#salem expression sheet

[moonknixght]

Fooling Steven Grant HCs [afab reader]

CRAZY CONCEPT but just hear me out wc: 760

⋆ The whole thing started the night Steven came over after an extra shift-- to see you peeling off a transparent mask that stuck to your skin. Naturally, It didn't look like a face mask, but instead more like an actual layer of skin.

⋆ Obviously Steven isn't dumb enough to think that it's actually your skin…

"Does this brand of mask hurt when you're removing it?"

Unless….

⋆ ..Unless you've seen countless trends of people playfully gaslighting their boyfriends about 'shedding' after periods. And obviously, this was too good of an opportunity to give up.

⋆ "What mask?"

"Th-? The one you're taking off right now, love."

"Steven… that's not a mask.."

"Wh-"

"It's skin! I'm doing my monthly shedding."

⋆ Oh the confusion in his face was palpable. At first it was like, 'You're joking, right?' kind of bewilderment, denoted by the dopey smile on his face while his brows knitted in confusion.

⋆ but that declined into actual confusion and surprise when he noticed your expressions didn't have any sign of goofing off. Only you were aware of the struggle of holding it together.

⋆ "Girls don't.. shed.. do they?"

"They do, Steven."

⋆ You could almost feel bad for him. But your reassurance kinda made him back off for a bit and retreat back into the bedroom. You were disappointed that he didn't have a crazy reaction.

⋆ But boy were you in for a treat when you came back to the bedroom. Of course, Steven, was obsessively scrolling through his phone, eyes concentrated on the headlines but as soon as he noticed you step in..

⋆ "Doesn't say anythin’ about shedding, does it? No."

He sooo proudly showed off the phone screen to you, but you already saw this coming. You knew Steven like the back of your hand, of course he was going to try sass you.

⋆ "Yeah.. that's because it's a secret. We don't really say it to all men. Because of like.. the salem witch trials. Imagine if everyone found out that women can shed skin like a snake."

⋆ He was going to call it ridiculous, but you somehow made sense, in a very, very odd way. But That didn't mean he was completely going to trust you on this yet, even if he loved you to the end of the world.

⋆ "But what about the men that know? Like.. me."

⋆ "Think about it Steven, I wouldn't be making this so obvious if I didn't trust you enough to hold this huge secret." (that was the first truth in a bed of lies, you did trust Steven with alot of things)

⋆ The best part was that you can see his brain short-circuiting. Steven is one of the most smartest people you know, so seeing such moments is very very special

⋆ Now the thing is, practically, he has small social circle, Which means the people he can ask this to is also minute. Obviously he cant ask this to Donna!

⋆ He's tried Marc but Marc is kinda gullible, the moment he broke this to him, Marc believed it because it wouldn't make sense why you'd lie?

⋆ Surely Jake can help! He's been involved with many women before, right? That's what he claimed. Anyways, Jake admits that it's true. Because god forbid Jake loses a chance to fuck with Steven

⋆ Layla came around the other day, and his mistake was asking her right infront of you. All you had to do was to show Layla the 'look' behind Steven's back, and she caught on easily

⋆ "You told him?" Layla said, just as Steven noticed that she was looking at you

⋆ but that was the nail in the coffin; Steven actually believed that women shed their skin

⋆ It was a quiet month after that incident, that even you forgot about it; until you got your period again and by the end of the week, he actually showed up with moisturizers and sweets because "It looked like it hurt to peel a layer of yourself off" :(

⋆ Steven, your sweet summer child, had bought you care products because he actually believed what you said

⋆ Obviously after that, you let him in on the actual secret that it was just a transparent mask sheet and his immediate reaction was rejoicing that he was right

"I wasn't going crazy then!! Women don't shed!!"

⋆ The absurdity of that sentence was just amazing, that you couldn't help but laugh and subsequently, it makes him laugh too

⋆ Ending the night (and this horrendous lie) by sharing the chocolate Steven bought and talking about it together is most definitely a welcome conclusion <33

#steven grant x reader #moon knight x you #steven grant x you #steven grant #steven grant x y/n #moonknight x reader #steven grant hcs #marc spector x reader #jake lockely x reader #jake lockley x reader #jake lockley x you #moon knight x reader #moonknight x you

[lemonnsss]

Moral of the Story Chapter 4

Gif by: @celebritiesandmovies

A/N- I’m so sorry for the late update! I’ve had some issues with my health recently that have led to some related issues in school; but, I’ve been feeling a lot better and tried to edit this up quickly.

It’s not my best work, but I had no idea what to do with this chapter, please forgive the nonsense.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4

Taglist: @vicmc624 , @mostlymarvelgirl , @yvonneeeee, @beetlejuicesupremacy , @moonlightreader649 , @whattheduckisupkyle , @chrisevans-realwife, @nekoannie-chan , @mrsbarnes32557038 , @imyourbratzdoll , @weallhaveadestiny

Word Count: 1.2k

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The thought that Scott would leave never so much as crossed my mind. How could it? Jean and Scott had been dating since the seventh grade.

I must have reread his email half a million times, each time hung on the words “I’m leaving the mansion too.”

I was pulled from my shock as I heard the door shut behind me. I put my phone away, internally prepared myself for the interview questions, and turned around, standing from the chair. I began to talk before I saw the figure, “Hello, again Ms. Potts. That was quite the situation-” I stopped. I had expected to see Ms. Potts. Instead, there stood Tony, who seemed equally shocked to see me there.

“Why hasn’t Pep sent you out yet?” He moved from the door to the desk, “The last person to make it this long had a mental breakdown a week later.” He passed my side, slipping onto her desk. He kicked his legs slightly before he appeared to remember I was still present.

“Regardless, where is Pepper? She usually never leaves interviewees unattended,” He leans back, bracing himself on one of his arms as he reaches to the top of the shortest stack with the other quickly lifting the top sheet and, while scanning it, says, “and most certainly never leaves them around confidential company information.”

“Technically, the interview hasn’t begun.” An uncomfortable pause fell in the room as he waited for me to elaborate, “Her regular assistant is on maternity leave. Her fill-in accidentally double-booked her- she’s in a meeting right now.”

He let his head fall back dramatically as he scoffed, “Shame, I had wanted to tell her something in private. Do you know who’s all in there with her?” A cocky smirk plastered on his face.

“No? Why, Tony?”

He slipped off the desk, similarly to when he hopped up, “Oh, nothing. Just have a bit of information to share with the class.” he was almost halfway across the room when he turned back to me. His smirk was now a shit-eating grin.

“Wait,” I ran to the man, grabbing his wrist, his expression turning amused, “if the information is so important, would it not be better to share it with her privately as you originally intended.”

I suppose I had a stern expression as I said that as Tony burst out laughing, “What am I? A schoolboy scolded by his teacher?”

“Not far off on the teacher part.” He stopped for a moment before a small smile came across his face.

“Really now? When was that?” He leaned against the table again, his interest shifting to the current topic more and more.

“It was my last job. I taught at a private academy outside Salem for almost three years.”

“Interesting. And what provoked the sudden career change?”

“I don’t believe I owe you that information, Mr. Stark, unless it pertains to a crime.”

A silence passed as he tilted his head one way and then the other. “Fair point. It doesn’t apply to California's laws, but sure, plead the fifth. I won’t judge you.”

“Oh no,” I said sarcastically, “how could I ever go on with the great Tony Stark judging me!”

“Ha-ha, very funny.” He moved his hands in an almost childish manner. Playing to exaggerate his point, “You don’t seem like the type to leave such a luxurious position for any old reason. And given that you didn’t have a job lined up, you left quickly. Why is that?”

“... My long-term partner and fellow teacher at the institution cheated on me with our co-worker.”

I looked up, his face seeming to wander between holding back a chuckle and ‘Oh shit’.

After quickly stiffening his laugh, a voice rang out behind, “Well, that’s quite the loss on their end.” Ms. Potts said from her place, leaning on the doorframe. Noticing her, I stood up, “You were a great help today, and from the small glimpse I’ve seen with you and Tony, well, I think he’ll be in good hands.” 

By the time she finished her sentence, she was standing in front of myself and Tony. He still placed his weight on the desk but now he stood with his back straightened. I couldn’t help but let out a light chuckle, watching how much his demeanor changed when trying to maintain a good image around her.

“Please, Ms.Potts-“

“-Call me, Pepper. Please.”

“Alright… Pepper. Thank you, but you’re too kind. I just did what I could to help. That’s nothing to be hired over.”

I watched as she placed a hand on her hip, looked at Tony, then looked back at me.

“Hun, I mean this in the nicest way I can,” she says as she placed her hand on my shoulder lightly pushing me to sit, “do you want this fucking job?”

"Yes?"

“Great! You’re hired. Tony is scheduled to attend an event in Milan later this week so, I’d recommend you get ready for it. You’ll be at the convention for four days, not including travel days, please keep that in mind while packing. Now, if you don’t mind,” she moved her arm in front of her covered desk, “I have a few rather large stacks of paperwork to get to. Tony will show you to your office, once you’re done you’re free to leave,” she moved around the desk to type something on the computer, “I’ll have the receptionist send the order out for your ID badge, we’ll most likely have it tomorrow, otherwise it will be the day after that.” She moved up to Tony and me pushing him off her desk and casually shooing us to the door, “Congrats on the new secretary, Tony, don’t fuck it up. And to you, good luck.”

And just like that, I was standing outside of Ms. Potts' office with Mr. Stark. He led me over to his office, the room was rather cluttered but, inside and to the left there was a door. He looked over his shoulder, I guess to check to see if I was still there. He then opened the door, which, led to the secretary’s office.

“There’s another door leading in from the hall, so, please, don’t feel required to come through this room every morning. If you have any other questions, you have my number. Otherwise, I have better things to do.”

“I’m good Mr. Stark.”

“Mr. Stark was my father, call me Tony.”

“Okay then, Tony.”

“Well, I’ll be seeing you then.” He gave a slight wave and walked out into his office. The sound of his door closing let me know he was either leaving or heading back to Pepper’s. 

I took another look around the room, it was well-furnished and fairly clean. There was nothing I could see that needed repair either. I wouldn't need to bring anything in.

We boarded the plane about sixteen hours ago and finally reached our destination. We were about five minutes from landing. I got up to wake up Tony, who had been asleep for the past four hours.

I walked over to his chair, slightly nudging his shoulder, “Mr. Stark, wake up. We’re about to land.”

“Fuck you”

“Apologies, sir.” I sat across from him and buckled my seatbelt.

After I had finished the pilot sent the message over the intercom. Tony begrudgingly followed the instructions. The landing was a bit bumpy, but far from the worst I’d felt.

Once we were given the all-clear to start unboarding we started walking down the airplane's staircase. I started walking towards the car that was waiting when I heard a loud bang. The unmistakable sound of a gunshot rang out. I turned around and saw Tony writhing on the ground.

#logan howlett x reader #wolverine x reader #xmen x reader #xmen #steve rogers x reader #captain america x reader #captain america #mcu #mcu fanfiction #fanfic #pepper potts #tony stark #iron man #james howlett #logan howlett #wolverine #captain steve rogers #marvel #avengers #xmen fanfiction #marvel cinematic universe #xmcu #x men movies #anthony edward stark #virginia potts

[thewizardcouncil]

Application Form to Be an Evil Wizard. Please file to your local plane, it will arrive at the city of towers as appropriate

Text Only Version:

APPLICATION FORM TO BE AN EVIL MAGIC USER (Colloquially known as evil wizard)

Form A1-B1893-C.59.(p)

SECTION 1: Basic Information

NAME (Last, First, Middle, True, Draconic, Wizard)

AGE (if unknown place general epoch of birth)

MAGIC TYPE

(See Note A)

 _________________

Archmage ☐

Artifice ☐

Angel ☐

Angel (Fallen) ☐

Aboleth ☐

Bard ☐

Book (item of power)☐

Demi-Lich ☐

Devine (Holy)☐

Devine (Unholy) ☐

Diet-Lich ☐

Diet-Djinn ☐

Djinn ☐

Head Mage ☐

Hedge Mage ☐

Lich ☐

Mage ☐

Old One ☐

Other ☐

Sorcerer ☐

Warlock ☐

must be preapproved by patron; Clause 1-A: If not  preapproved by specific patron you accept the wizard council as your patron  and shall abide by the laws of magic created by this Pact (to be discussed in  detail at a later time) by checking the box above you are agreeing tacitly  that this box, uncheck or not without the express written consent of your  patron pre-filed to the wizard council. By checking the box at the end, you  are assuring that you agree that the wizard council is to be your new patron  regardless, by leaving the box at the end unchecked you are giving the wizard  council full wherewithal to contact or arraign your specific patron for  questioning, counseling, capturing, contract transferal, or other power attainment  at the cost of, but not limited to, your own magical abilities.

Warlocks Only->☐

Wizard ☐

 ______________________________________________

 SECTION 2:

Reason For  Evil Wizardry (select all that apply):

I am    choosing to be unaffiliated with the wizard council

☐

I am filing    for an enchanted land that falls within the evil wizard category

☐

I am compelled    by prophecy to duel a known chosen one and so must abide by my destiny

☐

My Patron has    compelled me to fill out this form as punishment/reward for not listening/listening    to him/her/them/it

☐

I am    seeking vengeance via magical means

☐

I am filing    this form out of spite

☐

I give off    evil wizard vibes

☐

I am    attempting to gain unlimited power and none shall stand in my way

☐

Assigned    Evil at Salem

☐

Late-Stage    Capitalism

☐

NOTE A: Not all Magic Types or sources of magic  are fully categorized upon this list. Select the one that is closest to your  source of magic. If you have multiple sources of Magic refer to Note B:

  NOTE B: Select the most powerful source of your  magic, and check the multi-magic source box in Section 3

APPLICANTS DO NOT WRITE  BELOW THIS LINE IN THIS SECTION

(THE FOLLOWING Section  (2-a) IS TO BE FILLED OUT BY A MEMBER OF THE WIZARD COUNCIL)

APPLICANTS ARE TO CONTINUE TO SECTION 3

Section 2-a:  Preliminary approval to the wizarding council: Perform Standard Magical  Interview B17-A and check the boxes below as appropriate.

1.        Is the wizard in question sufficiently evil (see evil as defined in standard magical interview 1A)  

(Y ☐ N ☐)

2.        Will their evil (through  action or inaction) specifically negatively affect the wizard council?          

(Y ☐ N ☐)

  (Continued on Following  Sheet)

 3.        Are they currently engaged in an epic battle  of good and evil?                                                  

(Y ☐ N ☐)

a.        If question 3 was  marked Y, are they on the side of evil in said battle?

                                (Y ☐ N ☐)

4.        Does their magic, magical items, or other  abilities warrant a threat to the planet/plane/multiverse

(Y ☐ N ☐)

5.        Do they have an evil familiar magical or  otherwise (including but not limited to hench persons)?       (Y ☐ N ☐)

SECTION  2-B

Evaluator’s  additional comments:  ____________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

  SECTION 3:

Final Review

To Be Filled out  By Applicant After Interview within Section 2-A

Were you  determined to be a multi-magical source entity by the evaluation performed in  Section 2-A?

(Y ☐ N ☐)

The following  Checkbox asserts that I agree with the assessment that I am a multi-magical  source entity and all sources of magic have been identified ☐ (leave blank  if otherwise)

At any point  were you determined to have a planes-walker spark? (Y ☐ N ☐)

Are you still  intending to be an evil wizard after being informed by an authorized  competent person performing a magical interview? (Y ☐ N ☐)

 SECTION 4:

AFFIRMATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS OF INTENT

(Check All Boxes)

☐ I hereby certify that despite my affiliation  as an evil wizard I will take no action against the wizard council

☐ I hereby certify that any additional  councils that I may create or be involved in will either be subservient to  the council that created and tracks this form, or, will take no action to undermine,  overthrow, or otherwise negatively affect, or effect, the aforementioned  council.

☐I  hereby affirm that I never have been or intend to be a member of the wizard  council that created this form.

☐I  affirm that any minions/familiars/homunculi/golems or other sentient or  semi-sentient creatures that I create will not take negative action against  the aforementioned council.

☐I affirm that any action that may reflect  negatively or be directly against council action will either be on a plane  the council has deemed acceptable to perform said action or, or will be  contained within a demi-plane

 Sign Here with True Name  ____________________________________________________________________

#thewizardcouncil #evil wizard #banality is the worst evil

[swirlmup]

It’s le piece of resistance, the episode of Fixing RWBY I contributed the most art to! Let’s take a look, shall we?

