Tumgik
#oh and i also fixed all the broken links !!
jujumin-translates · 3 months
Text
💫 Event | 5th Anniversary: The Way Back Home
Tumblr media
💫 Key Troupe Members:
All Troupe Members
💫 Summary:
After winning the Fleur Special Award, MANKAI Company decides to put on a performance to show their gratitude and return their thanks to their fans.
At Tsuzuru’s suggestion, the contents of the performance were decided to be spin-offs of the MANKAI Performance.
The dwellers of A12, the STARS treasure hunters, the ANIMS space pirates, and the Space Police and ARC investigators… In order to focus on thinking of content for their spin-offs, the troupes each go to a training camp at a place that’s associated with their respective groups.
💫 Chapters
Style of Thanks: Chapter 1, Chapter 2
🌸 Spring Planet Story: Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5
🌻 Summer Planet Story: Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5
🍁 Autumn Planet Story: Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5
❄️ Winter Planet Story: Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5
Epilogue | The Way Back Home Under the Starry Sky: EP 1, EP 2
40 notes · View notes
crimeronan · 10 months
Text
i've seen a couple people in the notes of this very good post about fictional polyamory by @thebibliosphere say things along the lines of "oh, i've been doing it wrong :(" or "how do i know if i did this right??" or "i should probably give up and start over, i wrote this badly :(" and. no!!!!
(i AM seeing far MORE people say "oh, this clarified and helped me so much, i think i know how to fix issues i've been having with my own story" which. YES!!!!)
listen. if you're a monogamous person who's writing a polyamorous relationship, and you've been focusing mainly on The Triad and All Three Together All The Time as the endgame, that's literally fine. that's a perfectly acceptable and strong starting point for your plotting, imo. you do not need to give up on a story that you've started like this.
but the things discussed in the post Can and Should improve your execution!
you can keep the same plot beats and overall relationship arc 100%. polyamorous relationships are infinite in their formations, every one is unique. "basically a monogamous romance but with three people" Does exist, as a relationship type. you're not hashtag Misrepresenting (TM) poly people with it
BUT i do think it will help to read up on some poly people talking about how their relationships Differ from monogamous ones.
so i have outlined some basic important concepts about polyamory.
MORE IMPORTANTLY though, i've broken down some questions that you can answer throughout the writing process to strengthen your individual dyad relationships, your individual characterization, & your characters' individual feelings/experiences. this is a writing resource have fun
future kitkat butting in to say i spent over two hours writing this and it definitely needs a readmore. it is also NOT comprehensive. but everything should be pretty simple to follow! feel free to reblog if you find it helpful yourself or just want to reward me for how gotdan long this took KSLDKFJKDL.
i've grabbed quick links for a couple of the important concepts, some have SEO pitches in them but the info largely seems to be good. (if i missed anything Egregiously Gross on these sites i should be able to update the links with better ones later, since they're under the readmore.)
sidenote: this is NOT meant to be overwhelming, despite the length. if you can't read all of this, that's Okay. you do not need to give up on your writing.
here we go:
compersion!
compersion is a BIG thing in a lot of polyamorous relationships. it's joy derived from seeing two (or more) of your partners happy together, or joy derived from seeing your partner happy with someone else.
compersion is really important as a concept because it highlights that every individual relationship within a polycule is different -- and that that's a GOOD thing. it's sort of the inverse of jealousy.
by the "inverse of jealousy," i mean that instead of feeling left out and upset and possessive, you feel happy/joyous/content.
i can use personal experience as an example: it's a Relief for me when my partners receive joy/support/sex/romance/etc that i can't (or prefer not to) give them. and i love seeing my partners make each other laugh and be silly together.
it's 100% okay for a poly triad not to be together 100% of the time, it doesn't mean that the third member is being left out or not treated equally when two people do things alone together.
(i have individual dates with my partners all the time! PLUS larger 3-and-4-person date nights.)
if the third member DOES feel jealous or left out, then the polycule can have a conversation to figure out what needs/wants aren't being met, and solve that. this happens semi-regularly in my polycule, as it will happen in any relationship (including monogamous ones)! it's just part of being an adult, sometimes you have to talk about feelings.
metamours!
a metamour is someone who is dating your partner, but ISN'T dating you. this may not be relevant for people writing closed three-person romantic sexual triads, but it's a super helpful term to know.
the linked article also lists different types of metamour relationships with some fun phrasing i hadn't heard before. the tl;dr is: sometimes you'll be domestic cohabitation friends, sometimes you'll be buddies with your own friendship, sometimes you might not interact much outside of parties, every relationship is different.
there's no one-size-fits-all requirement for metamour relationships. sometimes polyamorous people will end up dating their metamour after a while (has happened to me), sometimes polyamorous people will break up with one partner for normal life reasons, but remain friendly metamours.
the goal of polyamory is NOT for EVERYONE to fall in love. it is 100% okay if this happens in your story, it happens in real life too! but it is also 100% okay for characters to be metamours without ever becoming "more than friends."
(sidenote: try to kill any internalized "more than" that you have when it comes to friendship. friends are just as important and special and vital as partners.)
of course there are a million ways for messiness to occur with metamours within a complex polycule, exactly like with close-knit platonic friend groups. however this post is not about that! there's enough "here's how polyamory can go wrong" stuff out there already, so i'm focusing on the positives here :)
open versus closed polyamorous relationships!
i'm struggling to find an online article that reflects my experience without directly contradicting at least SOME stuff. so i'll give a quick rundown
google has a bunch of conflicting definitions of open relationships and whether open relationships are different from polyamory. the general consensus seems to be that an open relationship prioritizes one partnership (often a marriage), but that each partner can have extraneous flings or long-term commitments (most often sexual in nature).
this is not typically how i use the term wrt polyamory. the poly concept is pretty simple. a closed polyamorous relationship is one with boundaries like a monogamous one. there are multiple partners in the polycule, but they are not interested in having anybody new join said polycule.
an open polyamorous relationship tends to be more flexible -- it just means that IF someone in the polycule develops mutual feelings for a new person, it's fine for them to become part of said polycule if they want to! the relationship/person is open to newcomers.
some groups will need to negotiate this all together, others will just go "haha, you kids have fun." just depends on the individuals!
with open AND closed polyamorous relationships, the most important thing is making sure that there's respectful communication and that everyone is on the same page. but there's no one-size-fits-all way to do that.
i wish i could give you guys a prescriptive "You Must Do It This Way" guide, but that's.... basically the opposite of what polyamory is about, HAHA.
feelings for multiple people!
i was gonna tack this on to the previous section but decided it warranted its own lil bit.
a defining feature (....i'm told?) of monogamous relationships is that a monogamous person only has feelings for One individual at a time. they only want a relationship with one individual at a time. or, if they DO have feelings for multiple people simultaneously, they're still only comfortable dating one person at a time & being exclusive with that one person.
this is perfectly fine!
the poly experience is generally different from this. but once again..... polyamorous people all have different individual perspectives on this.
for me, i have never been able to draw hard boxes around romantic vs sexual vs platonic relationships, & i love many people at once. my personal polycule lacks many strict definitions beyond "these are my chosen people, i want to forge a life with them indefinitely, whatever shape that life takes"
some poly people feel explicit romantic or sexual attraction to multiple people at once, some poly people feel almost no romantic or sexual attraction at all. i'd say that MOST poly people feel different things for different partners, which is not a bad thing!
some poly people are even monogamous-leaning -- they have just chosen one romantic partner who is themselves part of a larger polycule. (so this monogamous-leaning person has at least one metamour!)
or alternatively, they might have one romantic partner AND a qpr, or other ways of defining relationships. (this is a factor in my own polycule!)
i made this its own point because if you're writing a straightforward triad, this is unlikely to come up in the story itself -- but it's worth thinking about how your characters develop/handle feelings outside of their partnerships.
like, is this sort of a soulmateship, 'these are the only ones for me' type deal? in which they won't fall in love with anyone else, and can be fairly certain of that?
that's pretty close to typical monogamous standards but you Can make it work. just be thoughtful with it
alternatively, can you see any of these characters falling in love Again after the happily-ever-after? and how would the triad approach it, if so? what would they all need to talk about beforehand, and what feelings would everybody have about the situation?
it's worth considering these questions even if the hypothetical will never feature in your actual canon, because knowing the answers to these questions will help you understand all of the individuals & their relationship(s) MUCH better.
i've been typing this for nearly two hours and there's a lot more i COULD say because... there's just a lot to say. i'll close out with some quick questions that you can ask yourself when developing the dyad dynamics within your triad
first, take a page and create a separate section for each individual dyad. then answer these questions for every pair:
how does each pair act when alone?
how do they act differently alone compared to when they're with their third partner?
are there any elements of this dyad (romantic, sexual, financial, domestic, etc) that these two people DON'T have with the third partner?
if so, what are they?
are there any boundaries or hard limits within this dyad that aren't shared with the third partner?
if so, what are they?
partner 3 goes out of town alone for a few weeks. what are the remaining two doing in their absence?
(doesn't have to be anything special, it's just to get a sense of how the two interact on a day-by-day basis without the third there)
what is something that each partner in the dyad admires about the other -- that they DON'T necessarily see in the third partner?
what problem do These Two Specifically need to solve in the story before their relationship will work?
how is that problem DIFFERENT from the problems being solved within the other two dyads?
doing this for ALL THREE dyads is VITAL imo. that way, you develop complex and nuanced and different relationships that all have unique dynamics.
those questions should be enough to get you started, i hope
then After you've charted the differences in relationships, you can start to jot down similarities in the overarching triad. what does one person admire in Both of their partners? what are activities that all three like to do together? what are boundaries or discussions that all three share?
but the main goal is to figure out how to Differentiate each relationship!
a polycule is only as strong as the individual relationships within it. if two people are struggling with their own relationship, adding a third person won't fix that.
(UNLESS the third person is the catalyst for those two to, like, Actually Communicate And Work Their Shit Out. i just mean that the old adage of "maybe if we just add a third-" works about as well to fix a miserable non-communicative marriage as, uh, "maybe if we have a baby-")
AND FINALLY.
if you're not sure whether your poly romance reads organically to poly people, you can hire a sensitivity reader with poly experience. if you can't afford that, you can read up on polyamorous resources like a glossary of terms & articles actually written by poly people. (and stories written by poly people!)
you can also just.... ask poly people questions, if they're open to it. i like talking about polyamory and my own relationships so you're welcome to send asks if u want, i just can't guarantee i'll answer bc my energy levels fluctuate a lot and i don't always have time.
polyamorous people are in an uphill battle for positive representation right now & so the LAST thing i want to see is authors giving up on their stories bc they're worried about getting things Wrong. well-meaning and positive stories that treat this kind of love as normal, healthy, & aspirational are So So So Needed. even if you guys end up with some funky-feeling details.
seriously, if you're monogamous then you probably don't have a full idea of Just How Nasty a lot of people can get about polyamory. i wish it DIDN'T mean so much for you guys to want to write nice stories about us, but it does mean a lot. and it means a lot that you want to do it WELL.
in conclusion. this is not a prescriptive guide, it's just a way to raise questions. and also, you all are doing FINE.
