#oh i did have a specific reason for why i chose the spices i did for their names. but idk if i want to curse the public w/ that knowledge

[blockofhoney]

When you’ve got time PLEASEE tell me anything and everything you wanna share abt the spice rack babies I love them dearly..

okay i'm finally home n can answer this!!!!!

so i have my own timeline / self-indulgent fix-it canon that i'm still in the process of developing, n it's in that world that these 3 came to be!! their birthday is march 23rd (b/c that's the day i created them lol) n i'd say they were born about 2, maybe 3 years after fundy adopts yogurt? that feels about right. nutmeg's the oldest, then anise, then cinnamon.

nutmeg's the resident explorer of the bunch- if there's a way to get into something, She Will Find It. she's pretty much the living embodiment of "curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back." she's very easily distracted n completely fascinated by Everything n spends most of her time staring at whatever's caught her attention. like a tbh creature!!! appearance-wise she leans more cat than fox n has tabby / striped fur.

now anise, anise is the absolute sleepiest little creature you're ever gonna meet. eepy 24/7. she is just constantly napping on every conceivable surface, n then some more surfaces that you would not define as comfortable. n i think any time she is awake is painful for everyone involved as she gets Cranky. how does so much anger fit into such a tiny body?? nobody knows. of the 3 of them, she's sorta in-between a cat n a fox, n has calico patterned fur.

n last but not least, cinnamon!! he's quite the energetic n loud little guy. he's very excitable n seems to have inherited fundy's inability to sleep. the good thing is once he Does manage to fall asleep, he's out like a light. just, completely dead to the world. also idk if you've ever seen that video of someone drawing a bug on a piece of paper n the cat swatting it as soon as the bug has all its legs but that is essentially him. he's also the most likely to eat a bug / generally put something in his mouth that he Really Shouldn't. his fur is all one color (brown i think?) n he leans more fox than cat.

now that that's all been established, let's get into the weird magic shit:

idk exactly What fundy is in my hc, b/c for me wilbur is this mimic-adjacent entity that hatched out of the ender dragon egg in phil's hardcore world n i haven't decided if sally is a salmon hybrid, a kitsune, or something else entirely. (it's worth noting that for the Longest time fundy thought he was just a fox hybrid b/c he just. wasn't told otherwise. wilbur talks w/ him about it sometime after he gets revived n when they're on speaking terms again n suddenly things start making a Lot More Sense to fundy.) either way, whatever his heritage ends up being, fundy's got some weird magic shit goin on, n his kids follow suit. b/c of wilbur, each of them has the ability to mimic certain things- nutmeg can mimic plants, anise can mimic animals, n cinnamon can mimic sounds. it took a while for these abilities to make themselves known, but once they did, raising these 3 got a Whole Lot More Difficult. (moreso than it already was, anyway.) i think cinnamon would've discovered his magic first, then nutmeg, then anise. n depending on what i decide sally is, at least one of them might have some more potential magic shenanigans.

okay i think that's about it

#paq.qna #softiestyx #the spice rack #<-- that's gonna be their tag i think. unless i think of somethin better #oh i did have a specific reason for why i chose the spices i did for their names. but idk if i want to curse the public w/ that knowledge #i'll just say i channeled my inner c!h n leave it at that

[kerra-and-company]

💖🍊⭐🍐💙🔮🎀 from the jumbo asks for Cal (@likemesomesalads)

Oh HELL yes, that's so many asks for them and I am absolutely down!! Tyty :D GW1 kiddo hours! Also, for everyone who doesn't know who the heck this is, have the picrew I made of Cal:

Answers under a cut because they all got Long!

💖 Has your OC ever been in love, be it romantic or platonic or otherwise? Who with and did they ever express their feelings or keep it private? How long did these feelings persist / do they still feel this way?

Yes, definitely! The (romantic) love of Cal's life is Daisy Llew, and I'll give you the picrew I made of her too 'cause why not:

Daisy's from Ascalon, and Cal meets her there about a year and a half or so before the Searing (and therefore a year or so before the start of the GW1 in-game storyline). Since you can dual-class in GW1, Daisy's specifically a necromancer/monk, and she chose that combo to spite people who insisted that you were only supposed to deal in life OR death magic. (And in part to spite her tutor at the time, Verata.) She's skilled enough in magic that she serves as an informal sort of protector for her village, which is a bit to the east of Rin. She shares a house with her mother, Grace, who she loves a whole lot; her father's been dead since she was five, but he was horrible, so she's not sad about it. (And there's more about her character I could definitely share, but since that's not the point of this post, I'll stop here for now xD)

The entire reason Cal's even in Ascalon at that point is because they were traveling--they really wanted to see the world, so they sailed to Lion's Arch, traveled through a great deal of Kryta and over the mountains, and ended up in Ascalon. They didn't plan on staying long, but they managed to make some friends (including Rurik), and then they met and started falling for Daisy, and...yeah, their plans of moving on quickly got fully halted for a While.

Cal did indeed express their feelings! :) They and Daisy were officially dating for about six-ish months before the Searing, and they stayed together until their deaths many years later. They had two children, and one of their descendants (Maya) participates in some of the major events in my GW2 story.

🍊 What is your OC’s favorite meal? Snack? Dessert? Drink? Any reasons behind this besides liking how it tastes?

Meal (though it could kinda be a snack too): drake kabobs, both for the taste and because they remind Cal of Kamadan; snack: fried banana chips, because that's something their dad made for them growing up; dessert: pumpkin bread, thanks to Daisy's mom; and, drink: spiced apple cider, literally just because they like it.

⭐ What is your OC afraid of? Any crippling phobias or some such? How do they act when scared and what helps them calm down? Does anyone ever find your OC scary? Why?

Ooh, interesting. I can't think of any specific phobias that Cal has, but the biggest fear they have comes later down the line. Once they're settled, sometime after the events of Eye of the North, in Istan with Daisy (and, later, their kids), they are terrified of a threat coming to uproot that. They've seen enough of that in their life, both in other places and in Istan--the Searing, the White Mantle, Khilbron, Shiro, Nightfall/Abbadon, Primordus on some levels, the Ministry of Purity (though they're less directly involved in that situation)--and, at this point, they're done moving around. They've seen enough of the world. They want it to be safe enough that their children can grow up in peace. They have to work through a lot of emotions around this over the years, especially when the kids are very little, but they manage to work through it. And then, about 10-ish years later, Joko starts raiding the Vabbian border, and there's a new (old?) threat coming back to haunt them again, and their kids might not be safe--it's a Lot. It's a lot.

Cal was definitely scared plenty of times during the main GW1 story, but they're good at compartmentalizing, so it mainly comes up after the fact. They'll hold onto someone (Daisy, one of their friends, etc.) to make sure they're still there; they'll take deep breaths and try to calm down; they'll craft new arrows or work on improvements to their staff (they're pretty decent at making magical weapons and made their staff themself!). They use those same kind of coping skills again after the main storyline when they're dealing with the fear of their home being destroyed, but the symptoms of this fear also are slightly more severe. They struggle with panic attacks for a while, and they have trouble sleeping--not nightmares, they just can't get to sleep very easily and don't sleep well when they do.

🍐 What is your OC’s mentality? Are they overall positive? Negative? A bit of both? Describe their thought patterns and reasoning behind their choice making!

A bit of both, I think--Cal's more realistic than anything, but they lean more positive as a child than they do as an adult, and even just as a younger adult than they do later on. They're extremely excited to see the world when they leave Istan at ~22, and they legitimately think it will, overall, go well. Sure, it'll be different than home, but that's the point! And if it's dangerous, they know how to fight.

After the Searing, they become a lot more cautious, and even if they don't expect the negative outcomes, they plan for them. Cal becomes the monarch of contingency plans, and, as they begin to take on more and more of a leadership role, they are very careful not to send someone into a situation they won't be able to get out of. Losing Rurik in the mountains does not really help this overplanning situation, and there's a few weeks where they're kinda spiraling in this regard before they manage to stop, take a breath, and remind themself that they can't control everything or predict everything. And that's the mentality they stick with for years and years afterwards--they'll have backup plans, but even those might not catch all the possible situations, and that's life. They can improvise if they have to.

💙 What did your OC want to be when they grew up and why? Did they have any lifelong dreams or ambitions they never got to work on or are they currently working to achieve this dream? Has their life taken a very unexpected turn and put all these plans on hold for a while or have they given up on any dreams?

Cal really wasn't sure. They thought maybe something to do with trading, like their mother, or helping the Zaishen take care of their animals, or maybe they'd just be a traveler and a kinda jack-of-all-trades. They didn't have anything set in their mind other than they wanted to see the world, do some good maybe (though they hadn't planned on it being on such a grand scale, and they hadn't planned to be a leader), and come back home--and I guess they did do that, so...dreams accomplished, I guess alsdjfasdf? They accomplished their main goal And Then Some.

Fun fact, they trained a little with the Sunspear recruits when they were a teenager. They were an accomplished fighter, but they refused to officially join--they weren't sure that that was what they wanted, and they wanted to travel so badly too; they didn't want to feel trapped in Istan or Elona as a whole. They didn't know Kormir well during this time period, but they did know her, and they told her their reasons for not wanting to join. She heard them and told them to let her know if they did ever come back to Elona, and if they changed their mind. Funnily enough, though, when they did meet again, Kormir was the one who came to Cal in Lion's Arch to request their assistance with the beginnings of Nightfall, rather than them going to her. (Also worth noting--during and after Nightfall, when they actually are working with the Sunspears, they always consider any Sunspear title they earn/hold to be honorary at best.)

🔮 Star gazing or cloud watching? Hand-holding or snuggles? Early mornings or late nights?

Star gazing, snuggles, late nights :)

🎀 Do they wear a specific accessory with a special meaning behind it? What is their usual fashion sense like? What do they wear when they want to be comfortable and what do they wear when they’re going to a fancy party? Or do they just not care?

For the first question--not really, honestly! The closest they get to that is the fact that they basically do the one-earring thing, but that's more because they like the style than because the actual earrings themselves mean anything specific to them. Their weapons do have special meaning to them, but they're not quite going to be wearing those.

Their usual fashion sense is mostly practical, but it's also going to incorporate some kind of personal flair, whether that's sewn-on patches or symbols or just using styles they enjoy from home, and it's probably going to involve burnt/sunset orange in some way, since that's their favorite color :)

When they want to be comfy? Depends if they're going out and about or not--if they are, what I said in the bit above this one, and if they're not, probably comfy pajamas, haha. When it's a fancy party, you're going to see them with a touch more jewelry, clothes that definitely look ironed, maybe a suit of some kind if they think it's appropriate, but nothing past that. And it's still going to be comfortable. They are never touching high heels with a ten-foot pole.

#gw2 #cal vereo #likemesomesalads #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #you now know more info about cal and i am so happy to share literally all of it

[secretobsessionstuff]

Getting food poisoning by plane food and stuck on a long flight? Any couple you want :))

The flight was 18 hours long. Dinner was served at the four-hour mark, leaving plenty of time for the tainted food to turn everyone’s stomachs. Micah was excluded from this pain however because he didn’t order the chicken dish. Alexi did and he was suffering for it.

The plane’s cabin was dark when Alexi opened his eyes, save for a few lights that the other passengers kept on. He didn’t know why anyone else would be awake at 2am but he knew why he was awake. The weight on his shoulder from his sleeping boyfriend was nothing compared to the weight that settled in his stomach. Alexi grimaced as he shifted around in the small space, trying not to wake Micah who always had a hard time falling asleep in anything that wasn’t his bed.

But Alexi couldn’t help it. He woke up with such discomfort in his whole body that he couldn’t help but fidget. It was the nausea that made him the most restless. He was beyond grateful that his only neighbour was Micah. They specifically chose a row with only two seats because the flight went through the night. Alexi thought he’d be happy to not have a snoring neighbour, but he was actually relived that no stranger would be disturbed by his growling stomach.

And it was growling so loud, but not out of hunger. He could still taste the spices and the sauce from the chicken in his mouth. He was absolutely not in the mood for a midnight snack.

The nausea got worse as he struggled to fall back asleep. His gurgling belly wouldn’t let him finish his rest. The discomfort made him lean forward with his arms wrapped around his middle. As Alexi bent forward in pain, Micah’s head fell from his shoulder.

“Mm?” Micah mumbled as he caught himself. It almost wasn’t enough to disturb his sleep, but then he heard Alexi moan. Seeing Alexi bent over in pain also roused him from his sleep rather quick. “What’s wrong?” His voice was beautifully rough. Micah did always like how his voice sounded first thing in the morning.

“Sorry,” Alexi whispered. He’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t a little happy to have company again. “I can’t sleep…Feel sick.”

Micah turned on the light above their heads. Harsh yellow light rained down on them, giving Alexi a sickly complexion. Or maybe he already looked like that. Funnily enough, a few other lights also clicked on throughout the cabin. It seemed other passengers weren’t having the best night either, but Micah didn’t care about the other passengers.

“You’re very pale, baby.” Micah put his hand on Alexi’s warm back. “Are you nauseous?”

With his head in his hands, Alexi nodded slowly. “I really don’t feel good.” A wet burp ended the sentence.

“Do you want to put your head on my shoulder and try to sleep?”

This time Alexi shook his head a bit more frantically. A long gurgle rumbled through his belly as he let out another belch. He shivered from the nausea. “Ugh, I’m so full. It’s like my whole dinner is just sitting in my stomach, rotting.”

Alexi wasn’t far from the truth. It wasn’t long before a flight attendant came over to their seats and confirmed both of their suspicions. The man had been apparently going to every passenger with their light on to say the same thing. “I’m guessing there’s someone feeling sick over here as well. Am I right?”

“Yes, sir,” Micah said, trying to match the man’s loud whisper. “My boyfriend is sick to his stomach.”

“It appears that the chicken dish has given many people food poisoning. I’m sincerely sorry,” the man said, looking around nervously. “Someone will come by with extra bags and ginger ale.”

Alexi groaned upon hearing this. He suddenly felt like the food in his belly was no longer sitting still. He slapped a hand over his mouth as another wet belch reminded him of the taste of dinner. “Micah…let me out. I’m going to puke.”

“There’s probably a crazy line for the bathroom. Just throw up in this bag.” He handed Alexi the barf bag from the seat in front of them.

Alexi sat on the edge of his seat, bouncing his leg so hard that other people might have thought it was turbulence. “I can’t. There’s so much in my stomach. I want a toilet.” His voice cracked as he tried to hold back tears. “…please.”

The tears that finally fell onto Alexi’s cheeks made Micah move. “Fine, but I’m coming with you and I’m bringing this bag.”

With unsteady legs, Alexi jogged down the aisle. He felt Micah’s hand on his shoulders the whole way there. They passed other people who looked as bad as Alexi felt.

Just as Micah guessed, they stopped before getting to the bathroom. The line was so long that they still stood in the aisle, awkwardly waiting next to passengers in their seats.

“Oh God,” Alexi whimpered. There was no more time to wait. He tried to hold back burps that he knew would set everything off.

He turned around and looked at Micah with pleading eyes. “What do I do? There’s all these people. What do I—” A low wet burp escaped while he spoke. Honestly, it was more of a gag than a burp because it splashed the back of Alexi’s throat with something thick.

“Okay,” Micah said worriedly, “I’m sorry, Lex, but you’re doing this here.”

Micah hurriedly opened the barf bag and held it open under Alexi’s chin until the boy held it himself. He pulled Alexi’s closer as if he were giving him a hug. This wasn’t a hug; it was the best privacy that Micah could give his boyfriend.

“Let it out, Lexi.” Micah wrapped his arms around his boyfriend while Alexi gagged against his chest. “Come on, let yourself be sick now.”