Believe be when I was obsessively looking at reference pictures of the castle both from canon and from RWBY: Fairytales, and hating the design of it more and more the more I studied it. xD It’s just not super great lmao, so I did some tweaking to the castle’s design throughout my scene, mostly adjusting some of the tower roofs and the layout. In this scene I’m particularly pleased with the statue of Salem’s mother now inset in the roof above Salem’s room. I had to extrapolate her mother’s design from the silhouette we saw in RWBY: Fairytales, and kept it relatively simple in the interest of honoring the silhouette. I think my favorite detail I added to her was giving her a fox-skin scarf. I also downloaded a star brush on CSP to fill in that sky, very fun to paint in.

Another thing I hated from canon and canon-adjacent material was how empty Salem’s room was. You look at canon or Fairytales and it’s like, “My God, does anybody actually even live here? How dull! It looks like an Ikea display!” So that was another one of my goals for this scene, that I wanted to design Salem’s room with a lot more Stuff(tm). Just stuff everywhere, as many necessities as I could think of for living, and clutter because she’s a teenage girl and she probably isn’t super tidy. A bookbrush I downloaded saved me a lot of trouble as well, for filling in even more Stuff everywhere. xD

You may notice that there’s a lot of stuffed animals and depictions of animals in her room, and that’s because I headcanon that Salem likes animals a lot, especially fanciful animals that have wings. xD I also felt the need to give Salem other hobbies besides just reading and writing, since even the biggest reader would get bored of that reading. Hence the painting easal, the embroidery ring, and the violin and deck of cards and dancing ribbon. Bitch(affectionate, Salem is my daughter) needed more stuff to do in a day. xD

This is an interesting drawing, because it’s actually right when I was shifting my style a bit! I’d discovered another artist whose art I admired, and so I was training myself to incorporate elements from their art that I liked into my own repertoire. It’s kind of hit and miss sometimes in how well I pull it off, but I like how this one turned out. :) Salem’s pajamas were designed at the last second as I was working the scene lol. I like how plaintive her expression is here.

This was a fun and quick drawing to do, and the first peek we get at the redesign we made for Salem! Explicitly, once we learned that Salem was canonically 16 when she was rescued, according to RWBY: Fairytales, we felt the need to redesign her so that she accurately reflected her age at that time. More on this further down when I share her reference sheet!

One of those more awkward moments on trying to work in a style I wasn’t super comfortable yet. xD More extrapolation on her father’s design, although it’s much easier to work with him since we have more visual reference on how he looked.

Another view of Salem in her room. The perspective was very difficult to do here! I wanted it to be like the camera was set right on Salem’s writing desk, and make it obvious that’s where the camera was and that we could see her writing implements in the foreground. But because the writing desk I gave her has an angled surface, it greatly complicated things in terns of trying to maintain a dead-on perspective and still keeping her writing stuff in frame. I kinda fudged it a little for the sake of visual clarity, after all was said and done. xD Her pen was fun to just doodle on lol.

Another fairly quick drawing. The longest part was lining up the text on the edges of the paper so that it displayed the way it ought to. Curious about what Salem wrote in her letters exactly?

text reads: Brave hero who finds this note, Please come and rescue me immediately! I am imprisoned by my father with no hope of escape. He refuses to let me go and I fear I shall never know the feel of grass beneath my feet, or the embrace of a husband. Please, I beg, rescue me from him. I am in the tallest tower of Dawnfall Castle, in Duskerfield Valley of the Kingdom of Scatheudo. Should you succeed, the Kingdom and all its lands shall be yours, and I your happy wife, to stand by your side as we explore all the realm we will rule together. —Graciously awaiting you, Princess Salem.

You just can’t help but feel sorry for how desperate she must’ve been, to offer her hand to the first guy who can reach her. And think of how lucky she was that it was Ozma who reached her, and not any of the rough-looking folk we saw in the RWBY: Fairytale episode. I made up the names of the location of the castle on the spot pretty much, and looked at proto-germanic for the name of the Kingdom. Would you believe me that I took inspiration for the structure of the letter from that bit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail? xD

More castle tweaking and redesign, put an actual wall around the whole place so that it was, ya know, defensible? xD perspective remains the bane of my existence, but I did a convincing-enough job with this. Happy Salem’s so cute, I don’t get to draw her smiling and showing off her dimples enough. :3

RED. I did also redesign the soldiers of the king’s castle. I actually forgot that we were given a glimpse of the soldiers in RWBY: Fairytales, and so went through the process of researching what armor style to use and how to dress them and this and that. And then I double-checked the episode and saw we actually had a glimpse of them. Oops. xD But I liked my design more than super-heavy duty one shown in canon, which I felt clashed with the castle’s overall aesthetic and the role of archers I wanted to portray them with. And so, I used the design I came up with for them anyways wwwww.

No longer happy Salem. :c Throughout each of the frames I drew for my scene, I kept playing with how the colors were done. It’s mostly filters to save on time, and lots of experimentation was done each time to achieve the exact looks I wanted.

I love when I can work on a drawing and profoundly feel the emotions the picture is meant to have. The perspective is fucked but once again i didn’t care very much lol. My main focus was showing Salem’s magic mirror now shattered, as she’s given up on ever leaving her tower. ;n;

Highlighting Ozma as the other main player in the story by him being the only other person given a full palette and not just colored with a contrasting solid color with the bg. :0 I did not give a flying fuck about attempting to replicate the actual design on Ozma’s staff, so we get a bunch of swirlies(and sometimes not even those LMAO).

This was almost a completely different image! The script talks about Ozma facing the King and his forces, and at first I just sort of copied what we were shown in RWBY: Fairytales. However, that never quite sat right with me. We’re told that Ozma used his cunning to defeat the king, but then the Fairytale just kind of showed him generically fighting the soldiers, albeit with magic instead of a sword? That never seemed very cunning to me though, and I couldn’t tell what the difference was supposed to be that made Ozma more qualified to rescue Salem than the others.

And so, I came up with the idea that Ozma really does use trickery and cunning to circumvent the castle’s main defenses and approach the king directly. It’s a little complex here and there was a lot of information to try and get across, but basically what’s happened is that Ozma has disguised himself as the dead queen in order to gain access to the castle and to the throne room without having to dismantle all the defenses. The king, of course, is able to see through the disguise with his own magic, but was allowing to hear out the charlatan if only for the novelty of their trick and the chance to see his wife again. I also felt it would be cool if Ozma used the image of the dead queen to chew out the king for his actions, abusing their daughter the way he has, and no doubt planning even worse atrocities in the future towards her in order to keep her locked up for the rest of her natural life.

A poignant moment  that deserved a frame by itself, and a minimal-effort floor lmao.

The big meeting! This was a moment I was very excited to draw. In small contrast to canon, I felt that the way Salem was portrayed in the show was that she was just a little too ready for Ozma to burst in all swashbuckling. So here I made a point to portray Salem as having been in the middle of something, because obviously why would she expect a visitor to bust in, let alone a complete stranger? She was occupying herself the way she always does, with her hobbies, in this case playing the violin.

From here on out the scene also uses more and more vibrant palettes for the environment, because ooo salem’s world is expanding and becoming more colorful thanks to ozma ooooo symbolism oooooo

Also a fun moment to draw. Salem’s delight contrasted with Ozma’s shock at seeing how young Salem really is. Plus I love dramatic height differences in characters, they’re so fun lol. You think Salem hurt her head at all against Ozma’s armor, rushing him like that? :,)

One of those trickier scenes to do, it’s always hard to figure out a character’s height relative to another when they’re kneeling. I think I accidentally drew Ozma a little small here, breadth-wise if not height-wise, but oh well. This is also the last view we get of Salem’s bedroom, fare thee well!

Here, it was all about the expressions for me. I wanted to emphasize the kindness in Ozma’s eyes as he pities this child who was prepared to offer him literally everything just for helping her escape a bad situation, and the lovey-dovey look in Salem’s eyes as she’s completely smitten for her rescuer. As a side note, I consistently struggled to draw Ozma. From his armor to his face and hair, he was just very challenging to me. xD

Some commenters from the video thought it was kinda funny that Ozma was covering Salem’s eyes as he led her out of the castle. I agree. xD It’s one of the smaller, practical things that I think make for very nice touches in storytelling. Such as Ozma realizing “it would probably be really bad if she saw her dad’s corpse on the floor, or the corpses of any of the other people who worked in the castle, I better cover her eyes and lead her out by hand.”

Some might note this is very different from canon, where it states that Ozma and Salem fought their way back out of the castle together. But tbh that didn’t really make a lot of sense, especially after the RWBY: Fairytales episode came out? If Salem could fight her way out the whole time, why did she need Ozma to rescue her? If Ozma had to defeat the king and his soldiers first to get to her at all, then who the hell were they fighting on the way out? The straggling survivors, the noncombatant servants? So we cut that detail, in the interest of maintaining logical continuity. Salem will have her chance to be badass and uber-powerful later in life, it doesn’t need to happen while she’s still a teen.

There’s also something I quite like about the imagery of a knight using his cape to help shield his maiden from something, very noble and chivalrous.

Had to shrink this image a bit for tumblr! The last frame of my scene, and the most colorful. Ozma’s horse here is a peacock leopard appaloosa! I was looking for horses so that I wouldn’t just give him a generic-looking one, and decided that appaloosas were perfect for a mage like Ozma. Spent a little more time detailing the forest here as well, I’m pleased with how it came out. It would’ve been nice to include a frame of Salem looking back and seeing for the very first time that there was a statue of her mother positioned over her room like a guardian angel, but alas, it would’ve been superfluous. :,) and i was tired by this point wwww

Now let it be said we like Salem’s canon design, quite a lot actually, but we like it for adult Salem, not a Salem who’s meant to be 16. xD We never expected we would need to do this, but @themixedcoffee​ whipped this up in the discord and me and Butterfly pretty much fell in love with it, it’s so cute and perfect, and so we just pretty much went and wholesale made it her official teen design. I like how she looks kind of bookish and unkempt, sort of like the awkward teen you might expect Salem to be, quiet and raised with good manners, but raring to let loose and run wild.

Of course, there were other redesigns which made their appearances this episode. O.O We reaallly weren’t jazzed by the technicolor mannequins that canon gave us for the designs of the Gods. xD We felt they could use more style, more flair, some pants, and just generally be more interesting to look at. For Light, we leaned into those eastern influences from his dragon, and went very bishounen for him. We also thought that Light/life as a concept was more nuanced than just creation, and that there were elements of a need to fight and defend in order to protect life, hence giving him the armor. We figure that Light specifically makes himself approachable for humans, which is why he’s so human-like(despite being 8 feet tall lol). Though i also liked adding the touch that when he’s angry the facade starts to drop and his features become more inhuman. O.O Another thing I quite like about his design here is adding a point of sharp contrast by giving him a purple gem. The darkness within light type of thing, to kind of bring the brothers more towards a yin/yang dynamic. Speaking of...

For Dark, our perspective was that he wouldn’t care about trying to impress humans or be approachable for them. He was the less-acknowledged yet still very important half of his brother, for without destruction there can be no creation, and volcanoes distribute fertile soil vital for plant growth after their eruptions.

As a slight compensatory act and a nod towards the more general prevalence of darkness as opposed to light, he gets to be twice as big as his brother. We were looking at all sorts of references and inspirations for him, to explicitly make as inhuman and macabre looking as possible. The cracks on his body also came from volcanic allusions, like his skin is cracking rocks. The floating, expressionless mask in place of a head came from a claymation movie about Mark Twain and a very creepy scene in it featuring The Actual Devil who also uses a mask instead of having a head. His forearms having gaps in them came from the 80s Bakshi movie Wizard, wherein the villain in that had a similar thing going on with his arms. Not really human, not really alive, and not really there either. I think my favorite part is probably his eyes being the sole spot of bright color in his design, light shining in the darkness.

And finally Maria!! I was very excited to work on her design and for people to finally see it in our rewrite. Some may think that it’s surprising that we redid Maria’s young design as well as her old design, but if you ask me, her young design isn’t very good either. xD I wanted her to have more colors, to have contrasting colors. To make the blue really pop and to make her look like the Grimm Reaper she was supposed to be. Hence the use of black and gray, with blue and orange as highlights to capture the eye. Tweaked the design of her mask as well to be more elaborate and a little more sugar-skull like. C’mon RWBY, you’re a 3d animated show, you can go for the fancy patterns and textures way more than a 2d artist like me can. xD We also made a point of making old Maria a more normal size instead of being a midget. I get that aging can make you shorter and Maria canonically as terrible posture, but it’s not that extreme. xD In both cases, I paid special attention to suggestions that were made by the members of our team who were actually mexican/hispanic/latino, which is actually quite a lot and they were very helpful to me. xD Maria’s goggles were also simplified just a bit.

Wow that was a lot of art to cover! This post almost didn’t survive it, had several failed uploads happen. xD But we’re not done yet! Even more art and redesigns are waiting in the future, which I’ll be just excited to talk about! So stay tuned, and thanks for watching/reading! ;D Btw, if you want a better view of the images in this post, here’s the twitter thread I made featuring all of them, so check that out as well! https://twitter.com/Erica_D_C/status/1624121234010013721

#art #fanart #rwby #fixing rwby #salem #ozma #the lost fable #god of light #god of darkness #maria #maria calavera

[seemabhatnagar]

Expressing Grievances in Messages Sent in a Private WhatsApp Group by employee!!

An employee is very much possessed of the right to vent provided the opinion is not expressed publicly. Here, it was it was shared among the members of a private WhatsApp group. The management failed to show as to how the bank's interest has been affected by private chat. Management can step in only if in the process, the image of the organization is affected, but not before that.

A Lakshminarayanan v. The Tamil Nadu Grama Bank, Hasthampatti Salem WP 9794 & 8689 of 2023 before Hon’ble High Court of Madras @ Madurai Judgement pronounced on 08.08.2023 by Hon’ble Mr. Justice G R Swaminathan Writ Petition was allowed and Charge Memo was quashed.

Petitioner A Lakshminarayanan filed Writ of Certiorari for quashing the charge sheet issued against him by the Respondent Bank. The petitioner was suspended on the ground that he had posted certain objectionable messages mocking the administrative process/decisions and belittling the higher authorities in a WhatsApp group on 29.07.2022. The suspension order was stayed by the Hon’ble Court. Suspension order was revoked by the Bank, but Bank issued chargesheet against the petitioner.

Submission of the Bank’s Counsel

As per the conduct Rules and the instruction issued by the management, the act committed by the petitioner constitutes misconduct. A circular was issued by the Bank requiring the employees to comply with and obey the instructions and not to use social media platform for expressing about working of the Bank or its official. Since the petitioner has contravened the same, hence penalties for breach stands attracted.

Background of the case

The petitioner posted a message in a WhatsApp group “AIRBEATN and Puduvai According to him, it is a private group that exists to organize their union activities and to communicate among them.

Remarkable Observation by the Hon’ble Madras High Court, Madurai Bench

1. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 forbids unfair labor practices. If the employer interferes with, restrains or coerces workmen in the exercise of their right to organize a trade union or to engage in concerted activities for the purposes of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, it amounts to unfair labor practice. 2. The very purpose of the employees coming together is to negotiate with the management in respect of their service conditions. If necessary, the employees will have to even fight with the management for acceptance of their demands. These are legitimate activities in a democratic republic. 3. Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India guarantees freedom of speech and expression subject to reasonable restrictions. 4. When even prisoners have fundamental rights and it has been declared by the Apex Court that Part III of the Constitution does not stop at the prison gates, it would be ridiculous to suggest that the moment a person becomes a bank employee, he has to bid good-bye to Article 19(1)(a). 5. Every employee or a member of an organization will have some issue or the other with the management. 6. It is in the interest of the organization that the complaints find expression and ventilation. It will have a cathartic effect. 7. If in the process, the image of the organization is affected, then the management can step in but not till then. 8. The common law principle is “everyman's home is his castle”. The world has become a global village. It is connected by digital technology. The principles applicable to a chat in a home can be applied to what takes place in an encrypted virtual platform that has restricted access. 9. What the Bank proposes amounts to thought-policing. 10. So long as the activities of a group do not fall foul of law, their privacy must be respected. 11. If the members conspire to commit any unlawful act, then again, the regulatory framework will step in. But when the members of a WhatsApp group are merely discussing among them, matters of common interest, that cannot be a target of attack. 12. The members of the WhatsApp group formed by the petitioner felt aggrieved by some of the actions of the respondent Bank. The petitioner expressed his views. Of course, the manner of expression cannot be said to be in good taste, but then, everyone has his own way of articulating. When this Court expressed the disapproval, the petitioner unconditionally apologized in writing. 13. If the management has a mole among the members and snooped the contents of conversation among them, the person who had expressed his opinion in the first instance cannot be proceeded against. 14. In the coming days, powerful managements may be possessed with Pegasus-like technology providing them access to private conversations. 15. charges cannot be framed on the strength of information gleaned through such means. Of course, the content shared over the end-to-end encrypted communication platform must be within the legal bounds mentioned above 16. Any employee is bound to show courtesy to the superior officer in his dealings. But while gossiping privately with a fellow employee, the officer may come in for all kinds of criticism. 17. If this had taken place over a cup of tea outside a shop, the management could not have taken note of it. 18. Merely because the same exchange took place among a group of employees on a virtual platform with restricted access, it cannot make a difference. 19. Hon’ble Madras High Court referred a recent Judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India “Kaushal Kishor v. State of UP” ……. even if a person holds an opinion which is not in conformity in constitutional values, he cannot be taxed or penalized. It is only when his opinion gets translated action and such action results in injury or harm or loss that an action in tort will lie. It was held that a fundamental right under Article 19 can be enforced even against persons other than the State or its instrumentalities.