3K notes · View notes
drvscarlett · 9 days
Text
The Tortured Drivers' Department
— combining another one of my favorites. I'll be taking notes and writing fics about which TTPD song do I associate with the drivers ( + I will be including the retired ones). This is the main list and I'll be linking them when I finished writing them. Let me know if you wanna be tagged
Also give TTPD a listen. Its so beautiful and a masterpiece
Tumblr media
Fortnight
— i love you, its ruining my life (Lewis Hamilton x Mercedes!reader)
The Tortured Poets Department 
— At dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on. And that's the closest I've come to my heart exploding (Pierre Gasly x ex!reader)
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys 
— 'Cause he took me out of my box, stole my tortured heart left all these broken parts (Lando Norris x reader)
Down Bad
— Fuck it if I can't have him (Charles Leclerc x kpop idol!reader)
So Long, London
— You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? (George Russell x secret girlfriend! reader)
But Daddy I Love Him
— "I'm having his baby" No, I'm not, but you should see your faces (Alex Albon x Horner!reader)
Fresh Out the Slammer
— Now, pretty baby, I'm runnin' back home to you (Esteban Ocon x childhood bestfriend!reader)
Florida!!! (feat. Florence + the Machine) 
—I need to forget, so take me to Florida (Logan Sargeant x heiress!reader)
Guilty as Sin?
—What if he's written "mine" on my upper thigh only in my mind? (Oscar Piastri x bestfriend!reader)
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
— I was tame, I was gentle till the circus life made me mean (Nico Rosberg x Lewis Hamilton)
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
— they shake their heads, saying, "God help her" when I tell 'em he's my man (Daniel Ricciardo x longtime girlfriend!reader)
loml
— Oh, what a valiant roar. What a bland goodbye. The coward claimed he was a lion (Max Verstappen x childhood sweetheart!reader)
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart 
— Lights, camera, bitch, smile (Zhou Guanyu x model!reader)
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
— And I'll forget you, but I'll never forgive (Yuki Tsunoda x Actress!reader)
The Alchemy
—'Cause the sign on your heart said it's still reserved for me (Kimi Räikkönen x assistant!reader)
Clara Bow
— This town is fake, but you're the real thing (Sebastian Vettel x Ferrari heir!reader)
The Black Dog
— I am someone who, until recent events you shared your secrets with (Mick Schumacher x driver!reader
imgonnagetyouback
— I'm an Aston Martin that you steered straight into the ditch (Fernando Alonso x wife!reader)
The Albatross
— She's the albatross, she is here to destroy you (Jenson Button x revenger!reader)
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
—So if I sell my apartment and you have some kids with an internet starlet. Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon? (Carlos Sainz x Vasseur!reader)
How Did It End?
— The deflation of our dreaming leaving me bereft and reeling (Logan Sargeant x Oscar Piastri)
So High School
—You knew what you wanted, and, boy, you got her (Charles Leclerc x reader ft Max Verstappen x childhood friend!reader)
I Hate It Here
—I hate it here so I will go to secret gardens in my mind (Kimi Räikkönen x interviewer! reader)
thanK you aIMee
— And then she wrote headlines in the local paper laughing at each baby step I'd take (Mark Webber x reader)
I Look in People’s Windows
—What if your eyes looked up and met mine one more time (Sebastian Vettel x reader)
The Prophecy
—Don't want money, just someone who wants my company (Pierre Gasly x politician's daughter!reader)
Cassandra
—So they killed Cassandra first cause she feared the worst (Lewis Hamilton x wife!reader)
Peter
— Forgive me, Peter, please know that I tried to hold onto the days when you were mine (Lando Norris x reader)
The Bolter
— "Oh, we must stop meeting like this" (Max Verstappen x hollywood starlet!reader)
Robin
— You have no room in your dreams for regrets (Oscar Piastri x girlfriend!reader)
The Manuscript
—One last souvenir from my trip to your shores. Now and then I re-read the manuscript. But the story isn't mine anymore (Carlos Sainz x McLaren employee!reader)
323 notes · View notes
illicitghoul · 4 days
Text
you’re instagram if you were in the BAU (p2)
prt 2 that nobody asked for 🥱 (this is so fun)
part 1 (linked below)
————————————————————————————
yourusername
Tumblr media
liked by jen.jj45 and 46 others
yourusername JJ LOVE CLUB (i am also in jj love club but they all voted me to take the photo 💔)
pennycia and you did a great job 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩
yourusername i love you pen 💌
pennycia I LOVE YOU MOST Y/N
derek.m0rg4n @spencer.re1d i love you
spencer.re1d Stop lying for social media clout
derek.m0rg4n fuck you AND your fuck ass haircut
prentiss.em LMFAO
prentiss.em we are such cuties some ppl wish they were us 🥱
yourusername @prentiss.em real asf
yourusername
Tumblr media
liked by elliegreenaway & others
yourusername me and spence were conjoined jellyfish in another life
spencer.re1d Can we be anglerfish
yourusername no? wtf is wrong with you
spencer.re1d 🥱🥱🥱🥱BORING
r0ssi81 that is a very interesting photo
yourusername YOU KNOW HOW TO COMMENT?
r0ssi81 you’re pushing it girl genius
yourusername you’re pushing something…
r0ssi81 when i find out how to block someone you are gone y/n
prentiss.em this is quite cute y/l/n 😭
yourusername you’re quite cute 🤫
prentiss.em send me toe pictures 😂😂😂😂
yourusername NO EMILY!!!!!!!!! (ill email them)
yourusername
Tumblr media
liked by spencer.re1d and 51 others
yourusername my cute glowing girlfriend (idk who that random man is 🤷‍♀️ kinda scary)
prentiss.em yeah that is really weird 🥱 anyway i love u wifey mwah mwah
yourusername ugh ily lets go frolic in a field or smth
spencer.re1d Yeah that is really scary - be careful guys
spencer.re1d OH MY I LOOK LIKE A GHOST 😁😁
jen.jj45 it’s like i can still hear his voice…
yourusername :( i miss his cute smile
prentiss.em 🎉
spencer.re1d @prentiss.em You aren’t funny
pennycia 😭😭😭😭
prentiss.em ok comedy police spencer reid????
jen.jj45 shes like an angel !!!!!!
prentiss.em I LOVE YOU JENNIFER 🙁🙁
yourusername
Tumblr media
liked by aaron.hotchner and 37 others
yourusername i said serve and they devoured
spencer.re1d Slay !
prentiss.em y/n meant to say i devoured and you kind of chewed…
spencer.re1d Can you stop harassing me?
prentiss.em i kiss your girlfriend on days that end in y
yourusername TRUTH 👩��❤️‍💋‍👩
pennycia what cuties!!! seeing their smiles makes me so happy!!!!!!
spencer.re1d You’re my best friend
derek.m0rg4n everytime you speak it breaks my heart
jen.jj45 HAHAAH WHAT
pennycia CRYING
yourusername
Tumblr media
liked by elliegreenaway and 43 others
yourusername my bag broke before i left spences 🙁
spencer.re1d Sigh…. the theory for a broken bag means you have to stay where it broke 🤷‍♂️ i dont know i just heard that
derek.m0rg4n my bag broke in your heart… why won’t you let me stay
yourusername you ate with that one derek
yourusername broke bag mountain
elliegreenaway @yourusername LMFAO
pennycia i’ll fix it for you!!! come over girlie!!!
yourusername omw!!!!!
yourusername
Tumblr media
liked by derek.m0rg4n and 49 others
yourusername day out with my four wives
pen : fanny pack with snacks and a book
jj : losing her mind (too warm)
em : complaining 🥱
me : having a good time :)
aaron.hotchner I hope you all worn sunscreen
yourusername yes 🫡
prentiss.em 🥱
pennycia i had a great day!!! (i read 3 pages)
jen.jj45 i am LOSING it the HEAT i am gonna COMBUST
derek.m0rg4n @spencer.re1d @aaron.hotchner @r0ssi81 could be us
r0ssi81 I am busy for the foreseeable future
dreak.m0rgan @spencer.re1d @aaron.hotcher
at least rossi replied…
170 notes · View notes
suzukiblu · 5 months
Note
Been looking through your assorted aus page and the link for "weird amnesia Timberkon"/"for the game young" is broken (as in, the tag does not appear to exist). It seems like you put a lot of time into that page so I figured you'd want to know (and also selfishly I am very interested in finding out what weird amnesia timberkon entails)
WHOOPS, my bad, messed that one up. Should be all fixed on the page now, though! Oddly I only seem to have one teeny lil' snippet up for that AU, to my surprise, could've sworn I'd posted more? Sooooo as thanks for catching that busted link for me, have a nice big chunk of the WIP behind this read-more, hah.
So Superboy is apparently an idiot. Then again, whatever, if Bernard were an indestructible telekinetic half-alien he would probably also not worry too much about looking subtle in his civvies or maintaining a secret identity, and also it's been a while since he's heard anything about the guy doing any active superheroing anyway so maybe Superboy is just assuming that the entire planet somehow forgot about his teen heartthrob superhero posters and all those close-up high-def publicity shots of his very public face and whatever? Oh, and also that one time that he literally fucking died to save the whole freaking world and the big ol' memorial statue. Statues? There might've been two, come to think. 
So maybe an idiot. 
A very hot idiot, though. 
Well, whatever, Bernard figures, taking a sip of his boba tea and idly watching Superboy check out his boyfriend from the far side of the cafe like he's a sad puppy in a shop window who just wants a little love. Tim is looking at his phone and appears oblivious to Superboy's existence. 
Bernard assumes Tim's doing that thing where he pretends to not be Robin, for obvious reasons. That thing remains adorable but is getting increasingly less convincing as time goes on. Like, he really doesn't know what Tim actually thinks he thinks he does in his downtime? There is no logical reason for a civilian to be either as ripped or as scarred as Tim Drake is, but part of being Tim Drake's boyfriend is pretending to be oblivious to those facts and also never questioning his flimsy excuses to run off at a moment's notice or disappear during a crisis or whatever else. 
