#i have been enjoying a break from it

[hailsatanacab]

For the prompt ask game!

9. Sleep deprivation and/or 37. Secret Relationship and/or 40. Identity reveal/major secret reveal

(I selected a few so you can chose the one that resonates the most.)

For any DPxDC characters. <3

*emerges from a google docs, covered in blood and panting* i did it... it is done.

thank you for the prompt!! because i love a challenge, or because i can't stop myself, i went and did all of them!! for everyone!! everyone is sleep deprived and everyone is revealing secrets ^^'

Danny/Tim, mentioned Jazz/Jason

(๑•́ ₃ •̀๑) enjoy!! prompt ask game

kid napping

“Red Robin, sound off. Status?”

“All good here, Oracle. Everything okay?”

It’s been a slow night, never a good sign. Pent up energy itches under his skin and he stretches when he stands, preparing for whatever Oracle is going to throw his way. It’s going to be something, he can tell.

“Good.” Relief briefly colours her voice answers, before she becomes serious again, keys clacking away in the background. “There’s been a report from Agent A. It appears that one Timothy Drake has been kidnapped and is being ransomed for five million dollars and a helicopter. I’m tracing the call now.”

“A helicopter, too? Kidnappers these days, used to be they just wanted their money and that would be the end of it… a fucking helicopter, wow.” Red Hood scoffs, and Red Robin can’t help but join in the laughter over the comms.

“Doesn’t exactly sound like these are the brightest tools in the shed now, does it, Hood? Wonder what poor schmuck they’ve got instead.” Nightwing says, slightly out of breath. 

The smile slips off Red Robin’s face and clammy, cold dread shivers down his spine. A stone settles in his stomach. He wets his lips and clears his throat. “Oracle, can you pull up the CCTV on my apartment near WE? Any closer to tracing the call?”

“Still on the trace, they’re using a jammer. Agent A is cooperating so they should phone back soon, which will help.” she reports, falling into silence as he finds the video feed.

“You know who it is?”

“I hope not.”

It’s tense, he taps his feet on the rooftop, fingers tightening over his grapple as he fights the urge to fly off the roof and check for himself. It better not be him. Please, dear God, don’t let it not be him.

“What are you thinking, Red Robin?” Batman growls through the comms. Red Robin can hear the wind under his words, whipping fast as he no doubt makes his way over to his position.

“I had a, uh, a friend coming over tonight. From behind, he… he could be mistaken for Tim Drake.”

The jokes fall silent, the comms growing serious as they pick up on his tone.

“Well, fuck.” 

“Eloquent as always, Hood.”

“Shut up, bat-brat.”

“You were right, Red Robin, it looks like it was your… friend they caught, instead. About two hours before the call came in. I’m following their van now, I should have the destination soon. In the meantime, it looks like they’re heading towards the docks.”

Red Robin throws himself off the building, shooting his grapple as low as he dares to get the fastest swing he can. 

They have Danny. 

Worry gnaws at his gut even as gravity pulls it into his throat with another swing.

Danny is… And Red Robin means this in the nicest way possible, but Danny is fragile. They haven’t talked about it, but RR knows that Danny has health problems. Something plaguing him since he was young, that’s landed him in the hospital more than once. A weak heart, far too slow to be normal, possibly chronic fatigue—he’s always so tired, falling asleep anywhere he can.

Sometimes, he doesn’t even need to put his head down. Once, when they had gone to the corner store to get some popcorn to enjoy their movie (which Danny had explicitly and repeatedly promised he wouldn’t snore through this time), Danny had rested his head on Tim’s shoulder while they were waiting and he’d just… gone. On his feet, asleep, just like that.

He’d laughed, when Tim woke him up. Apologised. Said Tim made him feel safe enough to fall asleep just about anywhere and—

Red Robin grits his teeth and corrects his course as Oracle updates them with more precise coordinates.

Tim had carried him home that night, piggy-back for four blocks, but by the end of it, he wasn’t tired at all. And that’s another thing, Danny’s just so light. It’s concerning.

They never did watch that movie, but it’s a night that Tim can’t help remembering fondly all the same. They’d ended up rewatching some old sitcom that Danny’s seen countless times but Tim’s never really bothered with, Danny drifting off to sleep again and Tim eventually following him, because… sleep is easy with Danny.

It’s the same for him, he thinks. He can’t explain it, but he feels safe enough to sleep with Danny, too.

He needs to be alright.

“So… Is this friend just a friend? Or a friend friend?” 

“A friend, Nightwing. Now hurry up.”

He’s not in the mood to play these games, not now. There’s a reason why none of them know about Danny, and this is one of them. His family, as much as he loves them, are just too damn nosey for their own good.

“You know that doesn’t answer my question at all.”

“Then why don’t you ask something intelligible, rather than continue with your childish antics?” Robin snarks, and for once, Red Robin has to agree with him. Or, rather, he’s grateful for the distraction that it gives him.

Tim has secrets. He’s sure that Danny does, too, and so far—aside from the standard background check he always runs on new friends and friend friends alike—he’s done very well to respect them. He just can’t say that his family would do the same.

They can be overwhelming, to say the least, and Tim has tried his best to protect Danny from that.

Only to fail to protect him in every other way that it counts.

“How long have you guys been ‘friends’?”

“Nightwing, save it, please.”

“What’s his name?”

He ignores him.

Red Robin lands on the building first, thank goodness. He wastes no time in finding a skylight that can be pried open fairly quietly, slipping inside without a second thought.

“Wait for backup, Red Robin, that is an order!” Batman says, when he lets them know he’s in.

“Negative, Batman. I’m getting him back.”

“Red Robin!”

He weaves silently through the desks on the second floor of the warehouse, always moving, always keeping a trained eye on the shadows around him.

When he reaches the stairs, he hears voices.

“Looks like three of them, armed. The-the hostage is tied to a chair in the middle of the room, he…” Red Robin takes a steadying breath. The person has a burlap sack over their head is slumped to the side, from where he is, Red Robin can’t see if his chest is moving. There’s blood on the floor. “He needs medical assistance. Another two on the northside entrance.”

The comms explode in admonitions, everyone pleading with him to stay where he is, to wait for help, but fuck that. With a tap, he switches them off and he can finally, just about make out the words of the kidnappers as he creeps down the first few steps.

“—shouldn’t he have woken up by now?”

“I don’t know, man, you’re the one that hit him! Do you think he’s—”

“No! I didn’t even hit him that hard, I swear!” the man cries, holding his hands up in surrender. “I just couldn’t take any more of his stupid jokes!”

If there was any doubt in Red Robin’s mind that they picked up Danny by mistake, it’s gone now. Yeah. If you get Danny, you get his stupid jokes, too.

He creeps closer. 

There’s some storage crates between him and Danny, if he can get behind there without being seen then that leaves him in a good position for when whoever’s next in takes out the guys at the front. He can’t do anything without them gone first, not without risking them taking shots inside and endangering Danny.

The man that hit Danny circles round behind him and grabs at his hands.

“What are you even doing, Pat? Who gives a shit, leave him alone.”

“I’m just checking! I just gotta see!”

“Fuck’s sake, guys, who cares? We just gotta get our money, that’s it—”

“And our helicopter!”

“And our—”

“Shit, I can’t find a pulse! Shit, Frank, I killed him, I—”

Jason told him once that when the Pits overtook him, he used to see green. Instead of blacking out, he’d be swimming in that putrid Lazarus colour and he’d slip into that rage and bad things would happen.

He’s heard of people seeing red, too, but really, he thinks that’s more of a literary device.

Tim doesn’t see anything aside from his targets.

A barrage of birdarangs take the guns from the guys at the front, the three around Danny startling badly enough that the guy that kil—that’s behind Danny—stumbles, losing his footing.

Only one of them shoots.

Amateurs. 

There’s a round of curses on the comms as the shots come through. Oracle must have turned them back on.

“Fucking hell—Nightwing and I are at the front, Red Robin, don’t worry about them.”

Red Robin’s barely listening.

He spins, kicking the largest guy in the stomach hard enough so that he doubles over, wheezing. Following through the movement, another kick lands on the side of his head and he’s down. 

