#now that I'm feeling peachy keen again

[thebibliosphere]

One of the really fun and interesting things about writing a polyamorous romance as someone who is ambiamorous/polyamorous is finding new ways to make sure the narrative hits the expected genre beats without just sort of... mushing it into a pre-existing monogamous romance mold, which is what I'm afraid happens a lot of the time.

Trust me, it was my job in the publishing house to make them fit that mold. I hated it.

Reading other poly-centric romances, I can always somewhat tell when someone is writing polyamory from a sexual fantasy aspect (zero shade; I'm here for all the group sex) without actually considering how it functions as a relationship dynamic, which can often come off as... well.

It's lacking for me as a romance.

Erotica-wise, it's fine. But it misses the romantic beats for me that I want as a polyamorous-leaning person.

There's so much emphasis on the polycule and never the individual dyads within the larger relationship.

For example, in a triad, there are actually four relationships to handle.

The dyad between A + B. The dyad between A + C. The dyad between B + C. And the overarching relationship between A + B + C.

With monogamous-leaning authors or authors that've been pressed into conforming to the pre-existing genre beats, there's a tendency to treat the relationship as a homogenous mass where everything is fair and equal, and you treat all your partners the exact same way.

And I get it. It's easier to write everything as peachy-keen and to have external conflict be resolved with either acceptance or a brave confrontation.

But it doesn't always land for me as someone who wants to see my style of love represented in the genre.

In healthy polyamory, either closed or open, each relationship is unique in its own way. Taking the example of a triad again, the way A acts with C likely differs from how A acts with B.

And that's a good thing!

Because C might not want the same things as B, so trying to treat them both the exact same is a surefire way to make sure someone isn't getting their needs met, and that will lead to conflict.

Polyamory isn't striving for equality between partners but rather equity.

What are your individual needs, and how do I meet them, as well as meet the needs of my other partner(s)? What do you want from the larger relationship as a whole? How do we accommodate everyone without making someone feel neglected or uncomfortable? How do we show this in the narrative? How do we make sure character A isn't just treating B the same as C in every interaction? Do they ever fall into that pitfall? How do they remedy it?

It seems like common sense when you write it out like that, but it's a major pitfall I see time and time again. The characters never alternate their approach between partners, if there's any focus on the individuals at all.

The other major telltale thing I've noticed is that taking time to be with one partner is seen as a step down from the "goal" of the greater polycule.

The narrative is framed in such a way that they might start out with individual dates, but the end goal of the romance is to eventually be together 100% of the time all the time, and wanting individual time alone with any one partner is somehow "lesser."

Which is the goal of romance in monogamy, but it's not the goal of romance in polyamory.

Granted, you do need to end on a Happy Ever After or Happy For Now for it to fit the genre requirement. And a nice way of tying that up is to have everyone together at the end as a happy polycule all together all at once. I'm not disputing that as a narrative tool. I'm just pointing out that there's a tendency to present those moments as the sum total of the relationship when in actuality, there are multiple relationships that need to end happily ever after.

The joy of polyamorous love is the joy of multitudes. It's the joy of experiencing new things, both as individuals and as a polycule. If you're not taking care of the individual dyads, however, your polycule is going to crash and burn. You cannot avoid that. So why, then, is there such avoidance of it in stories meant to appeal to us?

Is it simply inexperience on behalf of the author? Or is it that they're not actually being written for us? Is it continued pressure to meet certain genre beats in a largely monogamous-centric genre? All of the above?

Either way, I'm having fun playing around with it and doing all the things we were warned against in the publishing house.

I'm having fun with Nathan and Vlad enjoying their own private dynamic that is theirs and theirs alone. I'm having fun with Ursula and Nathan being so careful and vulnerable around each other. I'm absolutely 100% here for the chaos of Vlad and Ursula without a chaperone. And I'm here for the chaos of Vlad and Ursula together and Nathan's fond, loving eye roll as he trails after them, too enamored to tell either of them no because where would the fun in that be...

Anyway. Don't mind me. Just getting my thoughts out while everyone else is in bed.

#long post #rambling with joy #I see so many interesting stories just sort of... neglect the dyads in the end #and it makes me sad #I wish it happened less

[drunkin-kong-donic]

Hey, I just gotta say...

It's ok if you ship Vecpio. Really. Everyone knows I do. I don't try to hide it.

From what I've seen, new fans automatically ship them until some 'anti' pops up with the tell tale 'espio is 16 and vector is 20.' bullshit. BUT GUESS WHAT.... Espio isn't actually 16, and Vector isn't actually 20. I can tell you right now, no Vecpio fan ships them at those ages or ever have. Everyone can agree that's MESSED UP. Same with a 20 year old raising a 16 year old as their own kid. They're peers. Can't everyone at least agree on that? Platonically or not. (listen, we can all go on for ages about the characterization of each of these characters, but I digress. I'm trying to keep this short) For as long as those two existed, they were never written as their listed ages, which is why recently, Sega officially got rid of those ages and removed them from Sonic Channel. (remember, the wiki's are fan run) Espio and Vector have always been on equal grounds in the Chaotix, and just because Vector is the leader, doesn't mean Espio's any lower in status. With their personalities, its just why they click so well. Vector is naturally a leader, and Espio's a natural follower given his ninja background. Throw a rambunctious bee in the mix for them to take care of and you got a perfect found family. What's to hate? (again, platonic or the two of them as Charmy's guardians) People in fandoms NEED to stop letting other's force their headcanons onto others And if you don't ship Vecpio, that's fine too. Block it, mute it! Just like any other pairing you're not into. But don't go around to OTHER people and tell them what they can and can't do. And call them 'proship' like its a bad thing or say they're liking a pedo ship with no basis besides the intention to scare them onto your side with that word. (also plz look up the actual definition of proship i beg u) Trust me, I'm old enough to know that as soon as you stop caring about what other people think, life'll be so much easier on ya and you'll have a lot more fun in a fandom. I promise. UNTIL THEN....

IT'S OK to ship Vecpio and not feel bad about it. Don't let other people bully you away from having fun about a harmless pairing in a fandom. Everyone can stay in their own lane and live their lives peachy keen like. SssssEEYA!

#vecpio #vector the crocodile #espio the chameleon #espio #vector #vespio #i swear half of vecpios antis are/were fans until the really loud bullies scare them into being aggressively hateful #and then theyre all scared of each other #theyre all waiting for the other to make a callout post about em or somethin laff #its so dumb #think about it when you take a step back #theyre dumb sonic characters #just have fun instead of constantly being so stressed about other antis crawling up your ass #becuz literally #the whole point of being a proshipper is that you do not give a fuck about what someone else on the other side of the fandom is doing #or what they ship #JUST HAVE FUN #god damn #proship #ill use that tag cuz idgaf #get your terms right #not all proshippers ship problematic stuff yall

[ingravinoveritas]

Finding out that Georgia will be in Michael’s new project while his “girlfriend” ie; baby mama has been retweeting and promoting the show before it can even come out and isn’t in it…… OOF. I guess Michael decided that since this will be his own personal project he wants Anna nowhere near this one, especially since he can make the decision not to put her in it. Also hope David will end up in it alongside Michael where they both act and work together again

(Grouping all of these Anons together since there is a common theme.)

So, for those who might've missed it, one of the recent GO 2 promo interviews was with Michael by himself, and in it, he talked about his directorial debut project, The Way, and mentioned that Georgia makes an appearance:

To your question, @whimhabit, this is the first time there has been any mention of Georgia in the film, at least as far as I'm aware. That would explain those comments in her interviews, though, as well as this photo that she posted on Instagram of her on the way to Wales last month:

Regarding @phantomstars24's comments, though, I don't know that we can definitively say that AL isn't in The Way, but that makes it look even stranger that Michael didn't say anything to that effect, because he could have (and has had no compunction about mentioning her being in his projects--such as LTTC--in the past). Even if things about the production were under wraps previously (which could be why Georgia couldn't say anything/why AL hasn't said anything if she does have a part), that clearly isn't the case now since Michael did mention that Georgia is in it. But that also raises the question of why Michael would cast his lover's David's wife in the show, but not his own partner...

On top of all this, Michael also dropped another interesting tidbit in one of the GO 2 promo interviews the other day, which is that apparently his parents were in the Job sequence, but their part was cut from it. So in the course of all the GO 2 interviews, there have been mentions of multiple family members--Peter Davison and Ty, Georgia, and Michael's parents--but not AL. At this point, the omission is pretty glaring, and certainly raises some questions.

Which then leads us to AL's Insta story from last week, as well as a comment she wrote on Twitter, both of which seemed to barely receive any notice in the fandom:

It's hard to know where to begin, but the fact that this came within the space of a day and in the midst of all the GO 2 interviews really feels like a grab for attention (which I imagine is now harder to obtain, since the SAG strike means none of the actors can promote it). But this text continues the pattern of 1) Not having Michael's name on it, for some reason; and 2) Her seemingly trying to prove something about their relationship while achieving the opposite. Of course, plenty of texts between couples can be humdrum or about everyday events, but the takeaway here is that this could've just as easily been an exchange between a homeowner and a house-sitter. Why show the three missed calls? To make it seem like he was urgently calling her (even though she ignored them all)? And then as Anon #1 mentioned, for the denouement to be him asking if the gate was closed was entirely anticlimactic.

...And then there's the comment on Twitter. Again, out of nowhere, and her reply (or parts of it) were so thoroughly weird and unnecessary. I have more thoughts to share that involve spoilers for GO 2, so I will put the rest of my response under a cut. Read at your own discretion:

The mention of his lips and kissing felt so deliberate as to be ridiculous. Rather than using the reply to praise him as an actor or his work, it seemed entirely self-serving, and specifically engineered to remind us that she has kissed Michael. (Albeit in the creepiest way possible, because it also makes it sound like she targeted him...)

I just can't help thinking that if his and AL's relationship is going great and everything is peachy keen (which actually rhymes with Michael Sheen), then why does she need to remind the world that she's kissed him? Also, we now know that David definitely has, so it makes one wonder if she feels threatened by that and by what we're going to see on screen in GO season 2.