Bernard tries to figure out how to politely extricate himself from the situation for long enough for Tim to go check up on Superboy, because Superboy very clearly needs to be checked up on. Unfortunately he went to the bathroom like ten minutes before the guy walked in all sad-puppy so the obvious option is out, and Tim knows damn well he isn't gonna call his parents for anything less than a full-on emergency, and his friends it'd be weird not to just text, and . . . fuck, he doesn't know. He needs an angle here. 
"I'll be right back, babe, just gotta duck into the bathroom real quick," Tim says, glancing up from his phone with an apologetic smile. Bernard relaxes slightly. Okay, that works, thank you, Bat-planning. Superboy can just follow Tim back to the bathroom and they can do whatever superhero sidebar they need to do back there. 
But then Tim gets up, gives him a peck on the cheek, and heads back to the bathroom, and Superboy . . . doesn't follow him. 
The hell? 
Bernard represses a frown and takes another sip of his boba. Superboy continues not to follow Tim. He just sits there at his own little table with his completely untouched drink, looking like the saddest puppy that has ever sadded. 
Bernard is mystified. 
Are they having a fight, maybe? Is Tim ignoring Superboy because of that, not the secret ID stuff? That seems weird and not very Tim-like, fighting or not. But Superboy's in Gotham and came into the cafe after they did, so he can't be the one avoiding Tim. But also he didn't follow him to the bathroom when presented with the very unsubtle opportunity to do so, so . . . what the hell? 
Weird. 
Bernard takes yet another sip of boba and keeps watching Superboy. Superboy seems oblivious to said watching, but he guesses the guy is pretty famous and is a very public superhero and is always doing impressive shit and all that, so he's probably used to being watched. Oh, and also he's stupid, stupid hot. 
Bernard cannot imagine being this used to attention, but apparently Superboy is. Bernard, of course, is not a punk idol superhero built like a porn star and a supermodel had a threeway with a bodybuilder. So like, that particular bit of mental dissonance probably makes sense and all. Life experiences are not universal, and all that. 
Especially not when the life experience one is comparing oneself to started in a cloning tube. 
Well, it's not like it's a burden for Bernard to have a free pass on checking out a hottie while he waits for Tim to come back from, presumably, waiting for Superboy to come and talk to him. Which Superboy is just . . . not doing, still. Inexplicably. 
Still, sad puppy or not, Superboy's civvies look damn good on him, so that's something. Bernard's enjoying them, like as an aesthetic experience and everything. Superboy's wearing an unbuttoned red flannel shirt with rolled-up sleeves over a very tight black tank top and even tighter light wash skinny jeans that are bafflingly intact, considering the fact that a dude with Kryptonian-level super-strength is currently vacuum-sealed into them. 
Does tactile telekinesis work on skinny jeans? Is that a thing? Like, are Superboy's jeans currently indestructible? 
That sounds amazing, actually. 
Also, those buckled-up black leather boots he's wearing look like they could straight-up kill a dude, Kryptonian power-assist or not. And the shiny mirrored sunglasses and ridiculous multitude of even shinier gold piercings all suit the guy, somehow, and even without looking like too much. 
Relatedly, Superboy's tank top is very, very tight. 
Also relatedly, his nipples are apparently pierced. 
And so is his belly button, it looks like. 
Ngh. 
Superboy's vacuum-sealed jeans are not quite tight enough for Bernard to figure out if he's got any below the spike-studded belt piercings, but his imagination is happy to fill in the blanks there. He's tempted to ask for Tim's theories on the existence of any such piercings, because yeah Superboy has super-hearing but Bernard has no shame and Tim logically should know, buuuuut he's still pretending not to know Tim is Robin so yeah, probably he shouldn't do that. 
He could start a new conspiracy board for it, maybe. That'd be fun. 
Superboy also has leather cuffs on his wrists and mismatched rings and necklaces and a really hot fade haircut that is noticeably windswept, and really, really looks like something that Bernard would like to see somebody dig their fingers into. Just–look, there's curls. Bernard cannot be blamed for curls. 
And he's trying not to eye the cuff bracelets too much, but they provide very nice inspiration for a certain style of kinky thoughts. Not that Superboy couldn't snap basically any set of cuffs that wasn't made of kryptonite or promethium or like a magical kryptonite-promethium alloy or whatever without even trying, obviously, but like, somehow the thought of the guy having to restrain himself more than anything else makes the whole mental image hotter? Like, somehow? 
Bernard pictures Superboy wearing a pair of cheap flimsy sex toy handcuffs and trying very, very hard to keep himself in them while someone else takes very careful inventory of all his piercings, wherever and whatever they all just so happen to be. 
Jesus. Yeah, there's a thought. 
Is it weird to consider flirting up your boyfriend's superhero bestie while he's badly pretending to be a civilian, Bernard wonders? Is that a thing? 
Probably, but he still has no shame and is also in an open relationship, so whatever. 
Hell, who knows, in retrospect maybe Tim actually arranged this setup specifically for Bernard to get an eyeful of his work crush. Like, Bernard always felt like Robin and Superboy had some significant UST going back in the day. Maybe Tim wants to finally do something about that, and the setup idea sounds like a very "Bat" approach to doing said something. And it'd explain why Superboy didn't follow Tim to the bathroom and maybe even why he's coming across kind of anxious right now, if he's trying to psych himself up to come over or something. Like, if he's nervous about making a good impression, though Bernard cannot imagine why he ever would be. Well, not like Supers are known for their undercover skills, so . . . 
Either way, if that's the plan, Bernard is very fine with it, so he decides to go find out for himself and picks up his drink to head over and chat the guy up. Worst case scenario, he’s just gotten his hopes up a little, he figures. Best case, he’s putting Superboy out of his “oh god, how do I do undercover” misery. 
"Mind if I sit?" he asks, and flashes Superboy a grin as he gestures at the empty seat at the other half of his table. Superboy looks weirdly startled, like he somehow expected to go unnoticed despite being a literal superhero who is also unspeakably hot and is also wearing very, very tight clothes that he's this close to busting out of. Like, at least half a dozen girls are actively checking him out right now, as is the dude behind the counter and the old guy on the sidewalk outside who’s busy badly pretending to be reading the outdoor menu board instead of checking out Superboy’s ass through the front window. 
So yeah, Bernard really does not understand that apparent assumption. 
Come to think, maybe Superboy has some self-esteem issues or something. Bernard admittedly might also have self-esteem issues if he were Superman's clone. Then again, if he were Superman's clone, he would look like Superman and also be very aware of how Superman himself looks, sooooo . . . 
Seriously, "younger and sexier punk rock Superman" is not a vibe that Bernard can imagine going ignored all that often. Or ever. 
“Uh–what?” Superboy says. 
“I’ve been temporarily abandoned by my boyfriend and I’m easily bored,” Bernard clarifies politely, though obviously Superboy was staring at Tim long enough to have noticed said abandonment the moment it happened. “So, mind if I sit?” 
“I–sure?” Superboy says, looking nervous. Bernard puts another tally in the “too bad at undercover work to follow the Bat-plan” column. Whatever, the guy’s trying his best, he’s not gonna judge him. 
There's a pin on the inside of Superboy’s flannel, Bernard notices as the other shifts awkwardly in his seat, and is vaguely puzzled by the sight of it. Like, it's just a little thing and he doubts he'd have even seen it if he weren't in this close to the guy, but . . . 
Just–yeah. Little pin. Just like a cheap little round button, like the kind that comes out of the dollar bin at all sorts of random stores. And it's hidden inside Superboy's flannel, mostly, but it's definitely got the S-shield on it. 
Bernard is perplexed. Even in Gotham, it's not like it's weird to see people wearing Superman merch. So like, why is Superboy hiding that?
“Cool,” he says as he files that away as a little oddity, and takes the empty seat. Superboy continues to look nervous. Bernard continues to work on figuring out if his weird Bat-boyfriend who he’s not supposed to know is a Bat set him up on a blind date with his superhero bestie. The nervousness supports the theory, anyway. 
Man, this dude really is even prettier up close. How was he Tim’s bisexual awakening with this guy around and in close quarters with him? Like, he’s flattered, don’t get him wrong, but also maybe Tim has some vision problems and he should get that checked out before it inconveniences his nightlife. 
"Sooooo like . . . what do I call you?" Bernard asks, peering across the table at him curiously. "Because the obvious option seems like a bad idea, obviously.” 
"‘The obvious option’?" Superboy stops looking nervous long enough to look confused instead. 
"Yeah?" Bernard says, cocking his head. Superboy cannot possibly think he’s being subtle here, so . . . "I mean, I assume you don't go by 'Superboy' when you're dressed like that. Like, that's the whole point of being dressed like that, right?" 
Superboy stares blankly at him. Bernard cocks his head the other way, now officially the confused one. 
"What?" Superboy says. 
"Okay, sorry, this is the thing where you-know-who still insists on pretending he's not Robin, isn't it," Bernard realizes, which he really should've realized would be a thing from the start. He supposes that makes sense even with Superboy’s total lack of subtlety, though, superheroes probably do have to really commit to that thing. Especially ones who work for Batman and Superman. Or . . . just around Superman, maybe? Bernard is not fully clear on that particular superhero hierarchy. "My bad. So, uh, what do I call you, because there is obviously no obvious option. Obviously.” 
"You . . . recognize me?" Superboy croaks. 
"Uh," Bernard says, brow furrowing in bemusement at the very weird expression the guy's currently wearing. "Yes? No offense, you're kind of recognizable. Like, do you even have a secret identity? I mean, you're a clone, right, and I know you were just doing the full-time hero thing in at least Hawaii, so I actually have no idea if you ever bothered making one up or not?” 
"You recognize me," Superboy chokes, just staring at him, and then bursts into tears. 
. . . well, that can't be good.
237 notes · View notes
letsgetrowdy43 · 11 months
Text
Tiny Dancer Au ꕥ—
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Welcome to my Adam Fantilli x hughes!sister au
This is gonna be used as the master list where I will post all of the links to updates/requests/blurbs/new chapters/insta edits
Everything will also be posted under the #Tinydancerau!!