Alexi gave a miserable whimper before parting his lips. His whole body shuddered as the vomit came pouring out of his mouth with a harsh retch.

Once he started, there was no stopping. Tears streamed down his face while his stomach continued to purge itself. It came out in a thick stream of orange that burned his nose and throat.

“There you go baby,” Micah cooed as he rubbed the boy’s quivering shoulders. “I’m right here. You’re fine, just keep going.”

Alexi breathed a deep sigh as he got a second of respite. “Oh, my belly…it hurts, Micah. I’m so –uh– full.” He hiccupped from inside Micah’s embrace. He could feel the organ about to send up another gush. “Am I being loud?”

“No, shh, don’t worry about that.” Micah blocked Alexi’s view of the surrounding area. “You’re doing so well. I know it hurts, just keep going until there’s nothing left.”

That point was very far in the future, but Alexi got ever closer to the end as he heaved again. He was too sick to think about the fact that the bag was getting full. He was only focused on aiming and suffering. He was very good at suffering.

Micah on the other hand was aware of how full the bag was getting. They also hadn’t moved very far in the line. He wanted Alexi to feel empty, but he also wanted to not have puke on his shoes. The smell and sight was already invading his senses. He didn’t need a reminder on his shoes.

But Micah kept holding Alexi. He kept rubbing and blocking him from the other passengers. He did this for him even when he got to his second bag. Thankfully a flight attendant arrived in time with the bag. With another ten hours left to the flight, Micah wondered just how many bags Alexi would go through.

“Is it almost my turn?” Alexi asked as he came up for air. His face was sweaty and grey.

Micah wanted to pull him into a real hug, not give him bad news. So that’s what he did. He hugged him and said, “Almost. But you’re now a pro at aiming in this bag, so who cares?”

“Well, there’s another reason I wanted to get into this line, but it’s not urgent…yet.”

“Oh babe,” Micah said, wishing that he could get his boyfriend off this plane. “It’s going to be a long ten more hours, isn’t it?”

“Yep. I’m really gonna need this vacation.”

#emeto #emetophilia #emeto fic #emeto fiction #sickfic #emetophile #food poisoning #belly kink #vomit kink #nausea fic #nausea #puking #vomiting #vomit fic #airsick #my ocs #Micah #Alexi

[tytach]

Phantom of The Office - The Specter Delfecter™

Dwight walked into the office, swaying his hips in a way that was definitely very manly. He paraded to his desk clump, confidently propping a leg on his chair with all the confidence of a peacock in heat, proudly showing off his latest acquisition.

"Aaahhhhhh, I feel so good today," he said loudly, pushing his pelvic forwards. "There’s nothing like a wardrobe change to lighten up a man’s mood."

Jim finally looked up from his paperwork, eyeing Dwight’s new belt doubtfully. The accessory was made entirely of metal, slightly glowing and overall very futuristic looking; a sharp contrast with Dwight’s austere 80’s office worker attire.

"I’m not going to ask you what this is," Jim said flatly.

Dwight chose to hear what he wanted.

"Very good question, thank you Jim. This is a Specter Deflector™," he explained with a very haughty tone, grasping the belt in both of his hands. "It’s specifically conceived to protect its wearer from a ghost’s touch in a very painful way."

"Hold on. Is it supposed to hurt you, or the ghost?"

"The ghost, you dumbass. Try to follow a bit, will you?"

"Are you sure? Because the way you put it, it sounds like you would be the one getting hurt."

"Pfff, of course not, why would it hurt me?" Dwight looked at the camera and shook his head, displaying an almost confident smile. "Idiot."

Discreetly, he turned the button at the center of the buckle, dampening the glow of the belt. Jim smirked at the camera.

Danny emerged from the lunch room not long after, sipping at a steaming cup of coffee. Despite his exhausted state, he caught Dwight’s pointed look rather quickly. Noticing the Specter Deflector™, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hey Dwight, what’s up?" He greeted awkwardly.

"Nothing," the salesman feigned nonchalance, giving a small shake to the device to make it catch the light. "Nothing at all."

Danny shrugged and resumed walking to his desk, his pace a bit stiff.

"Nice belt by the way. Where’d you find it? Etsy?" He asked conversationally.

"Fenton Works Online," Dwight gloated.

"Obviously," the temp grumbled, plumping down on his chair.

— — —

"Of course I’m not scared of Dwight and his stupid belt," Danny told the camera, his annoyance poorly contained. "This thing is a scam. In fact, everything from that shop is a scam, because ghosts don’t exist."

— — —

It took a few seconds for Danny to register Dwight’s shadow looming over his desk. He let out an involuntary scream as he jumped to his feet, quickly getting away from the salesman.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" He stammered.

“Just making sure you’re crunching those numbers correctly. Why, is there a problem with me being right here, so close to you?” Dwight asked with an obnoxious smirk.

Danny backed off as far as he could, oblivious to Meredith’s pleasure to his bumping into her.

“No, all good," Danny gulped. "Why don’t you go over what I just worked on while I go grab a snack?” He suggested, slowly edging away, bending in awkward ways to get out of the narrow space without so much as brushing against Dwight.

His efforts were painful to watch, and Dwight seemed to enjoy every second of it. When the door closed after the temp, Dwight shot an ominous smile at Jim.

— — —

“Wow. I’m really, really impressed,” Jim confided to the camera. “I didn’t think Danny would get so invested in the prank. Where did he learn to act that well?”

— — —

Jim found Danny busy fixing himself a peanut butter sandwich in the lunchroom. He looked through the window, making sure that Dwight was busy with a phone call before addressing the temp. 

“I didn’t know you were that good of an actor,” Jim complimented as he reached for the cupboard above Danny to grab a mug.

Danny scooted a bit to the side to get out of the way. He didn’t look up, too busy applying a good, thick coat of paste on his bread. 

"What do you mean?”

“What you did just now, with Dwight,” Jim clarified as he headed towards the coffee pot.

The younger man looked at him quizzically before realization hit him.

“Oh, that?”

“You’re good, you’re really good," Jim complimented, oblivious to Danny’s confusion. "And the FentonWorks Online idea? It’s genius. I didn’t think you would get as far as making a fake website to sell him fake ghost hunting equipment,” he went on as he filled his mug.

“Yeah well… I didn’t expect him to find it that fast,” Danny muttered. 

If Jim heard him, he didn’t show any sign of it.

“Where did you get the idea for the ‘Specter Deflector™’?" He kept on praising, swirling his freshly served coffee. "When I asked you to join me to prank Dwight I thought we’d use ouija boards and cheap tricks. But that much initiative? Astounding.”

Danny laughed awkwardly.

“Er… We’re a step ahead in Amity Park on all the ghost stuff, you know? Gotta cash in on the tourist trap and all. My folks got a lot of crazy ideas like that,” he explained, rubbing his neck.

“So pranking is a family trade? Amazing. I’m so glad the temp agency sent you to spice up life in here. Can’t wait to see what he’ll get next from your website!”

Jim taped Danny on the shoulder before returning to the open space area.

“Well I can,” Danny grumbled once the door had closed after him. "I could wait until way after that contract is over."

— — —

Danny looked very bored at his desk. Staring up in space, he was absentmindedly balancing a pencil on the back of his index finger when a wisp of condensation escaped his lips. The pencil clattered on the wooden surface as a shiver made him go rigid with alarm. Danny looked around, surveying his surroundings, before swiftly getting to his feet. Hands in his pockets, he crossed the open space at a brisk pace, heading for the door.

Dwight immediately caught on his strange behavior. Evidently delighted at the opportunity he was just offered, he ran to the entrance and managed to cut Danny’s path right before he reached the door.

"Where’re you going?" He asked smugly.

"I got a phone call," Danny answered matter of factly.

"Why don't you take it here? You’re allowed to take private calls," Dwight argued, very well aware it was just an excuse.

Danny’s tone became very serious, the underlying threat evident.

"Dwight."

"I’m not letting you go anywhere on office time without a valid reason," Dwight ignored him, unfazed. "Unless you’re ready to admit to everyone that you’re a ghost?" He continued louder, making sure to catch everyone’s attention.

"I really don’t have time for this," Danny frowned, reaching forward to shove him aside.

However, he wasn’t accounting for Dwight’s years of martial art practice and lightning fast reflexes. While Danny’s hand was still on his upper arm, Dwight turned back on the Specter Deflector™.

Danny jerked back with a cry.

"What the fuck Dwight?!"

The salesman ignored him. Instead, he turned to Jim:

"Told you it hurts the ghost and not the wearer!" Dwight gloated, pointing a finger at his colleague, before addressing Danny. "And you— Hey, where are you going?"

Evidently not ready to try to bypass Dwight a second time, Danny was already half way trough the open space when Dwight gave chase.

"Wait!"

He pursued Danny all the way to the bathroom. The camera stayed fixated on the closed door, not allowed to follow inside. Beyond it, clatter could be heard as stalls after stalls were violently opened. Dwight finally emerged after half a minute, stomping back to the open space.

"It’s empty," he proclaimed, victoriously. "Again."

— — —

"I knew it! This was the very proof I needed! You recorded it all, right?" Dwight bragged excitedly to the camera. "Have you seen how he jumped? And how he vanished? No one can say he’s not a ghost now. No one!"

— — —

"Why are you all so fixated on wether or not Danny is ghost? He said it himself, those ghost stories from Amity are all fake," Angela brushed the question aside. "Why don’t we talk about more important subjects? Did you know that there’s an estimated 70 million feral cats in the US? Huh? 70 million homeless balls of love who deserve all the petting in the world? Why does no one talk about that?"

— — —

"Which one is Danny again?" Creed blinked at the camera.

— — —

Jim shook his head, arms crossed over his chest, a bemused smile lighting up his features.

"Gotta say the kid’s good. He’s really good."

#Phantom of the Office #Danny Phantom #The Office #dp fanfic #dp x the office au #ficlet #unbeta-ed we die like Danny #<- saw that tag once on a post and I find it not only hilarious but also accurate #but don't hesitate to tell me if you catch mistakes I can easily correct #I've got many more ideas for snipets like that #Also Danny is in Scranton for a reason it was just his eternal luck that he ended up at Dunder Mifflin #my fics

[diavolodigitale]

Dream Sequence. Lucio

It’s been a while since I had so much fun writing something. No plot, really, it’s a pretty light read and I am proud of it.

All parts of the trilogy: Lucio - Asra - Julian - All stories in PDF

A part of the "trilogy" about dream encounters dedicated to Lucio (because I love him, apparently). Nothing special, just You (or the Apprentice, or the Reader, however you view it) and Lucio spending some time together (if you know what I mean, which you probably don't, so go ahead and read it, it's pretty short, I promise). My character was male, but you are free to imagine whoever you want since there are no references to it in the text.

Genres: Romance, Fluff, Humor, Dreams, POV First Person, One-shot, Light-hearted

Pairing: Lucio/Apprentice(or Reader or You or Whatever)

Characters: Lucio, Reader/Apprentice/You

Rating: G for Geez that’s a good story

Size: around 2500 words

I open my eyes and look around. The room I am in is quite spacious. Despite barely containing any decorations or even furniture, somehow it still feels inviting and cosy. It is dimly lit, the only light sources that I can spot are a few candles standing here and there.

Suddenly, I hear a loud thud, as if something heavy fell on the floor, and I hastily turn around to investigate. I immediately spot an empty decanter lying on the ground at the leg of an old wooden table and a figure crouching beside it. The figure looks like it’s glowing in the darkness of the room because everything about it is so brightly white.

“Didn’t mean to scare you,” says Lucio awkwardly and stands up, cradling the decanter in his arms. “Or did I?” he immediately proceeds to ask, roguish smile plastered on his face.

I smile in return and shake my head. This is probably another dream we’re sharing. It happened a few times before. There is no logical end to it, no specific purpose, nothing. We just seem to linger in an accidental place, surrounded by whimsical decorations or nothing at all, until one of us wakes up and cuts the ties to this place rendering it forever lost in time and space. I suppose it has something to do with our connection as the spirit of Lucio seems to be drawn to me whenever I slip out from the deep slumber and see dreams.  

“And why would you want to do that?” I ask and cross my arms, raising my eyebrow inquiringly.

“Isn’t it obvious? If you’re scared, you will seek my protection and want to hold hands. Maybe, even more than that,” he responds without even a hint of embarrassment and casually puts the decanter back on the table.

“Oh, you would need to do more than that to scare me, don’t you know?” I say playfully. This encounter doesn’t seem to differ much those we usually have, so I decide to behave as I always do around him.

“What a shame…” he says and pouts, hardly being able to supress his impish smile. “I was hoping I could find a reason to hold you.”

“Since when do you need a reason to do that?” I ask as he slowly approaches, his walk as gracious as ever.

“Huh, true,” he says and grins, now standing much closer to me. There is not enough light in the room for me to see the features of his face clearly, but I am nevertheless able to spot the playful glim in his eyes.

“What do you feel like doing this time?” I ask more seriously. We’ve been on quite a few thrilling trips in my dreams as they are often filled with peculiar apparitions and location, but right now I cannot find anything that could interest Lucio with his insatiable appetite for adventures.

“Hm…” He puts an index finger to his lips and musingly looks around. As I expected, nothing in the room is able to pique his curiosity so his gaze wanders back to me.

“I have an idea,” he says mischievously and immediately covers my eyes with his hand for a second. When his hand is removed, the only thing I can see is complete darkness.

Intrigued, I summon a small glowing orb to light up the place. To my surprise, we are in a completely different room that resembles a closet more than anything else. The place is a tight squeeze, with Lucio standing right before me and the orb hovering above us. Though we’re not actually close enough to be touching, there is hardly enough room to move around at all.

The room quickly fills with heat and I feel my head spinning. The feeling of almost tangible warmth around me reminds me of the time I first met Lucio. His presence had the same effect on his surroundings, which seems to be the sign of him being agitated or excited about something. My gaze is wandering from his jawline to collarbone and back since I don’t want to stare him directly in the eyes. Lucio might be shameless, but I immediately feel flustered in such a situation.

“You are quite a fast learner,” I say nonchalantly, looking up for a split second. He grins even more, flattered by my words.

In spite of his utter incapability when it came to using magic in the real world, he somehow was able to learn to manipulate matter in my dreams quite easily. There was rarely a need for him to resort to this skill, but his still tried to use every opportunity he had to give it a try.

“I can do many more things,” he says and moves closer to me, resting his heavy gilded hand against the wall right above my head and leaning a bit closer. “You know, I am very talented.”

I nod and look down. The orb illuminates every little detail of his face, and I am afraid he is provided with the same sight of mine, so I do my best to hide my flustered expression. I find the position we are in uncomfortable, but I am also curios to see what he has on his mind.

Lucio leans even closer, propped up on his arm, and starts whispering into my ear.

“Have any plans for tonight?” he asks, his eyes narrowed in a cunning smile.

“No, not that I am aware of at least,” I reply. “What are you up to?”

“Well, I was thinking we might find a monstrous beast for me to slay…” he whispers, tickling my ear with his warm breath, “I would look exceptionally good swinging its ugly head left and right, with a few light wounds here and there and covered in its blood. Or we might show up to an extravagant ball and have the time of our lives there. We could demonstrate the public our best, most elaborate dance, and they would cheer and applaud, flabbergasted at our awesomeness and grace.”

I chuckle a bit at how unsurprisingly flashy his suggestions are. But it is usually my job to tease him, so I can’t let him beat me so easily, even if I seem to be much less at ease in such… circumstances.

“Your idea certainly sounds entertaining,” I mutter and slide my hand down his side and onto his waist.