The second one, Frank, gets his wits about him and raises his gun, spraying wildly. He’s a shit shot, going wide in panic, and Red Robin simply ducks and rushes forward, keeping low. Tackling the guy, he grabs the gun off of him and uses it to smash him across the face, once, twice, three times, before he stops moving.

“Oracle, get police and paramedics on scene, now.” Batman says, the displeasure in his voice evident. “Red Robin, Robin and I are coming in from the top.”

Pat hasn’t even made it up off the floor yet, scrambling backwards, fear plain on his face. 

Red Robin stands, breathing heavily, gun still in hand.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I swear I didn’t mean to do it! Please—please, don’t, please!”

Red Robin doesn’t kill.

Well, no, Red Robin doesn’t normally kill.

No, that’s not quite right, either.

Red Robin has killed. Red Robin will more than likely kill again. Red Robin sees no problem with killing.

The gun is up, pointing towards the guy without any real thought about it.

Footsteps rush behind him, the familiar heavy footfalls of Batman and Robin, so he doesn’t bother turning around. The gun follows the guy as he keeps pulling himself backwards, snot and tears mingling down his face.

“Red Robin,” Batman says, softly.

It’s always weird hearing Batman’s voice like that. It’s not the first time, obviously—Batman can’t use his scary intimidating voice on victims or children, after all—but having it used on him is weird. 

“Breathe.”

“He’s dead. They killed him.”

If hearing Batman’s voice was weird, Red Robin can’t even recognise his own.

Distantly, he realises he’s dissociating. There’s a tightness in his chest, it’s hard to breathe, a growing buzz drowns out any noise in his ears and he can’t think, he can’t—

A heavy hand squeezes his shoulder, jolting him out of his thoughts. Batman reaches around and gently removes the gun from his grip, and Tim feels the instant loss of it. He should have done it, why hadn’t he done it?

Robin takes care of the last man, his crying cut off by a swift kick to the head. Nightwing and Red Hood join them, zip-tying the men on the floor and starting to drag them back to the entrance of the warehouse one by one.

No one says a word.

Shrugging off Batman’s hand, Tim moves towards the chair.

Shaking, he takes a deep breath and removes the sack. The small part of him that was left hoping it wasn’t him, it couldn’t be him, please dear God let it not be him, shatters.

Even dead, he looks peaceful.

Tim’s seen death. He’s no stranger to it, he’s seen what it can do to a person. There’s some blood coagulating over his eyebrows, but otherwise, he looks peaceful. Is that comforting? That he didn’t suffer?

Danny’s head lolls to the side as the sack comes completely away, his hair flopping over his eyes. Tim’s been on at him to get a haircut lately, he thinks it’ll be nice tidied up a bit, just on the sides. It’ll get rid of that permanent bedhead. Help him with job interviews, he’s got to be thinking about that now that he’s in his last year of college.

It’s about the only thing that’ll hold him back, Tim thinks. Danny’s brilliant. Any employer would be a fool to turn him down because of his shaggy hair, but employers are stupid so it makes sense to put your best foot forward and—

Tim falls to his knees.

Fuck.

He’s dead, he’s really—Danny’s skin is horribly pale, cold to the touch. Gone is his bright, cheerful smile. 

“Danny, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry, I—” 

He stops himself with a deep, shuddering breath. He can’t break down here, he can’t, he can’t, he can’t.

Instead, he tips forward to rest his head in Danny’s lap, arms curling around himself. They were too late. They got here as fast as they could and they were too late.

 “Danny, I’m so sorry…” he whispers. “I… I love you, I love you, I’m sorry.”

Dimly, he can feel the others standing around them. Someone crouches down beside him, resting a comforting arm over his back, but he doesn’t turn his head to see who it is. He squeezes his grip on Danny’s legs tighter.

“Come on, baby bird. Let’s—”

They’re interrupted by a huge, honking snore as Danny jerks himself awake.

Tim’s head snaps up, staring at Danny with wide eyes.

“You were asleep?” Red Robin springs up, several different emotions rapidly flip flopping through him.

“Wha… What?” Danny heaves a yawn, blinking blearily down at him. “Sorry, I’m just… they were shit kidnappers, man, really boring. Honestly, worst abduction yet.”

“You were asleep? I thought you were dead!”

“Not mutually exlusive, you know.” Danny says through another yawn. He rolls his neck around with an almighty crack and glances at everyone. “Didn’t think I’d warrant the whole Bat brigade, though…”

“The kidnappers thought they had Tim Drake.” Batman supplies, while Red Robin tries to work through the emotional whiplash.

“Ah, makes sense… wait.” Danny sits up suddenly, squinting at Red Robin. “Did you say you loved me?”

“No, of course not, why would I—”

“Tim? Is that—are you—are you Red Robin?”

“Everyone, hold the fuck up!” Red Hood shouts from the other side of the warehouse, having finished securing the perps to a streetlight outside. “Double R is dating Danny fucking Nightingale?”

Well, there goes his identity… Oh, who’s he kidding, Danny’s smart. There’s no way he could have salvaged that. This was not how he thought the night was going to go.

“Cranberry, is that you?” Danny twists in his chair, somehow delighted to see Red Hood rescuing him, too. “I thought I smelled you lurking about!”

“Shut it, you little shit. Since when were you dating this dweeb?”

“I’m sorry,” Red Robin pleads, hands in the air to try and slow down the onslaught of information and insults, “you two know each other?”

“Cranberry?” Nightwing echoes, looking as lost as Red Robin feels.

“Yeah, Cranberry—The Cranberries—zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie. Obviously. Also he’s wearing a big, fuck off red helmet.”

“Yeah, sure, makes sense.”

It’s about the only thing that does.

“And please don’t call my boyfriend a dweeb, Cranberry. Especially when he just said he loves me for the first time.”

“He only said it because he thought you were dead.”

“I am dead, so it counts.”

“Only half, so I’d say that puts you at a solid ‘like’. Tim’s—and savour this, Tim, because I’m only going to say it once—Tim’s intelligent, so I’m sure he’ll come to his senses soon.”

Danny just throws Red Hood such a shit-eating grin. A level of feral that Tim’s only seen before in Damian. 

“That’s what I used to say about Jazz, too.”

Hood scoffs in offence, and to be honest, Tim’s not sure where he should go from here. What the hell is happening, how do they know each other?

“Come on, is anyone going to untie me or am I really meeting your family mafia-style?”

“Do it yourself, Slimer.” Red Hood laughs, crossing his arms.

“Ugh, you suck so much. I’ll fucking slime you, just you wait. Can’t believe Jazz even likes you, I preferred it when she was dating Johnny.”

And then, without Danny doing anything other than muttering obscenities at Red Hood, the ropes fall to the ground. In one swift motion, Danny stands up and stretches himself to his full height of 5’6.

“All of you need to explain, now.” commands Batman, and honestly, Red Robin’s very much on his side of it.

“I can’t believe it… Jason and Timmy are both in secret relationships? That’s… How come no one told me?” Poor Nightwing sounds the most shocked out of all of them. He turns to Damian and clasps onto both of his shoulders. “You’re not secretly dating, are you, D? Please tell me you’re not, please tell me you’re single, please?”

Of course, Robin just clicks his tongue and pushes his hands away. Really, Red Robin doesn’t think that Nightwing’s in any danger of that happening, he’d be surprised if anyone could stand Robin enough to actually date him.

He shakes his head and turns to Danny, who’s staring right back at him, worry clear on his face.

Fuck, he... He's alive. He's really alive.

Tim pulls him into a bone-crushing hug, fingers buried deep in his NASA shirt. Tucking his face into the crook of Danny's shoulder, he laughs wetly with the joy of it. He's alive. He hasn't lost him. He's safe.

“I’m sorry I haven’t told you before now, starshine, but…” Danny breaks the hug and softly pulls away from him to rise on his tiptoes to place a kiss his cheek. The skin burns cold where his lips touch. “I love you, too. Also, you’re gonna wanna sit down. This is going to be a lot.”