Which brings me to another point, which is the marked difference between that Twitter response and everything we've seen in the GO 2 promo interviews. Michael and David have already been giving off "They totally kissed" energy for the last four years, but we now know that is the case for sure (and likely not just in the show). Yet in the interviews, David is completely playing it coy (largely due to not wanting to give away spoilers, of course)...but that same energy is still coming through, even without them saying anything. And I think it's coming through not just for those of us who already know about the leak, but for those who don't know about it, too. All without Michael or David ever once saying the word kiss.

So those are my thoughts on these recent developments. The interviews with Michael and David have been full of so many shippy/cute moments, but also lots of very interesting little blink-and-you'll-miss it pieces of info, so I'm glad we got to discuss those as well. Thank you all for writing in! x

#phantomstars24 #whimhabit #anonymous #reply post #michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #good omens 2 #georgia tennant #the way #i actually probably could've written more because there is so much to unpack #the GO 2 interviews have been such a delight though #curiouser and curiouser #i'm sorry but if this was a man and woman there is no earthly way their relationship would be described as 'platonic' #go2 spoilers #anna lundberg #discourse

[aggravatetheaxe]

GRABBER X GN READER PT I

I just wanted to get this out there and I haven't even edited it, so sorry if something's weird. I'll probably do a Part 2 because I have Ideas, but I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it tonight so I just wanted to get this out there for now.

Reader is heavily implied to be male but it's never clearly stated.

NSFW, minors please DNI. The Grabber is not a you-know-what and I'm not gonna fight about it so save your energy.

music: x

words: 1,271

Masterlist

***

Boulder probably didn't want you back at this point.

Could you blame them? You'd been taking bribes since the beginning of your tenure. In the back of your mind, you'd known that it was only a matter of time until you were found out. You hadn't expected it to be your best friend ratting you out.

So, your prospects in that town were fucked. Time for a new place. A new best friend. Max still called you sometimes. He was a real loser, but he'd been a good friend in college, and ... hey, now you were a loser, too, right? Permanent stain on your record, no other skills. All 'cause you had wanted a little extra spending cash.

Fuck.

Denver sucked. You had to take a bus to everything. In Boulder, everything was within walking distance - trendy because of the college. Denver was cement and steel. Boulder had grass and trees and beautiful brick buildings. Denver had...

Well, Denver had Al.

Honestly, you couldn't help but cringe at your feelings for Max's older brother. Not only was he off-limits in so many ways, but you weren't usually attracted to men like him. Quiet, mild, awkward. He wasn't exactly the kind of man you tended to attract, either. And yet the way he looked at you with those deep brown eyes ... furtively, almost sadly sometimes. You couldn't help but wonder if there was something between you.

Or maybe he just wanted you to get out of his fucking house - definitely a possibility. Max didn't seem to notice, but Al was obviously inconvenienced by his presence. And then you entered the picture. If he wasn't such a doormat, you imagined he would have put his foot down.

But he didn't. He got real angry sometimes. Furious enough that he shook, at you or at Max. But then he'd go away, and in the morning, everything would be - in his words - peachy keen.

Sometimes he was easy to read; other times, he was impossible. Maybe he felt nothing but contempt for you. He was truly a fucking weirdo - like, just weird as hell - so maybe what you perceived as sexual tension was just him being himself.

The last thing you wanted to do was come on to him and risk your housing and what was left of your reputation. That was another thing about Boulder vs Denver ... no one noticed if you hooked up with a TA. In this stupid suburb, everyone wanted to know your business.

Over time, you'd gotten used to giving the affection you might have given to Al to his dog instead. Not that you'd be taking Al on walks and giving him squeaky toys, but, y'know. He (the human) seemed to like that. Sometimes you'd catch him watching you and Samson, and you'd think he was looking at Mother Theresa.

"You're really not scared of him?" he'd ask.

"Why would I be?"

Most of the time he'd pause, then stutter, then shake his head and say, "Oh, nothing. Never mind." But a couple nights ago, he'd been bolder. Almost - almost - aggressive, like the question was really bothering him. "He's a guard dog! He's trained to kill." Then he'd added as an afterthought, like it might take the edge off his tone, "Silly goose..."

You scoffed, brushing knuckles against your corduroy pants. "Are you gonna set him on me?"

Again, he stuttered, before an answer came to him much more naturally than you'd ever think it could: "Only if you're naughty."

That ... interesting choice of words had zapped your nerves, and you'd been thinking about it ever since. So, he wanted to fuck you, right? Either that or you were going crazy. But how did you come out and ask a man about that? A man like Al Shaw, anyway.

You didn't.

Clearly, though, a man like Al Shaw didn't come out and ask you, either. You skirted around each other in the kitchen, you mumbled good-nights (if he was around; he kept weird hours), cleaned up after Max together silently. If you were lucky enough to get a moment alone where you could speak with him, he was stingy with the eye contact. Like he thought looking at you would make something bad happen to him.

Eventually, you couldn't help it. You asked him about it. It was one of those nights he was puttering around the kitchen, waiting for everyone to go to sleep. He was shirtless this time. He sometimes was, sometimes with that weird illusionist mask on (you didn't ask questions - again, weirdo). But tonight, just shirtless.

"Al."

He jumped slightly and turned. A mug of coffee steamed in one hand. "Huh? What's - Geez, you scared the heck outta me."

"Take a chill pill, boss." You hopped up to sit on the counter, cocking a brow at him. "If you drink that, you'll be up all night."

He averted his eyes, humming against the rim of the mug.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?" His shoulders were slumped, like he was trying to hide his bare chest from you. He was so much more comfortable with a sweater on, or those stupid polyester bowling shirts he loved. Why didn't he just wear a shirt? And, of course, he wouldn't look at you.

"About us."

He said nothing, but you could practically hear him tighten up like a rubber band.

"Look, I know you don't like me much. You never look at me, you avoid me. I know you want your house to yourself again. That's fair, man. I have a job interview on Monday."

He raised his head slightly, looking at your knees.

"If everything goes according to plan, I'll be out of your hair in no time. You'll just have to deal with Max, I guess."

Again, he said nothing, and you figured he wasn't going to. That was fine - or that's what you told yourself, despite the way your heart clenched. There was something about this guy...

This was stupid. You slipped off the counter and turned to leave. "Just wanted to keep you upd - "

A hand - way stronger than you could have imagined, and you'd imagined his hands a lot - clamped around your wrist, yanking to turn you toward him again. He was closer than he'd been in weeks, looking down at you with tears in his big brown eyes.

"Don't leave."

You were at a loss for words for a few moments. "I ... but Max - "

"When Max goes, you can stay. You're no trouble. Samson likes you. I like the company. The extra money for mortgage is nice. I don't ... I don't like to cut things out. Balancing the checkbook is so stressful. Daddy left behind a lot, but you know ... I don't make much. I don't make much. You're not in the way. Max can leave. He's always asking for money. But you don't. It's okay. You ... can stay."

It all came out like a deluge, and with each statement, his grip seemed to get tighter. It was your gasp of pain that finally stopped him. He released you as though you'd burned him and took a step back. Neither of you said anything.

Then he turned around, fists curled on the counter, knuckles white - and a voice that hardly sounded like his ground out from his chest: "Get in bed. It's past your bedtime." He drew a shaky breath and managed, "One ... two ..."

Despite you being well into your thirties, you backed out of the kitchen and jogged to the guest bedroom before he could get to three. Your heart raced with fear ... and excitement. No one had ever spoken to you like that, not even your father.

This guy was such a freak.

So why were you throbbing?

***

Part II

Masterlist

#the grabber x you #the grabber x male reader #the grabber x gn reader #the grabber x y/n #the grabber x reader

[dragynkeep]

Tbh I saw one of your recent post about BB and I know that some Bee shippers think that when we say we want Yang to be around Ruby more that automatically means that we want Yang to "carry the Burden" like no. We just want to see Sisters being there for one another.

I'm just hoping that Yang could talk to Ruby the same way she talked to Blake in Volume 2 when Blake was going crazy on what Torchwicks next move would be. She literally helped Blake take a break and I was hoping that she would help Ruby realise she isn't alone and doesn't have to keep feeling like everything falls on her.

When Yang says Blakes name before Ruby with the fog filling I was a little sad but Ruby's first thought is your sister needs you. I just wish we got more Sister moments this season. So far we haven't had much. Now it seems like Weiss is the one really trying to comfort Ruby. And to be honest that is one out of the two reason I can't fully get behind shipping BB just because I feel like every since they started shipping BB it feels like Yang and Blake don't interact with the other girls on the team as much as they used too.

The other reason I can't get behind BB yet is because I they haven't addressed Suns feelings for Blake. Blake is in no way allowed to reciprocate the feelings Sun has for her but their seems to be multiple moments when she has so I hope in Volume 10 they address it.

i will always maintain that if you need to cut off every other relationship a character has had with others so the romantic relationship can take centre stage, clearly it's not strong enough to stand on it's own & that's a problem.

bees suffers so much from having to kneecap every other important relationship around blake & yang just so they can squander the spotlight for five minutes & pretend like this is a well developed relationship.

yang can care for both her sibling & her new girlfriend, the two are not mutually exclusive & yet with every new episode the show seems to be determined to say that yes they are. yang shows one moment of being genuinely distressed that her sister is gone & then immediately blake swoops in to assure her that it will all be fine, not even pausing to validate that yang is okay to feel upset. nothing negative is allowed to thrive in this relationship because it all has to be peachy keen with no trauma, no distress, no actual human emotions. just pure, cottage core, romanticized sapphism that erases these girls' humanity in their emotions & their experiences.

we saw it with adam where they killed him then were never afforded the time to discuss or recover from that. we saw it with their own issues with each other where yang felt abandoned & blake felt guilty & it was all miraculously resolved because blake came back to her by accident. we saw it again with all of the issues in v7 & 8 where they had conflicting thoughts one time & immediately acted like this was going to be the end of their entire relationship before it had even began.

this relationship is constantly treading on eggshells, afraid to be real & have those real, in depth conversations required in a relationship with two girls with this amount of trauma. they can't just bury it all under the rug or pretend it's handled with a soft amount of silly platitudes & perpetual one liners about how they're protecting each other while actually just sacrificing their own emotional wellbeing.

