites, Charles. That would not promote a fun workplace environment.”

“Of course,” Charles nods sagely. “If you had a favorite, though, it would be me.”

Carlos snickers, and in an effort to keep their focus with you before you lose them again, you clear your throat and read out the rules of the cooking contest. The drivers say their dutiful bits about how they’re each going to win this by a landslide, and then time begins and they’re off to the culinary races.

The covers on the baskets go flying. Charles holds up each object in turn, announcing them in tones of increasing panic. “Butter. Flour. Eggs. Green olives? Three strawberries? A box of spaghetti? Pepperoni?”

“You forgot the chocolate and red onion,” Carlos points out helpfully.

Charles tosses his teammate a withering glare, then turns the full force of his vexation back to you. “Y/N, you are trying to kill me.”

“Charles,” you say, “we talked about that.”

Charles’ brow furrows as he tries to remember what you mean. It hits him as last and he groans, slapping a hand to his forehead in mock desolation. You’ve noticed that Charles has been mentioning you by name a lot in videos, leading to general confusion among fans. As you’ve reminded him many times before, you’re not supposed to be the focus, he is, so he needs to stop bringing you up all the time. Viewers don’t care about who’s filming the content, after all, just who’s in front of the camera. It’s a tip handed down directly from your boss to you.

Charles still grins at you even as he continues unpacking his ingredients. “I can’t help it, you know that. You’re too good, I want to mention you all the time.”

You scoff. “Good at what? Keeping you in line?”

“Everything,” he says, and raises his eyebrows suggestively.

You roll your eyes and tell him to focus, but even this instruction doesn’t last long. Barely five minutes later, Charles is bringing up the fact that he’s going to totally win this thing because cooking is, like, a love language, right? And he’s the best at love, he declares, winking conspicuously in your direction. Carlos launches an oven mitt at his head and mutters something that the microphones don’t pick up, something that conveniently has the same number of syllables as stop flirting.

Charles is steadily making jokes the entire duration of the video, actually, and usually you wouldn’t mind this but they’re all spoken with the intention of getting you to laugh. Not the camera, as he’s been told to do before. You.

You do your best to keep it off your mind. Both drivers have gotten better about opening up on camera since they started, and this is probably just Charles trying something new in an effort to improve his on-screen personality. After all, it can be hard to direct all your charisma towards a camera, why not aim all your smiles at the person filming instead?

The contest ends soon enough. You end up awarding Charles with the win, mainly due to the fact that Carlos’ hand accidentally slipped as he was attempting to strain his pasta and he ended up losing all of his spaghetti down the sink. His plate consisted of sauce and decorative strawberry slices, which, although tasty, did not contain several key ingredients and resulted in an automatic disqualification.

Despite the rather shaky grounds on which his cooking victory stands, from the way Charles is acting, you’d think he’d won the WDC. He’s beaming at you, talking about how he’d called this from the very start and was proud that you liked his stuff the best. He even offers to wash the dishes, which is very un-driverlike.

The video ends up a success by all accounts. Even days later, it’s still trending in Tifosi circles, and the view counts are way higher than expected. Curious as to why, you decide to do the unthinkable and check the comments section of the cooking video.

What you find is– unexpected, to say the least. Usually, comments on any post, whether it be Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, will range from fans lamenting race outcomes to people mentioning their favorite driver to random spam accounts offering thousands of dollars to the lucky person to message them first.

On this video, though? Most all of the comments are about you. This makes no sense, because not only were you on camera for about one minute, you didn’t do anything other than give instructions and judge food. Antonio Giovinazzi did the same job on a video last year, and no one cared at all. Antonio’s actually well-known in the world of motorsports, so why is it that you, someone who largely operates behind the scenes, would be the cause of so much fuss?

Curious, you start scrolling in depth, but find yourself more confused with every reply you see.

He’s totally flirting with her, right?

Is anyone else seeing the fact that Charles is freaking out over trying to impress this girl?

His face when she declared him the winner… I can’t even with him!!

Charles trying to protect Y/N by refusing to let Carlos salvage his sink pasta– they’re dating, right???

You find yourself laughing over it. This can’t be real. Surely nobody in the world actually thinks that Charles Leclerc– F1 driver, Ferrari superhero, Il Predestinato and supporter of all Tifosi hopes and dreams, multi-millionaire– would ever have a crush on you. It’s absurd. It’s so absurd that you find yourself racing to the office of another one of your friends in social media to get her opinion on it.

Your friend looks up at you, startled, when you burst into her office. “Has someone died?”

“No,” you gasp out, “worse.”

Her eyebrows raise. “One of the drivers had a scandal? We can fix this. Get me B-roll of them volunteering or something. We can turn this around in no time.”

“No,” you say weakly, “the Internet thinks I’m dating Charles Leclerc.”

Your friend freezes in her seat, finger still hovering over the call icon on Fred Vasseur’s contact in her phone, then slowly sinks back again. “Well, yeah, I can see why.”

You gape at her. “What?”

Your friend spreads her hands. “He follows you around everywhere you go. He’s always asking about you, you know. I kind of thought you two had a thing as well, it’s not just the Tifosi.”

You break out into somewhat crazed laughter. “Charles? You think Charles likes me? No, that’s ridiculous.”

Your friend, however, looks less skeptical of this news. “Is it really? I mean, he spent the entirety of shooting just cracking stupid jokes so he could make you laugh. You should have seen the way he stared at you whenever you so much as smiled. Man was transfixed.”

You shoot her a disbelieving look. “No– transfixed? Are you kidding? He wasn’t transfixed. He wanted to win a contest because he’s a racing driver and they like to be the best at everything. I’ll tell you what it was, he was trying to win me over so I’d decide the competition in favor of his cooking.”

Your friend chuckles. “You really are oblivious, aren’t you?”

You take a careful seat opposite her desk. “You’d better explain to me what you mean by that right now, or I swear, I’ll make you brainstorm TikTok ideas for the next month.”

Your friend shudders. “Anything but that, please. Those trends are so bad. Anyway, look, Charles has been obsessed with you since, like, the day you joined. I remember introducing you that day, actually, he was practically stammering over his words. Imagine that, someone who’s always so controlled with what he says whenever he talks to the press, and he can’t even say his name properly because a pretty girl is smiling at him.”

This whole situation feels insane. “Maybe you’re remembering it wrong or something. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t like me like that.”

“Wouldn’t he?” Your friend asks slowly, and, well, it makes you think.

It makes you think about all of the videos you’ve shot with him, every discussion after a press conference. How taking candids for the Instagram of Charles always takes ten times longer than it should because he never looks at the camera, only at you. How you greeted him earlier this year at the first race of the season and he said what he missed most of all over winter break was you. How he wasn’t even kidding when he said it, just smiling, smiling like he’d never meant something more in his life.

“Oh my God,” you breathe, “Charles likes me.”

Your friend slaps her hand on the desk, startling you. “See? This is exactly what I’m talking about.”

“What do I do, then?” You ask.

Your friend looks like she’s about to scream. “You tell him how you feel, obviously!”

“I do?” You repeat haltingly.

“You do,” she says, “And he’s right across the hall now. Go talk.”

She all but pushes you out of her office, and then you’re alone in the corridor with Charles, who has just spotted you and is heading your way with the brightest grin you’ve ever seen.

“Y/N!” He says, clearly pleased, “It’s so good to see you. I didn’t think our paths would cross until the next race.”

“Yeah?” You eke out, “Me neither, actually. Strange how things happen like that.”

Strange like friends with overly aggressive relationship advice. You’re certain that if you turned around now, you’d see her peering through the window in her door like some kind of stalker.

Charles nods. “I’m glad to see you, though. Did you notice that the last video did really well? I think that means you have to come around more often. You know, it’s what the fans want.”

“Speaking of the fans,” you say, “I happened to read through the comments and a lot of them seemed to think that you were flirting with me.”

You swear you can see Charles’ confidence fall in a flash. “What?” He protests a little too quickly, “that’s crazy. That’s, uh, really crazy.”

You nod. “That’s what I thought, but, on the off chance that you were flirting, I wouldn’t mind it.”

A small spark of hope forms in his eyes. “You wouldn’t?”

“I wouldn’t,” you decide at last, “because I like you too. If you like me, that is, and it wasn’t too crazy of me to say that.”

He’s laughing now, and you– well, you really do like him, you do, and something about seeing the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkle up when he smiles makes you think at last about how long you have liked him, all the ways you realized you loved him but never admitted it to yourself.

“Alright,” he says, “Maybe it wasn’t too crazy after all.”

A pause, then: “This does mean that you’ll be coming around more often, right?”

You smile. “Yes, Charles, I think it does.”

f1 tag list: @j-brielmalfoy

#charles leclerc #charles leclerc imagines #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc oneshot #f1 #f1 imagines #f1 x reader #f1 oneshot #formula one #formula one imagines #formula one x reader #formula one oneshot #f1 charles #f1 charles imagines #f1 charles x reader #f1 charles oneshot

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carolperkinsexgirlfriend · 5 months

Text

Steddie Upside-down AU Part 25

Part 1 Part 24

“You mean blood draws this thing?” Hopper asks. He’s finally seated at the table, no longer looming over Eddie where he sits, like he’s just picked him up for possession and taken him in for questioning. Again.

“We don’t know,” Barbara says. Nancy chimes in, “it’s just a theory.” All three of them ignore Eddie’s shouted “Yes!” As if he isn’t the only one that’s seen the thing more than once.

Hopper steeples his fingers in front of his nose, looking like he’d rather be almost anywhere else. Eddie can’t blame him. He also wants Hopper to be anywhere else.

“We’ve got a plan,” Nancy says. “To test the theory.”

Hopper sighs, closing his eyes and pinching his brows, the same way he does when he catches Eddie selling pot outside of the high school. Or at the trailer park. Or at parties. “Let’s hear it then.” He doesn’t open his eyes. Nancy starts speaking anyway.

Eddie, having been mostly absent last time, tunes in for the conversation. She wants to jerry rig the house with bear traps. Like they’re in the Looney Tunes and she’s trying to catch the road runner. Hopper doesn’t seem all that impressed. Neither does Wayne.

“No,” Wayne says.

Hopper still hasn’t opened his eyes. Maybe he was so shocked by the slap dash plan that he gave up and went to sleep.

“Excuse me?” Nancy says.

Eddie bristles at her tone, but Wayne doesn’t even twitch. “You’re kids,” he says, like that’s all there is to say.

“But, Steve –”

Joyce jumps up from where she was still huddled with her sons to tower over the table in all her five foot nothing furry to shout, “this is not yours to fix!” It works to shut them all up. “It’s not you kid’s responsibility to save another kid.”

“But, Mom,” Will says.

Eddie wants to echo the sentiment. Wants to beg. Steve saved their lives, and they’d left him. She wants them to just leave him there? Again? “I know, baby. We’ll get him.”

“Anyone called the boy’s parents?” Wayne asks, but it comes out barely as a question. He already knows the answer, even before Hopper scoffs. Everyone at this table does.

“Like anyone even knows what country they’re in,” he replies while Joyce bristles, like the thought of anyone’s child being left like that leaves her seething.

“Enough of that,” she says, waving her ends in a cutting motion in front of her. “How are we going to get that boy back?”

Will stands up and storms out of the room. Eddie’s never seen the kid be anything but polite. Eddie stands to follow the tug at his sternum telling him to keep the kid in his line of sight.

“Will?” Joyce calls, trying to follow as well until Jonathan tugs her back by her arm with a quiet murmur he can’t make out.

The house isn’t large. He can hear the silence reverberating as he follows Will. The best plan they have so far is Nancy’s game of mouse trap. If it means saving Steve, Eddie’s ready to form an alliance with the devil he knows. If it means saving Steve, he’d be willing to do worse.

“I could go back to the lab,” Hopper says, voice barely carrying down the hallway.

Will’s sitting on a bed when Eddie finds him. It’s small with a blue comforter on it, covered in little cartoon planes. There’s a poster of Jaws on the wall, D & D minis on a bookcase. This might be the coolest kid alive.

Eddie takes a seat beside him, the mattress squeaking as he huddles into it.

Will’s hand is dangling between his knees, cradling a walkie talkie. He doesn’t look over at Eddie, just keeps staring at it like it’ll crackle to life at any second.

“Whatcha got there?” Eddie asks quietly as voices raise in the other room. Eddie wonders if this is what it would’ve felt if he’d had a baby brother back when voices were always raised in his house. He wants to scoop this kid up and bolt out the window.

Will barely seems to notice the noise. He’s still just staring down. When he finally drags his eyes up, it seems like it takes effort. “I want to call Mike.”

“Okay,” Eddie says. “Who is Mike?”