ꕥ my favourite thoughts (the rest are in the #tinydancerau)
Introduction A little background Sunny meets her brothers The sibling dynamic Forgiving Evie (the friend who slept with Jack) First dates Luke finds out — Everyone finds out — Everyone's reactions The apology Soft draft moments Random thoughts Sunny and Jim — Jim's newfound love of ballet Sunny thoughts Pregnancy scare — Her brother's find out Sunny in THE birthday video How she deals with the breakup The Drama post-breakup The promise ring Surprising her at a Recital Do they ever become parents? How are they as parents? Adam and Sunny as ParentsThe adoption process of the second baby — their daughter's name 
ꕥ fics/blurbs
Quiet mornings, and momma's cuddlesSibling Quarrels — Alternate sad ending Frat wedding First kiss Fix what's broken Downtime Boys night in Dial tone dramatics Need you there (draft day) You're gonna go far Not a forever goodbye The big (preseason) game "We don't have to talk about it" Oh Christmas Tree Call Your Mom (Rowan's version) my house is warm (Rowan's version) The perfect summer Quiet reunions
ꕥ instagram edits
Postseason glow Draft day special Boyfriend day My birthday boy Sunny's Halloweekend
-
-
-
407 notes · View notes
mykoreanlove · 3 months
Text
Jackson on Kinjaz
Tumblr media
Your phone was blowing up constantly.
„Oh my god, did you see this?????“, your friend asked.
With shaking hands you clicked on the link.
Tumblr media
„I used to be critical on myself in my mind in a negative way. Not healthy. At all. I would call myself names and put myself down in my mind. I drank the most disgusting shakes for my body health but up here? I was rotting.“
„Yeah, yeah. I remember videos of that nasty shake. What did you put in there - chicken?“
„Gotta get my protein, man. But you know I would constantly feel guilty for what I have done or what I might do.“
„Like what?“
„Like. Okay, like did I practice enough? Is magic man good enough? What if I let everybody down? How will I cope? How will I live?
All these voices.. these fucking nagging voices were with me 24/7.“
„Damn that sounds tough. What did you do?“
„I thought it was impossible to fix because I tried so hard and nothing changed me. Or if it did, it would only last a couple of weeks and I’d be back to feeling like shit and talking down on myself.
Jackson, you moron, how could you do this? Did you really think you could make it? You don’t deserve this success. You don’t deserve to be happy.“
„Jackson, bro. I feel for you. Really.“
„Look, I’m just being honest. I would naturally think of punishments coming my way. I’d imagine injuring myself or loosing all my fans or money. I’d think of the most horrific shit late at night when I should be peacefully sleeping.
I would try to change my thoughts to change my feeling. I would rationalize my way out for hours to only find myself entering a new cave.“
„Like a merry go round.“
„Exactly, I was stuck. Same shit, different day. My gut always had this underlying feeling of tension.
I tried my best to give myself relief but like I said, I could not find Relief for longer than a week. Maybe a month at best.“
„Is that why you turned to alcohol? Because I remember you chugging down a bottle of Hennessy and thought to myself that’s not normal.“
„Oh, of course I started drinking more. I needed more. What used to make me pass out back then is like a cute little cocktail to me now.“
„Damn, that really is a lot to handle. Did you try other things, as well?“
„Look, I tried everything in the book. You name it, I tried it. Worked out. Meditated. Drank. Had sex. Nothing could give me what I craved so badly. Nothing. Until I found her.“
You swallowed hard.
You had no idea that he would share all this with the public. You were very well aware of his struggles but hearing him talk about them upset you. It broke your heart imagining him like that, all dim and broken.
Also, it made you nervous.
You had no idea that he would introduce you into the world like this.
You had no idea that he would reveal your relationship to his homies on a podcast.
Yet, you were intrigued.
„Her as in …?“
„You see, love is a funny thing, right? I didn’t plan to fall in love, nor did I want to but I kind of did. I found the one, man. I found the love of my life and I was lucky enough to have her love me back. Do you know how rare that is?“
„Yeah, it is for you. I remember our last interview and how we wanted to get you on tinder and shit.“
„Exactly! I used to be on my own for years. Years, man. I gave up on love completely, thinking this was meant for others but certainly not me. And then she came into my life. Like an angel that was coming down to help me. Save me even.“
„Your savior, huh?“
„I swear to god her love saved me. It saved me from drugs, it saved me from self destruction and first and foremost it saved me from myself. I gotta be honest man, if I hadn’t met y/n I wouldn’t even be here anymore.“
„Wow. That’s, that’s a pretty heavy revelation. I’m glad you’re doing better now.“
„Oh, I am. Management is probably going to kick my ass later but I don’t care. Let me loose fans, let me loose money. I don’t give a shit. If you support me now, you support the real Jackson Wang. And that’s me right now - happily coupled to the most beautiful soul on this planet. If you can’t handle that - my bad.“
„Okay guys, it’s over. China‘s most wanted bachelor is officially off the market. WHOOOO!!“
„Yeah, the king has finally found its queen.“
„So, what is she like?“
You paused the interview and took a deep breath. Jackson was very vocal of his feelings for you, but hearing it like that felt different. The biggest smile was plastered on his face as he was talking about you.
You as in his queen.
You as in future Miss Wang.
Hundreds of butterflies announced themselves in your stomach, making you giddy and joyful.
„Oh man, she is the best. Like, she is so breathtakingly beautiful. Inside and out. We have the best conversations. I feel like she is my best friend. Truly, no one gets me like she does. It’s just.. it’s effortlessly easy. We laugh a lot, we talk a lot, we share everything with each other. I’m just so grateful, man.“
„Yeah, I can see that. You’re grinning from ear to ear. Make sure to invite me to your wedding.“
„Like you invited me to your birthday?“
„Okayyyyy, let’s wrap it up. Guys, that’s it for today. Thank you Jackson, really appreciate you brother.“
You stopped the video, giggling at your petty boyfriend.
„Remind me to have a word with you once you’re back, yeah?“, you texted him.
It didn’t take him a second to instantly call you.
„Did you see it? Already? Damn babygirl, you’re quick“, he teased.
„You could have warned me, Wang!“
„I didn’t plan to say all that but I couldn’t help myself. It just.. it just came out of me. I really meant it though.“
„Everything?“
He knew exactly what you were implying.
„Oh, I’m gonna make you Miss Wang for sure. Rule my kingdom with me? Please?“
115 notes · View notes
skyward-floored · 7 months
Text
Hi hello, I got inspired by a thing and wrote an Incredibles au fic about Malon and Hyrule this afternoon, hope you all enjoy :)
I felt so bad for Hyrule writing this aaaah he’s just a little guy... good thing he has Malon <3
Ao3
————————————————————
CRASH
Malon jumped at the sound of something breaking in the kitchen, nearly dropping the basket of laundry she was holding. There was a telling silence after the crash, and she felt a surge of exasperation, squeezing her eyes shut.
It had already been a stressful day— Wind was sick, and Legend was starting to come down with something as well, and Malon had gotten behind in the laundry checking up on the two of them. Four had been clingy up until she’d put him down for a nap, and she’d also had to break up no less then three separate arguments between Wild and Legend, the latter extra grumpy because of his sore throat. Malon’s patience was rapidly unraveling, and this was just the icing on the cake.
She held in a groan, and set down the basket, tromping into the kitchen with her hands on her hips.
“Wild, if you broke my vase because you haven’t been being careful with your super speed again, then you’re going to be in some serious trouble mister—”
But Wild wasn’t who Malon found when she walked into the kitchen. Rather Hyrule was standing next to the sink, eyes wide as he stared down at the mess of what looked like a shattered cup, broken pieces and spilled water all over the floor.
“...Hyrule? What happened?” she asked, surprised at not seeing the usual culprit. “Did you drop a cup?”
He startled at her voice, and seemed at a loss for words, looking between her and the mess without saying anything. Malon raised an eyebrow when he didn’t reply, and gestured to the mess again.
“Hyrule, did you drop your glass? Or did somebody else?”
Malon took a step towards Hyrule as she spoke, but the second she did, his shoulders shot up, and he quickly stepped back from her.
“I-I did, but I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Hyrule said frantically, backing away from Malon. “I’ll— I’ll fix it, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to!”
She immediately stopped moving towards him, looking at Hyrule in surprise at his reaction.
“Honey, it’s only a glass, you don’t have to be upset,” she said with a worried look, but Hyrule only seemed to get more panicked, backing away until his back hit the wall.
“I’m sorry, it— it was an accident! I wasn’t trying to, I’m sorry I’m sorry—”
“Hyrule, it’s okay—”
“I’m sorry! Please don’t punish me!”
His voice broke on the words, and Malon studied him for a moment, alarm bells ringing in her mind. All of a sudden she realized what was happening, and her heart fell straight to her shoes.
Hyrule must have had this happen to him before, when he wasn’t living with them.
During the period of his life he refused to talk about.
Oh.
“Link,” Malon said steadily, as Hyrule sank to to the ground, curling up on himself at the name. Oh no, bad choice. “...Hyrule,” she tried again, “it’s okay, I’m not mad.”
Her son had begun to shake, his eyes welling with tears, and Malon was starting to feel at a loss, unsure of how to help without making him more upset. She looked around, then carefully lowered herself to her knees, far away enough to not crowd Hyrule, but close enough to provide comfort if he decided he wanted it.
“Hyrule,” Malon said softly, and he looked at her with a scared expression. “It’s okay. It was an accident, and we can easily clean it up. I’m not going to punish you for making a mistake.”
“B-but I broke it, I was clumsy, I’m sorry I—”
“Honey, it’s okay,” Malon soothed. “I can’t tell you how many times your father has knocked into things and broken them because of his eye. Maybe I get annoyed at him for a little while, but he never does it on purpose, and we clean it up together.”
Hyrule didn’t say anything, tears still slipping down his nose.
Malon bit her lip, then cautiously scooted closer to her son, making sure he was okay with it before moving. Hyrule watched her sharply, but didn’t move away, and she carefully set her hand on his shoulder, rubbing it with soft circles when he didn’t throw her off.
Hyrule slowly relaxed at her touch, and his shoulders lowered. His shaking began to still as they sat there in silence, and eventually he let Malon move closer, until she was right next to him.
“It’s okay, honey,” Malon repeated in a gentle voice, and Hyrule wiped his nose on his sleeve. She exhaled, and brushed some tears off his cheek, then met his eyes. “It’s only a cup. I know it was an accident.”
“You’re not gonna hu... do anything?” Hyrule whispered, and Malon shook her head.