#rwby #rwde #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #bumblby critical #ais.txt #answered #q

[super-paper]

Any thoughts on the leaks from the new chapter??

I really enjoyed the dialogue between izuku and tomura this chapter, especially that unhinged look on izukus face as he says he'll rip the damn rug/cover with his own hands if he has too. And that last panel between izuku and toshi, the "you can be a hero!" scene but now saying he needs to let go of ofa...wow, cinema.

Overall i liked it, but I feel a bit aprehensive about certain things, especially after seeing opinions on twt. I knew izuku would most likely give up ofa at the end of the series, so im sad about it (dont get me wrong, izuku giving up ofa of all things so he can save tomura is beautiful,,,,, but im just a big fan of izuku with ofa and everything that it means 😭 i want him to keep his haunted quirk and ofamily). But then on twt everyone was so hyped up and talking about izuku getting New Order.. which left me confused not gonna lie, bc other than Star pointing at something, I didn't get any idea of Izuku getting her quirk. But again, my reading analysis could be in the mud lol. Some say Aura Might is gonna give up his place for Star in ofa, or afo is joining the fight with his trump card, others say the quirk will spread to class 1A, so when izuku opens the vault door, the vestiges of 1A will help him. I have no idea, anything is possible i suppose. As for izuku, while I think at some point he will give up ofa, I think he might hesitate at first (??) Like toshinori, he connects his worth to having a quirk, so emotionally speaking it won't be easy for him in my opinion. But let's see!

I'm gonna be a bit mean for a second and say that "Izuku getting New Order" and "Class 1A shares OFA (Monoma Neito found dead in Miami)" are by far my least favorite fandom theories lmfao.

Anyway, you're definitely right on the money about this also being a battle Re: Izuku's own self perception and who he is without OFA. Izuku and Tomura's biggest hang ups boil down to how they both perceive themselves and how that perception was essentially forced onto both of them by other people until they both internalized it as "fundamentally true" (Izuku believing that he's worthless/useless, Tomura believing that he's evil and that he's having a ~peachy-keen~ time rn). Chapter 412/413 have set the stage for this conflict to finally come to the forefront, so I'm excited to see where things go.

As for Star, people who believe her quirk is "the will of heroism that's gonna get passed on to Izuku" are missing the point of her character, I feel. Star's quirk was cool, but it was also another shining example of a quirk "not being what makes someone an actual hero"-- Star used her quirk to do some pretty fucked up things during her fight with TomurAFO, and ultimately, the moments where she chose NOT to use her quirk and chose NOT to prioritize "the greater good" over everything else are actually her defining heroic moments:

(^ the implication of this scene being that her vestige stopped short of obliterating AFO because she found Tenko hidden inside him)

Izuku has already inherited "the will of heroism" as Star defines it. The will of heroism is more or less "noticing that someone needs help and choosing to act on it." There is beauty in simplicity and trying to work "Izuku obtaining new order" into the mix takes the focus away from that, I feel. Star notices Tenko needs help, and instead of using the last embers of her existence to extinguish AFO, she instead uses those embers to reach out to Toshi and point out where Tenko has hidden himself. Toshi alerts Kudou, who then decides to place his faith in Izuku's ability to save Tomura's heart, and so on and so forth.

(A certain someone else also inherited that will, but he's just being a massive fucking tsundere about it. Can't wait for someone to finally call his ass out when the inevitable mind-meld happens.) (/hj)

Anyway, I feel u regarding the OFA vestiges-- but at the same time, I think it's good that they're finally being allowed some autonomy in how they choose to go out considering how they lived/died in the first place. I still maintain that we're gonna end up whittling OFA down to Yoichi, Toshi, and Nana bc they're the three most deeply connected to Tomura (in addition to having the most unresolved feelings and lingering regrets centered around Tomura/AFO). I also think it's pretty neat how "One for All" is now coming apart at the seams because they're starting to work together for "the one" rather than the "all," if you catch my drift ;)

#mha spoilers #thank you for the ask! #sophie.txt

[arttrampbelle]

Fuck canon shang got his crown back. Shang tsung is god of time,space,and souls.

(At least to me he is :') )

Fuck what nrs says.

Liu kang only THINKS he won.

But it is shang tsung who really won. And now all you see is just liu kang fucking up because shang tsung is a sadistic shit and loves seeing chosen dude stumble on his own feet. Basically mk12 should be shang tsung's sandbox adventure. Because if he is a God of space,time and souls. Then all bend to his will. Right? But he made the crown to specifically work for him. And the hourglass can only properly work with the crown. Right? So how is goku kang able to suddenly control things all peachy keen? Well my theory is liu kang fucked up so bad in destroying the crown and shang with it that he caused a butterfly effect and ended making shit worse because he thinks he's too big for his britches now.

And because of this. Now I'm thinking that there is no way shang didn't have a backup plan in case liu kang knew about it. This man is waaaaaaay to cautious. And them doing tagawa dirty doesn't sit right with me. Let alone the MASTER of manipulation shang mofo tsung!

So. I hc shang tsung is basically playing the "oh,you think you won? You think everything is so peaceful and perfect? Hahahaha....fool" game.

Which would make me feel so much better. Because wtaf nrs.

Like shang tsung basically letting liu thinking he's won. When he actually didn't. Is deliciously cold Blooded. Hee hee. No fr! Like that is something that is in character so much! Like ffs nrs what crack are you smoking thinking that shang wouldn't be smart enough to know this shit would happen? This man always thinks about ALL the possible scenarios and back exits. Otherwise he wouldn't get as far as he did. Fr!

And all his plan was and more likely he's done several times already. Is create scenarios for liu kang. Play them like dolls on a string. And steal their souls again,and again,and again just because of the satisfaction. I wouldn't put it past him either. The sinister little shit. I love you. But like dude i know villains,i know my bad boys. Nrs give me the bad guys fr! I could make them so much more justice,so much more sinister,make them more of a fucked up sad wet cat of a froot loop. Please!

Look I'm gonna be frank im trying to make it work better.

This is no shade to liu fans,other character fans,but....my man had this coming. He needed this win. Because almost every iteration of him he gets defeated or killed and im sick of it.

But whats worse is their excuse. "Well he's evil and a stinky villain,why should he win?" Why not? And why not make him more nuanced? Why not actually add something interesting WITHOUT declawing him or relying on stupid tropes to do it? Why not have him win even if he is a villain. Never have i seen a story where the villain actually fucking wins. And either the villain gets sad and bored now there is no challenge. A worse threat comes along and now the hero teams up with the villain(which has happened but never in mk since maybe deception but never done very well) or they genuinely have a story when the villain wins...there are interesting consequences. But mortal kombat has yet to really do this properly.

I was tired of liu kang always winning. Fr. 30yrs i have yet to see chosen bromie fucking crumble. It always was too nice,too easy,too neatly wrapped up,and too convenient.

Actually giving me a choice felt nice. Not just game wise. But narratively too!

I get to pick shang tsung?! Fuck yeah imma pick shang tsung!

Mk11 despite its flaws. Cary hiroyuki tagawa was the only smart thing they did. And his performance was anything but flawless.

So to me....shang won. Anything after is non canon.

"MK1" MK12 is NOT CANON!

#shang tsung #shang tsung mortal kombat #mortal kombat #shang tsung won is now canon to me #shang tsung won not liu kang #all you see from mk12 is a lie #idgaf what nrs says shang tsung won to me

[barry-j-blupjeans]

16 taakitz 16 taakitz bls for my soul <3 ~argonaut--keene

16. “I think I’m falling in love with you.” “I think I’m okay with that.”

--

It wasn't that Taako was avoiding Kravitz. Because he deffo wasn't. No, he was just... busy. With, y'know, rebuilding the world after the Hunger. And starting his school. And doing lots of cool things because he was a cool, very busy person, with little time to sit down and think about all the things wrong in his life.

Not that Kravitz was a bad thing. No, no, no, Kravitz was actually a very good thing. Person. Human? Skeleton? He was a good living being. No, that didn't fit either. He was a good Kravitz. Taako appreciated many things about him including, and not limited to, offering Lup and Barry jobs so they weren't put in death jail. The way he texted Taako random emojis because he thought they were fun. His stupid goddamn work accent. His eyes. His voice. His-

But as stated before, Taako was a very busy person. Between all his savior of the world things and Lup and trying not to talk to Lucretia whatsoever, he had very little time to be in lo- be a boyfriend.

Unfourturely, Kravitz had nothing but time to be a boyfriend.

"Taako?" Kravitz said after Taako had come into the room and planted himself face down in the bed. "You good?"

"Peachy," Taako said, his voice muffled by the sheets. He felt the bed dip a little as Kravitz sat down.

"Therapy session go that bad?" Kravitz asked. Taako made a so-so motion with his hand. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

And there was the crux of his problem. Talking about it. Taako groaned, flipping himself over. Kravitz shifted slightly to give him space and laid down on the bed himself, turning to look at Taako. He had stubble growing along his jaw. Taako brought a hand up to feel it and Kravitz smiled slightly.

"I probably should talk about it, I guess," Taako said, dropping his hand onto the bed again. Kravitz caught it with him, squeezing slightly.

"If you want to," he said. "I'll listen."

"Why are you so-" Taako made a sound, gesturing to Kravitz's face with his free hand.

"Handsome?"

"No. I mean, yes, but not that." Kravitz was definitely smiling this time. "You're just... really nice. And that's not fair."

"I'll try to be meaner?" Kravitz said, his eyebrows scrunching up.

"No, it's- ughhhh. You're just. Nice. And good. And really handsome." Taako took a deep breath. "Please stop looking at me, I can't focus."

"Of course," Kravitz said, turning onto his back. He trained his eyes up at the ceiling.

"You're a good person, I think," Taako said. "So I don't really get why you'd wanna, uh, be with me?" Kravitz opened his mouth to say something, but Taako hurried on. "Like- like I'm sure there's a lot of hot death criminals or whatever that you coulda chosen but now your kinda stuck with me, or at least stuck with Lup and Barry, because, y'know, coworkers and shit, but-" Taako groaned again. He wasn't getting anywhere with this.