Will’s eyes shift back down. “He’s my Steve.”

Well, Eddie has no idea what that means, but he can glean some things: Mike is important, and Will wants to talk to him. “So, call him.”

Will’s shoulders curl in. He cradles the walkie talkie to his chest like it’s a baby. “He thinks I’m dead.” It comes out of his mouth bitter.

Eddie reaches out, clasps his shoulder gently. “Then, I bet he’d love to hear that you’re not.”

Slow as molasses, Will raises the walkie talkie up to his mouth, holds down a button and speaks. “Mike?” he asks. “Do you copy?”

He decompresses the button. The silence trickles back in as they both now stare at the walkie talkie, waiting for something to happen. “Maybe he didn’t hear yo–” Eddie starts to say, conjuling, when a frantic, prepubescent voice crackles through the little speaker.

“Will?!” A voice asks, overlapped by another saying , “–didn’t say over, Mike!” before the fuzzy sound stops abruptly.

Will waits a second before pushing the button again, and speaking, “I’m here, over.”

“Where are you?” presumably Mike asks. “We’ll come get you!”

Will smiles, eyes brimming. “It’s okay,” he says, voice lighter than Eddie’s ever heard it. “I’m home.”

The silence lasts longer now, until a new voice filters through. “Yeah, yeah, I’m glad you’re back, Will,” attitude dripping even over the static of the line. “Now, the bad men have got us pinned down, you gotta help us.” it says, before tacking on a quick, “over.”

“Bad men?” Eddie asks, looking over at Will, hoping this is some ill-timed inner-circle game.

But Will looks confused. Panicked. “I think we should go get Chief Hopper.” Will says.

Great. Another fucking problem. Eddie regrets ever being dragged back through that goddamn hole in the tree.

Part 26

#steddie upsidedown au #steddie fic #steddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #my fic #first part where i was like wow that sucked to write and i hate it but im moving along so i don't get bogged down! lol

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aceyogurt · 29 days

Text

Part-time romance

Pairing: Vox x GN reader

WC: 3k

A/n: PT ONE FINALLY UP WHOOOOOOOO…. This chapter is a lot of set up so no sexual tension yet sorry guys 😔, but I promise it’s still entertaining!

Nine years you’ve been in hell, and frankly compared to others, it wasn’t the worst. When you first fell you were smart enough to gain a good understanding of hell and its system before falling into the system of power and soul exchanges. While the idea of selling your soul to an overload didn’t sound optimal, neither did being weak and likely killed in an extermination. That's why you decided to work under the contract as your best option for the time being, ten years you worked under Velvet, one of the Vee’s, and in exchange, you had protection and decent pay. Luckily you were smart enough to go over the fine print and not be a slave to them but, still, they had lots of power over you. You didn't work close to them in the beginning though so it worked out.

In your life, before the fall you were a high-positioned manager for a company. So, you had the appropriate knowledge to climb up the ladder quickly, scoring you higher pay and closer relations to the Vees. Velvet was the one who took an interest in you after you were recently promoted and met her in a meeting. She loved your sense of fashion and you guys hit off well.

So, now here you are working almost top of the ladder and friends with your boss, an overlord of hell, life was pretty nice! Well other than your love life… but let’s be real who has one in hell? Anyways you and Velvet were doing your weekly recap at a new bar and she was ranting about how much of a bitch Val was being. “And then that pissbaby fucking ruined my shoot” She stared at you for a moment snapping her fingers “Oi you listening to me? What's up with you? You never do this, out of it.” you sigh putting your phone down. “Sorry, we recently got some new hires and they've been driving me insane, plus a date I had yesterday sucked.” “I get you girl dealing with co-workers drives me insane too… As for your love life, you don't need one trust me, you're too hot for any mid-low life, plus men suck.” you laugh at her comment which was likely a means to cheer you up before, going back to the topic of Valentino ruining Velvet's shoot.

“I told you before you gonna stress yourself out if you refuse to get some kind of assistance!” velvet protested at Vox. “Vel, I'll be fine, I'm capable of taking care of things myself. I don't understand why you are so prominent about this whole getting an assistant.” It takes everything in Velvet not to slap Vox right there as she looks at him like he's stupid, “I'm not saying you have to have someone do your work but, having someone to help you manage things would sure as hell help you not be so pissy all the time! I'm just trying to give you advice and it's like the wires in you start short-circuiting at the idea!” Vox sighs, pressing a hand across his screen before replying. “Look, as much as I appreciate you trying to help, I can handle it myself, getting an assistant will just create more work for me anyway. And I'd prefer to deal with the least amount of idiots possible since we have to deal with Val every day.” Velvet opens up her phone still talking to Vox, “You bloody right about the Piss Baby but, my point is what if we get you an assistant who isn't an idiot?” Vox raised an eyebrow “Got someone in mind” Velvet smiled already shooting a text to a certain someone, “of course”

Velvet 💕

Cancel wtvr you’re doing I need to talk to u

You

Am I in trouble

???

Ok geez I'm coming

“Took you long enough girl, I thought you weren't coming,” Velvet said leaning back in a nearby chair and scrolling on her phone, “well when you ask someone mid-workday to drop everything they're doing it takes them a minute to get somewhere,” you reply slightly annoyed as you sit down grabbing a bottle of water. “Yeah yeah, let's cut it to the point so I'm not wasting your precious time. Starting Tomorrow you'll be Vox’s assistant or whatever.” you choke on the water. “I'm sorry WHAT” asked a bit louder than necessary. Velvet rolls her eyes, placing her phone down, “Vox needs an assistant to help manage his shitstorm of a workload, and because he won't settle for just anyone I figured you'd be the perfect demon for the position. After all, you don't like your job now anyway so it's a win-win!” You slump down in your seat “How am I supposed to have my current job figured out in one day? It'll be a disaster and the whole team will fall apart!” Velvet shrugs “I wouldn't worry about it I'm sure a few demons can handle not having you around.” you decide not to argue with her and head back to your office.

The rest of the day you were stressed, trying to manage everything for your departure and making sure the team wouldn't fall apart. Getting home you almost immediately fell asleep not wanting to deal with anything else for the rest of the night.

You woke up two hours earlier than you normally would, whether that was because you wanted to look good or because your nerves were getting to you. Anyways you decided on an outfit and took around an hour to do your makeup and such. Because you had extra time you decided to get some coffee on your way to work, then you headed to the office of the overlord you now work for. You only prayed he wouldn’t be upset about your earliness.

You knocked on the doors of a room that Vox was supposedly in, well it was the room Velvet told you to go to, the doors opened and you began to walk across the bridge that led to a huge TV panel-like area. Each step you took you felt your anxiety build for no particular reason, the echo of your footsteps with each step you took. When you get to the area where you assumed he’d be though, all that was placed was an empty chair. You were going to head back, “you showed up much earlier than Velvet said you were going to arrive.” holy shit you were not expecting him to be right behind you, you got frightened hard “fuck!” you shout before realizing what you said. Your boss ends up laughing at your slip-up, “Oh did I scare you, that's hilarious' ' You bit the inside of your cheek before apologizing, which Vox didn't care much for. He sat at his desk and stared at the screens in front of him, you were waiting for him to speak up but, it seemed you were going to need to make the first move.

“So, Sir, what would you like me to do…?” Vox takes a sip of his coffee staring down at his phone before blankly looking at you, “What- did Velvet not tell you anything?” you look back at him a bit embarrassed, “Not really no…” For the next tenish minutes or so, Vox grudgingly explained to you what he expected of you, which ultimately wasn't a whole lot. You knew he had other assistants in the past to just help with managing his schedule but, when Velvet told you about this job you didn't think it'd be this… But hey, surely over time it'd get better right?

Two weeks later

Yeah, are things getting better? Hell no, the first week was fairly smooth and basic the next week though you and Vox began to talk more, and god was he egotistical. You guys were constantly getting into debates with one another which usually started with you gently criticizing Vox and his decision-making on affairs but, it'd quickly spiral into you guys changing topics into how much the other sucked. Yet despite that, he hadn't fired you yet… Or worse.

Vox was going to be coming in later than usual today because of this meeting he had scheduled with the other Vees so as any normal sinner would do, you just waited at Voxs desk, knowing he was going to come late and you sat in the chair he usually occupied. Was it a bad idea, sure but what the worst that could happen? You were working on some scheduling and afterward scrolled on your phone, and being plagued by boredom you fell asleep.

Vox was on his way after finishing a ‘productive’ meeting with the other Vees which ended up being Vox stopping Valentino from one of his meltdowns, over who knows what. Being drained he just wanted to recharge and figured he’d just have you take care of any events he would need to attend. While he was initially planning to get rid of you the first chance you get because he wasn’t exactly a fan of someone being this close to him for work. Having high expectations of others wasn’t exactly something Vox had, with

good reason, well somewhat, those reasons get overshadowed by his inflated ego.

Quickly though you did end up growing on Vox as an employee, he wasn’t exactly sure what it was about you but, after giving it some thought, he figured it was the fact you were a breath of fresh air instead of the sinners he normally employed. While your attitude he did find absurd sometimes, it was manageable for him since you never stepped too much out of place… You were still more professional than 90% of sinners and overlords he worked with, and you had some brains in your head which again, was something most in hell lacked (probably because the brains they had were fried after the copious amount of drugs they take.)

As Vox was heading towards his desk he heard… snoring? No that couldn’t be right, but as he poked his screen around in view of his chair there you were, fast asleep. Vox did find the fact you fell asleep in his chair funny but, at the same time, he needed to recharge and didn’t want to put up with anyone, including you right now. That being said, it was easy enough for Vox to conjure up another chair he could recharge in for the time being while you were sleeping. If it was any other circumstances Vox probably would’ve yelled at you for the audacity you had to sit and sleep in his chair, instead of working but, that was for another day. For now, Vox just wanted a break…

When you awoke you were greeted by a sight you never expected to see, Vox asleep..? While you were just realizing the situation in yourself still, you couldn’t help but laugh to yourself. Even though the situation itself wasn’t what you’d call funny, it was the idea that he fell asleep ironic because, from what you had seen and experienced, Vox was more of a workaholic so being asleep was unlike him.

You took a picture of this moment to show Velvet later when you meet up knowing she’d want to see it herself. The most bizarre thing to you was the fact when Vox was indeed asleep that he would have one of those DVD-type logos bounce around his screen, except this was of The Vee’s logo. While Vox was asleep you thought about how you should be productive but, you didn’t feel the urge to be doing such as of now. What you did feel an urge to do is snoop around your boss's desk and see what you could find. Honestly, you didn’t wish to find anything incriminating (not that it would matter) you were just interested in the overload behind closed doors, and who could blame you?

You started with poking around the general surface area which is when you made the realization you never truly allowed yourself to be familiar with your surroundings. It was spotless with not even a particle of dust occupying the space, but to the sides of the desk, three drawers stacked on one another worked as structural support. You had checked the right side first, and to your disappointment, there was nothing of interest to be found inside. Just some extra wires and such, what’d you expect? When opening the first drawer on the left though that disappointment quickly blossomed into curiosity.

A photo of the radio demon laid flat on it, while at initial glance it might seem ordinary the more you observed it, the more that curiosity inside you grew. To the right of the paper, it was very poorly torn, while most of the image was removed, there was a part that wasn’t removed that grew your curiosity once more, an edge of the TV screen seemed to occupy the space, an older model to be clear, this photo was old. You didn’t take Vox to be exactly the sentimental type, so why would he keep such a thing? You wanted to ask him to figure out this seemingly tragic history but, a hollow pit grew in the back of your stomach because, you knew you couldn’t ask about it, for one you wouldn’t know how he would react and that kind of questioning goes way beyond your relationship with the overlord, and secondly you knew for a fact Vox wouldn’t take kindly to snooping, especially if it was something personal like you suspected. You set the photo back into the drawer the way you found it and decided that it was about time you stopped procrastinating and working.

Vox had awoken a few hours after yourself, his screen slowly adjusted to the setting around him, his vision beginning to turn on. He was greeted with the sight of you, still in his chair, working at his desk. “I see you’ve made yourself comfortable” You didn't even bother seeming scared as you hummed, “Yeah, I figured since you were asleep I'd take advantage to work more efficiently.” Vox chucked “Effectively work, sure, whatever you say.” the dripping sarcasm caused you to let out a laugh of your own, “Yep, efficient working is important!~” he nodded in agreement amused by your attitude. While this kind of behavior would usually piss him off you didn't do it to try to come off better than him or cocky.

The rest of the workday went by quickly with you and Vox both having your affairs to deal with, so you only had a small chat here and there. Getting home you slip off your shoes and switch to some comfier clothing. As you were settling down a call appeared on your phone with Velvet’s contact showing up.