“Wh– which one exactly?” he asks, visibly taken aback by my display of interest.

“Both of them, actually,” I say, as my hand wraps around him and pulls him a tad closer.

Lucio’s face blossoms with light-pink and he lets out his breath with a loud sigh. The air of confidence he always has around him disperses in a matter of seconds every time I unexpectedly agree to play by his rules. He just cannot get used to it for some reason.

“And… which one would you chose?” he asks carefully, moving away from my red ear to steal a glance at my face. He is a bit taller than me and stands so close that it’s hard for me to look at anything else except for his squinted eyes and blond locks of hair framing his face.

I pull him even closer, pressing him to me and squeezing his side, and rest my other hand on his cheek. His face is growing redder every second and he starts to squirm a little, trying to avoid my gaze and the intimacy he seems to still secretly enjoy.

“I believe, I have an even better idea,” I say, smiling, and raise my hand to cover his eyes for a split second.

Before he has the time to protest, we are back in the room we first appeared and it is hardly different from the way we left it. I release him from my grip and give him a light push on the chest. With nothing to grab on his way down, he helplessly falls onto the bed behind him, a startled “Ah!” escaping his lips.

I smile, savouring the look of surprise on his face, and approach the bed.

Lucio is flushed but doesn’t seem to mind losing control over the situation. Invitingly, he reaches out with his hand to me, but I shake my head and climb on the bead on top of him without his help.

The bed is incredibly soft so I doubt he felt any discomfort landing on it. It reminds me of the one I saw in Lucio’s old chambers, only in its pre-catastrophic state. The cover is pleasant to the touch and seems to be crimson, but it’s difficult to discern the colour in almost complete absence of light in the room.

“You’ve got something red on your cheeks,” I say playfully and run my hand over the side of his face. It’s warm, hot even, and I feel the muscles twitch on his face as he smiles at me.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he says casually, “when I felt you were here, I ran with all my might to get to you as fast as I could (and had to cover infinitesimal distances, of course) so now I might feel a little too warm.”

I quickly land a kiss on each of his cheeks, pressing him more with the weight of my body, and he laughs merrily, trying to catch my hands in the process.

“There’s something here as well,” I say and kiss Lucio on the tip of his nose.

He tries to escape my touch and turns away, giggling, so I kiss his ear shell which is even redder than his face now.

He struggles playfully a bit, but it doesn’t feel like he really wants to win this fight. I stop to look at him, and he returns my glance without a second thought. His hands are resting on my thighs and he moves them up and down carefully.

“You’re as light as a feather,” he notes, tilting his head, “we need to start feeding you properly. What is your favourite food?”

I take a second to consider my answer.

“Bread. With spices,” I reply, remembering fondly the times Asra and I would go to the bakery near our shop and enjoy the heavenly taste of freshly baked bread.

“Then it’s decided!” says Lucio excitedly and lands his hands on my thighs with a clap. “When I’m officially reinstated as the Count, I’m going to buy you all of the bread I can find! No, the whole stall! No, wait, the whole street! I will buy you a whole street worth of shops with all the bakeries you want!”

I cannot help but laugh at how foolishly he behaves. He pouts and turns away, trying to pretend that he lost interest in me.

“Okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I say, still laughing. “I am truly sorry, Your Highness. How could I ever make up to what I have done?” I ask inquisitively, observing his face.

Lucio’s eyes spark with mischief again and he pretends to be thoughtful before proceeding to say what has been on his mind, perhaps, this whole time.

“I might forgive you if you lend me a hand for something. There seems to be something wrong with me…” he says worriedly, but I am not buying into his act. “Something wrong…” he repeats, slyness becoming visible through his cracked façade of seriousness. “It’s become so hard to breathe, I am almost suffocating… Could you please help me with this problem? Pretty please?” he says and dramatically rests his hand on his neck. I look into his eyes full of fake innocence and nod with understanding.

Lucio moves his hand away and starts watching me with unhidden curiosity and excitement. I carefully touch his chest which is rising and falling steadily and, to my surprise, notice, that his coat is buttoned up more than usually. It even makes me think that it really might be hard for him to breathe as he is definitely not used to walking around like this.

I go ahead and start untangling the lace that holds his cloak. I feel soft fur brushing against my hand as I purposefully tinker with the clasp much longer than is really needed. Lucio is growing visibly impatient but seems to do his best not to hurry me. I, in turn, try to hold back my laughter.

Having delt with the cloak, I proceed to unbutton his jacket. The fabric is very delicate, and I again take my time to tease him instead of just dealing with it quickly.

Lucio loses what was left of his patience and opens his mouth with a frown of unsatisfaction.

“What’s taking you so long?”

I look up at him as if he was a child with which I had to reason.

“We wouldn’t want to damage your magnificent attire, would we?” I ask and airily brush my finger against his bare chest that is now partly exposed. “Better proceed carefully.”

He flushes again because of my touch and appears to be at a loss for words. In the end, he just swallows loudly and pretends he did not want to say anything in the first place.

I occupy myself with the buttons again, and this time he waits almost patiently until I finish torturing him. Every time I “accidentally” land my hand on his skin instead of the soft fabric, I feel his pulse quickening, and every time I am forced to bite on my lip to hold back my treacherous smile.

Once I am done, Lucio exhales with relief. I don’t know what he expects me to do next, but suddenly an idea flashes in my mind and I already know I just have to do it.

With his eyes half shut and mouth a little agape, he watches as I delicately lay my hands on his sides and stroke him. It looks like he wants to say something, but I don’t give him a chance as I begin to tickle him violently, running my fingers along the skin between his ribs.

Lucio struggles and kicks below me but cannot do anything to escape my attack. He breathes erratically and I hear his muffled giggling when he jerks up from the bed and presses his body against mine to give me no room for movements. I decide to spare him and hug him instead, wrapping my hands around his neck.

“Well, that didn’t help me at all!” he exclaims jokingly, hugging me back and burying his face near my collarbone. His gilded hand is stroking my back and it feels a bit ticklish because of how sharp the tips of his fingers are, but I decide not to complain as it is more pleasant than anything.

I nestle closer and start twirling a strand of his hair around my finger. He has calmed down and I can hear him breathing steadily against my chest.

“I wish we could sit like this forever,” he says quietly.

“And who told you we can’t?” I ask, and he looks up at me, astonished and puzzled. “Show me who said that and I’ll give them a nice thrashing!” I say and it makes him laugh again.

“Not if I do that first!” he exclaims and plops back onto the bed with me startled but still securely held in his arms.

“I’ll be there to watch then,” I say, resting my chin on my arms crossed on top of his chest.

“Of course, you will! Why else would I do that?” he asks with indignation. “You just watch me. Don’t watch anybody else, just me, okay?”

“Oh, I would never…”

#The Arcana #Arcana #Fanfiction #Fiction #Lucio #lucio x reader #lucio romance #romance #Fluff #Humor #pov first person #Dream Sequence Trilogy

[aellynera]

The Common Kiss (Poe Dameron x Reader)

THE COMMON KISS - part one

(full disclosure - this has been in my wips since may. of 2020. and it’s been rewritten at least twice and ignored for long enough, and i finally like where it’s going. i plan on four parts total, and here’s the first. i hope you like it.)

Word Count: 1.6k(ish)

Summary: Something weird may or may not being going on around the base, and you were not aware that one of Poe’s official duties was to become a private eye. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

Warnings: Exasperation and nerfherderism (...nerfherding? it’s a thing, ok?) Smooching.

(A/N: Tan Divo was a member of the Coruscant Security Force during the Clone Wars; he is just referenced here in the same way as calling someone Poirot or Clouseau, etc.)

~1~

“Something’s going on around here,” Poe Dameron announced dramatically, setting his tray down on the table and dropping himself onto the seat across from you.

You hardly looked up from your own tray, barely giving him a raised eyebrow before returning to poking around in your stew. It wasn’t terrible as far as meals in the base mess hall went, but the fact it was mostly unidentifiable and extremely grayish-brown didn’t make it particularly appetizing. But it was oddly fascinating...you shook your head and stabbed at a chunk of maybe-protato. “We’re in the middle of a war, Poe. There’s always something going on around here.”

Opening his own container of stew, his nose wrinkled at the contents and instead of sticking his spoon in it, he pointed it at you. “I’m not talking about the war, Stardust. I mean, like, right here. On the base. Something’s up.”

Poe had started calling you that the first day you’d met, the day you arrived on base. He said he liked your name just fine, but “Stardust” just felt more right to him, and it stuck. Every time you heard it, it made your stomach jittery.

Since that day, the two of you had spent more and more time together. Flying missions, patrol duties, Poe sometimes helping you try and decipher intercepted communications from the First Order, games of sabacc lasting well past midnight when you had the rare free day, long talks over a few shots of fire whiskey that Poe always seemed to be able to get his hands on. If you could call anyone in the galaxy, and especially on base, your best friend, it would be Poe Dameron.

There were days you seriously questioned that life choice.

You were completely used to his antics and hyperbole. That didn’t mean you weren’t going to give him a hard time about it.

“Always something going on around here, too,” you replied. “Gonna need to be more specific, Commander.”

The shift in his seat was so subtle, Poe was certain you didn’t notice it.

(You did. You ignored it.)

“Look over there,” Poe replied, pointing his spoon across the room.

You followed his utensil three tables over, where Finn and Rose were sitting across from each other, ignoring their food and talking animatedly. They were both smiling and seemed to be quite the conversation. As far as you could tell, they were acting like two completely normal adults while Poe was bordering on deranged.

A line appeared between your brows as you watched them. “So, they’re talking? They usually sit together and they’re friends. What are you talking about?”

Poe snorted. “But they usually sit with us. They’re sitting alone.”

“Maybe they just need a break from you.”

“Funny, Stardust.”

Shrugging, you went back to your tray. The Keshian spice roll didn’t look too bad - Maz Kanata had recently sent a shipment, just because she could and probably because she knew you and a certain pilot had eaten your combined weight in said rolls the last time you had been to Takodana. She also had a soft spot for Poe, much to your amusement.

“I’m serious, though,” you said, chewing on a bite of roll. “So they’re sitting together but not with us. So what? That doesn’t mean anything.”

“It means something.”

“Poe, it doesn’t mean anything. We got here at different times. Maybe one of them needed to talk about something privately. Maybe they have something to do after lunch and want to make sure they get out of here without getting sidetracked. There could be any number of reasons.”

Poe tore his own spice roll in half and shoved half of a half in his mouth. “I’m telling you, something’s up.”

You rolled your eyes. “I’m telling you, you’re being ridiculous.”

“Hey, where’d they go?” Poe asked, mostly ignoring your admonition. You both looked up to where Finn and Rose had been sitting, then towards the doorway where you could see the back of Rose’s head disappearing. Finn was nowhere in sight.

Poe grabbed your hand and pulled you to your feet. “Come on!”

You stumbled slightly and tried to pull out of his grip, but he just latched on harder and pulled you behind him. “Poe! What the hell are you doing? I’m still eating and you are being a complete nerfher---”

He shoved the other half of his Keshian spice roll in your mouth and simply replied, “Recon. Let’s go.”

~~~

Finn had been minding his own business. He had left the mess hall a few minutes ago after his lunch with Rose, his attention completely switched and his nose now buried in a datapad. He was checking the most recent reports of the First Order’s outpost activity in the nearest systems. His focus was almost totally on the datapad, with just enough presence to not walk face-first into walls and barely enough to not walk face-first into people. He had almost taken out several personnel and two droids along the way so far. Each time he mumbled offhand apologies and went right back to the reports on his pad.

No, that doesn’t look suspicious. No, that’s just a natural outcropping. No, that’s...well, maybe...nah. Nothing there. No...wait...hmm...maybe? His mind was trying to wrap around the intel before the next command meeting, and frankly, he was kind of bored. He knew the work was important but he really had to concentrate to get his work done. And concentrate a little extra to not bash into people, or robotic friends.

He was really just wandering, back and forth, round and round as he thought and worked.

That’s why he never saw Rose.

He definitely never saw you or Poe, who had been trailing a few feet behind Rose at Poe’s insistence and amid repeated whispered proclamations that something was definitely going on. As Finn came into sight, Poe made you crouch down behind a bulkhead and paid no attention to your eyeroll. But even Poe’s eyes went wide with what happened next.

One minute Finn was trying to figure out if there was any pertinent information on the recon data. The next minute he was being yanked into a storage closet by a hand that shot out and grabbed his elbow.

“Okay, so if nothing’s happening, then what the hell was that?” Poe hissed at you.

“Oh, shut up,” you shot back. “This is so stupid, Poe, I’m going back to the hangar to work on my ship.” You stood up and started to turn away.

He grabbed your arm and pulled you back down. “No! Come on, Stardust, we gotta see how this plays out.”

The irritated sigh you planned to give him stuck in your throat as you suddenly realized how close your body had pressed against his. His voice was low and very close to your ear and was it getting warmer in here? You tried to quietly clear your throat and remember how to breathe.

You hoped Poe didn’t notice.

(He did. He chose to not say anything.)

Meanwhile, in the supply closet, Finn’s datapad went crashing to the floor and he yelped in surprise, a yelp that was suddenly cut off by Rose’s lips pressed against his as the closet door slammed shut behind them.

His eyes went wide, then closed as he responded and leaned into it, her lips soft against his. The datapad and the recon reports and anything and everything that had to do with something other than Rose’s lips was utterly forgotten. After a few minutes, she pulled away and they looked at each other. At the exact same time, they both said, “Wow.”

“What was that for?” Finn finally asked, his brain switching back on and finally finding his voice. “That...that wasn’t part of the plan.”

Rose gave him an impish grin and pressed a finger to his lips as she whispered in his ear, “Cause I knew you wouldn’t do it first.” With that, she turned and exited the closet, leaving Finn staring after her, once again dumbstruck and speechless.

~~~

Poe’s head perked up as he heard the *shhhik* of the closet door sliding open. You both looked over to see Rose saunter out with a suspicious skip in her step and a sly grin on her face.

Poe turned to you, clearly about to make some comment or ask another inane question, but he was cut off by Rose calling over her shoulder as she passed.

“Hey, Y/N!” she said cheerfully. She glanced down with a confused expression. “Dameron. What are you guys up to?”

“Hey Rose,” you replied, trying to sound normal.

“I was...uh...just tying my boot,” Poe replied. You rested your forehead on the wall and closed your eyes.

Rose lifted a shoulder, rolled her eyes, and kept walking. “Poe, stop being weird.”

You didn’t bother to try and hold back your laugh.

Poe scowled. “Do you think she’s onto us?”

He grimaced as your elbow sunk into his side. “We’re behind a bulkhead,” you pointed out, “not really concealed at all, and you told her you were tying your boot. Next time maybe plan your paranoid surveillance mission a little better, genius.”

Before Poe could stick his tongue out at you, his attention was diverted back to the closet door.

Finn emerged a moment later, still with a dumbstruck expression on his face.

Poe stood up, dragging you with him. He ignored your elbow in his side this time. “Finn! Buddy! Hey, uh...is everything okay?”

Finn didn’t respond for a few moments, then seemed to focus on Poe as if seeing him for the first time in ages. “Huh? Oh...yeah,” he replied. “Everything...is fine. I, uh, I’m gonna go lie down for a bit, I’m just, uh, feeling a little off...think maybe I caught something.”

Without another word, he stumbled off towards his quarters.

“See!” Poe hissed at you. “I told you there was something going around.”

You closed your eyes and shook your head. “I can’t with you anymore today. I’m going to work on my ship. Try not to get into any trouble, Divo.”

