#so people could recover some gems

[c00kieguy]

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝓘 𝓶𝓮𝓽 𝓪𝓷 𝓐𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓵

relationships: Argenti x GN!Reader summary: Reader is down bad for Argenti and the knight finds himself feeling flustered for the first time in his life. He recovers fast tho. cw: Just fluff, some comfort (sorta). Ending is a little bittersweet. (Reader has a bit of lore btw) (and a hat!) wc: 4,000 a/n: First hsr fic and of course i spent way too long on it. Anything for wifey... masterlist

Stepping into the tavern you’re greeted with bright lights, loud chatter, and the sound of multiple glasses clinking to an unknown rhythm. Your treacherous journey through the barren lands of this planet had left you in a state of fatigue for long enough, you were eager to finally find the time to relax. Never before did you imagine the sound of a bustling, overcrowded tavern would calm you, yet here you are. You lower the hem of your hat to cover your eyes and make your way to the counter, every step you take helping you forget the harsh environment outside. Standing at the counter you think for a while on what to get. One drink should suffice. You think to yourself. I shouldn’t stay here too long…

“I’ll have your strongest one.” The bartender eyes you in skepticism, wondering if you could afford such a thing. You retrieve a small gem from your breast pocket and roll it across the table, the bartender snatches it immediately and examines it. “Please?” Satisfied with your offer, they start preparing your drink. You place your hat under your arm and sit down on the rusty wooden stool, eyes following the bartender as they make your drink, but your mind wanders elsewhere. You had decided to come to this planet looking for something, or rather someone you’ve always wanted to meet, and yet with every planet you ventured to, you found yourself losing what little hope you had. 

Letting out a loud sigh you notice the completed drink in front of you. You give an appreciative nod towards the bartender then take your drink to a secluded table under a flight of stairs. Once seated, you lift the glass to your lips and take a long swig of the concoction. The watered down liquor slides down your throat, leaving behind an odd aftertaste, the feeling of which makes you queasy. For something that cost you a fifth of what you possessed it tasted awful. It was, however, still miles better than drinking polluted tap water. You shudder at the resurfaced memory…

“Hello, do you mind if I sit here?” A stranger's voice breaks you away from your thoughts. Can’t even wallow in my own misery anymore, for Aeon’s sake. Lifting your head you look at the source of your disturbance, ready to strike with harsh words at being interrupted, but your words die in your mouth at the sight in front of you.

Beautiful.

That’s the only word that occupies your mind as you stare dumbfounded at the man opposing you. You were never one to believe in love at first sight, but what is one supposed to do when meeting an angel but fall in love?

Under the soft glow of the tavern light, his hair shone a stunning bright red. Long locks flowed along his back that ended in soft curls right above his waist. You briefly wondered what it would feel like to run your fingers through them. And his eyes, more beautiful than any you have ever seen. They sparkled like emeralds with small hints of red amidst his perfectly sculpted face. When did I get so poetic?

“There seem to be no other vacant spots here.” He gestures to all the other tables surrounded by the other patrons with a sheepish smile. It was so crowded here there were people sitting on the tables and some even occupied the floor. The fact that you managed to find a seat at all seemed like a miracle. “May I?” His voice snaps you out of your stupor.

“Uuuh, yea…yes.” You cough and quickly attempt to regain your composure. “Go right ahead, Mr…?” You move your hat to the side to make room for his own drink.

“Argenti, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” He does an elegant little bow to show gratitude. You wonder how it’s possible for someone to be so perfect in every way. This man, despite having only met you mere seconds ago, already has your poor heart in a chokehold. Your previous worries have long since been forgotten as you stare at him in awe and wonder.

“What a beautiful name, Argenti.” You try your best to subtly adjust your appearance and look the best you can. Though you had an inkling the rotting wooden walls around you weren't exactly doing you much justice. Even so, something about your unkempt appearance and near zero charisma must’ve caught his attention. Argenti’s eyes widened a little at being called beautiful. Usually he’s the one shelling out compliments, but to be on the receiving end of them? He’s a little shocked but his expression immediately softens into a smile.

“Thank you. And what might be your name?”

“Just…[y/n] is fine.” You were a little hesitant to share your name with strangers. In a universe so vast and terrifying, you never knew what nefarious acts they could use it for. However, Argenti had been kind enough to share his so you did the same.

“[y/n] hm? What a fitting name.” He muses. 

The next few minutes are silent, or as silent as the tavern would allow it. The two of you took occasional sips of your respective drinks and sigh into your cups. Sometimes you’d find yourself scanning Argenti’s face while he wasn’t looking, you swore you could stare at him all day long and some. Staring at him you notice a few other things about his appearance, especially his clothes. Clad in full armor he looks exactly like a knight, the silver gold and red complimented his looks quite well. The guy looked like he had stepped right out of a romance novel.

Ever so often your eyes would meet and you would both immediately look away. Realizing the atmosphere was getting a little awkward you decide to shoot your shot. Better late than never, at least that’s what you tell yourself.

“So,” You lean against the wall in as alluring a pose as you could muster. “What’s a pretty thing like you doing around these parts?” You swore you could hear wires short circuit in his head at the comment. How cute. It was truly entertaining seeing Argenti realize that you weren’t just being nice, but rather just outright hitting on him now.

“I-I, I’m p-part of. No, I. I belo-” Adorable. You couldn’t help but think so as he stumbled over his own words, eyes darting around, trying to look at anything but you. He pauses to take a deep breath to compose himself then looks right into your eyes and says “I belong to the Knights of Beauty.” as if to challenge you in some way. Oh you definitely weren’t going to back down now.

“Knights of Beauty huh?” You eye him up and down with an impressed look and make it really obvious you’re doing so. “Fitting name.” You watch in amusement at his wide eyed look as his cheeks become visibly more pink. By Aeons, what a sight. You wish you could snap a picture right now and stare at it whenever you feel down, but you scrap the idea for now. 

“It’s…T-that’s not…” Instinctively he covers his face with an iron clad hand. “The reason we are called such…is because we are duty bound to spread the grace of our Goddess, and uphold the honor of Beauty in the universe.” His voice steadied with each word. 

“Are they not…dead?” You ask in an uncertain tone. Last you heard, the Aeon has disappeared just as they had come. Argenti looks to be offended at your reply

“I do not believe so. Idrila The Beauty may not be with us right now, but that is precisely why I must persist in my search.” He gets a determined look on his face. “I will find them, even if I must scour the entire universe to do so. I am duty bound to traverse the path of a solitary rose and I will follow through till the very end.” Oh? This man, you feel guilty to have reduced him to just a pretty face in your mind. From what you heard of the Knights, they all traveled alone to attend to their specific duties. Argenti’s conviction and unwavering resolve were truly admirable. Having traveled alone for several months in your search, you can’t imagine how anyone would willingly put themselves in such a situation.

“Duty bound….” You look to the ceiling in a daze. “Knowing exactly what your purpose is. Must be nice.” You chuckle. What was I thinking? Compared to him, you were nothing but an indecisive outlander. Your leisurely approach to your goals now sounded even more pathetic. The knight looks a little puzzled at your reaching, but also a little worried.

“If I may ask, what has brought you here?” His expression has softened considerably, instead he now looks at you with a curious gaze. Since Argenti was kind enough to share his goals you felt no need to hide yours.

“I’m looking for someone too” You take a tentative sip of your drink, somehow it has developed a bitter taste to it, mirroring your sentiment. “...La Mancha.” The name seems familiar to Argenti. He takes a few seconds to search his brain before recognising it. The infamous leader of the galaxy rangers. The same person that one of the Xianzhou ships was still attempting to contact with no success.

“You’re a galaxy ranger?” He asks tentatively.

“What do you think?” You are with a smirk. He seems to take that as confirmation on your part. You sigh, The mood’s ruined. You came here to forget about your life for a while and yet here you were, talking about the exact thing with a stranger. A really pretty stranger at that too… “I’m going back…home, after here though.” Home…you dread the thought of returning a failure, especially after so long.

“Is something the matter? You seem wary of this home of yours.” He waits for your reply but you simply look away in self-contempt. Should I say something? Or would I be crossing a line? As this was the first time in several months you had the opportunity to talk to someone in a peaceful setting, you felt the want to share, but you didn’t want to overshare either. Ah screw it. Who knows when you’ll meet a sapient creature next, you might as well talk to someone while you still could. 

“Home’s…fine. Just been away for so long, it’s gonna be really awkward if I return empty handed.” You finish off the last of your drink in one large gulp, in much the same way one would take medicine. “It’s not exactly easy looking for someone who you don’t even know the face of. Oh…” Argenti chuckles at that.

“The ease of it matters not to me.” He says with an earnest smile. “No matter the difficulty, no matter the enemies I face, I will prevail, I must, and I believe you can too.” He reaches his hand across the table and places it on top of yours. Oh. You feel blood slowly creep up your face at the sudden contact. “When you have a strong enough desire, will you not go to the ends of the universe to fulfill it?” His bright emerald eyes bore straight into your own, determination giving them a gem-like polished look. A strong enough desire… You scrunch your brows thinking about that line. Is this what I really want? What I desire? Finding the head of the rangers had been your top priority for so long you wondered if there was something else you desired more.

Argenti…You imagined for a split second what it would be like to travel with him, going from planet to planet, together. Facing all threats as one and always having each other's backs. Despite having just met, you found yourself wanting to spend more time with him. It was certainly a significantly better alternative to traveling alone. The thought of it sure was serene, and yet you knew such a future would be detrimental to the both of you. It would be unfair to Argenti, especially since his duty requires him to travel alone. What makes you think he’d accept in the first place? You ask your delusional self.

Before you could answer however, there’s a large commotion near the entrance. Giving each other an understanding nod both of you rush to the scene. It seemed a huge fight had broken out right by the door to the tavern.

The scene itself looks really violent, with bodies being thrown onto tables, glasses shattering as they fall to the ground, covering the floor in a deadly layer of shards that many innocent patrons fall victim to. Argenti rushes to the middle of the crowd, your calls of telling him to wait falling on deaf ears. The knight doesn’t hesitate to jump right into the fight and attempts to separate everyone involved. Unfortunately, his presence appears to have agitated them even more. 

A few of the people involved turn to Argenti, pushing him around and into the crowd. If they were enemies he would have no trouble defeating them in seconds, but seeing as these were people, he didn’t want to harm them. Yet with every second that passes he wonders if he should just take his chances with using his spear. Poor guy looked like he was about to lose it so you try to help him out a little. 

Pushing through the packed crowd you manage to make it somewhat close to the whole fiasco. In one swift wave of your hand you place a small debuff on the crowd, making sure to not hit Argenti as well. All of a sudden everyone looked like they were going at x0.5 speed. It only takes a split second of eye contact for him to under this as your doing, then before you could blink he has his spear out and cleans up the mess. You find it fascinating how quick he works, each careful strike of his spear ensures not to injure anyone too severely but also making sure they’re unable to get back up again.