“Hey girl how's it going?” Velvet inquired in her usual tone. “Absolutely exhausted Vel, I just got home and can't wait to head to bed.” the conversation went on for a little while longer before you remembered the photo you took earlier today that you wanted to show Velvet. “Oh yeah I forgot to show you, look at this.” you share on your screen as the photo was earlier taken of Vox fast asleep, as you giggled at the photo once more Velvet was kind of shocked. It's not that she had never seen Vox asleep before, or looking as silly as he was at that moment but, the fact he so openly had done it while you were still present was shocking to her. Vox wasn't exactly the type of overlord that'd let anyone see him so normal. His whole persona was a perfect entity with no need for things other sinners might lust for. Yet he so openly broke that persona and you didn't even seem to notice! Velvet played along though figuring she’d inquire about the matter to Vox at a later date.

“Hah, yeah he always looks like that when he sleeps it's hilarious girl.” Velvet soon ended the call because she had ‘matters to attend to’ leaving you in the silence of your loneliness.

“Vox get in here now!” Vox unamused musters his best-interested tone making his way to her, “Whatever could be the problem, my dear?” Velvet then hummed, completely changing her tone with a more sinister undertone, “I just wanted to ask how work has been all” Vox's grin drops, “and since when have you been one for work talk?” Velvet shrugs, “Since when could I not check up on how a friend is doing Vox, after all, you haven’t told me how things have been with your new assistant.” Vox chuckles refilling his coffee mug.

“They’re better than I expected them to be, it’s nice to know some sinners still have any kind of intelligence.” praise wasn't something that was easily given by an overlord such as Vox so Velvet hearing him acknowledge you in a way that wasn't completely condescending made her even more invested. “Is there anything else you need to bug me with, or can I go?” Before she could ask or say anything else Vox was already on his way. (Workaholic bastard-)

While Vox was a bit interested in why Velvet was so curious about your guy's relationship, he also had better things to do than try to understand Velvet’s mind. Right as Vox had gotten you out of his head a notification from your number came through, it was only the changed schedule for tomorrow though. Why would it be anything else though you are just his assistant, nothing more. That being said, why didn’t Vox dislike you, I mean usually whenever Vox has an assistant of some kind they’re not nearly as involved with his work life as you were yet they managed to agitate him much faster than you had. He wrote it off though as you being recommended by Velvet made him have a more positive impression of you. Even if it was something else he didn't care he needed to deal with the Radio Demon being back in town.

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irkimatsu · 1 month

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AHHHHHH I love Husk and your content is by far my FAVORITE 😍 the sweet, the smut, the little bit of both...I love it all.

So I have a cute idea for this one. Neko!reader x husk. The reader isn't fully cat, but has the ears and tail, a cat-like face and of course the mannerisms. Husk is crushing hard and thinks that she (or they, whichever pronouns :) ) is cute and nonchalantly points out that it's adorable when her ears twitch. And then she's like, "And you wonder why we're always messing with you, eyy Kitten?" which makes him all flustered and he can't even say anything.

I can just picture them doing the equivalent of holding hands only their tails wrapped around each other 😚😚

Thank you so much for enjoying my writing!

I envisioned Reader as an anthro like Husk; I'm hoping that's what you meant with your description! Reader gets drunk and rants to Husk about cat instincts, Husk offers some advice, light flirting and flustered Husk ensues. I hope this is close enough to what you wanted! 1.2k words, SFW, female reader!

---

You’ve had way too much to drink.

It’s not like you’re inexperienced at drinking; you knew the hard stuff you were knocking back would be enough to get you wasted. That was the point. Maybe if you got drunk enough, you could shut off the stupid cat instincts that hadn’t left you alone since the moment you died. The exercises you’ve been doing at this hotel for the past few months may have taught you things like not stealing and believing in the power of friendship, but there hadn’t yet been any lessons on how to stop swiping at your own tail every time it entered the corner of your field of vision.

You’re not sure if the alcohol has turned off the instincts, but it sure has turned on your mouth. Without thinking about what you’re saying, you’ve been ranting to the bartender for the past thirty minutes, barely pausing to take a breath. Surely he doesn’t mind, right? Not only are bartenders supposed to listen when their customers want to bitch, but he’s in the exact same position as you are as far as species goes!

“...and the fuckin’ hairballs!” is the latest thought in your stream of word vomit. “I thought mucus was bad! Hairballs! They get stuck in my throat, and they itch like hell until I can cough ‘em up!”

“They sell stuff down here to take care of that,” the bartender says, pouring you another drink without you asking. “It tastes like shit, but it works. I don’t get ‘em anymore unless I forget to drink it.”

“And what about shedding?!” you continue on as if he didn’t say anything. “It’s impossible to keep my room clean! It’s like the more I clean up, the more fur there is!”

“Niffty’s been helpin’ me with that since I met her. She gets pissed about the fur I leave everywhere otherwise. She ain’t gentle with that brush, though.”

You take another gulp of your drink and slam it down onto the bar. “Fuck, think I just swallowed some fur…”

“You haven’t even been dead for a year yet, right?” Husk asks. “ That’s barely anything. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to get used to being a cat. Some of the bullshit never goes away, but it becomes part of you.”

“Do you like being a cat?” you ask.

He laughs at your question. “Hell no! But what choice do I have? There’s no going back to bein’ human for any of us. May as well learn how to deal with it.” He takes a gulp of his own drink, not even bothering to pour it into a glass. “If ya want, I can take you to a good supply place sometime. They’ve got good products if you can put up with the fact that it looks like a fuckin’ pet store.”

“Hmm…” you neither accept nor deny his offer. You only take another drink, swallowing more damn fur in the process. That’s definitely gonna lead to some late-night hairballs. “It’s so annoying…” you whine as you plop your chin on the bar. “Why couldn’t I have been something cool? You know I saw a giant lizard the other day? Lucky bastard…”

“Bet they have a hell of a time findin’ clothes,” he says. “Or even gettin’ into places to begin with.”

“And even you got wings…” you continue on.

“Yeah. Wings. I get to clean up after fur and feathers, and if I don’t find the perfect position while sleeping the fuckin’ things go numb.” He takes your glass away, but you’re too lost in your own self-pity to protest. “We’ve all gotta get used to our new bodies when we get down here, and I doubt it’d be any different if we somehow got into heaven. Just gotta make the best of it.” He turns around to put away some bottles. “Besides, it’s not all bad. At least you’re cute.”

“...what was that?” you say, not expecting that word out of Husk’s mouth.

“I said you’re cute. Everyone thinks cats are cute, don’t they? Even I liked ‘em when I was alive. I don’t want to be one, but you can’t resist their mannerisms, can ya? The big eyes, the soft fur…”

He turns around just in time to see your right ear flicking in annoyance from the condescension. “The twitchy ears…”

You smirk, knowing the weight of what you’re about to say next but too drunk to stop yourself. “So now you get why Angel and I are always commenting on your mannerisms, eh, kitty?”

“Whoa! Hey!” His fur bristles, and you know you shouldn’t find his own agitation cute, but you can’t help yourself. It helps you understand the way he was just talking to you, at least. “That’s different! You’re a young lady! You died at, what, 25? You’re supposed to be cute! I’m an old man who drank myself to death. Nothin’ cute about that.”

“You’ve still got the big eyes and the soft fur…” you continue on.

He groans in response. “If you were a stranger saying that shit to me, I’d kill you.”

“So what makes me so special?” Your tail waves playfully behind you, and he’s obviously following it with his eyes and blushing.

“I…” he starts, but never manages to come up with the rest of the sentence. “Jesus Christ,” is all he has to offer before grabbing a couple of glasses from the shelf. He fills them both with water, then carries them around to the other side of the bar.

“Here,” he says as he sets one of the glasses in front of you. “Drink this. You’re gonna feel like shit in the morning. May as well not be dehydrated on top of everything else.”

You stare at the cup as he takes a seat on the stool next to you. “How do you resist the urge to knock cups over?” you ask.

“Lots of self-control,” he says with a smirk before guzzling his glass in one go.

You place your paw on the side of the glass, originally intending to pick it up, but an overwhelming spark takes over your brain, and you start easing the cup toward the edge of the bar. Husk grabs it and places it back where it started before it can crash to the floor.

“You’ll get used to it,” he assures you. He’s finished his water, but for a reason you can’t determine, he’s still sitting next to you.

“How long have you been down here?” you ask. “A couple years?”

“Mmm… fifty?” he guesses. “Almost as long as I was alive, at this point.”

“Fifty years?!” you exclaim. “And you still have to deal with cat instincts?!”

He shrugs. “Like I said, it never goes away. Just gotta get used to it, take the good with the bad.”

“The good…” you repeat. “Like being cute?”

“Oh, shut up,” he says. “...but in your case… yeah. Like being cute.”

You finally manage to pick up your water without giving into the desire for destruction. As you take a sip, something feathery starts to tickle against your tail. You look over at Husk from the corner of your eye. He’s trying to be nonchalant, not even looking at you, but there’s only one thing that could be brushing against you right now.

Without looking, you shift your tail, allowing it to curl around Husk’s. Husk curls his around yours in turn, your tail tips forming a spiral that just barely reaches the floor.

It’s the closest he’ll get to flirting for now. You’ll take what you can get.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel husk #hazbin husk #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel husk x reader #hazbin husk x reader #irk blubbers about nothing #irk got asked a thing #irk talks to strangers #irk huskposts

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definitelynotafurinasimp · 8 months

Note

Hey there! Could I please request Furina, Clorinde, and Navia with an S/O who fancies themselves as something of a vigilante (secretly or not is up to you, I have no particular preference) and generally likes to play pretty fast and loose with the laws? Thanks, hope you have a great day!

Them with a vigilante reader

characters: Furina / Clorinde / Navia x gn!reader (separate)

warnings: slight(?) angst in Clorinde’s part, light spoilers for the 2nd Arc of the Archon quest in Navia’s part

a/n: I have no idea if you wanted this to be angsty or fluffy, since the reader turning out to be a vigilante has more than enough potential for soul crushing angst, especially in the Nation of Justice, so I played it safe and go with the fluffier option whenever possible, that being said the Clorinde one is a bit more angsty, I think.

Also, I'm still trying to get a feel for the characters, so if I got some of their character traits wrong, then I'm really sorry

So I hope this matches what you envisioned, if not, tell me and I’ll try to write it again.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Navia

While the main producer of Sinthe had been convicted and she finally got rid of her father’s undeserved epithet, Spina di Rosula’s work was not yet done. The biggest supplier may have been dealt with, but as long as there were still people making Mora from selling that substance, neither you nor Navia would rest, not after witnessing what it did to people’s lives.

Navia and you making for good partners shouldn’t have come as a big surprise for anyone. Both of you held an enmity for anyone related to the Sinthe-trade, neither of you held an unwavering trust towards the justice system and the both of you had known each other since long before she took up her fathers mantle. And while your operation wasn’t technically legal, considering how the Hydro Archons last encounters with Navia went, the state decided to turn a blind eye for as long as Spina di Rosula didn’t betray its new found reputation.

You couldn’t remember when the last time was that just the two of you got to eat together like this. For weeks your nights were short and full of investigating, and even when you got to close your eyes, your dreams were filled with the case. But now that most of the Sinthe dealers were locked up behind bars, Navia felt it was only right for the two of you to take some time off.

“Where are Silver and Melus?”, you couldn’t help but ask when you didn’t spot the two men. They were always by her side, no matter when and where she set off, something even more impressive considering Melus’ age.

“I sent them to take some time off, they deserved it. Well, that and I wanted to have some alone time with you”, she explained with a smile, grabbing the plate with her baking and handing it to you, causing you to grab a macron or two before returning the smile, your heavy eyes feeling just a little bit lighter.

“You seem tired, didn’t you say you’d try to fall asleep earlier?”, Navia noted upon seeing the circles under your eyes, causing you to wave it off.

“I did, but then I thought of something and before I knew it I was looking into something”, you tried to play it off, only for the Boss to frown.

“The biggest threat is dealt with, give it a break and get some good night sleep. Not sleeping much isn’t good for your health.”

“Okay mom”, you sarcastically responded, a playful smile growing on your lips. One Navia quickly matched.

“If you don’t stop playing with the reports so late at night, I’ll have to confiscate your toys”, she responded in kind, causing both of you to let out a few snickers before turning your attention to the food.

“Can you pass me the black tee?”, you eventually asked before pointing at the kettle, only for Navia to stop in the middle of her bite and glare at you.

“No. I wasn’t joking, you’re going to sleep early tonight. Even if I have to force you.”