Decision

The act committed by the petitioner doesn’t amount to misconduct and the chargesheet was quashed. Seema Bhatnagar

#whatsappgroup #misconduct #disciplinaryaction #chargesheet #ventinggrievances #freedomofexpression #writofcertiorari #socialmediaplatform #thoughtpolicing #unlawfulact #management’smole #madrashighcourtaatmadurai

[heretiics]

𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒.

FULL NAME: Teddy Akello Hill Jr. NAME MEANING: Teddy is a name of English origin meaning "gift of God or wealthy guardian." Akello means “blessed” in Luganda and is of Ugandan origin. NICKNAME(S): TJ, Teej, Ted AGE: Thirty-four SPECIES: Human GENDER: Cis man (he/him) ORIENTATION: Het OCCUPATION: Horse ranch owner of Hill Horse Ranch BIRTH DATE: 7 July 1988 BIRTHPLACE: Babylon, Texas HOMETOWN: Babylon, Texas ETHNICITY: African-American MARITAL STATUS: Single RELIGION: Agnostic EDUCATION LEVEL: Equine science (BS Animal Sciences) CURRENT LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: At the Hill family house near the horse ranch RAP SHEET: No record

𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄.

FACECLAIM: Daniel Kaluuya HAIR STYLE: Black, tightly coiled and often styled in a low, close-cropped buzz cut EYE COLOR: Dark brown HEIGHT: 5' 9" / 175 cm BUILD: Fit & toned from his work at the horse ranch STYLE: Usually seen in bright-colored hoodies or shirts and jeans SCENT: A pleasant mixture of hay, leather, and soap VOICE: Deep and velvety, with a hint of gravelly texture USUAL EXPRESSION: Relaxed, unexpressive but with a belying twinkle of amusement in his eyes POSTURE: Straight but not stiff DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Has a slightly uneven gait due to his hips not healing well after being thrown off a horse while trying to break it.

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇 & 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐘𝐋𝐄.

DRUG USE: Never ALCOHOL USE: Moderate SMOKING: Every once in a while

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘.

TROPES: The Cowboy / Lone Ranch Owner / Ancestral Name / Lineage Comes from the Father POSITIVE TRAITS: Gentle, resilient, trustworthy, sensible NEGATIVE TRAITS: Passive, reserved, obstinate, self-deprecating MORAL ALIGNMENT: Neutral ZODIAC SIGNS: Cancer sun, Taurus moon, Aquarius rising THEME SONG: A Horse with No Name by America

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃.

His father’s ancestors moved to Babylon, Texas from New Mexico after the Civil War, and have seen through most of the ups and downs of the town. They had numerous opportunities to leave the godforsaken town, but something seems to bind the Hills to the place. Perhaps it was one of the few places in the South that gave them a chance and they’re eternally grateful for it. Or perhaps they are just loyal. For whatever reason they stuck it out for so long, it is undeniable that the Hills are considered to be staples amongst the community, mildly contributing to the economy with their equine business. It isn’t what is exactly called a flourishing business (as it used to be), but it puts food on the table. The Hill Ranch has been around for years, older than most of the town’s citizens.

TJ’s mother, Agatha  comes from a long line of witches from Salem, Massachusetts. His parents met after his mother’s family (and in time their coven) moved to Babylon for mysterious reasons. Only his sister* inherited their mother’s powers, as it only gets passed down to women in the family. Agatha eventually took position as leader of the Crystal Coven, retiring around thirty years later. She also owns Foster Health, a pharmacy (and apothecary) located at Pilgrim Square. 

TJ is a horse rancher, inheriting both the property and way of life from his father who had recently been declared dead after disappearing 7 years ago. He owns, manages, and operates Hill Horse Ranch in Babylon which is dedicated to breeding, raising, and training horses. He also sells and trades them. 

Although TJ has people helping him around the ranch, he is a hands-on owner. Some of his daily responsibilities include feeding and caring for the horses, cleaning stalls and pastures, training and exercising the horses, and working with clients to provide riding lessons or boarding services.

Much like TJ’s horses, he is a Babylonian born and bred. He has only left Babylon once to pursue formal education in equine science. He hasn’t left since coming back to town immediately after graduation.

Due to his family’s long history in Babylon and his mother’s witch origins, he is aware of the supernatural denizens living with them. He doesn’t exactly know who is what unless explicitly revealed to him, and he generally feels better off not knowing. He believes his father might’ve gotten mixed up in something supernatural or paranormal, which explains his apparent detachment from the case as he thinks it’ll be impossible for him to go up against something non-human.

Despite its flaws and defects, TJ loves the town and would wish to be buried in its soil. Typical of a Hill.

While he seemingly spends more time with horses than humans, he is still a friendly face around town and gregarious enough. He likes a good chat— or more like enjoys listening to people chat.

*TJ's sister is a wanted connection. If interested, feel free to message me!

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒.

TJ's horse ranch and Agatha's pharmacy are submitted locations. You may find more about them here. Agatha (TJ's mom) is also a an active NPC that you may interact with/use in threads.

𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐒.

header quote

#* TJ — sweet is the wind of heaven blowing between a horse's ears; #intro;

[glxyhrt]

❛  hmm . . .  ❜  star  looked  over  the  sheet  music  sitting  on  the  table ,  hand  over  her  chin  with  a  thoughtful  expression  on  her  face .  despite  not  being  able  to  participate  in  the  competition  itself ,  vil  had  it  arranged  so  that  star  &.  salem  would  instead  act  as  the  openers .  it  was  every  bit  like  a  normal  concert  as  it  was  a  competitive  event ,  so  having  fifteen  minutes  to  do  as  they  pleased  before  the  show  started  proper  was  something  the  seasoned  singer  could  realistically  ask  for .

as  she  read  over  the  lyrics  written  on  the  sheets ,  she  saw  that  salem  had  brought  her  a  cup  of  tea .  ❛  oh .  thanks ,  salem ,  darling ,  ❜  she  replied  politely  as  she  took  the  cup  into  her  hands .  ❛  so  these  are  some  of  the  songs  you  want  to  perform  at  the  SDC  together ?  ❜

@gosutm​ ♡’d for a starter !

#gosutm #✨ * ‹ vrse : twst › siren of the sea & cosmos . #since chapter 5 is being localized as we speak might as well make that a reality uwu #we love our two little popstars practicing on their off time

[pawnshopsouls]

//Doing a refresher and review of my boy Salem and I think I’ve been straying from his character a bit? So imma see about getting back into his character - first via drawing bc so much of his character shines through his art! then writing so I don’t forget his written personality either!

#¢::Passin'Gossip::¢ #salem #salem bonachard #references #salem expression sheet #expression sheet #expressions #my art #intrepidsart #mun's art

[lis-likes-fics]

A Witch Hunt | Chapter 4

Edward returned that night to the house, his expression grim. He announced that it was time for them to leave. "Why?" Y/N asked, she'd just made this place her home and now it was time to leave it?

"The longer we stay, the more risk we put Bella at," he tried to explain. She didn't want to argue with him, so she didn't. The others tried to reason with him, but not many words were exchanged as they all decided that they leave.

Y/N made her way upstairs when Carlisle regrettably told her to go pack. Cole decided to help, he was still there with Alice even after the incident. Alice stopped him and told him, "Cole...I think you should stay here. I can't tear you away from your life here, this is your home."

He shook his head and told her, "Alice, I can't just stay here while you leave."

Y/N mumbled, "I'll let you two talk." Jasper followed her to her room where she was packing her things, rather angrily.

"Y/N," he tried. She continued packing, moving clothes into a bag before heading to grab a separate bag for her magical items. He walked up behind her and stopped her movements, grabbing her arm gently. She turned around to face him and he told her, "Calm down. What's bothering you?"

She sighed and plopped on the bed, "Jazz, I just made this place my home. How am I supposed to leave it?" He nodded, understanding her problem and kneeling in front of her, "I get it, I do. The life you've led, moving from place to place constantly and then finally getting a chance at a steady home and it being taken from you."

She nodded and he grabbed her hands in his, "We wouldn't be gone forever. We can't stay here, but...maybe we could go somewhere else. Think of it as an extended vacation. We can go anywhere you want."

"I want to stay here," she told him stubbornly. He chuckled a little and said, "I know. But is there anywhere you'd want to go?"

She shrugged and thought. Her attention was pulled to an idea she had thought of a little while ago and bit her bottom lip. "There is something," she started.

"Where?" He asked, eager to find someplace to please her.

She shrugged, "Well, I was thinking we could visit someplace. I wanted to meet other witches to be able to learn more of my magic, study more, have connections."

"Do you know anyplace?" He questioned, moving to sit on the bed next to her. She shrugged, "Witches are scattered all over the world and covens come far and few. I was thinking we find a place where there was a coven. A coven could definitely teach magic."

She grabbed her book from her bag and said, "There's a spell to be able to locate witch covens, I was thinking we could use it. I know there aren't any in Salem, people think it's full of the, but there are definitely no witches in Salem unless they have a death wish. The Volturi go there annually in search of witches, apparently, to make sure they don't try to return there since it technically used to be home of the witches."

"Where else are there?" He asked.

She opened her grimoire and flicked her wand to find the spell. She pointed to it and pulled her map out of her drawer, spreading it over her bed. She muttered the spell to herself, laying her wand on top of the map. She waited for a moment for the spell to take affect and the tip of it started spinning around the map as it searched for covens.

It pointed to one in Louisiana and she shrugged, "Guess that makes sense."

She folded the map and told Jasper, "I guess we're going to New Orleans."

He smiled, "Sounds like a plan. I'll go get my things and then finish helping you pack." She nodded and turned back to her things as Jasper disappeared from the room.

"Extended vacation," she muttered, "That's it."

~

Back in the living room, the house seemed bare as things were being covered with white sheets , the decorations nowhere in sight. Carlisle sighed, his arm wrapped around Esme's waist as he said, "We decided to go to New York, there's a job there I can take for night shifts. What about you?"

Rosalie spoke, "Emmett and I will come with you."

Carlisle nodded, his eyes turning to Y/N, Jasper, Alice, and Cole. "Cole, are you staying?" He asked, his eyes concerned.

Cole shook his head, "No way. Alice goes, I go. My roommate won't miss me, he'll just have to find another one."

Alice added, "We agreed he'd need to...change...in order to come along."

"And I'm fine with that," Cole pitched in. Carlisle told him, "Changing is a huge step. You can't come back from that."

He nodded, "I know." He nodded to him and turned to Y/N and Jasper.

She took a breath and spoke, "There's a coven in New Orleans, if I find them, they could teach me more about my magic. Jasper and I were going to go there." Everyone seemed to pick up on their intertwined hands, holding on to one another as she spoke.

He nodded, "And you'll be safe there? What about your vision?"

She sighed, remembering the magic hurdling toward the two of them in her vision. "As far as I know," she started, "if the vision takes place there, they don't kill us. Or that bit would have been extremely vivid. We'll be fine."

Alice spoke, "Would you mind company? Cole and I could come with."

She smiled, "That would be great, Alice. You're both welcome to come with." She looked up at Jasper as if silently asking for permission, and he nodded his agreements, "The more the merrier."

She smiled and Carlisle sighed, "Okay, then. As much as I would rather we stay together, I'm fine with what you've decided. We'll leave in the morning so you all can get yourselves situated," he glanced at Cole.

They separated and Y/N went to get her last minute things together. Jasper packed up the car while Y/N went to Alice's room. "I can help with the pain of the transformation. I may not be a healer, but I can calm it," she told them.

Alice nodded with a grateful smile. She gave a look at Cole and he gave her a silent nod and a smile, reassuring her that this is what he wanted and that he would be fine. She sighed and lifted his arm. Y/N placed a hand on his shoulder and closed her eyes, chanting the spell as she started.

Alice bit into his wrist and he sucked breath in between his teeth and laid his head on the back of the couch he was sitting on. His breath picked up and Y/N worked hard to make sure he didn't feel too much pain. To him, all it was at the moment was a bite, without the help of her magic, it would feel like fire coursing through his body.

When Alice pulled back, a hand wrapped around his other one as she worriedly watched him. "Are you okay?" She asked him. He nodded, his breath heavy as he said, "Just a little bite." Y/N focused on her magic, not knowing how long it would take him to make the full change. It was different for everyone.

Luckily for Y/N and her magic, his transformation wasn't as long as she thought it would be, longer than she preferred, but shorter than worse. She stopped, grateful for the short...hour long...change. Her magic had almost given out.

Jasper had sensed her exhaustion and walked into the room, a hand on her arm to examine her. "Are you alright?" He asked eagerly. She nodded, "Could use some sleep, but other than that."

"It makes sense," he chuckled, "You've been up all night." He looked over at Cole and said, "Welcome to the family." He smiled at him, his eyes a stunning red as he looked around the room. Alice smiled and hugged him. He smiled back, sighing into the new embrace.

Jasper helped Y/N stand, getting her a glass of water. "Come on, it's almost dawn. You need to get some sleep." He told Alice, "You should go hunt before we leave."

She nodded as Jasper left the room. He helped Y/N to her own room, which was barren and housed nothing but her furniture, which was covered in white sheets. Jasper set her in the bed and let her sleep before they left.

Alice stopped by the room, "Do you want to come with us? The others will be here to watch her."

Jasper thought over it, knowing they would be taking a plane and be within close proximity to a bunch of humans. He sighed, he wasn't the most comfortable with leaving Y/N, but he knew he would need to feed. He kissed her forehead, earning a small, sweet smile from Alice, and followed her out the door.

~

"Hey," Jasper eased Y/N awake as he got back from his hunt. She cracked her eyes open, smiling softly when she saw Jasper. "Hey," she sleepily said, cuddling back into the bed, intent on getting more sleep.

He smiled at her attempt and told her, "Come on." He picked her up, getting her out of the bed finally. He stood her on her feet as she laughed, "Fine, fine, fine..." She grabbed her wand and headed down stairs, stashing it away on her person.

They got downstairs, meeting with the rest of the family. She hugged Carlisle and Esme told them, "Bye, see you again soon."

They gave her a smile and Esme told her, "Promise you'll call?"

She smiled, "How could I not?" Jasper hugged them as she moved on to Emmett and Rosalie. She gave Rosalie a hug first and then was picked up in a big brother hug by Emmett, "Gonna miss you, little sis."

"I'll miss you, too," she strained, "Emmett...air." He set her down and she thanked him, "I'll call, don't worry." She turned to Edward, giving him a hug, "Promise you'll stay safe and you won't do anything stupid."

He nodded, "I promise."

She sighed and let go of the hug, telling him, "When you go over there...don't take the bracelet. It's keeping her safe." He nodded slowly and promised, "I won't take the bracelet."

She nodded back to him and told him, "I'll call." She turned and Jasper wrapped an arm around her waist. Carlisle told them, "If you need anything, just call."

"Will do," Jasper responded.

Cole and Alice got in the back seat, Y/N climbed in the passenger's side and Jasper got in the driver's seat, starting the car. They waved to the other's promising calls and visits when possible.

On the road, Y/N had fallen asleep, the soft hum of the car lulling her calmly. When they reached the airport, Jasper woke her up and they stepped into the airport as they waited for the plane. When it landed, they got on.

The plane ride was three hours and Cole seemed to do rather well, considering he had only been a vampire for a few hours.

When they landed, they got their luggage and stepped out of the building and out into the parking lot. They went to the parking lot and waited as the car was brought around to the front. They were lucky they had tons of money.

Cole drove this time, following the address to the hotel they'd be staying at in the French Quarter. It took a while to actually get there because of the traffic, the streets of New Orleans were meant for walking, not driving.

When they got their car parked, they headed inside. They got two hotel rooms for their stay, until they could get a place to settle. Jasper said, "Alice and I will search for a place to stay while we're here so we don't end up living in a hotel. Here's some money, you and Cole can walk around for a while. Be careful, though, I don't want either of you getting hurt. We'll look for the witches later on today when we have everything settled."