“Oh honey, no,” she said in dismay, and pulled him into a hug, loose enough that he could pull away if he wanted to. He didn’t though, instead sinking into her arms with a quiet sigh. “It was an accident. Everyone breaks things sometimes, you didn’t do anything wrong. After all, it’s not like you emptied my cupboard and started throwing cups just to be destructive.”
Hyrule let out a soft giggle, so small Malon could barely hear it, but it warmed her heart anyway.
“It’s okay,” she repeated, and Hyrule rested his head on her shoulder. She sat with him on the floor for a while longer even though she had things to do, holding him while he finished calming down. Everything else could wait right now.
“I’m really sorry I broke it,” Hyrule whispered after a while, and Malon ran a gentle hand through his hair.
“I know. And it’s okay, Hyrule. It was an accident.”
She pulled back and smiled at him a little worriedly, brushing a hand through his hair again.
“Now let’s make sure you don’t have any glass stuck in you, then we can clean up this mess,” she said warmly, and Hyrule nodded, looking relieved. Malon helped him up, and over to a chair so she could check him over, and cleaned the few tiny pieces of glass from his foot.
But even as Malon bandaged up Hyrule’s foot, and he helped her clean up the shattered cup, the image of him begging her not to do anything to him stayed in her head, making her chest hurt more and more every time it replayed.
Nobody is going to hurt you like that again, Link, she promised silently as he helped her sweep up the last of the glass. Nobody.
117 notes · View notes
rachaelthemes · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Ocular — Version 2.0.0
Preview // More Info & Install
oh heyyyy hi hello long time no chat! (it's been over a year!) (sorry!)
I decided to give my theme Opticant a face lift, along with a desperately needed name change. I'm not really working on other new themes right now but I was so excited to update this!
Ocular comes with the following features:
Uses Tumblr's full-width controls and search bar
Post Sizes: 400px, 500px, 540px, 600px, 700px
Sidebar Width: 200px, 260px, 300px, 350px, 400px
Font Sizes: 14px, 15px, 16px, 18px
Background: solid, 2-color gradient, or image (full, static, or repeating)
Unlimited custom links (visit the help desk FAQ for tutorial)
Custom titles for Home, Ask, Submit, and Archive links
Endless scroll, custom fonts, and custom ask box text
Optional header and avatar image
Ocular version 2.0.0 adds these new features:
Color Schemes: Default, Tumblr, Dark Mode, Low Contrast, Cement, Cybernetic, Canary, Pastel, Blended Light, Blended Dark
Sidebar Location: Left, Right, or Above Posts
Added "Uncropped" to the "Avatar Shape" option, which will show your Avatar image in its native aspect ratio with no background, border, or rounded corners (see images 2 and 3) (perfect for transparent images and sprites) (redux edits? again? heck yeah)
Various additions and small tweaks to minor options, such as new background options, theme credit customization, etc.
It also fixes these bugs and adds these cool code updates:
Long words were prevented from being broken, thereby cutting off text on the edge of the post
Updated inline photosets so they no longer break when using endless scroll
The appearance of Read More links and the Pinned Post indicator have been updated to more closely match the Tumblr dashboard
Added lightbox functionality to all images
Compressed JS and CSS for quicker load times
Probably more updates honestly I kinda lost track
you can install (or reinstall) this theme here, or you can cross your fingers and hope that my submission to the theme garden (??!!?!?!) gets approved!! as always, thanks for using my themes. I've been making them for almost 10 years and I'm so grateful to all of you for helping me make that a possibility <3
2K notes · View notes
bubblybloob · 4 months
Text
I hope this is the final part of this weird thing I’ve made. Originally based on this art post and then expanded in this short write and followed up by another art post
Edit: I linked them incorrectly, shit. I’m not fixing it, deal with it
Now we’re here
It would be incorrect to say Hero was angry, because he wasn’t, he was furious.
It took only a few hours for Cheated to sound the alarm when he couldn’t find Paranoid. Then Contrarian pointed out that Broken wasn’t around either and everyone’s concern doubled.
Paranoid being missing was one thing, at worst he passed out from exhaustion somewhere they hadn’t thought to check, now Broken being missing meant he might be trying to hurt himself.
Everyone was rushing around, Hero remembered hearing the utter storm of swears from Cheated as Smitten tried to calm him. Stubborn irately stomped about as he called out for their two missing members, and Skeptic was pulling an indifferent Cold to his feet to get him moving. Contrarian muttered words of encouragement to Hero, who had placed his face in his hands, stressed.
Weirdly enough, Opportunist hung back, rubbing his talons together in a repeated, nervous motion. He only sprung to action once Cheated snapped at him a loud “Get moving!”
At one point they saw Hunted, who looked out of his element with the chaos surrounding him, he clutched a few bowls of food in his arms, feathers puffed out in mild alarm.
Contrarian perked up. “Hunted! I know you said you’d get all loopy during winter, and all of this usually makes you…” he gestured vaguely to the discord of avians running about. “…queasy, but do you think you could lend us a hand? You’ve got a strong sense of smell, yeah? Think you can sniff those voices out?”
Hunted curled in on himself, instead of responding he scuttled backward into the dim hallway where their rooms were.
“Strange, generally he’s pretty protective of us all, I thought he’d be the most active in this. The cold weather must really be getting to the guy.” Contrarian scratched the back of his neck, Hero hummed in agreement.
The search eventually expanded outwards of their home once they realized there was nowhere left for Broken or Paranoid to be inside, and then further out when they couldn’t find them in the front or backyard.
They eventually had to call it quits, as their energy left them, made quickly evident once Smitten conked out the second he hit the couch. They’d all have to give in and rest before continuing.
By then it was morning, Hero was rubbing his eyes, bloodshot and tired from the day spent running around, but too drowned in worry to rest. A twitchy Opportunist was wide awake, the bags under his eyes made it apparent he had also failed to find sleep. He was still twiddling his fingers away with hiked shoulders. Both sat against one of the couches in the lounge, where the others were strewn about, snoring away their sleepiness.
“Got knots in your neck?” Hero mumbled out, unconsciously pressing into the sore spots on his back, sighing with minor relief.
Opportunist jumped, ears pinned as he looked up at Hero. He was uncharacteristically anxious, or at least being more obvious about it, less able to put on his mask when wrung so thin.
“I- well yes, but no. That’s not why I’m so…”
“Tense?” Hero provided.
Opportunist sighed, “Yes, tense.”
“What’s up then? You can be honest with me.” For once, the bitter part of Hero’s mind thought. He waved it away.
“Oh! Well um-“ Opportunist looked back and forth, as if waiting for something to pounce on him. “I may have… kept something from everyone.”
Hero squinted, trying to see more than just the blurry shape of his fellow bird folk through his groggy vision. “Go on.”
Opportunist pursed his lip, looking nearly as jumpy as Paranoid, a far cry from his relaxed form. “Look I wanted to tell you guys, but Hunted caught me every time he left his room and glared so harshly I near convinced myself that beastly form of the princess was in front of me, it was like-“
“Hey, calm down!” Hero scooted forward, placing a reassuring hand on Opportunist’s shoulder. “She went with Quiet, remember? Now what’s this about Hunted?”
Opportunist forced himself to breathe in, Hero wondered if this is how he prepared himself to put his false act on. “You remember how Hunted said he was going to sleep most of the cold away?”
“Mmhm. What about it?”
“Well earlier today he started a rampage in the lounge, I asked him what he was looking for and he didn’t respond. I was about to go grab Stubborn or Smitten or maybe even you! To, you know, wrangle the guy under control. Obviously something was up and he wasn’t making a peep! Plus, I wasn’t really one for him tearing apart all of our furniture. However, I didn’t get the chance to before he lifts up the couch, and what do you know, there behind it is Paranoid!”
Hero blinks, brows slowly furrowing. “Say that again?”
“Paranoid was hiding behind the couch, from Hunted himself it seemed. Hunted throws the poor guy over his shoulder and scurries out of lounge, sending me the most chilling look when I tried to intervene.”
Hero blinks, slowly, vision clouding with red.
“But that’s not all! I go in his room to see what’s up, and Hunted’s… uh… nest thing, has two of the guys in it. I didn’t get to see all of their body behind his wings, and he basically pushes me out with his voice alone, but I think it’s them! I just uh- uh…” Opportunist slowly shrank under Hero’s gaze, never before, not even at the Narrator, had Hero been so vexed.
“Why didn’t you say anything?!” The sheer pointlessness of their search crashed onto him like the weight of a thousand bricks. All of the concern and confusion and cursing could’ve been so easily avoided if Opportunist had just said something, but the one time he doesn’t run his mouth is when-!
“Hey- hey! Look- I thought he’d go all creature like and start- well I don’t know, doing whatever creatures do. Like hissing or climbing on the ceiling!”
Hero resisted the urge to bury his fist in the frazzled bird’s beak and instead took a sharp breath. “You know what, no. I’m not going to be mad at you. I’m angry at you often enough as it is, I need to channel this newfound rage at the real problem here.”
Opportunist flinched as Hero stood up, before scrambling to his feet. “Yes! Do that! I’ll even come with you. I’m good at picking locks you see.” Hero didn’t even question it.
And all of that led to now. They came to Hunted’s door, Opportunist got on one of his knees and stuck a clawed talon into the keyhole. The second Opportunist was done, Hero burst through the door, glaring holes into the puffed up form of- “Hunted!”
The avian shot to his feet, his ire fixated on Hero’s. From the mound of what looked like randomly placed pillows and blankets out popped the heads of Paranoid and Broken. Hero couldn’t prevent the small wave of relief that hit him; after searching for hours and hours and assuming the worst, seeing the two alright made it feel like he could finally breathe again. They looked well preened, a sight Hero thought he’d never see on the two, yet somehow they looked more tired than Hero was. Paranoid squinted through the darkness and dazedly looked upon Hero and Opportunist.
“Guys…? That you?” He slurred, looking like he was about to fall over immediately after he sat up. Broken wasn’t fairing much better, his blinks slow and fluttering.
Hero turned his gaze back to the prickly, instinctual bird, who looked near ready to pounce.
“We’ve been worried sick looking for Paranoid and Broken for the past day and a half, only to learn from this one-!” he pointed and accusing finger at Opportunist, who let out a timid “Eheh, hey…”, at the attention, “-you’ve had them holed up in here!”
“Day and a half…?” Broken croaked out, voice layered in sleep.
“It can’t have been that long… right? All I remember is being led to and from the bathroom, like a… a royal and his guard.” Paranoid provides, trying and failing to rub the drowsiness from his eyes.