Furina

You were nothing more than a proactive private Investigator. A proactive private Investigator that followed the law, obviously. Vigilantes were criminals, criminals with good intentions, but criminals nonetheless and for the God of Justice’s closest companion, being a criminal was obviously out of the question. Because she would never protect and keep a criminal by her side. That would be ridiculous.

That was the deal, and what Furina made sure you'd remember.

Had this sort of secret been kept by anybody else, Furina might have considered it a twist worth listening to. It would have made for a trial she wouldn’t have been able to wait to attend. But why did it have to be you? Had the Archon found out about your secret earlier, you would be sitting behind bars since a long time ago. Nobody but the state, nobody but her, was allowed to determine whether someone was a criminal or not.

But by the time you eventually confessed it to her, it was too late. Were it her feelings that made her choose to keep shut or the knowledge that having news that the all knowing God of Justice didn’t notice her closest companion’s secret identity would deliver a considerable hit in her both trustworthiness and popularity as an Archon was irrelevant. The only thing counting being that you remembered those three important rules.

“Hand them over to the Gardes at the earliest possible opportunity, deliver evidence that there’s a crime that justifies me arresting them without the legal clearance to do so and don’t be seen.” While it would have been a lie to say that your lackluster recitation didn’t annoy Furina in the slightest, the fact that you remembered them word-by-word was reassurance enough that you would do your best to follow them.

For anyone unfamiliar with the person behind their god’s confident facade, it would have been a surprise to see their Archon nervously pacing around the room, but for you it was hardly a rare occurrence. Whenever you gathered enough information about a suspect to be certain they were a serious criminal and the only step left was to make them face justice, she’d sit you down in her room before hammering those rules into your brain..

“Exactly, and you better remember each and every one of those. I may have kept our- your secret so far, but don’t even think for a second I’ll hesitate to throw you into the dungeons myself if I hear you as much as consider breaking one of them”, she tried her hardest to keep her composure, and although the thought of making a small jest crossed your mind, doubting the validity of her threat, it wouldn’t surprise you if anything but a 100% serious answer would be enough to make her pass out, and so you cleverly decided to shut up and nod.

“Good, I could see from the moment I first laid eyes on you that you weren’t a criminal, so rise and do what you have to do”, she continued to cling to the image of the well spoken, righteous Archon her citizens surely knew her as before just as quickly collapsing onto the same chair the moment the door closed behind you.

“Why do I keep doing this to myself???”

Clorinde

While your family wasn’t wealthy enough to pay for you to get any kind of training, you were always a fascinated with sword fighting, so much so that the moment you finally saved enough to buy a good sword you asked Clorinde to teach you how to properly use it, something she saw no reason to refuse.

You had gotten a lot better since the first time the two of you trained, not nearly good enough to best her, but more than certainly enough to hold your ground against most enemies and threats in the wild. A part of her wanted to feel proud about her accomplishments as a teacher, but she couldn’t, not when she knew what you were using those acquired skills for.

Clorinde wasn’t blind. She knew something was going on the moment you started returning home in bruises and wounds from your “late-night walks”. At first she assumed some petty criminals must have started extorting you, but when you didn’t seem to be missing anything and she heard about a mysterious person apprehending criminals, it didn’t take her long to realize just what you were doing.

“What do you think of that ‘vigilante’ everyone is talking about?”, you asked while trying your best to block whatever attack she threw at you, your eyes landing on her for just a split second before fixating on her blade again.

Well, you couldn’t be more direct.

“I’m not sure. I know desiring justice is a noble trait, but if it’s justice they’re after, why not report the cases to the Gardes?”, she responded calmly, trying her best to keep her suspicions as hidden as possible.

“Maybe they don’t trust Fontaine’s law enforcement to do their job?”, you countered just as calmly, not averting your eyes from her weapon for even a split second.

“And what’s your opinion on the way the court does its sentencing? Just between the two of us”, her gaze left her own blade long ago, slowly but surely making their way down towards you.

“It’s certainly an entertaining spectacle”, you explained, only for her blade to suddenly change course and hit you in the chest. The only thing stopping it from sinking into you being the fact that it was a dull training sword. Before you knew it, Clorinde was silently staring you down, staring straight into your eyes and sending a shiver down your spine. Before finally speaking up once again.

“Then I hope they don’t get caught. The last thing I want to do is have to fight them in a real duel.”

If it took her, a duelist, nothing but a closer look to figure your secret out, it wouldn’t take a prosecutor long either. For your sake-, both of your sakes however, she hoped you’d manage to keep any suspicion away from you… at least long enough until she didn’t have to worry about you losing against her fellow champions.

#furina #furina x reader #furina x y/n #furina x you #clorinde x you #clorinde #clorinde x reader #clorinde x y/n #navia #navia x reader #navia x you #navia x y/n #focalors x reader #focalors

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rabbitbandit05 · 3 months

Text

Dangerously Yours (Vox x Reader)

I had this idea after listening to "Dangerously Yours" (1944) Masquerade episode on Spotify, and couldn’t help but write for it. I was originally going to write three chapters for it, but ive been very busy with college work and life so you can have the bullet points that was going to be the script for the story. This is also kinda piggybacking off my original post of "Y/N as a star", but this time with a twist. I hope you enjoy this post- and also reminder: My requests are open!!

Alastor and you both know each other from when you were alive! Not only were the two of you close, but you were cousins.

This story starts off with you, who is one of Alastors most trusted colleagues in hell (but are not an overlord). You are sent to the Vees tower to spy on them, and Alastor entrusts this task to you because of how closed off you are from the rest of hell and that no one should know you well enough to question who you are.

Not only that- but no one knows your familiar relationship with Alastor so they wont be able to use that against you.

In the event that you needed to escape, Alastors shadows would follow behind you from a distance to ensure your safety, and when you stomped you foot three times, you would be whisked away to a safe place.

With that all said and done, You make your way to the Vee’s tower on a day you knew a bunch of reporters would be there and questioning/ interviewing the Vee’s

People are naturally drawn to you (not in a hypnotizing way- but in a way you are able to alter your aura to have people perceive you in any way you want them to)

You end up making it a point to charm a bunch of reporters near the Vees tower to catch their attention. Not only that, but you play coy by pretending to not know the Vee’s and their influence. Now that really catches their attention because they are extremely prideful about their importance.

You claim it’s because you have barely left your old employer who kept her under a close watch and rarely let you use the internet/ technology (Not 100% false- you just preferred to stay away from the technology originally)

Not only do you catch the attention of the Vee’s, but you catch the attention of Vox in particular, Who (after watching your playful and intentional nature) is determined to make you into a super star.

Its all going according to plan, just as Alastor predicted. Something new and shiny shows itself to Vox and he cant resist trying to control it.

You agree to work with Vox for a certain period of time before you actually sign a contract with the Vee’s (so that you are granted time to get in and out quickly without having to sell your soul to any of them).

You start to slowly get info on the Vees and how they run things, as well as creating a way for alastor to take them all down. They each have their weaknesses that only those who are allowed close to them are able to see. Its easy to assume a persons weakness, but to evaluate and calculate the best way to ensure their down fall is the best course of action.

And whats that saying? Keep your friends close, Keep your enemies closer.

Meanwhile, while working for the Vee’s, you are becoming more known throughout hell and are rising in popularity.

You are the talk of the pride ring, with all the demons wondering where you came from and how you were so quickly able to captivate your audience. Only two demons on this side of hell are able to work such an audience after all- The radio demon and the Video demon.

Its inevitable that you and Vox start a relationship with one another (very lowkey ofcourse, with no knowledge from the public, however people still suspect it)

You know its fake, and somewhere deep inside, vox suspects its fake, but both of you cant help but lean into it regardless.

Its also inevitable that both of you develop feelings for one another, though neither of you can admit it…

Eventually your act comes to a head though- as Vox finally admits to you that he knows who you are and what your plans are- Its not hard for him to find whatever information he wants, and that includes about you. He did a “background check” on who you were before coming here and found out about how you are related to the Radio demon.

however as he confronts you, there is no aggressiveness in his voice, just an unsettling calmness that is even unusual for him…

You are forced to stray from the original plan and now must protect yourself and what you know.

You debate back with the video demon. He has it all wrong, that no matter what he does, he wont get the information he wants from you, and that you will end him if it comes down to it- if he forces you to (you both know this is a bluff but regardless, you refuse to die without a fight)

Vox doesn't argue with you- instead, he tries to get you to join the Vee’s and actually commit to being a star as well as joining him and the Vees in ruling. Forget Alastor, forget your ties to him or whatever debt you may owe him- he is giving you a choice that is up to you alone to make, and that is to join the Vee’s.

Afterall, he cant bring himself to exist in his unlife without you- essentially admitting he loves you.

He also admits that regardless of weather you join them or not, Alastors time as an overlord is coming to an end soon…

You can help but break down. Here you are given the chance to finally do something for yourself and act on the love you have for Vox- and you admit that to him, however you also confess that there will always be a part of you that wonders if he actually cares about you, or if he justs cares about the power you can bring to him…

Not only that, but your loyalty will always be deeper to Alastor than it is to Vox, and Vox’s loyalty to winning against Alastor will always be deeper than his love for you.

You end up stomping your foot three times on the floor, and then before Vox can say anything or move from his spot to stop you from leaving, you are engulfed in a circle of shadows and whisked away from the scene- ending up in your room at the Hotel. You collapse to the floor from the emotional exhaustion and heartbreak of it all-

maybe in another death you could have been together… maybe if you were born a different person in your life you could have been together, but you both died in your current forms and are the demons you are- and you cant change that.

Alastor walks up to you and ends up chuckling at your patheticness, as he helps hoist you up and walk you to the kitchen to make you something to eat to cheer you up. Maybe an old family recipe will bring you some comfort, and he can relish in your misery at missing home even more.

Vox’s mission to end Alastor becomes even more intense, as now he believes that ifd he kills Alastor, you will finally be freed from the guilt of being forced to follow and obey him, and finally be free to make your own choices.

Vox also never informs the other Vee’s about your betrayal, and insist you were kidnapped and he is working on getting you back.

The end.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin vox #hazbin hotel vox x reader #hazbin headcanons #vox hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel x you #hazbin hotel x y/n #vox x reader #headcanon

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pixiecaps · 20 days

Note

psst hey do u have any sdv mod reccs/any tips on how to use them 👀

yeah! so for stardew mods to work you need to first install the smapi api.

you can either do that through their main website or nexus

neither option has any cons theyre just based on preference on how you wanna install it but theyre both completely safe websites.

after you properly install smapi you’ll have to go to nexus which is the main website for all stardew valley mods. you’ll need to make an account to install stuff i believe. you can find a wide range of mods here that serve a lot of different purposes.

if you haven’t used nexus to mod before then as i mentioned before first make an account then once you are looking at a mod make sure to check the requirements first. sometimes mods need other mods to work and you need to install those first. after you checked the requirements you head to the files section and click manual download. after that select slow download then wait for it to install into your files. then you move those files into the stardew mod folder. if thats not clear enough you can find a bunch of tutorial videos on youtube with visuals:)

since you asked for my recs i’ll give you the list of which i actually use all the time.

NPC Map Locations

- very basic mod. majority of mod users will have this installed and it just shows you on the map where each npc is at at all times.

CJB Cheats Menu & CJB Item Spawner

- these two sorta go hand in hand for me but of course you don’t need to have both installed. this is definitely a play style preference thing but i personally like having these cheats installed for any type of situation that might happen in game that i can’t undo otherwise without them.

- the cheats menu adds a lot more flexibility and well cheats to the game so for instance: infinite health, infinite stamina, give yourself money, instantly increase hearts with whichever npc, always catch every fish, warp locations, change weather, change time, freeze time, and a lot more. this uses the P key to open in game but you can configure that to another bind if you’d like.

- the item spawner is a lot more simple. does what it says and spawns whichever item you want. so basically you can press the i key and it’ll open up a menu with every item in the game and you can spawn in the specific amount you want of something and so forth. simple concept. i mainly use this for when i accidentally sell or gift an item i wasnt intending to and then simply spawn it back in. i also use it for decorating my house:3

Look Up Anything

- this is literally like having the wiki at your disposal at all times in game. extremely helpful for so many reasons especially as i personally always had the wiki open to check for information on items and npcs so having this mod made it a lot quicker of a process. how it works is you simply hover your mouse over whatever you want information on and click f1 and it’ll display all the information about that thing to you! so if you hover over lets say harvey and press f1 it’ll show you a menu with his birthday, his love & like gifts, your hearts with them and how many points till the next heart, etc.