#dpxdc #dead tired #anger management #(barely but it's there haha) #dcxdp #hailsatanacrab🦀🦀writes #i'm sorry this has taken a while but also this week has kinda sucked and i'm still pissed off about that #so writing has been a nice little break from that!!!! #i hope you enjoy it!! i'm not fantastic with writing romance/ships so like... hope it's alright haha #also i feel kinda bad about not putting the whole phantom reveal too but like... we get that all that time haha #idk maybe i'll continue it #OH SHIT I FORGOT MY WRITING TAG HOLD ON #must admit - i do like that you can edit the tags now even though the new post maker sucks #anyway!!!!!!! i had this whole bit from danny's pov in the beginning where he just decided to go to sleep but realised that fucking sucked #it was so boring haha #so we got this instead! #hope the emotions came across - i feel like i have a tendency to just go cold and clinical when emotions happen #idk #oh! danny and tim met because danny's a part time barista and when tim ordered his monstrocity of a drink danny just winked and said #'ah the walking dead special coming right up!' and added another three espresso #jason and jazz met before they did though - and none of them knew they were dating the other's family #danny and jason have a bit of a rocky relationship - he's not good enough for jazz!! she deserves way better than some two-bit gangster!! #jason just thinks he's a cute overprotective brother - he really envies their relationship and wishes he could have something like that #he likes to rib danny and tbh danny is really warming up to him too - now that the gross stinky ecto is starting to filter out #(which is thanks to him and jazz - which jason does know about and is extremely grateful for) #(he really does love jazz and is a little bit jealous that tim told danny he loved him first) #(jason goes home that night and dips jazz into a kiss and whispers it into her skin over and over again) #(he loves her he loves her he loves her - and who the fuck is johnny?) #once tim gets over his shock he's doing good! of course he accepts danny there was never any question of that #he meets ellie and then introduces her to kon and the rest of the team and ellie decides she might like to do some superheroing for a bit

[diplomagics]

Congrats! It's a Lake House!

Comes in two versions: land or water

Grab the Simple Heels plugin to use it while roleplaying

#ffxiv #ffxiv mods #mods #that's a wrap #taking a break from these because my god they take up so much time energy and brain power #also i miss digital art so i'm going back to that for a while #which small warning i enjoy making spicy art so if that's not for you... now's a good time to filter out the mature content tag #and thank you to those who have been encouraging along the way!!! #reminder there's a silly little discord where i post while i work: https://discord.com/invite/C6s6QmAUsd #my mods #mod talk

[juliaaadoodles]

I think I've had this thought before. That's how I know.

Such an honor to be part of the COTRmontage! Check out the vid and the rest of the incredible artists!

#disco elysium #COTRmontage #harry du bois #kim kitsuragi #the pale #hey hi hello #I have been taking a little break from posting and socials in general but Sea Power posted the youtube video so I can finally share this!!! #though from time to time I revisit this site and stumble upon the wonderful things you leave in the tags #how flattering and how sweet #please enjoy this wild thing I made #it's probably one of my favorite pieces of all time and was such fun to create and then learn to parallax! #and ABSOLUTELY watch the video bevause there are over 70 crazy talented artists to be found there #and all of them are utterly delightful #Youtube

[atomicengineerdetective]

I've been watching Hazbin Hotel in prime. Just watched episode 5 and I gotta ask

Why, oh, WHY DON'T I SEE MORE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT "MORE THAN ANYTHING" WHEN TALKING ABOUT THE HAZBIN HOTEL MUSIC???

Like I get it, the song before it "Hell's Greatest Dad" Is a bop reminiscent of other music from the era its parodying. I loved it.

BUT why are you only putting clips of that song when this MASTERPIECE comes a few minutes after

I honestly don't even know where to begin with this song. The visuals are beautiful, especially when we get moments like this where you can just see the absolute LOVE this man has for her daughter is so sweet and Heartwarming I just-

The voices are fenomenal but what else can you expect from the broadway talents of Erika Henningsen and Jeremy Jordan.

There is also the whole Symbolism with passing the baton to the next generation and stuff. I- I can't even get into the specifics right now Im too emotional.

But above all else THE LYRICS

ESPECIALLY THAT LAST ONE

"I'M GRATEFUL YOU ARE MY DAUGHTER/FATHER MORE THAN ANYTHING"

DO YOU WANT ME TO CRY?? CAUSE I AM. I AM BAWLING MY EYES OUT RIGHT NOW.

It's just so fucking beautiful man. Probably the best song I will hear all year. Obviously my favorite from Hazbin.

#Call me Sir Pentious cause Im crying like a baby over here. #WHY HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING THIS GEM FROM ME. THIS ABSOLUTE DIAMOND #I didnt even mention lyrics like “I've been dying to find out who you are. looks like the apple doesnt fall far.” #“You are a part of who I am” “you are the only thing worth fighting for” that just BREAK ME #but oh well #BTW of course I was gonna watch and become obsessed with Hazbin Hotel. I am a theater kid that loves animation. It was like meant for me #could do with a little less obsenities but thats alright its a staple of the show #On another note I almost went insane when I found out lucifer was Jeremy Jordan. #Like its insane how that man always ends up in my obsessions. Newsies. Tangled the series. The Death Note Musical #(Im team L btw in death note but GOD Jeremy's singing made me reconsider for a milisecond in Where's the justice he is just THAT GOOD) #Erika I knew from the mean girls musical which I also deeply enjoy #its Insane the Talent this show brought in. my theater kid heart is ELATED #Last thing is I gotta say I LOVED Lucifer #Like I thought I was gonna hate him because everyone was talking about charlie's daddy issues #I thought he was gonna be neglectful and manipulative #BUT NO. He is a silly (little) father who just loves his daughter but doesnt know how to show it #And had DREAMS and AMBITION and fate in humanity. And he is just such a fun character to follow I had such a riot with this episode #Hazbin Hotel #charlie morningstar #lucifer morningstar #charlotte morningstar

[welcometogrouchland]

Hello, another doodle compilation post of everything I haven't posted since the period of May to now that I didn't hate but didn't like enough to post on its own + fanart i made of @catboymoments's fankids Azura and Hyacinth! I'm not normally a fankid person but these guys are a whole moment unto themselves I love them sm. ID in alt text bc it was getting lengthy! Let me know if there's any issues

#the owl house #toh #luz noceda #willow park #gus porter #hunter toh #(he's there too! just very small. let me have this) #i had a lot of fun trying to figure out Hyacinth and Azura! they were unfamiliar so it was a challenge #hyacinth especially doesn't have a face I'd normally draw but i ended up really enjoying getting out of my comfort zone for him #i hope all the details translated well and that i interpreted aspects of their designs correctly? #i ended up accidentally giving Azura a slightly hooked nose bc i for some reason thought she had one? also struggled w/ her mouth a tad #but i decided to keep it in bc it made her face more unique lol. i already draw amity with a hooked nose so it kind of makes sense #you could say it's from alador though (which was also how i justified the way i drew her mouth since i normally draw Luz's differently- #-just imagine she got it from Camila) #also i recognize thst Hyacinth's cane arm is wonky?? really sorry about that! he was leaning on it a certain way in the ref photo #and i tried to replicate that but. eh #It's been a weird difficult time art wise recently #mainly cause of the hiatus I had to take cause of exams that I'm still recovering from. #Probably gonna end up taking another art/posting break (though we'll see how that all plays out??) #it's been a weird few weeks but not bad. I'm just kind of. trying to remain chill! #kinds wanna rewatch but I'm always afraid I'll overindulge and get sick of the shows i love 😭 but also the longer i go w/o rewatching #the more insane i become. like the joker #I've also been slightly back into comics recently and it sucks. i hate it here fr let me out #but yeah that's where we are rn at ladel studios. just chilling i think! #i like it. gonna see if i can cultivate it as a skill

[a2zillustration]

What am I gonna do when croissant finishes the game their journey... TT_TT I don't wanna say goodbye to them!!