It takes a while but the scene clears up soon. The flock of onlookers slowly dissipate as the staff in the tavern start to clean up the residue from the fight. You watch Argenti give the troublemakers a speech about unprofessional behavior and recklessness and you can’t help but laugh to yourself. What a goody two shoes. 

A few more minutes pass before he’s done with the lecture and you wave him over to your side. On his way Argenti spots your hat on the floor. Instinctively you touch your head and notice the absence of it, it must have been knocked down during the previous commotion and you failed to take note of it. The knight picks it up for you and dusts it off, luckily the damage it sustained during the fight didn’t look permanent.

“I was under the assumption that all galaxy rangers followed the path of Lan.” As Argenti walks closer to you you outstretch your hand to take your hat from him, but he completely ignores it. Instead he lifts it and gently places your hat back on your head and even adjusts it for you. His actions have you feeling a little flustered, after all he was so close to you that you could almost - “Was I mistaken?” His voice snaps you out of your little daydream and you let out a chuckle.

“I never said I was a galaxy ranger.” Flashing him a coy smile you pull the hem of your hat down to cover your face, partly in embarrassment and partly in…well it was fully due to embarrassment actually. 

Suddenly you feel his hand on yours and you fight against your instinct to pull away. You felt a little too vulnerable, as though you may have revealed a bit too much to the knight today. Fortunately it seemed he was not interested in knowing more of you. Argenti moves your hand out of the way instead and readjusts your hat to give himself a better view of your face. “You shouldn’t try to hide your face.” He says with a faint tint of pink on his cheeks “It suits you far better this way.” He gives you an endearing look that makes your heart flutter. 

“Oh? Like the view?” You quipped, secretly glad that your advances seem to have worked (somehow). Argenti doesn't respond immediately, he takes his time just staring at you instead. Despite having been flustered multiple times due to your flirtatious comments before, this time he leans in closer. Your faces are so close you could feel his breath on you. If you thought Argenti looked good from across the table, he looked even more stunning up close. Instinctively you close your eyes and lean forward, waiting for the inevitable ki-

“Very” He whispers with a hint of mischief in his tone. You don’t even have the chance to react before he pulls back, clearly amused at your discomposure. He’s gonna be the death of me…

“You’re playing a dangerous game, pretty boy…” He just shakes his head with a breathy laugh. Cute. The exchange between you two felt so natural, almost as if you’d been friends forever. You couldn’t put into words just how much you wished to spend the rest of your life in this moment, just the two of you sharing playful banter between each other in a run down tavern. Not many things you could name come close to this feeling. 

Time passes way too fast for your liking. You two had returned to your seats and spent the rest of your time simply chatting and sharing stories of your own adventures prior to your meeting, embarrassingly enough he had traveled to more than twice as many planets as you, as if you needed even more reason to bring your mood down. Before you knew it it was already time for you to depart. Some of the employees at the tavern work tirelessly to get it cleaned while the others struggle to chase out unwanted guests. Argenti takes this as the cue to leave.

“Shall we? I assume we’ve overstayed our welcome here.” He offers you his hand. Such a chivalrous gesture only aided in making you fall in love even more. How can someone be so perfect? You find yourself thinking for the nth time as you take his hand to pull yourself up.

“I’m guessing we have to part ways now.” You say, reluctantly letting go of his hand. “And just as I was starting to enjoy myself.” He too solemnly nods and turns around to leave the tavern with you following suit. 

Stepping out onto the seemingly deserted planet you feel dread slowly crawl back inside you. Letting out an involuntary sigh you mentally prepare yourself for the journey ahead. Once outside, Argenti turns to you and places a hand over his chest.

“Thank you for keeping me company. Please, do greet your family on my behalf.” 

“I’m…not going back just yet.” He tilts his head to the side questioningly. “Finding ‘em may not be my greatest desire, but it’s a desire nonetheless.” You continue. Having conversed with the knight you managed to gain back a bit of your motivation. “And I’ll fulfill it no matter what, even if I have to half-ass it.”

After having helped Argenti with the brawl that had broken out, you felt…alive. Like this was your purpose. You managed to rediscover your craving for a good adventure. Sure, the past few months had been bland, but now? You had just a bit more hope to carry with you. You admit that part of you simply wanted to go on just so you had the chance to meet Argenti again, but the other part really hoped to find La Mancha too.

“I truly admire your dedication.” He says with a hearty laugh as he takes out a rose from somewhere behind him (you could’ve sworn he had no pockets there) and offers it to you. “Please, have this as a token of my gratitude. I cannot imagine I would have enjoyed my stay here as much if it wasn’t for you after all.” You reach out to take the flower in your own hand. Beautiful. 

“Well.” You hold the rose up next to his face, it really did resemble its giver. “I admire you.” You say with a wink. Argenti rolls his eyes playfully, clearly amused at your continuous effort at flirting with him. You simply shrug and place the flower in your hat for safe keeping. Hopefully you could find a good water source at your next destination, you’d hate to see such a beautiful gift go to waste.

“Argenti?” He hums in question at the sudden call. “What if we…never see each other again?” Your heart sank at the thought that plagued you like a living nightmare. Just as you had met someone as amazing as him, you had to let go too? Already? It seemed incredibly unfair to you. 

“You need not worry, I’m certain we will reunite.” The knight says with an air of confidence around him, but even his reassuring words were not enough to put you at ease.

“How?” Your eyebrows knit in frustration. “You never know what might happen…” The uncertainty of it all terrified you. If something were to happen to him you’d be none the wiser, forever left longing for someone who cannot return to you. Argenti’s expression softens at seeing you in such a state. He hated the thought of traveling without you, yet deep in his heart he also knew you two would be better off separate.

“When life is uncertain, and fate unchanging, our faith remains our only solace.” He gently takes both of your hands in his. “I have faith in you, in us. We will reunite.”

“When you have a strong enough desire, will you not go to the ends of the universe to fulfill it?” You repeat his words. The more you think about it the more your resolve strengthens. There was no point in giving up now, you can still keep going. Eventually, you’re bound to run into him, then maybe it won’t all feel like a waste. What’s there to lose?

“So, do I get a parting kiss or…?” 

“No, not yet.” Argenti laughs. “Perhaps when we meet again.” He gets close to you, close enough that your foreheads touch. Warm. “When that time comes, I shall place as many kisses upon your face as you desire.” His soothing voice calms you. You let your eyes close and so does he as the both of you lean into each other. The silence drags on as you two stay as is, simply bathing in each other’s presence, wishing, hoping, to meet again. Just for the moment though, you let yourself just enjoy standing here, side by side with someone who had become so important to you in just a few hours.

“You better not forget me.” Your voice cracks a little at your plea. Please.

“And I you.” He gives you an endearing look as he reluctantly pulls away, but that’s all it took for loneliness to start creeping into your chest. You desperately hold onto him for as long as possible as your hands slowly slip away from his. Just a bit longer. Your heart screams at you Just a bit longer, not wanting to leave yet. 

Alas, all good things must come to an end. However, the end of your story was not a definitive one. For as long as you two traversed the stars, for as long as you kept going, for as long as you persevered, your efforts were sure to be rewarded. “I have faith in you, In us” His voice echoes in your head. 

“I bid you farewell, my…friend.” He emphasizes the word ‘friend’ with a soft smile.

“Let us meet when our paths converge once more.”

“Until then,

.

.

.

I wish you the best of luck.”

masterlist

© c00kieguy ➼ do not repost/copy/translate (without my permission) or claim any of my works as your own. Reblogs are appreciated ❣

#hsr argenti #argenti x reader #argenti x you #argenti x y/n #argenti x gn reader #hsr x reader #hsr x you #hsr x y/n #honkai star rail x reader #honkai star rail x you #star rail argenti #hsr x gender neutral reader #hsr x gn reader #gender neutral reader #hsr fluff #hsr fanfic #honkai argenti #honkai star rail #c00kie.writes

[crazymothlady]

Some rambly brainstorms of what Real Life smp could mean to the lore

Theory one: this season wasn't run by the watchers, but fully by grian

Evidence:

- grian outright explains the rules not through monologue

- grian died first, no watchers protecting him

- season ended so fast, almost like the watchers weren't making sure it drew out for their own entertainment

This could also mean they have memories of all of them, this potentially be taking place in the limbo between seasons, being more of a practice game to pass the time. That would explain why everyone fit into old relationships, and why it was much more lighthearted, since they could all remember that permadearh isnt really the end(that being said, I feel like they would all be a bit more messed up)

Theory 2: this one's kinda hard to fit in, and u have to somewhat misinterpret references creators make, but is my personal fav.

What if this actually chronologically took place before the other seasons. It was run by grian, but the watchers saw it and were like 'we want that actually'

I say this because a) people don't put as much importance in death, b) it wasny drawn out by the watchers, c) a lot of curses and potentially magical protection like I mentioned before for grian aren't in place.

Maybe that's why so much was 3rd life adjacent. Renchanting , desert duo, 'new hobbitton'(tho that didn't include any of the Hobbits from 3rd life)

These interactions in RLsmp subconsciously effected 3rd life

Theory 3: also a favorite, more plausible then the 2nd theory

Fusion of the two, this takes place AFTER 3rd life in limbo, or was a 'failed attempt ' at the second season since no one survived past the first session. Thats why so many relationships from 3rd life are referenced, especially with the very few references to other seasons. GGG ended up at the end by complete coincidence, but subconsciously effected the group coming together in last life

That's also why RLsmp is so light hearted, no one realizes the toll of competing and dieing so many times. Pearls part of it because this was either her orientation or a first attempt to add her, idk how to explain gem being there or how to explain everyone who wasn't (maybe they were still recovering from last season, where as everyone else was healed enough for the watchers to attempt a new death game)

#mcyt #traffic life #traffic smp #traffic life smp #trafficblr #real life smp #rlsmp #third life series #life series #life smp

[zablife]

Hi. I'm wondering if your gif imagines are still open. If so, may I request something cute and fluffy with this gif??:

Because I just got into the fandom and am DESPERATE for fics! Thanks in advance! :)

Hi Jessyca, tysm for the GIF ask! Below you'll find the short blurb I wrote for it. Welcome to the Peaky fandom! If you'd like some additional reading, here's a link to my Masterlist (I write for most characters) and a link to my Rec List for my fave content creators. Enjoy!

Takes One to Know One

You closed your eyes as you attempted to regulate your labored breathing to sound of the steady ragtime music. Placing your hand to your chest, you grasped for the weight of the stolen necklace at your throat, repeating the lie your aunt had rehearsed with you if someone should stop you. I'm Lady Sarah of Connemara, you whispered confidently. By the time anyone realized Lady Sarah didn't exist, you would be long gone. If you could find your way out that was.

The ballroom had grown increasingly crowded and you couldn't be sure of the way you had entered. As you tried in vain to find the exit, an irate looking older man surveyed the crowd and you recognized him instantly as the companion of the woman you'd robbed. You needed cover fast.