Seasonal Outfits

- this mod puts all the npcs in different outfits for the seasons. its just cute

Elle’s Seasonal Buildings & DaisyNiko’s Earthy Recolor

- the seasonal building allows a lot more variety in structures like farm building and adding holiday decor to npc buildings. simple stuff that can make the game more customized

- with seasonal buildings you can also install compatible recolors which is what the DaisyNiko’s link is. it’s the recolor i personally use for my main farm when i play. this is because the vanilla game is very saturated and does hurt my eyes so having more chilled out tones helps. you dont need to install the recolor i use or any in fact if you like the natural look of the game but just know the option is there and there’s a multitude of recolors you can use to make the game look different:3

Friends Forever

- no friendship decay because itsa pain in the ass and i have no time to talk to the npcs all day. this is very play style based some people enjoy having to go and ensure they speak to npcs daily im just not the type.

Part of The Community

- creates different ways for you to gain hearts easier and passively

Mailbox Menu & Zilch’s Envelopes

- i really like the letters and the fact you can only read them once bummed me out until i found this mod which adds a whole menu for your mail where you can go back and see all the letters you’ve received. feel like it adds that additional touch and care to the whole mail system in the game.

- then to go along with that menu theres the envelopes mod that customizes it even further and makes all the envelopes of the letters have cute appearances and designs. look at this and tell me that isn’t the best thing you’ve ever seen.

Honorable Mentions

- Chests Anywhere

- CJB Show Item Sell Price

in conclusion…

I really suggest just taking the time and scrolling through the nexus mods website on your own. they have a specific category for stardew and you can filter it by most popular and see what you find yourself. since everyone plays differently you might find you enjoy the more technical code side and want to change something to do with that or you might just simply wanna change the npc portraits and make them look nicer. theres so many options on how to mod this game and i honestly could go on forever with mod suggestions but at the end of the day its up to you! so hope this helps and i hope you have a fun time modding.

#i use a lot more mods but these r like the basics for me #pix asks aaaa #anon

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lunar-years · 4 months

Note

For the first sentence of a fic thing:

The first time Roy thinks nothing of it; the second he thinks it a coincidence – but the third time, and catching the studied nonchalance on Jamie and Keeley’s faces, he begins to grow suspicious. "And neither of you have seen it?" he repeats slowly, staring at each of them in turn with his most intense, patented glare, waiting for one of them to break.

Jamie's face remains completely stoic--impressive, actually. Usually he's first to crack. Keeley shrugs innocently and murmurs, "Guess you must've misplaced it again, babe...."

Roy snorts. Yeah. He'd believed that the first time, when he'd found it buried on Jamie's shelf buried amongst his many, many hair products. Roy must've confused the shelves one night. His eyesight is shit in the dark, after all. Then when he next went to use it, the thing was fucking broken, so okay. Shit happened. Order another, no big deal.

This time, though, the trimmer was brand-fucking-new. And he knows exactly where he placed it once he'd removed it from the packaging. "You know that this is important, right?" he growls. "I've got be at the club in like two hours. Looking professional."

He glances past their heads to catch a sight of himself in the mirror. He meant to get a real haircut, but after a few rounds of putting it off, it's gotten long enough now for the curls to really be coming back, in desperate need of a trim, and his beard looks utterly unruly to match. Altogether, he looks like he's an aspiring caveman instead of the fresh new manager of a Premier League team.

"Your beautiful curls aren't unprofessional," Keeley says crisply, arms crossed and looking all put out like he's offended her talking about his own damn hair. Jesus Christ. "Actually, Jamie found--"

Jamie is instantly at his side, holding out a bottle of curl shampoo. "Bit of this to reduce the frizz, lad, and some beard oil to tame you up a bit in the front...very professional, that. And if it happens to make you look dead sexy, too, well--" He shrugs and exchanges a look with Keeley, who nods encouragingly like he's really selling it. They're both ridiculous.

Roy rolls his eyes. "So you mean to tell me I haven't been able to shave in days because my trimmer keeps disappearing mysteriously, and Jamie just so happened to go shopping for fucking..." he takes the bottle Jamie's holding, "curl-defining shampoo in that same timeframe? By total coincidence?"

"Exactly!" Keeley says cheerfully.

"You know, two hours gives us plenty of time to try it out," Jamie adds nonchalantly, waving the shampoo. His eyes are fucking sparkling. He's gorgeous. He's always so fucking gorgeous. "Probably best if Keeley and I help you out. Gotta really massage it in to get the full effect. It will take all three of us. We should shower together!"

Keeley's heads bobs up and down enthusiastically.

"And my trimmer is--?"

"Oh hush," Keeley says, edging closer, "You can search for that later."

"...or not!" Jamie adds.

Yeah, he thinks, letting Keeley's deft hands work at tugging his shirt over his head. Or fucking not.

#thanks for sending!#something deeply unserious after the last one hahaha #roy kent depression curls i'm always thinking about you <3 #royjamiekeeley #roy kent #jamie tartt #keeley jones #ted lasso #my writing #my fics #my fanfics #drabble #ship post #asks #ask games #writing games #first sentence of a fic thing

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randomnumbers751650 · 4 months

Text

I finally have time to talk about Lone Trail. I will be focusing on its depiction of science, technology and its progress. Will get a bit political, but funnily enough less than I imagined.

The thing that called my attention most in Lone Trail were the discussions on the nature of scientific progress. This is a theme that’s dear to me and the stuff I research about. It’s easy to think of scientific progress like an inevitable march forward, like an escalator. After all, we are much richer than we were before, right? Go to OurWorldInData dot org to play around with economic statistics in time – make sure to check the World GDP chart, from year 0 to 2000 and see it taking off like a rocket from year 1700.

What kind of Uncle Ted fan or neoluddite would go against that? Haha…hah…

Truth is that, although its effects are there, it’s not a clear if this is the little, neat process techbros want us to believe. It’s new and produces more, therefore it’s good, right? I could be writing this as a new wave of AI-generated NFTs pollute my algorithm.

That’s what makes the storytelling in Arknights so effective: it mashes together fantasy and sci-fi to really tell stories on the role of beliefs, technology, science and religion. The Rhine Lab saga is definitely an exploration of technology, with focus on the equivalent of the United States. During the period before the First World War, 1870-1913 (which is the one that Arknights draws most from), the world underwent through the so-called Second Industrial Revolution and I’ve read economic historians considering it the most innovative period in human history. I mean, obviously, there is an absolute number of inventions in our current age, but in relative terms 1870-1913 experienced a much larger number relative to the previous one.

The escalator narrative constructs scientific achievements as work of daring people (mostly men, but there were women like Marie Cuire), that combined science and technology to help mankind, like Prometheus giving mankind fire from the gods (in fact, one of these books is even named “Prometheus Unbound”); more than often they have to fight against the establishment. Remember Ignaz von Semmelweis? He just wanted doctors to wash their hands. Even I learned this standard narrative in the university. But that’s not the entire story.

The positivistic paradigm – of a science free of value judgements, made with the power of math – has actually helped build this escalator narrative. In reality, some scientists and scholars are horrible people. Later, I learned that Semmelweis, as much as he campaigned for the right thing, was a very arrogant person, who abused everyone around him, to the point few people went to his funeral.

Narratives focusing on one single hero are easy to sell and the ones building them are always on the lookout. Remember how ten years ago, a lot of people tried to push the narrative Elon Musk was going to create a new industrial revolution? Nowadays he’s just an arrogant loser who keeps dragging on his midlife crisis. The 1880s also had similar people like that, such as Thomas Edison.

Kristen Wright is definitely better than them both, because she is actually an engineering genius. But she’s also just like them, in the sense of unethical experiments, collusion with the military-industrial complex and being an overall superficially charismatic, but rotten to the core person. And she’s surrounded by a lot of people like Parvis and Ferdinand.

Breaking this line of reason, I have to say how much I hate Nietzsche’s ubermensch and master-slave morality, I hate Great Men theory, I hate Ayn Rand; these people are sheep who think themselves wolves. And before you say that Nietzsche didn’t consider himself an ubermensch, well, neither did Parvis and his reasoning was the same. For every person fancying themselves ubermensch, there’s a lot of those whom he’d call untermensch to clean up their messes. You have no idea of how times I stumbled upon people (especially libertarians) that advocate lower barriers to regulations that were written in blood, so that progress can happen quicker. Creative destruction works, as long as some people get “creative” and others clean the “destruction”. Deaths and injuries? Acceptable, just give them a pension (but fight tooth and nail in the court to not do it beyond the barest of the bare minimum, because it’ll lower the shareholder profit in 0.01%). Increase in inequality? Nobody will care in a few years, it’ll make everything cheaper anyway (look up Baumol’s cost disease to see how wrong that statement is, without being incorrect). I’m not exaggerating, sometimes the people saying that don’t even bother lacing it in politically correct language.

Because Lone Trail showed it “worked” – Kristen Wright broke off the ceiling over Terra and that will have consequences (especially with Endfield coming closer). The data from her experiments will advance science, the sight of a broken ceiling will inspire artists and prompt politicians to act. Was it worth it? Well, it will depend on who you ask (like, Ifrit or Rosmontis would have strong feelings), but it’s just there now. Serious history isn’t kind on this question as well – many technologies have a lot of transgressions, both legal and ethical, in their supply chain (both the American and Soviet space program come to my mind – guess who helped them); the difference between an entrepreneur and a criminal are contextual, because both are finding new opportunities of profit and both interlock frequently.

In the end, anyone can put an equation that has its uses, not mattering if it’s a good person or not. But that is no excuse to find good ethical practices. Silence saw everything with her own eyes and I’m really glad she’s leading the initiative for a more ethical science in Columbia – especially because people who are willing to break moral rules tend also to be willing to break research rules (this is why the “research” made in concentration camps is actually useless, it didn’t respect experimental rules). So I’m really glad for the Arknights writers for understanding these nuances and communicating them to the audience through one of the best stories of the game.

#arknights #lone trail

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hunterscyarika · 16 days

Text

Echo and the Tooka

This is for @rinwritesfics for the Bad Batch x reader exchange @cloneficgiftexchange

Prompt: "How was I supposed to know"

Authors note: Hi! I hope you like this! I've always wanted to write for Echo and give him a Tooka so I hope you like that idea too :)

Clone Force ninety-nine was happily settled on Pabu. Crosshair was back with them, as well as Echo, and the rest of the Clone Rebellion. You loved Pabu, it was a beautiful, peaceful place and most importantly the Clones were safe. One Clone especially meant a great deal to you, Echo.

You had been crushing on him for ages, and although you believed he returned your feelings, neither of you had been brave enough to admit your feelings. When Echo’s head piece had been acting up you were worried for him. But Phee had a contact on the planet Chalza, that could help Echo. Echo figured it was worth a shot since the Empire didn’t have a presence there. Rex and Tech offered to go with Echo, and you asked to go too. Echo was happy you would be going with him.

Upon arriving on Chalza you found out it was raining. You put your poncho on. “Cute” Echo accidently said out loud. “Thanks” You giggled and did a little twirl. Echo gave you heart eyes. “Shouldn’t you wear one too?” You asked concerned. Echo thought he would melt from how sweet you were. He put his poncho on and you thought he looked cute too, but were too shy to say anything.

The rain was pouring, and the wind blew hard. You struggled to see anything. Echo noticed you stray a little, and he held out his hand for you. “Here, take my hand. I’ll guide you” He offered. You took his hand, a warm feeling spreading through you at the contact. Echo kept you close to him. You felt safe with him by your side.

After reaching the contacts workshop Echo still held your hand. Rex and Tech spoke with the contact. As they discussed what needed to be done, you felt Echo squeeze your hand a little harder. He’s nervous You leaned in and whispered, “I’m right here, Echo” He looked over at you with a soft smile “Thanks” Echo whispered back. You nodded to him.

It seemed to take forever for the Contact to get things ready and work on Echo’s head piece. Rex thought you should step away for a minute, but Echo wanted you to stay. It was a difficult few minutes as you waited. You tried to be brave for Echo and not show how concerned you were. Once the man finished working on Echo’s head piece, everyone went to the local cantina for dinner.

After dinner you and the boys went to the market place to pick up supplies, you split into groups, Tech and Rex going one way, you and Echo going the other. While you walked through the market you noticed a vendor selling toys. You looked over at Echo with a grin. “You’re spoiling Omega” Echo told you, but his smile gave him away. “I spoil all of you” You teased, and winked at him, before walking up to the stall. Echo’s heart skipped a beat as he watched you. While Echo was lost in his thoughts a Tooka ran out from the alley, calling to Echo as he approached him. The constant meowing caught Echo’s attention and he looked down at the little creature with an amused smile. “Well, Hello there, little fella.” Echo said and reached down to pet the Tooka. It snuggled up to him. “You sure are a friendly little thing, aren’t you?!” He cooed. The black Tooka meowed and looked up at him with bright eyes. “Oh, my stars! How cute!” You gasped as you walked up by Echo. He chuckled. “He just ran up to me” Echo said. “He chose you” you said with a teasing smile. “Don’t start” Echo warned, but still smiled. The Tooka continued to cuddle up to Echo. “Alright little fella, we got to go” Echo said. He stood up to leave and as the two of you began to walk away the Tooka followed you. Echo sighed and you giggled. “Stay here” Echo said, pointing at the Tooka. It seemed like he understood as he sat there. Echo was pleased and turned to walk away. You did too, but you knew the precious little creature might follow anyway. Tech sent a message on comms for you and Echo to return to the Marauder immediately. You and Echo made it back to the Marauder and left the planet.