I don't know buddy I've been wondering the same thing :') Let's not think about it-

#Real talk despite knowing very little about the ending I DO have a small handful of comics I'd like to make about post-game depending on- #-how things go #I also have a slew of breadweave comics that weren't in-game events I'd like to make too #Regardless I don't think I'll just drop Croissant like a hot potato once we're finished with the game! #I love them and still really enjoy the BG3 community #but I think I will take a little break from comics for a short period #It's been....a lot of work. And a lot of the /same/ work - for months. haha #.......I am however considering making a short (non-bg3) graphic novel with a writer friend bc as it turns out making comics IS fun #We'll see! #Ok I'm done sorry for rambling ngjfkdlnsjkh #asks #Wait I'm not done one more thing: not wanting to say goodbye to Croissant is also why I STILL haven't finished the game T____T #I'm getting really close and I am SCARED

[lagosbratzdoll]

On Daenerys, Colonisation and Race Discourse within the ASOIAF Fandom

This has been on my mind for a good long while and honestly, as much as I would like to leave discourse in the pits, it has been bugging me intermittently over the past few weeks.

Far too many of you get on here and call people who like the fictional dragon-riding family, neo-Nazis and that sentiment is so prevalent, that white people feel comfortable telling me a black woman that I am a neo-Nazi for rooting for Daenerys Targaryen. I am upholding neo-Nazi power fantasies for wanting to see a little girl live at the end of a story. I am a neo-Nazi for wanting to see the rape survivor have the family she aches for and children with the man (or men) she loves.

Then, those same people go on spiels about how the systemic erasure of those who sing the song of the earth and other old races is not colonialism. That their removal from their home is not displacement but an agreement between two equal parties. The fact that the only place where those who sing the song of the earth exist in the present timeline is north of the wall, surrounded by the bones of their dead, is not a travesty. That the expulsion of the old races from their home isn't that bad and should not be condemned. 

Instead, people argue, completely seriously, that the harm that the First Men and Andals have caused is centuries in the past, so essentially the slate has been wiped clean. The logical leaps that are required to arrive at such a boneheaded conclusion are truly mind-boggling, and those who make such arguments are not good people. 

I am unsure how one could read those books and come away with the impression that the old races do not mourn the loss of their home. I am unsure how one could read The Last of the Giants[1] and Ygritte’s reaction to both the song and Jon’s dismissal of the ethnic cleansing of the giants then believe that the old races and the free folk have moved past their displacement. 

In Westeros, from the Wall to the broken arm of Dorne, they all speak one language despite the fact they are all different ethnicities and they all landed on the shores at different times. That is not the case in Essos, we have been introduced to at least six languages and in A Dance with Dragons, Tyrion notes that the Valyrian spoken in the Free Cities has evolved into nine distinct dialects, and they are well on their way to becoming different languages.

How would a continent as large and diverse as Westeros maintain its hegemony over the people if not for forced assimilation, discriminatory practices and violence? The brutal repression required to keep one house in power for thousands of years is nothing to sniff at. The suppression required to keep the vast majority of Westeros worshipping one (or seven) gods. The systems in place ensure that language does not grow or evolve amongst the highborns at least.

Centuries before Aegon's Landing the maesters were the definitive educational authority and even now centuries after, nothing has changed. The grey rats still decide who learns what and when they learn it. There's one in every highborn home, all correspondence passes through them, they are the healers and the councillors.

The circular logic gets even more blockheaded when you factor in the fact that Daenerys is far from the only white character in the books. She is not the only character who wishes for home. She is not the only character who draws strength from her ancestors, her bloodline and her magical creatures. 

Cersei draws strength from her family’s iconography, and the Stark children (Jon included) all draw strength from their direwolves, their home and their blood. Sansa, Arya and Bran wish to return home and their home was built on the indiscriminate murder and displacement of the indigenous peoples. Their home is built on centuries of rape, murder, exclusionary practices and sexual slavery. 

However, if we give the nonsensical argument that time erases crimes air; the Starks, Lannisters and Tullys are warring to settle personal grievances in the present timeline. As a consequence of that war, thousands (a modest guesstimate) of small folk, minor nobles and even some major ones have been raped, tortured, maimed and killed.

Despite all this, no one writes meta after meta about how Sansa and her siblings must surely die for justice to be had for those who sing the song of the earth, the free folk, the giants and all the old races that fled beyond the wall.  

People write meta about Cersei and how she must die, but those are typically more misogynistic nature. They typically argue that she must die not for the “crime” of being Lannister, but for the “crime” of being Cersei and “ruining” Jamie. 

I would not mind criticisms of Dany and her peace-focused approach to ending slavery because the approach is naïve and she gives the slavers far too much ground. However, she is learning, growing and self-critiquing. At the end of A Dance with Dragons, she has decided to embrace fire and blood, her knight is breaking the false peace which is a necessary step forward.

What I find offensive is people saying that she should have planned better before she abolished slavery. And that the death, violence, and sickness that arises from her quest to eradicate slavery is somehow worse than the death, violence, and sickness that already existed in Slaver’s Bay. 

This argument often downplays the horrific conditions and suffering that exist(ed) under the slave system in Slaver's Bay. Such arguments are often in poor taste and prioritise the lives and comforts of the slavers more than the people they have enslaved.

I would not mind criticisms of Dany if people applied that same critique even-handedly. The same people who believe that Jon and Bran have done much to rectify the evil that their ancestors perpetuated believe that Dany has not done anything to right the wrongs of her ethnic kin. They praise them for the non-existent steps that they have taken, but in the same breath, they condemn Dany for not being able to immediately end the plague that is slavery. 

It is perfectly alright to not like fictional characters, no law requires you to like certain fictional characters over others. However, what is not right is making broad accusations about those who do, it is beyond the pale. It is disgusting, and annoying, and trivialises real-world issues to score cheap points against fictional characters.

Equating the survival of a teenage survivor to the restoration of a fascist house or neo-Nazi power fantasy when such designations do not exist in the world of ice and fire is strange behaviour. Saying that the teenage survivor will eventually be manipulated and raped (again) before ending up dead on her manipulator's blade is also strange behaviour. 

Dismissing the horrors of colonialism, especially when the text shows you that the involved parties are still affected by it, is not normal and often veers into real-world imperialism apologia. While criticism and analysis of characters and their actions are valid and even encouraged, it is essential that we do not resort to sweeping generalisations about other people and that we keep criticisms of characters grounded in the text. 

[1]  

Ooooooh, I am the last of the giants, my people are gone from the earth.

The last of the great mountain giants, who ruled all the world at my birth

Oh, the smallfolk have stolen my forests, they’ve stolen my rivers and hills.

And they’ve built a great wall through my valleys, and fished all the fish from my rills

In stone halls they burn their great fires, in stone halls they forge their sharp spears.

Whilst I walk alone in the mountains, with no true companion but tears.

They hunt me with dogs in the daylight, they hunt me with torches by night.

For these men who are small can never stand tall, whilst giants still walk in the light.

Oooooooh, I am the LAST of the giants, so learn well the words of my song.

For when I am gone the singing will fade, and the silence shall last long and long.

#I do not like most of y’all. #Do not call people of colour you do not know neonazis to win points against a fictional character. #It is not my fault that most of your faves are boring and do nothing to drive the plot forward #take it up with george rr martin and stop villifying dany and her (mid) family. #The insistence that we must mind fandom etiqutte is tired as hell too especially because people use it as silencing tools. #“Yes I called you a neonazi but you are the real weirdo for finding my post so really it’s on you that you saw that.” #that’s how y’all sound. #If I see another post that equates enjoying dany to being a neonazi #i will make it everybodys problem. #Took a long break from this fandom because the rancid takes were overshadowing the good takes #and i’ve been back less than a year and the takes are even more rancid than before. #hotd opened an evil door that should’ve remained shut. #Cause why the fuck are there criston cole apologists? Why are there aemond and aegon ii apologists? It is a dark world we live in. #put the last giant at the bottom for my homies who have not read the books which if we're speaking real is more than half of y'all #now that i have gotten this out of my system #it is time to get back to demon slayer #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf #asoiaf thoughts #asoiaf nonsense #if you saw the typos in the first version #no you didn't #edited this to add some thoughts I originally put in the tags because I felt it worked better there.