"I'm not a good person," he said. "Like, chaotic neutral at best, babe. And I just... I'm. Scared? Of messing shit up. Or being vulnerable, in general, which you mighta noticed by now. Uhm, yeah. That's the Taako-sitch. Thanks for listening. Please like and subscribe or whatever."

Kravitz was silent for a while, still looking up at the ceiling. Taako was just about to get up and try to say he was joking, but Kravitz just squeezed his hand again.

"Can I look at you now, Taako?" he asked.

"If you really wanna, I guess," Taako said.

Kravitz turned his head. He was still smiling slightly, though it had taken on a more melancholy look than anything else.

"I think you're worth my time," Kravitz said. Taako scoffed, but Kravitz shook his head. "It's my turn to talk, just give me a second. I think you're worth my time and I think that you deserve a lot more credit than you give yourself. I- if there is anything I can do, to help you be more comfortable, or less scared, or whatever, please let me know, babe." He turned back to Taako completely, squeezing his hand again.

"I don't care if you don't think you're a good person," Kravitz said. "'Cus I know you are. Sure, maybe a morally ambiguous person-" Taako chuckled, but it sounded sort of pathetic. "But when it comes down to it, you're good nonetheless. You know I love you right?"

Taako felt the words get stuck in his throat and he nodded, swallowing around them.

"You don't have to say it back," Kravitz said gently. "Is... is that part of what scares you? Me saying that? Because I can stop, if you need me to-"

"No," Taako said. "Don't- don't stop. I'm just-" he sighed, wiping at his eyes. "Sorry, uh, I'm not great at this part-"

"It's o-"

"I think I'm falling in love with you," Taako said, quickly, quietly. Kravitz shut his mouth. Taako shut his eyes, not wanting to see any of his reactions. "And I- I guess that makes me scared, 'cus the last time I let myself love someone, someones, they fuckin' beefed it every other year, y'know? So I'm just kinda like- hey! Maybe if I don't admit it, then it's chill! Can't kill him twice over, right? So I don't really wanna like, say it a lot. Because it's... weird."

"I think I'm okay with that," Kravitz said. Taako peeked his eyes open. "You're not a super verbal person with your emotions and I know that. I know you love me because of the things you do. Like letting me help you cook, even though I'm awful at it. Or hugging me when I get home."

"I haven't done that in a while," Taako said, feeling a little more than guilty.

"Lup said to give you some space," Kravitz said. "I'm alright without a hug every day, Taako. Though I do appreciate when I get them. I just... I wanna make sure I haven't done anything wrong? To make you sorta..."

"Avoidant?"

"I was gonna say closed-off, but that works too," Kravitz said.

"You haven't done anything," Taako said, scooting forward to bury his head in Kravitz's chest. "I'm just like-" he blew a raspberry. Kravitz laughed, wrapping an arm around him. "Y'know?"

"I think I do," Kravitz said. "I'm here for you, okay?"

"Okay," Taako said.

"I love you," Kravitz said, dropping a kiss on his head. Taako's ears flushed a bit.

"Right back at 'cha," he said and Kravitz held him just a little tighter.

#taakitz #taako #kravitz #taz #mine #asks #ise cube writing #a soft lil thing :O #argonaut--kenne

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Clarity 9

Obito took a moment to wonder at how the hell Bakashi, the Kyuubi container, and his youngest living relative had managed to end up in that dreadful Fuin woman's film.

'I don't care,' he decided viciously, stuffing popcorn in his mouth in lieu of glowering at his companion. 'I absolutely do not care at all that even now, Bakashi is spiting me by contaminating perfectly banal entertainment with his stupid big head. That's fine. I'm above that.'

Hey, there was some small bit of good out of this venture, though. Aiko seemed enthralled and got caught up in the energy of the film (at least, the parts with fighting) but she didn't say, 'oh, that blond boy is probably my brother.'

"What did you think about the fight scenes?" Aiko nudged him playfully, snicking a bit of popcorn out of the nearly empty bag on his lap (which put her hand in places it definitely should not be oh god no). She barely blinked when Obito abruptly shoved the snack over to her, used to sudden movements that made no sense to her.

"What about the fight scenes?" he tried. His honest answer; 'they make me incomprehensibly angry,' would probably just raise more questions for her.

The teenager shrugged, kicking her feet up on the seat in front of her as the lights came on and the other movie-goers stood. She was getting plenty of dirty looks for her rudeness in critiquing the film right away, but seemed barely aware. "Well, they were awfully dramatic," Aiko huffed, waving a hand in front of her face. "Wasteful, too. No ninja fights like that, with all the boring 'feelings' talk and pointing and shouting out the names of their techniques. The writing was sort of bad, but at the same time it was fun." She shrugged, making a wavery 'so-so' gesture with her hand.

'No ninja fights like that,' rang in his head mockingly. Obito stifled a Tobi-giggle, swallowing. 'Ha! So there, Bakashi. Apparently, you're not even a ninja'.

That did lift his mood a bit. Aiko had a point, he decided generously.

"If you ever meet a ninja like that," he counseled gravely, "get them while they monologue. Konoha nin do that sometimes."

He actually laughed at the appalled way her jaw dropped.

'I feel better now.'

Still, they were absolutely never going to see one of these grotesquely indulgent Princess Fuin movies again.

"And here I was thinking that we were never going to get along," Aiko chirped without looking up from the blade she was sharpening. "Yet here we are, spending time together socially. Tomorrow, I expect we'll be braiding each other's hair. The day after, we'll get friendship bracelets. I want blue and yellow on mine."

Kakuzu shot her a withering look, but didn't respond. They had been sitting in somewhat pointed silence ever since Obito left on his super-secret-not-telling-Aiko-mission.

'Peachy. Just peachy keen. Getting stuck with this guy is exactly what I wanted.' Resentfully, she scraped her whetstone with just a little more force than was habitual. 'What's Obito's deal lately, anyway? I'd rather work with Zetsu than Kakuzu. He's suddenly acting like Zetsu's going to eat me whole if he leaves us alone for ten minutes.'

Lately, Obito had been just plain fucking weird. He was terribly jumpy.

'And dramatic,' she reminded herself. 'I need to talk to you when I return from this mission,' Aiko mocked internally. 'Why not talk to me now? I don't know what he's so nervous about. Obito's been acting like he's nervous about something.'

Poor love. It'd been three days since his little fit, and he didn't seem much more stable. She didn't really want to leave him alone. He was quite possibly a danger to himself.

But telling him that she was worried about him hadn't stopped him from setting off on whatever job he had in mind. If anything, Obito had just seemed oddly guilty. The next day, Kakuzu had showed up in the safehouse with a disgruntled look, apparently under the impression that he was to babysit her while Obito was gone.

Which was just silly. It was called a 'safe' house for a reason. The only people who even knew where it was were her, Obito, Kakuzu, and Zetsu.

In other words, Obito was being really weird for no apparent reason.

'It probably wouldn't hurt to humor him by keeping Kakuzu around,' she tried to convince herself. It was annoying, sure, but not harmful.

"I need to go into town," Aiko spoke up, narrowing her eyes at her finished product as she held it up to the light. She tilted it slightly, letting reflections flash. "I'd planned on going alone to pick up some product for the next trip, but I suppose I'll have to ask you to come with."

Kakuzu offered an unenthusiastic grunt in response. She didn't mind or press. He eventually spoke up unprompted.

"When?"

"Day after tomorrow," she shared idly. She tested the sharpness of her blade on a fingertip—blood welled up instantly. Aiko made a sound of satisfaction and slipped it away, reaching for another dull kunai.

"Acceptable. Your initiative does you credit," Kakuzu admitted gruffly.

'Is he… being nice to me?'

She stilled, but didn't offer a smile or turn to look at him. Aiko was gathering the impression that Kakuzu didn't like being nice. Or at least, he didn't want to think he was kind. Calling excess attention to his statement would be unnecessarily disruptive.

"Thank you," she said carelessly. "I've been trying. There's not much challenge in the legal operations that Ando-san runs. She hasn't yet summoned up the courage to talk to me about using her organization as a cover for moving narcotics."

Aiko rather doubted that the civilian would mention a damn thing, assuming she knew. Ando-san was so twitchy. And thorough about keeping Aiko away from her son, actually. Hmm. What was that about? Aiko'd never threatened her even a little. That was all Kakuzu and that was like, forever ago. Weeks. Months, actually. Silly Ando-san.

"Narcotics are profitable," Kakuzu said approvingly. "How do you acquire your stock?"

She shrugged distractedly, working on her second blade. "I've made friends with a bartender who has a lot of contacts. We have a nice thing going on where I make troublemakers disappear, and her herbalist friend in Grass hooks me up."

There was a great deal of money to be made moving illegal substances into shinobi nations, which had a lot more restrictions and border surveillance than the other countries. Military states were just so silly about little things like recreational drugs, or medicines that hadn't been made in certified facilities, or odds and ends of counter-culture. They could afford to be selective like that, because the shinobi villages were fucking loaded (and needed to be intellectually controlled in order to maintain the hegemonic status quo). The quality of living and health care for a resident of a ninja village was so far above that of the people in outlying areas that it wasn't even funny.

That meant there were a lot of people desperate to get their hands on contraband for half the price of heavily taxed goods imported from the capitals. And Grass was a rich resource without years of infrastructure that she'd have to muscle aside to make space for herself: it hadn't been that long ago that Grass had been subject to restrictive policies itself. There was a lot of money to be made and only small fry like herself jostling for it.

"How is your accounting?"

She actually paused at that and looked over. "I don't keep hard records," Aiko admitted sheepishly.

Kakuzu looked downright appalled at that. "How do you know how much money you are making? You cannot devise strategies to improve profit and productivity without data."

"I don't really know how to go about compiling that sort of information," she had to confess. If she'd ever learned, it wasn't something that had come back to her yet. She expected it would eventually, though. She was remembering a lot of things.

The man at her side was still. Dangerously still. His voice was gruffer than usual when he managed to unhinge his jaw long enough to order, "Come. I have spare accounting books. You can have a set for two Ryo."

'That is ridiculously expensive. Like, three new outfits expensive. Twenty times what the cost should be, easily.'

Aiko gaped.