~the end...for now~

Taglist:  @anetteaneta @autumnleaves1991-blog​ @damerondjarin​ @deeandbobbymcgee​ @rosemarysbaby13​ @iamthe-shadow-on-the-wall​ @itspdameronthings​ @poedjarin​ @sergeantkane​ @spider-starry​ @woakiees​ @writefightandflightclub​ @veuliee2​ @yourbucky084​

Poe Dameron taglist:   @millllenniawrites​ @waatermelon-sugaar​​

>>taglist is open and the form is here<<

#poe dameron #poe dameron x reader #writing #fanfic #the common kiss

[justauthoring]

Just A Moment Of Brief Doubt

Request(s): A poe dameron x reader oneshot where him and reader are best friends. Reader is jealous about Zorri and he notices it and confronts her about it. Also, you’re the best writer and I completly love your works 🌟

yayay im so happy you opened requests for RotS! i’d love to read a poe fic where youve been his romantic partner for a while now and when you go with him to kijimi for C3PO, you meet zorii. you know poe loves you but the way they talk and their history together (that you didn’t know about) + overhearing his offer to bring her with you all makes you rethink everything that happened between you two?? maybe with a fluff ending too 🥺

ReaderxPoe where she learns about his past as a smuggler/Zorii and isn’t too happy. But they work it out in the end?

Requested by: (1) @ngzxcv​ (2) @jakesmysterio​ & (3) @bwsimpson2000​

Pairing: Poe Dameron x Reader

Word Count: 1,213

Please don’t plagiarize my work!

SPOILERS FOR TROS BELOW!

Maybe you could come with us.

Those six words repeated like a mantra inside your mind; reminding you constantly of the jealousy that ran deep through your bones. You hated it. You hated feel jealous like a little girl but...you couldn’t help it.

It was hard to believe that, after all this time, today was the day you found out about Poe’s past. Despite having known each other for years and being together for half of it, you hadn’t known he was a Spice Runner before the Resistance. You hadn’t known anything other then post-Resistance and that was specifically because he chose and picked what he told you and what he didn’t.

You didn’t necessarily mind that he’d been a Spice Runner. You all came from somewhere and you’d learned not to judge; sometimes, people did what they had to to survive. It wasn’t even really that he hadn’t told you. There was parts of your past that you refused to tell anyone, so it’d be hypocritical of you to be mad if he’d done the same.

But... but her.

Zorri. A girl you hadn’t even known until now.

Was there a specific reason for that?

“Stop it,” you mumble, shaking your head, frustrated at yourself. “Stop assuming.”

However, that was easier said then done. How could you not assume? How could you not be jealous? From the moment you’d landed on the planet Kijimi, Poe had been on edge; un-easy. And then when his eyes had landed on Zorri, despite not even really being able to see her face, he’d been entranced. Unable to look away. He’d refused to meet your own gaze and kept acting...

Weird. It was the only word to explain his behaviour.

Weird like he was trying to hide something. Like he had something to say.

Poe hadn’t hesitated to follow after the girl when she offered to keep watch. He’d done so as if without second thought. Hey, i’ll keep watch with you, screw my actual girlfriend whose standing directly in front of me and has been trying to get a moment alone with me since we landed here--

Shaking your head, you tighten your jaw. This wasn’t the time to be thinking about these things. There were bigger things at play -- like the battle you were about to go in and possibly wouldn’t come out of. A battle that would kill you. That could kill all your friends. Kill Poe.

But the way he had looked at her...

You’d only been able to wonder for so long. Unable to stand the pitying looks from Finn and the comfort Rey (though kindly) tried to offer you, you’d decided it be best to just join Poe. If he wouldn’t talk to you, you’d make me. Make him listen to you. Make Zorri realize (even if, in reality, she hadn’t shown any real signs of sabotaging you) that you were in love with Poe and up until this point you’d been positive he was in love with you.

Up until now--

You’d caught the tail end of their conversation. But it was all you needed to hear.

Maybe you could come with us.

Come with us.

Come with me.

She’d refused. But that didn’t matter. You hadn’t even stayed around long enough to hear her decline.

You felt like a fool. You felt played. You felt...

betrayed.

You felt pathetic. Jealous. What were you, a little girl?

You certainly felt so.

“Y/N.”

Blinking, you’re pulled from your thoughts at the sound of Poe’s familiar voice. Your head turns over your shoulder, meeting his gaze as if instinctively, but you can’t stop the way your shoulders sag at the sight of him. Normally, you’d be happy to see him; normally, you probably wouldn’t have left his side. You would’ve been hovering over his shoulder, concerned about his arm and comforting him because of the General’s death.

But you just couldn’t find it in yourself. Even if, deep down, you knew your actions were probably causing him more pain.

Well screw his pain. He’s the one that lied to you. That didn’t tell you anything. That... looked at another girl like that.

You move, inching towards walking away; pretend like you were busy setting up for the battle. But you’re a second too late and Poe’s hand falls on your arm, gripping it firmly; not tight, just enough to keep you from walking off. “Can I talk to you?”

“I don’t want to talk.”

His lips part and his brows furrow; “we are about to head in a battle that we probably won’t make it out of alive, and you don’t want to talk to me?”

Clenching your jaw, you remain silent. There’s nothing for you to say. And, honestly, you’re afraid that if you do speak, you’ll end up crying. Making a fool of yourself. More than you probably already have.

“Y/N. Just let me talk to you.”

Body easing, you signal him that you aren’t going to run off. That despite yourself, you’ll listen to him.

He probably doesn’t even know why you’re upset--

“I talked to Finn.”

Oh.

Well, that’s just cheating.

Poe takes a step towards you, enough that he’s barely a few inches away from you. The hand on your arm moves to your cheek, cupping it gently. “You seriously think I don’t love you.”

“I don’t think you do anymore.” You swallow thickly, your voice faint, afraid of the words incase they’re true. “I know you did love me. I just... after seeing the way you looked at her, I... I don’t know anymore.”

“There was a time me and Zorri were something.” Body freezing, you mentally prepare yourself for the words you’re petrified of hearing. Because you’re so sure, so blinded by your own jealousy that you can’t see-- “But that was a long time ago. I don’t care for her like that anymore.”

Lips parting, you furrow your brows. “But the way you looked at her--”

“I was stunned. I hadn’t seen her in so long.” Poe is quick to explain, his voice firm; desperate to show you that there’s no hesitancy or question in his voice. He believes what he’s saying and he wants you to too. His thumb softly strokes your cheek, pulling your eyes back on him and softening his gaze. “It’s true that I once cared for Zorri more than just a friend. But, Y/N/N, there’s no one i’ve ever loved more than you.”

Your breath halts, lips parting.

“I need you to know that before we go into this battle.”

For a moment, just a moment, you gaze into his eyes; watching they way he stares back at you. You’re not sure how you hadn’t seen it before, but there’s so much warmth, love, everything you thought he’d lost for you the second you landed on that planet. It’d never disappeared; you’d just couldn’t see it.

Lips curling into a soft, warm smile, you lean forward, pressing your lips against his own. Your fingers thread through his hair, pulling him closer as he encircles his arms around your waist. The both of you hold onto one another like this might be your last moment and it could be.

You don’t want to let go.

“I love you...”

-

Let me know what you thought?

#Star Wars #Star Wars spoilers #Star Wars TROS #TROS spoilers #spoilers #Rise of Skywalker spoilers #Star Wars imagine #Star Wars x reader #Star Wars Rise of Skywalker spoilers #Rise of Skywalker imagine #TROS #TROS imagine #Poe #Poe Dameron #Poe Dameron imagine #Poe Dameron x reader #Poe imagine #Poe x reader #Oscar Isaac #Oscar Isaac imagine #imagine #imagines #my fics

[lazywitchling]

Dabbler’s Week - research proposal edition

I say “Research proposal” because this isn’t so much going to be what I’d ACTUALLY use as a guide, it’s just the STRUCTURE I’d use to write the guide, and why I chose what I did. For a little background on what the hell is going on, see @asksecularwitch‘s post here.

Monday - Spellwork

What: A simple candle-and-petition-paper spell. Dabbler chooses what they want, but with the instruction that it is straightforward, specific, and tangible. The Drake-Meme format would be: “I want to increase my wealth” ✋ - “I want ten bucks in the coming week” 👈 The spell is written out exactly as performed, really hand-holdy, Do This, Then This, Next This, Finally This.

Why: Look, if I were brand new and gonna pick a “dabble in witchcraft for a week” thing, I’d want to start out doing some effin’ witchcraft. So we’ll start with casting a spell. It’s written super hand-holdy because at the beginning, you really just want some step-by-step instructions on what to do. Also a week is a good time frame to give a spell, and casting it at the beginning gives it a chance to manifest by the end of the week. And FURTHERMORE, it’s a surprise tool that will help us later...

Tuesday - Cleansing a Space

What: Dabbler picks out a space to cleanse, told that the space they choose will be made into a sacred space tomorrow. They will play music of their choosing (with a few suggestions to get them started, just so nobody’s floundering, aka “relaxing yoga music, or something loud and peppy, your favorite childhood song, a meme song that makes you laugh, etc.”) while they also mundanely clean the space.

Why: Cleansing is one of those Cornerstone Witchy Things that everyone talks about offhandedly, like “cleanse your space after this spell”, and giving the Dabbler a simple way of doing that is a good first tool to have in their bag. Music is freely available, and it’s customizable, and playing music while doing a mundane cleaning associates the Magical Cleaning with the Mundane Cleaning in their mind, so they get a sense of “clean vibes” as related to “clean space”. Sidenote: the space can be a shelf, a box, a corner of the room, whatever. Might have some notes in there about other things they can add to their cleansing, like the usual magical washes or sprays, lighting a candle, or whatever. Nothing too complicated at this point, though, we’re still taking baby steps.

Wednesday - Creating a Sacred Space

What: The Dabbler picks out items they already have on hand to create a sacred space in the area that was cleansed the day before (the shelf, box, corner, whatever). Sacred here meaning “Set apart; special”, not necessarily “holy; religious”. Dabbler is encouraged to decorate and arrange things until they feel it has the proper vibe.

Why: This is to encourage the Dabbler to think about the mundane things around their own home, and how those things can be magical just by Deciding That They Are. The idea is not necessarily to create an Altar, though it can also work as practice for that should the Dabbler later choose to have one. In my own practice, I don’t have a permanent Sacred Space, because it doesn’t really fit what I do or how I live. But I tried making some when I first started, and I think it was an important learning point. Now, when I feel that I DO need a sacred space, I’m able to whip one up with whatever is around, and I think that’s a great skill to have. It’s helpful to know and feel what “Sacred” or “Special” feels like to the individual, what it takes for you to really vibe with a space or setting. My spaces are more about reining in my hyperactive brain and creating a boundary for it to focus on, not about creating a holy circle of ground, but I know what that distinction feels like BECAUSE of the times I dabbled in creating sacred spaces. This is when your brain gets to learn what It’s Witchin’ Time feels like.

Thursday - Herbal Correspondences

What: The Dabbler goes to their own kitchen or garden and picks out three spices, herbs, and/or flowers (that they 100% know what they are). At this point, it isn’t necessary to actually gather them, just to write down what is easily accessible at that moment. They then check out the Wikipedia article on their chosen herbs, and build their own correspondence list from that article.

Why: “Whoa whoa whoa, Jes, why are you suggesting Wikipedia??” Oh easy. Because it’s accessible, it’s free, and it’s not witchy. Wikipedia gets a bad rap as a resource for a variety of reasons, but for what it does, it does well. It’s an encyclopedia, so it is by nature a surfacey resource. That’s okay. That’s all we need right now. Instead of googling magical correspondences of cinnamon and finding 1000+ lists that all copied from a copy of a copy of a copy of Crowley and then not knowing WHY that thing has that correspondence, the Dabbler is going to learn to make their own by starting a (very basic) relationship with that herb. Example: I was trying to research magical correspondences of base oils, but everything I found was one-word answers, most of which was “fertility”. Which was... entirely not helpful. So I set out to make my own. Specific example: I looked into castor oil (according to “magickal” sources, it’s correspondence is simply “protection”), but my mundane research taught me that it’s been used for hydraulic and brake fluids, used in food preservation, sold as a laxative, and historically has been used as torture and humiliation (with the laxative effect, I’m sure you can figure out exactly how). Well NOW we’re getting somewhere, because now I associate it with “getting things moving”, whether in a negative or positive way. Having the Dabbler learn to do mundane research like this helps strengthen their relationship with what they use, teaches them that they can research their own materials without needing another Witch (or an Amazon Lisa) to do it for them, and teaches them that they can use what they have on hand rather than consulting a magical list of things they don’t have and wondering where the hell they’re supposed to buy white willow bark.

Friday - Divination

What: The Dabbler will gather small trinkets that they already have and collect them in a box or bag. They then ask questions (possibly with the aid of a list of suggested questions?) and draw a trinket (or cast a couple, if they’re feeling adventurous!) and interpret.

Why: I love Tarot as much as the next witch, but it’s not always practical for the starting witch. And in my experience, I can be dragged just as hard by my trinkets as I can by my traditional tarot decks. Gathering trinkets is (again, as you’re starting to see a theme, I hope) a way to use what is already on hand. And after the Wikipedia exercise from the previous day, the Dabbler should have a little bit of practice in thinking about associations. The action figure their nephew left at their house can mean “lost” but it can also mean “found”, or it’s Spiderman and means “responsibility” or Wonder Woman means “truth”, etc.

Saturday - Crafting a Charm

What: The Dabbler will create a simple charm (most likely a protective one, but I’m not married to the idea). They’ll use their own skills to hand make something tangible, however simple it may be. Could be crafting a keychain using their beading skills, or embroidering a small design onto their jeans pocket, or as simple as wrapping a colored thread around a ring they wear. Whatever it is, it will be a thing that they make with their hands.

Why: We’re falling away from the railroad guidelines at this point in the week, and encouraging the Dabbler to start thinking on their own about what they can do. There’s still suggestions so they don’t get totally lost, but it’s far less hand-holdy than the first spell of the week. With two whole exercises about thinking through associations of things, hopefully they can start to come to conclusions on their own (”You know, I think I’ll hang a safety pin from the keychain, because that just Feels Right to me” or “This string should be blue, because that’s the color of my protective gloves at work”). And the second purpose of the charm is... it’s a tangible thing. It’s a souvenir. If at the end of the week the Dabbler decides that they had fun but witchcraft isn’t for them, cool. But maybe three years down the line, they find that keychain they made during Witch Camp Week, and they think “Oh hey, I remember doing that...” and perhaps it comes to them at exactly the time they need it and they decide to pick it up again. (Or they find it and go “lol that wasn’t for me” and chuck it in the trash. Failure is always an option!)

Sunday - Spellwork Redux

What: Get in losers, we’re casting the same spell again. Well, not the SAME spell, but the same sort. That candle spell from the beginning of the week? The Dabbler will now repeat it with similar purpose. BUT, this time they are to modify the spell somehow. Even less guidelines here now. Maybe they want to perform the spell in their sacred space. Maybe they want to cleanse before performing it. Maybe they want to sprinkle some herbs on the candle, or steep some herbs in hot water and use a brush to write on the paper. Whatever they do is theirs to decide.

Why: EXPERIMENTATION. Really, how often do any of us see a cool spell and then perform it EXACTLY AS WRITTEN? I don’t know about you, but I always always always have to modify it somehow, whether it’s to fit what I have, fit my paradigm, or just because personalization is important in my craft. Redoing the spell with a little bit of tweaking means the Dabbler gets to close off the week with a little more of that Witches Casting Spells stuff that they probably expected, but with a chance to see how they can change it now, how they can make it more suited to them, or how they think it might work better. Maybe it will work better. Maybe it will be worse. Either way is a result.