Y/N nodded, getting a kiss on the forehead before they left. "I'll be back soon," he said. She nodded and turned to Cole, "So what do you want to do?"

He shrugged, "What better place to start than the Square?"

#jasper hale #jasper cullen #jasper hale x reader #jasper hale x y/n #jasper hale x you #jasper cullen x you #twilight fanfic #twilight fanfiction #twilight #the twilight saga #reader insert #female reader #fanfic #witch au #cullen x reader #fanfiction

[fatefulfaerie]

Snowed In

December OTP prompt #16/31

“I may not even be able to get through,” Ruby said, holding up her ringing scroll to her ear, her and Oscar looking worriedly out the window.

“Ruby!” she heard Taiyang on the other line, the connection wasn’t the clearest but it was clear enough. “Are you on your way?”

“Sorry, Dad,” Ruby said, looking at the sheet of snow that was their view for the night. “We’re completely snowed in. I don’t think we’ll make it this year.”

“Oh,” Ruby could hear his disappointment. “I’ll…go ahead and tell the girls. Be sure to come up as soon as you can, though. I’ve got to meet that fiance of yours.”

“He’s already met me,” Oscar whispered confused, panic in his eyes worried he would have to make a first impression all over again, and this time one that would stick. Ruby shrugged as her Oscar shared expression. She thought he met him too.

“You’ve already met him, Dad,” Ruby said. “It’s Oscar, remember?”

“Well, yeah but…that was years ago,” Taiyang explained. “Back when he was just a kid who saved Remnant, now he’s my daughter’s fiance, that’s a pretty big role.”

“He’s equating fighting Salem with marrying you?” Oscar asked quietly.

“Not equating,” Ruby clarified. “Apparently marrying me is a bigger deal than fighting Salem.”

The connection started to really crackle. The increasing storm outside could be heard by even a deaf person, the way it shook the house.

“Dad, I promise we’ll come up when we can, okay?” Ruby said quickly into the scroll. “Merry Christmas until then. We love you and send our love to Blake and Yang for us.”

“I love you too,” Tai said, still sad that his daughter wouldn’t be home for the holidays. “I-”

The connection cut out, Taiyang’s picture blinking on and off with the words “LOST SIGNAL” in red font.

Ruby sighed as she put away her now useless scroll, but Oscar’s arm snaked around her waist and their heads leaned into each other. There wasn’t much of a view, but they closed their eyes and relished in the warmth of each other instead.

#rwby #rosegarden #rosegarden rwby #years after rwby endgame #so they are aged up don't you worry #ruby rose #oscar pine #ruby x oscar

[keilemlucent]

the sex party: ii

(r18+)

shinsou hitoshi x reader

ao3

part 1   ||    part 2 (you’re here!)

word count: ~9k

You and Hitoshi definitely have a thing for each other, but who would've thought that a 'sex party' would produce a confession?

warnings:

COLLEGE AU! characters are explicitly aged up to college students as early 20 year olds!

not really a sex party, mutual pining, friends to lovers, confessions, reader is canonically bi, brief momo x reader, light dom/sub, spanking, references to drug use, smoking (cigarettes, salem trademarked fic thing), drinking, and smut

---------

once again, thank you to @keiqos​ for editing, absolute gem :’^). now read and take this nice fluff and smut!!!

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Hitoshi hailed the gang outside just before calling an Uber, vaguely explaining what happened and that you were both headed back towards campus. Denki and Jiro assured the two of you that they’d find the fucker and get him thrown out and spit on.

“What a fucker, I’m sorry that happened, (Y/N),” Jiro frowned, eyebrows creased with anger. She cracked her knuckles. 

You felt your chest tighten as you smiled back reflexively, “It’s alright. I’m just glad it's over.”

Mina grabbed your shoulders, “I’m going to ruin him for ya’, (Y/N). Ruin.”

She was deadpanned about it, waving a quick goodbye before running into the party to presumably go and kick the guy’s ass. The rest of the party peers followed, leaving with a similar sentiment and a lot of anger. 

Denki remained, rubbing the back of his neck, “Are y’all headed back to the house then?”

You nodded, eyeing Shinsou, “Yeah, back to your guys’ place.”

Denki’s eyebrows raised, a wicked grin coming to his face.

Hitoshi gave a half-hearted glare.

Denki continued looking smitten as all hell. He gave Hitoshi a quick hug and crushed one into you. He flitted back in the house with a lightness in his steps that showed distinctly that he was far more drunk than he was letting on. 

...

Part of you had a feeling that the night was far from over.

The Uber arrived a few minutes later, smelling of cheap air freshener and stale cologne. You climbed into the back seat as far as you could go. You expected Hitoshi to take the passenger’s side, but he slid beside you, buckling himself into the middle seat.

You didn’t say anything, but you mentally thanked him.

Considering the number of weird friend boundaries (when were you going to be honest with yourself, god, just say it) that had been breached already, you let yourself fall just the slightest bit into Hitoshi’s side as the car began to move.

Hitoshi continued tapping around on his phone one-handed, all to wrap an arm around the back of your seat, half around your shoulder. You relished his heat and let the details fade away as you stared out of the car window.

At some point, Hitoshi put his phone away, stuffing into the pocket of his jeans.

“Your jacket—” You spoke up, but Hitoshi quickly and quietly shushed you, squeezing your shoulder.

“I already had Momo grab it, no big deal,” You hadn’t realized how close he was until the heat of his breath rolled over your ear. “It’s much more important to make sure you’re feeling alright.”

Why is he so nice?

You remained silent, hyper-aware of the softness of your bare thigh pressing against Hitoshi’s own. You could feel the heat radiating off of him, the warmth of his breath so close to your face in such a small space.

And you wanted more.

The neon lights of the city reappeared, growing brighter as the two of you neared Hitoshi’s home. Your mind swirled and spun with revelation after revelation. 

How the fuck had you not realized how much you liked Hitoshi sooner?

I mean, it was obvious, but repression really does things to a person.

The Uber finally pulled up to Hitoshi’s home. The two of you swiftly went inside, an odd silence between the two of you. 

As you stepped out of your heels, Hitoshi broke it from the living room. 

“What if I told you I ordered food from that one late-night diner and it’ll be here in ten minutes?” Hitoshi glanced up from his phone with a dashing smile, the kind only you got to see. 

It made you want to fucking explode. 

You cracked your own, standing fully and stretching your toes, “I’d say ‘thank god, and god is Hitoshi Shinso.”

“You flatter me,” He chuckled, waltzing into the living room. You followed, aware of the eerie quiet that the house carried. It was rare that Hitoshi’s home was fully uninhabited and fully soundless. 

It made your thoughts seem even louder. 

“Want anything? Water? I can make us some drinks if you’re still in that mood,” Hitoshi offered, already moving towards the kitchen.

It felt like you were going to burst.

“Water is okay, I’m not really feeling like drinking anymore.” You laughed softly, rubbing the back of your neck. You were desperately trying to relieve your own internal tension, but you just fucking couldn’t. 

Hitoshi returned a moment later with a glass for you and a kind gaze, regarding you were the most sacred thing in the world. The glass trembled in your grip as you refused to maintain eye contact with him.

You really couldn’t handle any more of this. 

“You tired? I can set up the couch for you if you wanna lie down, unless you want me to walk you back to your dorm?” Hitoshi asked, moving towards the linen closet to grab your usual sheets and blankets. Hitoshi obviously sensed your discomfort and the bastard was too nice for his own fucking good, trying to cater to your every fucking need. 

He’s way too nice.

...

You made your decision in that moment. 

You swallowed, tongue feeling thick in your mouth. Fear wormed its way into your gut, but you spoke through it. 

“Actually, can we talk?” You hated the way how your voice trembled.

Your knees felt weak when you saw Hitoshi’s expression fall, pretty violet orbs drooping. 

Both of you were well aware of what the conversation would be about.

Hitoshi stopped across the room, turning to you. His brow was furrowed with anxiety. His voice came out sticky, pushing, “I think you’ve had a long night.”

Fuck it.

Tell him.

How much longer can you keep this up anyway?

“It’s going to feel a lot longer if I’m sleeping on the couch when I want to be in your bed.”

The silence that stunned the room echoed louder than anything you had ever heard before. You stared down at your feet, ignoring the way overemotional tears began to gather in your eyes. Your vision clouded, but your mouth kept spewing. 

It had to.

“Hitoshi, I like you. A lot more than friends like each other.”

More silence. 

You hold back sniffles.

You’re fucking up your whole friendship.

“And I know, our flirting has always been teasing, but I think it became real for me at some point.” 

More silence. 

“I don’t want to fuck up our friendship. You’re my best friend, Hitoshi, and I really, really care about you. And, I don’t want to throw away our friendship over a crush, okay? I just needed to get this off my chest. We can just forget I ever said anything if that’s easier.”

Your own arms come to wrap around yourself, thumbs making idle circles in an attempt to unconsciously soothe yourself.

You could hear Hitoshi take a few steps towards you, inhaling like he was going to speak, but quickly cutting himself off.

Ouch.

A few stray tears ran tracks down your face.

Your lip wobbled as you spoke, “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner, and that I teased you so much while feeling like this, I just didn’t notice—”

“(Y/N).” Hitoshi stood in front of you, low voice shocking you from your thought.

You refused to look up at him.

“H-hey, how about I just go back to my dorm? I’m sorry—” You sputtered, rubbing at your eyes as the carpet grew blurry beneath you.

You felt so fucking pathetic. Maybe it was because it took you this long to figure out your own feelings and say something about them. Maybe, it was because you were fairly certain you were capital l in Love with Hitoshi, yet you didn’t even have the guts to look at you as you confessed.

Maybe, it was all because you were so damn terrified that it was all of these possibilities making you drown in your own insecurities. 

Hitoshi, diligent and mindful as ever, took note, even if you didn’t notice. 

“(Y/N), look at me.” Hitoshi’s damn near commanded, but you somehow ignored him, spiraling deeper.

You couldn’t keep yourself from shaking as your voice cracked, “I’m so fucking sorry, Hitoshi. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’ll be better, we can—”

And then there were hands, large and soft cupping your jaw, gently forcing your gaze up.

You shook even harder, unable to avoid him any longer.

Your breath felt leached from your lungs when you finally met Hitoshi’s endlessly sweet gaze. 

Hitoshi’s eyes were so fucking soft. There was this melancholic smile on his face that made alarms go off in your skull. 

He’s going to reject you.

You got the wrong idea. 

You sucked down another sob as you tried to lower your head, but Hitoshi’s grip only became firmer. His thumb rubbed away some of your tears as he released a soft sigh.

A moment of quiet passed between the two of you. The teasing, fleeting glances and lustful eye fucking of the earlier night were long gone. All that remained was a tense string of vulnerability that both of you were terrified of.

You were shaking so hard in his grip. 

You didn’t notice, but he was shaking too, desperately trying to keep his breathing even.

You blinked up at him, just waiting for him to reject you.

 (Like Hitoshi would ever do that—)

 “Can I kiss you?” Oh, his voice rolled so low and deep over you, you could’ve died.

Your eyes widened, and all you could do was nod, brain sluggishly following the situation.

He shook his head, lowering his head just a bit closer to your eye level. So ardently did he refuse to look away from you.

“I need you to say it, (Y/N).” He kept himself composed but god, he was struggling.

You gulped, leaning into Hitoshi’s hands for comfort. 

“Yes, please,” Your voice came out soft, breaking and needy and Hitoshi wanted every bit of it.

His face hovered in front of yours for a moment, eyes tracing your features with such reverence. 

And then his lips were on yours and all of your mutually stored tension broke. 

It shattered.

His lips were soft, so different from what you secretly fantasized about. You expected some sort of roughness to him, but now that you were so sinfully close, he radiated calm and sweetness that you could almost taste.

Hitoshi was so gentle with you, one of his arms wrapping around your waist to pull you even closer. 

You moved your lips against his, relishing the fact that he was there and you were there. Maybe it was fleeting, maybe he would pull away and say he just wanted to fuck and you’d have to have that conversation. But, in that moment, you just sank into Hitoshi’s touch, throwing your arms over his shoulders and tangling deft fingers into his unruly hair. 

You could handle whatever future you were given. Just a morsel of Hitoshi’s soft but unbridled affections felt like more than enough.

(Little did you know how much of him you were to receive.)

Hitoshi pulled away, but hardly. He stayed so close to you, pupils blown wide as his breath fanned of your cheekbones. You so, so wanted to surge forward and drown in him, but you held yourself fast.

He surprised you by letting out his own shaking breath, all the way in his chest. Your eyes widened.

“You’re such an idiot—” Hitoshi laughed and you faltered for a moment. It must’ve shown on your face because his hands started rubbing at your sides. 

He kissed you softly again. Something chaste and sweet, like a type of summer fruit that stains your lips. 

He pulled away again, lips parted and scanning you.

“You have to say it.” You told him, trying to keep your voice firm, but failing.

“Say what?” He teased, peppering the side of your face with kisses. 

You made a small, half-annoyed noise, pushing lightly at his choice, “You know what, Hitoshi.”

He paused, dragging you tighter to him. A hand came up to cup your neck, fingers tracing idle patterns on your pulse point.

The look he wore (so well) was one of pure tenderness that made you ache in the best possible way. 

“Of course I like you.” Hitoshi kissed you again. 

You were too stunned for words.

Hitoshi kept going, his own tension apparently having broken as well.

(Duh.) 

“You have no fucking idea how much I adore you—” He spoke against your lips, hands digging into your sides as you pulled lightly at his hair. You both craved closeness and finally had it.  “How much I’ve wanted this, you—”

You whine into his mouth, pressing into him with everything you had. 

His touch felt heavenly. After so many months, years of pent up romantic and sexual tension, his hands felt like divine fire against you. Every part of you ached for more of him, as now you were finally able to express your desires. 

You pulled away, just enough to lean your foreheads together. Hitoshi’s pupils were blown wide, flickering from your eyes to your lips. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” You asked, voice still small. 

Hitoshi chuckled, popping a quick kiss onto your nose, “Honestly? I didn’t want you to think I was only your friend because I wanted fuck you.”

Your insides twisted.

“Do... you only want to fuck?” You asked, any movement to pull away blocked by Hitoshi’s hold on you. Your heart hammered in your chest.

You definitely wanted more than just a fuck, but you’d take what you could get.

(You wouldn’t have to.)

“Oh, no, not at all,” Hitoshi spoke matter of factly, wearing the smuggest grin. His lips went to just below the shell of your ear, “There’s plenty more that I want from you, (Y/N).”

“Hitoshi,” You nearly moaned his name as his lips brushed against your ear. “You g-gotta be careful, saying shit like that.”

“Why's that?” Hitoshi’s lips met the fragile skin of your neck and sank into him.

“You k-know why,” Your words trembled as he left trails of kisses against your neck. 

All you wanted was more.

“Tell me. I love hearing your voice,” Hitoshi crooned against your neck, pressing at the small of your back so you arched into him.

His words were so damn sweet, it made you melt inside and out as a high moan dribbled from your lips.

Hitoshi nearly growled against your neck, sucking at the skin at your collar. You fisted the back of his sweater, toes curling against the carpet—

And then a soft knock echoed from the door.

You both stopped dead, freezing.

Quickly, Hitoshi straightened out, but not before pressing a loving kiss to the skin he bruised.

“Foods here.” He smiled at you as you breathed, open-mouth and near panting. 

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

Hitoshi came back from the door with the food, setting it on the coffee table and falling onto the couch. You followed suit as Hitoshi took out a few takeout boxes, handing one to you.

“I got that breakfast combination you always get, I hope that’s okay,” Hitoshi passed you a fork as you nodded. 

“How are you so calm right now?” You asked, turning to him and folding your legs under your body.

Hitoshi turned as well, raising an eyebrow and holding up one of his hands between the two of you.

It was shaking violently. 

“Not calm, at all. Just composed,” Hitoshi broke into his own food, taking a bite. “Eat something, (Y/N).”

You couldn’t fight him on that. Despite the elated, anxious, (horny) twisting of your gut, the smell of comfort food soothed you after such an eventful night. 

The two of you ate in relative silence, both in shared contemplation. It was comfortable, sounds of the city neighborhood and old house filling the space with enough ambient noise to feel natural.

You finally set down your empty box, eyes flickering to Hitoshi as he finished off his food, a bit of egg stuck to his fork.

“I was being serious earlier, you know,” You rubbed at the fabric of your dress, suddenly very aware of the way it rode so high. “About sleeping in your bed rather than the couch.”

“I figured you were,” Hitoshi replied, setting his own food down to face you. “I never said you couldn’t.”

“Let’s clear the air then, if that’s okay,” You asked, a bit uncertain.