“I remember Hunted bringing us food, but it’s all vague and fuzzy.” Broken adds, running a hand through the feathers on his head, letting out a deep hum of surprise when he found them soft and straightened out.
The hell was wrong with them? “You’ve turned their brains to mush,” Hero gawked, turning to Hunted once more, “you little shit.”
“It’s called hibernation and it’s perfectly natural.” Hunted proclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Hero.
“Don’t try me right now, I’m utterly livid over being worried for nothing.” Hero returned the pointing gesture.
“Okay! While you two argue this out, I’ll go grab the others to help solve this, yeah?” Opportunist says, clapping his hands together. “We’re all agreeing I’m being incredibly useful right now, hah… right?”
No one answers him.
“Right, right…” Opportunist sucks in a breath, “I’ll be back.”
It took the combined strength of Stubborn, Smitten, and Contrarian to hold Hunted down. He had stopped thrashing at some point, but Hero could still hear the foam hissing out of his mouth as he laid prone on the soft lounge carpet they had to drag him onto.
“What’s wrong with you two? None of us got a full eight hours and yet you’re the only ones that can barely keep their eyes open.” Skeptic prods, staring with obvious concern at the two other voices, who had to be held up by Cold and Cheated so they wouldn’t fall over.
“It’s ironic, isn’t it? Usually yours is out seeking attention in the dead of night.” Cold says in a wispy voice, looking at Cheated and Broken. “And this one is too fearful to get any sleep.” He continues, looking down at Paranoid, who was mostly limp in his grasp.
“It’s coming back to me now, slowly. Still I can’t remember why… why we were in there.” Paranoid speaks out, struggling to stand to his full height. Cold eventually adjusted his grip to where Paranoid couldn’t move as easily, so he’d stop squirming.
“He wanted us to hibernate with him I think.” Broken mumbles, not even trying to stand, instead allowing Cheated to hold him however he pleased.
“Hibernate? I thought birds didn’t do that?” Cheated’s ears pin to the back of his head as he pulls Broken further up, inching himself and the dozing avian slightly away from Hunted, despite his less than mobile state.
“They don’t.” Stubborn grunts out.
“One species does I think, but as far as I know, birds won’t if they don’t have to. Oh give him to me Cold, you’ll hurt him like that.” Opportunist rounds the corner, taking his ponytail out. He reaches for Paranoid, who is given to him by Cold without fuss.
Skeptic snaps his fingers. “Ah, I get it. Hunted is most of our survival instinct. When winter was coming and we weren’t migrating somewhere more warm, he dug in. His instincts probably told him our weaker members couldn’t stand the cold, so he brought them to his room. If I had to guess, he’d eventually have us all in there as winter progressed.”
“But we’re not that much like wild animals, we can’t actually hibernate, right?” Contrarian said, looking at the others in the room with an unsure smile on his face.
“I’m not so sure about that. Our friends seem quite out of sorts.” Smitten counters, looking at the two troubled avians with a gentle, worried frown. “They’ve done nothing but sleep and yet can hardly stand!”
“Might be because hibernation isn’t truly sleep, even if it seems similar. I’d say Hunted succeeded, he somehow got them to start hibernation.” Skeptic says, putting a contemplative hand under his chin.
“How though? How is that possible?” Hero says, looking at the two main subjects of their conversation.
Skeptic shrugged. “Beats me, you’ll have to ask him, and he doesn’t seem up for a nice chat at the moment.” He jutted a thumb in Hunted’s direction, the feral bird was still growling beneath the dog pile holding him down.
“Huh, didn’t know he could make that noise. How agitated do you think he’ll get if we tease him with his charges?” Cold remarks, reaching over and plucking a feather from Broken, making him let out a surprised chirp that transitioned into a pained keen. Hunted froze at Broken’s faint cry, before resuming his struggle with double the effort, snarling at Cold like a bear that just had its cub taken away. Smitten and Stubborn are quick to up the pressure, while Contrarian flails to quickly get Hunted’s legs back under control.
Hero pushes Cold back. “Nope, bad, bad idea. You’ve lost speaking and doing privileges this discussion.”
Cold sits down on one of the chairs. “Pity.”
“Now what?” Stubborn huffs.
“What do you mean ‘now what?’” Hero questions.
Stubborn snorts impatiently. “Exactly what I said, now what? What are we going to do with him-“ he looks down at Hunted, “-and them?” then Broken and Paranoid.
Hero brings a hand to his eyes and drags it down his face, his head was killing him, and the adrenaline from the fight with Hunted was wearing off.
“Just-! Okay. Stubborn, Smitten, and Contrarian, you three are on Hunted watch duty. Lock him in his room and don’t let him out, he’s slippery so keep your eyes peeled. Skeptic and Cheated, you two are going to try waking Paranoid and Broken up some, until they’re back to normal if you can, they can’t stay like that. Cold, warm up the house, gather more wood for the fireplace and make sure the windows are closed, we need Hunted’s instincts to calm down.”
“What about me?” Opportunist says as Paranoid is passed off once more, this time to Skeptic.
“Me and you haven’t slept, so we’re going the fuck to bed.” Hero finishes, whipping around and trudging to his room. He’ll tell Opportunist and Hunted off later, right now, he needed some shut eye.
70 notes · View notes
shinnith · 6 months
Text
Best Sims 4 Script Mods✨
wanted a masterlist on this site of my "cannot live without" mods, so buckle up and get ready for your game to finally become even better!
Note: Playing on basic hardware and think your game can't run this high of scripts? My specs are a laptop with barely 4 GB of usable RAM and the most basic cpu+gpu out there. Go ham.
⭐List is under the cut and includes scripts like "All Worlds/Secret Worlds Residential", "Travel to Hidden World Easily", top notch map/loading screen replacements, ongoing projects like "sims 4 multiplayer" and more⭐
Gameplay Tweaks:
✨Darkmode ★ By: Dskecht
As of making this, both Arnie's Darkmode/Plumfruit are broken and will probably stay that way due to their retirement. Dskecht is currently hard at work with updating theirs though, which you can find at the link above, and their main updates about patch fixes here.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨All Worlds Are Residential ★ By: Zerbu
With this, destination type worlds (granite falls, selvadorada/ect) and hidden worlds (sylvan glade/forgotten grotto/ect) become residential or whatever lot type you want them to be. You'll need the creator's Venue Changes mod along with it. Cannot explain how important this mod is.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨Travel To Venue/Hidden World ★ By: TwelfthDoctor
Quickly travel to places like Forgotten Grotto and more- all from your cell phone!
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨OMSP Shelf ★ By: AmoeBae
This "shelf" is basically a placeholder and has many slots, which doesn't conflict on placement and you can then turn invisible. If that sounds confusing, basically: wow shelf/table full of decorations instead of like two weirdly placed objects.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨More Traits ★ By: MapleBell
A lot of good traits, that I feel go well with a "maxis match" or "basegame" playthrough.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨Photographic Memory ★ By: RSVN
Take better photos with a custom camera and frame them in different frames, polaroids, canvases, calendars, ect. Beautiful work.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨Sacrificial's Mods
The creator of "Extreme Violence" brings you a ton of other elements. Armageddon, Zombies, Life tragedies, possessed or murderous children & so much more. Go wild.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨TurboDriver's Mods
Wouldn't be a complete list without the creator of "whickedwhims". Kudos, TurboDriver.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨Basemental's Mods
Mods which are full o' vices, if you catch my drift. All of their work is amazing and goes super well with sacrificial & turbodriver's work.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
More Scripts:
✨Dershayan & 20thCenturyPlumbob Maps/Loading Screen Replacements
I can't choose a favorite set- both creators have made beautiful work, though Dershayan only offers map replacements.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨More Columns in CAS ★ By: weerbesu
CAS UI is incredibly irritating and this helps by giving more columns. You have different choices for how many you want.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨Better BuildBuy ★ By: TwistedMexi
Will change your life and TwistedMexi will become like family. Oh, and did I mention it has live camera (tab key) in build mode?
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨ColorPicker ★ By: Carl's Guides
Hate the game's colors with objects? Carl is here to help.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨T.O.O.L ★ By: TwistedMexi
Total manipulation over otherwise locked assets in game (ex. non-editable player items/buildings/terrain like those freaking apartment windows you can't delete or change). This creator is currently working on a huge project for this entire community, and is also another concrete presence.
••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆••••⋆
✨Big Ongoing Projects✨
🏆Sims 4 Multiplayer
Creator Simsmultiplayer brings you something we've all talked over for years. It's released, but I haven't tested it myself.
🏆Sims 4 Create-A-World
TwistedMexi comes through once again, but this time with the most complex sims mod were seeing being developed. It has years of work already and is currently still in development. Updates at link above.