[quirkle2]

i liked the part when he

#qkdraws #i was gonna finish the caption but . i felt that conveyed enough #spoilers for pkmn sv from here on out in the tags -> #i have yet to rechallenge the gyms but i've done everything else and like . FUCK i rly enjoyed this game #rly close to completing the dex as well . just have a handful of pokemon only available through trades to get #pokemon #pokemon sv #pkmn #pkmn sv #pokemon scarlet and violet #arven pokemon #pokemon arven #i rly rly loved the story in this game. one of the best pkmn stories imo #and i ?? rly liked that they kinda went different routes w cliches #like . everybody assumed director clavell would be the twist villain but he's actually Really good and caring #went out of his way and above and beyond to figure out why students joined team star or dropped out of school #even Disguising himself as a student (poorly .) to see Why instead of just . scolding them uselessly #idk i thought the subject of bullying was handled rly nicely . Surprisingly nicely for the franchise this is from #AND the fact that the ''evil ai'' wasn't ''evil'' at all . it was trying to help and break through its programming to preserve the region #im sure that's not the first time that's been done but !! it's refreshing to see the robot Not be evil GVEIYAGV #and ARVEN ??I . I I III. I .what do ieven say #he'sso good #wails abt him for hours

[the-crimson]

I was just listening to some sad music while thinking about q!bbh and… the eggs changed him. They saved him in a sense. All of them.

When Bad first arrived at the island he was aimless and much like Foolish, looking for the next subject of entertainment. He was only out for himself and couldn’t be bothered to lend a helping hand to anyone.

Then he was given a little egg with a top hat and everything changed. He had someone vulnerable to look out for, to provide for, and suddenly he was given purpose. All of these little eggs were precious beyond words and everything was perfect until it wasn’t.

Charlie tried to murder Dapper right in front of Bad. That was the first time Bad felt fear in a long long time then a deep sadness settled in when he learned Juanaflippa had died and that’s what sent Slime on his rampage and everything suddenly felt so much more real. The illusion of perfection broke and Bad realized, truly realized, just what Dapper meant to him.

Juanaflippa was brought back but then a hat trick of tragedy strikes and Bad is forever changed. Bad has a chance to walk Tilin home but she chooses to go with Slime who accidentally kills her. Juanaflippa chooses to stay with Mariana and he accidentally kills her - again. And Trump dies of neglect alone in an empty house. (Cc!Bad mentioned on stream a while back that the admins had asked him if he could do Trump’s tasks but Bad didn’t realize how dire the situation was- he blames himself)

Within the span of 24 hours, three eggs died and Bad could have saved each of them. This is when everything changes for Bad’s character. This is where Bad vows that no egg was ever going to die of neglect again. This is when Bad started grinding to become the richest person on the server and ensured that all the eggs had maxed out armor at all times. These eggs dying the way they did is what created the Badboyhalo we knew.

Bad created the warp plate system in the sky so he’d be able to reach just about anywhere near spawn to save an egg if they went down. He is the one who discovered the true utility of warp stones and spread that information across the server. He is the one who informed everyone of the autoeat and XP pump functions of the backpack and set up all the eggs with infinite XP so their armor would never break.

He was so incredibly damaged by these eggs dying that he turned all his hyper vigilance towards protecting the remaining eggs even if he barely knew the parents or the eggs themselves. He would never say no to someone asking for help ever again.

Bad went from selfish and out for himself to the most selfless person on the server. He was a demon seeking entertainment in the wake of eternity and transformed into a servant of the people who gave his life again and again for others without question.

Getting Dapper primed Bad for change. Dapper was the crack in the stone that allowed the walls within him to shatter when Juanaflippa, Tilin, and Trump died. Ever since that tragic day, all of the eggs became part of Bad’s family.… and now they are gone.

Dapper and their siblings brought out the best of Bad. They saved him from a cycle of chaotic indifference. And now he’s alone again. Everything he’s done to protect them has been for nothing. Everything he’s changed, the steps he took towards healing millennia old traumas… all of that was for not.

Some wounds cut too deep to heal. Even with all the progress Bad made, he still valued his entire self worth on how useful he was to others, on protecting the eggs. Every time something happened to the kids, he took it as a personal failure. When Bobby died, he blamed himself for not going with them on the adventure. Now they are gone gone. They fled. They are somewhere Bad can’t follow. He failed them. He had one job and he failed.

It doesn’t matter what happens to him now. Getting them back is all that matters. Bad’s world has lost all vibrancy and he’s physically fading away. He doesn’t notice because he can’t let himself. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is getting them back. But even if he does… it’s already too late. He failed. He couldn’t protect them. He failed.

When the eggs come back changed (hatched?) all he will see is his failure. If he lives long enough to see his babies return, will they give him the strength to come back from this? Or will their presence give him the reassurance that… it’s okay. He doesn’t need to fight anymore. They are safe now. He can let go. One last goodbye.

Fuck man. I’ve been here since the beginning. Since the second day Bad had Dapper. I’ve watched almost every single stream since. I’ve watched Bad change in real time. I’ve watched Dapper and the other eggs change him. I stayed up until 3 am watching Bad bargain with god to save his son from an unfair death. I’ve watched Bad chase desperately across the map only to arrive moments too late to find Ramon’s corpse. I’ve watched him sit silently weeping while waiting for Jaiden and Roier to say their last goodbyes. I still remember his screams for Dapper when they were killed by pillagers. I remember them stranded in the snow tens of thousands of blocks from safety with no items no food Dapper couldn’t even speak. Terrified that it could end then and there.

The fact that this whole journey has lead us here. Bad is literally dying because he failed them. He failed them in a hundred different ways but this was the big one. This failure broke him. If Bad does end up dying dying at the end of this arc… that would both be the most narratively satisfying yet heart breaking thing that could possibly happen. The eggs saved him in a million different ways. It makes sense that they would also be the death of him.

Bad’s a demon and a grim reaper so I doubt he’d stay dead but I could see Dapper and friends going on a quest to bring him back from where ever demons/grim reapers go when they die. Maybe he’ll finally get some closure from the tragedies he’s left in his wake all throughout history. Maybe he’ll get a chance to truly start over with a clean slate.

Fuck now I’m thinking about Dapper having ti live through their dad sacrificing himself for them and their siblings. We know Dapper was borderline suicidal before being taken so just… Dapper seeing themself in Bad too late and not being able to save him. Killing himself for the greater good. Dapper refusing to accept that Bad is gone and spending every waking minute researching how to bring him back by any means necessary but knowing Bad would want them to move on, to live, to live, to live.

I have no idea where Bad’s character is going. I have no idea if he’s gonna go full villain and burn the server to destroy the federation. I have no idea if he’s gonna sacrifice himself and die trying to get the eggs back. I have no idea if his grief is literally killing him and he’s acting so desperate with the knowledge that he’s on borrowed time. All I know is cc!Bad is gonna take us on one hell of a ride and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

#qsmp #crimson speaks #badboyhalo #tw suicide mention #I had to take a break while writing this #bad was giving off huge death flags today #so I was kinda just thinking about everything #bbh’s arc has been so tragic from the start #but just looking at it at face value u wouldn’t notice #the eggs have changed everyone #but I think they’ve had the greatest impact on bbh #at least we were able to see the evolution of his character fully #we knew who he was without the eggs so we got the contrast #q!bad is gonna be the death of me one day #I literally had to stop writing this cuz I was crying #but im fine now XD #enjoy the angst with me

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

sometimes i remember that gojo wanted to tell geto “we’ll meet again, right?” just before he died but forced himself not to knowing it would have cursed him and then i start thinking about how kind and thoughtful gojo is as a character and how he hasn’t been able to lean on another human being since geto defected and then i want to . Scream