"I would suggest that you acquire your own materials upon the next time that you enter a place of business," Kakuzu said archly with an expression that was almost a smile.

"We could bump our trip up to tomorrow," she said a bit weakly.

He shook his head. "No. If I am going to get any information through that skull of yours, I must begin immediately. I have time now." He started off for the house without saying a word. "This project of yours is a superior beginning to anything that the other cretins have endeavored to undertake. Failure to improve upon it through record-keeping would be a pity."

"Oh." Aiko stood and followed, a little perplexed by Kakuzu's sudden interest and helpfulness. "So," she ventured as he extracted two small blue books from a drawer in his room. "Has no one else in Akatsuki ever-"

"Taken it upon themselves to pursue a useful endeavor? No," he said shortly. "Our previous associates were all addled simpletons."

At that point, he began muttering something angry about art and hobbies that she thought it would probably be best to pretend she didn't hear.

"What's your hobby?" she prodded. "I mean, I assume smuggling is a little pedestrian for your tastes."

Kakuzu made a noncommittal sound. "I hunt bountied shinobi. When someone else has gone to the trouble of compiling convenient lists of people whose heads they would pay for, it is a simple matter to memorize their faces and keep an eye out."

Wait. People would pay for-

"That's kinda cool," Aiko noted, morbidly interested. "Do I have a bounty?"

Her companion grunted, extracting a cheap pen and stalking out to the kitchen table. "You should. You had an unofficial one when you were a member of Konoha's military. Put out by Kumo, I believe. Or perhaps Iwa. In any case, now that you've defected, it should be replaced by an official one from your country of home origin."

'I wonder how much Konoha is willing to pay for my head…'

Well. There was a way to check that.

"Those bounties… how do you get a hold of them?"

"Your information broker would probably have a copy," he said shortly. "Now, pay attention."

Talking to Sayu was a mistake. Or at least, adding the new topic was a mistake. An unsettling one that brought up things she'd really rather not consider.

'That doesn't make any sense.'

"That can't be right," Aiko said slowly, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

The short woman shrugged. A streak of something suspiciously like mud moved on her cheek when she made a face. "That's what I have, kid. Your bounty hasn't been updated in years. It's still in the sketchy book, too." She waved said volume about pointedly. It was indeed not the official copy that Aiko had spent the last few minutes rifling through unsuccessfully. "It's not a bad number," she admitted grudgingly. A speculative look crossed her face. "Maybe I should turn you in and pay off my debtors, eh princess?"

"Very funny," Aiko grunted. She was too preoccupied to really enjoy banter at the moment, grabbing at Sayu's wrist to hold the book still so she could read it. The information was interesting. Seal master? Since when was she a seal master? And—she already had the chakra chains? That was a laugh. She thought that she would know if she'd activated a bloodline that made her eyes get all weird and purple. Clearly, these books weren't that accurate. And huh. She trained under Hatake Kakashi? That name was awfully familiar.

Maybe he was in the book too.

Sayu pursed her lips and flipped the book around to investigate it. "It's a seriously old picture, too. Look at the geeky smile. What are you, twelve?"

"No," Aiko muttered resentfully. Still, she had to squint at the date on the edition and count under her breath to put it together. "Fourteen? That can't be right. That's not a picture of me at fourteen."

God, she hoped not, at least.

The older woman snorted. "Shouldn't you remember? This looks like an official picture."

She knew perfectly well that grinding her teeth together was a terrible habit. It took conscious effort to unglue her jaw. There was no way she was going to admit that no, she didn't remember the picture, or in fact much of anything.

Who cared? It didn't matter anyway. She knew all she needed to know.

'Yeah, just keep telling yourself that,' Aiko thought bitterly. 'That'll make the weirdness here go away.'

"Thanks." Aiko bent, using her legs to lift the box of goods she'd come to pick up. "I'll see you in a few weeks, hotstuff."

"Am I going to get my book back?" Sayu asked, bemused. "I kind of need that, for that job that I do. You know, people pay me for information and I hook them up, pass over IOU's and verify kills. It's not fancy, but it pays. We can't all be in a super-special club that buys the dango, princess."

Aiko paused for a moment, before realizing that she'd tucked the little hitlist under her belt. "Oh, sorry. Can I-can I pay you for it? I'd like to keep that."

Sayu sighed. "Two ryo," she listed unenthusiastically.

Aiko's eyebrows shot up. "Why don't you just hit me over the head and rifle through my pockets? Jeeze, I thought we were friends."

"We're not that good of friends." The older woman cracked a wry grin, tucking the cash away. "Those are hard to get a hold of, if you're a civilian."

That actually made some sense.

"You took long enough," Kakuzu said gruffly, walking as soon as she exited the dank little building.

"Sorry," she apologized absently. "I got caught u-"

"I don't care," Kakuzu sighed.

Aiko pressed her lips together, trying not to let her eyebrows shoot straight up on her brow. 'At least he can be counted on. He's predictable.'

She'd thought that Obito was predictable too. But this put a wrench in her perception. She wasn't stupid. What he'd told her… well, now it didn't add up.

'If Konoha knew I was a traitor, they would have put out a bounty for me.'

Ergo, Konoha didn't know she was a traitor. Either they were spectacularly ignorant, or they knew something she didn't. That didn't fit with what Obito had said.

Wait. Don't get emotional. Don't be hasty. Think it through. Aiko licked her lips, attempting to consider every angle.

'I don't have all the information,' Aiko knew. 'I can't rule out either extreme: that Obito was telling the complete truth, or that he was completely lying. Not without more information. I can't think of a reason that Konoha wouldn't have put out a bounty on a missing nin, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. I need more data.'

Of course, getting the needed data would be very difficult while she was being watched (and how did it just now seem suspicious that Obito hardly ever left her out of sight, and needed to know where she was, and checked up on her? For all she knew, he or Zetsu kept an eye on her whenever she went off 'alone')

'I'm an idiot. I wouldn't know. They're both much better at hiding than I am at detection, and I haven't even been looking for watchers of their caliber. And now I can't check. If they have been watching me and I just now start looking, they'll want to know what's changed. That'll lead them to Sayu.'

"Hurry up," Kakuzu graveled out. "You're falling behind."

'It'd be a little faster if you helped carry. This is what, thirty pounds? That'd be nothing to a big guy like you,' Aiko thought resentfully, her bad mood spilling over to her current companion.

She didn't bother to apologize, focusing on moving and pushing her pace a little. Her arms were shaking and in outright muscle pain by the time they returned to the safehouse. She really should take the time to catalogue what she'd just brought and store it safely.

Aiko didn't care about that at the moment, so she dropped the box on the kitchen table and went to her room, barely hearing Kakuzu mutter about moody teenagers.

She locked the door and settled on her bed, desperate to put together a picture. All the time that Obito spent training her took a somewhat sinister cast when she wondered if he intended to use her rather than use her skills. Perhaps it was pathetic, but the nuance mattered a lot to her.

Shinobi were tools, in a way, yes. Aiko didn't mind being a valuable resource for reasons other than her intrinsic value as a person. That was different from just her skills being useful.

Then again, if what he was looking for was just a useful tool, it would have been stupid to pick her. There had to be people out there who would require less investment—she'd had to be retrained in her apparent specialties of mid-range weaponry, for kami's sake. No. It wasn't just her skills Obito was interested in. It was her; it had to be her.

'I don't want to believe that Obito lied to me.' Aiko rolled over onto her side and hugged a pillow to her chest. 'Or at least, not about the important stuff. I… I don't think he did. He really does like me. We're friends. He didn't lie about that. I can't totally distrust my own perception. He definitely does enjoy spending time with me, and he wouldn't spend so much time with me if he didn't care. He'd pass me off on someone else.'

So if she kept the assumption that Obito wasn't lying about feeling friendship with her, that left her with two options to extrapolate from. A. He had formed those feelings recently, after she had joined him in recent memory. B. They had been friends before what she remembered.

'Think it through, girl,' Aiko told herself, tugging on a bit of hair. 'Does it matter which of those two things is true? If so, why, and what difference would it make to my prospective course of action.'

Her intellect told her that it mattered. If he had only come to care about her in recent months, then that meant that he hadn't cared about her at the time that she remembered 'meeting' him in the hospital. That meant that whatever he had wanted from her at that time had not been coming from a place of concern for her best interest. If he had just been tricking a sick, confused girl into coming with him, then Aiko should be frightened, or at least interested in what he wanted from her.

Whereas if he had been emotionally attached to her before she remembered meeting him, that possibility seemed much less likely.

'Is friendship the only way to look at it, when the issue is better summed as emotional attachment?' She rolled over onto her back and dug her heels into the bed, pouting unconsciously. 'He would already have been emotionally compromised if he's telling the truth about being my dad's student. That would be much easier to verify than whether or not I really was secretly meeting Obito and narking on Konoha.'

How hard would it be to figure out who Obito's sensei was? He might fork over the information, and she could cross-verify it. Student-teacher relationships were probably well-documented somewhere, and someone somewhere would be willing to accept money for handing over information that seemed innocuous enough.

She felt a little better, having decided what she would accept as evidence that Obito had been emotionally compromised before eight months ago. Assuming that panned out, she could be reasonably certain that he wouldn't hurt her and hadn't planned to.

Of course, Obito could thwart that plan by refusing to tell her about his sensei, but she doubted that. He'd had much looser lips lately, though that might be due to his instability and emotionally compromised state than trust.

Those loose lips presented another plan: he'd let the name of his teammates slip. Assuming 'Kakashi' was still alive: well, that name couldn't be common. She could look up his sensei and teammates and verify Obito's story that way.

Actually… She twisted just enough to tug the book out of her waistband and rolled onto her stomach to flip through it. Obito hadn't said anything to make her think that his old teammate had defected, so he should be in the Konoha section if he was still active. She frowned when she didn't find anything under 'Kakashi', but some bit of stubbornness caused her to keep looking until she ran into 'Sharingan no Kakashi.' She huffed.

'That sounds about right, actually. Lines up with what Obito said and collaborates why Obito isn't with Konoha anymore, in a way. He's gotten famous off of Obito's eye? That's a little depressing.'