Once in hyperspace you all sat in the cockpit. While you were talking all of the sudden you heard a meow. “Oh, my stars! Echo it’s your little buddy” You said, cooing to the Tooka. “Echo, why did you bring a Tooka on board?!” Tech complained. “I didn’t! How was I supposed to know he’d follow me?!” Echo argued. “Oh, stop fussing!” You chided them and picked up the Tooka. “This little guy isn’t going to be a problem” You stated. Echo’s heart fluttered at the sight of you holding the Tooka. It called to Echo and you handed and you handed him over to Echo. He cuddled up to Echo. “He sure does like you” Rex commented. “He needs a name” You stated. The group thought for a moment. Tech spoke up “How about Shadow? He is always following you”. Echo shrugged. You thought over some more names and one came to you that you weren’t sure about sharing. “How about…Domino?” You suggested. A little bit of surprise washed over Echo’s face but then a soft look took over his eyes. “That’s perfect” Echo said. You and Echo shared a smile. “It’s a good name” Tech agreed. Rex gave you a small smile. “Welcome to the squad, Domino” Echo said with a smile as he scratched behind Dominoes ears.

Domino followed Echo as he walked through the marketplace on Pabu. “Good morning, Echo” You greeted with a smile. “Good morning” He returned with a smile of his own. Domino meowed at you. “Why hello, Domino” You said and knelt down to pet him. “How’s Domino adjusting to Pabu?” You asked Echo. “Really well, he’s taken quite a liking to the Moon-yos. He loves chasing them and playing with them.” Echo replied. “I’m so glad to hear that.” You said, petting Domino one more time before standing up. “I meant to thank you” Echo said. “For what?’ You asked surprised. “For coming up with his name, I think my brothers would’ve liked it, especially Fives. Fives probably would’ve flirted with you” Echo said with a chuckle. You laughed too then said “Well, it wouldn’t have done him any good. I have my eye on someone.” You said, giving Echo a look that you hoped he understood meant him. Apparently, he did catch on because he stood there wide eyed and mouth agape. You felt disappointed when he didn’t respond. “Well, I got to go” You said, and quickly took off. Blast Echo thought as he watched you go. Why couldn’t he say anything? Why did he always struggle with words when it came to you?. All Echo wanted was to tell you how he truly felt. Echo looked down at Domino. ‘What’s wrong with me, anyway?” He asked him. Domino just meowed at him.

It was a quiet evening and you sat outside of your home and stargazed. You heard a meow and looked down to see Domino. “Hi, Domino. Sweet Boy” You cooed and pet him. “Where’s Echo?” You asked. “Right here” Echo said as he walked up to you. “Hi” he said sheepishly. “Hi” You returned. “May I sit?” He asked, gesturing to the chair next to yours. “Sure” You agreed. Echo sat next to you. “It’s a beautiful evening” He commented. “It is” “The stars are bright” “They are” A moment of awkward silence passed. You looked over at Echo, he was looking up at the sky. His profile was beautiful. Echo felt your eyes on him and he looked over at you. Your heartbeat quicker at the soft look on his face. “I’m glad you were out here, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I, well, I was a bit nervous, and tongue tied.” Echo explained with a nervous chuckle as he scratched the back of his neck. “It’s alright, Echo” You said sweetly, making Echo fall in love with you even more. “I love you” Echo confessed. His eyes widened when he realized what he’d confessed. “Do you?” You asked softly. “I do” He said surely. You smiled brightly. “I love you too” You said, holding out your hand for him to take. Echo held your hand and you both spent the rest of the night stargazing and talking. Echo felt hopeful for the future as he sat next to you, and his little Domino played with the Moon-yos.

#echo x reader #TBBE24

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this-is-what-makes-us-fandoms · 1 year

Photo

You were by the nurse’s station, tablet in hand as you read over one of your patient’s chart. They were already doing so much better since you had first seen them. The moment you touched them, their injuries disappeared and they started healing from the inside. Another day and they’d be well enough to go home and finish their healing there. It made you smile to yourself, once again grateful for your abilities.

“Dr. {Last Name}?” a voice called out from behind you.

You turned around, coming face-to-face with two men you’d never seen before. One was taller than the other, giving you a soft smile as if to appear nonthreatening. The other did the same, except his was wider and more friendly.

“Yes? What can I do for you?” you asked.

“My name is Barry Allen with CCPD’s CSI and this is my colleague, Cisco Ramon. Could we talk in private?” the tall one named Barry asked.

“Sure, we can talk in my office,” you told them before beginning to walk away from the nurse’s station.

You led them down the halls of the hospital towards a small room that was your office. You opened the door and let them go in first, entering yourself once they were inside and closing the door behind you. When the door was shut, you turned to look back at them, wondering what the CSI division needed with you.

“We’re here because you were attacked a week ago, by Goldface’s men,” Barry explained.

You stood still at the mention of Goldface, for a second reliving the night you were attacked. You were walking home from your shift at the hospital when they came out of nowhere. You didn’t know what they wanted with you at first but three of his men were holding you a knife point. Their intent was to kidnap you and they would have, if it hadn’t been for The Flash saving you.

“What about them?” you asked.

“We need to know why they attacked you that night. We think it might be related to a case we’re working on,” Cisco told you.

You stayed silent for a moment, contemplating on what you should say. There was a reason you were attacked, they had planned to kidnap you for your abilities. How they found out about them was beyond you but they knew you were a meta with healing powers. A meta like you was worth millions on the black market and their every intent was to sell you to the highest bidder.

“I-I don’t know, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m sorry, I don’t think my situation is related,” you lied.

You saw Barry’s eyebrows furrow for a moment, fully knowing he didn’t believe you. You didn’t want to be involved in this, you got lucky that night and you wanted it to stay that way.

“We can help you, we’ll make sure he and his men won’t hurt you again,” Barry said, hoping to ease your worries and encourage you to speak.

You were quiet again, but something about him told you you could trust him. He felt familiar somehow. “They wanted me for my abilities. I’m a meta-human with healing powers. I don’t know how they found out, the only time I ever use my powers is here at the hospital.”

Neither of them spoke but they shared a look between each other that told you everything. They weren’t shocked about what you told them so you could only assume they had already known.

“You need to come with us. We can keep you safe until we know his men won’t be after you again,” Cisco said.

“I’m sorry I can’t. I have patients here who need me, I can’t just leave them,” you argued.

“Dr. {Last Name}, please come with us. We want to ensure your safety so your patients can continue to have a doctor like you,” Barry spoke this time.

You furrowed your brows this time, thinking about his words before ultimately nodding your head in agreement. He was right, in order for you to keep treating people as you were, you needed to be safe first. After you agreed, they told you they’d be back after your shift was over, giving you the chance to finish your day and pass your patients to someone else in the mean time.

|Not my GIFs|

#allimagines #imagines #imagine #the flash #the flash imagines #the flash imagine #team flash #team flash imagines #team flash imagine #the flash x reader #team flash x reader #barry allen #barry allen imagines #barry allen imagine #cisco ramon #cisco ramon imagines #cisco ramon imagine

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bullet-prooflove · 2 months

Text

LA!Series Part One: Relax - Manny x Reader

Tagging: @crazy4chickennuggets @kmc1989 @withakindheartx @darqchilddaydreamz @theesirenteller @wnbweasley @bonni-98 @skyesthebomb @delightfulbelieverwerewolf @redpool @trublu2u @fleureeee @yezzyyae @jeybae @thiashazzywriting @lauraaan182 @hatersaremymotivators @fanfic-n-tabulous @ravennaortiz @just-a-throw-away @yousigned-upforthis

LakeTahoe!Series:

Part One: Black Bear Lodge - Your life changes when you meet Manny at Black Bear Lodge.

Part Two: Something Special (NSFW) - Manny gives you a night like no other.

Part Three: Goodbye - You and Manny say goodbye after spending the weekend together.

Postcards: Manny recieves a surprise in the mail.

It’s over a four-hour ride to L.A. Manny’s arranged to stay a couple of days with you before he needs to be in Santo Padre to discuss the pipeline deal with Bishop. It’s become clearer over the past few weeks that Canche has been subsidising his income with club funds. They’re missing a massive portion of cash and that means they can’t buy into the pipeline.

On the drive up he starts to think of it as a blessing in disguise because it allows him to think outside the box, to consider other options. He wants more for Yuma, he wants better, safer options for his brothers, ones that won’t result in prison or a bullet. Santo Padre has been heading that way for a while, they have links to the community, they work with legitimate businesses, their income is clean and constant. Manny wants to emulate that.

He’s exhausted by the time he makes it to your suite; he uses the key you’ve left for him down at reception. It’s a little past ten pm and the day has taken its toll on him. He’s been up since six getting Melina ready for school and dealing with club business, all he wants is to sooth his aching muscles in a red-hot bath.

The lights are dimmed when he steps inside. He removes his boots by the door before padding quietly into the bedroom. They’ve gone all out this time; he thinks as he pauses for a second surveying the view from the window. In the distance he can see the San Gabriel Mountains silhouetted against the night sky.

Everything about this room screams indulgence, the well-made luxury furniture, the dark wood floors, the gourmet snacks in the minibar. It piques his curiosity because he knows you’re getting by on a freelancer’s wage, and he can’t imagine that any magazine would put you up in a place like this, no matter how good your work is.

He finds you in the bathroom, soaking in a tub that large enough to fit another two people inside. You have a glass of whiskey in your hand, classical music serenading you from the Bluetooth speaker in the mirror. You watch as he undresses, his dark eyes fastening on yours as his clothes fall into an untidy pile at his feet. You shift forward and he slips in behind you, the water raising over his weary bones. He exhales at the sensation, sinking low. You lean back against this chest, placing the whisky glass in his hand and he sighs because as relaxed as he is right now, he can’t shake that niggling feeling that this is all to good to be true. He lips brush over your temple, his cheek coming to rest upon your hair as he says.

“I need you to tell me why we’re here tonight because I know that neither of us can afford a suite with a mountain view.”

“It’s comped.” You tell him, tilting your head up so you can meet his gaze.

“Not by your magazine.” He murmurs, his thumb ghosting along the line of your jaw. “These rooms cost nearly two grand a night.”

“No.” You whisper as his lips brush over yours. “A private collector wants to buy my photographs, they’re exhibiting at the Hive Gallery tomorrow, this trip is his way of wooing me.”

“Will you sell?” Manny asks and he feels you smile against his mouth.

“I’m donating them to Arts+Practice, they have a lot of great art programmes for kids in the foster system.” You tell him as he graces your skin with a featherlight kiss. “He thinks he has four days to chance my mind.”

He grins because you, you are just full of surprises.

“I’m sleeping with a hustler.” He murmurs before he kisses you properly.

There’s a softness in it, a tenderness that he reserves only for you. You sigh at the sensation and it’s a noise of contentment, one that he feels in the very depths of his soul because now he knows the truth he can actually relax. He tips his head back and closes his eyes, the water washing over him as the fatigue overtakes him.

“I’m tired tonight.” He tells you, his voice drowsy as your head comes to rest in the crook of his neck.

“Me too.” You mumble. “All that travelling is starting to catch up with me.”

It changes things. If this was supposed to be about sex you would have kicked him out by now or at least made a move, but you haven’t. It means you’re as comfortable with this shift as he is. This thing between you it was always more, this is just your way of acknowledging it. He knows guys who would drive almost three hundred miles for pussy but there’s not many who would do it just to spend the night sleeping next to their lover.

That’s how the evening ends, you and him curled up in a bed that costs more than your annual salary, his face buried in the curve of your throat as he holds you close.

It’s the best night’s sleep he’s had in a long time.

Love Manny? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

#manny #manny x reader #manny x you #manny montana #mayans mc #manny mayans mc #manny mayans

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justfangirlstuffs · 2 years

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House Call

You have feelings for your lunar animatronic work partner, however, sadly there’s very little chance of either of you getting any serious alone time. Until they decide to take matters into their own hands.