#like. there’s something almost helpless about that question. because gojo doesn’t *know* the answer…. he’s asking for reassurance #he wants to know if they’ll ever meet again even though deep down he knows the answer #and it’s so… bare? so vulnerable. #if he had voiced it that would’ve been the first time in TEN YEARS that gojo truly bared his heart to someone and asked for help #but he knew it would turn into a curse and so he gulped the words back down. :(( #gojo is such a sincerely kind and thoughtful character and it breaks my heart that sooo many people in the fandom can’t see that 😭 #he isn’t a saint and he definitely isn’t selfless but above all else his goal as a human being is to make sure no one ever feels alone. #that no one has their youth taken away from them….. that everyone gets a Choice in how to live their life :(((( it’s so important to him. #i just genuinely don’t understand ppl who insist that he’s morally gray ….. gojo is a consistently Good person and that never changes #he wants to have fun and laugh and he wants his students to enjoy their youth. he wants them to think he’s cool. #he’s the big brother slash father Ever and i love him to death #i got sidetracked this was supposed to be abt geto 😔😔 anyway the final scene between them will always be my Favorite ever #and the key to understanding both their characters and love for one another #ty for coming to my ted talk i’m feeling normal abt them today 😇😇 #ari noises ✩

[lollytea]

The Blight family are so interesting IN THEORY. In execution they are....😬

#i dont mean that like. theyre flawed characters #i LOVE flawed characters. nothing i love more than seeing some messy toxic bitches do messy toxic bitch things #i love the exploration of unhealthy family dynamics #i love the trope of a rich shiny perfect family who are secretly fucked up and miserable #i love the kind of characters that environment creates #whether it be gaslighting gatekeeping girlbossing assholes #or people who are desperately trying to be good. or to break away from the role theyve been forced into #or people who are in a little more of a grey area. people who have a good side and a shitty side #its all fun and interesting #the problem with the blights is their characterization is just so....clunky. sloppy. not very good #alador amity and the twins all suffer from inconsistent writing #alador is a complex case to delve into. and you dont wanna listen to me dissecting him #so ill just say that he could have been handled better #ironically Odalia is the most consistently written character of them all #shes very surface level evil. shes not very interesting #I enjoy Odalia. I think she's funny in just how unapologetically shitty she is #and her VA gives such an entertaining performance #but she is like. Hollow. There is nothing going on with her other than abusive mom and capitalist #but by god at least she knows what shes about

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Hello! I have come asking for you to info-dump about the the modern human au. I full of brain rot of them (especially after the last thing you posted about them, damn) Maybe you can tell us a bit more Sally!!

lucky for you, i've been full of that good ol brainrot As Well! thoughts! feelings! ideas! i got em!

so since we're already on the subject of the Crash Arc, allow me to expand on it for a moment before i get to Sally Thinkings! if you've read the snippet, you may have noticed the extent of Wally's injuries was not listed yet. well! he got messed up with a capital F! since it's fiction and i'm god in this scenario, i'm veering slightly away from realistic damage, immediate & lasting. bc lets be real. if i stuck to "this is as realistic as i can make it", then Wally would be aaaaaabsolutely fucked. it was a bad crash in a very unsafe vehicle at high speeds. like - this is what happened. a drunk driver hit Home going 70 down the freeway. swerve, fishtail, tumble down a (small, shallow, really its more like a glorified ditch) ravine with trees and rocks and shit on it. absolute miracle that Wally didn't die in the crash, let alone during the solid half hour (slightly longer) he was trapped in Home before someone noticed the crash site and called emergency personnel. Wally "hanging up" on Barnaby was actually the impact jarring him so he slipped and hit the end call button. but yeah without going into technicalities and detail, Wally has some lasting damage in his dominant hand. It takes extensive physical therapy for him to be able to paint/draw again at the same level he had been at. the hematoma hadn't done a lot of brain damage that wouldn't resolve itself with time. in my mind, when Wally wakes up in the hospital, for a few days he's very confused and his memory is shot. he'll wake up, interact, then go to sleep, but when he wakes up again its like waking up for the first time again. he just can't retain memories for a bit. he's got some severe brain fog. his mood is also kinda fucked with - he's uncharacteristically irritable with low patience, etc. these are all things that clear up with time, but in my mind Wally has chronic migraines going forward. bad ones! and there are days where it's harder fr him to concentrate. and yk. a teeny bit of chronic pain where his shin bone was pinned back together and where his hand was essentially crushed. but other than that he's fine going forward! good days and bad days!

but enough about that! You Want To Hear About Sally!

i imagine that she becomes quite successful in the theater industry. i'm not too familiar with it myself, so i'm gonna be uh. Vague about it? but she starts her own theater troupe - it's a bit of a commute from home base to the town she works in, where the theater is located in, but she makes it work! of the group, she's probably away more than any of them. working on shows, traveling to work on other ones - i like to think she's been on Broadway! she probably has had opportunities to do tv/movie acting, but idk... i feel like Sally would be like "nah. live shows or nothing". maybe at some point she takes up voice acting gigs, as long as she can do them from home. she probably has her own little room-turned-VA-studio thing. idk how that works either! it seems right! but yes Howdy's store's automated messages and advertisements are in Sally's voice. she's probably picked up a temporarily modeling gig here and there.

so Sally is very very busy. Poppy is supportive. everyone is, and they all love to help out when they can - and reel Sally in when the "stardom" starts to get to her head. they do their best to acclimate to occasionally getting jumpscared by her voice in a grocery store or in. idk. fashion shoots. victoria's secret billboards. that last one was a joke! maybe. i think she would.

i also like to imagine Sally like... getting some sort of award and then spending a solid five minutes naming her friends, thanking them with specificity, and then plugging their own stuff. they probably have a rotation for who accompanies her as her plus one for events and parties she may or may not be invited to. she's not like... a Big celebrity but! she's Known and Liked! she has Connections! i like to imagine her and Wally looking dapper as fuck at a Venue...

so the friend group typically stays together, with Sally going off to do her Things the most. she makes sure to schedule time to be with her friends and girlfriend/wife/Poppy between work and gigs and etc. she somehow finds a balance with Ease. or apparent ease... someone get this girl a vacation...

#lmao now im thinking about them all scheduling a joint vacay #sally is having the time of her life getting to Relax and just Pamper Herself #everyone else is also greatly enjoying the break #except howdy. he's a mess. to him relaxing is working. things are too calm. too quiet. understim effect x100 #on that vein ive been thinking about a covid arc and its. Funny #and domestic! #where are the covid fics of characters getting stuck together during lockdown... #rambles from the bog #wh modern human au #but yes been thinking about the au a lot #ive decided that wally does eventually get a job that he actually Enjoys! #previously he was just doing his indie art and such. bc he'd try a job and be like 'wow. i hate this. this is stupid. bye' #his art brings in more money anyway. he's living that miraculous imaginary life where art provides reliable sustainable income #enough so that barnaby doesn't need a full time job! bc this is fiction and i want them to have an easy life #in this specific area anyway #i would like them to live in a world where its slightly kinder... the housing crisis doesnt exist... one can live on minimum wage... #also thinking more about their homes and such. etc!

[untilyouremember]

7th Time Loop

Available digitally

Available in print

The fact that we are blessed with this kiss not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES is actually the reason I'm still alive today.

#i took a break from this #(its barely been a few days) #but im back and ready to be more obsessed #i want it to be the end of the month #so that i can have the next LN #i jeed it like i need oxygen #manga #light novel #romance #shoujo #shojo #josei #fyres hyperfixations #7th time loop #7th time loop: the villainess enjoys a carefree life married to her worst enemy! #seven seas entertainment

[purpleqilinwrites]

the body is a soft animal.

a/n: i have a long-ish fic planned for a cyberpunk 2077 au with nanami on the brain. i just had a specific scene that haunted me and i didn't where to put it in terms of the fic, so i just wrote it (also because i needed a taster of sorts to motivate me into writing the rest of the fic). also, this is the longest piece i've written in a while, so i just want to celebrate a little haha.

fandom: jujutsu kaisen

character: nanami kento

genre: general / fluff (can be read as either platonic or romantic)

info: cyberpunk 2077 au; reader is a ripperdoc; nanami is a merc

warnings: mentions of injury; mentions of killing

synopsis: nanami wasn't sick but still, he found his way to you.

word count: 2.4k

companion fic to "these unfamiliar intimacies".