Glancing around quickly, you picked the first person you could find. "Dance with me," you insisted, grabbing an unsuspecting man by the arm and dragging him toward the dance floor. A look of confusion swept over his face, but you missed it as you glanced over your shoulder to see if you were still being followed.

You raced to join the throng of people circulating around the floor, packed tightly enough to conceal you. As you pushed your way to the center, your bodies collided with another couple who jeered at you as you passed. Your dance partner apologized briefly before turning to face you, his blue eyes wide as you stepped close to him and pulled his arm to your waist.

"Aren't you going to tell me your name?" he asked with an amused smile.

"Sarah," you replied distractedly, peering over his shoulder. "Lady Sarah....of Connemara," you corrected yourself, nearly forgetting your title. Bringing your full attention back to him, you quickly recovered with a dazzling smile.

"I'm Tommy," he said, eyes dropping to the precious gems at your throat. "That's a very pretty necklace, Lady Sarah," he complimented you.

"Thank you, it's, erm...a family heirloom," you lied, pleased to note you were quickly being carried away from where you started.

As you danced you noted how he carefully moved in time to the music, conversation scarce as he concentrated on the steps of the fox trot. You smiled at his genuine attempt to impress you and as you watched him, you realized he didn't seem as though he belonged there either. His suit was clean and pressed, but it wasn't the finest material available and his haircut was decidedly lower class.

However, you found yourself staring at his chiseled cheekbones and bright eyes that crinkled at the corners when he smiled. He must have felt the attraction as well, smirking at you knowingly with a hint of mischief in his eye. You giggled as he pressed a hand to your back, spinning you in the direction of the exit.

Despite the fun you were having flirting, you remembered you had a car waiting. Keeping your eye fixed on the door at each turn, you bided your time before dropping Tommy's hand suddenly. Thanking him for the dance, you turned to leave, only to feel him grasp your wrist, pulling you back to him.

Tommy's lips brushed your ear gently, hot breath ghosting over the side of your face as he whispered, "I won't tell anyone about the stolen necklace if you give me your telephone number."

You looked back at him slowly, paralyzed with shock. "I don't know what you mean," you said shaking your head.

A smug grin painted his handsome features as he cocked an eyebrow at you. "You're a thief, love, and not a very good one."

Your mouth dropped open at the accusation, mostly because he'd guessed correctly when you thought you'd done a fairly good job fooling everyone around you. "How did you know?" you asked with a gulp.

"Takes one to know one, I reckon," he said. "Now about that number?"

#zablife ask box #Peaky Blinders fanfic #Peaky Blinders imagine #Tommy Shelby fanfic #Tommy Shelby imagine #Tommy Shelby #Tommy Shelby x you #Tommy Shelby x y/n #Tommy Shelby x reader

[howlingday]

I just found this gem. It's crazy and bizarre, and I think someone can describe it as "radiating crackhead energy".

https://youtu.be/_8kaMEUkX70?si=8UwBQ5op-iR4Nqeq

I think Nora would not just like it, but jam to it. However, what do RWBY and JNPR think of it?

Link

We begin our story like any other. With a hot, young, sexy lady with an ass that just won't quit. I mean, as she was skipping down the lane with her cheeks clapping, you'd swear it'd start raining with how much thunder was rumbling. I mean, there's bubble booties, and then there's thunder-packed super buns~!

Unfortunately, such magnanimous mounds of meaty... butt... muscles could not be resisted from being slapped. And so they were. And by unfortunately, I mean unfortunately for the guy who slapped the butt, because that butt was attached to the body of a dynamite babe with an ass that won't quit.

An ass... and a hammer.

Nora swung her hammer round, knocking the pervert into the nearest distant wall. As he tried to recover, she then launched volley after volley of grenades from her grenade launcher at the lecherous butt-slapper. Smoke and pink mist surrounded and engulfed the rude dude. He stumbled through, finding his chin meeting the huge hammer head of her hefty helper in all things hurtful.

Nora then flew into the air and smashed her hammer down, catching and slamming the handsy creep into the ground, headfirst, leaving the dumb stupid idiot unresponsive on the ground.

She then skipped off into the sunset of the casino, her bouncy and bubbly butt cheeks clapping with every skip.

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

"Sooo.... What did you guys think~?"

"It's... an improvement." Jaune sheepishly shrugged. "But, uh... Did you really need to talk about your ass like that?"

"What's wrong with a girl being proud of what she's got?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Jaune waved his hands defensively. "It's just... kinda..."

"Off-putting?" Pyrrha suggested.

"Vulgar?" Weiss added.

"Kinda overrated?" Yang rolled her eyes.

"Oh, you're just jealous of my donk, and you know it~!" Nora stuck her tongue out. "What about you, Ruby? What'd you think?"

"I, uh... I'm kinda lost." The red-hooded girl admitted. "Was the guy really strong or were the grenades like flashbangs? Mixed with smoke grenades?"

"They're regular grenades." Nora answered. "The guy was just kinda strong."

"Kinda strong? I don't think anyone can survive normal grenades like that."

"Oh, sure they can! I did last week!"

"...Okay, normal people can't survive grenade explosions."

"Jaune can!" Nora pointed.

"Yeah, because I have a shield."

"And also aura." Pyrrha added.

"What about you, Blake? Did you like it?"

"It's a decent story, though I think the premise is a little self-indulgent. It really felt like you were writing this story more for yourself than for an audience. Also, the fact that you just waved off murdering someone in an incredibly graphic way is somehow justified by his sexual harassment on his part. This really felt more like a revenge fic written to blow off steam, something better kept to yourself than shared with others."

"...Wow! That's a lot of words for 'It's perfect, Nora!' What about you, Renny? Did you like my-" She turned to see an empty seat where Ren was previously seated, which was noted by the chains left ringed on the cushion. "Ah. I see you've already escaped at some point."

#rwby #nora valkyrie #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #jaune arc #pyrrha nikos #lie ren #electric six #down at mcdonnelzzz

[elvenbeard]

Somewhere in Manila, 2078

“It is pretty nice here,” V said, and Kerry put his arm around him, pulling him a bit closer as he turned his head to look at him.

“C’mon, just ‘pretty nice’?” he asked grinning.

“Okay, it’s beautiful, breathtaking, astounding!” V said and Kerry chuckled, “You weren’t exaggerating.”

“And this is just the hotel! Wait ‘til you see the city. And the beaches! But we gotta drive a little to get to the better ones. Nothin’ beats the one in Tangalan anyway, but that’ll have to wait 'til next week…”

Kerry went on rambling about all they had planned, everything he wanted to show V, parties and events they could go to, the secret spots only he and maybe a handful of other people knew. Some of it all sounded quite adventurous, and V still struggled to imagine Kerry clambering through the jungle to get to some of these extra special hidden gems. But his excitement was downright infectious. Truly just adorable. V was relieved to see Kerry so genuinely happy again, too, the stress of the last weeks really had been weighing him down. Getting ready for this trip in the background had been his sole motivator for staying on top of the mountain of promo events for his album.

Just three more interviews before we can get on the plane. Just this one photoshoot, and then I can finally start packing my stuff. That one private show, that one industry party, that one red carpet, and then Lee can kiss my ass and we’ll fuck off across the Pacific.

Being here now finally, chilling at the hotel bar and recovering from the long flight, still felt somewhat surreal.

“… - and we really gotta go to Quinta Market later. Gonna cure your resentment to street food there once and for all.”

Kerry took a sip of his drink, then looked back at V, who had been watching him the whole time, a little tired and absentmindedly, but full of affection.

“What?” he asked, frowning slightly, but kept up his smile, the silver lines around his eyes and down his cheeks sparkling in the setting sun.

“Nothin’,” V said, “I’m happy you’re happy to be back here, is all.”

Kerry leaned over and gave him a quick kiss.

“I’m happy you’re here with me,” he said, “That’s all that matters.”

AAAAHHH. A little bit of behind the scenes rambling here!!!

I didn't forget to take a pic of my setup at least this time XD I set this up at Denny's pool (free of concrete thankfully), because there is little distracting Night City scenery in the background that would destroy the illusion of this not being Night City xD But admittedly, the setup was a little rushed bc I just wanted to do some fluffy pics. I could actually spend hours setting up my scenes with all the awesome props I keep discovering o.o

Also: I had Kerry's summer vibes outfit ready since early June, but just didn't get around to doing anything with it until two weeks ago, AND THEN I didn't have time to edit the pics because other stuff kept grabbing my attention instead xD

But there is more to come, I have a whole lot more summer pics ready, all incredibly fluffy... because I need some fluff and knowing they have this in their future waiting for them, while on the side I'm writing the most angsty fic with constant dread and setbacks and death looming on the horizon, you know XD

Dad Shirts by @pinkyjulien 💛 I love them so much, I want Kerry's shirt for myself irl, it's my fave of the tropical recolors, the colors and pattern are so nice... and suit him so well imo!!

Also this is totally the follow up to the road trip pics I posted last week. They drove to L.A., spent a day or two there, and then hopped on the plane to Manila xD

#cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk kerry #cyberpunk v #male v cyberpunk #kerry eurodyne #vincent ezaki #kerry eurodyne x v #otp: to bad decisions #shippy saturday #cyberpunk vp #cyberpunk fanfic #cyberpunk 2077 fanfic #virtual photography #my writing #my vp

[paracosmicparadox]

So I finished FFXV ages ago, but I've been thinking about it lately bc you know, I elaborated the chocobros' story far further than it was meant to go and got way more attached to them than I should have. So here're some things that the game did really well and some of the things it didn't. (you don't have to agree w anything here; I'm not trying to corrupt y'all w my opinions; I just feel like talking)

Let's start with the bad to get it out of the way:

CINDY. I swear to everything holy her character had the potential to be So Cool if she hadn't been so overtly over-sexualized. Like, I'm a woman-liker too and I get it, lady mechanics are hot af, but you know what else is attractive? Safety in the workplace. Cindy's outfit was not something any mechanic would be caught dead wearing. Yeah, it was designed to be sexy, but do you know how many burns she would've accumulated from the hot oil and metal she works with? There's a reason mechanics typically wear clothing zipped up when they're actually working on something. If anything, Cindy's character design just made me uncomfortable. Her character itself? Great. No qualms there. Her design? Please acquire more than two square feet of fabric I'm begging you. I just feel like Cindy deserved to be so much more than fan service.

Luna's brief time on-screen. Yet another potentially incredible and deep female protagonist who got short change from this game. People joke a lot that Luna wasn't at all an important character because the game never really treated her like one. She was MEANT to be important, clearly, but it felt like she existed just for her tearjerking death scene? Like there was SO MUCH overlooked potential to bring her into the storyline as more than Tragic Love Interest In White, and yet?? Idk it frustrated me.