Eclipse x Y/N

Rated E for Enabling (because that’s what I’m doing)

It was a typical Saturday night and you had clocked out for the weekend since you had the following day off. Sun and Moon, the daycare animatronic that you were in charge of handling, had begged you to stay over for the weekend. It had been so hard for you to say ‘no’ considering how attached to both of them you had become over the months you'd been working with them. You suspected they had grown rather attached to you as well if the not-so-subtle innuendos they teasingly whispered into your ear -softly enough that no children could hear- was any indication. There was also the fact they had become shamelessly physical with you. Nothing lewd of course, but they never seemed hesitant about physical contact. Little touches and caresses that made you smile and blush like the star-struck idiot that you were. Because yes, you could not deny to yourself, you had feeling for the lunar animatronics.

You suspected they knew it too. Why else would they whisper things to you that most certainly were not work-appropriate, let alone appropriate for the daycare of all places? You suspected that they took great delight in watching you turn beet red as your face burned hot as a jalapeno pepper. Sometimes you were tempted to smack that self-satisfying grin right off their faces. but of course, you could never bring yourself to do that. You could only imagine how Corporate would react if they caught wind that your animatronic work partner was hitting on you on the clock, or hitting on you at all for that matter.

“I'll be back bright and early Monday morning,” you promised, waving goodbye to Sun though you knew Moon could see and hear you as well by proxy.

You blew them a playful kiss goodbye. Sun made a show of catching it in his hand and cradling it lovingly to his chest. This made you laugh like their antics most often did. You waited until the daycare doors closed before heading off to the entrance.

Earlier that same day, they had talked about visiting your place someday. Of course, you readily told them they would be more than welcome at your home. Though the sad truth of it was that neither of them was allowed to leave the premises of the Mega Pizza Plex. It was something that was hardwired into their coding, part of company policy, a safety and security measure no doubt. So, unfortunately, your relationship was suspended strictly to working buddies. But, hey, you could dream, right?

When you got home, you were tired from your long shift, but you were also riding the ‘I just got off work’ high that would keep you up for about another hour. So, you poured yourself a bowl of your favorite cereal, settled onto the couch in your bathrobe, and began flipping through the channels to find something that would entertain you for a while. You were just getting cozy when there came a knock at the door.

Who in the heck would be knocking on your door at this hour? Clearly, someone looking to get murdered that's who. Figuratively speaking of course. You weren't a murderer. You were cautious, however. Setting aside your bowl of cereal and tying your bathrobe tightly around yourself, you grabbed your metal bat and went to the door, not ready to open it just yet.

“If you're selling something, I'm not interested,” you called loudly.

“Oh, Starlight, you know better than that,” a voice crooned from the other side of the door. You nearly dropped the bat. That voice sounded so familiar, yet alien at the same time. “You’re supposed to say ‘who's there?’”

No way, there was absolutely no freaking way. Keeping the bat clutched tight in one hand, you unlocked the bolt of the door but kept the chain lock fastened just as a precaution. Opening the door the few scant inches it would allow, you peered out. You were expecting either Sun or Moon but the figure that stood on your doorstep was neither of those.

The body was tall and sinewy, the outer casing dark and dusky, the clothes colored in deep maroons and dusty purples. Darkened orange sunrays crowned the familiar lunar-designed face, but the eyes that beheld you were neither white nor red nor black, but a bright and vivid amber. They were familiar and yet not, but they regarded you like a long-held and treasured friend. With a hint of something else… something intense.

Your breath caught in your chest, your blood pounded in your ears as your heart raced a mile a minute, your brain scrambling to try and make sense of what you were seeing. One of the being's hands -because it had FOUR of them- gripped the edge of the door, pulling the chain taught. Another reached through the opening to caress your cheek, the thumb drawing a teasing trail over your jawline.

“Surprised to see us?” the voice asked carrying the playfulness of Sun yet carrying Moon’s darker tones.

“Who,” you choked, “are you?”

“Why, darling, you wound us. Don't you recognize us?”

You continued to stare dumbfounded up at the animatronic. A deep hum reverberated from its chest area, which you noticed was… not as hard on the eyes as it probably was to touch. “We suppose we do look rather different. It's us Sun and Moon, but in this form, you may call us ‘Eclipse’.”

It was then that you realized that having Eclipse, a seven feet tall animatronic standing on your doorstep, would no doubt be cause for all kinds of attention. Even though it was practically the dead of night you did not want to risk any of your neighbors asking questions. Quickly you unfastened the door chain, throwing the door open wide. “Get inside,” you hissed, checking for any onlookers. You saw none.

“We were wondering when you were going to invite us in,” they remarked teasingly before strolling past you.

You tried your best not to ogle but found it insanely difficult. The more you watch them the more you recognized bits and pieces of the two animatronics you had become so close to. Eclipse's movements carried hints of Sun's bouncing energy, and the roving gaze, as they looked over your apartment, was very reminiscent of Moon’s attentiveness.

After bolting your door with the fervor of someone trying to hide a crime, you whirled to face your new house guest. “Okay, I need some context for what is happening right now.”

“It's very simple, darling,” Eclipse said folding, their lower arms across a set of robotic abs. You couldn't fathom exactly why an animatronic would need a set of abs, but honestly, you weren't complaining. The upper arms gesticulated as they spoke. “We couldn't bear the thought of being away from you so long, but we knew that neither one of us could step foot outside the plex. So, we tried a little experiment, where we both are active at the same time, and after a few tries, this was the result.”

They gestured to themselves and you took that as permission to give them a thorough once-over. Consensus: they were hotter than they had any right to be.

“The security protocols did not recognize us in this form, so we were able to leave the premises of the plex,” they further explained. “Then using our access to the employee database we were able to find out where you live, and here we are.”

You suppose that maybe, just maybe, you should feel a little unsettled by the fact that your work partner had followed you home uninvited. However, your brain was so preoccupied and trying to take this all in, that it ended up laser-focusing on one detail in particular.

“So, you’re both Sun and Moon?”

“That is correct, we are both aware and present. Don't you feel so lucky, Starlight?” Their arms through open wide, as if to welcome you in a hug. “You get to have us all to yourself.”

Reaching up, you tugged on the color of your bathrobe, thinking that maybe you should check on the thermostat because suddenly it was getting very, very hot in here. You leaned against the door, your bat having been long forgotten.

“But, like… this has to be against company guidelines right?” you asked.

Eclipse took several steps towards you and their lower hands settled on either side of you, while the upper hands gripped you just below the neck. You were pinned between them and the door, your back pressed against the wood. You shivered in unexpected delight as you felt fingers caress your ear.

“I wont tell if you won't,” came Eclipse’s smoky whisper. Oh… you were beginning to recognize what that intense look in their eyes was: hunger. One of the hands slid a fiery trail down your neck to toy with the collar of your robe. “Look at you all wrapped up like a present just for us.”

Yep, you were pretty sure you were red as a tomato by this point. This was going past anything that was ever done at work, and thus anything that you were mentally ready for. You took hold of the hands, gently pulling them away from your face in order to regain some ground, both physically and mentally.

“But, what if…”

You were cut off as the two lower hands grabbed you by your hips and you yelped as your feet lost purchase of the floor. Eclipse sat down on your couch with you straddling their lap. Two hands remained gripped on your hips while the other pair studied your upper half. One settled on your cheek, the thumb brushing your lower lip, and suddenly it was all you could do to remember how to breathe properly.

“Starlight, just relax,” that smooth voice crooned.

Easier fucking said than done, you thought. Your body was hot, every touch and movement sending electrical zaps of pleasure to your brain. You were fighting hard against your lizard brain which was having fun imagining what you would do if that thumb caressing your bottom lip were to push past your parted lips and then slide in across your tongue.

“Starlight, your heartbeat is absolutely racing,” Eclipse chuckled as their hand brushed along your neck over your fluttering pulse.

“I wonder whose fault that is,” you said through gritted teeth.

You only just realized that your nails were digging into their shoulders, having grabbed onto the first thing you could for some kind of purchase. You felt fingers rubbing slow, taunting circles over your hips and you had to stifle any embarrassing noises that might have come loose. You couldn't help it, the anticipation was killing you and you had no idea what to expect from them.

“W-What are you planning to do to me?” you asked in a soft, trembling voice.

Eclipse leaned in closer, so close that their mouth brushed against your ear. “We think the more important question is: what do you WANT us to do to you?”

You wondered if it was possible for a person to spontaneously combust by sheer embarrassment.

Then there was a pause, just a hint of uncertainty. “You do want this, don’t you?”

Bless them, they were checking in, making sure they weren’t crossing any lines you didn’t want to be crossed. They were still the boys you so dearly loved. Yes, LOVED.

You nodded emphatically, not wanting to lose hold of whatever moment it was you were having. A soft sigh, followed by a chuckle.

“Then don’t be shy. It's just us after all.”

Swallowing your pride, shame, and any other inhibitions you might have had on the job, you leaned forward and whispered your desires to them.

“Why you little minx,” they chuckled, fingers combing deliciously through your hair. “To think you had these naughty thoughts dancing around in that pretty little head.”

Two hands cupped your face, pulling you closer and closer until there was no room left for Jesus or anything else.

“This is the part where you close your eyes,” they whispered.

You did so, surrendering yourself to their whims.

Your poor abandoned bowl of cereal was long forgotten and would never get eaten.

The End

(Wrote this for @feralmoonlight but honestly anyone is welcome to enjoy it. In fact @certified-handler might get a kick out of it too. If you wanna check out my other works, here is my AO3.)

#eclipse x y/n #eclipse x reader #fnaf eclipse #fnaf security breach #the daycare attendant #sun x y/n #sun x reader #moon x y/n #moon x reader #sun and moon are eclipse #this is such filth #clean filth #but filth all the same #the things I do for my moots #justfangirlwritings

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welcometothejianghu · 2 months

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Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 心宅猎人/Psych-Hunter.

Psych-Hunter is a 2020 drama about a hot young amnesiac who, accompanied by a rich psychiatrist with major daddy issues and a rich girl who cosplays as a cop, uses his Inception-style psychic powers to solve crimes that are part of a shadowy conspiracy orchestrated by a mysterious figure.

True story: Once I couldn't remember the English name of the drama, so I called it "House Haunters," and now my brain insists that's the real English title. If only!

Do not, under any circumstances, labor under the impression that this show is good. It's not. It's incoherent. The writing is bad. The villain is absurd. The vibe is comically melodramatic. People make inexplicable and out-of-character decisions all the time. Countless complex mysteries get set up with no way to resolve them. There's a thin lampshade hanging over it that blurs the line between bad decisions made on accident and bad decisions made on purpose, but the net result is largely the same. This is the show that first inspired my wife to declare something dumb as a guinea pig in a roller skate.

But it's fun. It's a sea of colorful chaos with brilliant pieces that shine through like strange gems. It knows how to work an atmosphere and does so to create some legitimately creepy moments. It spins a wild yarn filled with bizarre and loveable characters. And it has some twists that truly have to be seen to be believed. In the mood for some beautiful nonsense? Here's five reasons that despite everything I warned you about in the previous paragraph, I think this one's worth watching.

1. Psychonauts for Jazz Age homosexuals

Honestly, that phrase alone should let you know if this is the thing for you. But just in case, let me explain the basic premise of the show:

Jiang Shuo, a man who has lost his memory and been adopted by circus folk, is capable of jingling his keys and diving full-body into someone else's subconscious, represented by lovely and thematic dreamscapes. He does this to solve crimes. Sometimes he takes along a handsome doctor who seems like he might know more than he's letting on, by literally tying their hands together with a red string.

Also, when they do this, they get gorgeous steampunk magical girl costume changes, complete with the cutest little pony nub you've ever seen.

This show can be stunningly beautiful. It knows how to manifest dream logic eerily well. Most of these cognitions are gorgeous, and many are done with primarily practical effects, like it's a stage play. ...And it's good it relies on that so much, because the CG it has is kinda cheap and terrible! So, yeah.

(Side note for the DMBJ fans: This is directed by the same guy who directed Sand Sea, which I assume is related to how this both is a visual treat and completely falls apart on the back end.)

The reason I'm a bit surprised that this hasn't taken off more among the creative set is what a great piece of worldbuilding this Psych-diving is. These boys (and, once, the girl) get to short-term manifest bodily in someone else's materialized mental state, where the person whose brain they’re in neither controls the experience nor remembers what happened after it’s done. Were you writing weird Arthur/Eames fic a decade ago? I got a new best thing for you. Can you say freaky dream sex? Because I can.

The base premise should be more than enough to get your gears going. Come ready to get weird with it. There's so much potential here, and so much of that potential is incredibly gay and wearing impeccably tailored suits.

