#initially just something I threw up in a server

[loosesodamarble]

From Luck to Jesse

Summary: The day of their daughter's birth, Luck is confronted with fear and hesitation. Magna is there to reassure his husband though. They're fathers in this together. Genre: general, some hurt-comfort Word count: ~1000 Warning: brief mentions of abuse

..........

When it came time to cut open the blood cocoon and truly bring their new daughter into the world, Luck ran into the room before Magna. His smile stretched across his face, bright enough to rival the look he wore during their wedding. He stopped in front of the blood cocoon and stared at it for a moment.

It's time. Our little girl is ready for the world, Luck thought to himself.

Luck glanced over his shoulder to see Magna speed-walk in after him. Magna smiled, half annoyed-half amused.

"Man, someone's too excited 'round here."

"Maybe you're not excited enough! Get over here already, Magna!"

"Alrigh' alrigh'!"

Once a tub of warm water and a soft towel was prepped, Magna brought out a medical kit and a clean scalpel to cut the cocoon. The husbands shared a look before Manga pressed the blade into the cocoon's surface and glided it through.

With the seal broken, the magic blood within began to dissipate like steam. As the blood faded, a small, pink shape was revealed. A baby, their baby, their daughter. Bits of blood and other fluid clung to the infant's body. She had already begun crying and wriggling. She was alive and a fighter!

With Magna still holding the scalpel, Luck instinctively moved to pick up the baby.

Smack!

Carissa loomed over Luck, looking upon him with contempt. Her hand, hovering close to where he once stood, had been cold.

Luck saw how close his hand was to touching his daughter. He curled his fingers back before withdrawing his whole hand.

"Luck?" Magna's voice was a distant echo in his ears.

"I… I shouldn't…" Luck took a step back as he whispered those words. "Magna, I don't…"

It only took a second for Magna to change gears. He'd already set down the scalpel and wiped his hands so he picked up the baby and moved her to the tub.

Luck quietly watched his husband gently, oh so tenderly, washed their daughter off. He watched and wished he wasn't so afraid of what his own hands could do.

While Magna cleaned up their daughter, Luck shuffled to the bedroom and sat on the bed's edge.

Why did he hesitate all of a sudden? He'd never hesitated when handling children before. He wasn't Sterling's favorite but he always treated her with care. Hikari loved to roughhouse with him. Finral and Mallory's sons would gang up on him. Hell, he'd even held many of the children as babies. So then why couldn't he touch his own daughter?

The mattress shifted under the weight of another person.

"She's all clean now," Magna said in a neutral tone. "Even fell asleep while I bathed her."

Luck looked to the side. And sure enough, the babe was already sound asleep an swaddled like a newborn should've been. Her little fighter instinct was already tired out. A smile cracked Luck's somber face.

"Wanna hold her?" Magna offered with a grin.

Immediately, Luck's mood dropped. Magna saw that and sighed.

"Well, at least get a good look at her." Magna scooted closer until he and Luck were shoulder-to-shoulder. "She's got your hair." He shifted his arms a bit as he tried to point to her forehead and barely present locks. "The color's there at least. But I really hope it's as fluffy as yours too. She'll be the cutest gal in town and then we can be like 'hey, not flirting with my daughter.'"

"Mhm…"

Magna and Luck sat in silence for a while longer. Their daughter slept peacefully in Magna's arms.

"Luck, you don't gotta worry about hurting her, y'know… You love her too much for that."

At his words, Luck cringed.

"My mom loved me and yet she still…" Luck threw his head back and groaned. "She loved me, I know she did. She had to have loved me!" Luck bit his lip when he noticed how loud he was getting. He held still for a moment, watching if the baby stirred. And when she remained serene, he went on, "But that didn't stop her from hitting me… How do I know I won't end up the same?"

Magna leaned in and bonked his head against Luck's.

"There's a lot of things that'll stop you," Magna muttered. "For one, I'd skin your ass if you tried to hurt our baby. Second, the squad would crucify you. But you'd also kick your own ass if you did." He sat upright and looked Luck in the eye. "Also, look at where you are in life. You've got a stable job and home. You've got a husband and more friends than you can count to watch your back. And you've got the mind to hesitate and consider your actions towards your child. You won't hurt her, I promise."

Luck listened to Magna. How his husky voice was warm with reassurance. He watched Magna's face. How his eyes lit up at the mention of them being married and his lips were smiling with confidence. He let the words sink into him.

And Magna was right.

Luck had everything his mom lacked when she raised him. She loved him but she was so vulnerable and alone. It didn't excuse a thing. But it put into perspective her lashing out at him.

Luck looked at his daughter again. She was so small and helpless. He reached out and touched the edge of her blanket.

"Do you wanna hold her now?" Magna shifted, as if to hand the baby over. And Luck pulled his hand back before his finger could brush his daughter's cheek.

"… Not yet. She looks so comfy in your arms right now. Maybe tomorrow though."

"Heh. Let's hope she doesn't get too comfy with me before then. Or maybe she's already chosen me as her favorite dad!"

"Hah!" Luck bumped Magna with his elbow. "I won't let you win, Magna!"

The men shared a laugh before turning their eyes to their daughter again. The gift that they’d been given.

#black clover #black clover fanfic #luck voltia #magna swing #black clover oc #jesse voltiaswing #next gen ocs #soda's ocs #carissa voltia #this is definitely more a luck piece #but magna is just as important to jesse #but luck has the baggage that can be dealt with #initially just something I threw up in a server #kinda inspired by Lyra teasing the Henry and Alice fic #but now I’m posting

[amarias-yandere-blog]

"Run if you can, Darling. I will find you even among the galaxy."

-Yandere!Blade x Reader (Honkai Star Rail)

-‼️Warnings include: murder, forced affection, manhandling, physical violence, unreciprocated contact, other general yandere themes‼️

Special thanks to Myla on my discord server for reading and commenting on any mistakes for me!

Please: reblog with proper tags

You do not remember when you met him. You don't remember how. But you do remember why: a goddamn coffee shop. Craving something that would be able to keep you awake long enough to finish your rough draft for college, you headed out at one in the morning. A man with a beanie, a face mask, and sunglasses caught your attention as you ordered.

And as they say, curiosity killed the cat.

You were like a beacon in the darkest night- a wonderful drop of color in the grayest walls and dark navy seas. He grew curious about you, a seemingly innocent and tired person who was little more than a drop in the ocean of people he'd met.

But the way you walked up to him with the sweetest smile and that tired, but determined voice- oh, perhaps he had been stricken with a far more powerful disease than mara. Or perhaps he'd mistaken your curiosity for a bit of affection. All he knew was that your eyes held an innocent look in them.

Call him a sadist. Because he wanted to take that innocence for his own.

The second meeting was in the nearby library. You chalked it up to coincidence. He chalked it up to meticulous research, preparation, and an obsession to see your innocent light once again.

Things eventually developed. You fell for him. He was rather quiet, but he looked at you like no one else did in a long time. At least, from what you could see above the dark-rimmed sunglasses he wore.

The first time you actually saw his face was in an alleyway. You had accidentally run into some thugs. He was far more aggressive than you thought he needed to be, but his vermilion eyes and the way his lips were pushed into a thin, unamused line were... well, you could not lie. They were captivating. 

The thugs, bleeding from his curious black sword riddled with golden cracks, ran as he walked towards you- towering over you with one hand still on his blade and the other resting on the wall behind you.

"That was foolish of you, Y/n," he scolded before bending down, stealing your precious lips for his own. His eyes never left your form as you gasped in shock at his boldness. And he only grew bolder- pushing your face up so that he had a better angle to steal your breath. 

Your savior had completely taken you for his own. And you were fine with that, grabbing a hold of his neck for support as he took everything he could. It was like a dark ocean had enveloped your warm light at that moment, though you didn't know it.

That point on, he would disappear from your sight for weeks, if not months. Sometimes he would come to your door covered in blood but without a scratch on his body.

It was during one of those days when he had disappeared without a trace that you figured out who he was. You learned his name. 

Blade. Stellaron Hunter. Dangerous. It was recommended that you run if you saw him. That night in the alleyway became crystal clear to you. He was so skilled with the sword. He could have killed those people. No- you realized with a tear running from your face that he had. They hadn't run away. They had bled out and died while he covered your eyes from the sight using his body.

Slowly taking away your innocence. Your light. Claiming your love for himself. His vermilion eyes were a flag- all too deep and clear and that is why he hid them from you for so long.

In a panic, you decided to take the initiative and move as far away as possible. You quit your job, you moved across the world, you even threw your phone away at the drop of a dime. You were scared. And rightly so. Perhaps you would have escaped from his gaze if you had learned this from the first time you saw his face.

But it was just far too late now.

When you got out of the house, it was quiet in the apartment you shared with three other people. Two girls, one guy, and you. When you came into the living room, you were met with a gorey sight. A man stood tall, his sword hugged tight against his chest as he closed his eyes and waited patiently for a new chapter to start.

Bodies lay scattered across the room, their blood dripping from the ceiling and the walls, soaking the floor, the couch- but not a drop was on him. There was a cruel, cold wind blowing through the room.

"Bad choice, Y/n." The man suddenly spoke, all too aware of your sweet presence in the room. "Now three people have paid your price." He opened his eyes to glare at you, the sword disappearing from his grip. His hands made a wide gesture, as though inviting you to hug him. But instead, you stepped away.

"G-get away from me, Blade." You tried to sound confident. His lips curled into a smile before he put a hand on his head, laughing darkly at your puny display.

"Run." One word. One sentence and your heart dropped. "Run as fast as you can, little one, and try to escape from my heart and mind- you won't. Even if you fly to the end of the stars you will never outrun me. I will always catch you. So run, little one, give me a chase!"

His words set something inside of you off. You sprinted, slamming open doors and running down stairs with no particular purpose in mind- no destination. Just. Run.

As you ran down flights of stairs, you could hear the maniacal laughter from Blade. He sounded as though he was in no rush. You had, after all, gone to a place where he was unknown and unrecognized as a killer. He was playing the long game- letting you tire yourself out as you dashed across streets and down nasty roads, passing through large swaths of crowds and even going through narrow lanes in a rush to lose him.

But you burned out. You felt your knees get weak and your bare feet turned sore and red from the run. You gasped for air, holding your chest and resting against a wall as you took in deep gulps of air that fueled your run.

Your throat burned from the dryness of the air, and your lungs struggled to keep up with the demand you gave them.

"Is that the best you can do?" Blade asked with a laugh as he walked closer towards you. Even your effort to shake him off was in vain. You gulped down saliva and turned to run again- but your feet faltered, betrayed you. You slipped on your own blood, landing on your chest with a small shriek as loud footsteps clapped down the alley.

"Poor thing. So weak, so innocent and tired that they can't even run away." Blade mocked, pulling you up by the wrist.

He pushed you into the wall, forcing your body to move in such a way that you leaned against him, looking at him with fear in your eyes. His hands roamed, across your arms and down to your hips before pulling your head in such a way that he could once again steal your breath.

But this time around you didn't want it. You tried to pull away, kicking at his knees and pulling his arms away from your body. You elbowed him and screamed and scratched his face with your nails as you bit his tongue in self defense.

He released you for only a moment, turning you back around and pushing you up against the wall, one of his hands on your wrists to keep them above your head. The other slapped your face, his eyes narrowed and his lips pressed against each other.

You watched in horror as the scratches healed in seconds, and he stuck out his tongue to prove that your damage had been far less than 'temporary'. He smirked.

"Any more cute attempts at fighting back?" He asked, shoving his face into your personal space, forcing you to look into his eyes. Your arms were growing numb now. You trembled. "I guess not. Looks like the chase is over, Darling. Now..." he leaned into you, whispered in your ear with a smile on his face. His free hand pinned your hips into the wall. "You are all mine."

And then he kissed your ear, his lips dragging across your face until they met your mouth. "Kiss me." He snarled. "Be a good little pet for me."

You never graduated from that college.

#yandere x reader #yandere #yandere blog #amaria writes #yandere imagines #x reader #blade x you #blade x reader #blade honkai #hsr blade #hsr #hsr yandere #hsr blade x reader #yandere blade #hsr x gender neutral reader #gender neutral reader #pet names #Amaria's Basement

[waxingrunes]

I understand if you’re too busy to answer this or don’t want to, but i was wondering if you wouldn’t mind telling us some of your non-explicit headcanons or just some traits you think wolfstar have in general? Your explicit ones are sososo hot but today I'm feeling low and need some comforting. Yiur blog is just a safe space for me but I totally understand if not! I love your work <3 all my love x

There are so many nondescript hc’s I have that this has the potential to turn into a formal essay with cited sources, so I’ll go for more of a generalised dump of info I have for each in a hope that it lifts some of your fog Anon. Maybe bullet pointed because it’ll be easier to read than my usual untidy form of communication. Hope you feel lighter soon.