It all felt a lot better when Hitoshi grabbed one of your hands, rubbing his thumb along your knuckles. He nodded to you to keep talking.

“So, I like you. You like me.” You began. 

Hitoshi nodded again, a cute smile creeping at the corners of his mouth.

“You... don’t just want to fuck?” Your words sounded unsure, but Hitoshi quickly nodded.

“I’d prefer more, but I’ll take what I can get,” Hitoshi shrugged. 

You definitely felt somewhat settled and a whole lot less insecure.

If anything, you felt bold.

Very bold.

Before Hitoshi could react, you shoved Hitoshi’s shoulder into the back of the couch. Your bare legs went over either side of Hitoshi’s built thighs, squeezing as you straddled him. 

You could feel the way your dress rode up, almost showing off your ass.

(Not like Hitoshi already hadn’t seen it that night—)

You stared him up and down with lowered lips, biting your lip gently. 

His violet tresses were wild, roughed up from the night’s events. His cheeks were stained pink, eyes tearing over your figure.

His hands darted to your waist, rubbing his thumbs over your ribs.

“What do you want?” Hitoshi asked, finally breaking his composure with cute, breathless words.

Your trembling hands cupped his face as you leaned into him. Your ghosted your lips over his, breath mingling as you spoke, well aware of what you were doing.

“I just want you, Hitoshi. All of you. I think I have for a long time.”

That was enough for the two of you.

Hitoshi grabbed at you with a possession that made your insides turn to jelly. His lips pressing to your own, licking in your mouth with a fervor that you craved. One of his hands moved to just below your ass, squeezing the flesh with a grip that was sure to bruise. His other hand tangled into your hair, pulling you to angle your mouth just right against his own. 

His actions had a fever to them, hands and lips moving in a way that pulled and pushed you perfectly. You knew from goddamn kink night, that Hitoshi was a far more dominant person, but now that you were getting a personal taste? You felt intoxicated by his demanding touch.

All you could do was grab onto the front of his sweater, kissing him with everything you had. 

As Hitoshi’s hand slid up to your ass, you experimentally ground down on the growing bulge in his jeans.

He let out a broken moan, roughly grabbing your backside and moving for you to repeat the motion. You arched into the friction, keening in the back of your throat as Hitoshi nipped at your jaw.

“Fuck, Hitoshi,” You moaned, your hands trailing down his chest to tease at the hem of his sweater.

Hitoshi wasn’t one to be beat, licking a line from your collarbone to your ear, biting and kissing to his heart's content. Your hips stuttered against his own, both of you moaning in tandem. His hardened cock pressing against your practically bare sex made your head spin with potential. 

You grabbed at his hips beneath his sweater, dipping just below his waistband—

Suddenly, Hitoshi pulled away from your neck, breathing hard and slow. He swallowed, grabbing your face in both of his hands and peppering slow kisses all over your face.

“You have no fucking idea—” Hitoshi kissed your roughly, squeezing at your jaw. You moaned so prettily for him as he swallowed your sounds with a groan. He pulled away, sighing deeply, “how badly I want to keep going, but—”

You finished his sentence, sighing and touching your forehead to his, “It has been a long night.”

Hitoshi made a noise of agreement, pressing a chaste kiss to your forehead before you pulled back, “Is that alright?”

You shook out your own breath, nodding, “Of course. I want to keep going too, but I don’t want to rush anything. Wanna make sure we’re comfy, you know?”

Hitoshi rumbled out a laugh, pulling you into a solid embrace. His nose pressed into the juncture between your neck and shoulder, nuzzling into you, “You gotta stop being so sweet, (Y/N).”

You raised your eyebrow, threading your hands through his hair, feeling how he instantly relaxed into your touch, “What did I do?”

“I mean, your existence is pretty sweet. Cute too. Sexy. Hot. I could go on,” Hitoshi nipped at your neck, daring to suck gently at the weak skin. “But, I think that would just rile me up more.”

“Good point,” You gently tugged his hair to bring his face back to yours. “Your room?”

He kissed you in reply.

The shattering of tension left a gentle warmth running through you, and you couldn’t wait to see what else was to come. 

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

The two of you swayed upstairs hand-in-hand. 

It felt weirdly domestic, rubbing off your makeup with the cleansing wipes you had long stored at Hitoshi’s for late nights studying or drinking.

He stood next to you, brushing his teeth in a roomy tee and sweats. You still wore your party dress, rumpled and a bit too dirty for comfort. You found yourself glaring your body down, remembering the very sour event of the evening. Your skin crawled and itched. 

Hitoshi caught it easily. He knew you so well. 

“You wanna ‘showber?” Hitoshi’s words came out garbled through the foam in his mouth.

“That might be best, yeah,” You sighed in some form of defeat, nervously rubbing your arms for a moment. Hitoshi spit and rinsed as you finished removing the mascara from your eyes. 

As you finished, Hitoshi urged you to sit on the toilet seat, pressing a kiss to your forehead as he darted from the room. You straightened up at the freely given affection, loving the way your heart pounded. He returned quickly, carrying a fluffy towel and a pile of folded clothes. 

“Take your time. If you need anything, just shout, okay?” Hitoshi laid them on the counter and squatted down in front of you, taking your hands in his and squeezing. 

You nodded.

It wasn’t the first time you had taken a shower at Hitoshi’s. You could only be thankful that he and Sero had good enough hygiene habits that it was fairly clean for a college house. 

You felt damn near euphoric, getting to wash the sweat, fear, touches and smoke from your skin and hair. You took extra care to cleanse your body the best you could, washing everything properly and thoroughly.

(You know, just in case.)

(For the morning.)

You digress.

Warmed and feeling far more clean both mentally and physically, you toweled off and slipped into the clothes Hitoshi left. The shirt he gave you was way too large, nearly hanging off of one of your shoulders. He must’ve had it mixed in with laundry as it held the scent of his pine-ish cologne that had always made you melt. The sweats he loaned to you also fit poorly, but you didn’t mind too much.

You padded your way into Hitoshi’s room. 

It was a familiar spot. Many nights were spent here drunkenly carousing with your pals, rolling on the worn hardwood. Many hours had been spent splayed out on the floor, both of you pouring over textbooks and academic journals, constructing brutal papers with the aid of unhealthy amounts of lukewarm black coffee. 

Hitoshi’s room, for a long time, strangely, had been incredibly comfortable and safe. On a night like this one, you couldn't be more glad.

His room was dimly lit, yellowish string lights hung on the ceiling. They dimly illuminated the many gig posters, prints, and thrifted picture frames he had amassed over the years. A desk in the corner, an aged dresser, and a (blessedly) queen-sized bed with a comfy black duvet.

You blinked at Hitoshi, noting the lack of his usual clutter around the room, “Did you clean while I was in the shower?”

Hitoshi was standing in the corner, tapping away at his phone with a furrowed brow, but managed to look up and flash you a smile, “Maybe.”

You chuckled, walking up to him and comfortably wrapping your arms around his waist, burying your face in his arm. You felt him jump a bit, but quickly relax.

It was all new to both of you, but very welcome.

“Is everything alright?” You asked, watching the way Hitoshi frowned at his phone.

He ran a hand over his face, sighing, “How surprised would you be if I told you Denki and Hanta blacked out and puked on the way back?”

“Not very surprised, but still, yikes,” You looked up at Hitoshi. “Are they coming back here? I’ll babysit if you have to, too.”

He turned to give you a small, sympathetic smile, “That is very sweet of you, but it sounds like they’re going to crash Momo’s or Katsuki’s.”

You felt... suspicious.

You narrowed your eyes at him, eyes darting to your purse on his nightstand, “I haven’t checked the group chat, but did you put something in the group chat?

Hitoshi took a sharp inhale, a cute blush painting his nose and cheeks, “It may have slipped that we finally... said we liked each other.”

“May have?” You raised an eyebrow.

“There may have been a betting pool that I have just been made aware of—”

“Did... Did they all know?”

“And, they wanted to give us some privacy—”

You covered your face with your hands, leaning into him, “Jesus fucking—”

“Very considerate of them, considering,” Hitoshi sighed, pocketing his phone and wrapping his arms over your shoulders. “I’d much rather be sleeping next to you than dealing with blackout Denki.”

“True, true,” You sighed, uncovering your face to look up at Hitoshi. He was beaming at you with a look of adoration that made your chest ache. You frowned, “Are you gonna be able to sleep?”

You knew of Hitoshi’s insomnia well. Though you could manage to sleep, his inability to fall into slumber was something he wrestled with daily. You knew he was able to sleep some, but it was a great difficulty and was the root cause of his incessant caffeine consumption. 

“I’m gonna try, if not, it’ll be okay, I’ll at least be very comfortable,” He rubbed his hands up and down your arms. “Besides, it’s easier to sleep next to someone.”

“Really?” You asked, tilting your head to the side. “Like, has it always been easier for you to sleep with someone?”

Hitoshi gave a little sigh, nodding.

“Dummy,” You snorted, lightly flicking his nose. “You could’ve asked me.”

“To... Sleep with me?” Hitoshi blinked down at you.

“Yeah. I would’ve said yes,” you shrugged easily. It was hardly a question. Even if you didn’t have incredibly strong feelings for Hitoshi, you would’ve tried to help. “I’ve always cared about you like that.”

Hitoshi closed his eyes and took a big inhale, the hands on your arms speeding up a little, “You have no idea what you do to me, do you, (Y/N)?”

Your gut dropped, “I don’t—”

Hitoshi didn’t give you a chance to fully answer him before leaning down abruptly and scooping you into his arms. Your arms flew to his neck for purchase as he cradled you to his chest, squeezing and walking to the bed.

“You are just so fucking sweet,” Hitoshi set you down on the bed, allowing you to adjust yourself to look up at him. You sat on your legs, kneeling while looking up at him.

He bit his lip, eyes widened and glassy looking down at you. You gulped as you heard his shaking breaths, felt his trembling hand cup your cheek.

“You’re way too good,” Hitoshi breathed, shaking his head. 

The incredibly tense sexual aura of the moment dissipated as Hitoshi sat next to you on the bed, scooting to the inside of the mattress and pulling up the comforter.

Part of you was disappointed, feeling lingering pressure between your thighs, but the more sensical part of you was very tired and wanted nothing more than to finally hold Hitoshi and fall into sleep.

“Hey, get over here,” Hitoshi knocked you from your thoughts as his arms wrapped around your waist. He dragged you up, fitting you in the crook of his arm, pressing his nose into your hair. “If you’re in my bed, you’re gonna be in my bed, fully committed.”

“I’m not complaining,” You purred, more than satisfied with throwing your leg of his own, curling in his chest. 

Part of you wanted to check, to confirm that all of this was okay. The night had been a lot and you were sure both of you were pretty keyed up from everything. Getting together with Hitoshi was hardly the outcome you expected of the ‘sex party,’ but you weren’t going to complain. Fuck, you could hardly do anything as Hitoshi’s cologne, heat, and firm body were already lulling your body to sleep.

“You are sleeping, aren’t ‘ya?” Hitoshi teased, pressing a kiss to your forehead. 

You made a small noise, the most you could muster before burying yourself at his collarbone. 

Sleep quickly took you under, Hitoshi beaming you the sweetest smile and lavishing you with quiet, subtle affections as not to wake you.

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

You woke up to dawn light streaming in through a slit in a familiar set of curtains. You grumbled, half-awake, but really not wanting to move. You were too comfortable. Warmth filled your body, peace floated over your slumber-hazed mind and you couldn’t help letting out a content sigh.

The presence of heat let out a familiar chuckle.

You slowly opened your eyes again, becoming aware of the fact that you were half sprawled over Hitoshi. He was looking down at you, sweetly, eyebrow raised.

You literally gasped.

Hitoshi’s hair was tousled and far more wild with bedhead. The amethyst yolks of his eyes were lit up by the early morning light, and he just beamed down at you. 

“You’re so pretty,” You let slip.

The events of the night prior became fresh in your mind. The good ones far outweighed the bad. It was even easier to ignore any and all sour feelings because fucking finally you and Hitoshi were in bed together.

Finally.

“Why, thank you. You’re pretty beautiful yourself, you know.” 

You were going to nut.

His. Voice.

It was always deep, a rolling bass, but addled with sleep? It was graveled and coarse and it made you literally wet.

“Fuck.” Was all you could muster as you slowly sat up.

Hitoshi squeezed you around your ribs, a knowing look and smile stretched across his face. 

The hold on your waist reminded you that Hitoshi was, in fact, holding you. His hands, soft for how large they were, massaged slow, deep circles just above your hips and through your borrowed shirt. You had to have slept tucked up into him like that all night.

You hoped there would be many more like it.

“Did you sleep okay?” You asked, your own voice rough.

Hitoshi grinned drowsily, “I did. It’s a hell of a lot easier next to you.”

You couldn’t suppress the way your lips curled into a smile. Leaning forward, you ran your hands up his chest to brace yourself, leaving a soft kiss on his lips, “I’m glad. Very glad. Wanna do it again sometime?”

“Oh, (Y/N),” Hitoshi rumbled, hands moving up to tickle lightly at your ribs. “Now that I’ve gotten a taste of how lovely it is to sleep next you, I don’t know if I’ll ever let you sleep anywhere else.”

You raised an eyebrow, “Let me? Interesting word choice.”

“Intentional word choice,” Hitoshi’s eyes darkened, tracing your form as he wet his lips, “You like a bit of control exerted on you, don’t you, (Y/N)?”

You shuddered as Hitoshi dragged you closer, up his body so your hips straddled his own.

“I mean, yeah,” you breathed, clothes beginning to feel way too hot atop your skin. “You were there for kink night, weren’t you?”

You tried to joke, but Hitoshi didn’t let you.

“I was there,” One of Hitoshi’s hands tangled into your hair, rubbing affectionately, but your gut told you he had other, more particular, plans. “And, I have a good memory.”

Without missing a beat, Hitoshi flipped the two of you.

Your back hit the mattress and knocked the wind out of you. A breathy gasp fell from your lips, unabashed as Hitoshi was suspended on top of you. 

You almost spoke, but then you noticed the way Hitoshi was looking at you, and you couldn’t. Whatever breath that laid in your lungs slowly dripped out.

He was looking at you like a man starved. 

His eyes glittered as he traced each curve of your body, pliant and beginning to tremble under his touchless attention. 

“Y-you’re bold, you know that?” You managed to stutter out.

Hitoshi chuckled to himself, shaking his head, “Just observant. You always say that I’m a good listener.”

You shuddered as Hitoshi leaned down, nose trailing down your jaw to your pulse point. He paused above the fluttering beat of your heart before licking a strip down your neck with the flat of his tongue.

“Jesus, Hitoshi,” You scraped out, swallowing as heat rushed through your tense body.

He pulled away, only to hover just above your face, staring into your eyes with an intensity that would be stifling from anyone else other than him.

“Do you want me to keep going? We don’t have to if you’re not comfortable,” Holy fuck, did Hitoshi’s voice somehow get lower? Is that what fucking happened when he got horny? 

You were going to die.

“No, no, we should keep going, yes,” You really tried not to sound desperate, but it hardly mattered. Hitoshi could more than tell, he knew you so well.

You didn’t give him a chance to tease you, hands clasping behind his head to gently pull him down to your lips. 

God, you were positive you wouldn’t ever tire of Hitoshi in any way. Everything about him seemed so right, good and perfect especially near you. 

Hitoshi nipped at your bottom lip, one of his hands insistently rubbing at the bones of your hip. You shuddered at the onslaught of sensations, slotting your mouth against his to bring him as close as you could manage.

One of your hands flitted down his frame, tugging at the hem of his sleep shirt. You’d seen Hitoshi shirtless plenty of times, eyed him as much as was acceptable for ‘bros’, and then moved on with a reddened face, but you would be damned if you weren’t going to ogle him a bit, now that you had the open opportunity to.

Hitoshi sat back on your hips, pulling his shirt over his head with ease and became what you could only be certain was a manifestation of your dreams. 

It was clear he indeed had very much been working out, all the muscles of his abs and arms were toned and well-used, even holding a bit of the tan from when he started his training last summer. 

You noted, drool puddling in your mouth, that he (and assumedly Denki) did get their nipples pierced for their ten-year friend-iversary last fall. Cute barbels hung from his nipples, surprising, but also very hot. You followed the ‘v’ of his hips to the waistband of the soft grey sweatpants he was wearing, noting with a shocked raise of the eyebrows that Hitoshi was already considerably hard and considerably large. 

“You like what you see?” Hitoshi teased, leaning back over you to worry at your neck with a few well-placed licks.

You swallowed, hands pressing to his chest, running up and down the soft skin before going to pinch one of his nipples, “I really do, fuck.”

Hitoshi’s breath stutters against your neck, “Like ‘em?”