The emotional aspect of the game felt rushed. There were a lot of emotional scenes covered throughout the plotline ranging from King Regis's death to the deal with Prompto at Zegnautus Keep. I feel like the game TRIED to cover them realistically and show the characters' grief, but it didn't quite get there. It was just sort of an "Oh, how sad. I'm so upset and angry. Hm, what's that? My friends believe in me without truly understanding and I can kill someone to ease my pain? Oh okay I'm better now." I get that realistic healing cycles are kinda hard to portray within a set timeframe, but having some lingering effects of the blatant trauma inflicted would've been nice. You don't recover from shit like that in a week's time.

Character personalities tended to be one-sided. Noctis was edgy, Prompto was happy-go-lucky, Gladio was tough-guy, and Ignis was... nevermind, Iggy was great--- HE had some on-screen depth. Personally, I've developed these characters myself far more than what the game gave us, but I wish we'd gotten more canon depth beyond their surface-level traits. I love them with my whole heart and they deserve genuine complexity.

Now the things I actually really enjoyed:

The graphics were on-point. The amount of detail put into character design and into monsters was insane. You could zoom in and see individual textures on skin and hair and feathers, bringing a level of realism to the game that I personally enjoyed.

All of the Latin and Norse mythological references!! As a Latin nerd, I found little gems everywhere in this game. Esp in the names--- (Noctis Lucis Caelum = Of-the-night Sky-of-light (the genitives in there make the literal translation kinda a mouthful ik) Gladiolus Amicitia = Sword-flower Friendship (the gladiolus is an actual flower that gets its name from the Latin word gladius, meaning sword, for its sword-like shape) Ignis Scientia = Fire Knowledge; Prompto Argentum = Ready Silver (the word prompto is actually in the dative (possibly ablative), making the literal translation nonsense, but if they'd made his name Promptus, it would've sounded awkward, so I can see why they picked the dative/ablative form of the adjective for stylistic reasons and I put the rough translation instead)) WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF PARENTHETICAL INFO WHOOPS

Ardyn's character. I'm not saying this bc I'm one of the fans who fawn over him---Ardyn is DEFINITELY NOT MY PREFERRED FLAVOR OF MAN, but character-wise, he made an excellent antagonist. He was witty, slick, and classy in an I'm-gonna-outstep-you-like-it's-hopscotch sorta way. He was a poetic villain done well, which made him an antagonist you could both sympathize for and absolutely detest given the situation. He was both the master manipulator and the pawn one space away from the edge of the board. He can sway a crowd, but you know deep in your gut just by the cunning greed in his eyes that You Cannot Trust The Man. He was definitely Not a good person (tragic backstory isn't an excuse), but he was a good villain.

I loved the bond between the chocobros?? This is probably bc I'm a sucker for the found family trope, but their interactions were so amazing to me?? Like, not even the cutscene stuff. Just their little sidebar conversations during fights or while you're walking around or driving the Regalia. They're Roadtrip Buddies™ and I think that's excellent.

THE FOOD. By god, the food in this game looked absolutely scrumptious and I would like to partake. The Daggerquill Soup? Give it to me I'll pay you. The Creamy Crustacean Omelet? Stop it right now I'll eat that so fast it'll be a criminal offense. Like I know I touched on the graphics earlier, but broski I was not kidding. I guess I know why the game took so long to make it to the market bc the detail that went into these recipes is absolutely mouthwatering.

#prompto #noctis #ff15 #noctis lucis caelum #gladiolus amicitia #ignis scientia #ffxv #prompto argentum #ardyn lucis caelum #critique #fr this is just me talking to talk #you don't have to agree w anything here #there are more flaws than I listed for sure but I didn't feel like ripping the game to shreds

[marokra]

The circus was quiet, after the dinner. Far too quiet. So quiet, that the recently-dubbed Geminitay was left alone with her thoughts. Which, for the record, was not a very favorable situation given the dangers of mentally spiraling in the digital plane.

She hoped that this was some sort of messed up nightmare. That she’d wake up in a cold sweat, and return back to her dead-end job. A job she hated, really, but she’d rather take that over this.

Gem pinched her arm, and then held her hands in front of her face. Yep. Not a dream.

She sighed and pulled up a mental checklist. Pretending this was a dream would get her nowhere. Might as well begin to process it all, right?

Can’t leave? check.

Trapped in a body that is most definitely not her own? check.

New name because her memory got messed up and she can’t remember any of the important details of her life? check.

Yep. All the signs were there. This was Geminitay’s own personal nightmare, and she was stuck living in it.

Earlier today when she went to check on Ren, Martyn had called this place Hell. and Gem was starting to think he was right. Everything she had seen today, The Void (with the eyes so many eyes that were all watching they were watching-), The Circus that was covered in deceivingly happy colors, the abstracted (unnatural, horrifying, dangerous) form of the so-called “Red King”, the fact that she couldn’t even remember her own damn name-

Not to mention how that “exit” from earlier seemed to be mocking her. Laughing at her feeble attempts to escape. And hell, if Gem’s theories were right, said “exit” was the thing that drove Ren to insanity. The thing the ringmaster had created to try and appeal to everyone’s desire for a way out drove one of his own to Insanity. Pretty messed up if you asked her.

Gem sighed, sinking down into the chair. Honestly, she should have expected this. You can’t be that surprised when the circus’s ringmaster is an AI that has no foresight.

A similar sigh was heard next to her, and she whipped around to see Scott sitting on the floor, the two making eye contact for a moment before he looked away. The plush glanced her beady button eyes to the side, and sure enough, Martyn was sitting across from her. Right. She wasn’t alone. This was fine.

She should say hi, right? She barely knew these people, hell, she had just met them, but it wouldn’t hurt to say hi. This was awkward. The silence was awkward. She was awkward. The tension could easily be cut with a knife. So, Gem did the most logical and reasonable thing to do in this situation. She grabbed the knife and started cutting.

“soooo. What’s the deal with Scar and Grian?” Worst icebreaker ever, Gem! this is the worst one you’ve ever used in your entire life! And sure, you can’t remember most of your life, but still!

Scott seems a bit caught off guard at the question, but recovers quickly. He plucks a star out of his hair, twirling it between his fingers absentmindedly. “Nobody knows. There’s been theories, yeah, but we’ve never figured out what’s going on with those two. Something about a previous adventure. A desert monopoly and a cactus ring, we’ve gathered that much.” the celestial replies, not bothering to spare a glance at Gem as he answers the question.

Martyn sighs. “Scar’s been making sad wet cat eyes at our,” he pauses to do air quotes. “‘ringmaster’ ever since we were thrown into this mess.” The marionette adjusts his position on the bean bag chair, sinking down to Gem’s eye level. “If you’re asking me, i’m tired of it.”

“So something happened with a past adventure and now they’re being all weird about it?” Gem tilts her head slightly, celebrating a little in her mind. You managed to start a conversation with the worst icebreaker known to man! Score!

“They’ve been weird about it for years, but sure, let’s go with that.” the marionette shrugs.

“Maybe it’s trauma. With Scar, at least. Not sure about Grian, is it even possible to traumatize AI?”

“Oh no no no,” A previously unseen jester poked her head over the edge of the balcony above, earning a surprised screech from Gem. “Grian isn’t an AI. He’s human. from our world.” the jester—Pearl, Gem’s mind supplied—hummed.

“Wait, what? but i thought he was-” She felt something hit her plushy body, glancing over to see that Scott had flicked a star into the side of her head. Ow.

“A lot of us thought that, when we first arrived here,” He paused, “Mainly because of his involvement with the circus itself. But over time, his more human mannerisms became glaringly obvious. I’m honestly surprised you haven’t noticed yet.”

“No AI starts wars for no reason.” Martyn commented. “And no AI has an inexplicable fear of being watched.”

“He started wa-??”

“-AI don’t take in other circus members as their own either!” Pearl cuts her off mid-sentence, the jester’s bells jingling as she jumps down from the tower, landing a bit to the right of Gem with an unceremonious fwoomph. “Grian saw us as family, siblings even, when we arrived. Well, me and Jimmy anyways.” Her voice drops to a low whisper, her uncovered eye darting around, making sure that nobody was eavesdropping. “Which was why he was so devastated when Jimmy. uh. abstracted.”

Gem could only nod. She noticed Martyn and Pearl have some silent communication for a moment, Martyn’s expression asking if he could continue. Pearl nodded, and the marionette turned back to Gem.

“It was something we hadn’t dealt with before. Nobody knew how to handle it. we didn’t even know it was possible.” Martyn added, frowning as he did so. The plush deer glanced over at Pearl, who sat in silence. Her gaze returned to Martyn.

“We tried everything we could to bring him back. Nothing worked.” Scott took in a deep breath before he continued. “He became too dangerous. People were getting glitched out left and right. The circus was a mess. And we had to put Jimmy in the cellar because of it.”

Well. That’s quite a bombshell to drop on somebody. Gem couldn’t even begin to imagine what everyone in the circus has gone through. And judging by Scott’s voice and the amount of crossed out portraits in the hall of doors, Jimmy was hardly the only one. Just how easy is it to lose your mind in the digital plane? How easy would it be for Gem to lose her mind? To actively harm the people she’s stuck with, no mercy involved? To be seen as a threat, and get thrown in a cellar with countless others? To experience a fate worse than death? She had to be careful. She had to be careful to never get too close, to always keep tabs on her mind. Because she’d never know when someone would get “abstracted.” She’d never know when she loses someone until it’s too late. She’d never know when she loses herself. Just one more thing to add to the list of reasons why she hates this place-

“Hello! Earth to Gem! Yoo-hoo! Hi! Hello!”

Pearl’s hand was flying in and out of Gem’s vision. The plush shakes her head. Better snap out of it. Dwelling in the possibilities would only make everything worse. Plus, this wasn’t even about her! This was about Jimmy!

“Right! Sorry. What were you saying?” Gem tilts her head as much as her stuffed animal body would let her. Which wasn’t much.

Martyn sighed. “As i was saying, Abstraction has become pretty normal for us nowadays. Yeah, I was a little bit caught off guard by Ren-“

“Extremely caught off guard.” Pearl chimes in.

“Extremely caught off guard, but someone getting abstracted is far from abnormal at this point. We’re used to it.”

“Mm.” Gem nods. “So, Jimmy was the first, right?”

“Yeah. Canary call, first to fall, forever caged in different walls and all that. That’s what They say about it anyways.” The marionette shrugs.

“Who’s They?”

A pause. Pearl, Scott, and Martyn immediately tense. A deafening silence blanketed the room, all eyes on the deer who asked the question.

A few seconds pass.

“Soooo, who wants to go drown in the digital lake?” Scott panickedly proposes. He glances behind himself, seemingly trying to make sure nothing was Watching him.

“Ahaha, I sure do love drowning! Come on guys let’s go like right now-” Pearl blurts out, a fake laugh tumbling from her lips.

Martyn nods. “I can’t wait to go dr-aha-own, byegemseeyoulater-”

The trio of circus members all but ran out of the tent, leaving Gem alone in a confused daze.

“Huh.” Weird.