Conclusion - or the TL;DR

Guidelines at the beginning of the week, transitioning to more creative freedom by the end of the week. Heavy encouragement of using what’s freely on hand and easily accessible, rather than buying specialty materials that may or may not be helpful or ever used again (not to mention could be hella expensive). Some spells, because let’s be honest, some people just really really want the spellz. And mundane research, because it’s too often neglected even among the veteran witches.

#long post #dabbler's week #asksecularwitch

[where-s-all-blue]

More University Headcanons!

Straw Hat Pirates Edition

Luffy

He's studying to become a photographer because he looked up to Roger, who himself was a professional photographer during the time he was alive.

Another reason for this is the fact that photographers get to see a lot of things their life, sometimes even danger, it's like an adventure.

Like most of his friends, he resides in Gold dorm and has done his fair share of stealing furniture for it.

He keeps a diary which he decorates with cute stickers and Polaroids.

He has a good eye, which helps him with setting the camera in just right way to get the perfect shot.

He's one of the louder residents which often makes people who need the silence to concentrate, like Law, go absolutely bonkers.

He's banned from the kitchen.

He keeps dragging people into the dorm.

Somehow? You just can't hate him.

Zoro

Decided to study social work when he realised how unfair the world could be.

Is also in the kendo club which he joined upon learning that the person who is seen as the best is its captain, he intends to best him.

Currently he supports one hundred and fifty-one wins and one loss.

The only loss was against Mihawk.

He's naturally good when it comes to dealing with people, but he truly shines when he's around kids.

He's often helping around the dorm by moving large objects in/out.

He was the one to clear the large area which later on came to support the workout area and the garden.

He often takes strolls on the woods located behind the dorm, he's easily the scariest being there.

His sense of direction is so bad that he was given his own device which tells him his location and how to get to the place he wants to go to. This device was made by Eustass and Usopp with Law telling them to turn it into a wrist watch which also measures Zoro's vitals so he can monitor his own health and sport related achievements. The data of his vital signs is transferred into his phone.

Usopp

He majors in engineering and thrives when it comes to inventions, his secondary is English literature.

He writes plays and stories on his spare time, some of them are pitched to the theatre club and art majors.

He's good at crafting and thus is often seen working on something for the dorm like name signs that all match the personalities of the residents.

He was the one who thought of turning the street sign poles into a fence around the dorm's garden.

He's also in charge of modifying the stolen property to ensure that nobody realises where they originally came from.

He was the one who turned that one car into a bed after he moved it inside in pieces. The car bed is in a room called "Silence Room" which was made to have no sounds get in or out of it. He and Killer designed the interior of it to help those who have hyper senses and are more proun to headaches (or just can't stand being around people too long). It's also used as a guest room from time to time.

He works the best with people who are smart like Sanji, Law and Eustass, he also gets very well along Chopper, the therapy dog that goes around the campus.

He's free spirited goof ball with very wide interests who gets along with almost everybody.

Being the jokester of the lot is his attempt to have people think of him as a good guy to be around with and to see that he's not just brain.

He struggles with seeing his own self worth and is very proun to feeling melancholic due to his high Intel making him realise things that he'd rather not know of. He has a low self-esteem because of being dismissed as a child due to his dreams and goals being too ahead of his time.

Sanji

Culinary arts and management major.

He was raised in a foster home, more specifically by the owner of the Baratier restaurant Zeff who he considers to be his dad more than his biological father.

He was kicked out of the Vinsmoke estate by his father Judge due to his wish to be a chef instead of becoming a lawyer or a doctor or a politician.

Technically he's still eligible of inheriting the throne of Germa Kingdom even if he was exiled.

He's still expected to marry a high class member of the society and thus Judge keeps messaging him about his choices, fully believing that Sanji will one day see his way and abandon his dream of being a chef in favour of the kingdom.

He even has a fiancé, Charlotte Pudding, though he never agreed to the scheme that was orchestrated by Vinsmoke Judge and Charlotte Linlin. Pudding also isn't too happy about the situation.

His foster father is the actual lecturer in charge of the culinary studies, but as he was in an accident and thus hospitalised, Charlotte Linlin is subbing him much to Sanji's demise.

He's one of the few people who who can cook in the dorm and he takes notice of other people's likes, dislikes and allergies.

Sanji's kindness is often noticed by others.

Nami

She's a architecture major, her second interest being banking.

When she moved into the dorm, she quickly noticed that the students who renovated it had no idea how things worked, so she had them redo few things. The dorm is now a lot easier to keep warm during the winter.

She was the one to pitch the idea of the Silent Room upon noticing how Law was struggling because of how loud the dorm had become as a result of the new first years moving in.

She works part time as a waitress at Baratier and she is known for her ability to negotiate the costs a lot lower that they usually would be.

She's a bit of a kleptomaniac, result of her growing up on a poor and unsafe area dictated by gangs.

She's also a honours student, who's part of the special program which basically ensures that she has enough money to buy her school items and food.

She often chats with the local witch coven to obtain more information, she also likes to hangout with Killer and Usopp.

Her best friend Vivi Nefertari is currently in an exchange program.

Chopper

A golden retriever akita mix.

He was originally Sabo's therapy dog, nowadays he's more or less the therapy dog of anyone who needs him. He still sticks by Sabo for the most of the time.

He's broken into the classrooms during lectures to deliver forgotten items to Sabo so often that he has his own attendance record and he's almost considered to be a student at this point.

His job includes going to the local pharmacy every Friday to pick up a specifically constructed herbal infusion packet and bring it to the Lair.

He's highly intelligent dog who was capable of deducing which herbs were part of the herbal infusion treatment and then retrieve the plants based on their scent.

He picked these herbs and spices from the garden of Gold Dorm.

His bestfriend is Bepo, a samoyed owned by Law, who also happens to be the only other dog on the campus.

Robin

Social Work major, secondary studies in history.

She chose her line of studies due to wanting to prevent other kids being forced to go through the same kind of neglect and abuse as she did.

She's fluent in multiple languages and writes her notes in one of the dead languages, which she self taught herself to read.

She prefers to keep her information confidential and she enjoys the confusion some of her antics cause.

She takes part in the weekly movie night and enjoys them greatly.

Franky

Robotics major.

The only member of the group who doesn't live in a dorm. Nobody knows if he even sleeps or eats, but if you need him, you can always find him form the workshop.

You need to drag him out forcibly to have him even leave the room.

Thanks to Luffy, he now visits the Gold dorm few times a week to hangout, but the second he sees something that gives him an idea, he bolts out back to the workshop.

100% workaholic, 0% sleep, 120% Cola.

Brook

Actual university cryptid.

Is literally dead and walking around.

Formerly a music major.

Nobody knows how long he's been there and frankly nobody cares, his flamboyant style is a mood and his cravings for food and drinks is something we all relate to.

He knows every nook and cranny of the campus.

He's been there so long that nobody even questions it and he even gets invited to university parties and to hang out.

The only time someone freaked out was when the group went to a fast food restaurant and forgot that the outside world isn't aware of him. He tipped the waiter generously with something that looked like an old coin. It was probably worth more than the whole restaurant.

If you talk to him, there's 80% chance of you triggering his natural response to anything which is singing and dancing.

He's literally a walking musical.

He's one of the few who has heard Katakuri's doughnut song and lived to tell the tale. Except that he's dead already yohohoho.

He's very likely to console you if you're not feeling okay.

When it comes to the modern technology and stuff, he's a bit confused, but has the right spirit.

Jinbe

The current captain of the karate club.

Nobody knows what he majors in nor from which dorm he's from.

When Shirahoshi from Atlantis (=Fishman Island) started her studies in the University, he was quick to form a protection team to her and her brothers from the members of the karate club.

He might be the instructor of the club? Apparently he's one of the strongest.

I woke up one morning and he was eating soba noodles in the kitchen, why and how is he in our dorm. Is he even a student here?!

Oh my god he's now fighting against Ace, I swear to god sport majors are so dramatic.

It was a tie. How am I supposed to feel about this.

They both are now emptying our fridge, someone please get them out.

#one piece university au #university au #university #one piece au #one piece headcanons #Onepiece headcanons #op headcanons #straw hat crew #straw hat luffy #mugiwara #op luffy #one piece luffy #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #zoro #op zoro #one piece zoro #pirate hunter zoro #sanji vinsmoke #one piece sanji #op sanji #vinsmoke sanji #black leg sanji #op usopp #god usopp #usopponepiece #captain usopp #op nami #one piece nami

[novantinuum]

The Hybrid in the Hourglass

Fandom: Doctor Who, 12th Doctor era

Rating: K

Words: 1700~

Pairings: Twelfth Doctor/Clara (Whouffaldi)

Summary: “Between one heartbeat and the last is all the time I have. People like me and you, we should say things to one another. And I'm going to say them now. In... in the only way I can.”

The Doctor always knew those big sad eyes would one day be his undoing.

What happened in those cloisters, in the moments the Doctor forgot?

Three years on. Three years, and I haven't stopped thinking about what might have happened in this missing scene of Hell Bent. I have no idea how many people have tackled this concept before, but wanted to offer my personal take on how I envision it. A big thank you to @inktheblot, who offered me much needed screaming and peer pressure to get this out of my head and into words.

The Doctor always knew those big sad eyes would one day be his undoing.

He knew it centuries back in Victorian London, at their star-crossed beginning, and he only knows those eyes all the better now. His words hang in the air around them like the scent of musk in the damp of the cloisters. And truly, the sheer impassioned intensity of her gaze— the glistening emotion encapsulated like whole galaxies within her irises— is all he needs to understand implicitly that his sentiment is fully reciprocated.

I have a duty of care...!

He tries in futility to avert his attention to other matters, rambles on about how the hatch opens up to corridors that will lead them to the workshops, where they’ll have TARDISes. Still, his best friend’s eyes press into him, so tangible as if on its own a form of physical contact. It’s yet another source of dizzying stimuli, alongside the faint vibrations of the Matrix around him and the unsettling sense of time under decay, yet another reason he’s woefully lost without her hand safe in his. In his anger and grief he lies to everyone, but he can never play pretend with her for long, never. Not truly. No matter how hard he tries.

The dread of words left unspoken eventually grows too palpable for the pair of them. Clara shifts closer, her expression still malfunctioning, caught in the quantum space between one emotion and the next.

“Okay, listen. I have something I need to say.”

“We do not have time,” he says, waving her off, the feeling of the clock ticking down to zero intrinsically imminent in his bones.

“No, my time-!" she cries, commanding his attention. “My time is up. Doctor...”

And the yearning in her tone tugs at him, chipping away at the diamond mountains he’s erected around his soul, stripping it bare in mere seconds to place it face to face with hers.

“Between one heartbeat and the last is all the time I have. People like me and you, we should say things to one another. And I'm going to say them now. In-“

Her breath audibly hitches. The Doctor’s unsure when her hand first brushes along his cheek, tracing over rough hewn trenches and memorizing every last contour. Every last hard won wrinkle, a testament to the remnants of personal history dancing ever so further beyond his reach.

“-In the only way I can,” she finishes, and he’s hurt— like a physical kick to his side— that it almost sounds like an apology.

But an apology for what she’s going to say, or that she didn’t say it earlier?

And before his mind can turn to utter anything in response, Clara finally crosses that long unspoken boundary between them— smashes it, a bloodied fist right to that last remaining crystal facet— and presses her lips flush against his.

It’s not a hesitant kiss she offers, that much he’s certain of, but it’s slow. Deliberate— a kiss fully aware of how the sand’s rapidly running empty in their hourglass, but refusing to let this fickle measure act as a limit. His hearts constrict, every sense ablaze. As sure as the spin of his home planet underfoot, he feels it all: The faint scent of perfume, a day old but still evident on her skin. The sensation of her warm, unweathered lips moving against his mildly chapped ones. The full cyclical harmony of her path through the universe, her time stream, which flares out around them like the petals of a flower in bloom. Like the rarest of the rare among the wide universe, part of a genus that only spreads its seed once in a millennium. And so, as if second nature, (and it really should’ve been), the Doctor reciprocates in kind. He parts his mouth, breathing her air— walking her Earth, their Earth, together— and willfully losing himself within the intoxicating depth of her embrace.

It’s sacred, and it’s forever, and then it’s over.

She parts from him, sights deftly flicking up from his lips to his soul’s window.

“You are my universe,” she promises. “Always have been. Always will.”

He gazes at her, eyes glistening, going all wide and puffy like how hers always did, malfunctioning in her wake.

“Oh-!” he breathes, the sheer weight of memory of their little eternity finally breaching the surface, physically forced into being through wordless utterance. His fingers gloss across her cheek with the care of a proffered brush against alabaster canvas. “My Clara...”

And the taste of her name is cream and spice and whispers of everything that ever could be on his tongue, a prayer to a faceless god. He’s not religious, or at least doesn’t consider himself to be, but if he were to level his devotion on anyone— if he believes in anything, he believes in her. Deftly, his hand lifts her chin. Adoration shines through her every feature, and it leaves him weak, rather like an exposed nerve. He imparts a second kiss— quick and chaste, a wax seal upon parchment- and then presses his forehead to hers.

“Listen.” Clara‘s eyelids flutter shut as she leans against him. “I know what you’re thinking, what you feel. And I know-!” she interjects his move to protest, likely feeling the muscles of his arms tense under her hands. “How much this must hurt you. I’m not saying I don’t understand why you chose what you did, because in your place I would-“

Her voice fades out. He’s let her soul rest in his head intimately enough by this point that he knows without conferring or tapping into her thoughts what she’s reflecting on: Trenzalore, his since aborted grave, and all the days long centuries past. Her bravery there, a reckless sacrifice in love’s name. His Impossible Girl, scattering herself into fragments, living millions of lives moment to moment, and all this to die saving him at every bend.

Placed in his shoes, in a bespoke torture chamber with 4.5 billion years’ separation from the one thing left in this universe worth fighting for?

Would isn’t even a question.

Her lips curve into a tight smile as she leans back on her haunches, leaves his embrace. Their hands find each other’s, lithe digits intertwining like a silent waltz. Taking a deep breath, she rephrases her previous words.

“In your place, I chose exactly the same. But you. If you care for me, then you’ll let me care for you. If I’m really dead, if you can’t do anything. If this is... my end. You need to move on.”

The Doctor feels the precise second his gut flips, shifts from emergent flutters of hope back to the churning maelstrom of loss and grief he thought he left behind in the extraction chamber, and it’s whiplash. His fingers grasp her palm with invigorated intensity— rebuking the universe’s design, begging time, begging her— but the pained look etched within her brow and reflected in her glossy eyes only reaffirms his fears.

Her grip loosens.

“You need to let me go.”

“I can’t just-“

“Dead!" she exclaims in a whisper, tears spilling from their perch. “Doctor, all you’re talking to is a ghost of who I was. And I- I don’t want to keep trudging through some half realized existence if my heart’s never going to beat again.”

“And what if- what if, just maybe, I told you I could fix that?" And he almost hates how vulnerable he sounds in the moment, his voice hitching against his better wishes. "Take you away with me, restart your pulse?”

Gently, he cups her cheek, swabbing his thumb across to wipe away the tears that linger there, running in rivulets across too-pale skin.

“Oh, you know me,” Clara scoffs with a feeble laugh, words flowing thick in the weight of all she's endured. She leans into his hand, finally breaks a smile. Oh, that radiant smile... “What’d you think?”

“All of time and space?”