“I thought you two were kidding.”

“Oh, never—!”

Hitoshi’s words were yanked from his chest as you pinched and twisted both of his nipples, albeit lightly. You were doing it partially to get a reaction and gauge how sensitive he was. With the way he whined from the back of his throat, you inferred that he was very sensitive. 

“Aren’t there more important things you could be doing with your hands?” You chided, though not an edge of malice was in your voice.

Hitoshi just seemed spurred on by this, grunting and swiping your wrists into his grip. Your hands were pressed above your head, pinned to the mattress by his body weight.

A low whine spun from the back of your throat.

“You’re really lucky that I like brats and that I love you—”

Both of you paused.

He...

Did he just—

Did he just drop the L bomb?

He dropped the L BOMB . 

 You stared up at Hitoshi, frowning at the absolute terror in his eyes.

“I, I mean, I didn’t mean it like that,” Hitoshi sat back up on you, nervousness in every motion of his body. “I just meant—”

“Hey,” You interrupted, sitting up with him. “I love you too, you know. I’m pretty sure I have.”

Hitoshi doesn’t say anything for a minute and neither do you. You’re both in stunned silence. Enraptured by the other, your forms painted with the precious, vibrant gold that streamed in from the curtained window. The other sounds were that of the ambient city awakening and the unsteady breath that was shared between the two of you.

It was oddly perfect, and neither of you complained. 

“So,” Hitoshi broke the silence, running his hands up your arms. “I love you.”

Oh, did it feel like a drug to hear his morning voice say the new phrase in such a way.

You nodded, leaning forward to press a chaste kiss to his navel, “And I love you.”

“Then, it’s settled.”

There was certainly more to discuss involving the nature of your relationship, including the fact that you both had your heads so far up your asses for so long and were definitely in denial for a good portion of time, and that your love was a lot more complicated than either of you were making it out to be. 

But, you both certainly shared the history for it.

All of the late nights where you both eyed the other secretly, turning away at the last moment before being noticed. 

There were plenty small moments of caring, too. 

There was the way how whenever you were over, you made Hitoshi a new pot of coffee, no matter if the old one was out. 

There was Hitoshi’s intentional habit and insistence (that had lasted years) that he walked you back from parties, sharing cigarettes or half-carrying you. He never minded. 

There was the way you had memorized each other's takeout orders months ago. 

There was the small drawer in Hitoshi’s desk that was dedicated to things you left and might need. Several extra pairs of socks, makeup remover, a spare notebook, an extra laptop charger for when you inevitably forgot your own.

There was, of course, the way that you and Hitoshi were currently looking at each other. Fuck whatever fragile, easy-to-tear-away eye contact that had been occurring between the two of you for years, all that there was now between was the collection of lost time.

“Please kiss me.”

The request was obliged.

Hitoshi was quick to pin you back to the mattress, bratty behavior forgotten and stored away. There would be plenty of time to explore that mutual side of your relationship, but now only desire was Hitoshi and your shared pleasure.

Your lips slotted together, pulling a moan from your chest as Hitoshi immediately licked his into your mouth. It was a bit sloppy, rushed in the heat of the moment, but he quickly slowed down. Cupping your jaw, he deepened the kiss as you moved against him, lightly rolling your hips for any sort of friction.

You were the first to pull away, nosing to his jaw and lavishing it with bites and kisses. The rough groans and grunts that Hitoshi spilled were all the motivation you needed to go lower and lower on his neck.

Marking him as you pleased, you sucked at the skin of his neck, leaving bruises and spittle in your wake. You teasingly blew at the wet spots a few times, loving the way he shivered against you.

Hitoshi wasn’t to be outplayed, hands roving over your body. He left quick squeezes and rolled his thumbs anywhere he could reach. It was like he had to touch everything.

Your back arched and you cried into his neck as Hitoshi’s hands squeezed your breasts over your shirt, worrying a nipple with the pads of his fingers in the same way that you did to him earlier.

“Can’t take what you dish out?” Hitoshi chuckled in your ear as you squirmed underneath him.

You shook your head, biting on one of his collar bones, “I want more.”

His lips were back on your own before you could think.

You could feel how wet you were getting, unattended heat that desperately needed contact of any kind. As Hitoshi’s teeth nipped your neck, trailing lower to the wide collar of your shirt, it only got worse.

“Can I take this off?” Hitoshi asked, ever the gentleman. 

You didn’t answer, but rather whipped your shirt off as quickly as possible. 

And then your upper half was bared to him.

Your breasts spilled with gravity and rose and fell with your own light panting, glistening with sweaty dew.

You swallowed as Hitoshi’s hand went to your navel, flat-palmed. Slowly, he dragged it upwards, stopped to palm your tits only for a moment. You took note of how thick his fingers were and how you wanted nothing more than for them to fuck you into oblivion.

His fingers trailed to your sternum, then to your throat, tracing up the column before roughly grabbing your jaw.

“You,” Hitoshi voice sounded thick as he pressed his knee into your sex. “Have no idea what you to do me.”

“Then fucking show me.” You spit back out at him, one of your hands teasing at the top of his waistband, 

Fuck Hitoshi’s knee, apparently, because he immediately slid down the bed to hover in between your legs.

You snapped your knees closed out of surprise, all the same dripping against your panties 

“You want me to show you?” Hitoshi seemed to be speaking more to himself than you. “Then I will.”

Hitoshi slipped his thumbs under the waistband of the borrowed sweats, pulling them down and off of you with ease. He situated himself back between your legs, parting you by your inner thighs with a bruising grip.

You heard his sharp intake of breath as he hovered so close to your sex.

“Already so wet for me? I’m flattered.” Hitoshi didn’t give you any chance to quip back as he licked your slit through your thin panties. 

You squirmed for him, all for him.

“Please, more, ‘Toshi,” Your voice was warped with pleading, but you could hardly care. The burning look that Hitoshi flashed you was more than enough to nonverbally explain his intentions.

He set to marking up your thighs, murmuring sweet nothings to and about the flesh and how you cried out for him so well. He dotted you with lovely bruises, kissing closer and closer to your dripping cunt.

With one final, pleading look, Hitoshi all but tore off the thin panties you wore and ravished you. 

He licked from your opening to your clit with a flat tongue, making your thighs stiffen and toes curl. You felt him hum against you as he shifted your legs over his shoulder. One of his arms wrapped under your thigh, pressing at the bottom of your tummy and locking you in place. 

He sucked hard on your clit, just once, almost as some sexual litmus test to assess your ability to move freely.

It was very low as all you could do was arch for him, whines filling the air.

It seemed like it was more than enough for him. 

Hitoshi tongue fucked you sloppy, refusing to give you any more stimulation on your clit, no matter how you tried to buck at his face. All Hitoshi’s hold would allow you to do was gently grind against his face as slick and spit soaked the bed below. It was more than enough to make your brain gummy, craving nothing more and more of his touch. 

You squeezed your thighs around Hitoshi’s cheeks as he carefully pressed one of his aforementioned thick fingers into your cunt. Hot pleasure permeated every corner of you as you panted for Hitoshi, all for him.

He curled his finger just right and you screamed.

Hitoshi was quick to take the hint, pushing around another inside to repeat the motion, lips, and tongue working your clit as the pressure built beautifully.

“You close, kitten?” Hitoshi’s words were muffled by your cunt, but holy fuck, you knew exactly what he said. 

You whined at the use of the word, nodding and panting out a muddled affirmative.

Hitoshi sucked lewdly at the mess between your legs, pulling your body to the apex of its hot pressure, before breaking.

Your back curled off the bed, Hitoshi’s hold released to all you to fully fuck his face as he slurped at the juices between your thighs. Your mind went fuzzy as pleasure crackled through your frame, fingers curling into the rumpled fabric below and your head bowing back into the pillows. 

You slowly came down, twitching as Hitoshi continued to kiss around your sex. You could half-tell he was grinding against the bed; he was that turned on. 

You sat up, swaying a bit, drunk on bliss, and already semi-fucked out. 

Yet, you still wanted more.

“‘Toshi, please,” You looked at him helplessly. 

He sat up on his knees, hands going to play with your tits as he raised a smug eyebrow, face wet with you, “Want my cock, kitten? Is that it?”

“Holy fuck, ‘Toshi, please,” Your voice came out as mixture between a whine and growl as Hitoshi chuckled, reaching to the side for the nightstand and condoms, you assumed.

“I thought I’d have to do more to get you begging, with that little bratty shit you pulled earlier,” He mused, stepping off the bed for only a moment to finally pull off his sweats.

If your mouth had been any more open, drool would have fallen into your lap.

Hitoshi was, once again, sculpted. The guy put in work and it showed. That was less important and less relevant as you were currently lewdly, literally, drooling over his cock. It wasn’t only cervix-shatteringly long, but it was thick and curved just right. It was flushed, fully hard against his abs and leaking beads of preek, all from the friction of the bed and giving you head. 

“Can I do it?” You asked as Hitoshi unwrapped the condom. 

He nodded, cheekily, handing you the package.

You crawled to the edge of the bed, stopping to sit on your knees as he stood above you. Carefully, you rolled the rubber on, clenching your thighs together as your oversensitive cunt throbbed. 

You stared at its girth, biting your lip nervously and looked up at Hitoshi.

Immediately, his gaze softened and he caught your face in his hand, thumbing over your cheek, “Are you alright?”

“Y-yeah, just, uh,” You stumbled over your words, gaze flipping from his very pretty cock and his very pretty face. “Do you have lube? It’s been a while and I don’t want to tear.”

“I do,” Hitoshi’s worry dissolved, pulling a bottle from the same drawer and tossing it on to the bed. “And, I will try my best not to tear you. We can go as slow or as fast as you like, hm?”

You nodded, biting your lip and crawling back onto the bed.

Hitoshi cooed sweet words to you as the two of you adjusted. Perhaps it was to his own natural nervousness, or maybe yours. All the same, the loving comments about your body and how good you were for him turned you to putty underneath him.

Your legs were thrown up over his shoulders, feet prepared to lock behind his head. Hitoshi knelt between your legs, holding your thighs spread as his lubed cock ran over your folds.

“Tell me if you need me to go slower, okay?” Hitoshi reminded you, ever attentive.

You gulped as Hitoshi breached your cunt with the head of his cock and holy fuck. You stretched, and it burned, but it was nothing that you couldn’t handle. Hitoshi kept praising you, running his lips wherever they could reach as he leaned over your pillow-propped form. Inch by inch, he pushed into you, stopping when your breathing got too harsh.

And then, Hitoshi’s cock was fully sheathed into you and you felt so fucking full, you could die.

“Hey, ‘Toshi?” You spoke breathlessly, wiping sweaty strands of violet hair from his cheeks. “I love you, okay? For a lot more than your dick, but this is a huge perk and I’d feel bad not saying so.”

He was still and silent for a moment, head bent out of your view. 

“You’re gonna tell me, while I’m buried this deep in this cute, little cunt of yours, such sweet shit? That you love me?” Hitoshi growled, darkened eyes lust-hazed. 

You nodded.

Hitoshi swiftly pulled almost entirely out of cunt, only to slam back into you, angling your hips perfectly to hit your g-spot. 

Your nails dug into his shoulders, head thrown back and you gave a breaking wail, body shaking with the sudden cracking of pleasure.

And, Hitoshi didn’t relent. 

He continued his hard, deep, and long thrusts, increasing his speed as he felt you loosen for him. With each thrust, wet squelching sounds spurred the two of you on. 

Hitoshi’s face buried itself in your neck, sucking harsh marks that sparked pain across your heated skin. You couldn’t get enough of it. You couldn’t get enough of him.

Hitoshi accented each thrust with a more desperate, broken sounding ‘I love you,’ quickly unraveling at the seams as his thrusts and kisses became more erratic. 

He reached between the two of you, blessedly circling your clit as your own orgasm was close to cresting. 

You came before Hitoshi, just by a second, the clenching of your cunt and the way you moaned his name being more than enough for him to blow his load, fucking you through both of your orgasms.

You both stilled, panting. 

Hitoshi fell next to you on the bed, instantly pulling you to his chest and smothering you with kisses. You returned them, shuddering and coming down from the earth-shattering peak you had just been at.

“Fuck, Hitoshi,” You squeezed around your arms around his waist. “You fuck like a god.”

He shook his head, pressing a kiss to your sweaty temple, “You say shit like that and it’s gonna inflate my ego.”

“Guess I gotta keep saying it, then.”

You smiled up at him, moving to straddle his waist, ignoring your bodily complaints.

“I love you, you know,” Hitoshi beams from below you, looking at you with a reverence that you craved for so long, but were too afraid to voice.

You let out a shaking breath, smiling right back, “I love you, too.”

Hitoshi pulled you in for a sweet kiss you returned easily, smiling against his lips, melting into him—

His cock hardened against your thigh.

“Round two?” Considering the smiles you beamed each other, that was a definite ‘yes, please’.

 But, you were rudely interrupted by the slammed of the front door. You both stiffened, Hitoshi immediately going to grab your waist and drag you onto the bed. He threw a blanket over you, but it was hardly necessary.

Denki’s voice rang over the house, “HEY! Did y’all fuck yet? If you did, please tell me. I’m against Mina in the betting pool and I’m in deep.”

All you and Hitoshi could spare was a laugh and a sweet kiss, before you shouted back, “What do you think?!” 

#salem writes #shinso hitoshi x reader #hitoshi shinso x reader #mha smut #mha x reader #mha reader insert #shinso x reader #shinso hitoshi x y/n #hitoshi shinso x y/n #bnha x reader #shinso hitoshi #shinsou x you #my hero academia shinsou

[yourdeepestfathoms]

i have been working religiously on my book, so here is another part for y’all!

— — —

“I’m sorry, Mister Proctor,” Mary whispered as they approached Proctor’s horse.

“For a mouse that squeals and cries as loudly as you do during punishments, you sure love doing things that will warrant such treatment,” Proctor said.

Mary lowered her head. It still hurt. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses. Help me onto my horse.”

Mary obeyed.

“Do try to keep up. I don’t want to be waiting on you. A storm is coming.”

“Yes, sir.”

Proctor was right: a storm was coming, and it hit with the regular ferocity of a Massachusetts winter tempest. Now she understood why Proctor was wearing so many layers.

By the time they were halfway to the farm, Mary was completely soaked and shivering, the cold having crept deep into her bones, turning them into rods of ice. She wondered if this freezing rain had been sent by God Himself to punish her for her wrongdoings. It certainly felt like a lashing from the Lord.

“You could have been back inside by now,” Proctor mused atop his steed. Mary could barely hear him over the crunching of gravel and pattering of rain. “But instead you had to go galavant through Salem.”

“I was worried about my friends,” Mary said, daring to defend herself.

Proctor scoffed but didn’t say anything.

In the distance, a farm swam through the sheets of icy rain. It wasn’t the Proctor property, so there was no point in stopping, but someone called out to them anyway.

“Ah, John! Have you come to accuse me some more? If you haven’t noticed, it’s raining. I can’t set anything on fire in this weather.”

Proctor ground his teeth. “I already apologized to you for that.”

“And yet, here we are!”

There was an old man leaning on the fence bordering the property, white hair clinging to a balding scalp, deep blue eyes sparking with mischief in the half-light. He had a wrinkly lizard’s face and hands more befitting for a skeleton. Despite his age, Mary knew he had enough vigor to best any of the younger men in the village. She heard he once beat a burglar to death with a cane. He was a lot of vex and a little well-mannered, and he loved nothing more than to irritate the people of Salem Village, especially John Proctor.

“It would be a shame if this would be the year your land floods, John,” Giles Corey said. No person in their right mind would be out in this storm; he had definitely been waiting for Proctor to go down the road so he could prod him. He would risk getting ill if it meant he was able to dig under the younger farmer’s skin.

“If this is some kind of attempt to get the deed to my farm, then you can save it,” Proctor said, spurring his horse into motion again. “I’ve heard it all, Giles.”

Corey huffed. His expression brightened once again when he noticed Mary holding onto the saddle.

“Ah, Mary Warren! How are you, dearest? Is the back of your head alright?”

Proctor was quick to step in: “Don’t talk to her,” he snapped at Corey. Then, to Mary, “Don’t talk to him.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You’re going to kill that girl, John!” Corey shouted after them. “If you ever need a place to flee to, Mary Warren, Martha and I are willing to take a servant!”

His words were washed away by the rain, but they remained rooted inside of Mary’s brain. If only she could switch employers. If she weren’t an indentured servant, she would have gone to the Putnam’s a long time to work with Mercy. Maybe then every day wouldn’t be such a pain.

And speaking of pain…

Mary winced, tentatively touching the back of her head. She couldn’t tell if the dampness she was feeling was blood or just rainwater. Didn’t matter now. She dropped her arm.