Sirius

• will lick a yoghurt pot if there’s no clean spoons. There’s the option to go for fruit instead, but he wants the yoghurt and by god he will get his yoghurt

• is a fucking terrible driver, gives Remus and any passenger white knuckles due to speed issues and not using a lower gear when taking corners

• is however, in complete control when on a motorcycle; very hot, very controlled and will take his passenger’s safety very seriously

• professionally trained in ballroom and ballet, the latter which he is sometimes mocked in jest for, even by Remus, until he one time caught him stretching elegantly on the floor one morning with his upper body laid flat between long, toned, wide spread legs, ‘morning moony’, a healthy blush on his cheeks

• private crier, doesn’t cry easily

• goes quiet when angry as an initial defence but it doesn’t take long for him to start dropping breadcrumbs of sarcastic comments; can also be snobby and bratty, perhaps sometimes will get nasty and direct (bringing up things he shouldn’t to score points in the heat of the moment)

• suffers immeasurable guilt (helped by the point above) but is always masking a weighted feeling of guilt no matter what he’s doing, so much so it’s manifested into quite a serious anxiety problem in the wrong crowds

• he fidgets a lot, not in a chaotic way, just always has to have his fingers busy with something

• likes the smell of gasoline

• once had to talk himself down from throwing a child in a dustbin

• loves the colour red; blood red and cherry red to be precise but secretly loves dark blue even more because it’s what looks most handsome on Remus despite him not wearing it often

• sighs a lot

• pretended he couldn’t speak English to get away with jumping a queue

• hates the smell and taste of liquorice (unless heavily strawberry/cherry/raspberry flavoured)

• on one particular messy night out he got so impatient waiting at the bar, he reached over and grabbed a discarded bottle of alcohol the server had left open and swigged it

• digs his nails into his skin when anxious and is often reminded to relax the tension in his joints

• stargazes often

• once linked his pinky finger with Remus and asked him to pinky promise not to tell anyone what he was about to tell him, since which a tradition of trust was born where Remus will offer his pinky or the last two fingers for Sirius to hold or squeeze when he’s feeling unsure in public, or in any situation where verbal reassurance isn’t appropriate

• gets a weird thrill at the sound of cork popping from a bottle

Remus

• collects beer mats and keeps them in a drawer, thinks about making them into a display

• got tired of kids playing ball against the wall of his place (after repeat offences and him asking very nicely for them to stop) one day so went out, retrieved the ball and threw it so hard against of the cars it set the alarm off

• owner of said car came running out the house and Remus blamed it on the children. Never had the same issue again

• has a wildly sweet tooth and will always drop one or two packets of sugar into any warm beverage

• stares into space and gets involuntarily caught on someone’s face one too many times which makes them uncomfortable from the ‘Death Stare’ phenomenon when in reality, he’s lost in lala land

• can cook, is actually a proficient cook, but will not cook for anyone but Sirius, James or Lily

• will crack his knuckles, wrists and neck absentmindedly, all of which makes his company squirm because it’s often very loud and ‘pop-py’ but Sirius fucking loves it

• stays very calm during an argument but can shout louder than most and when he does, ears ring from the silence that follows

• prefers tea over coffee

• will eat liquorice any time he wants to piss Sirius off

• cries more than Sirius, but still a private crier

• always has to be the old boot in Monopoly

• loves words that are vowel heavy or double voweled because those are the ones where the scraps of Sirius’ lost French accent surface the most

• has a gentle touch, is aware of his size and nature of his lycanthropy, therefore always somewhat reserved

• loves socks, has a collection of ‘dad socks’

• has the messiest writing out of all the Marauders but loves handwritten things, owns three very different fountain pens for very different purposes

• is polite, but as he’s aged doesn’t tend to ‘fake smile’ a lot, feeling no need to fill uncomfortable silences for the sake of others

• has a chair he favours and often dozes off in it. Most of the time waking up to Sirius on top of him

#ask #wolfstar #might tag this properly #remus lupin #sirius black #remus #sirius

[upon-a-starry-night]

Number Neighbors Pt. 10

Natasha Romanoff x Fem! Reader

Natasha Masterlist Series Masterlist

Word Count: 1.6k

Summary:  When you catch sight of the newest trend going around you know you’re all but bound to at least try it, it was harmless anyway. What could possibly stem from something so little?

---

You layed in bed as the sun shone through your curtains, it was well past the time you would usually wake up but who could blame you, weekends were your happy place. Although as of late you’d been getting your source of serotonin from somewhere else. You rolled over and picked up your phone, checking the time. Noon. nice.

You tried not to be disappointed at the lack of notifications on your screen, it’s not like you got messages from anything but take-out places and… 

You sighed, Nat hadn’t responded for an entire week now.

You knew she told you about how her job would cause her to go remote but it didn’t make it any easier, and after last weekend… god you needed to get a life. You really couldn’t let your whole life revolve around one woman you met on the internet. So what if she makes you laugh harder than you ever have in your life, and listens better than the copper statues in the park downtown? 

You wondered if she even considered you a friend in the same way you did her. 

The fact that she hadn’t blocked you yet meant she was at least entertained by your personality but did she feel the same connection you did? The same loneliness when you didn’t text her back for a while (not that it was ever that long). Did you help her unwind after a long day at work as well?

You sighed, pulling the covers over your face and groaning. Maybe you were becoming too dependent on someone who only saw you as entertainment. The one time you decide to try something new ends up with you having a quarter-life crisis, it’s just your luck.

You layed in bed staring at the ceiling until a sudden wave of irritation washed over you, you were not going to waste the rest of the day wallowing in self-pity like this. 

You threw the covers off of your body, a newborn determination in your bones.

Today you were going to try something new and it was going to be great. You’d make sure of it.

~~

Your initial intention had been to try a new activity; pottery or rug making or something hands on but when your stomach grumbled you figured a new restaurant was still as adventurous as you were looking for. 

You weren’t in a particular mood for anything so you entered “restaurants near me” into your phone and scrolled until you found a cute retro-looking diner that was only a thirty-minute walk from you.

You could use the fresh air and the exercise so you clicked on the directions and placed your headphones into your ears as you began walking down the street.

 The diner was as cute as the pictures had shown, if not cuter. The retro 70’s style of the seats and decor was always a style you’d been a fan of. It was the kind of place where a lot of influencers would probably come to take pictures. You wondered why you’d never come across this place only to spot the “Just opened!” sign on the cherry red counter. 

As soon as you sit down you’re approached by a man who seems too cute to be a server, he’s dressed in a leather jacket and jeans with a simple white T-shirt underneath. He looks like he’s straight out of Grease and it almost makes you laugh at how much he fits in.

Much to your surprise, the handsome stranger pulls a notebook and pen out of his pocket and smiles at you.

“What can I get for a pretty lady such as yourself?”

The compliment makes you blush and you quickly realize that he fit in so well because he did work here. You figured there would be some sort of uniform or apron the servers would have to wear but apparently, they were all free to come dressed like they just walked out of a teenage vampire TV series. 

He tilted his head when you didn’t respond and you watched the way a strand of his hair fell in front of his face and suddenly you felt like a teenage girl all over again.

You quickly cleared your throat and looked back down at the menu “Oh uhm- I will get…”

You looked over the menu and picked out the first thing that sounded appealing, tacking on a milkshake at the end of your order. 

Your server wrote everything down with practiced ease and flashed you a charming style before going to put your order in. 

Once your food was delivered and you were chowing down you began absentmindedly scrolling on your phone through your Instagram fyp, it was all your typical preferred content and you liked and saved a few posts before your milkshake was brought out by a woman who was dressed in various shades of red white and pink, an apron sat tied around her waist. 

So they did have a uniform? 

Or was this one of those places that only made women dress up? You smiled at the waitress as she handed you your drink and you thanked her and began scrolling through your coworker's posts.

One of the women you worked with had just gotten engaged. You clicked on her profile and scrolled through the posts of her with all her friends. The sight only reminded you of your lack thereof and your current… predicament with your only friend.

Your mood quickly turned sour once again and you found yourself sadly sipping your milkshake as you stared out of the window, watching couples pass by and squinting your eyes at them in jealousy.

You're sure you probably looked weird and you weren’t all that surprised when an older man approached your booth. You were sure you were about to get kicked out for glaring at potential customers when his lips turned down into a frown and his hands landed on his hips, he was wearing a white apron and a nametag that said “Dale”, and from the looks of it, he was some kind of cook.

“Never in my 30 years running this place have I seen someone look so sad eating my food” Before you had a chance to respond he was sliding into the seat across from you and telling you about how the restaurant came to be.

 He told you a lot of stories about his wife and all the ways he tried to win her over before she finally agreed to date him. 

You laughed more in the 30 minutes he was talking to you than you had in over a week and you smiled at the warm sensation that filled your stomach. You forgot how good it could feel to interact with other people in person. 

After you finished laughing at Dale’s most recent tale you sighed with a smile on your face and made eye contact, hoping to convey your sincerity

“I’m sorry I looked so upset earlier- I swear it wasn’t because the food was bad”

Dale just smiled knowingly and nodded his head at your phone

“Partner troubles?”

You blushed, not able to make eye contact with Dale as thoughts of you and Nat swarmed your head. Briefly, you wondered if she’d like this place, and you quickly shook the idea from your head.

“Not exactly, I’m just a little salty I guess. Everyone my age is getting married and I can’t even keep a boyfriend.” You covered your face in embarrassment, unable to face the complete stranger whom you just spilled your guts to. When you finally gained the courage to remove your hands Dale was looking at you with a mischievous smile. 

“What” You tilted your head, a confused smile overtaking your face

“Let me introduce you to my son. He’s around your age, very outgoing, very charming” He winked at you when he said the last trait and you couldn’t help the small chuckle that left you. You were always anxious when it came to new people but you promised yourself you were going to try new things today so you lightly nodded your head and Dale immediately stood up to go fetch his son.

A minute later your original server begins heading your way and you prepare to hand him your card but you’re surprised when he sits down in the spot where Dale sat. Before you can say anything Dale is back with another milkshake telling you it’s on the house and leaving with another quick wink.

It finally registers in your head a second later that the man across from you is Dale's son, hence why he probably didn’t have to wear a uniform. It was nice of him to help out his father.

You stuck your hand out across the table and felt your lips curl into a friendly smile. 

“So you’re the infamous son I’ve heard so little about?”

A smirk appeared on your table buddy's face and his warm hand reached across the surface and clasped yours in a firm grip.

“So I am”

The two of you talked for what felt like 4 hours but was only one, During that period you finished your milkshake and learned that Dale’s son’s name was Dolion after his Greek great-grandfather but that he preferred to go by “Leon”, you also learned that Leon and his father had just moved here on account of his mother passing away. 

The two of you hit it off more than you thought and you found you shared a lot of similar interests, although he was a lot more outgoing than you were.

Leon was by far one of the most charming men you’d ever met, his father was right, and when you found yourself getting up to leave he grabbed you by the arm and asked you for your number, how could you say no?

The walk home was a happy one and you found yourself stopping to sit at a park with a smile on your face as you thought about your day. 

Maybe it would be a good month after all.

Maybe this was the start of something really lovely

Pt.11

No Nat content this chapter sorry guys :( ~ Starry

----------Taglist------

@marvelwomen-simp @cd-4848 @wandanatlov3r @rebeltombraider @ctrlamira @fxckmiup @aliherreraaa @natsxwife @la-douler-ne-finite-jamais @romanoffsgal @moistblobfish @natashaswife4125 @elenimoris @how-to-disappearrr @screechcat

#marvel #fanfiction #fanfic #marvel fanfic #marvel fanfiction #fluff #women of marvel #fluff fic #mcu fluff #natasha romanoff #natasha romanov #natasha fanfic #natasha marvel #upon a starry night writes #number neighbor #natasha x reader #natasha romanoff fluff #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff fanfic #natasha romanoff x you #natasha romanoff x female #natasha x y/n #natasha x you

[strayflowersstarsandlove]

Peaches and cream (leefelix)

"Oh come on! You cheated, you must have cheated!", "I did not!", "you threw turtle shells at me at the finish line!". Felix fake cries and whines, shaking the wii controller in his hands as he pouts and purses out his lips and you laugh full chested but also almost feel bad for him. Almost. It's not your fault he sucks at Mario Kart but still is so seriously competitive about it! You can let him win and gaslight him into thinking it was all his own doing for only so much time! You playfully pat his shoulder with fake sympathy and bat your eyelashes at him, "I'm sorry Fefi, you have to accept that you're just not that good", you snicker and he sticks his tongue out at you before taking a sip from his long forgotten iced peaches and cream tea, which he flinches at, squinting his eyes as he makes a disgusted face:"yikes, it turned into room temperature melted whipped cream and sugar, ewl", he comments, sliding the plastic cup away from him, even pushing it on the side with his foot as you guys both sit on the floor, your backs resting against the edge of the couch behind you. You chuckle and offer him some of your water but he refuses politely so you just take a sip and then sigh contently.

Mild spring afternoons were your favourite, spring break was nearing and your free afternoons were either spent quietly studying at Felix's place or going on walks and shopping sprees with him or just laying on his floor just talking and talking, enjoying each other's company. Your friendship was almost a decade long, you were so comfortable and close many thought you two were dating even though it never crossed either of your guys' mind. Or so you thought.

Something subtle and quiet had been bubbling up inside you lately. Maybe it was the way his presence was always so peaceful and warm, his support stable and reassuring throughout your most recent years struggling through college, maybe it was the calmness and positivity he radiated through your hardest, most uncertain times of your early adulthood that had been making you thinking about him differently.

You weren't too sure about your feelings, you just knew you sometimes found yourself staring at the way his platinum blonde hair caught the sunlight, giving him the ethereal look of an angel, and the way his deep brown eyes just always looked so kind and somehow melancholic, the way he would smile and his entire face would lit up. It was the tiny details, really. It's not like you never counted the freckles on his face or stared in awe at the twinkle in his eyes or never melted a little at the sound of his morning baritone voice. You were always well aware of all that, it was just that lately everything had started to seep a little further into your thoughts and you felt some sort of yearning, a languor for him that wasn't there before.

"So, are you excited about your date next week?". Oh yeah. There was the infamous date. You were actually so nervous about it but for all the wrong reasons. You turn to Felix with a frown, shrugging your shoulders, "I wouldn't use the term excited, to be honest", "how come?", he asks, tucking his legs beneath him as he fully turns to you, resting his elbow against the couch, one hand sifting through his hair as he intently listens to you, giving you his full attention, "well… Three reasons. First of all I only agreed to it because he was being so persistent, second of all it's actually Rebecca's idea, this whole thing, she set it up cause he's her boyfriend best friend and I guess she got tired of me complaining about her never introducing me to her other friends so she thought the double date she initially planned would fix it. But I did not enjoy it one bit. She was all over her boyfriend and this guy would not stop talking about himself not even for a second. He barely asked my name and was a bit rude to our server at the restaurant… ", you trail off and Felix nods as a way of gently prodding you on, he frowns at the mention of your friend's friend mannerism and knits his eyebrows together when he sees you're now avoiding his gaze and have stopped talking altogether:" what's the third reason?",he asks and you nervously pull at your fingers, trying to gather the courage to reveal something even your other best friend Rebecca doesn't know, much less Felix, "I never been kissed. I never had my first kiss. Ever".