#tadc au #the amazing digital circus au #fun fact i only really had grian be mistaken as an ai for this because caine is canonically ai and also because this was just me rambling #i’m so sorry if anyone’s ooc this is the first time i’ve written any of them #secret life #secret life smp #traffic life series #traffic life smp #life series smp #geminitay #scott smajor #smajor1995 #martyn inthelittlewood #inthelittlewood #pearlescentmoon #jimmy is mentioned. grian is also mentioned. ren is mentioned as well (he got abstracted L bozo) #the amazing digital circus #not really but i’m tagging it for filtering purposes #mar writes #i don’t think i’m the first to have this idea but i’m putting my own twist on it anyways #watchers #mcyt watchers #watchersverse #idk what the most commonly used tag for it is so i’ll just tag everything ive seen used #very vaugely mentioned but theyre there #skyblings #<- mentioned

[turtleinsoup]

Hi, I've recently discovered rottmnt and I'm going through ao3 after watching the series, and one of my filters has been kudos/ comments. Could I know what fic you mean so I can avoid it? Thanks! (In addition, if you'd like to rec some great ones that'd be awesome, I'm new here and people have made amazing arts and stories)

I won't promulgate the name of the fic.

No matter how much I want to set it on fire, it would be bad manners.

I also do not reccomend filtering for kudos.

I'm NOT joking, listen:

There used to be a TMNT fic called "If You See the Smoke,". It was the best fucking thing I've read in my life. This story changed how live on a daily basis and it had less than 50 kudos. Thank god I downloaded it. - The author deleted it out of frustration, because they put months of work into this and it got no attention.)

So look: It's scary to stumble into low-profile stories. Because if something is niche, you run the risk that it will feel like it was written for you specifically and hit your brain like a hammer. (And if you're lucky, you will never recover.)

I do recommend filtering for finished works instead.

My personal list of rise TMNT "HIDDEN GEMS":

(Finished | 10/10 Rating | with not enough Kudos)

The first and last of your kind There is only one Leo, but he is billions.

And it's time for us to leave her Donnie has two soulmates. It breaks him. Running on Low (all the way home) Human Au.

The Stone Tape Theory Something is haunting the Lair.

Under Pressure April goes missing.

Games We Play Their playground is suboptimal.

Do you guys have any finished Work recs? Cuz I'd love checking them out!

#rise of the tmnt #rottmnt fic #rec me your favs #rottmnt au #rottmnt leo #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt fic rec #tmnt #tmnt 2018 #rottmnt #rotmnt #rise tmnt #rise donnie #rise leo #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise mikey #rise raph #rottmnt fic recs

[blue-pearl832]

Alright y’all ready for Chapter 3 of pearl’s perfect plan

Drama in the drama club

Part three of pearl’s perfect plan to get two idiots together get approval from the teacher to do the play and Grian and scar realize that they’re playing each other’s love interest’s chaos and emotional mayhem ensue

~❤️~

As the drama club meeting began Pearl and Scar spot Grian “Oh hey grian !”scar said enthusiastically as he walked to Grian who was sitting in a seat close to the stage. “Hey scar..how are you doing?” He said in a tired voice looking up from a notebook “I’m doing good how about you?”Scar said sitting down as the teacher started talking. “Kinda ruff I had a long day “grian said trying to listen to the teacher talking. “And now for a big announcement this year we have an opportunity for anyone to perform in a play written by one of our students. It’s called the heart of the rising sun and was written by miss Pearl Moon” The teacher said in a peppy tone.Both Grian and Scar look at each other in bewilderment and thought SHE ACTUALLY GOT THE TEACHER TO LET HER DO IT!? “Auditions will be held on Friday the 27th from five to six I can wait to see what you all do.” She concluded and sent the students to work alone for some time. “I cannot believe pearl actually is going through with this…”Grian said when he got asked by pearl to be in the play he didn’t think that she could pull it off. 

“Hey did pearl ask you to be in it as well?”Scar asked “Yeah pearl did she asked me to play Alex the main character.”Grian said wondering how many people pearl asked to be in the play”Actually pearl asked my to play sky the main love interest ..”He said nonchalantly before coming to a realization Wait… I’m playing grian’s love interest! and on the other side of the coin Wait one second Scar’s playing my love interest!. Does that mean that … in act two of the play me and scar are going to have to kiss! Grian’s mind and heart was racing I have to kiss my crush and one of my best friends on stage! “so…um you read the manuscript right?”scar said hesitantly and awkwardly. “Yes scar I did .”Grian said trying to ignore the elephant in the room”It’s just acting we are professionals right?”Grian said “Yeah you’re right G we’re professional it’s fine .” Scar said trying to get rid of the awkward air. It’s definitely not fine how am I going to kiss my crush and best friend Grian on stage and at rehearsals what am I going to do? Scar thought as they both went silent and continued with their work.

Authors notes : Btw The fic on tumblr is always 2 chapters behind ao3 and also the story is just getting good . The play that pearl wrote is called “Heart of the rising sun “for obvious reasons and is a fantasy quest about well recovering well the heart of the rising sun a magical gem stone .you’ll see more of it later (:

#traffic life series #life series #gtwscar #grian #desert duo #scarian #scarian fanfic #cross posted on ao3

[unexpectedly-haunted]

ITLW Lore Stream Summary!

Notes taken from Limited Life + Lore Q&A Stream

Notes taken mostly chronologically, with some elements shuffled around to fit under certain sections. Italics used for poem quotes, quotation marks for direct quotes from Martyn. Also, you can find a summary of the Last Life lore stream here and the stream itself here!

Pillar built, another test: Beginning of Watcher’s influence to betray Scott- he is seriously hated by the Watchers, and there are multiple allusions in the first poem to eventually betraying him.

Pillar also refers to the pedestal the Watcher’s have put Martyn on; they are more interested in him because he has an “emotive soul” and is “more fun to torment.” He has a good emotional range they find interesting- he has the capacity to be honourable and stick with his allies as well as turning on anyone as soon as the situation calls for it.

Pause, unpause, we paralyse/A vacant stare for wandering eyes: Referring to the AFK episode, with Grian as a Watcher who has inserted himself into the games. Grian is attempting to taint the game for the Watchers- his goal is to make the games more fun than it is tragic, depriving the Watchers of the pain they want. The Watchers, angry at his continued interference, used their power to paralyse him, leaving him still physically present but unable to do anything but passively watch- this was supposed to make him easier to kill as well as trying to prevent his positive impact.

“This season they could interrupt his channelling and paralyse his avatar, forcing him to only watch, a claustrophobic and frustrating tomb to be encased in.”

Grian has been acting independently of the other Watchers for some time- he’s a rogue agent of sorts, with Watcher abilities but he’s so new to it he doesn’t have a full grasp of them. “He hasn’t had a full awakening, if you will, and he hasn’t met the Council and things like that.” 

He’s also unaware of the Listeners and believes he’s fighting a solo battle in trying to resist. The Watchers have also tried in-game assassination to shorten his time and prevent him from revealing the reality of the situation to other players, but it hasn’t worked.

Echoes ring for brief exchange/Disruptions by the ones estranged/Tread careful sound/for if we met/our gaze would bring untimely deaf: Watchers are directly addressing the Listeners, a rival power trying to free the players. The Listeners are being of the same type/existence as the Watchers- they’re exactly the same except that they stepped away/deviated from the Watchers, hence why they’re referred to as “estranged.”

Watchers have dominion over all minecraft places, and they can pull people in to do these death games. For the first time, the Listeners have been able to temporarily disrupt the games. 

This is partially due to Grian unknowingly running distraction by being so active this season- all the tnt minecart kills, his quad kill, etc - so the Watchers are focused on countering him, allowing the Listeners to break through.

Body swaps: Listeners swapped in Gem and Lizzie for the sake of Cleo and Pearl’s souls, and Gem and Lizzie were sworn to secrecy. Lizzie was tapped in because Pearl hadn’t quite recovered from the events of Double LIfe. This ties back to the idea that the Watchers will sometimes overindulge and feed too much on the negative feelings, and this time around they didn’t give enough room for recovery.

Martyn showing her Tilly’s ashes then really hurt Pearl, sending her on a bit of a downward spiral, and in recognition of that, the Listeners were able to step in. They were the ones behind the temporary switch.

“Pearl’s aura was still fractured and wasn’t quite whole before the beginning of Limited Life, which meant as the series was going on, there was lots of echoes from the previous season. … Normally the players don’t hold onto those wants and feelings from the previous seasons because these are eaten by the Watchers and each player goes into the next match with neutral feelings about everything. They have those memories, but they don’t hold onto those negative emotions, that sadness, but with Pearl, they kind of messed up with that, which is why Pearl came to me saying ‘Have you got Tilly.’”

On Joel being able to recognise Lizzie when others couldn’t: He was able to recognise her through mannerisms alone, due to the strength of their bond in other worlds.

In response to “no one is a Listener yet” from chat: “Yep, who’s to say, the Watchers were able to bring somebody into the fold. Maybe at some point one of these players would be able to leave. It would be very difficult for them to, the reason it was easy for Grian to become a Watcher was because it was kind of his intent and it was something they wanted to do- the Watchers kind of pulled him out and did it themselves. But here, these players in the Life series and the people that tried to flee from Evo are under such scrutiny and under such close watch it’s hard for the Listeners to really make a dent there and do things like that.”

Pulsing vignette in lead up to final kills: Representing the built up frustration of the Watchers about the Listener’s messing with their games. They’re also mad at Scott (primarily for not abiding by the Boogeyman mechanic in Last Life) and Impulse (for him giving away his time in the name of a fair fight/he’s accepted his place and found peace with the situation). The planned ending the finalists had was too civil, too familiar, it didn’t have the excitement and pain the Watchers want from these games.

More on Martyn’s betrayal: It was both a deeply embedded existing thought (he has always had the mindset of “I will kill who I need to to win this thing”) and the Watchers really amplifying those negative feelings. 

“Mentioning time being delicious was almost like, very slightly, the Watchers slipping in to mild possession towards the end.”

Martyn was left alive in the world until his timer ran out. He went back to the hourglass, moved all the sand to the bottom of the timer, and covered the glass up just as his time runs out. He falls dead into the water, and gets washed up onto the shore. Only the winner’s corpse remains.

There are some who watch/We are those who listen/Not yet free/Still you flee/From a weighted decision: Martyn isn’t aware of this, it is the Listeners semi-addressing the audience.The Listeners have a presence, or part of a presence, in where the players are being held between the death games- they’ve managed to break through the barrier.

Fleeing from a weighted decision: Recognition of the players trying to run away from the Watchers in Evo, and partly Martyn running from the betrayal of having just killed Scott.

Marks/Fragments: The marks are soul fragments that have been lost and it isn’t known if they can be repaired/recovered. The marks visible here are Life series losses, with there being one for each season. The win directly enabled the fragment protection- Martyn does most of the work and the purple being (confirmed to be a Listener) comes in at the end to finish the process/make sure it is properly protected. It does not mean the fragment is safe forever.