Above her, Proctor was muttering in his saddle, casting a dark look at the road in front of him. He said something about Giles Corey and something else about the farm and something else about wanting to rip out the old man’s gizzard. He seemed awfully worked up about the confrontation.

“If I may, sir…”

Proctor looked down at her, eyes narrowed. Mary nearly stopped talking right then and there, but she swallowed her nerves and continued on.

“If Mister Corey is such a bother to you, why not do more to stop him?”

“Are you lame, girl?” Proctor snapped. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do all this time? Ever since the fire, he’s been a thorn in my side.”

The fire referred to a fire that started in Proctor’s house, a time before Mary went to work with his family, which she was grateful for because she wouldn’t have been able to handle that drama. Naturally, Proctor said Corey was responsible for the fire, which made Corey file a lawsuit against Proctor. Later, one of Proctor’s sons would come forward and admit to being the one to cause the fire. Proctor begrudgingly apologized, but that didn’t stop Corey from continuously bringing it up whenever he got the chance.

“Why do you bring it up?” Proctor then asked. “What would YOU do? Since you think you’re so clever.”

“Me? Well, I-- I, uhh… Maybe raise the price on the land? Make it to where it would be too expensive for him to want to buy.”

Proctor opened, then closed his mouth. Then, he squinted at her. Finally, he actually laughed and took off his broad-brimmed hat, batting her over the head with it.

“I guess you aren’t so stupid after all,” he said affectionately. “I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

Mary cracked a small smile. The bad outweighed the good when it came to her master, but she knew John Proctor wasn’t all cruelty and lashings. He had a strong softness for all of his children and a deep love for his wife. Sometimes Mary would hear him reading light-hearted Bible stories to his younger kids at night. Sometimes she would stand outside the room and listen.

Through the glistening shroud of mist and drizzle at the side of the road, the Proctor property unfolded from the fog like a proper country castle. Acres upon acres of emerald green grass, sturdy barns, a fine house, fields chock full of crops and livestock. Their cattle were fat and happy, slick with rain, water streaming from their round bellies and mud splashing up from each delicate footstep. It darkened their coats and made them look like they were soaked in blood. It was no wonder why Giles Corey wanted the land so badly. It was thriving with wealth.

“Put my horse away,” Proctor said after sliding off the chestnut stallion’s back. “Tack him. Then come inside immediately. Do not run off.”

“Yes, sir.”

Proctor gave her one last warning stare, then handed her the reins and walked to the house.

Mary would have taken her sweet time putting away the horse if it weren’t for the fact that she was freezing and her head was killing her. She tacked the stallion, put him into his stall, and fed him in record time, ready to get inside and change out of her wet clothes. However, when she finally entered the house, she didn’t get to do that. She was stopped by her master and mistress.

Proctor and Elizabeth were speaking to each other, but Mary could tell they were arguing, despite their level tones. They both turned to her when she stepped inside. Proctor was already in dry clothes, standing beside the roaring hearth. The flames looked so comforting and warm.

“Stay where you are,” Proctor ordered, noticing her desire to go to the fire.

“Yes, sir.”

“I understand she is in trouble, but at least let her warm up,” Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth Proctor had always been Mary’s favorite Proctor. Twenty-two years her husband’s her junior, though she looked a lot younger than that, she was kind and patient, never using the whip and rarely ever raising her voice. She wore dresses in soft shades, greatly mirroring her soothing nature; right now she was wearing a pale green gown with a white apron. Her hair was champagne blonde and her eyes were a pretty hazel with flecks of gold near the pupils. Mary craved her warm, maternal gaze so much it was almost painful.

“No,” Proctor said. “This is a part of her punishment.”

“She is going to freeze. Do you want our servant to freeze, John? Then what shall we do?”

“Get a better servant, perhaps? One that won’t run off?” He shot a glare at Mary, reminding her that he was, in fact, still mad about that, in case she had forgotten. She hadn’t.

So much for their moment on the road.

Elizabeth opened her mouth, then sighed. She looked at Mary. “Yes, you should not have run off. You aren’t allowed to go anywhere without our permission. You know that.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry.” Always obedient, always agreeable. Mary knew her place.

“Why did you leave?” Elizabeth asked.

“Mercy came to see me, ma’am,” Mary answered. She didn’t want to throw her friend to the crows, but she also knew better than to not be dishonest, especially when she was already in trouble. “We wanted to go check on Abby and Betty. We heard that they weren’t well.”

“I heard that, too,” Elizabeth nodded slowly. “How are they?”

“Strange. They slept like the dead, but woke up out of nowhere and started screaming. Betty tried to jump out of the window!”

Elizabeth’s eyebrows shot up. “Did she?”

“That is none of our concern right now,” Proctor growled, butting his way back in. “This disobedience cannot go unpunished.”

Elizabeth sighed. “Yes…I suppose you’re right. I say no dinner tonight.”

Proctor rolled his eyes. “You coddle her, Elizabeth.”

“I do not coddle her!”

Ignoring his wife, Proctor looked at Mary, “Fetch me a switch.”

Mary released the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Her heart leapt out from the pit in her stomach. She nodded.

“Yes, sir.”

#servant of evil #lizzie’s dumb book #nobody cares and i know y’all want resident evil stuff but here is this anyway #because i like showing off my stuff #mary warren #john proctor #elizabeth proctor #salem witch trials #salem witches #my writing

[yamaoni]

The Second Great War of Remnant has begun. Once more, Vale and Mantle are embroiled in a massive conflict, only this time, they are on the same side against Atlas.

I don't think it was a coincidence that so many people drew parallels with the last episode and WWI. We've never seen people fight that way in RWBY. Grimm don't use projectile weapons the way humans do, so the benefits of the trench are diminished; especially if you compare it to the drawbacks.

Now, I understand not everyone in the Atlas military has their aura unlocked and the squishy soldiers need some cover, but if The Long Memory didn't nuke every grimm on Atlas, the lines would have been overrun and then there would have been nowhere for them to retreat to.

You think the very real hand to hand struggles in the trenches of WWI were bad, imagine being trapped in a narrow trench with a bear. Or having this thing explode out of the ground under you.

I refuse to believe no-one in Atlas ever thought, "if we put the dirt from the trench in a box, no only can we give our soldiers cover, we can also give them an elevated position to fire from."

The top of a wall has been the primary defensive position for the people of Remnant for a long time. You can see them in the establishing shots of most settled places the team has visited. So why are we seeing a trench now?

Simple.

Show, don't tell.

RWBY has done a pretty great job, especially in the last few seasons, of showing the audience what it is trying to convey without explicitly telling them. They especially like drawing from well known folk lore to give insight into the future of the show.

Only difference here, instead of drawing the parallel between characters, they're drawing parallels between worlds.

Remnant's first Great War started with Mantle suppressing freedom of expression, the destruction of Art and Color. Ironwood always has little in the way of color, but in his first broadcast since everything started hitting the fan, he has none.

That broadcast also included evacuation ships being blown up by fighter-bombers, Dunkirk. It threatend to level a city if they didn't surrender, Battle of Brittan. All delivered by a dictator trying to scare his opponents into submission through careful use of film.

Theories

If the rest of the season is WWII, I have several theories on plot direction. Considering how well they did keeping up with both ends of the battlefield it wouldn't surprise me if they followed all of them at the same time.

Operation Dunkirk

Or, the evacuation of Mantle.

Players: Penny, Nora, Ren, Happy Huntresses

The Happy Huntresses involvement is a given. Not only has saving Mantle been their goal the whole time, they're also stuck in the middle of it right now.

Penny is the Protector of Mantle. It would be a shining moment for her character to fully throw off the virus Watts implanted and overcome Ironwood's threats to do so. Just crossing my fingers that it doesn't end like the Iron Giant.

Nora is currently Penny's tether to sanity, so she has to go with, and I doubt they would separate Ren from her for the next arc so he's going too.

Surprise twist for this plot I'm betting will be the Starwars "they aren't warships, just people" scene everyone loves to rag on. After all, the broadcast went out that they needed help and, at least at Dunkirk, it was fishing boats and pleasure crafts that retrieved the 338,000 surrounded on all sides.

Why We Fight

Or, countering Ironwoods propaganda.

Players: Robyn and Qrow

For one, these two are unaccounted for and in the heart of Atlas' military machine. If anyone has means to do so, it's them.

The film, Why We Fight, also countered the dramatic cinematography of Goebbels propaganda by painting it as ridiculous and making a folksy call to action much like Robyn has done in the past.

Operation Fortitude

Or, the deception of Ironwood.

Players: Emerald, Jaune, Oscar

This is the mission to make Ironwood think the team is going after the relic. This theory is why I actually thought of and wrote out this whole thing. Thanks @maxiemumdamage, I had things I was supposed to do tonight.

https://maxiemumdamage.tumblr.com/post/644291955872890880/willing-to-bet-my-own-soul-that-emerald-uses-her

Only difference in my theory and their's, is Jaune is going to be playing the part of Penny.

I say this for two reasons. One, Joan of Arc pretended to be a man. While we've gotten both Jaune pretending to be something he's not and him in a dress, this would pose the first time in the story he could do both. Two, it would put him on a direct collision path with Cinder. It needs to happen at some point to bring his arc to a conclusion, but man I hope we're not about to watch him burn.

With Ozpin active again, Oscar has to go along to direct them to the vault. He's also one of two backing the idea of Emerald joining the team and Jaune wouldn't be willing to work with her without him.

Operation Overlord

Or, busting down the doors of Atlas Acadamy.

Players: Ruby, Blake, Weiss, Yang

Where Operation Fortitude was the faint, Operation Overlord was the real deal. For those that aren't history buffs, this is D-Day.

I think this is the reason we've only seen the main team fighting together once since their split from Beacon. And even then, that fight was at most pairs of fighters and not all four of them supporting one another.

RWBY tricked us into thinking season 4 was the post-timeskip level up we come to expect from anime when really we ended up watching the training flashbacks as they happened instead.

We've seen hints of it with the various team ups and combinations, but are we really ready for how much ass kicking they are about to do?

I'm hoping for a One Piece level of badass entrance that can give me shivers whenever I go to watch it again like the walk to Arlong Park still does to this day.

(Aside: if you try telling me RWBY isn't anime, I'm just going to ignore you. Anime is an art movement. If you don't understand what that means, watch this video. https://youtu.be/uFtfDK39ZhI)

Now last and certainly not least

Operation Valkyrie

Or, the death of Ironwood.

Players: Winter and Marrow

The long awaited defection. Plenty of speculation has already floated around about if and when these two where going to cave to their morals and jump ship. I don't know how many of us were expecting the straw to break the camel's back to be a nuke held over Mantle, but I certainly wasn't.

What worries me, is Operation Valkyrie failed and all its conspirators were executed. As if there weren't enough death flags for Winter before.

Even if it's not Winter that kills him. I don't see Ironwood surviving this season. Even if it means he goes out like another hated dictator. It's not like it would be the first time RT had a fallen hero chose to use his own sword.

Wildcards

Or, Murphy will have his due.

Players: Cinder, Watts, Neo, Tyrian, Mercury, Clover

These players can go any which way. Three we know for sure are going to be active in the coming episodes and I wouldn't be surprised if the other three play a part as well.

Oscar made a hell of a light show for Tyrian and Mercury to see behind them. Not to mention, Salem will still need a ride home when she pulls herself back together.

Clover keeps getting mentioned even though he's hospitalized. If he was truly out of commission for the rest of the season, they would have made us think he's dead before bringing him back like they did with Penny.

Up to now, what we've seen is a three way conflict. But one of the hallmarks of Remnant's First Great War, was making temporary alliances to fight off grimm.

The grimm might be gone, but the wild cards can't complete their own objectives if they are dead. The question is who's goals better align with their own.

Two surprise twists I can see here. One, Mercury stabbing Tyrian on his way to defection. He was raised by an assassin and has not going to get a better chance than that. Two, Clover joining Operation Valkyrie. He might have accepted that sacrifice is a necessary evil to ensure Atlas' survival, but might go Schindler's List on us and find horror in what Ironwood plans to do.

TLDR

I spent way too long writing this out. All the WWI imagery means we're getting a WWII movie with RWBY characters. Major death flags for Penny, Jaune, and Winter.

Also I finally figured out how to do a readmore. Apparently it's just been a long time since I updated.

Note: kept seeing things talking about clovers death and I kind of went ???? Isn't he barely alive in medical? Went back and watched that scene and though I am 90% sure he is dead still kind of weird that they have him in his own room instead of a morgue and the initial framing made my mind instantly think he was propped up on a hospital bed. I mean, I guess we needed to have all the ACEOPs there for their reaction to Ironwood... but it definitely made me think he was alive. That and they have a bandage on his chest wound... when he's supposedly dead. Also have a phantom memory of Harriet saying something about him being in critical but I think that's my memory playing tricks on me.

Having his face exposed instead of covered by the sheet and seeing him in the same frame as Winter being treated also didn't help my gut reaction of "Oh Shit! He's alive? How?!" If I'd followed up more on the "how" might not have made the blunder of writing his return as the final twist in my theory. Oops

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby speculation #rwby spoiler tag #ruby rose #blake bellodona #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #jaune arc #nora valkyrie #oscar pine #lie ren #qrow branwen #robyn hill #penny polendina #emerald sustrai #arthur watts #cinder fall #neo politan #winter schnee #marrow amin #cl*ver ebi #i did purposely mess up that last one so that my final idea could be a twist

[tarottchotchkes]

Fortunetelling Law Repeal Anniversary

FORTUNETELLING LAW REPEAL ANNIVERSARY ~ Connecticut Happenings column by Jon Roe

On March 31, 1993, Governor Lowell Weicker signed a law repealing the infamous Fortunetelling Law. Those of you who became interested in spirituality more recently may never have heard of this old Blue Law, how it hung like a cloud over readers, and how it took a united community effort to repeal it. This is the story.

In 1808, the country was new and Connecticut law was still very strongly influenced by the Congregational Church, the state religion in Connecticut. In an attempt to clean up the undesirables, a series of Blue Laws was passed. Title 176, Section 8 identified those individuals who could be sentenced to the Work House for up to 60 days of hard labor. Those identified included fortune tellers, jugglers, brawlers, beggars, prostitutes, vagrants, and men who did not support their families. Fine company readers were placed in.

In 1915, the law was revised to make it even more difficult to be a reader or medium. General Statute Section 53-270 made it illegal to advertise or take money to tell fortunes through the use of occult or psychic powers including astrology and psychology, but excluding the Spiritualist church. It also banned séances. The law was lengthy and detailed as to its description of "fraudulent practices." The penalty was $25-100 for each offense and/or 6 months in prison. In 1971, the prohibition against psychology and astrology was removed.

This law prohibiting all forms of readings was seldom enforced, but was occasionally used by local police after a major fraud case involving readings. Certain cultures use readings to take advantage of gullible clients, telling them they have been cursed which can only be removed for a large fee. One of these cases seems to come up and make headlines about every five years.

In the 1980's, the law hung over the heads of readers and many would become a reverend in the hope that as ministers they would be exempt. Meanwhile, readings and psychic fairs went on. Beverly Titus and Elizabeth Eisenhauer, two of the founders of The Door Opener, hosted bimonthly fairs in West Hartford for 9 years during this period.

In 1988, after a highly publicized fraud case involving fortune telling, the West Hartford police ran a sting operation against a local accountant who read tarot cards for friends under the name of Maryushka. Two officers posing as husband and wife went to her home for a reading and took Mary away in handcuffs. Most readers arrested under the law just paid the fine and the police saw it as a lesson to the community. But Mary felt this was wrong and chose to have her day in court. Stepping forward to defend her was Igor Sikorsky, Jr., a prominent attorney who supported the community and was a leader in the Course In Miracles community. The trial was most interesting and attracted a lot of media attention. Mary was found "not guilty," but the fact that she was arrested and tried raised awareness in the community and a strong desire to do something about the law. By the way, Mary's prediction to the officers that they would receive unexpected money proved true.

The following year, 1989, saw the formation of the New Age Guild of Connecticut. One of its purposes was to repeal the Fortunetelling Law. The Guild would grow to 200 members and established a committee to study how to repeal the law. Remember that the new age community at the time preferred to operate under the radar and had no experience in working on legislative matters.

Data and case studies were compiled but things moved slowly until 1992 when police in Mystic shut down a psychic fair to be held at an area bookstore. This galvanized the community and a committee was formed to take action. Representatives from across the state participated. As several of us lived in Vernon, we met with our local state representative, Joe Courtney, currently the 2nd District US Representative. He suggested we approach Richard Tulisano, co-chair of the powerful Judiciary Committee and a strong advocate of constitutional freedoms. Courtney provided an introduction and after studying the issue, Tulisano wrote a bill to repeal the law.