You should've known Felix really isn't the type of guy who judges and talks down to anyone so it doesn't come as a surprise when he keeps a straight face, he's almost unphased, you could say, if not for the slight single eyebrow raise, "okay? And I guess you don't want this guy to try and make any move on you? You don't want him to be your first kiss, which is understandable", he says calmly and you nod your agreement, "y-yeah. And I know I sound so pretentious and it is my fault I never had my first kiss and I know it's stupid cause really it is just a freaking kiss-", you pause your rambling, smiling bittersweetly at your own worked up self, "but it's just… I know it's meaningless in the grand scheme of things but I don't want to waste something I will only get to experience once for the first time with someone I don't really care about. Who's also really not my type. I should've gotten it over and done years and years ago but I guess I'm a super later bloomer", you chuckle, and again, it's that bittersweet kind of regretful chuckle that escapes your lips.

Felix smiles sweetly at you and shakes his head lightly, "there is no set time for anything, y/n. You are in your twenties and you never been kissed, so what? Plenty of people haven't either. It doesn't matter", he runs his hand through the front of his hair, pushing it back in that usual way that exposes his forehead and you catch a glimpse of his freckles up there, the faded dark roots at the base of his hair line, you blink a few times, trying not to get too mesmerized at how even the simplest, most normal things about him make him look so beautiful,"I like that you said you only get it to really experience it once, cause it is true. Things are only new until you get to try them and you must cherish that. You must make them feel precious to you. Just don't let them also get you stuck in super set ways",you nod at his wise words as he pauses, thinking about how much you like hearing about his perspective on things.

"I had my first kiss when I was 17 and everyone in my class already had it by the time they were 14 and I did not like it, but that's okay", he chuckles at the memory and you tilt your head to the side, smiling at him, "you never told me about it. How was it? Was the girl not nice to you?", you ask, resting your arms on top of your knees as you pull your legs closer to your chest, "oh no, she was nice. She was lovely. I think it happened at prom or something",he pauses again, the look on his eyes a bit dreamy, a bit distant as he reminisces of those times long gone, and he giggles softly and you notice the slight blush on the top of his cheeks as if he's feeling a bit embarrassed at the memory, "I think we were dancing to a slow song or something and I believe she was expecting me to make the first move so I kind of did, not knowing she had just had some of the garlic pizza they had for us from the food catering".

Your eyes go wide in anticipation and your jaw drops which makes Felix giggle even more, "oh my god", you manage, stifling a giggle yourself, "hahaha yeah it was tragic. You know how I sometimes also don't really think before I say things? Well, I told her. I saw she was leaning in again and I stopped her and told her she smelled of garlic and I really couldn't, I really wanted to make her happy and kiss her again but I couldn't and it was so awkward. She kind of understood and didn't go for it again but as soon as the song ended she left with her friends".

As much as it pains you to laugh at him you just cannot contain the full chested giggle that erupts from you but your glad to see him laughing with you, just as much. "Sometimes things just don't go our way", Felix says once you've both calmed down, "stuff like this happens when it's supposed to happen and you just have to kind of go with it. Don't put so much pressure on yourself and the hypothetical person who's going to kiss you first, it'll be okay. I survived, I survived a full on garlic clove", he assures you and you both giggle again.

A comfortable silence settles in for a moment, you rest your cheek on top of your arm and sigh, reflecting on his words: you know damn well he's right through and through, you just wish you could help the blooming nervousness tugging at your insides. Because you know, realistically speaking, that no other guy will be as understanding and caring as Felix is, you've avoided dates and guys in general cause you subconsciously knew they would've made fun of you for being so unexperienced. Either that or they'd taken advantage of you.

"Do you think I should give this guy a chance?", you ask after a little while, lifting your head up and tucking your hair behind your ears, "you could. He might have been just trying to impress you when you went on that double date. If you end up not liking him even a little bit, you walk away, especially if he tries to do something you don't want him to do", he replies, smiling reassuringly at you. Maybe you should just follow his advice. Maybe finally going out with someone else will get rid of that blooming languor you feel for Felix. "You look like there's still a lot troubling your pretty little head", he adds then, studying your face, searching your eyes for something that you can't quite pin point, you laugh nervously and shrug, "I guess I'm just nervous. That's all. I won't force anything to happen between us, if I do end up going on that date, but part of me is still a little scared I guess", "what scares you?", he asks quietly, scooting closer to you, "messing up. Not knowing what do to and making a fool of myself cause I just never dated anyone, cause my ninth grade boyfriend doesn't count", you confess, laughing half heartedly at the silly little memory of what were basically ice cream play dates with that kid from your chemistry class that only lasted a few weeks.

Felix playfully nudges your shoulders and smiles that radiant smile at you, the one that could melt ice on the spot, "you won't mess up. Kisses have no particular technicalities, it'll come natural to you in the moment", he says giggling fondly at you, but when he sees that genuine worry and unease on your face he stops and just looks at you for a moment, kind eyes taking in your features one by one, "I can be your first kiss", he suggests, his voice low and firm but still sweet. Your heart skips more than a beat then, and you try your best not to let it show, "wha-what?, he shrugs and smiles cheekily," I'll kiss you if it means it'll make you feel a little less scared, I can see this is weighting down on your heart quite heavily and I hate seeing you so sad and nervous. I'd rather not take this away from you, not take the surprise element away from it but I'd also rather you experience it with someone you can trust and that cares about you so you can be be done with it than have you living with the highest expectations only to have them destroyed by someone who you're not so keen on".

You have to subtly pinch the skin on your forearm to make sure you're actually awake. You stare at him with eyes so wide you're afraid they're gonna pop off, you swallow down the sheer nervousness in your tone before daring to speak up again, "you-you would do that for me? Where's the catch? ", you try to sound light hearted and cheerful, not at all like your heart literally just stopped functioning for a second, you put on your best smile and he laughs cheerfully as well, "there is no catch. You get to over come your fear and be done with this once and for all and I get to kiss a pretty girl. That's it."

The way he slipped that compliment in there makes your heart rate pick up again but you don't have time to dwell on it because Felix is already leaning in. Oh god. Oh god this is happening. You psyche yourself into firmly convince your heart you're not going to pass out but as soon as you see Felix close his eyes and barely parting his lips you freak out and bend your head down cowardly, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I - sorry", you mumble, feeling your cheeks flushing a deep shade of red as you breathe out loudly, shaking your head in frustration, but he only smiles patiently at you, "that's okay, take your time", he instructs calmly, his voice so warm and low and soft all at once. He waits for you to lift up your head again slightly and squints his eyes at you, and there's that twinkle in them, there's that softness you wish you had the words to describe, "can I touch your face?", he asks quietly, barely brushing your cheek with his fingertips, "I'll just hold you gently, like this", he continues, cupping your chin and then your cheek again, thumb brushing the blush on your skin, "mmmh, y-yeah", you nod briefly, appreciating the way he's trying to make you feel more comfortable while still giving you a little space to breathe and regain your composure, which you do. Finally forcing down the knot in your throat and looking up into his eyes: "you wanna… Uhm.. - you wanna try that again? ", you offer, your heart beating so fast It drowns out the sound of your own breathing.

Pillowy soft. Like impalpable cotton. Felix's lips are on yours in the most delicate kiss. And then they're on top of yours, his top lip gently tapping your bottom one until your tongue meets his. The tip of his nose presses into yours until he angles his chin slightly to the side and his tongue flicks on your palate as he inhales deeply. He tastes faintly like peaches and whipped cream from his tea earlier and he smells like soap and like his expensive cologne, a hint of the brownies you had baked that morning.

You feel his hand still warm on your cheek he caresses it once, his lips full and sweet on yours once more. And then it's all over in what both feels the quickest and the most eternal second ever. You are flabbergastated and breathless from the adrenaline but you barely catch the stupor that flashes so fast in his eyes before they turn to their former melancholic selves as he lets go of you.

"Wasn't so scary now, was it?". Felix shrugs like nothing happened and looks as unphased as ever. He smiles briefly at you but it doesn't seem to reach his eyes. You nod and look down at your hands, the pictures of the moment you and him just shared burning deep in your head.

When you get back home that night you feel like crying for no reason at all.

Part 2, anyone?

#bang chan #changbin #hanjisung #hyunjin #lee felix #jeongin #lee know #lee minho #seungmin #stray kids #stray kids x reader #stray kids imagines #Skz #skz fluff #skz x reader #skz smut #skz imagines #stray kids ff #stray kids blurbs #stray kids preferences

[thewertsearch]

EB: my house is HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE! TT: Actually, building up your house has been one of the more trivial ways I've passed the time. TT: Great swaths of the structure may be copied and pasted with little architectural consideration.

Gravity took one look at the Medium, and threw in the towel.

It's clear that Sburb only pretends to be a house-building game. It was initially presented as a necessary step to reach the Gates, but it seems pretty easy to reach them with alchemy gear. Dave did it with zero grist.

Back in Act 3, Nanna implied that the building mechanic had a hidden objective, seemingly unrelated to the Gates. Maybe that's Rose's goal here - but then again, maybe not. After all, she seems to have turned against the game, rejecting its objectives.

...or at least, I think she has. I'm still not 100% sure how to interpret her recent behavior, or how much of it can be attributed to the Noble Circle. Guess there's only one way to find out.

TT: We have a lot of grist. [...] TT: Last I checked, more than a million units of several different types.

That's a lot of Pogo Hammers. It might even be enough for the original Fear No Anvil, the most expensive item we've encountered.

I wonder - is it enough for a really tiny universe?

TT: Shared, through an application. [...] TT: I convinced your nanna to install it on your computer. EB: you got her to do that? [...] TT: My methods of persuasion have been improving.

Nanna is John's sprite - and, pranks aside, she's here to help. I don't think it's weird that Rose was able to persuade her - but I am taking note of her phrasing.

"My methods of persuasion have been improving"? This is awfully vague, especially for someone who used to explain Sburb's mechanics so precisely. I guess she abandoned clear communication alongside her GameFAQs guide.

What skill, exactly, has Rose been honing? What, exactly, is she 'improving' at?

EB: what's up with the alchemiter? [...] TT: Upgrades. EB: did you get nanna to do that too? TT: No, your consorts were utilized for that. [...] TT: [...] They seem eager to receive simple instruction. TT: I'm guessing they find their way back to your house to allow the client player to remain productive while the server player is away.

There's clearly more to the Server Player's role than just building their Client's house. Rose implied that she's been engaged in other, less 'trivial' activities - but like I said, I have a sneaking suspicion that she's not talking about game objectives.

EB: i'm surprised they even understand what to do. TT: Like I said. TT: Coercion hasn't been much of a problem.

Again with this. Consorts seem impressionable, and I think it would be easy to enlist their help - but the language Rose is using here is suspicious as fuck.

Surely she's aware that her use of 'coercion' demands follow-up questions?

EB: uh… EB: what exactly does that mean? EB: what have you been doing this whole time??? TT: Why don't you tell me what you've been up to first?

Which she's dodging! Well, that's just great.

At least John is picking up what she's putting down. That's right, Egbert - something's up here.

#homestuck liveblog #full liveblog #act 5.2 #s58 #2682

[vampire-exgirlfriend]

Lips Like Lightning (Skin So Sweet)

Pairing: Modern Aegon II Targaryen x reader (3rd person)

Rating: E

Warnings: booze and smut, you know the drill

This is a gift for my sweet @jadore-andor, who I was lucky enough to get in the HotD server Holiday Exchange! She loves a wet cat man and there are few more drunk, sarcastic, and pathetic than Aegon in the Paper Crowns AU

masterlist

"You really think you're hot shit, don't you?" She asked, a derisive little laugh trailing behind her words, not bothering to raise her voice over the noise of the band that played the stage.

"Oh, I know I'm hot shit, darling," he answered, pulling his pageboy hat off, shaking his chin length hair from his eyes and leaning against the bar. The lights from the stage caught in the white blonde strands, setting them off blue and red and green and purple. "I'm Aegon." He held his hand out.

She just looked at him, her eyes darting back to his face. "Good for you, Aegon." Her fingers wrapped around the glass in front of her and she threw back the rest of her drink, a slight grimace on her face at the burn of the alcohol. She didn't usually drink, but it seemed fitting in the face of "new year, new her".

"...Targaryen," he finished, his brows pulling together in confusion, his hand dropping limply as she made no moves to take it. He watched almost helplessly as she glanced down at her phone, the time - 10:32 pm - flashing.

When she looked back up her gaze traveled over his figure, taking in his hideous vintage sweater, tight torn jeans, and scuffed boots. He was handsome, pretty even, with his violet eyes and pouting mouth, but utterly unfamiliar to her. "That's quite the name. You say it as if I'm supposed to know who you are."

Aegon smiled, a slow, sensual unfurling of his lips, a flash of white teeth. "You aren't from around here, are you?"

"Oh, not even close." She smirked back at him, a little lost in his eyes, tangled up in the strobing lights that flashed over his face.

His answering laugh was good natured, if a little manic. There was something wicked about him that she liked, something libertine, something chaotic. "Then the name doesn't really mean shit. Can I buy you a drink anyway?"

—

She nearly tripped over her own feet, Aegon's tipsy weight jerking her back as he gripped her hips. He pressed her into the elevator wall, his lips dragging over hers until she opened for him, laughing against his mouth and clinging to his shoulders. When he pulled back she pressed a fingertip to the dimple in his chin.

"You never told me your name," he whispered loudly.

She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth to keep from laughing, giving him her name, her cheeks heating as he repeated it back.

"You are lovely." His eyes danced over her figure, his hands wandering beneath her coat.

"And you are drunk," she teased.

He kissed her again and again and once more for good measure. "I assure you, love, I am always drunk. But I'm not blind."

The bell dinged before she could respond, the doors sliding open into a long hallway. Aegon pushed her out ahead of him, his hands on her hips guiding her to the door at the end. She was surprised when it didn't open with a key. He pressed his thumb to a little pad by the knob, the lock sliding free after a few seconds. When she glanced up toward the ceiling, a camera stared back, the little red light blinking down at her.

Maybe his name was more important than she initially thought.