He flashes his own grin back, noting the way it stretches so unnaturally across his lips after so many billions of years of memory gone by. Inwardly he wonders if she also notices how strained and half-hearted it was, just how feeble his facade really can be. And so when she throws her arms around him and burrows her face in his neck, hides away from him as she desperately suppresses her sobs of relief, he doesn't grouse. Not this time. After all his years, he understands.

Eventually, she leans up and presses a kiss against his cheek, at the corner of his mouth. Her eyes are still puffy, still red and stained with throes of anguish. But still Clara. Still beautiful. She sits back, sniffles a little, and rubs the last evidence of her sorrow away.

“You have a plan, then?”

The Doctor, pointedly ignoring the incompleteness of his Plan A and the terrifying reality of his Plan B currently nestled just inside his jacket pocket, traces a wide arc of the circular Gallifreyan inscribed into the stone hatch. “Oh, obviously. When don’t I?”

“Just about every other day," she says, deadpan.

At first he scowls with offense at the jab, but knowing deep down she's right softens his expression into one of fondness.

Clara watches in momentary silence as he works. The hatch beneath them hums with an ancient lifeblood, emitting a myriad series of trills and dull chimes as he unlocks each layer one by one, aided by his telepathic ability. Each fingertip moves methodically in turn, forging physical contact with specific points in the complex sigils just like the ridges on a key— just like the Matrix itself showed him over two thousand years ago, when he was but a fresh-eyed boy ignorant of the days to come. His concentration is interrupted by a familiar warmth settling over his busy hands, coercing them to slow their frenzied endeavor.

“So this brilliant plan of yours... Does it require any immediate assistance?”

“Ah, yes actually," he admits, glancing up from her hand atop his to her fragile visage of courageousness. Memorizes this moment, burns it into his memory so that he'll never forget it, the sum of her bravery and her never-giving-up. "I could use your help on one thing. I need you to stage a distraction.”

“For?”

“Our pals watching from the edge, there. If we’re going to escape this hell, they can’t see me open this hatch.”

“Don’t worry,” she whispers, brushing her thumb across the hair on his knuckles. “They’ll all be looking at me.”

#doctor who #whouffaldi #twelfth doctor #clara oswald #doctor who fanfiction #whouffle #doctor/clara #dw #dw fanfiction #doctor who fanfic #dw fanfic #12/clara #hell bent #my writing stuff

[ofheroesandheralds]

OC Interview Meme - Saarnos

Tagged by: No one. Saw it by coincidence on @seboostianillustrations‘ blog, and wanted to do it.

Tagging: @taerellavellan and/or @oceans-bleed-black, and perhaps @thereluctantinquisitor and @angrykittybarbarian if any of you are in the mood to do it! I’d also love to tag @chaitea09 but tumblr won’t let me. Also, anyone who’s not tagged but in the mood to do it shall feel free to do so, and tag me too so I can take a look at all your cool OCs!

1. What is your name?

“Saarnos Adaar. That translates to ‘raging flame’.”

2. What is your real name?

“That is my real name. Or are you asking for the name my parents gave me? That would be Junior. Well... Ramin, officially, but they’d never use that.”

3. Do you know why you were called that?

��Yes, because my parents wanted me to choose my own name once I was... uh... mature enough. My father was Tal-Vashoth, and he valued freedom very highly. Especially the freedom to choose your own identity, which you couldn’t ever do under the Qun, so they called me by a neutral nickname so I wouldn’t grow too attached to the official one."

4. Are you single or taken?

He laughs.

”I wouldn’t call myself taken, but I’d lie if I said I was single, too. There is that one man I have... an affair with, whenever we both happen to be in the same place, but neither of us calls it a relationship, and we both see other people too when we’re in the mood.”

5. Have any abilities or powers?

”Plenty of them! First of all I’m a mage. A fire mage, specifically, which was the main reason for the name I chose. I’m also a damn fine dancer, an acrobat, and I could kick an apple from the top of your head while balancing on one hand and having the other one tied to my back!”

6. Stop being a Mary Sue.

He gives a huge grin.

“How am I supposed to stop being perfect at everything when I’m just... perfect at everything?”

7. What’s your eye color?

“Some would say yellow, but I prefer to call it golden.”

8. How about your hair color?

“Black. Simple as that. No touch of blue or anything, not ‘just a very dark brown’ - just black. Silky and shiny, though!”

9. Have you any family members?

“Not anymore. At least none that I know of. My parents both already passed away, and I don’t have any siblings. There were also no more relatives on my mother’s side, but since my father used to live under the Qun, we never got to know if he had any other relatives.”

10. Oh? What about pets?

“Nah. I like animals, but I’m not really the type to keep any. Taking care of another creature would interfere with my lifestyle, so I’m sparing myself of that... as well as the animals.”

11. That’s cool I guess, now tell me about something you don’t like.

He groans.

“Cold weather. I hate it. I mean, I don’t have a big problem staying warm or anything, I’ll just make my own fire, but... I can’t quite explain it, there’s just something to it that I really, really don’t like. I try to stay away from cold or rainy places. Might just be my Antivan heart!”

12. Do you have any hobbies/activities you like doing?

”I live for my artistry! I’ve made it into my profession, actually, it’s how I make my money most of the time. My favorite discipline is a... a mixture of dancing and fighting, I don’t know if there is a name for that specific style. But it looks quite spectacular, if I’m allowed the vanity! Especially when paired with fire.”

13. Ever hurt anyone before?

“Sure. When you live a life out travelling most of the time, at some point someone will try to rob you, and you gotta make sure they fail, right?”

14. Ever… killed anyone before?

“Not before I ran into the Inquisition. And I’m also not sure if those darkspawns count as ‘someone’.“

15. What kind of animal are you?

Again, a wide grin spreads across his face.

“If I was an animal, I’d be a tiger! Look at my vitaar, I’m on the best way there!”

16. Name your worst habits.

“Why does it have to be multiple? I can’t even think of a single bad habit I have. I guess that question is better answered by people who know me, and not myself."

17. Do you look up to anyone at all?

“I don’t think so, nah.”

18. Gay, straight, or bisexual?

“A little bit of everything? Nah, honestly, as long as you’re an adult, and qunari like me, I couldn’t give less of a shit about what’s going on in your pants.”

19. Do you go to school?

“My father used to teach me some things when I was younger, but I’ve never been to an actual school.”

20. Do you ever want to marry and have kids one day?

“Ahh, oh no, probably not. I mean, I cannot speak for what’ll be in the future, but at this point in my life, with children, it’s the same as with animals. I have nothing against them, they usually love me, but I couldn’t see myself having any. That sort of responsibility doesn’t fit into my life."

21. Do you have any fanboys/fangirls?

“Oh I bet I have, but so far there’s only one person of whom I know with certainty that he likes me.”

22. What are you most afraid of?

“Being made into a saarebas, probably. The entire idea of it is just horrible, I’d rather die than living like that.”

23. What do you usually wear?

He smirks.

“As little as possible. But when I travel, I wear some light plate, mostly around the arms and legs, as well as a shoulder piece. And a waist cloth, for some decency. Not that I gave a damn, but a lot of people seem to do.”

24. Do you love someone?

“Not romantically, if that’s what you’re asking.”

25. When was the last time you wet yourself?

“As a child. Why would you even ask that?”

26. Well, it’s not over yet!

“I am just fine, keep the questions coming!”

27. What class are you? (High class, middle class, low class)

“I don’t know if I fit into any class. Back at home with my parents, I’d have said middle class, but now? I’ve got everything I need, so I don’t really care.”

28. How many friends do you have?

“Huh. That depends on how you define that. I've been to a lot of places, and I’ve gotten to know a lot of people, most of whom I’ve gotten along with, but if you’re talking about that ‘willing-to-die-for-each-other’ kind of friends, I... don’t think I’ve got any.”

29. What are your thoughts on pie?

“I like it. I prefer savory over sweet, though. Filled with meat and some good spices! I like it spicy.”

30. Favourite drink?

“I don’t even think I have one. Anything that has some taste to it, I like my food and drinks with some intensity.”

31. What’s your favourite place?

“Probably Antiva. And it’s not even some ‘back to the roots’ thing, it’s just nice there. I like the people, the mentality. And also it’s nice and warm.”

32. Are you interested in someone?

“I am very easily interested in people, so most of the time, I could answer that question with ‘Yes’.”

33. What’s your bra cup size and/or how big is your willy?

A smirk plays around his lips, while he narrows his eyes a little.

“You want me to show you? No, really! All I need to do is lift that cloth a little...! ... What? No? Hah, I thought so.”

34. Would you rather swim in the lake or the ocean?

“I’m not that much of a swimmer. I can do it, but not all too well, so I guess I’d prefer a lake? At least those end somewhere.”

35. What’s your type?

“Other qunari. Apart from that, I don’t have a type. Attraction comes spontaneously, I can’t tell you what traits I find more attractive than others, it really is a matter of my mood.”

36. Any fetishes?

“I like to have sex on a big pile of gold? ... What did you expect, a serious answer? Well. I’m not sure if I’d call it a fetish, but I really am into gold, meaning I like jewelry on my partners. It makes looking at an attractive body even more interesting!”

37. Seme or uke? Top or Bottom? Dominant or Submissive?

“I can do whatever feels best in the current situation. I would, however, not call myself submissive, it’s more like... letting a dominant person be dominant if that’s the only way they feel comfortable. I prefer being on one level.”

38. Camping or indoors?

“I’m very used to both, so it’s really not one over the other.”

39. Are you wanting the interview to end?

“Nah, I’m fine, I do like to talk about myself.”

40. Now it’s over!

“Aww, that was mean! Alright, it was fun to talk to you. Have a nice day!”

#OC interview meme #Saarnos Adaar #Male Adaar #m!Adaar #Imagine all of this in a moderate Antivan accent #Not too thick #But still clear to notice #Also shit when did he get so vain xD #I love it though #My blazing beacon of sin #Let it be known that I made a drawing just for this meme #Gonna upload it on its own too though

[pixel-gremlins]

All for sonny boy

💐 What flowers would be used in a flower crown for your oc? Why those choices?

You know how ophelia in hamlet names off a bunch of flowers that go to characters? probabably any that went to gertrude, because like I view her, he’s got good intentions, though sometimes selfish, but he doesn’t mean to cause the trouble that he does

🌼 Has your oc lost anyone close to them? How did/would they respond if so?

he hasn’t lost his mother yet and that’s really who he’s closest to. when he was very young he was quite close to alice, but as she grew older she got more cold and bitter to him, he mostly blames himself for her not being in his life much

🌷 Does your oc have any collections? What of? Any reason why?

he has wAy too many succulents, he likes plants a lot because they’re something alive that he really can’t not get along with, since he can be a pretty self isolating character when things go awry

���� What are some of your oc’s dreams? Goals?

for his canon ghoul au, he works as a medical examiner in order to make sure he doesn’t go wild and eat someone alive or would be noticed missing. it means that he has to learn quite a bit of biology and chemistry and he wants to find a way to create alternative foods for ghouls so that they don’t need to work so hard

🌳 What are some things your oc is proud of?

he’s very proud of his transition! his mom gave him quite a bit of money towards it and he’s forever faithful, the doctors told him he took top surgery recovery like a boss and whenever he wants to physically one-up someone he brings that up like “Oh yeah? I’m tough”

🌾 What is your oc’s favourite food?

uhhh, considering he eats people, it would be a body part, he likes muscley areas because like for humans on meat fat isn’t the best part, but the thicker muscle

🍀 Who has the best luck of your ocs? The worst?

he doesn’t have the best luck! but! he has good optimism at this point after being so low most of his life, and he feels lucky to be where he is.

probably his mother, like with how the one sperm bank she chose for her kids happened to be a ghoul-run business which brought out her half-bred ghoul kids, though she’s lucky they haven’t caused much obvious harm since they were babies, and never on purpose

🍃 Who of your ocs would love to travel? Who has traveled the most/farthest?

he doesn’t travel often because he doesn’t yet trust himself, but he hopes to visit France eventually to put his high school language classes to use

🌸  Who is the most innocent of your ocs? The most guilty?

he’s the most innocent as far as playing life as carefully as he can and trying hard to put out that good karma for any wrong-doings

his sister is pretty guilty, though she’s only 13, but as she gets older she gets more bitter and vengeful

💮 What are your oc’s best skills?

he can tie a cherry stem in his mouth? but also the ability to cover up parts of himself he doesn’t want to show off, only his family and a few friends know he’s not fully human. he can also hold his breath for two minutes, mostly because a lot of the smells he’s been around haven’t been pleasant

🏵 Has your oc won any awards or other form of recognition? What for? Do they deserve one if not?

if there was an award for not killing a bully in middle school no matter how tempting? he’d deserve that one

🌹 How is your oc with flirting? Either receiving or the source?

he never knows when he’s being flirted with! he’s not the best at flirting either because he’s friendly in a more sunny way? if that makes sense? it can come off flirty but when he wants to flirt it’s miserably awkward

🥀 Have your oc’s dreams ever been crushed, or their heart broken? When and how?

before he was very far out or transitioned he asked a straight girl out that he liked, and that was his first technical rejection?

🌺 What is your oc’s formal wear like?

he isn’t very fashionable but he wants to be. he will mix textures he probably shouldn’t, and art major marnie keeps attempting to explain color theory to him but he still ends up wearing odd colors together

🌻 What little things make your oc happy? Would they admit that they make them happy?

he likes when people pay him specific attention, he wouldn’t outright say he likes it but he will try to pick up on what makes them happy and return the favor.

🌲 Which of your ocs likes the cold the best? Who can handle it the best?

he hates the cold! he’s a pretty scrawny guy so he always has to layer on the hoodies and sweatpants in winter, he’s glad that now he lives in a place that’s usually always sunny

🌴 If your oc could go on vacation to anywhere they’d like, where would it be?

France! (explanation somewhere above oop)

🌵 Who’s the prickliest of your characters? The softest?

he’s more of a soft guy, at least inside, he wants to be close to people but he’s just now in a stable enough place in his life to do it

🌿 Which oc can handle the most spice? Which prefers the blandest foods?

he can’t handle spice, but sugary things trigger his gag reflex, they hit him harder than most “human” foods

🍁 Who is the most polite of your ocs? The rudest?

he’s rude when he has to be to protect himself, but he’s normally nice, he says sorry a lot which gets him scolded by his sister

🍂 What is your oc’s favourite colour?

he likes warm colors, he looks good in yellow because of his firey hair color!

#simperbly #asks💖💕💖 #rambles of a madman #oc: sonny jameson #and mentioned: #oc: alice jameson #oc: marnie willey

[solomonara]

“Don’t Call It Spa Night” Cake

So I’ve been reading The New Prometheus, a Jason-Todd-keeps-coming-back-to-life series by Zoeleo. Part of what makes this fic great is the detailed writing, which extends to specific mentions of different meals the characters eat over the course of the fic. And when Jason Todd shows up to spa night (sorry, ‘Self-Care Saturday’) with Earl Grey-infused cupcakes...

“Uh, the batter is an Earl Grey infusion and there’s lemon zest in the icing. They were an experiment. An homage to Alfred, kind of.”

Experimenting with baked goods? I may not be able to fanart, but I can definitely show my appreciation for a fic with experimental baked goods. Here’s what I came up with. It’s under a cut because it’s a long recipe - but not hard, I promise!

(My sincere apologies if you’re on mobile, which will both fuck with the formatting and eliminate the Keep Reading cut...)

Oh, did you notice that’s not a cupcake? I hate making cupcakes. Who the hell has time to carefully pour batter into 24 cups, decorate 24 individual tiny cakes, and then wash a fucking cupcake pan with all its little pockets of hidden stickiness... ugh, no, you get cake and you’ll like it.