There’s a constant battle between the two sides, and this tug of war over the players causes strain and results in smaller fragments, but the Life series marks stand out because they are bigger, more impactful moments.

The marks are shaped like diamonds, with the branching lines being cracks that spread out. 

Life series marks: Mark on his face is from Third Life. “I like the idea of that being placed there because it was a tear shed when Ren fell, because that was kind of the moment that broke character Martyn and made him more selfish moving forwards.” Mark on back from Last Life (hidden secrets), mark on his chest from Double Life (over the heart), and mark on his hand from Limited Life (hand wielding the sword).

Void: The world that Martyn is falling/floating through is an unexplained void. The players are left in suspension because of the instinctive fear of falling, so it’s a passive way to generate fear even while they recover between games. 

Listener’s appearance: When they first break through the barrier, they are pure white/pure light- they become purple when tainted by the Watcher’s domain, this is not reflective of their true colour.

Assorted Notes:

How much is Martyn aware of? He doesn’t know all this is going on. When he’s in the void he’s completely unconscious. In the games, he doesn’t know that Grian is a Watcher. The only time he’s gotten a glimpse of the truth (and couldn’t comprehend it) was the conversation at the end of Last Life.

Number of games: We don’t know, as the audience, whether there have been different games happening in between each of the Life series. Games like Third Life could have been run multiple times before introducing Last Life. 

Wouldn’t people start to question it if they remember all the death games? Probably- he doesn’t think they’d be able to figure out a wider, more ominous picture, but they’d start to ask “Why do we keep doing this?” However, since all the negative emotions are stripped away, it’s likely the players would just view it as a bit of fun sport.

Do the Watchers have any favourites? Martyn is one of their favourites, because he’s shown that he will follow their instructions, but also Skizz and Joel because of how much they lean into the chaotic bloodlust of being Red they find entertaining.

What about other SMPs like Evo or Hermitcraft? Evo is part of the timeline whereas other SMPs are more “I don’t know if dreams is right word, but they’re a different plane.” When the players in in the unconscious state- falling between games- that is when they are “planewalking in a sense.”

Did Martyn lose fragments in Rats SMP because of the multiple lives? No, that was an instance where a fragment was protected.

On the sped up footage during the countdown: It was Limited Life Episode 5, Double Life Episode 4, Last Life Finale, and Third Life Episode 8.

What are the chapters of his Lore? Chapter 1: Memory Lane (indicative of Evo), Chapter 2: Life (beginning of the death games), Chapter 3: Into the Datastream (current), Chapter 4: Fragment Wars.

#ghost post #inthelittlewood #martyn inthelittlewood #itlw lore #limited life smp

[thedo0zyslider]

I Love You (I'm Not Supposed Too) - Chapter Five: Swampy Vacation - 7k Words

Fwhip embarks on a journey to the Codlands, courtesy of Grimlands Count. Safe to say he is less than pleased with the idea

A03 Link

Several weeks later, after dozens and dozens of tense days in the house, Fwhip finds himself being shipped off to the Codlands for two weeks. His father says it was a planned trip, so he could learn about their culture and what not. The ginger doesn't quite believe that.

Fwhip is pretty sure it’s because of the fight he and his sister had. And because Gem was scheduled to visit the day after he left too, which is pretty convenient timing if you ask him. He's almost grateful that their parents seem to be keeping them separate, because he's still feeling miserable about the whole thing. And he doesn't want that to lead into another fight again, then he really wouldn't know what to do with himself. 

He knows his fight with Gem isn’t over that one bad day. It’s god knows how many years worth of problems all exploding at once, because they suck at emotional stuff. And they're family is a big old mess too. One so full of issues that it makes him wanna bang his head into a wall half the damn time. 

He hasn’t seen Gem since she left for the Cliffs, right after their fight, which was over half a month ago at this point. Fwhip hasn’t messaged her on the new communicators they were gifted with either. Just another thing on the problem pile now, he supposed. Even if he didn't want it to be. The ginger isn’t really upset that his sister hasn’t spoken to him though, for he’s still pretty upset at her. She had called his one and only joy in this life dumb and stupid after all.

Fwhip is upset at himself too. The future Count knows he was being an asshole with most, if not all. of his comments, even if some were the truth. Yet at the same time he had no idea what to do, or how to talk to Gem about it. How do you even recover from a fight like that, really? They’d both called each other's greatest passions stupid .

He thinks about all of this, and arrives at the Codlands a lot grumpier than he expected to be. Part of the young Count wants to go back home, but he knows Gem is probably there. And the rest of him doesn’t want to confront that whole ordeal just yet, so maybe being in the dumb smelly swamp empire for a week or so would be bearable; if his other option was that much worse. Maybe .

Jimmy greets him as soon as he, and the guards his father had annoyingly sent, arrive. There is a fake smile plastered across his face, and when everyone turns their back he gives Fwhip the naistest glare the cod could probably muster. The half dragon returns it with a glare of his own, and feels his tail angrily thump against the ground. Well then, this is going to be a splendid trip, since the Cod Emperor’s greeting was oh-so friendly . 

Fwhip and his guards are giving a small tour, the teeangers keeping a good distance between them and the rest of the group. The tour was uncomfortable for both of them it seemed, as Jimmy awkwardly pointed out and described most of the buildings in the empire; even with the Grimlands guards giving him death glares the whole time. Fwhip tried to pay attention, since he would be living there for the next few days or so, but found it was rather hard too. The people they passed were giving the half dragon some nasty stares, stares he couldn’t shake no matter how hard he tired. He drew his wings even closer to his body as they walked, shifting uncomfortably with nearly every step. The cod beside him waved to someone else, then raised an eyebrow at the half dragon’s suffering. The dickhead. 

“Not used to getting stared at like an animal, are you?” Jimmy mutters to him, having leaned in a bit to do so. They are much too close for the young Count’s liking right now, able to feel the blonde’s breath falling on his skin..

“No.” Fwhip mutters back, shifting just an inch in the other direction. Personal space and all, especially when he was being ogled like he was some creature . “I’m not.”

“Now you know what my life feels like.” Jimmy responded, waving to someone he knew as they continued to make their way through the small town. 

Fwhip avoided everyone's gazes still, and tried to fold his wings closer to his back. “Do you deal with this everyday?” He asked, not missing how the few cod he did catch a glimpse of looked at him. It was…..a look he wasn't used to, that's for certain. 

“Yeah.” The cod answered after a moment, his response strained. Again, Fwhip had to wonder once again what went on in that damn ocean. “For a lot of reasons, yeah.”

The ginger doesn't respond, just holds back a sigh, and accepts the fact that he will be subjected to some….rather nasty looks. But if complains to Jimmy the cod will complain about his treatment in the Grimlands, so he just keeps his mouth shut and suffers in silence. Sometimes doing that is better anyways.

Fwhip follows Jimmy around in mostly silence, only giving the occasional word here and there. Partly because a good bit of the codfolk's conversations are in codlish, a language he cannot even try to understand right now. But he learns a little from what he can gather, about the people's religion, the sea gods they worship and their cultural festivities related to it. 

He learns about recipes and their foods he will never remember fully, the style of dress in the empire, how they farm and use the land's natural resources for most things, everything . He also learns a lot of little details too, like how Jimmy will have to wear this head once they appoint him as the Codfather, and how he won’t be able to take it off in public ever again after that. Jimmy mumbled something part way through, about how his mother had instructed him to be so detailed in the tour, because normally he wouldn't care so much. And well, he's doing a damn good job at it, out of fear or otherwise. He makes it a little interesting, at least. 

Their little tour is eventually interrupted by some commotion in the docks, and the two young royals have to rush off once they hear the sounds of yelling. Thankfully no one got truly hurt, other than a few bruises maybe, but one if the castle merfolk and two codfolk had gotten into a pretty heated engagement. Apparently one of them had said some nasty comment about the other species, and it had escalated from there. 

Jimmy tells him it's the fourth incident like that today, and noon has only just passed. 

Not even twenty minutes later, they have to stop an argument between one of the Grimlands guards accompanying Fwhip, and another codfolk Jimmy had been talking to prior. It was his guard who had started it, and while the future Count didn't necessarily disagree with their comments, it would not be good for any of them if a fight broke out. So he decides they're done with guards, actually, and pulls the one with him off to the side. 

“Sir,” The guard protested, surely unhappy about losing their post. “I can't just leave you here alone in an enemy empire!”

“First off, we're not technically enemies right now.” Fwhip hisses, shoving them off to wherever the other two or so Grimlands guards had been ordered to stay. “And do you think these people are gonna attack an emperor's kid? They're not that dumb.” 

The guard mutters something under their breath in response, something about him sympathizing with the fish folk, and reluctantly walks away. They know when to walk away and follow orders, but not when to shut their mouth, it seems. The half dragon glares at the back of the retreating guard, and has to stop himself from stomping back like a child might. To say the comment got under his skin would be an understatement. 

Fwhip exchanges a glance with Jimmy when he walks back over, and sees the same troubling look reflected on the young cod’s face. It seems the two of them are on the same page then, about why they are here and what they are being taught. 

They are both starting to understand the need for the marriage. Fwhip still doesn't like it, he never will, but he can at least understand why it's happening. And that is exactly why they were brought here, to see and understand their duties to the people. The duties they both do not want, yet have no say in. The duties their parents do not want to do, so now it's both of their jobs.

There's a sinking pit of despair opening up in Fwhip's gut as he realizes it, and sees the same feeling reflected in Jimmy’s eyes as well. And the feeling is persistent, it won't go away. It's the feeling that will define every thought of the future after today. 

“Pix!” Jimmy exclaims, sounding all happy and relieved. He nearly runs over towards the other, his tail basically wagging with happiness behind him as he moves. Like a puppies tail would. 

“Pix?” Fwhip parrots, confused, yet he follows the young cod regardless. Don't get him wrong, he's very happy to see the new Pixandrian King, it's been a while since their last meeting, he's just unsure of why exactly he's here. 

“Hello you two!” The Copper King says, reaching out to ruffle both of the boy's hair when they're in range. Jimmy laughs, and lets him, already well used to such affection from the man in the few times they have spoken. Fwhip lets his hair be ruined as well, but not without many confused noises. 

“I'm happy to see you but, why are you here!?” He asks, barely caring how messy his curls are now. Even if his hair was rather annoying to keep tidy. Again, he's very excited to see his friend, he just doesn't know why he is seeing him!

“He visits sometimes!” Jimmy explains, cheery. And then he leaned in closer to Fwhip, to add on quietly. Like no one was supposed to hear this, in case something bad came of it. Like Jimmy was treading some ground he wasn't supposed to around the cod and all the royal advisors hanging about. “And mum isn't giving me any help making an empire, so Pix made it his job instead.”

“Oh, okay.” The ginger mumbled, somewhat surprised at the information. He knew the Ocean Queen wasn't....a great parent, but he hadn't been expecting her to just throw her son info leadership like that. Jimmy, on the other hand, seemed unphased by it, like this stuff was normal, and happily turned his head back towards their older friend. 