2. Your friendly neighborhood circus family

As I mentioned before, Jiang Shuo lucks into the best possible fate that can befall an amnesiac: being picked up by carnies.

The troupe includes Ventriloquist Man, Really Big Dude, One-Eyed Acrobat, Other Acrobat, Cheerful Fat Girl, Boy Who Looks Like A Kid But Is Actually Played By An Adult So I'm Not Exactly Sure How Old The Character Himself Is Supposed To Be, and Silver Fox Circus Dad, who manages the whole crew. They're a ragtag bunch of performers who all live together in this cute little compound in some very nice slums, and sometimes they open the gates to their lavish compound and put on a circus show for all the common people!

Now: You know this is not going to be the wokest, most sensitive portrayal of body differences, because of course it isn't. But damn, it's pretty not-bad. The show treats all the circus members as valuable people worthy of affection, whose (occasionally exasperating) quirks are no more or less exhausting than those of the non-circus weirdos in the rest of the supporting cast.

I was half-expecting them to disappear after the first arc, but no! They’re a constant fixture through the show! They’re mostly there to support the show’s more comedic moments, but some of them get wrapped up in more emotional plotlines as well. And every now and then you get to see them actually do their circus shit, which is great.

I will admit that my fondness for them is related to how much I generally love fictional Freaks — you know, misfits who have banded together because society considers them unacceptably weird, but together their weirdnesses make them strong. When you find them, they’re usually the bad guys (e.g., the Gung-Ho Guns from Trigun, the Scorpion crew from Word of Honor) whose freak statuses make them formidable and occasionally sympathetic antagonists. But not so here! The Psych-Hunter Family Circus is good guy support all the way through to the final episode.

I know "found family" is a term that suffers from overuse, but that's the best way to describe what's happening here -- really, it's a family that's already found itself even before the show starts, and now they all live together as an unconventional collective of astonishingly flexible people. How did they find one another? Doesn't matter! What matters is that they all love and would do anything for their newest member, and they think it's great when he comes home with his attractive rich friends, who often arrive bringing snacks, which is really the best use for rich people, if you think about it.

3. Two hands, one ring

Now, if you've seen the series already, you know the moment I'm talking about. But if you haven't (and, statistically, you haven't), know that what I mean is the relationship between these two losers.

Together, Qin Yiheng and Jiang Shuo form the emotional core of the series. They're both drawn to one another because of mysterious circumstances that have started to align. Jiang Shuo's memory is missing, Qin Yiheng's dad has vanished, and all signs point to those absences as having something to do with one another.

Very early in the show, we see Qin Yiheng pull a "come with me if you want to live" on Jiang Shuo, giving the impression that he knows just what's going on in this crazy city. Except, no, he doesn't. Or does he? No, we're pretty sure he doesn't. Or he does, but he's forgotten what he knows, if he ever even knew it in the first place. Anyway, time to tie their hands together and jump into someone else's brain!

I'd say they're in love, but that's not quite it. Dr. Qin Yiheng, high-class homosexual, is in love with Jiang Shuo to the point where he's about to murder someone (possibly Jiang Shuo himself) out of frustration about it. Jiang Shuo, on the other hand, is much more sticking his fingers in his ears and going LA LA LA YOU CAN'T CATCH ME GAY THOUGHTS while trying get a girlfriend in an effort to pretend that all the shit they get up to together isn't tremendously romantic.

That is, until the scene that leads to the which-hand ring guessing game, at which point the burden of their relationship falls on Jiang Shuo (and the Inception parallels get unignorable) for exactly as long as the show will allow it to, before it freaks out and has to add another girl love interest just to make sure all the homos got no'd.

It's not textually gay, because seriously, have you met Chinese television? But it's pretty gay. Or, rather, I think Liu Dongqin (Qin Yiheng) is playing his character as a dedicated homosexual on purpose, and Hou Minghao (Jiang Shuo) is just ... kinda like that? I mean, everything I’ve seen him in, he gets real dreamy-eyed around strong men who pay close attention to him. Maybe it's just his thing as an actor. I'm not judging.

However, the main cast isn't just the two of them. One of the things that led me to this show was the promise of an OT3. And does it deliver on that promise?

Well ... sorta.

Qin Yiheng, Jiang Shuo, and Yuan Muqing are a pretty standard MFM not-love-triangle trio of Male Bestie, Main Guy, and Girlfriend (respectively). There's about five seconds at the beginning of the series where it looks like Yuan Muqing might be into Qin Yiheng, but no, that evaporates almost instantly and is never spoken of again -- and with it disappears most of their interactions with one another, period. So it's less an OT3, and more a case of bisexual cutiepie Jiang Shuo getting both a boyfriend and a girlfriend in a world where censorship will only let the latter relationship exist textually.

But damn if these boys aren't made for one another. Sure, there's a level of conscious comical queerbaiting to it -- I mean, there's straight-up an "only one bed" moment, so you know the show isn't stumbling into rainbow territory on accident. No matter how sexual or nonsexual or whatever you read it as, though, their dynamic is the spine that holds the story together. Really, it's almost sad how often the relationships are set parallel to one another, because when you do that, it becomes obvious how intense Jiang Shuo's bond with Qin Yiheng is, and how largely lackluster and comphet most of his canon romance with Yuan Muqing is by comparison.

Like so.

sidebar: The Girl

I am not going to go into a full-throated defense of The Girl this time, as I am wont to do, mostly because I think Yuan Muqing is full of potential in concept but so badly executed that there's really no hope for her. Her entire personality is whatever they need her to be in any particular scene. It's just that once in a while, what they need her to be is completely insane -- like, seeing-things-that-aren't-there insane -- and it's so great that it makes me mad! She could have been like this all the time! But noooooo

As it is, she has a perfunctory canonical romance with Jiang Shuo that's about as endgame as anything is capable of being (see point 5), and it actually gets pretty cute when it finally gets to the point where it's not just awkward obligation! But alas, it only does that so late in the series that it's not even worth it getting invested in it.

She is a creation of the show. She has no novel counterpart. Her entire function in the drama is to un-gay the dynamic between the boys. You can tell that she was initially supposed to have a different role -- to be the muscle of this trio -- but the narrative forgets pretty quickly that she's got that skill set, and she regresses to being The Girl. She makes dumb decisions that forward the plot. She gets put into danger whenever it's convenient. She demands Jiang Shuo do manly things for her because that’s what a girl is supposed to do, I guess? And then there are moments where she’s cool and crazy and it’s awesome! But they never last.

So if you are going to watch this, be prepared for the fact that the female lead is badly written to the point of frustration. I feel her actor is doing the absolutely best with what she's got; the problem is that what she's got is pretty crappy. Still, Muqing gets some pretty charming moments here and there, and I think it's worth hanging onto those and imagining the character she could have been, if the writers had cared just a little more, or even at all.

4. Powerfully surreal worldbuilding

I'm not even talking about the way people's psyches are structured according to dream logic -- the "normal" waking world is almost equally bizarre. The story takes place in sort of the real world c. 1930, except that a lot of things are off. For example, Japan and England are real locations, but China kinda isn't -- instead, the show takes place in a Shanghai-like city-state run by this moustachioed generalissimo with a faux Latin American dictator aesthetic. The place has its own flag and government and police force (where all the cops have coordinating surnames) and diplomatic relationships with other countries, so it’s clearly its own thing. But what that thing is? What it’s even called? Look, don’t worry about it. Nobody else is worried, so you shouldn’t be either.

You will, at every point in the series, be wondering if the show is trying to telegraph to you that Something's Not Quite Right Here, or if it's just making weird decisions for the sake of artsy weirdness. But don't worry -- there's absolutely no way to tell the difference between the two! Just roll with it.

There's a weird mix of universe rules happening throughout, where everything is mostly period-appropriate for a while, and then somebody builds a clock with levitating parts, or causes someone else to have very specific memory loss — or, again, swings some coins in front of a person’s face and gains the ability to treat their subconscious like a VR amusement park.

You can sort of reconstruct the evolution of this weirdness: The book has actual factual ghosts in it. Well, that’s fine for books, but TV isn’t allowed to have ghosts. But TV can have people who imagine ghosts, so long as it’s all in their heads. Okay, but you know jumping bodily into those imaginations isn’t actually a thing real people can do, right? Well, then let’s make it scientific. How can that be scientific? I don't know, it’s psychiatry. I don’t think that’s psychiatry. Look, it could be. Well, it’s definitely not psychiatry in 1930s Shanghai, and that’s the set we’re allowed to film on. Okay, what if it weren’t actually Shanghai? What if it weren’t actually 1930? What if all of this were at best a weird approximation of the period that adheres to no rules except the ones we want?

Once you’ve thought that, the sky’s the limit.

The show has a very inconsistent grasp on reality, and I am listing that as a pro instead of a con because I am choosing to embrace it as a deliberate choice rather than assume it’s the result of craven incompetence. There's something to be said, though, for how pervasively inconsistent it is. It'd be one thing if there were just a few plot holes here and there (and there are), but this is more along the lines of: We woke up in a mysterious boat and got taken to an island with a giant sea monster skeleton on the shore! What's that all about? Couldn't say! Was it real? Maybe! Moving on!

Let the number of "it's fine! who knows!" comments I've made throughout this rec indicate how much this is the kind of show you just have to roll with. If you are a nitpicker or someone who is troubled by unexplained nonsense, this is not the thing for you. If you love artistic magical realism and high strangeness, you will eat this up with a spoon.

And the lampshade that hangs over all of this worldbuilding is...

5. THE STUPIDEST POSSIBLE ENDING EVER

Okay, usually I am coy about when I think an ending has problems. I am going to drag this one out front and center: Psych-Hunter has an ending so jaw-droppingly, head-clutchingly stupid that I'm actually listing it as a selling point, because it has to be seen to be believed.

When I first watched it, I suspected the show ran out of time or money or something and just had to slap together the quickest possible ending ever. But no! This is the ending they meant! If you go back to the rest of the series, you can see that this is what they were (kinda) setting up the whole time! They just set it up so poorly and decided to make the twist hit at such a late point that not only is it complete nonsense, it actually renders moot the entire emotional stakes of the show! Absolutely incredible!

Now, as I've said before in other places, I don't begrudge the actual twist itself. I mean, it's stupid on its face, but I think they could have done something with it — if they'd had it happen halfway through the series, when the characters would have had time to adjust to the new knowledge. Instead, they slap it on at the last possible moment, when there's no time to have any reaction to it. It's just jarring and baffling, and then the whole thing's over.

I've seen lots of people say "season 2 when???" Season 2 never, friends. There was never going to be a season 2. The only reason you think this was an even remotely acceptable narrative move was that you were assuming that this would be the midpoint, not the end. You're having the same reaction I did, only I can tell this was always meant to be their spectacular dismount.

(To me, it's clear what happened: They J.J. Abramsed themselves into a cool premise for a mystery with no idea how to solve it, hoping they'd figure it out along the way. When they got to the end and still hadn't figured it out, they simply ... opted out of solving it.)

Now, if you want a normal viewing experience out of this show, watch to the end of the next-to-last episode, close your browser window, and have imagination adventures about how you think all the mysteries should resolve. But you're not going to. You are going to continue on to that last episode, and you are going to realize that nothing I could have said here could possibly have prepared you for this. And somewhere, I am going to feel the urge to cackle wickedly and not even know why. Except I'll know why. We'll both know why.

Want to watch this hot mess?

That baby's an iQiyi exclusive! But you can watch the first episode on YouTube, if you feel like getting a taste that way.

Look, I know I may have spoiled my pitch somewhat with that last selling point. After all, why would you bother watching a series if you know it has a shit ending?

I refute your objection thus: Knowing it has a shit ending changes the whole game, because it removes the feeling of betrayal that hits upon your discovering that the ending isn’t what you wanted. You know that already now, so there can be no betrayal. The ending goes from being an unpleasant surprise to being exactly the unexpected thing that you expected. With that in mind, you can dive right in (ha ha) knowing that you’ll never get the closure you crave, and therefore whatever you make up along the way is perfectly valid.

This is obviously a turnoff if you prefer shows that are like seeing someone start a magic trick, perform it without breaking a sweat, and walk off calmly, leaving you wondering how on earth they accomplished such an amazing thing. Think of this more as someone starting a magic trick, accidentally letting the rabbit fall out of their hat, saying “I meant to do that!” like thirty times, and suddenly vanishing through a trapdoor, leaving you wondering what the trick was even supposed to be in the first place — but they were really good-looking and well-dressed, so at least whatever they were doing was nice to look at while it was happening.

See? They're having fun.

#psych-hunter #心宅猎人 #house haunters #i made this #rec post #please watch this and then write more fic for it #I have a very selfish agenda here

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