But Aegon was nudging her through the door, peeling her coat from her shoulders and throwing it over the console table that sat just inside the entry to the loft, flicking on a lamp. She liked what she saw, surprised by the comfortable, lived-in nature of the loft. Framed concert posters hung on the exposed brick walls and a huge, low midnight blue sectional took up a chunk of the room, the floor covered in a mishmash of Turkish rugs. His record collection was impressive, everything from The Clash to Annie Lennox to Fleetwood Mac. Books and photos lined the shelves of massive built-ins, most featuring him and a troupe of matching pale blondes, their silver hair and violet eyes painting them all as family. In one was a girl, wrapped in a baby blue tulle dress and a leather jacket, a caterpillar crawling over her extended finger as she grinned excitedly. Another featured a young man with long hair and a sullen face, glaring at the camera and holding a pool stick, his middle finger aimed at the photographer - his right eye covered by a black patch. In a third was Aegon with a woman his own age, her chin resting on his head, her straight white hair falling around both of their faces like a curtain. Her eyes were closed while he rolled his, a wide smile on her pretty face, a cigarette in her hand. Suddenly, she was hit with the feeling that the man she'd come home with was nothing like the man she'd met at the bar. It was uncomfortable, the realization that they were both real people with real lives and that this was just a moment, a blip in time, a miniscule light in the dark.

But any light was better than none.

Tomorrow she would leave, heading home to Volantis to start the new year back in her real life. And Aegon Targaryen, whoever he was, would go back to the people in the pictures.

Music filtered in from hidden speakers, and she recognized the intro to Take It On The Run by REO Speedwagon. When she turned, she found him watching her, his eyes narrowed slightly before pasting a grin over his mouth and holding his hands up. "Like what you see?"

"I've spent the night in worse places," she answered, her brow raised in challenge. Her heels clicked on the concrete floor as she made her way to the couch, dropping to sit on the edge of the cushion. Aegon strode to where she sat and she craned her neck to look up at him.

"I want you." He said it as plain as day, no teasing or testing or playing, another layer peeled back to reveal the man beneath. "Do you want me?"

She considered him for a moment, but the heat licking behind her ribs had her nodding in answer. She wanted him to kiss her again, she wanted to devour him, she wanted to sink her teeth into him and not let go.

"How do you want me?" His eyes looked so soft in the dim glow of the lamp, the lights from the city below painting him silver and gold.

She blinked, the butterflies in her belly blooming into something more dangerous, something with talons, something hungry. "On your knees."

He fell before her without another word, looking up at her from beneath his sooty lashes, his palms resting against his thighs. After a moment, he dipped his head sarcastically in a bow, spreading his arms wide. Time stretched between them, heavy and tense and full of dark promise, before he reached for her foot, quick fingers surprisingly gentle as they unclasped the strap around her ankle. She jolted in surprise as her shoe hit the floor, the sound jarring over the quiet music that played in the background.

"A bit jumpy," he teased, hands sliding up her calf torturously slow, his eyes on hers. He lifted her leg, lowering his head, his breath warm as it ghosted over her heated flesh. His mouth was soft against her ankle, his teeth scraping lightly over her skin. Her fingers curled in the soft material of the blanket beneath her, her breath coming quicker as he kissed the delicate skin at the bend of her knee. Aegon nipped and sucked a constellation of bruises against her inner thigh, his other hand snaking beneath the hem of her dress, fingers curling in the fabric of her underwear. His eyes darted to hers, a grin pulling at the corners of his full mouth. "I'm going to keep these if that's alright with you."

"All yours," she answered, fighting to keep her voice steady as he tugged the scrap of fabric down her legs, stuffing it in the pocket of his jeans with a smirk. He stood and extended a hand, pulling her to her feet when she accepted.

The walk to his bedroom was short, her eyes fixated on his messy silver curls as she followed him down the hall. It was easy to fall into his bed, to prop herself against the green satin pillows while he reached back, tugging his ugly sweater over his head, revealing a body that was absolutely unfair. Hard muscle lay over his stomach, a few tattoos scattered over his pale skin. Over his heart was a little blue butterfly, landing gracefully on the hilt of a knife, the blade itself seemingly piercing his chest. The words "fire and blood" were scrawled over his ribs in a small, flowing font. And when he turned his head, she noticed a little smudge behind his ear. Pushing to her hands and knees, she leaned closer and saw it was a tiny dragon, peeking out from his hair. "I like this one," she murmured, sitting up and pressing her lips to the ink.

"My brother and sister have a matching one. And my nei -," he cleared his throat," my best friend, she has one too."

She couldn't help but smile at the little piece of himself that he shared, the knowledge that he loved his family, that despite his ridiculous facade, he was capable of having a friend who cared about him enough to mark her body in commemoration of their bond. "I think it's lovely." She nipped at his jaw, catching his lips in a kiss that left her feeling drunk.

"Do I need a condom?" He asked, dispelling the dreamy vulnerability of the moment as if he were uncomfortable with it, jerking his chin toward the bedside table. Her eyes followed his and she waffled for a moment. His voice softened as he looked back at her, realizing his misstep. "I'm clean, if that's what you're worried about. Test results are next to the condoms."

One last reckless night before going back to the real world - that's what this had started as. And to be honest, she wanted to feel him, to burn the sensations into her memory. "I'm clean," she said. "And I have an IUD."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Without another word, Aegon's hands found the zipper at the back of her dress, wasting no time in pulling it down, his fingers grazing each new inch of exposed skin. He peeled the thin straps from her shoulders, his lips dragging over her collarbone, tugging at the fabric until she was bared to him. Her own hands roamed over his chest, his ribs, his back, memorizing the feel of his body beneath her palms.

The low light from the salt lamp on the dresser painted her body in pink and gold shadows and she found she liked the way Aegon looked at her, like she was magic. The buckle of his belt hit the floor and he kicked out of his jeans, sliding his ridiculous tie-dye boxers down his muscled thighs before stretching out over top of her. She rolled him to his back, straddling his hips and tanging her fingers with his, dragging them to lay over his head.

"I love a woman that takes charge." His grin was cheeky, his tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip.

"Then you're in for a good time," she answered, leaning forward and stealing his laugh, brushing her tongue against his. His hips bucked beneath her and she ground down against the hard ridge of him, his mouth parting in a low whine.

It was impossible not to lose herself in Aegon. He was all unhurried kisses and calloused fingertips wandering over soft flesh. He was warm, like fresh spring, like buds breaking through once frozen ground. The most delicious noises fell from his lips and he responded to every touch, every murmur, his pulse thrumming beneath her lips. His hand slipped between them, fingers spreading her, sliding through the slick that had gathered there. And then he was inside her, curling his fingers forward against that soft spot up high, grinning wickedly when she cried out, sharp and surprised. His thumb rubbed lazy circles over her clit, winding her up tighter and tighter until she lost her composure, grinding down against him for more, more, more, taking what she needed.

She came in a hot rush, her back arching, her thighs trembling on either side of Aegon's thighs, her nails digging into the muscle of his shoulders.

"Yeah, that's so fucking good," he said, his eyes revenant as he watched her come down, her eyes glassy and mouth parted. "You make the best sounds."

She dropped her weight, sliding over his length, grinning when he dropped his head back, the veins in his neck prominent. "Don't make it weird." Looking between them, she watched the way she parted around him, the blunt head of his cock nudging her clit. It was obscene. It was ridiculously hot.

His hands found her hips, fingers digging in almost painfully to hold her still. "It's not weird. Shut up and let me compliment you."

She wrapped her fingers around his length, thick enough that the tips only just touched, and guided him to her entrance. The stretch felt near impossible and she was sure she would split in half, rocking her hips gently to mold around him. Aegon shook with the effort to not plant his feet and drive up into her, to break her open and fuck her the way he so desperately wanted to.

Next time. He would make sure there was a next time.

When he was finally buried inside her, she held her breath, adjusting to the feel of him. He moaned when she rolled her hips, the sound somewhere between a growl and a groan, her pace a lazy grind. Sweat broke out on his brow, his grip on her waist tightening as she dragged her clit over his pubic bone; it straddled the line between too much and not enough. Without warning, Aegon pushed himself up, wrapping his arms around her, one hand tangling in her hair and dragging her mouth to his. There was nothing gentle about the way he kissed her now, urging her on as he thrust his hips beneath her. His other hand rose to cup her breast, his thumb trailing over her peaked nipple. Her head dropped back on her shoulders and Aegon leaned forward, scraping his teeth over the column of her throat. The pleasure was nearly blinding, the heat that had pooled low in her belly spreading outward to glow in her chest.

"Aegon," she moaned. "I'm so close."

"I can feel it," he bit out between clenched teeth, pressing his face to her chest. "You're so fucking tight, you're gonna make me come."

"Not til I say so." Her words were clipped as she chased her release. It bloomed like wildfire, sudden and raging and seemingly without end. Aegon grunted, shifting his hips and dropping her back against the blankets. His thrusts were hard, so deep it stole her breath as she clenched around him, still fluttering. One of his hands found hers, raising it lay above her head, fingers tangling.

"Let me come, baby," he murmured against her mouth. "Haven't I been good for you?"

"Hmm," she mused, her lips curling in a grin before a whine split them. The overstimulation was almost too much and she felt her pleasure ripple over her, heavier this time, pulling her down and she broke apart around him again. "God," she groaned. "You're good, you're so good, Aegon. Come for me."

His teeth sank into the soft flesh of her neck and his spine went rigid as he came, his hips stilling, burying himself as deeply as he could in her heat. She felt it as he made a mess of her. Aegon didn't raise his head, even after he was spent, and she felt him tremble, his breath shaky against her chest. Untangling their hands, she ran her fingers over his back in a soothing gesture until their breathing evened out, their heartbeats slowing. He nuzzled her cheek and she couldn't wipe the smile from her face if she tried. After a few long moments, she nudged him, rolling him off of her to sprawl over the sheets.

"Bathroom?" She asked.

He pointed toward a door on the left side of the room and she pushed from the bed, thighs clenched as she darted from the room.

She cleaned up quickly, almost afraid to look at her reflection. The mirror showed her what a mess she was, hair mussed, teeth marks scattered over her chest, lips red and kiss swollen. She washed her hands and swiped the smeared mascara from under her eyes before heading back to the bedroom. Reaching down to the floor, she scooped up his hideous sweater, pulling it over her own head and running her fingers through her hair to smooth out the snarls.

"It suits you," he teased and she scrunched her nose at him.

"That's not really a compliment," she said with a laugh. A dark bruise lay over his pulse point in the shape of her mouth and she smiled, happy to not be forgotten easily when she left in a few hours.

Fireworks exploded outside of the penthouse window, a kaleidoscope of colors bursting from the other side of the city, misting the room in gold and green and silver and red. She crawled back into bed and Aegon yanked her closer, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her to lie against his chest. "Happy New Year, you," he said softly, kissing her forehead.

"Happy New Year, you," she answered, brushing the hair away from his eyes before pulling him on top of her, kissing his smile and wrapping a leg around his waist.

#aegon ii targaryen x reader #aegon ii x reader #aegon ii targaryen #aegon ii #house of the dragon fic #hotd #hotd fic #house of the dragon #my fic

[terraliensvent]

On behalf of someone not in the server, /what/ is the whole myo scandal going on rn? Did they hand out fake myos...? Did they revoke paid myos....? Did staff trade illegal myos to people....??? I'm lost.

OK SO im just gonna give a whole summary of the events of the past few days since it seems a lot of people are confused (also i dont have screenshots EVERYTHING what im about to say, but this is just what i remember from personally seeing it. ill link posts as they come along for context):

the other night, when staff made this announcement regarding coy, shit started to hit the fan pretty fast

this announcement came after almost a full 2 days of weird behavior from staff, like how a lot of them put almost all their terras up for trade and how there was basically radio silence with the staff questions and design concept channels going unanswered. a lot of people noticed how suspicious this was, and this anon was pretty on the money with their theory

so suffice to say everyone was pretty much on the edge of their seats waiting for something big, and after the announcement was made the entire server basically exploded. in the chaos of people trading and running around like chickens with their heads cut off, the mods said they would approve anything submitted to the site. they said they were doing this so they could make the species as bad as possible for when coy took it over, and mods were in the server being very apathetic about it and having an attitude like “idgaf what happens now because we have been getting treated like shit so this is finally the consequences.” this attitude can be seen in the screenshots included here too

during this chaos, people could also ask for myos to be uploaded to their acc for free, which mods would do. so tons of people got “illegitimate” myos. people used their illegal myos and real myos that had been purchased before the downfall to upload tons of characters and some joke characters too, like one that was just a PNG of ellen. during this huge chaos, people were also hating on coy and freely talking about things they disliked about how the species was run as opposed to the chokehold toxic positivity attitude that the server usually had. truly the most euphoric the server has ever been. some coy meat rider was also defending them, and got really aggressive about it and telling people to go fuck themselves (for which they got banned). someone else also made a branch-off server so people could stay in contact with their friends from the terra community seeing as the future was totally uncertain

after a while the “we are approving everything” stopped, and things were a bit more quiet. temul and some mods joined the branch-off server and gave some more deets about the shit coy would do. i also made my Big Post; initially this post was just gonna be positive stuff about how i has a discussion with tycho about suggesting things for the species, but after the announcement was made i was given screenshots to post here by a mod so i just threw it all in the same post. the Big Post made public opinion of coy a lot worse since now there were animal abuse allegations being talked about, but later on with further scrutiny the conclusion was reached that the screenshot was mainly coy exaggerating to try and be funny, but miserably failing. either way, public opinion of coy was and still is totally in the shitter.

the next day, mods put out another announcement that can be summed up as “lol sorry guys everyone get back to business” which is total bs to me considering the shit they were saying the very night before. so now they wanna try and reign in this species when they already did irreparable damage, and now people are switching up and acting like nothing ever happened (i assume its because mods are gonna be looking for new staff soon and they want a piece of the pie lmao)

to fix the monumental fucking issue they created for no reason, they put out another announcement (which i forgot to post here oops sorry pookies)

so basically what theyre gonna do is:

- if you uploaded character(s) that night using illegal MYO(s), you can choose ONE to unvoid (with any changes that need to be made in order to be legal if you have illegal traits and stuff, like for example eyes + mouth), the unvoided terra will be account bound and non voucherable

- if you had an illegal myo from that night but DIDNT use it, or if you didnt get any illegal myos at all, there will be a form to fill out where you can get one free MYO that will create any subtype up to modified (meaning no limited subtypes), the MYO will be account bound until designed. theyre also in the process of figuring out whether theyll give people the choice of using x amount of lim traits or having the terra be voucherable. some of it is still up in the air

- if you used a legal myo to upload your terra, there will be a process a little down the line for you to get your myo and any items back

and this is where were at now, people in the terra server are acting like everythings normal and going along with the toxic positivity mob once more, people in the branch-off server are freely expressing their grievances as they did that night, and im pissed off because i think its a little unfair that people will get to unvoid their lim terras meanwhile other people only get up to a modified. hand out lim myos instead of modified, why are we STILL doing the artificial scarcity youre all acting just like coy

#terras is over party #explanation

[tsarisfanfiction]

Eclipse: Chapter 27

Fandom: Trials of Apollo Rating: Teen Genre: Family/Adventure Characters: Apollo, Hades Unsurprisingly, the ichor warning continues for this chapter... I have a discord server for all my fics, including this one!  If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi! <<Chapter 26

APOLLO XXVII

Mother of monsters And her horrific husband We can’t win this fight

Apollo was terrified.  It was taking everything he had to stay upright, to not fall over in an ungainly lump of ichor and leaking essence as his form desperately tried to heal, but without a miracle, he couldn’t see how they were going to escape the monstrous couple.