Nanami Kento

When you remotely unlocked the door to your clinic after hearing Nanami's voice over the intercom, the first thing out of your mouth was "Are you hurt?" He was inclined to say that he wasn't. At least, not physically. He came to see you after a particularly taxing gig that also happened to be physically strenuous, but it wasn't the lingering soreness in his muscles that made him want to see you.

"I'm not," he said after a while.

You had turned away from your workstation in the interval between your simple question and his admittedly late answer, and he could easily guess the next thing you'd ask him.

The question "Are you sick?" was formed in a warped version of your voice, ringing in his ears before the words left your mouth. Your voice didn't register the same way it did when he imagined it in his head, and it made him think that maybe, just maybe he was a little bit sick, after all.

"Physically, no."

You gestured to the examination table beside your workstation, turning your back to him once more to start up the necessary diagnostics equipment for a full-body scan. Nanami acquiesced, quietly crossing the room and adjusting the backrest himself before removing his shoes and then lying down.

The synthetic leather was freshly sanitised, traces of the bergamot-identical antiseptic spray you favoured wafting up into his nostrils. Glancing up at your side profile, he couldn't tell if you had been napping on the examination table before he interrupted it by unexpectedly announcing his presence over the intercom.

When you spun yourself to face him in your swivel chair, he lifted his hand so that you could jack him in for the scan. There was a sound that confirmed the security of the connection, and then there was a different sound that signalled the start of the process. A loading icon began playing in a loop on the little square screen on the largest of the machines, hovering over text that read "SCAN IN PROGRESS". The two monitors on your desk lit up, one with empty progress bars that quickly filled up and the other with a multitude of pop-up messages he didn't bother reading.

"From a medical standpoint, you're entirely healthy. All your cybernetic implants are in good working condition as well," you said, disconnecting him from your equipment. "If you'd like more specific tests run, we'll have to move to the university hospital in Shibuya."

Nanami met your gaze, and he wondered if you had to learn it. If you had to learn to keep your eyes emotionally vacant but intellectually keen. If it ever came in useful when breaking a notably dismal piece of news to someone.

A sigh escaped him before he could reel himself in.

"I came here to talk, actually," he said, sitting up. Your eyes never wavered. Instead, you simply hummed in acknowledgement and drew closer to him on the examination table.

Nanami readjusted the backrest so that he could sit comfortably, though it was more to keep his hands busy. He didn't know what he was doing. What was he trying to accomplish? He did mention wanting to talk. What did he want to talk to you about anyway? His relationship with you was strictly professional. The conversation that could potentially alleviate the pinch in his chest would have to be one between him and a friend he trusted with his life, and he didn't have many of those left.

"Would you like something to drink?" Your voice came from the far side of the room where you had a wall-mounted control panel. He cleared his throat and requested a hot black coffee, to which you nodded before tapping a few buttons on the screen.

You wheeled yourself back to him, crossing the span of the room in one kick, and you informed him that one of your service androids would be bringing his coffee within the next three minutes.

"Thank you," he said, and he felt like he was having his first non-work-related human interaction in decades. Had he spent so much time completing gigs alone that he had socially regressed to a kid who couldn't hold a conversation? Nanami cleared his throat again to banish the thought.

As much as he hated to admit it, maybe Gojou was right to suggest that he accept a few gigs where he'd be forced to work in a team. Gojou, despite his number of obvious flaws, was occasionally able to offer a piece of sound advice, after all.

The service android swiftly ducked into the room with two mugs and exited at the same speed before Nanami caught himself. He thanked you for the drink again, blowing on the surface of his coffee and then testing the temperature with a sip.

The coffee was just right in temperature and more than excellent in taste, and he gave a low hum of appreciation as his first sip slid down his throat.

He looked at you over the rim of the pristine white mug in his hand. You were watching the spheres of ice move in a current of your own creation, bobbing erratically as you twisted the straw you held between your thumb and index finger this way and that in the amber liquid.

"Whiskey?" he asked, fumbling over the singular word and cursing inwardly at himself for it.

You shook your head, appearing not to notice his perceived blunder as you continued swirling your drink with the straw. "I don't drink alcohol," you said. "It's apple juice."

The conversation halted when you picked up your drink and motioned for him to consume his. Nanami obliged, content to cup both hands around the warm mug in between tiny, leisurely sips of coffee.

There was something quite precious about your manner now that he had the proximity and the silence to observe you. You chose a sweet juice instead of every alternative that was available in your extremely well-stocked clinic. Your drink was served in what must be a personal mug with the caricature of a dog painted on beneath the transparent outer layers of glaze. These little things chiselled away at the stoic image of you he had from his first meeting with you, even if it was nothing but a vague recollection of his anaesthesia-laden mind.

Nanami almost laughed into his last sip. He thought of you the same way almost everyone else thought of him. The irony wasn't lost on him.

"Have you ever killed someone and regretted it?"

His temporary good cheer loosened his lips in a way that even a whole bottle of whiskey could not. One moment had him holding his laughter back out of politeness. In the next moment, some words in a fairly unfortunate sequence left his mouth before he could process them.

It spoke to the capricious state of his emotions that he didn't want to take them back.

You blinked slowly, your face tilted in his direction even if you weren't looking directly at him. He suddenly became intensely attuned to the whisper of your air-conditioning system, the consistent tick-tick-tick of the mechanical clock hanging by the door, the dull hum of the machines as they awaited another order from you.

"No," you said, looking him in the eye and propping your cheek against an upturned palm. "I do everything with purpose."

It shouldn't be of any concern to him. He was well-acquainted with the wretched state of the world he lived in. It'd be supremely difficult to find a person who hasn't killed someone by the time they've reached adulthood. He wasn't surprised by the insinuation in your reply.

It was your choice of words that left him feeling like he had trespassed on what should be a secret.

The touch of your knuckle to his chin alerted him to the fact that he had been gaping at you. Nanami immediately apologised, clenching his jaw when he wasn't speaking to keep from making the same mistake again.

He wanted to put the topic to rest. If you weren't elaborating of your own accord, then it wasn't his right to pry. In spite of this, he was still curious. Who did you kill? On what occasion? Have you killed more than once? On purpose?

You were taking your time with your apple juice, cheek still in your palm and eyes fixed on a spot on the mostly bare walls that was apparently visible only to you. From the other end of the folding coffee table, his traitorous mind superimposed a likeness of you sitting in the same chair adjacent to him.

You were leaning slightly over the same table, facing away from him as you expertly broke open the shotgun in your hands. The empty shells clinked against the surface of the table when you shook them out of the barrels. There was an open box of ammo sitting to your right. Your hand knew exactly where it was when you reached for fresh shells to slide into your weapon. You brought the barrels back up to close the break, and it was the sound of a click too real to be his imagination that snapped Nanami back to you.

'Everything with purpose,' you said. You would've made an excellent merc. Better than him, even.

"Have you killed someone and regretted it, Nanami?" You threw his question back at him. It was very uncharacteristic of you, and it gave him a pleasant tickle. He knew you as someone who diligently avoided small talk, and yet, here you were.

"I have," he started, careful to taste his words before he spat them out. "I accepted a gig to dispose of a cyberpsycho. I only found out that he wasn't at fault after the deed was done. I—"

He paused, but he wasn't sure what for. There were plenty of other related things that he was leaving out. You didn't need to know. Or did he not want you to know?

"Did the cyberpsycho hurt anyone before you were contracted to kill him?" you asked. There was that tickle again, running up his chrome spine and settling into spaces between the individual vertebrae. The very same spine that you had painstakingly put together yourself just a few months prior, when he had to be hauled into your clinic in bloodied bits and pieces.

Nanami nodded. "He killed 4 med techs and injured 13 other lab staff. An entire wing of a research facility was ruined," he said, and it instantly transported him to a day earlier when he was on that Militech property far outside city limits once again.

The entire building had been cordoned off a few days before his arrival. Business carried on as usual in the rest of the compound that was unaffected. It was only the ground zero of the cyberpsycho attack that looked like a scene out of those old-fashioned zombie apocalypse movies Yuuji enjoyed watching.

"If you hadn't neutralised him, he would've hurt more people," you said. "There's no reason to feel regret if your purpose was to protect people."