----------
Kudos to all mod + creators- big and small💞 This game has been tweaked, redesigned and literally fixed by modders time and time again and our community gets even more vibrant each day with their talents. After almost ten years in this community, I have seen such amazing work and tireless effort to creations of assets & mechanics, fixes to game bugs of all types and providing of technical support. We love you guys💖
79 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
General LU Headcanons part 1
Tumblr media
Heya! So I'm starting this blog with some general headcanons about the boys, I think I'll divide it in three parts so it's not too long. First up are Four, Hyrule, and Legend! Hope you enjoy :D
Part 2 Part 3
Four
It takes him so long to emerge from sleep
Like he'll be in a haze for like 20 minutes, not able to form any coherent thoughts
Which is kind of a surprise because he's one of the early risers, and is super reactive once fully awake
He tends to talk to himself a lot, mostly when he does something or thinks through a problem
It's mostly to exteriorize all the noise inside his head tho
The others aren't as weirded out by it than he feared, and he's thankful for it
Whenever they're in a market or just in a town, he always finds himself drawn to craftsmanship
Like if they need to interrogate people about monsters and stuff, he'll go ask artisans mostly
He feels more comfortable around them
It feels like home
Also he likes to compare his work to other blacksmith's
He feels like he has a lot to learn still, and he's very curious about how the craft has evolved with time
He doesn't know first aid and the scent of blood makes him sick, but if his teammates need tending he'll do his best
He tries to see their wounds as metal work needing repairs
It helps him keep his cool
But he'd rather leave it to someone else
Hyrule
Another early riser, but he hates it
He loves sleeping in and wishes his body would let him sometimes
But oh well, when it's time to wake up it's time to wake up
He's a very light sleeper too, like the wind blowing in the leaves above would wake him up
He hates it
Botany nerd
Loves keeping track of the new plants he finds along the way
He always asks the Link from the Hyrule they're in if he knows about it, and will pick them up if he can't get an answer, to study them later hopefully
He rarely can, but when they have a moment he'll either find a plant book (and a Link who can read it for him) or straight up ask someone if they know about the plant
He's always so polite and genuinely curious, people can't help but answer
He accidentally set Sky's stuff on fire once when showing off his fire magic to Wind
Sky was too impressed to truly be mad at him tho
(Also Hyrule replaced all of the stuff that couldn't be repaired, don't ask him how)
He doesn't mind blood and grime and gore, but can't handle anything with maggots in it
He'll stitch up anything, he'll put bones back in place if necessary, but one bug? In a wound? Don't count on him
He can keep his calm even before the grossest injuries, which is why he's often fixing up the others after a fight
He rarely uses his healing magic tho, he knows he'll tire too easily, and he can't help them if he can barely stay awake
So potions potions potions
He's a gentle caregiver but you better do as he says when you're hurt
Legend
A heavy sleeper, and he dreams a lot, but he never remember them
Probably for the best if you ask him
He usually wakes late, but never truly rested unfortunately
That never stoped him from being immediately efficient and fully awake tho
He knows he has a reputation of being sharp and closed off, but he's a really good listener
He's the kind of person curse the world with you when you vent until you're in the right headspace to find a solution
He kind of encourages the others in their dumbest ideas just to see what'll happen
(not the too dangerous ones, of course)
But he's curious, and after all the adventures he's been through, he believes that if he survived all of this, surely Wild will survive trying to cook a bomb flower
He did, but Twilight almost died of stress
He's the one who helps Warrior with refilling their inventory when they're low on supplies
He's a great negotiator and can get them twice the supplies for the same price
He's sometimes even charming enough to get them all a free meal
It's his favorite skill
He doesn't mind blood but will not look at broken limbs
Not his own, not other's
He tries to keep his cool around the others to not make them panic, but he really hates broken bones
If one of them is hurt, he'll try to distract them and make sure they have water and enough heat
He'll also keep them in place if they move around too much for Hyrule or Warrior to work on them
He's not gentle, but he's still reassuring somehow
72 notes · View notes
melleonis · 10 months
Text
it’s 2015 and i am
sitting on my mattress on the floor in the spare bedroom of the chicago condo my friend’s parents bought for them with oil company money. both of us have undiagnosed and unmedicated adhd. neither of us clean. the wide, shallow bathroom sink grows a yellow-black film of residue and shaved hair.
i am trying to come to terms with being dead. the year prior was a cascade of horror, a chain of a hundred different sudden sickenings in the gut, and as far as the world and most people in it are concerned, i no longer exist - which would have been more than fine with me, except that time continues to pass.
until recently, porpentine had been writing a column for rock paper shotgun called live free play hard, reviewing free indie games. itch.io is in its infancy, but unity is ten years old now and really starting to come into its own, and this is the heyday of the so-called walking simulator - Dear Esther in 2012 to Firewatch in 2016. i never played most of the big names, the ones that attracted all that sneering gamergate hatred (Gone Home excepted) - after all, they cost money, and in 2015, i didn’t have any of that. so every porpentine article was a damp, fertile patch of sometimes-delicious always-free mushrooms. i play a LOT of itch.io games that year, and i’ve been missing them lately, so i wanted to talk about them here.
live free play hard is a decade old, at this point. links are dead. games don’t quite run the same on modern computers. twine games which once had music are now silent. these are some of the survivors.
their angelical understanding by porpentine, herself. ***STROBE WARNING*** and also for a text-based game this is an intense PTSD simulator. i considered linking others of her games here: neon haze (link appears to be broken), CYBERQUEEN (about which i’ve already said a lot) or howling dogs (which is arguably still her best), but i went with t.a.u. because, well, in 2015 a PTSD simulator was what i needed.
CHYRZA by kitty horrorshow kh has probably Made It as an indie artist more than anyone else on this list? my metric for this is that there are two whole jacob geller video essays about her games. CHYRZA is pure tone: jittery unity platforming up desert monuments collecting audiologs. trust me, it’s really effective.
Bernband by Tom van den Boogaart this one still runs, but there’s a bit of slowdown in some areas. this is pure exploration through a very pixelly alien city: nightclubs, power stations, overpasses, late-night noodle bars. an empty chapel. a trumpet recital. the empty corridors and stairwells between everything. it’s stuck with me for all these years.
SABBAT by oh no problems this is the least subtle it is possible for a text game to be. it starts with animal sacrifice and gets really fucking explicit from there. as someone who had at the time cut a picture of baphomet out of the liner notes from a random black metal cd found in a des moine record store and taped it to my bedroom doorpost like a mezuzah, all i really wanted from SABBAT was the ability to have snakes for dicks, and buddy, it delivers. i remember there used to be a sort of sludgey doom metal soundtrack, but it doesn’t seem to exist anymore, and the credits link to a nonexistent soundcloud. so it goes.
HEARTWOOD by Kerry Turner hahaha man i’d completely forgotten about this game until i went back through the archives but fuck, it rules. it’s so simple. it’s pure sensation. i loved it then and i love it now.
Off-Peak by Cosmo D i think Cosmo D is still going strong these days! actually, i’m pretty sure i have unplayed games by them in my steam library, i should fix that. Off-Peak is a jazz exploration of the world’s most colorful train station. people are playing bespoke 2015 eurogames. a vendor is selling a bunch of sheet music that musicians have had to pawn, what with the way the economy is going. you understand. triplets stalk you. a man strokes a cow, menacingly. i would say it’s peak itch.io, but in point of fact it is, of course, off-peak itch.io.
anyway i lived, eventually, and went on to make art of my own, but it’s my belief - it’s my hope - that all my writing carries the spores these games and games like them put in me when i was dead and decaying and fertile ground for such things. i hope you play some of them. i hope you enjoy them. thanks for reading <3
153 notes · View notes
just-a-lil-critter · 1 year
Text
Bakugo's Apology Analysis :-
(but it's actually just me crying over my dearest bois and their dynamics)
Tumblr media Tumblr media
I love Izuku's blatant show of emotional vulnerability throughout the series. yeah he's a crybaby/nerd/impulsive martyr but for someone who's been relentlessly bullied for so many years he is ridiculously open about his feelings and I admire him so much for it
"I am scared for you, for everyone and what risking everything could do to me, so I will stay away even if it costs me my smile, even if it drains me of all life"
Like hello?? this boy is so exhausted, halfway to death's door and fighting off an actual army of frenemies and still, still cannot bring himself to close his heart, the worst he can think to say is "you can't keep up" and apologises for that too. he doesn't even think to push them away like he should and I *ugly sobs*
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
The apology *manic cackles*
Ohh the relief. the satisfaction. the completion of a circle literally years in the making.
and Izuku's reaction is just the icing on the cake. I was genuinely worried they might downplay this scene after the whole OP fiasco (Bokurano by Eve is a banger btw) but Bones did not disSAPOINT
look at them. look at Katsuki. head bowed, face-to-face in front of everyone, openly admitting to the horrible things he said, things he did to Izuku in the softest voice we've ever heard from him, running to catch him in the rain and not once asking for forgiveness, only that Izuku come home with him, with them all
"I have done terrible things to you, the kind not easily forgiven, so I do not ask. but you are dear to me and I cannot lose you, even if I am lost to you. so come with us, come back, I will hold your shaking hands and broken body in the hailing rain like a testament and save to win as you win to save"
did anyone else notice this?
when Izuku goes vigilante he's so focused on defeating All For One he completely switches from 'save to win' to 'win to save'. ofc he's doing it to protect everyone but that's not the objective anymore, it's the result.
whereas Katsuki is so fixated on bringing Izuku's overworked dumbass back he doesn't even think about AFO let alone defeating him. his defining moral also does a 180 & becomes 'save to win' instead like ASBHSDHSJDKFS DO YOU GUYS SEE WHAT I MEAN IS THE BRAIN BRAINING TO MY BKDKS??!
In summary, I have lost my leftover sanity, 3 boxes of tissues and so much comfort food y'all oh my god-
to this scene. this one moment in a(surprisingly large) list of bkdk being soulmates, platonic or otherwise ಥ_ಥ
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, have a good day/night, drink some water and fix your goddamn spine you banana shaped fucks<3<3
Also here's the link to my previous post>>
276 notes · View notes
harlowhockeystick · 2 days
Text
i present to you, straight from the tortured poets department...poetic prompts written by the chairman herself.
⎯ send in any one of these poetic prompts, no more than two at a time please, and i will give you a gut wrenching, heart breaking, life giving, fresh air breathing blurb...just as the chairman intended.
sincerely, writer for the tortured poets department anthology specialist
Tumblr media
fornight - "i love you, it's ruining my life"
the tortured poets department - "sometimes i wonder if you're gonna screw this up with me"
my boy only breaks his favorite toys - "he was my best friend"
down bad - "fuck it, i was in love"
so long, london - "you'll find someone"
but daddy i love him - "me and my wild boy, and all this wild joy"
fresh out the slammer - "i will never lose my baby again"
florida!!! - "love left me like this and i don't want to exist"
guilty as sin? - "without ever touching his skin, how can i be guilty as sin?"
who's afraid of little old me? - "so tell me everything is not about me"
i can fix him (no really i can) - "trust me, i can handle a dangerous man"
loml - "you said i'm the love of your life, about a million times"
i can do it with a broken heart - "you gotta fake it til you make it"
the smallest man who ever lived - "i don't miss what we had"
the alchemy - "he just comes running over to me"
clara bow - "you're the real thing"
the black dog - "i don't understand how you don't miss me"
imgonnagetyouback - "i can tell when someone wants me"
the albatross - "i'd visit in your dreams"
chloe or sam or sophia or marcus - "if you want to break my cold heart, say you loved me"
how did it end? - "but i still don't know, how did it end?"
so high school - "you knew what you wanted, and boy you got her"
i hate it here - "i'm bitter, but i swear i'm fine"
thanK you aIMee - "i can't forgive the way you made me feel"
i look in people's windows - "does it feel alright not to know me?"
the prophecy - "i'm so afraid i sealed my fate"
cassandra - "that's where i was when i lost it all"
peter - "i thought it was just goodbye for now"
the bolter - "oh, we must stop meeting like this"
robin - "you'll learn to bounce back"
the manuscript - "i'm not a donor, but i'd give you my heart if you needed it"
p.s. you can find in my directory, the list roster of different men i'll write poems for. please refer to that only, if you would. here is the link <3 oh, and send your requests here. you may also request from my au list, which is found here. that's all for now. see you when it's time to write about heartbreaking princes and screaming from tall towers.