It wasn’t even his looming erasure from existence that terrified him the most; he’d faced that before, with Python on the very edge of Chaos, and it was hardly a comfortable feeling but it paled in comparison to dark glittering eyes and the knowledge that the moment he fell, Will would be Styx’s.

Perhaps Koios was right, and he’d been trying too hard to fulfil the prophecy after all.

Typhon responded in a language long dead before Apollo had been born, the rumbling noise of an off-key orchestra as clashing sounds pierced through his essence, words unintelligible.  The elongated, bloated fingers tipped with serpentine heads – what was it with monsters and snakes – were easier to understand as they lashed out at Hades.

His uncle slashed back desperately, cutting off the snake heads of the first to reach him, but he was off balance and barely holding himself together.  Apollo had no weapons, no time to even try and summon a fresh bow from the distant Overworld – and never had the Overworld felt so far away as it did at that moment – but he couldn’t just stand by as his uncle was torn to shreds.

Koios got there first, massive sword blocking the initial onslaught.  “We will make it to the surface,” he grit out, his countenance devoid of amusement for the first time since he’d caught up with them and made things complicated and threatening in ways Apollo really didn’t want to deal with.

There was something about his insistence that had been bothering Apollo.  The future wasn’t solid, nothing more than a trail of potentials unless events fell in the exact manner to draw one into existence, and Koios should know that at least as well as Apollo did – better, arguably.

And yet.

Koios was convinced that he would make it to the surface, had mentioned his sister but not his mother, and Nico and Will had been talking about Artemis, so it made sense.  Apollo was certain that his grandfather had seen it, not just as a possibility but as a very, very rare certainty that Apollo in four and a half millennia had never experienced himself.  Even now, the Fates had shown him nothing of the sort, but it wouldn’t be the first time they hadn’t shown him something important.  For all that he did see, he didn’t see far more, and he could believe that Koios saw different things.

The only thing that was missing was how.

How they were going to get out of Tartarus – how they were going to get away from Typhon and Echidna long enough to even try.

Bob had joined the fray, spinning his broken spear aggressively to keep Typhon back, but it only seemed to be extending the inevitable.  Apollo threw himself closer, letting out a shout because his voice was the only weapon he had left, but Typhon was so loud he didn’t seem to even notice.  A tail swept past him, catching him in the stomach and smashing him into Hades, which in turn sent them like skittles into the titans.

They landed in an ichor-covered mess at one of Typhon’s feet.

Being so thoroughly beaten had become a second nature to Apollo as a mortal, when Lester could barely fight in the first place, but as Apollo, as a god, it was alien.

Not even Python had been this powerful, but Typhon had always been known as the strongest of Gaia’s children, had sent them scattering to Egypt the first time they saw him for a reason.  Adding Echidna into the mix hadn’t even been necessary.

“The way out?” Koios hissed, detangling himself from his position at the bottom of the heap.  Apollo found himself flung to the ground and clawed his way upright slowly, feeling more than seeing his uncle’s dark essence trying to pull itself together again.  He reached out his own, battered essence to support Hades – if he couldn’t fight, he could at least heal – and felt the streak of light within his uncle respond sluggishly.

“A way out?” Echidna repeated, laughing lightly behind her fangs.  “There isn’t one, titan.  You will cease to exist here and now.”

There was a crack, too sharp and crisp to be natural, or Tartarus tearing up beneath them.  The resulting force shoved the monsters back a pace, but Apollo wasn’t looking at them anymore, not when two massive doors had appeared right in front of him.

For the briefest moment, Apollo’s startled mind thought that somehow the doors to Olympus had reached Tartarus, before he realised that the colours were all wrong – black and silver in place of white and gold – and that the disembodied frames were the pitch darkness of Stygian Iron.

Then they opened.

“Lord Hades!” Thanatos called, as pale as Apollo had ever seen him – the exact shade of pale he’d been in his vision – but gripping his scythe in a way that was clearly meant for battle.  “Lord Apollo!”

“Th-” Hades began, but Apollo wasn’t hesitating and wasn’t going to let his uncle hesitate either.  His vision in the prison hadn’t been the present, it had been the future and that future was now, Thanatos had felt Tartarus rising, realised that they would never escape without help, and for reasons Apollo couldn’t even begin to fathom, come to get them.

There was no time for any other thoughts, for everything else Apollo had seen in the vision and their implications.  He grabbed his uncle and ran.  Hades didn’t fight him, missing the context Apollo had but clearly realising what Thanatos’ presence meant: a way out.  It was hardly graceful or elegant; neither of them were much more than spilling essence barely contained within an ichor-coated, fragile form.

“No!” Echidna roared, echoed innumerable times by Typhon’s deep growl.  She lunged for them, but Thanatos was there, his scythe blocking the massive body and covering them as Apollo and Hades all but fell through the Doors of Death, a bright streak of golden ichor in their wake.

Bob tumbled through after them, and then, to Apollo’s resigned horror, Koios barged his way in just as Thanatos retreated after them, scythe whirling and slashing in a way the god of peaceful death rarely used – but not never, and it was clear Thanatos knew how to be violent and vicious as he opened up a gash along Echidna’s flank, hacked off reaching snake-headed fingers as Typhon reached for him, then took the split second opening of their clear surprise at a god not known for his combat causing them injury to turn tail and fly through the doors.

They slammed shut the instant the last iridescent black feather of his wings passed through, and everything shifted.

“Who is pressing the button?” Koios demanded.  “What is stopping them from following?”  His sword was still at the ready as he warily watched the closed doors.

Thanatos ignored him, crouching down by Hades and Apollo as they slowly pulled themselves together.  “I trust your business is concluded, Lord Hades,” he said, with a glance at Bob.

“It had better be,” Hades replied, his voice slightly husky – not that Apollo could comment when he was in at least as much of a state.  “I am not returning there.”

That was a sentiment Apollo whole-heartedly agreed with.

Koios, on the other hand, didn’t appear to take being ignored kindly as he bashed his sword into the floor hard enough that the ichor pooling around them splashed up.

“Have you trapped us here?” he demanded.  Even Bob looked disquieted, and Thanatos finally turned to face the titans, looking extremely unimpressed.

“These are my Doors,” he said firmly.  “Unlike titans who steal them and then bastardise their use, I do not need outside influence to use them.  We will shortly arrive in the Overworld.”

“You are no match for Tartarus, Typhon or Echidna,” Koios retorted.  “They will pry these open and follow.”

“They won’t,” Thanatos replied, with a certainty that even paused the aggressive titan.  “There are no chains.”

“The Doors are no longer in the Pit, are they?” Bob realised.  “They moved.”

“The Doors of Death do not belong in Tartarus,” Hades said, straightening up fully.  His form had fully coalesced again, although Apollo could tell it was still fragile, more a mask than a reflection of his true state.  Apollo stood next to him, and was only somewhat startled when his uncle clasped his arm and his essence extended towards him, not mingling but the intent there.

Before this experience, Apollo would never have considered being able to mutually heal with his uncle, let alone actually doing it.  If Hades was willing to do it in front of Thanatos – in front of the titans, although he suspected Koios had seen it already, if he’d been following them as long as he claimed – then Apollo wouldn’t refuse.

Besides, they still had Koios to deal with.  He was dangerous – not that Bob wasn’t, but they had an accord with him and a mutual interest.  With Koios, there was none of that, and that worried Apollo.  Was Koios truly just looking to escape Tartarus, or did he have more intentions?  Was his vision of being out with Apollo and Artemis truly enough for him to throw himself into the worst Tartarus had to offer?

Apollo feared it wasn’t.

He clasped Hades’ arm in turn, and let the light of Elysium, of the Isle of the Blessed and rebirth mingle with his own light of healing.  Thanatos glanced back at them in surprise, but didn’t comment.

“I was not expecting you, titan of the north,” the god of death said instead, focusing his attention on Koios.  “Iapetus – Bob? – I was aware would be there, but there was no mention of you.”

Koios scoffed.  “I would not be so sure about that,” he said.  “Tell me, grandson, what was the exact wording of that prophecy you’ve been attempting to subvert?”

Apollo bristled.  “I have not been attempting to subvert it!” he insisted; the titan was wrong, he’d claimed it as his own, and with two – no, three, he realised, the golden ichor running across the floor of the Doors catching his attention – lines now coming to pass, he was confident that the Fates had accepted his and Hades’ claim.

“Are you not supposed to be the god of truth?” Koios laughed.  “But if you want to lie to yourself, that is of no concern to me – the prophecy, Phoebus.”

“We are no longer in the Pit,” Bob added.  “You said you would reveal it once we were out.”

Apollo sighed, but felt the words build in his throat regardless.

Sunshine and darkness go deeper than earth Topaz and silver search for rebirth Gold passes through the shadow of death A fading light to take one final breath

“One more line to go,” Koios observed, and Apollo disliked that he’d unravelled the meanings of the first three lines so easily, but Apollo’s own prophetic domains had been inherited from the titan side of his lineage – not just his maternal grandmother but his grandfather as well.  If there was anyone else in existence who could tell when prophetic lines had come to pass, it was his maternal titan ancestors.

“One more line to go,” he agreed reluctantly, gesturing at the golden ichor they’d dragged through the Doors of Death when Hades and Thanatos looked at him in askance.  No-one needed explanation for the first two.  As for the single one still to go, it was, as the final lines of prophecies tended to be, the direst one.

Thanatos walked over to the closed doors and pushed them open.  “We’ve arrived.”

Koios was the first to barge past, almost knocking Thanatos aside in his determination to get out.  The god of death looked at him disparagingly before fixing Apollo and Hades with a stare.  “I could not stop him from entering, but did he have to be with you?” he asked in clear disapproval.

“It seems as though he did,” Hades grumbled.  Interestingly, Bob didn’t protest at their complaints at his brother’s escape; perhaps the titan realised how much of an issue Koios might be, loose in the Overworld.

Realising that they had to do something about him before the other gods – his father – realised that not one, but two titans had escaped Tartarus, Apollo reluctantly separated from Hades, putting a stop to their mutual healing as he followed his grandfather out into the Overworld.

They emerged in the large, dark hall of the Necromanteion, a temple Apollo hadn’t spent much time in but recognised nonetheless, even if he hadn’t already known that it was the location of the mortal, unmoving, side of the Doors of Death.  They were underground, but compared to the depths of the Pit they’d just – miraculously – escaped from, it felt like he was on top of the world.  Strength swelled as he ran after the titan, before remembering what being out of Tartarus meant and simply dematerialising, appearing outside the temple, under the fresh air and the sun as it passed to the west.

It felt like Sol was the one covering that shift, and Apollo spared a moment to watch it on its downwards arc – dusk was approaching, soon Artemis would take to the skies in her chariot for the night.  Despite the lateness of the day, the warmth of the sun revitalised him further, and with a thought, a new bow materialised in his hand, his quiver filled to the brim with arrows.

Everything that Tartarus had tried to take from him was back, or near enough.  He was still wearied, weakened from the ichor loss he hadn’t fully replenished, but bathed in the rays of his own celestial domain, he felt stronger.

“Phoebus,” Koios greeted.  The titan had stopped just outside the temple, likewise looking up at the sky.  “Join me.”  He gestured for Apollo to approach, seemingly unconcerned that he was fully armed again.  Then again, he, too, was standing stronger, wounds closing with his hand draped over the hilt of his sword.  “Your sister is coming.”

Artemis was.  Apollo could feel her clearly, the moon to his sun on a collision course.

He could also feel that she was not happy.

Koios gestured again, and warily Apollo stepped closer, staying out of immediate sword range.  “It’s a shame Leto and Phoebe aren’t here,” he commented, almost idly.  “It would have been nice to have the whole family.”  He shrugged.  “I will have to find them.”

“What do you want, Koios?” Apollo asked, aware of Hades and Bob behind them, not intervening but present.  Thanatos was nowhere to be felt, but Apollo had not expected him to stay.

Knowing his uncle was there, that if Koios attacked, he wouldn’t be alone, was a strange yet comforting feeling.

“Freedom,” the titan said, “much the same as you, grandson.”

“I have freedom,” Apollo dismissed, ignoring the small voice in the back of his head that pointed out he wanted to be able to do more than the Ancient Laws allowed.

Koios laughed, full of humour but also derision.  “The freedom to be stripped mortal whenever you displease your father?” he challenged.  “The freedom to cower behind as many masks as you can conjure rather than risk making the wrong enemy?  You have a strange way of saying the truth, Phoebus.”

Apollo was saved from finding an answer to the titan who knew far too much for his liking – titan of knowledge, he couldn’t not remember, Koios was somehow worse than Athena – by a bolt of silver light exploding into existence in front of him.

Artemis had never been a fool, and a single glance around the scene had her pinning Apollo with a heavily disapproving look.  “Phoebus Apollo, what have you done?”

Despite himself, Apollo couldn’t help giving her a genuine smile.  “It’s good to see you, too, dear sister,” he said.  Almost automatically, he took a step closer to her, further from Koios.

“Granddaughter,” the titan interrupted, and Artemis’ silver eyes snapped from assessing Apollo – and no doubt racking up an entire list of grievances to air at him in the process – to instead inspect the ice-blue titan.  “Artemis, yes?”