Ingredients for cake:

White cake mix (It was late and I didn’t feel like measuring dry ingredients)

1/2 c butter, very soft

1 1/4 c milk (you can get away with using water, if you need to)

2 - 6 tbs Earl Grey tea (I used loose leaf, but you can use tea bags if you need to. The amount will vary depending on how much you like tea - I’ve made my recommendations in the recipe steps)

5 egg whites (or 4 whole eggs would probably be fine)

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 c sugar

1/4 c water

Ingredients for icing:

3 c powdered sugar

1/3 c butter, softened

3 SCANT tbs lemon juice

1/2 tsp lemon zest

^^^ me acting like I know what I’m doing. Remember kids, it’s not science unless you write it down!

Optional: cup of brewed tea, which helps cut down on swearing while you try to figure out where your egg separator went.

Steps:

I’ve written these out in more detail than you probably need - I always try to write for beginners, so I’ve put the basic instruction by the bullet point and then included more detail in the paragraphs underneath each point (to make them easily skippable if you don’t need clarification). If you have questions feel free to ask!

Prep work:

Heat 1 1/4 c milk in a small saucepan. When it’s hot, steep 1 to 3 tablespoons of tea in the milk for 3 to 5 minutes The amount of tea you use depends how much you like Earl Grey and how stale your tea is - if it’s pretty old, you might want to use more. 1 tbs will give you a very delicate, barely-there Earl Grey flavor. 3 tbs will give you... more.

Tea making advice that will serve you well in life: Steeping black teas for longer than 3 minutes doesn’t give you stronger tea. It gives you bitter tea. If you want stronger tea, add more tea leaves or another tea bag, don’t just leave your tea in the water the whole time you’re drinking it. The timing is less important when using the tea in recipes like this one, though, since the sweetness of the cake will cut the bitterness (as will brewing the tea in milk).

Strain the leaves out of the milk and set the milk aside to cool. You want it to be room temperature before adding it to the other ingredients so it doesn’t cook your eggs. Press the leaves in the strainer to squeeze out all the nice tea-ish juices.

Pro tip: Straining your tea milk into a giant Harry Potter mug will make it taste better.

Set oven to 350 (Fahrenheit, please)

Grease and flour your cake pans. I used two 9 inch rounds, but this will do fine as a 13x9 sheet cake or as cupcakes if you hate yourself for some reason.

Dump about a tablespoon of loose tea in a small food processor, spice grinder, magic bullet, or mortar and pestle. Grind it fine. You need a teaspoon of this stuff and it’s going straight into the batter so you don’t want the grain too large unless you don’t mind chewing on tea leaves.

The Cake:

Separate your eggs and add the whites to a large mixing bowl. If, like me, you suddenly realize that you don’t own an egg separator, don’t panic. Crack the egg on the side of your mixing bowl and pull apart the two halves of the shell without tipping the egg out of them. Gently transfer the yolk from one shell half to the other, letting the egg whites run out into your mixing bowl. If you get a little yolk in with your whites, don’t worry. You’re not making a meringue, so this is not a disaster. When you’re finished juggling the yolk and have most of the white extracted, dump the yolk in a separate bowl. When you’ve done all 5 eggs stick the yolks in the fridge. Intend to make custard with them later. Wake up tomorrow morning to discover you forgot to put a little water in the bowl and the yolks are now WEIRD looking and congeal-y. Throw the yolks away.

Add the butter to the egg whites and beat together.

Add the tea milk and 1/4 tsp vanilla and stir

Add your superfine ground tea and the cake mix and beat on medium speed for two minutes. Depending on the size of your mixing bowl you may want to add the dry mix gradually.

When it’s well combined, it’ll be pretty drippy:

Yum!

Pour it into your pans and bake ~25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. My pans are very dark, so my cakes tend to cook faster - you may need more time, or, if you went the cupcake route, considerably less time.

Cool the cakes for about 10 minutes before turning them out onto wire racks to cool the rest of the way.

General cake-baking tip: If you have room, sticking your cakes into the fridge or freezer for a few minutes right when they come out of the oven will keep them moist.

Syrup and Icing:

Next you’re going to make a syrup to brush on your cakes when they’re cool. I straight-up stole this idea from Liv for Cake, but we’ll need way less of it since this is a smaller cake. You’ll notice I linked you to her recipe for Earl Grey cake, which is slightly different from this one, but hey, if you hate mine now you have another option to try :)

Btw, the syrup step doesn’t really apply to cupcakes, if that’s the route you chose to go. I mean, unless you WANT to paint 24 individual little pains-in-the-ass with sticky syrup, in which case, be my guest.

So, for the syrup:

Bring 1/4 c sugar, 1/4 c water, and 1 1/2 tsp Earl Grey to a boil in a small saucepan I actually used a full tablespoon of Earl Grey here because I forgot what I was doing. Tasted fine! If you like tea.

It’s actually kind of pretty in person, I’m just bad at photos.

When the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is boiling, turn off the heat and strain the syrup to get all the crunchy tea bits out. Let it cool completely.

While your syrup and cakes are cooling, it’s a good time to make your icing! My old standby for lemon buttercream is actually just a Betty Crocker recipe that you can find right here.

In this case, though, I wanted it to be a little more delicate so as not to overwhelm the flavors in the cake. That’s accomplished easily enough - just use a little less lemon juice and make up whatever extra moisture you need in the icing with milk until it’s a nice spreadable consistency.

Also, you might want to add a touch of yellow food coloring to the icing for the look of the thing, especially if you have nothing else to decorate the cake with, because this icing basically just turns out plain white.

Assemble your cake!

When the cakes and syrup are completely cool, it’s assembly time.

Take the thicker cake round and place it on whatever surface you’re storing your cake on. Lop off the hump (unless you’ve managed to make a perfectly flat cake, in which case, what are you reading this blog for? You’re clearly a wizard and should be out profiting from that with your own wizard bakery.)

Brush that layer with your syrup. When it’s soaked in a little, cover your sins with a very thin layer of icing. This is going to be frustrating because, since you lopped off a chunk of this layer to make it level, all these crumbs are gonna wanna roll up and mess up your icing. Let ‘em. That’s why they call this a crumb layer. Get a thin, thin coating on there and then stick this layer in the fridge for a few minutes - since we’re working with buttercream here, it’ll set up nicely and make the next layer of icing go on more easily.

Add a second, thicker layer of icing, then pop the next cake layer on top. Do the same with the syrup, marvel at how much easier it is since you didn’t have to expose this layer’s innards, and then go to town with the rest of the icing.

Voila! An extremely boring-looking cake. Alas, all I had in the cupboard in the way of decoration were Christmas sprinkles, so we’re gonna say it’s minimalist and call it a day (also it was like, midnight by this point, and I was Done.)

Pair with slow-burn fic with lots of feels.

Congrats on making it to the end of this long-winded recipe. If you have any questions, feel free to hit my ask box!

#fic rec #recipe #earl grey cake #lemon buttercream #step-by-step baking #don't call it spa night cake #self care saturday cake #does this count as fanart? #experimental baking #the new prometheus #jason todd #long post #things i did instead of writing #food #about me

[bartsugsy]

That may be an odd question but since I've seen gifs about Robert choosing Aaron over Rebecca I wanted you to maybe talk about the same theme but in Rebecca's shoes imagine Aaron. Did Robert cared about Aaron? Like more than Chrissie during their affair? A woman he admired and loved. When he was asked he said to Bex "I care about Aaron more. I will never leave him for ya" but did that apply to Aaron as well when he was in Rebecca's shoes? There is 'I want u' 'I love u' and 'Im in love with u'

so like… you mean rob told rebecca he’d always choose aaron over her but he also, in the affair era, told aaron that he would choose chrissie? and what’s the difference, if there’s one?

i mean, you’re forgetting i think that robert during the affair era was driven by both a love of money and power and more importantly, internalised homophobia and internalised biphobia

we know that he loved chrissie but we know that ultimately his feelings for aaron were stronger and he’s expressed as much, both to aaron and to other people (ssw 2016 is a good place to find examples of this, but also aaron’s birthday 2017 has robert being very unambiguous about this and a whole litany of other moments) (he’s very prolific on this matter it’s kind of insane)

rebecca conversely offered robert everything he thought he wanted back in 2015 - money and power, as well as, in theory i suppose, an opportunity to be in a relationship with someone of the opposite gender, given that opposite gender relationships have, within the larger constructs of society, privilege over same gender couples and also offer less opportunities to receive homophobic abuse specifically etc - and i was going to say that maybe the show wasn’t using that specific angle with rebecca but actually if you watch rebecca’s scenes when she first arrives, she spends a lot of time making biphobic remarks to robert about how men can’t satisfy him the way she, a woman, can and generally undermining both his relationship with aaron and his bisexuality whilst trying to hit on him (and he hadnt even specifically come out as bi by that point and was still struggling which makes it even more 🔪🔪🔪), so maybe that was in fact an intended part of it?

but anyway, the best scene that demonstrates this is the first rob/rebecca kiss scene and the other scenes between them within the same episode (i mean, god, that happens literally the episode before robert uses the word bisexual to aaron because aaron also can’t quite understand it and unloads some far less aggressive and insane but still v much to the point biphobia towards robert)

(rip poor rob)

idk, this show’s track record on bisexuality and calling out biphobia isn’t great so i’m dubious as to how much i trust that this was an intended part of it, but rob has his relationship and sexuality undermined both by rebecca and aaron (and rebecca’s is so so bad - i need to point this out bc i don’t want to equate what aaron says, which is bad in and of itself if far less horribly intentioned, with the absolute insanity that rebecca comes out with, *too much*) (and if you haven’t seen it in a while you may have forgotten just how bad it is but it’s…. oh boy) (aaron at least is actively trying to understand through his own ignorance, whereas rebecca is honestly completely obstinate about it throughout those scenes) (it’s so gross)

and i think as a whole storytelling piece, rebecca was a good way to silence the people who believed that maybe the only reason robert chose aaron over chrissie was because chrissie wouldn’t have him back - because here was rebecca offering it up on a plate and robert had absolutely no interest

(didn’t work, i still get those asks fairly often and to each one i say that making that argument erases a lot of very explicit, unambiguous canon proving otherwise)

ANYWAY, basically - robert was motivated to choose chrissie over aaron because chrissie was what he thought he wanted for his life - all that money and power, but ultimately after he got shot and almost died, he woke up with a renewed focus on aaron (watch his scenes in december 2015/january 2016 for examples of this) and basically barely mentioned or paid mind to chrissie - and had certainly stopped trying to get back with her, all the while doing things like trying to buy the pub just to spend more time with aaron.

since then, he started very slowly to become more open about his own sexuality and his feelings for aaron and that’s only grown ever since

(and now he’s going to gay clubs and making bi jokes ✨💕🌈🌷)

which, to be very clear on what i mean here - he wasn’t with chrissie bc she was a woman (he was with her bc she was rich and bc he did love her) - it’s more that he was never going to be with aaron bc he was a man (and bc he was poor 😂). internalised homophobia was just one more thing preventing him from being with aaron or admitting his feelings too much for aaron - or being able to admit that his feelings for aaron were ultimately stronger than his feelings for chrissie.

with rebecca, when tbh it would have helped him to lie even more about his feelings because he was literally already lying to her about his feelings/implying he had feelings for her in order to use her to take down the whites and then get his hands on their money, he still openly told her over and over that he would always choose aaron, because that was the truth

they deliberately made his actions vaguely ambiguous when he was initially plotting against rebecca but i feel like he’s said enough times in between and since his true feelings to clarify the ambiguity there - and the only time he actually slept with her was directly after believing aaron was dead or some shit whilst in prison and then seeing him high on spice and a completely different person (see: the ons episode and the reveal episodes for further examples/more detailed explanation)

knowing that robert historically had pretty much followed Little Rob’s whims and happily cheated on chrissie over and over with at least rebecca, connor and aaron, it’s not hard to believe that the fact that he can’t do that with aaron outside of very extenuating circumstances (i.e. he won’t just do it for a bit of fun, as before) (or because he’s formed an entire accidental serious relationship with the local mechanic) would mean that it is in fact different for him, with aaron than it ever was with chrissie

(supporting every time he has said as much to aaron or to other people)

this answer is such a mess lmao sorry

why use 5 words when you can use 5000, yk

#long post #robert sugden #biphobia #internalised homophobia #internalised biphobia #answering anons #rebecca white #robron

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #14: In rewatching Chapter 5 of Volume 5, did anyone else come to the same realization that Oscar’s whole outburst at Ruby was intentional?

There is something that I’ve noticed about the notorious dojo scene with Ruby and Oscar from Chapter 5 of RWBY Volume 5.

As I’ve remarked time and time again in past musings, Chapter 5 is and still continues to reign as my top favourite episode of this current season to date. Shameless to say, I’ve downloaded the episode and have been revisiting it continuously, purely for the conversation between our two young heroes.

However in doing so, there has always been something about that particular scene that’s boggled me or rather someone. It’s Oscar. Specifically the face he makes after he calms down from just shouting at Ruby.  

At first I figured, okay, the kid’s scared and probably more than a little frustrated so it’s natural that he would chastise Ruby the way he did. However then there’s the next shot where Oscar is looking at Ruby after regaining his composure and he makes this face.

Carefully observe Oscar’s facial expression.

Somehow that face has always bugged me about that shot. I found it a rather odd one for Oscar to make, given the scenario. Why, you might ask?

Because this is a kid who immediately looked remorseful after accidentally punching Ruby in the face during a sparring match and apologized one time on the spot after freaking out over the thought of possibly hurting her.

 Yet here, he just finished screaming at her in sheer frustration and he doesn’t look the least bit apologetic about it.  

On the contrary, he looked almost patient. As if he was waiting to see Ruby’s reaction to what he just said. 

It is here when I realized from the beginning, every action that was made, every word that was said out of Oscar’s mouth from that moment on was deliberate. Oscar wasn’t lashing out at Ruby out of fear. He did it in order to jolt the truth out of her. To get her to admit all the pain she’d been suppressing.

He didn’t have the right words of encouragement to cheer her up, so he did the only thing he could do in the moment. He asked her about how she had managed to keep moving forward and keep such a positive sense of resolve despite all the horrible things she has bared witness to and been through in the past; which was the right question to ask and a very important one to boot cause I don’t think we’ve had anyone truly ask Ruby how she’s been since the Fall of Beacon. Not really.

So having Oscar, essentially still a person who wants to know or understand Ruby more ask her this very significant question is quite excellent.

Oscar acknowledged Ruby’s grief over the loss of her friends that she’s been bottling for so long and rather than give her the sugar, spice and everything is nice schlock of telling her not to worry and whatnot, instead he attempts to comfort her by getting her to finally open up about how she’s been truly feeling.

At first, I guess he figured that admitting how scared he was would encourage Ruby to consequently admit how afraid she was. Giving her a bit of the ole you-show-me-yours-if-I-show-you-mine- kind of psychology there.   However Ruby doesn’t snag the first bait and Oscar’s first efforts fail. When Ruby still continued to hold onto her brave facade, that’s when Oscar decided to change tactics. 

Yes he yelled at her but what I found interesting is what he yelled at her.

Notice how he didn’t yell accusations. He didn’t berate Ruby for being naive about everything and glossing over his fear with her own indifference to the sheer severity of what is to come. Instead, he yelled questions and facts. Important questions and facts.

Instead of Oscar going: ‘How can you be so stupid and naive for thinking you could ever be strong enough to stop Salem!’ He says this:

‘How can you be so confident? People have tried to kill you, the world is about to go to war all over again, how are you OK with any of this?!’