He had been a police detective before he did away with his badge and became a merc. The desire to protect was the lifeblood that kept him going before the change in career, even when the uniform he wore and had admired as a child was what the people committing atrocities against other people were also wearing. It was the same desire to protect that moved him to remain in a line of work where his hands would always be sullied by death.

How did you know? Maybe he was a children's picture book to your knowing eyes, open and simple to read.

When Nanami looked up from his hands, he intended to thank you. For listening to him, and for letting him feel heard. The pinch in his chest remained, but it had lost its nails after sitting by you for a little while.

When he met your eyes for the first time in what must've been at least half an hour, there was an unknown but very much welcome tenderness in them that he hadn't seen from you before. 'Tender' would've been one of the last words he used to describe you, before this conversation. He'd hazard a guess that you preferred being identified on the other end of the spectrum: 'efficient', 'immovable'. The same words other people used to describe him, too.

At this moment, you were tender, and he was breathing it in, basking in it. It was strange to feel soft, especially when the bulk of his body was an arrangement of predominantly metal parts engineered into the remains of his flesh.

The urge to thank you for putting him back together bloomed in him from all the half-formed thoughts in his mind. He wasn't so brazen as to believe that a lesser ripperdoc would've been able to manage what you have. There was a reason Gojou entrusted him to you in his time of emergency.

"You're good at this," Nanami said, instead. To tell you what was in his heart seemed to breach the boundary line of professional etiquette between a merc and his ripperdoc. Maybe there would be a time in the future when he could run his mouth in your presence, a little treat for him that hopefully amused you too. Maybe it would happen soon.

There was a quirk that nipped at the corners of your lips. He counted it as a smile, mirroring you in equal proportion.

"That's the first I've heard of it," you said, lifting your cheek from your palm and straightening your posture. The veneer of a stoic ripperdoc quickly took over the half-smile you graced him with.

"I'll be back when I need a listening ear," he said, presenting you with an offering – of goodwill? Friendship? – and surprising himself with the magnitude of hope he was attaching to it.

You blinked. He watched you visibly inhale, and you looked unsure of how to respond. There was a slight wrinkle in your brow as you mulled his declaration over. "Do come back," you said. "Don't wait until you've been bisected again to come see me."

Nanami chuckled at the unexpected joke, though comedy might not have been your intention. Your half-smile was missing from your face, but the amicable glint in your eyes told him everything he needed to know.

#jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen scenarios #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk x reader #nanami kento #fic #general #fluff #longfic: tui #kaija writes #kaija writes: jujutsu kaisen #i keep thinking about him!!! #i took a break from playing the game to write this fic because she's been haunting me #because #ripperdoc reader and merc nanami have my entire heart! #reader: -__- #nanami: -__- #but they're enjoying themselves!!! #they're in love and having a little heart to heart!!! #do you see my vision #i'm obsessed with them

[aurevell]

when you get an email that your favorite author just updated their fic........you should not have to go to work. unbelievable that no one even KNOWS that it should be an international holiday of curling up and reading in bed.

#been thinking about this most recently thanks to siand's latest update lol #and also likearecord #but there have been so many notifications in my inbox these past weeks from so many authors I love #i can almost never get to them right away but i feel like i'm owed a reading break for it so i can enjoy instantly adljf;ljjlkdj

[good-beanswrites]

Hi there!! Your milgram drabbles are actually giving me life. If you're still taking requests (if not, totally fine!!), how about Haruka and Colours? :)

Aww thank you so much!!! :D Thank you for the request ooh, it's such a fun prompt for him! I ended up going with something for him and Muu between the first two trials, but I still wanted the main focus to stay on his voice and growth 👍

“This is your wardrobe?” Muu's eyebrows raised. “That's all there is?”

“W-well, I don't own much else that I, I really like to wear. Sorry." Haruka’s mind whirled into a panic. His new friend had been in his cell for less than two minutes and he was already a disappointment. She knew a lot about clothes and fashion, but he didn’t know a thing about that. They’d have nothing in common. She’d grow bored of him, and hate him, and -- 

“Aw, you don't need to apologize! The warden should be sorry for making you wear this. Muu will have to fix it.” 

“Fix what?” He bit down on his thumbnail. He knew there was a lot of him that needed fixing. That’s what he’d been told as long as he could remember. But what did she plan on doing that no one else could?

“All white does not do you justice. I'll request some things for you, okay? Let’s see…" 

She spun away from the clothes to examine him. He squirmed under the sudden, intense gaze. She looked him up and down, without saying a word. He hugged his arms to his chest. He had too many painful memories of people looking at him like that. But at the same time, he hoped she would never stop…

Her lips twisted into a gentle pout. “See? You poor thing, you don’t feel confident in that at all.”

“W-well, it’s only that --”

 “-- Don’t worry about a thing. Muu will get some neutrals, and a few accents. That will help bring out your eyes.”

“My, uh, my eyes?”

“Mm, they're your best feature.” She said it as if he were crazy for not knowing. His mouth gaped. He had a best feature? 

“Speaking of, I'll have to grab some pins to keep your hair back, so you can actually see them…” She reached out to brush some of his hair aside. He flinched, but let her touch him as she tried out a few things. While poised over his face, she looked at him seriously.

“How do you feel about purple?”

He swallowed. How did he feel about purple? Haruka thought it was a strange question, but if Muu was being so nice to him, he should trust her. He should respond perfectly. He went back and forth on what the right answer could be. How did everyone else feel about purple? How did Muu feel about purple?

“Nevermind.” She put her hands on his quickly raining shoulders. He relaxed them. “I think I’ll go with green.”

He sighed with relief. “Oh! Okay!”

Muu continued muttering to herself about different colors and styles, to which he nodded along. If she thought it would help him, he believed her. 

———

He stepped into the dining hall for breakfast. The prisoners were used to their routine by now, so nothing really caused disruption anymore. It was why Haruka was unprepared to be a disruption himself.

“Haru~” Mahiru called. “Wow!” 

His eyes widened. As he scrambled for a reply, Mikoto nodded from another table. “So colorful!” All the eyes turned to him. Even Es turned from where they were speaking with Jackalope in the kitchens. They all smiled at him.

“How fashionable!”

“It suits you well.”

“Aw, look at you!”

The sudden praise forced his hands up to cover the huge smile on his face. “Me?” 

He could feel his cheeks redden, but his heart raced in excitement. At their request, he did a stiff turn to show off the whole outfit. “Ah… it’s only because of Muu…”

“And it looks like I did a great job!” She appeared beside him, pressing her palms together. “You look wonderful.”

With so many kind eyes on him, he couldn’t help the giggle that spilled between his fingers. 

“Buuut Muu can’t take all the credit,” she said. “Or your clothes. This is you. You look happier. You’re holding yourself differently.”

“I didn’t know…” He hadn’t meant to do that. That was a good thing, right? Haruka felt his legs shift, as he thought too hard about how he was standing.

Is this why he was forgiven? People were finally seeing him. Es really looked at them during his interrogation. The prisoners had noticed him more and more. Even the voices that whispered in his cell at night had taken a strong interest in him. And now, everyone was showering him with their praises. Muu was right, it was more than the bright colors he was wearing.

“Yeah, you seem more confident.” 

He lowered his hands to return her beaming smile.

“I… I think I am.”

#milgram #haruka sakurai #muu kusunoki #i had a few different thoughts for the prompt -- maybe something with the crayon coloring from Weakness or something relating to the #vibrant bugs/fish in AKAA #but i really loved his trial glow up (personally i think he had the best one of t2!!) and wanted to work with that #ive been trying to avoid time breaks in short pieces of writing but i definitely wanted to show him getting the attention he deserved :') #i pictured that before all the t2 shit started to hit so everyone is in a good mood and genuinely happy to see him so confident #i hope his internal monologue wasnt too much but i had a blast writing it asdfdsf #a small dose of childishness but a big dose of needless anxiety ;--; #i dont know if haruka fans like seeing him and muu together but i wanted to show them interact because this treatment specifically would #have Such a good impact on him which makes me so happy #ahh i hope you enjoy! this was so much fun ✨ thanks again :D #drabbles