They had the same eyes, Apollo realised, seeing his twin and their grandfather regard each other, clearly assessing.  Artemis’ posture was rigid, the fact that she was in her favourite pre-pubescent form doing nothing to detract from the way she was as taut as a drawn bowstring.

“Koios,” she said after a moment, no doubt but plenty of suspicion in her voice.  “You should be in the Pit.”

“And yet, here I am,” Koios replied, spreading his arms and bestowing a smile upon them.  It was a self-satisfied look, not a kind smile.  “Thanks to Phoebus here.”

“You forced your way out,” Apollo corrected hurriedly, sensing his twin’s increasing ire and feeling the need to set the story straight.  “You were never the aim.”

“But Iapetus was,” Artemis said, looking far more terrifying than twelve year old girls had any right to – not even Meg could hold a candle to a four and a half millennia old goddess, even if they looked of an age.  “Apollo.  Are you trying to be punished again?  Father is furious at your disappearance; once he realises exactly what you’ve done…”  She trailed off, seemingly unable or unwilling to elaborate further.  She didn’t need to.

“There is a way to prevent punishment,” Koios murmured, drawing both Apollo and Artemis’ attention back to him.  The fading light of the sun reflected off of his cold, cold eyes, calculating at best and a promise of cruelty at worst.  The smile he gave them was too full of teeth, too full of malice for Apollo to trust it for even a moment.

Artemis’s bow materialised in her hand, an open sign of her own mistrust.  “And that is?” she demanded, with the air that she knew she wouldn’t approve of whatever their grandfather had in mind.

“He can’t punish Phoebus if he isn’t in any position to do so,” Koios said slowly.  Behind him, Apollo felt Hades lurch forwards.  “Or you, nephew.”  The titan had also noticed.  “You asked what I wanted,” he said, addressing Apollo directly.  “What I want is that tyrant gone, for those upstart gods who mocked me to grovel at my feet, knowing that they will never rule again.”  He glanced sideways, where Hades had halved the gap between the two of them and was standing a little way away from Apollo.  “You are different, Hades.  Your brother rewarded you for your help by shutting you away, too, did he not?  Then you protected my brother, when you could and should have handed him over, and finally came to rescue him.  I have no interest in the Underworld; so long as you do not oppose me, I would be perfectly content to leave you alone in turn.”

“You want to overthrow Olympus,” Artemis said bluntly.  “Did you learn nothing from your previous attempt?”

“From my youngest brother’s attempt, you mean?” Koios corrected.  “None of those plans were of my devising, but yes, I learned plenty.  Your father has held that throne far too long; how can you call yourselves gods when you whimper and cower behind masks and shields, constantly in fear of your own father’s retribution?  Sometimes,” he grinned, all sharp again, “fathers need to be disposed of.  Isn’t that right, brother, Hades?”

“No,” Artemis said sharply, before either could respond.  “Your father, and the Crooked One, but if you insist on extending that to my father, I will stop you here and now.”

“Even if it’s the only way to save Phoebus from his wrath?” Koios pressed.

“No,” Apollo agreed.  He remembered previous attempts to talk Zeus down, even overthrow him, and they had never worked – and Artemis was right, Koios had not just spoken about Zeus.  All the gods that had opposed him, save Hades so long as Hades did not fight back – Olympus.

Apollo could never stand aside and let Olympus fall.

He glanced up at the darkening sky, disconcerted at the lack of thunder or lightning.  Koios was forcing them to talk about treason – surely Zeus would have noticed by now?  Once, Apollo might have thought Zeus was waiting to see what their response would be, but in recent centuries, even a hint had been enough for the lightning to come down.  The silence was disconcerting.

“No?” Koios repeated.  “Phoebus, do you want to be punished?  If I was not clear, I am offering for you, children of my beloved daughter, to join with me.  You would be honoured, finally in the position beings as fine as you should always have been.  Even if you are too afraid to stand against your father, all you have to do is stand aside.”

Instinctively, Apollo and Artemis stood closer together, close enough for the familiarity of his twin’s essence to wash over and through his, and despite their differences, despite Artemis’ disapproval at his various antics across the millennia, especially those their father had deemed rebellious, he could feel nothing but a thrum of agreement in this.

It was the same feeling they’d had when Tityos had tried to rape their mother, when Niobe had boasted of being a better mother than the titaness of motherhood herself.  The moment of being fully in sync, two halves of one whole.

Koios could not be allowed to tear down Olympus.

As fast as thought, golden and silver arrows combined flew towards the titan, who growled as he ducked away, his massive sword coming up to act as a shield.

“Do not be foolish, Phoebus, Artemis!” he scolded.  “The glory days of Olympus have passed; she will fall, and you will fall with her if you do not step away now.”

There was Koios’ certainty again, an absolute confidence in an unchangeable future, but this time, Apollo wasn’t so convinced that he was right.  He’d seen Olympus crumble, stones cascading down and the mountain turning to the same broken shell Mouth Othrys had been for his entire existence, yes, but he’d also seen her thriving, glorious days that spanned millennia more.  Apollo had seen possibilities, different paths that the future could still take, and even now, faced with Koios’ certainty, not all of those paths belonged to defeated potentials.  Many, many still laid open, Olympus’ fate far from sealed.

“No,” he said, calm and measured.  Certain in his own way.  “One day, in the far future, the time of the Olympians will come to an end, but not now.  Not from this.”

“We are Olympians,” Artemis added, as though she thought Koios needed reminding of that.  “We are loyal to Olympus.  If you insist on attacking, then you are our enemy.  Sometimes, it is the grandfathers that must fall.”

Rage flashed through icy blue eyes, but Apollo and Artemis were ready for Koios’ attack and scattered, arrows flying in their wake.  There was no delay between thought and materialisation now, no split second of weakness as Apollo was unguarded, unarmed.

“Iapetus!” the titan barked, stamping his foot and summoning a wave of ice that rushed to Apollo.  He shimmered out of existence just before it struck, reappearing in mid-air with the setting sun at his back, and let loose another barrage.

Bob moved, stepping forwards, but his spear was still half-broken, and he seemed hesitant.  “Brother-”

He was stopped by Hades, the god gripping his arm tightly.  “Koios would see the demigods you promised to protect dead,” Apollo heard his uncle say.  “It is not just Olympus he wants to destroy.”  The underlying threat was there; if Bob stepped in, if Bob turned on them, then their alliance was moot and Hades, too, would join the fray.

“I am aware,” Bob said, his voice hard.  “I will keep my word, Hades.  I had plenty of time to think in that cell; I know that you showed me mercy, the day Nico brought me to you.  More than that, you protected me, for reasons I still cannot fathom.  We were mortal enemies from the moment you were born, and yet when you had the chance to destroy me, millennia later, you did not.  And if a god can do that, then so can a titan.”

“You were always the most honourable,” Hades replied.

“Iapetus!” Koios shouted again, dodging a hail of golden arrows and ending up in the path of the silver projectiles instead.

“My name is Bob, Koios,” the titan called back, crossing his arms.  “Why do you insist on doing this, brother?  Our brothers are gone; the age of titans is passed.  We should co-exist with the gods, not seek to destroy them.”

Koios roared, and Apollo took advantage of his split-second distraction to plant an arrow in the small of his back, knocking him forwards half a pace.  Artemis drove several arrows towards his front; off-balance, Koios didn’t manage to block all of them, and received a silver shaft to his shoulder.  “You’ve gone soft, Iapetus!” he snarled.  “You were always the weak one but now you’re just pathetic!  Co-exist with the gods?  Did your memories come back diluted of the atrocities they did to us?  Was millennia in Tartarus not enough to teach you that the gods will never be our allies?  The time of the gods has run its course; it is time for the titans to return.”

“Kindness is not softness!” Bob replied.  “How is it that for everything you see, brother, you have never seen that?  I will be kind, now, as Hades, Phoebus and the demigods have shown me is possible, but I will not be soft.  Stop this madness, brother, and I will stand by you, but not until then.”

Koios let out a howl of betrayal.

Chapter 28>>

#trials of apollo #trials of apollo fanfiction #riordanverse #riordanverse fanfic #pjo apollo #pjo hades #pjo bob #pjo iapetus #pjo koios #pjo typhon #pjo echidna #pjo thanatos #pjo artemis #tsari writes fanfiction #eclipse

[quinn-of-aebradore]

a little while back @fireryn and @kmackatie tagged me in this and I am finally getting to it XD thank you lovelies, I appreciate it very much 💜💜

last song listened to: was Right to Die by AlicebanD on the bus home this afternoon! It's on a couple of my playlists, but I was initially listening to the Firebird album from Dirt Poor Robins and then it went into recommendations when that was done XD

currently reading: oh boy, I have not been reading for the last little while. I did pick up the first issue of Artie's Tales of Exandria on my birthday and I'm probably going to read that (finally) tomorrow?

currently watching: a couple of things, but mainly it's been Dungeon Meshi and Warrior with my dad! Dungeon Meshi is obviously very up my alley and I know spoilers for what's up next and I am SO excited for things to get weird. Warrior (which is on Netflix) was initially just something we threw on because we couldn't find something else, but me and my dad have been uh, obsessed. Western set 1870's in San Francisco that centers on the conflict between Chinese immigrants and the Irish working class, the conflicts between the gangs within Chinatown, so much political intrigue on all sides, everyone is messy and complicated, it's an excellent time. Also, literally in the midst of a TLOVM rewatch with the soup server rn XD

currently obsessed with: as clear by the above, Warrior has a pretty tight hold on my brain right now XD also been vibing with my Shadowgast Candela Obscura AU. Gotten back into playing Stardew Valley in anticipation of the update. Always obsessed with CR.

tagging: @spottedenchants @flashhwing @watcherswill @glossolali @fjorests-of-wildemount @wanderingbasilisk @rainbowcaleb and anyone else who wants in :3

#tag game

[thelocalconstellation]

hold on I know I briefly mentioned my origins mod based escapades when I commented on why Viking should in fact be feared and why also dominon fix I think was probably underestimated but does anybody want to hear about some of the weird shit I pulled. No? Too bad.

I was the resident enderian. Spawn was this tiny tiny fuckoff island about 8 blocks from the main continent. Yeah it wasn't that bad. By the time I was added to the server somebody had built a tunnel across so I was not melted trying to get to a tree. This was the first like, big thing I'd done since 1.14, and unfortunately the server got like. updated, rebooted, and I don't think anybody has logged on in years, so I cannot provide screenshots, but here's the thing. The main continent was adjacent to the ocean.

so when deciding on a spot to build my house, I picked the most reasonable spot for somebody allergic to water.

About 30 blocks off the coast of the continent, straight up On The Water. I then proceeded to build the worlds most obnoxious tower that I was planning having stretch to build limit (unfortunately I never got there due to server shutdown) but as part of my house, I had no stairs for a Solid chunk of time. I solved this by having platforms I'd teleport to. Everybody else? Uh. They didn't. I eventually added stairs but until then uh. I have no idea how they navigated.

For a solid chunk of time my storage consisted of 6 single chests and my inventory. I think at some point the server owner made me a basement and put an automatic storage system in there, I never used it. It was small and I just. never used it. I have never used an auto sorter I have never built one and uh. Yeah.

My backyard was fuckin strange though. Because yeah, Big Obnoxious Tower in the middle of the ocean? There's no backyard. it was all built by me. It started as a small farm so I could make a food thing that worked much better than standard food. Then I pathed out a little more and added a tree growing platform. And branched off for eventually a turtle farm, a sugar cane farm, and a creeper/mob grinder. I got sick of placing trap doors eventually and gave up trying to make it creepers only but I want you to imagine this eyesore of a creeper grinder guys.

Not only was it likely far, far taller than any sane creature would have ever suggested (I've made taller ones now, that were fully creepers btw.) but it was also made of netherrack. And had a small portion of dark oak planks iirc. and it just came down this obsidian tube because the creepers hated everything I live for and a pair of trap doors that were supposed to be a step stool for the inchling and the vex. tiny little bastards. anyways the vex (who is named E btw. yeah we just call him E I'm related to this fucker.) never flipped the trapdoors back down? I promised him vengeance for this crime. he never logged on I. The Least active player and there were guys I've never met.

anyways. I later added an axolotl tank. and an excessively large farm. and there was also a bee enclosure. the chicken farm always was and forever will be Something to me. the turtle farm was because I could use scutes to make water resistance potions and I kept taking damage from the water (for obvious reasons.)

I had the Villager Pit, known as I dug out 4 chunks drove all 6 villagers in the village into the pit using boats, sealed it, and then proceeded to place down enough beds to cover the entire area and threw bread and vegtables at them regularly. this was before I learned how to properly wrangle villagers. I built another huge fuckoff farm on top of this and mobs spawned underneath it all the damn time. I actually had the waypoint for this place saved as "PIA - Potentially Illegal Activities" due to the severe villager mistreatment that undoubtedly took place. Including the initial unintentional massacre. the server was on normal for a solid bit of time until it got shuffled to hard purely for the sake of my lag zone.

there were over 200 villagers there, most of which sat and did nothing. I got weirdly good at separating zombie villagers into their own slots before curing them. I did this by infecting them like. 20 at a time and then dragging the zombie back to his containment hole. it was absolute anarchy I've never done villagers that way again and I never plan to.

My mine was on another continent a few hundred blocks out and I remember taking probably about 5-10 minutes to run all the way back from the end of my tunnel where I was mining to get back home. this was with me teleporting my ass off by the way I was not walking guys.

I had a massive castle build planned and I spent so much time clearing the 13 x 17 chunks to build it in and I never actually got around to building it and it also likely didn't help that it was 80 thousand blocks out that I had to traverse every time I went out there. I also had a horrible habit of not setting my spawn out there, dying, and then spending 20 minutes flying 10k blocks across the nether roof. this would happen going both ways. I had actually started the terraforming part, I should have a go at building the castle again at some point.

I got really petty at E at one point or another and spent probably an hour and several several stacks of bone meal growing double tall grass in front of his house for several blocks. this man was half a block tall and could fly, he got so mad at me for it he refused to log on until I fixed it. it inconvenienced the inchling more than it did E.