A press kit was developed for lobbying and sent to all the members of the Judiciary Committee. The Door Opener was very involved with the whole effort, updating the status in each issue, encouraging readers to contact their representatives, and providing details on how to do it. Our little community was coming into its power and this was before wide spread use of email and Internet.

We avoided the press for as long as possible and as a result only those of us who sought repeal appeared before the Judiciary Committee when a hearing was held on the bill on February 5, 1993. Of interest, Tulisano's co-chair was George Jepson, now the CT Attorney General. Twenty of us prepared to speak that day (I still have a copy of the sign-up sheet) and we organized the testimony so that people with a variety of backgrounds and professions would appear and each person would cover different aspects of the issue. We organized quite well to maximize our impact. Those on the list were a Who's Who of the community at the time and included Rev. Wandakay Parker, Rev. Charles Reuben, Bill Winkler, Mary Williams, Art Samson, Jon Roe, Lynn Merritt, Jennifer Page, Boyce Batey, and Harwood Loomis, among others.

The Judiciary Committee approved the bill a week later; then in March, the House of Representatives approved it 122-25, but it was much closer in the Senate at 20-15. Finally, Governor Weicker signed it into law on March 31, 1993.

It was a good experience for our community and served as preparation for lobbying efforts in the following years to protect the rights of practitioners to provide nutritional information (the American Dieticians Assoc. tried to highjack the right) and the general use of the term "psychotherapy" (again a group tried to claim it as only theirs). A secondary and very important result was the formation of community within the state - through The Guild, practitioner organizations, and just from working together and getting to know each other. We became connected and with the emergence of the Internet have become even closer.

Why remember this? As Americans we have had to fight our own government for our rights - racial freedom, voting rights, and women's rights. Although the right to do readings and mediumship is not of that magnitude, it is important to our community. And for each of the rights we exercise today someone had to step up and fight for them. It's important that we know our history and understand there will be other fights. A new generation must be ready to carry the fight forward to protect our rights to clean water, air and food, and freedom of expression.

~~~~~ Yes - in 1992, I became an ‘ordained minister’ so that I would be protected from the CT Fortune Telling Law. Also Remember - 1992 was the anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials - something that was not lost on us Tarot readers, either ....

Look up ‘The Universal Life Church’ and you, too, can become an ordained minister (for a small fee). ~~~~~

#ct fortune telling law #tarot card reading #universal life church

[luverofralts]

Post Arkhelios

Abe is dying having to live with his deteriorating family. It seems like forever since he's been happy...it feels like forever since he’s seen Roman. With his parents’ marriage falling apart, he’s been thinking a lot lately about his own love life. Arkhelios is a small place and there weren’t a lot of gay or bi teens to date. There was Jorah, but he was way too young for Abe, and for whatever reason, Abe had always felt the Durant kids were like distant family to him. It would be creepy to try think romantically about them. It also didn’t help matters that if things kept going like they were, Jorah might soon be his step-brother.

Now that the Durants are unfortunately a fixture in his life, Ulyssa some times texts him about life at boarding school in exchange for dirt on her parents. She especially thought he’d be interested in knowing that Roman was having a huge falling out with his family, which was keeping him from coming home to stay with them. Abe couldn't blame him for that, Ulyssa was doing the same thing, and god knows Abe would have left by now if he had somewhere to go. College is still in the distant horizon, and Salem hasn't been impressed with the results of Roman and Ulyssa's recruitment drive, so appealing to Salem likely won't get him out of Arkhelios either. Still, it couldn't hurt if he were to go to the Bellamys and ask if they had a way to reach Roman. Salem had stopped paying for Roman's phone, and the school itself was so old that payphones were too much of a modern inconvenience for the school to bother installing.

Roman's room was still perfectly unchanged since the last time Abe had been there. There were a lot of good memories in this room. Memories of stolen kisses, of pulling off Roman's shirt only to accidentally put it back on inside out later, of his heart racing when Salem called them down to dinner while they were still tangled up in Roman's sheets....why had things gotten so bad between them? Was Abe just idealizing the past, or had he really given up something special when he let Roman leave?

Visiting Roman's empty room had only made things worse for Abe. Now he would have to go home to his miserable family alone. Or so he thought until he ran into Wanda downstairs. Wanda had always been kind to him, and Roman actually seemed to like her as an aunt. In fact, there was a secret Roman had told Abe about her that Abe was desperately hoping was true. Witches and magic were real occurrences in places outside of Arkhelios; Roman was even learning a bit of it at school where witches were abundant and placed in positions of power.

“W-Wanda,” he stammered, “I don't want to be rude or anything, and I'm not going to out you to anyone...I was just wondering if you could maybe do me a favour?”

It barely took anytime at all for the hall to light up with an unnatural glow, leaving only a silhouette of a human shape. Once his eyes had adjusted, Abe could make out the undeniable features of Roman's shocked face.

“Abe? Wanda?” he asked incredulously. “You teleported me here?”

Wanda laughed.

“From what I hear, you certainly couldn’t pull that off yourself.” Her tone was playful, but Roman’s expression fell.

“No, I guess not. Just another thing I’m failing.”

Abe didn’t let him say another word. Roman was in his arms again. Something good had finally happened to him. Wanda left the two alone with a smile, and a promise to help Roman get himself back to his dorm when he needed to.

“I’m so sorry,” Roman sobbed against Abe’s shoulder. “I’ve been such an ass.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Abe cried. “I shouldn’t have let you go in the first place. Everything here is just terrible without you.”

“Everything at school is terrible. I’m barely passing, my parents have forgotten me, I was so cocky when I left that even Ulyssa won’t talk to me now. I thought I was going to be important, but it turned out that I was really nothing at all.”

Abe smiled.

“You’re something to me.”

Morty was suddenly interrupted from his cat nap by two very noisy teens. Omar’s bed had been abandoned when he moved out, and that room happened to have a lock installed on the door. Morty wasn’t sure what those two were doing, so he watched impassively for a moment before readjusting himself against a pillow and drifted back to sleep.

Abe and Roman held each other in Omar’s old bed until Morty’s constant staring unnerved them into moving to Roman’s catless room. The single bed was smaller, but it’s not like they hadn’t used it several times before. Eventually though, the two had to face reality and talk things out.

“I want to come home,” Roman declared. “Ulyssa is really happy over there, and maybe she has a shot of bringing people to Arkhelios, but even Grandpa has given up on me. I’m not good at any of my classes, and I kind of burned a lot of bridges when I first arrived.”

“It can’t be that bad, you burned a lot of bridges here too, and you were doing just fine.”

Roman laughed.

“Grandpa tried to marry me off to a straight prince when I wasn’t useful anymore. I can’t even be dumped off on someone properly.”

“You would make an awful consort,” Abe said. “But maybe you don’t belong with a prince. Maybe you could belong with me? Seriously this time, no cheating or running off to marry straight princes.”

Roman looked surprised by the offer.

“Just so you know, I’ve slept with Ulyssa and made out with Jorah. If we’re going to do this, I guess you should know that. ” Roman shook his head. “I move to a different country and still only hook up with people from Arkhelios.”

Abe nodded. He’d assumed that much.

“Just so you know, sometimes I hear voices in my walls, and I think my house is haunted.”

“Ookay.” Roman was intially baffled by the admission, but he’d seen a lot since leaving Arkhelios, and the world in general was turning out to be very different than he’d thought it was. “I guess no hooking up at your house then.”

“You know my Mom would kill you if she ever caught us,” Abe laughed. “The only thing my parents can agree on these days is that they really don’t like you.”

Malika pretended to be surprised when she walked into the living room and caught her grandson snuggling with that Chun boy. Very little happened in her house that she was not aware of. It was one of the benefits of being a tarot card reader. She would keep this to herself though; Salem was already too hard on their grandson. He was far too stubborn to realize that pushing Roman too hard would just push him into the arms of Abe and the Helios family. Subtlety was what was needed here.

“Roman! You’re home! What a surprise! I hope everything is okay at school.”

The boys all but jumped away from each other at the sound of her voice, and she sighed. Who did they think they were fooling exactly?

“No, everything’s fine,” Roman stammered. “I was just practicing my homework for magic class by teleporting here and Abe was just walking by, so I invited him in to catch up.”

Abe was beet red, and Malika saw the beginnings of a small hickey on Roman’s neck when he turned his head to look guiltily at Abe.

He must have inherited Omar’s stupidity. Even Kamalani could lie more convincingly than this.

“How wonderful that you’re progressing so well in your studies. Abe, would you like to stay for dinner then?”

Abe bolted up and looked towards the door.

“No, thank you,” he replied quickly. “I think my mom is working late, so I should help my dad make dinner.”

“Of course. “

So the Chuns don’t know about this little romance either. Interesting.

“Thanks for the visit, Roman. I hope to see you again soon!”

Abe walked as quickly as he could towards the front door. When she heard the door close, Malika hugged Roman and then beckoned him to take a seat next to her on the couch.

“Have I ever told you that I once almost dated Abraham Helios?” she asked.

Roman looked appalled.

“Abraham? Gross, what could you possibly see in him?”

Malika pulled Roman closer to her in a motherly embrace.

“He was very attractive as a young man,” she replied. “He had so many ideas and such great potential. When I was your age, I thought for sure that we would get married and shape Arkhelios together. But then he betrayed me like young people sometimes do, and gave himself to nearly any girl he met. When I met your grandfather, I was a little older and wiser, and I knew that we could build a life together instead of following teenage hormones.”

Roman froze in place.

“Abe and I are just friends, “ he lied. Why was everyone in his life so against him dating Abe? He was a Helios through his mother, but that should hardly matter. Still, better not to make his grandparents even more disappointed in him at the moment. Maybe if he and Abe could make it until they were in college, they could finally tell their families to leave them out of their grudges.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Malika said warmly. “The people we love as teenagers so rarely stay in our lives as adults. Friendship is what usually endures over the years. When you’re an adult, I’m certain that this will make sense to you.” She winked and pulled Roman into an even tighter hug. “Now go get Wanda to send you back before your grandfather comes home.”

#ts2 #sims 2 #arkhelios #post arkhelios #Roman Bellamy #Abe chun #sims 2 pictures #ts2 pictures

[kitkatopinions]

Blake has nothing going on for her now or in the future except Yang and to a lesser extent her team. These are the consequences of bungling the faunus storyline and replacing it with nothing. They've cleaned their hands of Blake's personality and goals. Like you said ship bait is all that's left.

Blake is honestly the worst treated character amongst Team RWBYJNR + Oscar imo, and tbh, I think even Qrow gets a better rep than her. And that’s saying something, because Qrow has been so badly handled.

The worst thing about this for me is the wasted potential. Blake was really wrapped up in their horribly bungled racism/faunus allegory even more so than Weiss. There are obviously problems with how CRWBY continues to try to use the racism/faunus allegory in some problematic ways rather than dropping it completely, without seeming to put in any effort to actually fix it. Blake’s story being so wholly wrapped up in the faunus racism arc had made her character problematic (for instance, she looks hypocritical for being totally against reactive violence in the case of the White Fang, but is training to be a Huntress and is just fine ripping through White Fang members.) Blake has a lot of good to her character from volumes 1-5 if you can separate her from the bungled allegory however (although I totally understand when people just can’t do that.)

Removing Blake from the faunus/racism arc doesn’t have to leave her with nothing as a blank sheet that must be built from the ground up, her character should’ve stayed the same. Blake’s base character at the start of the show that remains pretty dang consistent for five seasons is cynical, stubborn, defensive, active, passionate, focused, someone who has more life experience and a bit of a darker worldview than her friends, someone who has a hard time making friends anyway, a fairly quiet, independent girl with a tendency to run when things get to be too much and tends to self-destruct and push people away, but is still brave and selfless, with a moral code she believes in (although misused, a character that believes things like ‘stealing is always wrong’ is not an uninteresting one. Blake’s moral code was just used badly.) Blake also has a more subdued way of expressing her affections. A few things about Blake - like her tendency to run, many of her insecurities, pushing people away, and self-destructing - started to get worked through and addressed in an actually meaningful way during volumes 4 and 5 (although her resolution with Yang was wonky, but I could talk more about that in a different post.) However, in good narratives, these traits don’t just go away because they start getting worked through. For instance, just because Zuko in ATLA turns to the good side and starts addressing his trauma and working through his anger issues doesn’t mean he isn’t snippy, hotheaded, and prone to outbursts anymore. And for another instance, just because Yang starts trying to control her temper doesn’t mean she’s no longer prone to anger based reactions, snapping, being defensive, and getting into fights.

While Ruby, Weiss, and Yang read as more consistent even if there characters are going in a bad direction - Ruby’s always been reckless and considered her team the end all, her character now is the incredibly frustrating result of this never getting checked or worked through - but Blake is severely lacking in many of her old traits.

Blake has become an incredibly passive character who can’t stand up for herself and tends to just go along with whatever Ruby wants, and is more than willing to steal and lie and let others steal and lie. She’s lacking in passion, even her supposed stronger moments carrying a more passive tone. She relies on others to save her, both by relying on Yang and Weiss to defend her from mean anti faunus people, and constantly relying on others in fights, not able to land hits and begging Ruby to help her when she’s left without Yang to do her fighting for her. She doesn’t make choices herself, literally in the ‘will we launch Amity or defend Mantle’ conversation, Blake is one of the only people who isn’t shown out and out picking a side. She’s no longer cynical and no longer seems to mind waiting around - telling her younger, naïve teammate who’s spent hours doing nothing that it’s okay that she’s been doing nothing and hasn’t really helped anyone because Blake knows she’ll do something eventually and admires Ruby’s optimism. Blake no longer is independent enough to even be temporarily left by Yang without reacting like she did something she has to be guilty and ashamed of.

Like, what is this? Seriously, what is it? They didn’t even fight and they have her reacting like this.

It’s like the writers decided when they dropped her faunus arc that they could now create a new character from the ground up. A passive, supportive, co-dependent, damsel in distress character who can give the other girls a leg up and fuel their more compelling arcs. You know what? May isn’t Maid Marian, Blake is. She’s Disney’s Maid Marian. She’s the encouraging love interest/friend figure who can be jokey sometimes, occasionally tries her hand at convincing other people to do things, and to prove she’s not totally helpless, gets a hit in every now and again.

Look, maybe I’m being a little over dramatic, but that’s how she feels when you compare her to the other characters. Even Ruby, sitting around drinking tea and crying on staircases until the plot falls into her lap two different times, is a much more active character than Blake.

The closest CRWBY have gotten to making Blake an active character was when they had her react in anger to Neo knocking Yang into the void, but again, it didn’t amount to anything.

The writers could have made Blake the same character she was before while still deviating from her White Fang plot. She could have continued to be an independent, somewhat snarky, brave, passionate girl with more of a cynical worldview and a tendency to overwork herself in her hurry to get real work done that would help make the world a better place, while she tried to push past her more pessimistic tendencies and her struggles to connect with others in order to be there for them, because she believes in them and their purpose and herself. And you know what? I’m just gonna say it... That version of Blake, V 1-5 Blake, is the version that works best with Yang! Like don’t get me wrong, Yang and this new character have some cute moments and it’s... Lacking, but it’s at least something. But Yang and Blake as she was could actually be a compelling ship, they could fit well together. And Blake as she used to be could’ve interacted really well with the Atlas arc and the story in season six. She could’ve related to Ozpin when they find out about their past, she could’ve been on Qrow’s side when it came to stealing the plane in Argus and have to be convinced, she could’ve been trying to talk the Ace Ops into being reasonable, she could’ve been at Robyn’s rally, ready to help out in the fight against Jacques and passing out flyers, only to get angry and upset when she hears how Robyn talks to Marrow, she could’ve been on May’s side when May told them they needed to take action, she could’ve been right there with Yang telling Salem what’s what, or if they had to split the two (which I’m more than fine with,) they could’ve had Blake with the Mantle crew, but stay behind to help civilians, or they could’ve had had leave the manor with May. And if they were going to try and make Blake guilty for a fight, there should’ve been an established conflict where Blake and Yang disagree about Ironwood, and then that leads into a wider conflict about who was wrong and who was right. I don’t know, guys, I’m not a professional.

All I know is that Blake doesn’t feel like herself anymore and the writers won’t give her anything. It’s frustrating. This was kind of a vent post, but... You know what, I can vent about it. It feels like the writers are doing this on purpose at this point.

#rwde #anti rwby #anti crwby #anti blake belladonna #this post isn't really anti bb I think but I should tag it anyway #anti-bumbleby #anti bumbleby #anti bumblebee #anti bb #anti-bb #anti blake x yang #anti yang x blake #bees sorry if this shows up on your feed #I just really miss the old Blake :/