Really famous, apparently. He looked like that actor- no, that was backwards. The cute extra in that Princess Fuin movie had definitely been modeled off of him. That kind of resemblance was not an accident.

She shrugged off the tangent about his apparent presence in pop culture for more productive lines of contemplation. There was nothing listed about Sharingan no Kakashi's teammates, but his sensei had been—Namikaze Minato, the fourth Hokage? Aiko let out a low whistle. Nice. That was her dad? Hopefully, she bent the corner and went looking, but of course there wasn't still a page for the Yondaime. He was long dead.

'That's another thing I could check,' she decided. 'If I see a picture of him, I might be able to see any family resemblance. If I look enough like him, then Obito's been telling the truth.' Aiko paused thoughtfully, biting on her lip. 'Well, at least some of it.'

Aiko felt a little better as she calmed and worked through the logic, probably more content than she should feel. She now had an idea of what she wanted to investigate and several plans for how to get that information. Finding out whether or not she'd been lied to for over half a year wouldn't be impossible. She could do it.

But… god forgive her: despite what her brain told her, she had a hard time really believing that it made a difference if Obito had kidnapped and tricked her as opposed to being her friend rescuing her from Konoha's clutches.

It might be different if she had any reason to viscerally feel the betrayal. But she didn't. Aiko remembered bits and pieces from before Obito, but that was it. She didn't feel an emotional connection. So he just seemed more real to her than people she might have known in Konoha. Who cared if there were people out there missing her, if she didn't miss them?

That sounded awful, even in her head. But what would happen if she decided that Obito had kidnapped her and ran to Konoha? Even if she made it—and what were the chances of making that long trip, when she was watched— what would it be like to find herself in a place she didn't really remember, with people who had expectations and fond memories of her? What would they want from her—was she even the same person, in an appreciable sense, and would she measure up to what they wanted? Would they hold any changes against her?

'I'm getting overly defensive about the imagined reactions of people I don't remember.' Aiko huffed a little laugh, bringing the pillow on her chest up to cover her mouth. 'I'm ridiculous. I'm emotionally compromised, aren't I? Still. I feel like my life is here. I have hobbies, I have a friend, I have a job, and I have a- what the hell is Kakuzu, anyway? Is he friend number two?'

He probably wouldn't agree, but she thought that he was. So, yes. Friend number two.

That had a good ring to it. She grinned into her pillow. 'So, that's an emotional reason to stay. This is terrible form to come up with logical reasoning after I'm leaning towards a decision, but I still think my logic is sound in that I couldn't leave anyways. Obito checks up on me if I'm so much as a day late, which could indicate concern for my well-being just as much as it could be an attempt to keep me from running off. I wouldn't get very far if I tried to leave—not without help, which I appear to have no way of obtaining. So, following through that I have no apparent pressing need to escape… that seems like a lot of risk for low potential benefit. I can re-examine the issue if it seems that I am in danger or if additional resources present themselves, but as of now I seem to be both stuck and unmotivated to change my position.'

In other words, she'd pretty well concluded that without any game-changing information, she wasn't going to do anything drastic.

There was really only one question left, but Aiko had no idea to answer it. She couldn't help but feel that… Well. Now that she'd basically decided that Obito had probably lied to her in some capacity, shouldn't she resent him? Resentment would be one reason to leave, if only to spite him.

She couldn't muster up the emotion, however. It seemed dishonest to get huffy and indignant. If it suited her purposes, she'd do worse than convince an amnesiac that they were friends. Aiko had done worse. On her very first mission, she'd inadvertently led a man to his death and not lost a night of sleep over it.

(That would have been impossible. The nightmares already kept her up, or at least they had at that point. They were losing their effect now that their brutality was a bit passé.)

Aiko and Obito were shinobi, and that meant they were hired killers (and therefore not the greatest people already). Whining about a lie seemed a bit petty at that point. Although that didn't mean she had no sense of morality or things she wouldn't do. There had to be a line somewhere, of course, or else they'd just be gibbering loonies. No- not loonies. They'd be like wild dogs that needed to be put down, and not really people. Something separated even shinobi from mindless animals.

That line seemed like loyalty—to her chosen companion, at least, if not a cause or ideology.

'And I suppose I've chosen my side. Obito's been good to me. I want to stay with him.'

The thought of leaving him alone… Well, it made her sad.

He wasn't well, after all. Kakuzu was surprisingly decent, but there was no chance in hell that he would look out for 'Obi if Aiko took off. He just wasn't the touchy feely type.

Besides, if he had tricked her… He'd done a damn good job, actually, and she could appreciate the artistry there. From a professional standpoint, if nothing else.

'So,' Aiko decided firmly. 'If I find out that Obito was telling the truth, and I am therefore in little danger from him, I'm staying.'

The corollary being, of course, that if he didn't have her best interest in mind, she was going to run screaming in the opposite direction.

It was good to have that all figured out. Especially since it was Wednesday, Obito should be coming back soon for the weekly accounting paperwork party. (Obito called it a 'meeting', but Kakuzu had approved the name change). Anyway, she was just going to act normally.

His cycas revoluta were hardy and lush this year. Zetsu fancied that he could smell hints of the toxic sap as a break of new leaves was beginning to erupt from the base of the plant, but it was his imagination. They were beautiful, though, and this specimen was a fine plant that had been flourishing for hundreds of years. Convincing bees to pollinate had been a fuss that required other, more traditionally decorative plants to be relocated nearby, so he was well invested in the project. He carefully removed a pup, ready to transfer it to soil of its own. Beautiful.

Zetsu stopped his work when he heard the crackle of Obito's holographic communication jutsu, swiveling out of the sand to face the much younger being.

Black Zetsu might have snarled if it had possessed features at the moment. The child was a necessary tool in order to revive his mother, but taking orders from one so transparent and short-sighted did grate occasionally.

White Zetsu had no such thoughts, nor was he aware of the reasoning behind his companion's derision. If he had, he probably would have gotten in the way.

"As it turns out, it's a good thing that you put those spores on the girl."

"Oh?" the wood-clones asked in unison. They had already known that: the point had been to force Obito to finally commit to a course of action. That was transparently a beneficial course of action.

The image of their supposed master flickered. "Yes. I'll contact you telepathically when Aiko uses her chakra chains. Use up the spores draining her chakra to about 10%, but do not allow her to realize that the drain is being caused by anything but the activation of her genetic birthright. Time it so that she loses consciousness as soon as possible, before she has a chance to realize that her eyes are not changing naturally. I will bring you to her and conduct the surgery at that point."

"There are worse plans," Black Zetsu acknowledged.

It was a neat solution. Almost suspiciously neat, coming from someone with such dramatic flair. If efficiency had been Obito's du jour tactic, then his chosen aliases would not have been so ridiculously flamboyant. There would also have been no superfluous waste of Amegakure, Otogakure, and Mizugakure, countries that had all been under his indirect control at one point. World domination had been in the grasp of one man, and he'd carelessly tossed it aside in favor of pursuing a dead man's ambition for a genjutsu that only Kaguya could truly master.

(It was mildly entertaining that one man who was dead to the world could have so much power and use it so poorly).

The projection nodded, shadows covering the curved mask. "Oh, and Zetsu? Don't undermine my decisions again."

With that, the Uchiha cut short the technique and flickered out of sight. White Zetsu huffed. "It wasn't me," he pouted.

Black Zetsu didn't bother to respond.

At least Obito was making progress towards the ultimate Tsukyomi, in the defective and faltering way that Obito accomplished anything. As soon as that was cast, Black Zetsu wouldn't need him any longer. Kaguya would be revived and the worlds made anew.

If there was a problem, Black Zetsu couldn't see it. He might have suspected Obito's stalling was a hint that he'd become attached to the sacrifice, but that didn't seem to be in Obito's character. If that was going to happen surely he would have shown signs of that weakness in relation to one of the Akatsuki members in the past years.

He unclenched his hand, letting the pup that he'd crushed fall to the ground. White Zetsu made a mournful sound, but no comment.

#vapors #uzumaki aiko #electrasev5n #ninja daily #fanfiction #naruto fanfiction #clarity

[kentucky-fried-thea]

Falsettos, my beloved

yay!

before i do this, I am a Jewish homosexual

ok so a huge Cube, whizzer, marvin, mendel weisenbachfeld (that is honestly the most jewish name I have ever heard) and jason are on stage. they are all (minus the Cube) dressed as miscellaneous biblical characters, and sing a song containing the word 'bitch' 72 times and counting. the song ends with them saying they are Jewish, ending in whizzer shouting "Half Jewish!", then take off the costumes to reveal normal clothes, while Trina collects the costumes in a laundry basket and reminds them that she also exists.

the Cube is taken apart to represent each scene as needed. this is universal throughout act one, so I'm not gonna mention it anymore til act 2.

marvin is trina's husband and jason's dad. more importantly, he's a weatherman. he explains that he really wants a tight-knit family, then immediately cheats on his wife with whizzer. he and whizzer are kinda concerned that they're falling out of love, although its likely the weight of reality is just crushing down on them (or something)

oh and also trina goes to a psychiatrist bc her marriage is imploding and his name is Dr. Mendel Weisenbachfeld (could this man get any more Jewish I s2g) and then marvin goes to the same psychiatrist and mendel the simp basically just asks him about trina because he wants her or smthn idk man

then jason has an identity crisis and calls his dad a slur and everyone tries to make jason also go to the psychiatrist because everyone in this family is fucked up and basically jason shows favoritism to whizzer, forces mendel to make a house call, and mendel's tiny dick explodes

then whizzer gets fed up with Marvin's bullshit and tries to break it up and trina has a mental breakdown featuring a knife, a banana, and a safety hazard

so then mendel comes over to give jason his therapy and jason basically pulls an uno reverse and therapies mendel into proposing to trina, and mendel does so with a really shitty bible analogy featuring Biblical Times

then the guys sing a song so high into their falsettos I wouldn't be surprised if their warmup is kicking each other in the balls, and trina is like 'these geeks are so immature' oh also the guys are wearing glow in the dark socks and spinny hats

then marvin loses a game of chess to whizzer and his superiority complex is broken so they break up, and trina and mendel move in together and set a date for the wedding and marvin is so butthurt he slaps trina in the face and then everyone has a therapy circle and basically forget about it. oh also jason officially comes out as straight and marvin promises to be a good dad (he's already failed)

act 2

hey look, the Cube is back! it's arranged in a precarious array that kinda looks like a house, Nancy Reagan is in there somewhere, the guys in the band are acknowledged, and cordelia (caterer) and charlotte (doctor), spiky lesbians, are introduced, and then the Cube pieces fall. oh also its been two years. and marvin is still into whizzer.