I had a network of several base locations I was working on and lodestones to nether portals hidden everywhere.

I had far, far too many shulker boxes. it was definitely a couple hundred. I had 5 elytra on display and they had a habit of getting fucking stolen so I renamed them all 1-5 and they got stolen a lot less after that. I have no idea who kept stealing them.

oh yeah I had no back door. The way you got in and out was through a half slab placed behind my house which I would teleport through. The solutions others had were either going up, over, or around, or if you were Rose, phasing through the blocks, or if you were Tree, being tiny enough to crawl through the gap.

I kept hiding my shulker boxes in my walls, I think I had 30 or so just under the walls in the nether layer of my house.

each layer of my house was themed, the first two were standard house inside and out and I eventually placed just So Many Barrels which were incredibly disorganized on the second floor, and the third layer looked normal enough from the outside but it was a very tall nether themed floor. above that was the end floor, which I think I ended up with the dragon egg and I kept that on display there. above that was the ocean monument floor, I think I made a mushroom floor above that for my friend Mayo, and above that was the landing pad. I had more planned but I never got around to building them,

At some point somebody, I think it was tree, built several large enderman themed things in my house and they never left despite blocking off access to my initial 6 chests because I loved them.

I had a few pet endermen. There were 4. I know one was named mark. they all vanished eventually and it was distinctly upsetting because I thought somebody killed them. no there was just a weird server thing.

there is. probably more. Weirdass server sometimes I tell ya

[nxmeolvides]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN ! (under the readmore)

what made you pick up the muse you have ? : I have a deep love for horror, and specifically sibling narratives within it: due to personal reasons, working on a muse that's a younger sibling is a comforting process for me. And honestly, Ana just has had a grip on me since I first started playing the game. I jumped on around September, and she wasn't that common a pick yet, which let me get completely attached to her. My initial brush with the game fandom was through fanart, and her attacking Johnny was the first thing I did - I have a lot of thoughts on them and how they're both driven, arguably, by family that I won't get into. But that's definitely part of what drew me in. And then it grew and grew, and I chickened out of making a blog for her I'd say maybe three times? Tumblr rp intimidated me! But I joined a discord server, and then another one, and threw all the headcanons I'd already been chewing on into her. Skip forward a few months, and I'm here. And I love her dearly. She is truly one of my favourite characters I've found in a long while - even if by this point, she's at least half my oc. But she's my beautiful, resiliant girl, that has a hard time letting down walls and sacrifices too much but has so much love to give, and I really hope to write here for a lot longer.

is there anything you really enjoy writing ? : I adore hurt/comfort above everything else. It lets me really dig into a character's feelings and their layers, and character analysis is probably one of my favourite things to do with reading/writing? So yeah! Love hurt/comfort. And finding dynamics where my characters will feel safe, and exploring those. Love love love.

is there anything you don't like to write ? : I'd say the majority of what tends to come under "dead dove." It just doesn't appeal to me - don't mind reading headcanons, but I don't want my own characters to be violated.

how do you come up with your headcanons ? : Finding media that reminds me of my muses! I love to just single out a couple movies - usually horror right now, for Ana,- and sit and watch them, and develop hcs off whatever floats into my mind. It helps me keep a grip on my characterisation, as well, which I feel like I struggle with a lot. Outside of that, it's just sitting with a friend and brainrotting it out, since I tend to second guess a lot of my own ideas. Even if the other person doesn't say much, just getting to bounce it off someone helps me a lot to knuckle down and iron everything out.

do you write in silence or listen to music ? : It varies! I'm usually either listening to music, sitting in silence, or have a tv show or movie playing in the background.

do you plan your replies or wing them ? : I try to have an intial plan in mind, and then just kind of wing it through that if it's a longer reply that's cooking. And then with those, I usually go back and edit and change my mind so much that the outcome or characterisation is pretty different to how I intended! But it works out eventually.

do you enjoy shipping ? : Absolutely! But it is completely dependant on chemistry. I have ships I'll always be partial to, but even if I talk about them a lot I'm not going to head into an interaction expecting something to happen. Every portrayal is different, and the vibes always vary. But when it does work out, yes. I love just being able to write a little fluff drabble of a character being happy. Smooches are cute. Love is cute. I'm a sap.

what's your alias / name? : Piper! sometimes Cherry, but mainly Piper. Chose it when I was... 15? And it's stayed since!

zodiac sign ? : Saggitarius, and I don't know shit about astrology to say the rest!

Birthday? : Dec 14th

favorite color ? : So many shades of pink. SO many. Right now, particularly like... a deepish, reddish pink. It appeals to me.

favorite song? : Impossible to answer! Depends on the hour of the day. I'm currently enjoying a lot of Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo though - I'm a sucker for pop.

last movie you watched ? : No clue!

last show you watched?: Yellowjackets! Rewatched some of it on the train. I love my cannibal lesbians.

last song you listened to? : Seventeen by Ladytron, thanks to spotify shuffle.

favorite food ?: I have a horrific weak spot for gnocchi.

favorite season ? : Spring <3 Everything's starting to come into bloom and it's not too hot.

do you have a tumblr best friend ? : I don't think so? I'm still new here! But Des and Sawyer are discord buddies and dear to me ♡

TAGGED BY : Stolen from the dashboard.

TAGGING : Anyone!

#and now i pass out again and finish things up tomorrow

[inkforhumanhands]

⭐️ Epistaxis Anime ⭐️ Artfully Inept (in Love)

Oh man, Artfully Inept is so old I guess I'll do that one first! It was originally a product of Writer's Month. I honestly do not remember what the prompt was, but I started writing it and I knew it was getting too long to finish even remotely on time so I abandoned it and switched to another idea for a ficlet. I kept it on the back burner though and eventually finished it for the Mattfoggy Server Telephone Game. Speaking of abandoned Writer's Month ideas though I still have one more I've been sitting on since 2020... maybe it'll see the light of day at some point.

Anyway this fic was also a victim of my sense of humor. I thought it'd be really funny if Foggy was trying to be a good friend and wingman for Matt and he just kept fucking it up on purpose. I'm particularly proud of the dab Matt does to spill Glori's punch, even though both that and what he says to Natasha later pretty much make him an asshole adfdsf. I guess cheering on assholery is what fiction is for though!

As for Epistaxis Anime, I originally planned on it being around 8k and now it is 25k and ongoing.... It's also come a bit far from its original conception. I initially imagined it as something more episodic, or at least I wanted to fit in a dozen different anime tropes like, for instance, a beach episode. Unfortunately it grew an actual plot when people started asking me questions about how the disease actually worked and I threw up my hands and was like FINE I guess I will actually think about it. It also got far less anime and ended up centering pretty much solely around the nosebleed thing. One of the things I'm most proud of about it actually is ending up in a Youtube video that was like a compilation of ao3 tags under the category unhinged AUs or something. And of course it would not be the same fic at all if I didn't have thelonebamf/@amazing-spiderling whispering good ideas into my ear and drawing superb art as well!

#asks #softasawhisper #mattfoggy

[herrscherofpee]

Well, this is it. My first* ever piss fic.

I've noticed a extreme lack of Honkai omo fics, so I wanted to open the flood gates so to speak with something pretty mild. Just a soft and friendly shipping of Dreamseeker/Entropy and Senadina fron Part 2, although nothing romantic or sexual is implied.

Formatting is a little rough, but this started out as brainrot in a private Discord server so I apologize for that. The tenses might be a little wack. I am also extremely sleepy. If it's bad, I apologize, but the general concept is sound.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦✦ . ⁺  . ✦ . ⁺  . ✦✦ . ⁺  . ✦ . ⁺  . ✦✦ . ⁺  . ✦ . ⁺  . ✦✦ . ⁺  . ✦ . ⁺  . ✦

I went into my bed fresh out of the shower. I was so tired from exploring the Sea of Data and writing reports that I barely bothered putting on my pjs. I threw on a plain t-shirt and a pair of sleep shorts, opting to go commando. It was just for one night, so what's the harm?

I quickly fell asleep, ignoring the slight ache I felt in my bladder. That's a future me problem.

Dream slipping is something still being learned about, so the details of it will be spared. What is important to note is that in her fatigued state, this Dreamseeker remained unconscious when she was physically pulled into the dream, and she remained so until she was deposited back into reality.

That's where the interesting stuff happened.

Warmth.

I started to wake to a sense of warmth all over my body, like I was being hugged from all sides by a blanket fresh from the dryer. My being softly squeezed like a hug from a gentle goddess or an inviting friend. I wasn't sure why I felt so comfortable or why my surroundings felt so unfamiliar. All I knew was that I felt as if I was still in a dream. I also felt a...panging sense, like I needed to let go of something. I wasn't sure what, but it was conflicting with my desire to stay in this blissful spot. I just wanted to stay snuggled right here and drift back to sleep...

...So I stopped fighting whatever it was inside me. It wasn't important, more sleep was...

Warmth...it's spreading...that's...so nice...

A dreamy sigh escaped my lips as warmth continued to propagate around me.

"Oh!" A voice from my mind said, clear enough that it almost sounded verbal.

I shift a little, trying to ignore it. The voice in my head goes quiet, replaced by the sound of gentle hissing, like water hitting fabric. A smile spread across my lips as wetness spread around my legs. It felt great, like presure given way to pleasure, or like relaxing a muscle after using it excessively, or like...using the bathroom...

Wait a minute.

Against my initial wishes, I opened my eyes as my insticts started to tell me that something was very wrong. Immediately my surroundings were unfamiliar. I wasn't in my room anymore. In fact, I don't recognize this place at all.

Then, I felt it: that wasn't water I was hearing. That was me peeing. I was wetting the bed while awake. I shoved a hand to my crotch instinctively, but all that served to do it moisten my hand as the stream kept flowing. I tried to stop as best as I could, managing to pinch off the flow of urine, although the damage was already done. The warmth I felt wasn't entirely gone, but now my face was starting to turn red at the realization.

"Oh dear, do I make you feel that relaxed~" The voice from earlier, very much not in my head, remarked.

now that I was more awake, I could recognize the voice and its owner, and my face flushed even harder. I now knew why I felt like I was being hugged: because I was, by none other than Senadina, who I have now just peed on. "O-oh no. Sena, I didn't mean-" I stammered while I tried to get up to apologize. We were close friends, very close, but this felt like crossing a line. But when I tried to get up, Sena kept her hold on me.

"Hey, hey, it's okay! You just had an accident, that's all! I know how tricky dream toilets can be, trust me." Sena said in her usual, borderline uncanny chipper way.

"But...it's unhygienic. Even though I make sure to stay hydrated, and urine starts off sterile, urinating the bed is-is" I was going to say 'childish', but I felt Sena shift her grip on me, turning me around to face her. I half expect to see a look of pity on her face, but instead I saw something more akin to endearment. It was hard to tell without my glasses on.

"It was an accident, just like how you accidentally ended up in my bed 20 minutes ago. Just like how we first met, remember?" She said, a slight smile on her face despite the predicament.

"Yeah, I remember..." I replied, shame still in my voice, electing to ignore the fact she was snuggling with me for nearly half an hour.

She hugged me closer, causing a spurt of leftover urine to escape, not like she could tell.

"Life is full of accidents, so why should we be embarrassed by them? I like our accidents." She said sagely, as if this knowledge had been passed down for centuries.

I understood what she was getting at, but her lack of social awareness was still peaking through. "That's...not the same-" I was cut off by a boop on my nose and a giggle from Sena.

"You think too much. What if I just like spending time with you, hmm? Even if it's...messy"

I felt a new blush rise. Leave it to Senadina to find a way to turn me wetting her bed into an opportunity to flirt. I let out a deep sigh as I give up trying to argue. "...can I use your shower?"

"Of course!" She replied happily, but a bit of hesitancy lingered in her voice as I felt her shift around.

"What's wrong Sena?" I asked, hoping that she suddenly changed her mind about the situation.

"Ohh, It's nothing, just...can I use the toilet before you shower? I would have gone 20 minutes ago, but..."

"Eh? Oh, I see..."

#omorashi #pee kink #fandom omo #omo writing #honkai omorashi #I am so tired #But I must write pee #I wish this was me rn

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Closest supernova in a decade reveals how exploding stars evolve

Alex Filippenko is the kind of guy who brings a telescope to a party. True to form, at a soiree on May 18 this year, he wowed his hosts with images of star clusters and colorful galaxies—including the dramatic spiral Pinwheel Galaxy—and snapped telescopic photos of each.

Only late the next afternoon did he learn that a bright supernova had just been discovered in the Pinwheel Galaxy. Lo and behold, he'd also captured it, at 11 p.m. the night before—eleven and a half hours before the explosion's discovery on May 19 by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki in Japan.

Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Sergiy Vasylyev and postdoctoral fellow Yi Yang threw out their planned observations at the UC's Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton a few hours later to focus on the exploding star, which had been dubbed SN 2023ixf. They and hundreds of other astronomers were eager to observe the nearest supernova since 2014, a mere 21 million light years from Earth.

These observations were the earliest-ever measurements of polarized light from a supernova, showing more clearly the evolving shape of a stellar explosion. The polarization of light from distant sources like supernovae provides the best information on the geometry of the object emitting the light, even for events that cannot be spatially resolved.

"Some stars prior to exploding go through undulations—fitful behavior that gently ejects some of the material—so that when the supernova explodes, either the shock wave or the ultraviolet radiation causes the stuff to glow," Filippenko said. "The cool thing about the spectropolarimetry is that we get some indication of the shape and extent of the circumstellar material."

The spectropolarimetry data told a story in line with current scenarios for the final years of a red supergiant star about 10 to 20 times more massive than our sun: Energy from the explosion lit up clouds of gas that the star shed over the previous few years; the ejecta then punched through this gas, initially perpendicular to the bulk of the circumstellar material; and finally, the ejecta engulfed the surrounding gas and evolved into a rapidly expanding but symmetric cloud of debris.

The explosion, a Type II supernova resulting from the collapse of the iron core of a massive star, presumably left behind a dense neutron star or a black hole. Such supernovae are used as calibratable candles to measure the distances to distant galaxies and map the cosmos.