“The Queen actually requested my presence, and said she wanted me to be here today specifically.” Pix said, also seeming very nonchalant about the whole neglectful parent thing. Fwhip wondered how out of the loop he was, and if Lizzie was either involved or okay with all this. Or if she even knew it was happening. 

Jimmy looked puzzled, like his mother didn't request Pix's presence a lot. Like he just showed up of his own accord, out of the kindness of his own heart. “Why?”

“I don't know.” Pix shrugged, a small smile forming on his lips. “Maybe she thinks I'll keep you both in line?” Both of the boys giggled at that suggestion, and exchanged a knowing glance. No one in the world could stop them arguing, or being individual little troublemakers. You'd either have to separate them or lock them each in an all white room to achieve such a feat. 

Not even two minutes later, like they had summoned the Devil herself, the Ocean Queen arrives. She has guards of her own trailing her as she approaches them. Fwhip is surprised when he sees her, but his two companions are not. Jimmy seems to be trying to control his facial expression, probably from scowling or something; while Pixl plasters one of those fake, polite little smiles across his lips.

“Hello, your majesty.” Pix says, with a polite dip of his head. He sounds a lot less friendly than he did on him and the Queens last meeting a few months ago, that's for sure. The Copper King has undoubtedly learned some information recently, information about what really goes on behind closed doors in the Ocean Empire. It's nothing good, either. 

“Pixlriffs, good to see you.” The Queen says, stiff as ever. In the few times Fwhip has met her, he doesn't think she's ever been relaxed. Or casual. Or just generally not nerve wracking to be around. “How has everything been going?”

“It's been going well. Your son has quite the knack for this stuff, you know.” Pix hums, casting a fond glance over his shoulder at Jimmy. The young cod does not beam up at him like one would expect him to, his face being neutral and controlled instead. Like he would be punished if he didn't. That uneasy feeling Fwhio has about the Ocean Queen is growing every second, honestly. 

The Queen flicks her gaze towards her soon for a moment, eyes narrowing ever so slightly. Jimmy’s expression doesn’t shift and inch.  “Does he now…”

“Yes, especially once you let him learn what he needs to.” Pix's tone appears casual on the surface, but there is an undertone of accusation. Of weeks old frustration and annoyance with his fellow royal. It looks like the Ocean Queen is doing everything in her power to be civil right now. 

The Queens hums, her tail flicking behind her, probably not as discreet as she would like it to be. “Well. I was just here for a report and a look around. I think I'll be going now, if that's okay with you.” She hasn't even gotten the report yet, and she already wants to leave. Fwhip has to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the statement, and instead forces himself to look wholly disinterested in the whole conversation. Just as people would expect him to be, after all. 

“That's perfectly fine with me, ma'am. I'm sure you're very busy indeed.” Pix responds, placing a calm hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. The cod doesn't seem to notice it, everything he does is still controlled and precise as ever. But his posture does seem to relax, just the tiniest bit. 

“Yes, busy.” The Queen responds, almost distantly. Like her mind is very far elsewhere at the moment; perhaps it is back at her Castle, where she clearly would rather be instead. “I need a word with my…child very quickly, if I may.” She adds, her eyes still trained on her son. Almost like some kind of predator. 

“Of course!” Pix's smile seems a bit more forced after that, and he slowly removes his hand off Jimmy’s shoulder. For a brief second, the young cod looks a little terrified, but he doesn't say anything at all. He just lets his mother whisk him off to the side, a few feet away, while their guests wait behind them. 

Fwhip wants to ask something, anything about what's happening, but he doesn't. Pix is…oddly stiff as they watch the two Merfolks exchange, and whatever question Fwhip has dies in his mouth. He knows not to pry when his friend gets like this, because the answer he will get will only be stony silence. The King watches the ordeal through narrowed eyes, observing Jimmy and his mothers body language as they talk. The whole ordeal seems to be a rather tense one, and Fwhip can't help but eavesdrop. Just a little bit. Though he doesn't hear much, and can only catch the last few snippets of the conversation.

The Queen crouches down next to her son, so that they are eye level. Her hands are firmly placed on his shoulders, so he cannot move or pull away. It looks like her nails are digging in, and Fwhip really hopes that's not the case. Her lips move as she whispers something, voice rising slightly with every new word. Until Fwhip doesn't even have to try too hard to overhear it anymore. And if he can hear it, so can King Pix besides him. Whatever the consequences of that are. 

“You do what you've been told, K-,” The Queen hisses, and Fwhip chooses to stop listening right about that point in the discussion. He feels like one of those words isn't for him to hear, now or ever. Like Jimmy doesn't want him to hear it. “Remember that.” 

“Yes ma'am.” Jimmy says, his gaze firmly fixed on the floor. His mother glares at him for a moment more, as if assessing him. She huffs, then loosens her grip enough for Jimmy to wiggle free. He doesn't try, and doesn’t move until he is let go fully. Jimmy only moves when she starts to walk back towards them, and follows behind the Queen more obedient than he had the first time. Whatever bad feeling Fwhip had about the ruler was now confirmed, and was taking form in a rather strong dislike. He could see why everyone else detested the woman so much, and why his mother always complained about having to deal with her. (Which was funny, considering how similar they seemed to be. But that was a train of thought for another day.) 

The Queen and Pix have a small word, and then she is off again. Fwhip pays that exchange no mind. Instead, the half dragon focuses on Jimmy; who is now just standing next to him. He seems a little zoned out, and won't respond to the small nudges Fwhip gives him. He doesn't fully relax either, not until his mother is out of sight, even though her attention had never returned to him once it left the first time. 

“You okay, Jimmy?” Fwhip mumbled, seeing the breath he let out at her departure. He doesn't really know why he did it, but the half dragon slipped a hand into the cods. It's something he does when Gem gets a little rattled, and does it without thinking. Maybe that's why he did it, because Jimmy seemed all rattled from whatever his mom had called him. Maybe it was just a habit just a habit at that point, he didn't know.

“Yeah, yeah I'm fine.” The blonde answered, not making any comment in the hand holding. But he did briefly lace their fingers together, and squeezed the other's hand just a little bit. “Can you two go get something? From all the storage areas? They need to fix up some parts of the church after last week's rain…” He mumbled, now talking to Pix as well. Fwhip ignored how the ruler was looking at their hands with a small smile on his face. 

“Sure thing.” The Pixandrian says, nudging the half dragon lightly. He lets go of Jimmy’s hand more reluctantly than he thought he would. “C'mon Fwhip.” The half dragon follows, sparing only half a glance over his shoulder as they walk away. He figures Jimmy just needs a moment to regroup himself after his mother’s visit, and nothing more. He’ll probably go and help them with the Church later, if it doesn’t get too late.

He and Pix head towards said church, and ask around about what materials are needed for the repairs. Once they have a small list of that, the two royals start off to the empire’s storage area, Fwhip prepared to rummage around a probably very disorganized mess. Since storage areas tended to be just that. But it’s there that the day went further downhill, as someone had questions that they needed answers to, and subsequently started to question his young friend about it. Answers the future Count would never be able to ever give.

“Fwhip.” Pix hums out his young friend’s name after a few minutes of quiet work, scanning over the list of materials they had been given for the third time. He doesn't look up from the paper as he speaks, scanning over it still. 

“Yeah?” The ginger asks, turning to look at the older man. The Pixandrian’s tone is….more suspicious than it normally is. Or ever is. Fwhip doesn't exactly know where this is going, but he does know that he doesn't like it. 

“Are you really…interested in Jimmy?” The brunette says, the words sounding oh so innocent when they spill from his lips. To Fwhip they are one of the worst things a man could say to him.

The young Count feels his hand stiffen over whatever he's holding at the question, and what also feels like all his blood turning to ice and dread pools in his stomach. Still he tries to stay calm and controlled when he speaks. Like the question never bothered him. “What do you mean?”

Pix hums again before he speaks, humming one of the tunes he likes to hum when working. “Well there's been rumors about you two being a couple. That's something you don't see everyday, two young royals pairing up…of their own accord.” The Pixandrian says, his tone only holding curiosity. And some mild suspicion buried deep down, to anyone whose head isn't clogged with fear. To Fwhip this is the scariest conversation he will ever, ever have with this man. “I knew you two didn't particularly get along before, so I've just been intrigued about what I've been hearing.”

“Well, you've been around us all day,” Fwhip shrugs, trying to act nonchalant the best he can. He doesn't think it's working very well. “What do you think?” 

“I think you're acting like they are true, in a way.” The Copper King says, and finally turns his head to look at the young half dragon. His gaze is not met like he perhaps expected to be.

“Why'd you even ask in the first place? It isn't really your business.” He huffs, having turned back to the materials he was sorting through a while ago. Fwhip decides to ignore the piercing blue eyes burning holes into his backside for the next few minutes. 

“I know it's not, trust me.” Pix reassures, finally finding some of the materials they need. Fwhip is so off-put by this whole conversation, he knew looking for whatever he previously had been would soon be pointless. He already wanted to leave the storage buildings as soon as possible anyways. “Jimmy just informed me about the deal between your two kingdoms, and I wondered if it came with any strings attached. He didn't seem to be happy about it when he told me.”

“And then I was here today?” Fwhip asked, hand tensely resting over some type of wooden plank that was probably on the list. Probably.

Pix hummed in quiet confirmation. “And then you were here today.”

Fwhip let out a small sigh, and decided he could tell a half truth. It wouldn't hurt to spill some of the basic stuff, not as long as he was vague about it.“My parents thought that us spending time together would be a good idea after the deal, since we used to argue a lot.”

“Did it turn into something more?” Pix asked, genuinely curious. Because he truly cared about them. Both of them. It's what made walking on eggshells around the subject so hard, lying to the people who wanted nothing more than to help. (Some of the very few people who could actually help them too, no less.) 

The ginger blushed at that, and averted his gaze to the side. Goddammit why was he blushing. He shouldn't be blushing over a stupid fishboy that he hated. “Maybe.”

He felt Pix’s warm smile on his back, and relaxed slightly under it. His smile always had that effect, even in the hard moments like this. “Well if it did, I'm happy for you two.”

“And how do you know it didn't?” Fwhip asked, even though he barely dared to do so. Even if the possible answer scared the life out of him. 

“I know when you're lying to me, young Fwhip. You're not very good at it.” Pix repsonded, which, yeah, he was right about all that. Fwhip wasn't the best liar in the world, and the Pixandrian had known him for far too long. Pix had seen more of his horrible lies than anyone else had, other than maybe his sister. “But I also know when to keep my mouth shut.”

“Could you….tell me about cod history sometime?” Fwhip mutters, a little embarrassed that he has to ask such a thing. Especially to Pix, who doesn’t even live anywhere near the ocean. He is just making the correct assumption about how well read the man is about everything.

“Why not ask Jimmy, or Lizzie?” Pix inquires, handing him some supplies to carry back. So it looks like he did more than he actually did, and wasn’t just the Grimlands dead weight. Probably. At last that’s why Fwhip thought he did so, if he just didn’t need help. Ya know, the far more likely reason out of those two.