jason's bar mitzvah is being micromanaged, then he has a baseball game and sucks very much at baseball. turns out he invited whizzer, and when he shows up, marvin hides from him like a child, then makes fun of his hairline and somehow snags a date. Basically everything is fine and dandy and peachy keen and jason officially has three dads and three moms. then jason gets cold feet about his bar mitzvah and dr mendel is back at it again with the poor bible analogies informing him that everyone hates his parents

marvin and whizzer are sleeping together, and while whizzer is asleep, marvin is like, 'weird how I really love him, huh?' and charlotte discovers AIDS. marvin and whizzer's competitive streak returns for racquetball, but then whizzer collapses (bc he has aids)

at this point, the Cube is no longer a set instrument, and now there whizzer is in an actually hospital bed, and reality is looking over everyone's shoulder and whispering expletives into their ear. everybody tries to lie to whizzer and say he looks great, but then jason goes in and just fucking wrecks him.

jason really wants whizzer to be at his bar mitzvah but he's in the hospital, so he considers canceling it. then marvin climbs into bed with whizzer and they agree that they are an apple fucking an orange. also, charlotte is very concerned about whizzer's state. You Gotta Die Sometime deserves her own paragraph so here we go

Whizzer spends 3 minutes and 3 seconds fantasizing about gay shenanigans with the likes of Death himself. He is literally flirting with Death. In the homosexual way.

anyways

jason decides to hold his bar mitzvah in whizzer's hospital room, and then directly after, whizzer dies. then marvin has a vision of whizzer from beyond the grave and they sing to each other about how much they love each other. then mendel sings a song that makes me cry, and the Cube returns. a slice of the Cube is used as whizzer's gravestone, and jason places a chess piece, specifically the queen, on his grave

thank you so much for this one, I really enjoyed writing it! if I got something wrong or I missed something, feel free to mention it!

like to create a Cube, reblog to inflict a Cube upon others

#falsettos #the falsettos Cube #falsettos musical

[saga-project]

It hurt. Everything hurt.

Cain Saga Cain had been going through the cleansing process for what felt like weeks at that point, and yet he still didn't feel any better, physically or mentally. He could put on a brave face around Theatre, or Leon, or even Three--especially Three, god only knew what about his home was making the other softshell so goddamned nervous--and pretend like everything was peachy keen and fine in his life. And for the most part, that worked. His friends helped keep him anchored. His friends kept him from dwelling on the question of just what the fuck he was supposed to do with his life now that he could no longer go back to the Syndicate, or what he was meant to call himself (because heaven knew Saga still didn't feel quite right), or even how he was supposed to be a brother to them--how he was supposed to be a good person when he had so much fucking blood on his hands.

But when they were gone, and it was just him and his brothers--that was when the nightmares snuck back in. Papa leering over him and pressing his talons into his chest until it crushed him--

 You imbecilic waste--

Theatre and Leon and the rest of his friends lying in bloody heaps on the ground as he stood over them with his scythe's blade darkened, screaming with no one to hear him--

No no please no I'm sorry I'm sorry I tried fighting him I'm sorry--

Or the common theme of his brothers being there, saving him, welcoming him back into the family, only for him to turn around and try to run to them and have them dissolve into ash in the wind once he reached them, and he was all alone all alone and there was no one to hear him no one to comfort him no one to tell him that he meant anything, he was nothing, he--

Saga woke up with a strangled scream, good eye wide while his cybernetic whirred in distress, hunching over on himself and looking around the room wildly. He....oh god. He was alone. He was alone, everybody had left him, him being rescued had just been a dream, he was alone alone and Papa would take him again and he'd--

--someone was singing.

Saga whirled around so quickly he would later marvel at how he didn't manage to dislodge something in his neck, choking on tears as that familiar red form came into view. Raph was sitting by him, singing the old lullaby that he'd always sung--

(And Saga remembered now, he remembered how he'd always been an absurdly fussy baby, how he'd stay up and wail and whine about the indignity of having to go to bed. Somehow, his father could never quite manage to get him settled. It was always Raph that came in, taking Donnie Saga and cradling him close to his chest and signing the lullaby softly, and though Saga would always hiss and grumble at first he'd eventually doze off, knowing that he was safe with his brother and that Raph would protect him--)

--and though he probably had an absolutely gutted expression on his face, Saga couldn't bring himself to care. In the next instant he was surging forward, sobbing, huddling into Raph's arms even as Raph grunted in surprise. He curled himself against his big brother's chest, sobbing even as Raph instinctively curled around him, shielding him with his bulk in a way that he hadn't since they were children. The lullaby started up again, and Saga found himself relaxing. His anchor was back. His anchor against everything going wrong in his life was back. Raph was here. He was safe. He was safe.

But his traitorous mouth kept babbling. He felt more than saw Raph's breathing stuttering as he choked out his words, frantic and tearful. "Please be real please be real I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry don’t leave me again I’m sorry don’t leave PLEASE don’t leave-"

There was a beat, and then Raph was laying his head on top of Saga's, exhaling gently. “We’re not leaving. None of us are. We’re right here. I promise.”

That broke the dam. Saga clutched onto his brother, wailing softly. "R-Raphie--"

He hadn't called Raph that since they were children. Since before he was taken by the Syndicate, or possibly even earlier than that. In essence, that was what Saga was--a child that had been made to grow up far too quickly, who had had to construct walls around his heart just to keep it from crumbling--but it didn't make the fact of the matter sting any less. His childhood had essentially been stolen from him by adults that he should have been able to trust in his hour of need. Who should have given him the help that he needed, rather than immediately throwing him to the wolves.

It was hard. It was so hard to fight against the conflicting emotions as he sat there. A part of him wanted to pull away from Raph. Make an excuse, play it off, something. But a larger part of him felt safe and loved, in a way that he hadn't for what felt like eons. And that part won out, making him settle and begin to churr under his breath. After a moment, Saga paused, looking up at his older brother through half-lidded eyes. "Make a purry-Tello joke and I'll kill you, Raph, I mean it."

"I won't! I won't. It's just....sweet."

"Noooooo," he groaned out, flopping back into the mattress--though unlike it would have been even a scarce week or so ago, there was no real bite in it. Raph reached out with one hand then, tapping him on the shoulder just enough to get his attention. “We’re all here, okay? We’re not going anywhere. Not again. Promise.”

We'll see about that, is what Saga desperately wanted to say. Instead, he simply nodded shakily, huddling in on himself again. "Yeah. R-raph?"

"Yeah?"

“I wouldn’t....entirely....be opposed to the idea of you staying here until I. Fell asleep. Or singing more. I’d forgotten that you...." He broke off, averting his gaze. "Forget I said anything, it’s a dumb request, I-“

"No it's not. Whatever you need." "O-oh."

"Just settle in, Don. I got ya."

And as he curled back into Raph again, as the soft lullaby started up again, Saga felt the tiniest hints of a content smile curl at the edges of his lips as his eyes drifted closed again.

His brother was here. His brother would keep him safe from the monsters.

All was well.

#rottmnt rp #sep!donnie #roleplay blog #(no replies please!) #Spotify

[woodsfae]

idk what sort of powerful drugs I got in post-op, but it kinda felt like being on shrooms. Boy, was I a happy camper! I woke up physically, full-body, spasmodically shaking with cold, at a 6+ on the pain scale, but utterly ecstatic. I went under anxious and terrified and did not expect to wake up absolutely 100% positive that everything was peachy-keen and suffused with delight.

What I had was a laparoscopic, partial hysterectomy. Edit: it was a vaginally-assisted, robotic, total hysterectomy. I kept my ovaries and yeeted the fallopian tubes, uterus, and cervix. My doc used a robot to do the surgery - no idea what that looked like, but I've been delightedly imagining one of those claw machines.

So far the worst pain has been the gas they pump up your abdomen with. The wildest thing is that it extends into your shoulders! Apparently the gas irritates a nerve in the diaphragm and that causes excruciating shoulder pain. I do not understand why. At no point has any pain in my abdomen been worse than menstrual cramps.

I walked (feeling very unsteady, clinging to my IV pole and wishing the nurses were carrying me by my elbows instead of just lightly touching my arms) to the bathroom and then to my hospital room bed about an hour after waking up. I couldn't pee for a couple of hours, but I got up and walked (with a nurse holding my arm) to the bathroom to try after another hour or so. I was able to pee on my second attempt.

I had the most bonkers almost-lucid dream repeatedly while I was dozing the afternoon away. I kept dozing off and immediately dreaming that I was in my exact room and exact bed watching red-robed, hooded figures pop into existence on either side of my hospital bed. They would silently walk past the head of my bed into a vast, cavernous space behind me and pace back and forth. Every time I woke up I would realize there was no room behind my bed for them to fit into. And then I'd doze off again and have the exact same dream. It was completely a neutral experience. I wasn't distressed at all, and was really just fascinated by them appearing out of nowhere and doing their strange walk-by-and-pace-behind-me routine. They looked just like these evil little guys in Lode Runner.

But thankfully they didn't eat me like the Lode Runner guys do when they catch you.

I had the worst dry mouth I've ever experienced. I asked my room tech to refill my water so many times she eventually brought me a pitcher to refill my own, then I rang to get unhooked from the machines to go pee so many times, the nurse came and unhooked everything I couldn't get to myself and showed me how to unhook and re-hook myself into everything else, since I was very clearly ambulatory and by then my sister was there to follow me back and forth so I wouldn't fall.

A little before 7pm, they discharged me at my request. Doc had said as long as I was ambulatory, my pain was controlled, and I could pee, I didn't have to stay the night.