This is why I love Oscar as a character and desperately need to see more of him in the series. This scene made me understand fully why Ozpin chose him as his successor and what he meant by being reincarnated in the body of a ‘like-minded soul’

Oscar helping Ruby the way he did in this scene is the most Ozpin-like thing he’s done so far while not channelling Ozpin. Rather than coddle her, Oscar gets Ruby to admit her true feelings about everything at long last so that in doing so, not only does she gain comfort but also reaffirmation in her own resolution to stop Salem and her forces. Forget drinking cocoa or fighting with a cane, this is the side of Oscar that’s most akin to Ozpin that I’ve seen so far in RWBY.

I don’t want it to be a thing where just because Ozpin is in his head, that means that Ozpin probably put Oscar up to comforting Ruby. I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think Oscar wanted to help Ruby of his own accord. You can tell that by the way he tried to say something earlier on in the scene but couldn’t cause he didn’t know how or didn’t know what was the best thing to say to make her feel better.

Oscar’s failure to say something earlier on is actually quite understandable, given the type of relationship he and Ruby currently have. They’re still in the mere acquaintance stage. Still in the process of getting to know each other.

When you get to know a person really well, you also get to learn of the best method of comforting them during those dire moments. For some people, all they might need is a hug or a pat on the back along with a simple ‘You can do it!’ to get them to feel positive again. Whereas others might need more deeper words accompanied by probably reminders of their own self worth with examples of past achievements and emotional victories to jolt them out of that pitiful rut. This is a type of understanding that can only come from truly knowing a person which takes time.

Oscar isn’t there yet with Ruby (and my foot is starting to get a little weary of tapping to see when the series is going to get us there at some point. But to be fair to the writers, Ruby and Oscar only met this season so they might not have that kind of friendship and knowledge of each other till at least another season of close contact. But I digress).

To Oscar, he doesn’t honestly know the full details of all that has happened to Ruby before, during and after the Fall of Beacon. Sure Oz must’ve told him some facts about our red-haired main heroine beforehand but beyond that, Oscar doesn’t know Ruby well enough to try and comfort her in a way that would be helpful to her. I guess that would justify why he went with asking her how she felt.

He might not know her all that well despite being in his presence and company for a few weeks but he figured if he asked her how she felt personally, then maybe she’d be able to comfort herself by finally admitting her qualms out loud through his encouragement while at the same time helping him to better understand her in the process.

For what it’s worth, Oscar’s efforts worked. Ruby admitted everything. She finally mentioned Pyrrha and Penny and addressed her feelings on losing them. And one she was done giving her big speech, what did Oscar do?

Did he press her further? No. Did he slate her anymore? No.

Instead the kid just casually walks to her side and gives her a very comforting smile of approval (It definitely looked like a ‘I’ll accept that answer’ kind of face to me), now satisfied with her response.

I’m pretty certain if Ruby had continued to act all unconcerned about her past pains, then Oscar would have continued to talk her down until she did. Not out of disrespect or anything but because he saw how much she needed to get that off her chest. He probably shouldn’t have yelled at her the way he did however; in this case yelling was the more effective method since it brought the right amount of forceful impact to jolt Ruby out of her impassiveness.  

You might as well as had Ozpin go ‘...Well our work here is done! Mission accomplished!’ cause that’s pretty much the vibe I felt from Oscar after Ruby had walked off. He finally got her to admit not just to him but to herself about her feelings regarding everything and now that she’d gotten that emotional load she’s been harbouring for probably months off her chest, he can now smile knowing that she’s a little less stressed and that he had helped to do it.

Guys, this scene was SO IMPORTANT, not just for Ruby but Oscar too.

Do fans even realize how amazing Oscar is? I certainly do. He’s more than just a cute face. He’s a kind soul (well...two kind souls).

Oscar is such an amazing character and honestly has such potential. I really would love to have more moments with him helping other characters like this. If I haven’t stressed this enough whenever I muse about Oscar, there needs to be more key character-building moments with him. We’ve only just (barely) scratched the surface on what he can do as a true-blue voice of reason and mature wisdom for one his age. And this has nothing to do with Ozpin. Oh no.

I think on his own, Oscar is a very mature and outspoken young man. He may not possess the countless decades of vocabulary repertoire such as Ozpin but he does have heart. He’s compassionate and has a much greater power; stronger than any kind of battle skill or magic. He can connect well to others, if given the opportunity and is able to help them through their burdening issues. This is clearly evidenced by his acknowledgement and attempts at helping Ruby in the moment. And I think even Ozpin was able to sense Oscar’s true intent on talking to Ruby, hence I believe that’s why he was surprisingly absent during the whole ordeal and never intervened, even when Oscar yelled at Ruby.

Notice how Ozpin never interrupted or even spoke up once during the whole scene, no matter how tense it became? This was good, especially for me as a fan, since I was literally yelling “...Ozpin don’t you DARE freaking interrupt this very intimate moment between these two kids. Keep it between them please!” at my computer screen during the episode. Thankfully, Ozpin only spoke up after Ruby had walked away.

He allowed Oscar to handle the entire moment on his own. While Ozpin probably would’ve handled it differently (and possibly with a little more tact) if he were in Oscar’s shoes (literally), he respected the young farm boy’s methods enough to take a backseat because he understood fully well what his intentions were and respected him for it.

This reminds me of a scene from way back in Volume 2. It was from the episode with the school dance where, after Yang and Weiss abandoned an awkward introverted Ruby alone at this prestigious social event, it was Professor Ozpin who approached her and gave her some brief company, even if it was to simply provide some whimsical advice.

It was one of my favourite memorable moments from that volume simply for the exchange of dialogue between Ruby and Ozpin. It’s what he said to her that cemented why I like Ozpin so much as a character. And why I’m having a hard time accepting the theory of him being evil.

Oz may be the physical embodiment of magic, cursed by the Gods of Remnant and flawed with more x’s against him than a game of Tic-Tac-Toe but at his core, he’s human. It’s his empathy towards others who he believes might need his help and guidance that makes him human; despite the sheer irony that he’s the least human character in the show, secondary to Salem herself.

I loved the talk Ozpin had with Ruby from the dance episode but what made it better was the aftermath, seeing Ruby’s response to Ozpin’s words. She definitely seemed a bit more at ease following Ozpin’s reassurance. It’s no different than things were with her and Oscar.

In one scene, our boy Oscar got Ruby to open up more. I’ve watched a few reviews of this episode from some of my favourite Youtubers however up until now, I haven’t really seen any other fan really talk about the importance of this scene in terms of what Oscar’s involvement did for Ruby.

No one else has made this point, to my knowledge. It’s mostly been talk about either Oscar being afraid of what’s to come or, more commonly, Ruby’s epic speech. While Ruby’s speech was good, I personally find that this scene was important for Oscar because it highlighted more about his personality.

It revealed more to me about the kind of character he is or is at least shaping up to be and...I truly, truly, TRULY hope we get more moments with him like this one.

I pray that Chapter 5 isn’t going to be the only episode where fans get to see this side of Oscar. I’m fearful that with the reintroduction of Yang and Weiss that any further moments between Ruby and Oscar may become scarcer. Hoping that will not be the case. I’m hoping that what Ruby told Oscar from Chapter 5 will be brought back into hindsight later.

Perhaps there will come a time where, even for a brief moment, Ruby just breaks down and loses all hope. And in a surprising twist, it’s Oscar as the one to remind her of the very words she spoke to him from this episode because he now believed in her.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Haters be like...Ruby doesn’t need Oscar to inspire her cause she’s inspired by the people she cares about. That’s the thing; Ruby has shown to care about Oscar too so it’s safe to say that she likes him enough to consider him another cherished life she needs to fight for.

That being said let Oscar be a sort of shining beacon that inspires Ruby to regain herself in the same manner she has inspired others around her, including him. Or even better:

I just realized something. Oscar’s full name is Oscar Pine. Pine is a type of wood. A spark is essentially like a flame that continues to burn.

Isn’t wood not a kind of material used to keep a fire burning?  

If Ruby possesses a spark, then let Oscar possess the fuel that keeps her burning at her brightest. Whether it’s through motivational words or actions of selfless bravery, let him be her support.  I’m just saying.  

~LittleMissSquiggles (2017)

#rwby #rwby volume 5 #oscar pine #ruby rose #oscar and ruby #rwby volume 5 chapter 5 #oscar and ozpine #ruby and ozpin #rwby musings

[luciola-reviews-anime]

Let’s Talk About Conspiracy Theories

So with this post I want to talk about conspiracy theories, or at least, what one needs to have for it to be viable. There are a lot of them out there, and I'm sure there will be more to come in the future. We have the earth being flat, 9/11 was an inside job, the moon landing was fake, and vaccines cause autism. Just to name a few. No matter what side you're on, usually your views are very strong, but no matter what you bring to the table. It's in my opinion that if the conspiracy cannot meet these three targets, it simply can't even be taken seriously.

The first is very simple. Who benefits? Remember, what we're looking at is a fact that has either been falsified, or a truth that has been hidden from the world for a specific purpose. Let's look at flat earth theory. Whenever I check out something about this one. They claim that NASA is the group to benefit from a round earth. They're given billions of dollars in funds to run experiments and studies, and even to send people into space. From what I've studied, most people that believe in the flat earth say that space itself is a lie, gravity is a lie, and the mathematics to support them is fake. Any images of space is just CGI.

Here's the problem. NASA did not come up with the idea of gravity, nor did they originate the claim that the earth was round. The discovery of gravity was made in 1687, and since that point the scientific community has used the math and theories of gravity in a number of different ways. For over three hundred years, gravity has been subjected to the scientific method. Many a flat earther will remind people common believes have been disproved before, but they forget that they were disproved thanks to the scientific method and community.

Then we have the discovery of the earth being round. Again, this was not a NASA development, but proven when Magellan circumvented the globe. He did this in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a western sea route to the spice islands. Though he did not survive, the trip was a success. We're close to five hundred years of knowing for a fact that the earth is round. The only counter acting of this argument is that what we know of history, is a complete falsification, for five hundred years, for no plausible benefit to anyone.

But this brings us to the second target of a conspiracy theory. How many people are in on it? Remember it just takes one person in the know to mess things up. You can argue that it's easy to silence one person, but why don't you tell that to the NSA and Edward Snowden? Or even the number of leaks that are in the current Trump administration? The fact is that the more people you need to have to be in on the theory, the less plausible it becomes. I picked on the flat earthers before, and I can just mention that it would take… Literally millions of people to be in on the conspiracy though history, science, sailing, flight, construction, and astronomy to name a few to have to be in on this.

So let's take the anti vaccinations. They say that Big Pharma benefits from hiding the truth that vaccines are dangerous. Because obviously when a product doesn't work properly, instead of fixing it, it's easier to just lie to the population of the world. Look, in the end it's still a business. If there's a hint that something is wrong with a product there will be studies and tests to determine if that's the case or not. These are independent studies done by people who want to make money off the failure of said product. Have you ever seen an advert about filing a mass law suit because a certain drug or procedure was found to be unsafe? In other words, you need the medical community of the entire world in agreement to hide this one little detail. Because if it got out? Let's face it, we still need vaccines to live. I don't want polio. I don't my kids to get polio.

And this takes us to the third target. Can you prove it one way or another? Let's face it. The reason that something is placed in the category of a conspiracy, is because we're being fed a false truth to cover up the real one. The problem is that you shouldn't be able to prove a false truth. You shouldn't be able to circumvent the globe if the earth is flat, and there should be no way to see or prove the curvature of the earth. Doing either of these things instantly busts the argument. (sorry flat earthers) Studies by independent parties shouldn't be able to say things like "There is no evidence that vaccines cause autism."

Now you might say. But Lucio, those are the false facts being fed to you! The problem you're running into in these goes in three fold, first we have the second point, how many people are in on it? And we can add in, how credible are the people we're trying to discredit? Remember in the anti vaccine argument, we're not trying to discredit one group of people making one specific product that cannot be recreated. We're trying to discredit the entire medical community, and people who make and study diseases and medicine. If there was a problem with vaccines, there would be another group that would be working night and day to make a safe working version of them instead of just giving out a faulty product.  Finally we would have to ask. Where does the truth end, and the lies begin?

Let's look at it this way. Say I offer the theory that the anti smoking campaign is actually a false organization. They've spread out fake medical reports about cigarettes to get people to quit. They actually make nicotine patches, they're behind vapping, and they also collect funds from organizations like Truth. I can support this much like a flat earther. I mean, I've seen people in their eighties that claim to smoke every day and they're fine. I can support this like an anti vaccine supporter and say that the medical facts and studies that we have been given are just lies, or even state that these are the same people who are telling me that vaccines are safe. So when should I believe them, and when shouldn't I?

This is why you must look into how credible the other source is, and how able the world is to be able to prove something. With a flat earth, we have so much mathematical and scientific evidence that you must say is simply a lie in order for you to have any ground to stand on. There have been countless studies on vaccines and if they cause autism, but far too often there simply isn't any proof. Most commonly what I hear from these theorists is that they just have a feeling. They have a feeling that they're right, despite the evidence. Another excuse is something along the lines of "You shouldn't just take everything people tell you as a fact." Yes it is good to ask questions, this is how we learn. But there's asking questions, and there's ignoring the facts. Most people within the conspiracy theory are not actually open to the truth, kinda ironic, right?

I can give a quick glance at the other two theories I mentioned, so they don't feel left out. The moon landing was staged. We have a clear benefiter. The USA and Russia were in the cold war, and anything one could do better than the other would be a clear win. The space race was, in a way, a proxy war. The people that needed to keep the conspiracy secret would not be too unreasonable either. It would have to be all of NASA at the time, a select number of US governmental and militaristic figures, and the people who staged the show. The great thing about this as well is that the people in the know, can grow smaller and smaller in numbers as the years pass. And finally. I mean, how can you prove it one way or another? Go to the moon? And why haven't we been there since then?

Sounds like something we can, oh wait a minute… So question? What about Russia? I mean. There's no way they would just give us the win if they knew it was false. And you have to believe they wanted that win. So we'll have to add in an enemy nation into the people that need to keep it secret, at no benefit to themselves. This can also actually answer why we haven't been back to the moon. Do you know what's on the moon? Nothing. I've read some articles on how the next great business idea is to send a rocket out to mine a comet for minerals. This could be a trillion dollar idea. And there's the moon. Right there. Where we can see it, we've been on it. And that's how we know there's nothing good on it. We beat the Russians there, mission accomplished. Going back is just a dangerous waste of time and resources until we can colonize the bastard. Or attach lasers…

Well at least 9/11 was an inside job right? I mean again we have a clear benefactor in the US. Stage a terrorist attack, get the perfect excuse to go to war, get that delicious delicious oil. You don't really need a lot of people to be in on it either. Just the military personnel who planned it. Hell, let's even go with this. The US knew it was going to happen, and they let it happen. They didn't think it would be such a disaster, but when planes crash into buildings, things happen. And it's not like we can prove one way or another that the US didn't know about it and just let it happen. I mean, look at Pearl Harbor. Shit, I might have to look into this one more sometime!

In the end though, the thing that makes it a conspiracy theory, is that you can't prove it. It might be brought into light later. But you shouldn’t chose to distrust or hate the government or an organization because of a plausibility. There's already too many reasons for that as it is.

I hope this helps you in your future! Remember those three proofs when you hear about any crazy theories out there, and have fun. Please try not to take any of them too seriously though, because in the end a belief is a tricky thing to change, and often enough that's what they turn into. I'd rather take the advise from the Thirteenth apostle, Rufus, and instead just have a good idea.  

#flat earth #anti vaxxers #flat earthers #moon landing #9/11 #bush did 9/11 #conspiracy #conspiracy theories #science #dogma #vaccination