⎯ j
25 notes · View notes
journey-to-the-attic · 2 months
Text
3rd anni req 2: [DRAGON AU] mammon / first encounter
ao3 link
note: requested by @whensam! i have to admit, i was hoping this'd pop up. i know i can write what i want, but i always feel i need an excuse anyway. you didn't indicate a preference for pov and i also just ended up wanting to do both, so this is a little longer than expected as a result!
∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎
Baker's children don't make good hunters. We’re used to carrying sacks of flour, not sprinting across fields with pitchfork-wielding mobs in hot pursuit. We don't make good kindling, either, but that hasn't stopped about half the adults in the village - for shame, I'd say, if I had the breath to speak.
Here's the thing. Our village isn't exactly a popular spot by any definition of the term. We're too far from any big cities to make good business, we don't make much worth selling, and the people certainly aren't charming enough to warrant a detour.
More important, though, are the creatures we share land with. Through the grassland that border the crop fields, there are invisible lines drawn in the soil - ones that no one crosses.
These lines mark dragon territory, and everyone knows that a dragon would sooner eat you for breakfast than stop for a reasonable conversation. Reasonable conversation is not something I have the luxury of at the moment, which is why I’m already several hundred paces over the line.
Just fifty already takes you into the forest. I don’t hear footsteps in pursuit anymore - they’d have to be mad to follow me so far in, which is exactly what I'd been banking on. The issue now is that, rather than being pitchforked, or burnt at the stake, I’ll probably just get eaten instead.
I pick my way through rotting leaf litter and ridged roots before collapsing against an old oak, wondering if the moisture dripping from overhead is safe to drink - or at least to wash my mouth out with. Gnawing through rope seems like a clever idea until your teeth start bleeding.
I can’t stay here, I think. Dying now would be like letting them win. Then Dad will have smacked the alderman for no reason.
Just as I get back to my feet, something whooshes overhead. I freeze. Those wings were larger than any bird I’ve ever seen.
Surely it couldn’t see me through the leaves. I crouch low to the ground and try to hide in the undergrowth - the wingbeats disappear until all I can hear is distant birdsong.
At least they’re having a nice day. I duck my head and trudge through a hedge - and come face to face with a dragon.
“Argh!”
I leap backwards. Bad move. The sunlight falls across its pointed face just in time for me to watch its pupils expand into full moons, like a cat on the hunt.
It doesn’t pounce. It doesn’t charge, snap or growl. It creeps slowly, eyes fixed on me the whole way forward, as if making sure I know that I can’t escape.
Nowhere to run. I press my back against a wizened old pine and shut my eyes tight - throwing out an arm, as if that might shield me.
Nothing happens. Then something cold presses into my palm.
My eyes snap open. The dragon blinks down at me. Its eyes are such a deep shade of blue that it’s almost dizzying. Oh. Oh, okay.
Its - his? I wonder, noting the ridges on his nose - snout rests carefully in my palm. He seems to register me staring at him, and snorts. The hot air is just on the brink of scalding, but not quite enough to hurt.
Then, almost experimentally, he opens his mouth - a yawning chasm of teeth, poised as if to ever-so-gently bite off my head. Except he doesn’t do that. There’s no pain - no crunch of broken bone or split sinew - far from it. The dragon leans down, carefully hooks his teeth into the collar of my shirt, and takes off.
I’d have screamed if it wasn’t for all the air leaving my chest at once. The forest shrinks to a dark blanket beneath us faster than I can even register it happening, and I realise very quickly that I’d be dashed to bits if I so much as slipped.
Wyvern, says an unhelpful voice in the back of my head as we soar. The dragon’s white-and-gold wings blot out the sun, but they’re so brilliant that it’s hard to tell the difference. They’re good fliers.
Before long, the dragon lands - legs first, digging his talons deep into the soil as he skids to a stop. After a moment, he huffs, then (strangely gently) drops me in a heap on the stony ground.
There’s a rumble, a swoosh - then several thuds, a swoosh of wings. I watch a shadow fall over my field of vision, then slowly raise my head.
Oh, I think a little faintly. 
All sorts of colours, all sorts of demeanours. One in particular steps forward - dark, with crimson eyes, and the sort of air about him that tells me he's the leader. Boss, I'll call him, if only to settle my own nerves. The dragon that brought me here (Goldie, I decide, still trying to settle my breathing) steps forward with a sort of chirrup in greeting.
It's a spectacle, if nothing else. Here are seven dragons, horns and wings and all. I've heard cautionary tales and horror stories, but they never really tell you how majestic they look in real life - scales shinier than any jewel I could imagine. Marvels of creatures, really. If only I had the wits to appreciate it.
Boss is growling now - there's a sort of heat rolling off him in waves. Some of the feeling coming back to my numb legs.
If only I knew what they were saying...
-
It isn’t often that the forest bears treasure - usually it’s all very boring things, like meat and berries and leaves. To be fair, Mammon's used to treasure of the shiny, golden kind - not this weird little critter crouched against a tree.
It smells faintly of smoke and burnt wheat. He stalks closer, but he's testing it more than anything - it doesn’t look like any prey he’s familiar with.
When he gets close, it sticks out a little starfish-shaped appendage and closes its eyes. He smells bitter fear now.
Is it greeting him? Telling him it isn’t a threat? That’s smart. He thought only dragons could be smart, but it’s not behaving - nor does it look - like any dragon he's ever met.
So he returns the greeting with his snout. He half expects to be stung, like the time Asmo brought that little spidery thing home, but all the critter does is look up at him fearfully.
Interesting. On a whim, he scoops the little round thing off, and decides to take it back home.
The weird not-prey goes still as soon as he takes off. Once home, he lets it disembark (drops it on the floor, though he tries to be gentle), then looks up to face his brothers as they land around him.
The others decide to keep their distance. Lucifer is the first to plod forward and investigate.
He sniffs carefully at the air, then makes a crackling noise somewhere at the base of his throat - which isn't usually a good sign.
“That’s a human, Mammon," He says, glaring at the little critter. It’s still sitting, frozen.
“It’s a what?”
“What’d you bring that for? Stupid.” Belphie settles back on his haunches, blowing out a puff of frost. “Can’t go around snatching humans. We’ll get hunted. Stupid.”
“Shut up,” He grunts. “And I didn’t snatch it. Found it walkin’ around in the forest.”
“That’s impossible,” Satan says nearly immediately. His tail swishes back and forth - slow and deliberate, an analytical glint in his clever eyes. “They don’t let their young anywhere near us.”
“Well, whaddya call this, then?”
The human - apparently - suddenly seems to regain use of its limbs. Springing to its feet (Levi shrinks back, crest flattering over his head), it stumbles for a moment, then abruptly ducks under one of Mammon's wings.
The rest of his brothers - who'd similarly drawn back - relax again with a simultaneous murmur of vague confusion. Mammon blinks. Then his tail starts flicking at the end - like it always does when he's pleased.
“...you are not keeping it,” Lucifer says, looking as if he'd very much like to fly off into the sunset.
“It might have a disease!” adds Asmo.
“I don’t care what any of ya say,” Mammon says stubbornly, snapping at Beel when it looks like he might creep in for a bite. “I’m not sendin’ it back to the forest. It’ll be dead in a day.”
"It might be dangerous," Levi hisses. "It's totally giving me the evil eyes."
"Stop scaring it, then,” Mammon says loftily. “Relax, ya big baby - You’ve got teeth bigger than its whole head.”
“You are not keeping it,” Lucifer says again, as if repeating himself will make him sound more in charge.
“Pfft. Can’t tell me what to do.” He snaps at Beel again. “Oi! No bitin’! Go raid your stash or something.”
Beel’s horns seem to droop a little. “...fine. C’mon, Belphie.”
“I was busy,” complains Satan with a huff as the twins flap off. "This is boring. I've seen deer carcasses more interesting than that weird little thing."
"Go look at your stinkin' carcasses, then," Mammon shoots back, fighting the impulse to spit something at him.
Satan does exactly that. Levi soon slinks off as well, apparently still intimidated - and Asmo seems to have disappeared as soon as he decided the human wasn't going to make a good accessory.
Lucifer, meanwhile, stands his ground. His tail is beginning to lash in agitation. If Mammon’s lucky, maybe he’ll even start spitting fire.
“I'm not gonna eat it,” He says stubbornly.
“I wasn't going to tell you to,” Lucifer replies, but he sounds very much like he’s considering it. “Belphie was right. If a hunter sees us with one of their young, they’ll take it as a threat.”
“Like we wouldn’t win,” He scoffs, sitting down with a thump. "Anyway,don't ya smell the fire on it?"
A single scarlet eye narrows a little. Evidently he hadn't - though Lucifer's always smelling smoke, by virtue of the literal furnace in his chest, so he can't really be blamed for not noticing.
The human is peeking out from beneath his wing with a little more bravado now. Lucifer eyes its round little face as if it might start spitting poison at him.
"...humans don't usually try to set fire to their young," Lucifer says after a moment. "You're sure she doesn't have anywhere to go?"
"Wouldn't've been in the forest if it— uh, she did." He glances down. "C'mon! Not like we don't have the space."
Lucifer is silent. Then he gives a long-suffering sigh - sending a plume of dark blue smoke into the sky - and bends down to the human’s eye level again.
“Will you behave?” Lucifer asks her severely, as if she can understand dragon-speak.
The human child blinks up at him. Then she reaches up and plants a hand on his snout.
Mammon holds his breath. After a moment, Lucifer’s wings flutter, then settle.
“I’m not having any part in this,” He announces, stepping back. “This is to be your responsibility only. Don't make any trouble for your brothers. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, yeah,” He says dismissively, occupied with keeping his triumph from showing in his tail. Got it.”
Lucifer glances down at the human one final time. “...take care of her.”
And off he flaps - to attend to his usual nighttime duties. He says he's keeping watch for danger, but mostly they seem to involve gazing darkly into the sunset.
With his brothers dispersed, Mammon takes a moment to actually consider his situation. He doesn’t actually know what taking care of a human child involves. He doesn’t know much about humans in general - it’s not like he usually pays them any attention. Maybe some of his brothers could give him some advice… if any of them were interested in the kid’s well-being, at least.
They’ll come around, He decides after a moment, unfurling his wings and attempting to nudge the human in the general direction of their living caves. First, I gotta figure out what these things eat…
34 notes · View notes