Another group of astronomers led by Ryan Chornock, a UC Berkeley adjunct associate professor of astronomy, gathered spectroscopic data using the same telescope at Lick Observatory. Graduate student Wynn Jacobson-Galán and professor Raffaella Margutti analyzed the data to reconstruct the pre- and post-explosion history of the star, and found evidence that it had shed gas for the previous three to six years before collapsing and exploding. The amount of gas shed or ejected before the explosion could have been 5% of its total mass—enough to create a dense cloud of material through which the supernova ejecta had to plow.

"I think this supernova is going to make a lot of us think in much more detail about the subtleties of the whole population of red supergiants that lose a lot of material before explosion and challenge our assumptions about mass loss," Jacobson-Galán said. "This was a perfect laboratory to understand in more detail the geometry of these explosions and the geometry of mass loss, something we already felt ignorant about."

The improved understanding of how Type II supernovae evolve could help refine their use as distance measures in the expanding universe, Vasylyev said.

The two papers describing these observations have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Margutti and Chornock are co-authors of both papers, which are currently available on the arXiv preprint server.

One of the most studied supernovae to date

In the more than three months since the supernova's light reached Earth, perhaps three dozen papers have been submitted or published about it, with more to come as the light from the explosion continues to arrive and the observations of a variety of telescopes are analyzed.

"In the world of Type II supernovae, it's very rare to have basically every wavelength detected, from hard X-rays to soft X-rays to ultraviolet. to optical, near-infrared, radio, millimeter. So it's really a rare and unique opportunity," said Margutti, a Berkeley professor of physics and of astronomy. "These papers are the beginning of a story, the first chapter. Now we are writing the other chapters of the story of that star."

"The big-picture question here is we want to connect how a star lives with how a star dies," Chornock said. "Given the proximity of this event, it will allow us to challenge the simplifying assumptions that we have to make in most of the other supernovae we study. We have such a wealth of detail that we're going to have to figure out how to fit it all together to understand this particular object, and then that will inform our understanding of the broader universe."

Lick Observatory's telescopes on top of Mount Hamilton near San Jose were critical to the astronomers' efforts to assemble a complete picture of the supernova. The Kast spectrograph on the Shane 120-inch telescope is able to switch quickly from a normal spectrometer to a spectropolarimeter, which allowed Vasylyev and Filippenko to obtain measurements of both the spectrum and its polarization. The group led by Jacobson-Galán, Chornock and Margutti employed both the Kast spectrograph and the photometer on the Nickel 40-inch telescope, with photometry (brightness measurements) also from the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii through the Young Supernova Experiment collaboration.

The polarization of light emitted by an object—that is, the orientation of the electric field of the electromagnetic wave—carries information about the shape of the object. Light from a spherically symmetric cloud, for example, would be unpolarized because the electric fields symmetrically cancel. Light from an elongated object, however, would produce a nonzero polarization.

While polarimetry measurements of supernovae have been going on for more than three decades, few are close enough—and thus bright enough—for such measurements. And no other supernova has been observed as early as 1.4 days after the explosion, as with SN 2023ixf.

The observations yielded some surprises.

"The most exciting thing is that this supernova shows a very high continuum polarization, nearly 1%, at early times," Vasylyev said. "That sounds like a small number, but it's actually a huge deviation from spherical symmetry."

Based on the changing intensity and direction of polarization, the researchers were able to identify three distinct phases in the evolution of the exploding star. Between one and three days after the explosion, the light was dominated by emission from the circumstellar medium, perhaps a disk of material or lopsided blob of gas shed earlier by the star. This was due to ionization of the surrounding gas by ultraviolet and X-ray light from the explosion and by stellar material plowing through the gas, so-called shock ionization.

"Early on, we're saying that most of the light that we're seeing is from some kind of non-spherical circumstellar medium that is confined to somewhere around 30 A.U.," Yang said. An astronomical unit (AU), the average distance between Earth and our sun, is 93 million miles.

At 3.5 days, the polarization quickly dropped by half, and then a day later shifted by nearly 70 degrees, implying an abrupt change in the geometry of the explosion. They interpret this moment, 4.6 days after explosion, as the time when the ejecta from the exploding star broke out from the dense circumstellar material.

"Essentially, it engulfs the circumstellar material, and you get this peanut-shaped geometry," Vasylyev said. "The intuition there is that the material in the equatorial plane is denser, and the ejecta get slowed down, and the path of least resistance will be toward the axis where there's less circumstellar material. That's why you get this peanut shape aligned with the preferential axis through which it explodes."

The polarization remained unchanged between days 5 and 14 after the explosion, implying that the expanding ejecta had overwhelmed the densest region of surrounding gas, allowing emission from the ejecta to dominate over light from shock ionization.

Shock ionization

The spectroscopic evolution roughly agreed with this scenario, Jacobson-Galán said. He and his team saw emissions from the gas surrounding the star about a day after the explosion, likely produced as the ejecta slammed into the circumstellar medium and produced ionizing radiation that caused the surrounding gas to emit light. Spectroscopic measurements of the light from this shock ionization showed emission lines from hydrogen, helium, carbon and nitrogen, which is typical of core-collapse supernovae.

The emissions produced by shock ionization continued for about eight days, after which it decreased, indicating that the shock wave had moved into a less dense area of space with little gas to ionize and reemit, similar to what Vasylyev and Filippenko observed.

Margutti noted that other astronomers have looked at archival images of the Pinwheel Galaxy and found several occasions when the progenitor star brightened in the years before the explosion, suggesting that the red supergiant repeatedly sloughed off gas. This is consistent with her group's observations of ejecta from the explosion plowing through this gas, though they estimate a density about 1,000 times less than implied by the pre-explosion undulations.

Analysis of other observations, including X-ray measurements, could resolve this issue.

"This is a very special situation where we know what the progenitor was doing before because we saw it slowly oscillating, and we have all the probes in place to try to reconstruct the geometry of the circumstellar medium," she said. "And we know for a fact that it cannot be spherical. By putting together the radiant X-rays with what Wynn found and what Sergiy and Alex are finding, then we will be able to have a complete picture of the explosion."

The astronomers acknowledged the help of numerous researchers and students who gave up their observing time at Lick to allow the teams to focus on SN 2023ixf, and the observational assistance of Thomas Brink, an associate specialist in astronomy at UC Berkeley.

Filippenko captured his early photo of SN 2023ixf with a Unistellar eVscope, which has become popular among amateurs because the telescope subtracts background light and thus allows nighttime viewing in areas like cities, with lots of light pollution. He and 123 other astronomers—mostly amateurs—using Unistellar telescopes recently published their early observations of the supernova.

"This fortuitous observation, obtained while conducting public outreach in astronomy, shows that the star exploded considerably earlier than when Itagaki discovered it," he said, jokingly adding, "I should have immediately examined my data."

IMAGE....The Pinwheel Galaxy, or Messier 101, on May 21, 2023, four days after the light from the supernova 2023ixf reached Earth. Credit: Steven Bellavia

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #astrophysics #supernova

[acidiluc]

haikyuu boys giving you signals as their sign of love during a game !!

characs: kuroo tetsurou & kageyama tobio <33

note: my brain randomly came up with this idea while reading the manga,, and now i kinda wanna do other characters as well 😩 tell me what you think!

and saeko supremacy! <33

kuroo tetsurou —

"go, go, nekoma! push it, push it, nekoma!" you cheered loudly with the crowd from where you stood as nekoma scored once again. you smiled proudly as you watched the opposing team call for a time out right after the ball was spiked by your ardent boyfriend— kuroo tetsurou.

despite being there to always watch and support tetsurou in his games, you only recently have taken interest in the players' way of knowing their next attacks, which are: hand signals.

and you smiled softly as you remembered randomly bringing the topic up to your boyfriend.

"hey tetsu, can you teach me those... hand signals you convey to your teammates?" you asked, scrunching up your nose as you looked down at your hand, mimicking the hand signals your boyfriend subtly gave his teammates during the match earlier.

you were always curious as to what the hand signals meant, and you figured out that maybe it has something to do with what attack they were going to initiate next during a match.

kuroo looked over at your direction as he was pulling on a new shirt, chuckling at your curiosity before making his way over to you. "well someone's curious." he smirked as he sat on the space in front of you in bed, demonstrating each hand signal he would convey to his teammates and explained each and every one while you listened carefully.

and after that, he made you explain what attacks each hand signals represent while he demonstrated each signal to you.

"—and that is a back attack!" you smiled widely, happy that you got all hand signals right.

"okay, how about this?" he asks, beating his chest lightly twice before pressing two fingers onto your forehead.

"huh?" you looked up at him in confusion, "you didn't show me this." you said, copying his actions. you beat your chest twice lightly and pressed two fingers on his chest. "what is it?" you asked.

"it's an 'i love you', dummy." kuroo teased, leaning forward to steal a kiss from your lips before laughing as he stood up. "now let's get some dinner!"

"wh— hey!"

you were taken back to reality as you heard the referee's whistle and as well as how the crowd started cheering again as yamamoto served. nekoma was at their set point and the battle was a little intense. you could tell everyone in the crowd was on edge, watching closely on what's happening on the court since it was a close game.

thankfully, kenma still had his calm composure despite the pressure and tension in the atmosphere in the court, still managing to make the right choices. he moved and jumped to perfectly set the ball over to kuroo,

and with that one last spike, nekoma won.

everyone cheered loudly, including you— you were basically jumping up and down while squealing with alisa, who came to support her brother's team. this, by far, is one of the best games you've seen your boyfriend has played. the sets, the tension, the pressure— it was intense, and you felt so proud for all of them, especially of your lover, since all of the hard work they put in training is slowly paying off!

you watched as the players shook each other's hands, then the shook the umpires' and referees', and the coaches'. then the crowd started cheering again as the team made their way to where nekoma's supporters were. you smiled and waved your mini banner while cheering with alisa. you locked eyes with kuroo for a moment, watching him bow with the other members before shouting a "thank you for your support!".

and as he stood back up, kuroo looked up and smiled at the sight of you. despite being all sweaty and tired... seeing you there to always support him in his games made him feel as if he can do several more sets of intense games and win every single one of them. just for you and his passion for volleyball.

kuroo looked back to his teammates as they called his name, ready to get off the court. "yeah, hold on a sec!" he called back.

he then quickly looked back up at you, beating his chest twice before pointing two fingers at you with a smirk. after that, he quickly ran over to his teammates, chatting among themselves about their victory.

alisa cooed at the gesture and turned to look at you. you can't help the butterflies flutter in your stomach, and the blush creeping its way up to your face as the people around you glanced at you, seeing how kuroo pointed at you.

"i love you too, you dumbass. i'm proud of you." you muttered and smiled to yourself as you watched the team make their way off the court, while you made a mental note to say it to kuroo's face later on.

kageyama tobio —

you sighed as you stepped in the massive gymnasium before you, looking around as you listened to the roars and drums of the crowd while walking over to the courtside balcony of karasuno's side. "damn, they're wild today." you muttered to yourself.

you looked over to the scoreboard and gasped softly. karasuno was falling behind by 3 points while the opponent was on their match point.

"oi, why are you so late?!" you flinched as someone shouted from behind you. you whipped your head to see saeko, tanaka's older sister, looking at you with an annoyed expression on her face, making chills run down your back.

you chuckled nervously and scratched the back of your neck, "to be honest, i wasn't really planning to come watch at all." you said.

you may or may not have had a fall out with kageyama the day before the match— the argument was no one's fault though, you were both in the wrong. kageyama was clearly exhausted from all the training he had that day and yet you clinged onto him when he wanted to have some time alone. the argument was stupid, really. he was stupid to let hurtful words slip out of his mouth and you were stupid for not understanding him.

and you weren't planning to watch him play at all because you are one prideful person. but you knew that tobio would still want you to watch him play and support him, so... you got over your pride and went to watch anyway.

saeko quickly made her way over to you, hitting your head with her bachi drumstick (drumsticks used for taiko drums!). "ow!" you exclaimed, moving your hand to rub on the spot to ease the pain. "what was that for?" you asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"did you have a fight with tobio or something?!" she asked, hands resting on her hips. "well... kind of. why do you ask?" you said.

saeko forcefully moved your head to make you look where the team was gathered during a timeout, where you saw your boyfriend with an expression he does when he's too deep in his thoughts. "well, your boyfriend is not in his best play today, which is affecting the whole team, by the way. and the girlfriend who was always there to watch his games is not here to watch him either! hmmm, i wonder why?!" she exclaimed into your ear.

"alright! alright! i'm sorry!" you sighed and distanced yourself from saeko before she does anything else to you.

did the argument affect tobio that much?

now you felt guilty. but you'll make up for it. you looked back to where your boyfriend was again and bit on your lip, thinking of ways to catch his attention. you looked around you and picked up an acoustic megaphone (not caring whose it is) and shouted, "kageyama!"

you grunted as he didn't look in your direction. he probably didn't hear you. you looked over to saeko to tell her to make the drums stop for a minute, but you saw her already instructing the drummers to do so.

you smiled widely and averted your attention, "kageyama!" you shouted, much louder than before. the boy perked up and looked over to the crowds, brightening up as he saw you. "you guys can do it!" you yelled, and as if on cue, the drums started beating again.

the boys almost sighed in relief seeing kageyama regain his composure once he saw you, "ah, love." tsukishima commented, making kageyama turn to him with a scowl. "shut up."

"well someone's bitter~" tanaka teased, knowing tsukishima also used to have a crush on you.

"oi! be ready!" daichi said, smacking each boy on his way back to the court as the referee whistled.

you bit on your lip as you watched kageyama walk over to the server's spot with the ball. he looked back up to the crowd again and locked his eyes on you,

he raised the ball with one hand and pointed at you, a growing smirk on his face.

and with this, you already knew the opponent team is about to meet their end. you smirked back and nodded.

kageyama spun the ball in between his hands before crouching to a ready position, pressing his lips against the ball, taking a deep breath.

and once the referee blew the whistle, kageyama threw the ball in the air and jumped, spiking the ball perfectly onto the other side of the court.

a service ace.

the crowd roared loudly with the drums while you smiled widely, "that's my boy!" you cheered before turning to saeko, "did you see that?!" you squealed, and saeko only smirked proudly.

despite having the opponent at their match point— with kageyama's service aces and their infamous 'weirdo attack', karasuno has claimed their victory.

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