Instead of going home, Partner and I went to my sister's, since right as Partner arrived to pick me up, our housemate texted and said they'd just tested positive for covid. So we crashed at my sister's for two days till housemate's symptoms subsided enough that their viral load would have to be pretty low, and now we're quarantining away from each other in the house as much as possible, running our multiple UV-light HEPA air purifiers, and masking outside our rooms.

Five hours before I had my surgery, I had a little niece born in the same hospital, so I got wheelchaired down to see her before heading to my sister's. Now that I'm much less drugged, I'm amused that my brother just fuckin handed me his fresh-out-of-the-womb daughter with just, total confidence, not to mention my niece's mom being totally chill with it! I don't even want kids and idk if I'd hand any baby to someone who just came out of general anesthesia only six hours earlier, lmao.

Anywho, the new tiny little family also came to my sister's the next day, and our oldest sister came to town as well, so lil sis had a very full house. I spent my first 48 hours out of the hospital alternating between napping and holding Fresh New Baby. (she is super, super cute)

Partner has been a total gem - he knows I'm on total pelvic rest and am not supposed to bend or twist at the waist at all, or really even use my abdominal muscles, and so I have hardly done a thing for myself - I haven't even really lifted my own feet in and out of bed! That's definitely contributing to my pain management, since when I do lift my own legs, I feel an ache.

Every day he's gently lowered me into the car and taken me for a little enrichment drive somewhere in the county - I actually highly recommend this, as the road vibration legitimately seems to be vibrating the gas out of me. Plus the car has heated seats and that's nicely soothing for all my sad muscles, too.

Overall, I'm ludicrously positive, feeling well, and am happy to be coddled to an almost silly extent.

Fingers crossed Partner and I don't come down with covid! I don't want to experience coughing while my insides are unmoored from their normal hawsings.

Everyone at the hospital was really, really nice to me. I felt extremely well taken care of by the medical staff, my doc has such a good bedside manner I think he's at least half-way cured me of my medical anxiety, and I finally got a diagnosis! Endometriosis. And now that shit's been ablated the fuck out of my torso.

This is definitely a very serious surgery and my body knows it. I feel the urge to hold my abdomen at almost all times, and in a very unlike-me turn of events, I have no desire to do anything I'm not supposed to. I barely want to get up and walk around a little. I'm zoning out constantly. I can hardly hold an entire train of thought in my head, and I haven't been able to get to genius in the NYT Spelling Bee game since before my surgery. This is definitely take-it-easy time, and I'm grateful that my body and brain agree that I need to be very still, and very easy on myself.

#hysterectomy #woodsfae #medical details #surgery #endometriosis

[chat-with-rosie]

Rosie dearest!!! How have you been! How are you adjusting to being human again? Tell me everything!

Yours, Al @mythren-system if you’d like to chat.

Oh Hi Al! I'm honestly just peachy keen, but I'm not a host or a main fronter. My own systems Alastor had a bit of a tough one recently since his head is full of bees and hs got into a tiff with a newly discovered alter but they talked and I helped the two of them smooth things over. How are you though darlin? Feel free to chat any time though I'm not a super active alter so I'm not always awake but I'm glad I was just now so I can say hi to you!

#do i have a tag for asks ?? i should! #tea time with rosie #making that my talky tag

[bi-sexu-alien]

Triple drabble - About my feelings

(cause why not it's dawn and I can't sleep again)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Are you alright?" comes the question to which I would normally answer something along the lines of: "Of course" or "Fine as always" or "Peachy keen thanks for asking".

But not today.

Not here.

Not right now.

"No. I'll be fine, but right now I'm not. Because I sit here and I can see her face that would resemble mine. His smile, that would be his or hers. I can hear their little voices as they chuckle about the funny voices Mum and Dad or Mommy use for the nighttime stories together." I pause wiping a stray tear away. "Then I remember... I am imagining children who I'll never give life to with a partner I'll never have. At least that's what it feels like... because I'm sitting in my room alone, and I remember every scrutinizing look I give myself when I get in front of a mirror or a reflective surface. The disgust I feel towards myself. And then I can't even imagine someone liking me, let alone wanting to have children with me. And even though a rational part of my brain knows I'm not cut out for a relationship yet... I'm painfully aware of the lack of love and adoration and warmth I could feel towards a person, which for once wouldn't feel so one-sided." I sigh.

"So no, I'm not okay.

Not tonight.

Not here.

Not right now."

Then I add normalizing my voice.

"But I will be. Because this is life. You take the good it gives and you drown out the bad. Because you are strong and worthy of everything you think you deserve. But thanks for asking."

I look at the toy tiger before me before wiping the last of my tears and turning off my lamp to try and fall asleep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi there! I don't think many people will see this, but if you do and you relate, I'm really sorry and I hope you're not fighting alone because no one should. So lots of love and don't forget to say something nice to yourself. <3

#triple drabble #im hurtin #feelings #don't like myself #writing out feelings #personal post #mentally tired #tired #self love #self hate #can't sleep

[fatal-error-blog]

Let’s try this again! SCHEDULE FOR JULY 17th, 18th, and 19th!

FRIDAY, JULY 17th - 

10:30 PM - 1 AM EST - Undertale-Themed Late Night Game Night Stream!

- We’ll be playing Quiplash 2, Drawful 2, and Tee KO, all with an Undertale flavor to it! Stream will officially start around 10:30 PM, but we won’t start playing games until 11:00 PM (so everyone has time to filter in)

SATURDAY, JULY 18th -

10 AM - 5 PM EST - Livestreaming/Working from my ‘Table’!

- 10 AM - 12 PM: Working on graphic novel prep

- 12 PM - 1 PM: I’ll take art requests! I’d like to get as many requests done as possible, so please come with a reference ready. I’ll try to get to everyone who has a request, but if there’s a lot of people with requests I’ll pick at random

- 1 PM - 2 PM: Undertale Fusion Game! Here’s how I’m envisioning it’ll work - throw a couple of UT (and AU) characters/concepts into a random generator, have it toss two back out at me, and then I draw whatever the fusion of the two would be. Never tried it before, but it sounds like fun!

- 2 PM - 5 PM: Finishing up the day working on whatever I need to work on. Might be comics, stuff for my shop, UT themed art, whatever I’m feeling up to

SUNDAY, JULY 19th -

10 AM - 5 PM EST - Livestreaming/Working from my ‘Table’!

- 10 AM - 12 PM: Working on graphic novel prep

- 12 PM - 1 PM: I’ll take art requests! I’d like to get as many requests done as possible, so please come with a reference ready. I’ll try to get to everyone who has a request, but if there’s a lot of people with requests I’ll pick at random

- 1 PM - 5 PM: Finishing up the day working on whatever I need to work on. Might be more graphic novel prep, comics, stuff for my shop, UT themed art, whatever needs getting done!

While I’m ‘at my table’ aka livestreaming, feel free to ask me whatever or to talk about whatever! Take a load off and relax. Got some work to do? Pull a chair up to the table and get your stuff done too!

ETSY SHOP -

I’ll make a post about what’s new in my shop on Friday morning, along with any sales/discounts going on this weekend. So if that interests you, keep an eye out for it!

I think I got it all? If for some reason something in the schedule has to be changed/shifted around, I’ll try to give as much heads up as possible! 

#xed has something to say #indypopcon 2020 #xedracon lol #now that I'm feeling peachy keen again #I'm looking forward to this ^_^ #xedra stream

[little-miss-buffy]

Since moving to Mystic Falls, Buffy did her best to keep the fact that she was a slayer from Jenna, Elena, and Jeremy. If they knew, they would automatically be dragged into this part of her life and she didn’t want that for them. Especially not for Elena and Jeremy. They were still in high school. She didn't want them to be worrying about vampires crashing Parent-Teacher night, swim team monsters, or devil dogs at the prom.

However, Elena's life was growing similar to Buffy's. Her best friend was a witch, her boyfriend, Stefan, looked like Angel or at least like they could be related, and to top it off, Stefan and his brother were vampires. And poor Jeremy's girlfriend was transitioning into a vampire and ran away. Her brother, Matt, and Stefan were out looking for her while Buffy stayed with the teenagers. Elena was doing her best to comfort a very worried Jeremy, but nothing was helping.

"What about you?" Buffy asked Elena, taking her aside as they cleaned up the literal mess Vicki made. "How are you doing?"

Elena answered, "Well, in the past twenty-four hours, I found out that my boyfriend and his brother are vampires, one of my cousins is a vampire slayer who died TWICE, and everything that I thought was made up is actually real except for leprechauns."

"So, peachy with a side of keen, then?" Buffy joked, earning a smile from Elena. "I'm sorry you found out about all of this."

"It's not even remotely your fault," Elena said. "I'm glad I know the truth about you, though. If anything, it's the reassuring element of all of this.....But, is there anything else I should know?"

Elena went to answer the door followed by Jeremy with Buffy close behind. Elena only opened the door only a little bit, gasped, and then immediately tried to shut the door, but then it was pushed open revealing Damon Salvatore. Immediately, Buffy started to grind her teeth in anger as she approached the door. When she first met Damon, she thought he was okay. A little annoying and arrogant, but they had a few pleasant conversations here and there. Plus, he was the only other person in town close to Buffy's age, so she tolerated him. But, after finding out what he really was and everything he'd done within the past week and seeing him standing in the doorway right now, Buffy wanted to shove a log through his chest.

Buffy bit the inside of her cheek.. There was Dawn. A billion-year-old ball of energy turned nineteen-year-old human, but only alive for five years. Was Elena ready to know that? That all of her childhood memeries with Dawn were fake Jeremy?

Luckily, she didn't have to decide because Jeremy once again voiced his concern for Vicki. Both girls told him that they had to wait and that Matt would call when he found her. They did their best to reassure him that everything would be fine and then the doorbell rang.

"Jeremy, Elena, get away from the door," Buffy said glaring at Damon while maneuvering herself between him and the two teenagers. Jeremy went upstairs after Elena whispered to him to go. Buffy wished Elena would follow suit, but she knew that wasn't happening. She kept her eyes locked with Damon’s, hoping he would take the hint and leave, but she had a feeling that wasn't going to happen.

@badassbigbrother

#badassbigbrother #buffy summers #damon salvatore #v: deal with my judgey little eyes #dead but still pretty #do i like shrubs?