“Jimmy doesn’t like talking about it, I think. Plus he seems lost on how everything works still. And Lizzie doesn’t get to see me much.” Fwhip explains with a shrug, taking the items he's handed. It's quite a heavy load of stuff, that's for sure, and he has to wonder how bad the damages to the church truly were. 

“Yes, I will. One day.” Pix agrees, starting out of the storage area and back towards the damaged building. Fwhip follows after him, stumbling a little under the weight of his supplies. 

“Thanks.” The half dragon mumbled, taking longer strides so he could keep up with his older friend. Once Pixl noticed this, however, he did slow his pace down. “Do you…do you know where Jimmy is?” He asked after a moment, feeling the redness start to flood his face. This wasn’t helping the earlier assumptions, that’s for sure.

“I think he went back to his shack for the day.” Pix hummed after a thoughtful moment, before giving his younger friend a teasing look. “Why? You miss him already?”

“No.” Fwhip muttered, quiet and embarrassed. He knew the Pixandrian was gonna tease him about his “ crush ” for forever now. Dangit. “And thanks.”

“You're welcome.” Pix said, looking like he wanted to ruffle the half dragon's hair, but couldn't for once. Fwhip appreciated the sentiment regardless, and was sure he'd get another head ruffle as soon as possible. “Now give those back to me, so you can go see your little boyfriend.”

“ B-Boyfriend!? He's not my-” Fwhip stammered out, his wings puffing out behind him on instinct. He was sure his face was as red as his hair by now, the flush having reached the tips of his ears. Pix did nothing but giggle at his own successful quip, and watch as the young royal struggled to regain his former composure. “..Are you sure you can carry all this? I don't have to go…”

Pix shakes his head, and reaches out to take the stuff from the young half dragon. “I'll be fine, Fwhip. I've carried a lot worse in my day.” He hums, and Fwhip slowly starts to hand his share of the materials over. “Besides, I think you have something to talk about.” And well, he is right about that. There is something he wants to tell Jimmy about….

“Right, um.” Fwhip says, all of the materials now out of his hands and into Pix’s. He was still worried about the other carrying all that weight, but knew the other would give him the exact same response again if he protested. “Thank you, again.”

“Anytime, now run along. Jimmy’s shack is just by the docks.” Pix said, managing to nudge him off in that direction. Fwhip huffed, threw yet another thank you over his shoulder as he started his return trip to the docks. It was a little tricky to find his way back, and he had to deal with quite a few nasty stares as he wandered around the swamp. But eventually, the half dragon does spot the shack eventually. And it is indeed a shack, too small to be called a house, and it’s not particularly pretty either, so of course it’s Jimmy’s. Once he sees it, he beelines for the door, and slips inside as soon as he isn’t fumbling with the lock. “Pix just asked about us.” Fwhip said, locking the door behind them as quickly as he can. The half dragon leaned against it too, for extra measure. He distantly hoped no one walked by and heard them, because that would be extra, extra bad. “He asked if I was actually into you.”

Jimmy’s head shot in his direction, eyes wide like a baby deer’s. He was standing halfway across the room when Fwhip entered, doing who knows what, and stopped it as soon as the words processed in his little fish brain. “Did you tell him?” The cod asked, clearly fighting back the fear in his voice. A small tinge of sympathy went through Fwhip for a moment, but then he pushed it right back down again.

“I wanted to, but I didn't.” He said, now moving off the door. The half dragon made sure it was locked before he did so, and moved closer to where Jimmy was standing. Both of their tails flicked across the ground in near sync, anxious and worried.

“Thank cod.” Jimmy mumbled, running a hand over his face in momentary relief. He hugged his arms to his chest again, and a frown settled onto his face. One that wouldn’t really leave for the rest of the day, rather unfortunately for the blonde.

Fwhip gave a small sigh of his own, and a  nonchalant shrug to accompany it as well. To make it seem like he cared a little less than he did or something. Even if the amount he cared was pretty small to begin with. “I figured your mom would have your head if I did. Even if I really, really trust him.”

“So someone’s onto us?” Jimmy asked, hugging his arms tighter to his chest. 

The half dragon let out a huff, and pretended not to notice when he did that. Like he did everytime, even when it was a pretty noticeable quirk of the cod’s. “He even asked if they arranged a marriage.”

“Oh no….” The blonde mutters, and Fwhip feels the same dread that is in Jimmy’s voice. He feels it very deep down in bones at the moment, and knows its the kinda dread that won’t ever go away.

The both of them are….decently terrified of what will happen if the news is broken suddenly, and not slowly overtime like they planned. Fwhip is scared of what the people will say, what all his salmonfolk friends would think. What the people working in his family's manor would say to him and to his father. And that fear is just over the current plan, let alone whatever would happen if the truth was revealed. Jimmy, as he'd admitted before one night, is deathly terrified of his mother's reaction; more so than any merfolk or codfolk's. Especially if the marriage doesn’t go as planned. He says the Ocean Queen does not like it when she doesn't get her way, and Fwhip feels like he has the emotional scars to prove it too. 

There is also a new sense of duty tying them both down after today. Duty to their kingdoms, their people, their parents. Duty to a lot of people. Duty to the world and the peace this arrangement would undoubtedly bring. Duty to the lives and the grief that would be spared by avoiding war. There was….a lot of duty riding on this, and it had taken them years to realize that fact. Now that they had, it had become something of its own heavy burden on both of the boys shoulders’.

“We have to sell it better.” Fwhip said after a moment, shuffling his weight from side to side. He didn’t know what to do, standing in this house talking to Jimmy. But he needed to do something, something with his hands or his body. Something to get all that nervous energy out before it exploded.

“I know,” Jimmy agrees, and looks like he’s about to start pacing. The ginger really hopes he won’t do that, because that would be stupid and pointless and annoying. Like almost every other thing the blonde does, actually. “But how do we do that?”

Fwhip hums, turning the idea over in his head for a bit. Even if he knows there’s only one logical solution to it, a solution he doesn’t want to admit. But he says it anyway, just to get it out there and out of his thoughts. So it won’t linger in the back of his mind like a little pest. “Acting like a couple, maybe…but.”

“We both don't want to.” Jimmy mumbled, sparing a glance at him. There was some emotion in his eyes, and Fwhip didn’t even dare to put a name to it. There were a lot of things he wasn’t daring to do, or didn’t like doing today it seemed. And this was just yet another one.

“Yeah.” The ginger mutters, glancing back at the blonde. He blinks in surprise, finding that they are…..very close. Close enough to touch. The cod says nothing, just blinks back at him all wide eyed.

For a moment, as he and Jimmy just stare at each other, Fwhip lets his mind wander. He wonders what it would be like to kiss him, just a little bit. He wonders what it would feel like, if it would feel like anything at all. His eyes flick downwards, and wonders if Jimmy’s lips are soft, or if they would be rough and horrible to feel against his own. He wonders if they’ll ever share that moment together.

“What are you staring at?” Jimmy says quietly after a minute. Fwhip jumps in surprise, feeling a blush start to spread across his cheeks. The half dragon moves his eyes away from the others lips, and focuses them on somewhere else in the room. He…..didn't know why he was thinking that. He shouldn't be thinking about kissing Jimmy. 

“Nothing.” He muttered, tail flicking slightly in embarrassment. “It's nothing.” If he wasn't mistaken, Jimmy's face was also starting to turn a bit red as well,  and his eyes had started to wander too. Meaning that they had…..maybe been thinking similar things. Just maybe. Maybe he wasn't totally weird for that one then. 

The cod doesn't give a verbal response, cheeks a decent shade of pink. Instead he gestures for Fwhip to sit down somewhere, and the half dragon does so. He practically curls himself into a little ball, taking up residency on one of the couch cushions. The left one by the arm, so he can further sink into the material and be miserable. Because today has been pretty shit, generally, and he just really wants to go home. But unfortunately, a certain someone can't understand social cues, and won't just let him suffer in peace. 

“So, why was your dad so eager to get you out of the house?” Jimmy says, plopping himself down next to Fwhip on the rather small couch. He curls his tail around his legs, making a pointed effort to keep all his limbs in his own personal space as best he can. The sentiment is somewhat appreciated. 

Fwhip looks up, shame already starting to form in the bottom of his gut. “You heard about that?” He mumbled, resisting the urge to hide his face like a child would. He’s not going to do that, especially not around the dumb codboy , because he’s not a child.

“Yep.” Jimmy says, leaning his head against the back of the couch, his gaze now foxed on the brown ceiling that seemed so far above the both of them. “Your dad was so eager he even surprised my mum when they talked. She said he was never that…. happy about getting rid of his kid for a few weeks.” 

“We had…..family issues. To put it lightly.” Fwhip gives a brief explanation, figuring the other can probably guess that much. Handing over information would probably shut him up as well, to be fair. “And now that's an excuse for dumb arrangement shit to go on.” 

“No, I think this visit was always going to happen.” Jimmy shakes his head, and gives the most sensible explanation Fwhip thinks has ever come out of his mouth. Especially about their…. situation . “Letting your child spend a few weeks in your enemy's land is something they wouldn't do, not if there wasn't a political thing behind it.” 

“It makes the peace treaty seem more believable when it gets announced, you know? It makes it seem like we've been genuinely repairing relations for the past few years.” The cod’s eyes stay distant, and trained on the wall as he speaks. Like he’s known the reality of all this the whole time, and it’s been choking him to death. “Even though it's all fake.” 

“When did you get so smart?” Fwhip snorts, considering all that. And yeah, he’s right. Not only does that make sense, it’s also something both their parents would do. The ginger knows that without a doubt, and it’s part of what makes the whole argument so horrible. That their parents don’t care enough to not use them as scapegoats, and don’t care enough to solve all their kingdoms' problems literally any other way that the cruelest and easiest one presented to them. 

“A lot of stolen books on diplomacy.” Jimmy mutters, and Fwhip files that away for later, so he can ask why the idiot has to steal books when he’s gonna be the leader of a whole damn country. Even if the answer is as simple as his mom being a horrible person, but still, the ginger likes knowing details about things. “But I'm here to talk about you, not our stupid arrangement.”

“....Me and Gem had a fight. A pretty bad one.” He admits with a sigh, and buries his head back into his arms. It’s easier to talk this way, if he doesn’t have to face the person he’s being forced to open up to. (Forced, like he couldn’t just cuss Jimmy out and be left alone afterwards…)

Jimmy lets out an understanding hum, their shoulders now somewhat touching. Fwhip pointedly decides to ignore that. “Is that why my last visit was canceled?”

“Yep.” Fwhip hums, popping the p. He really doesn't wanna talk about this. Especially not with Jimmy, in an unfamiliar empire no less. But he guesses he kinda has to for a little bit, well that’s what he’s been telling himself. Because Jimmy won’t shut up about it if he doesn’t, probably, and he’s annoying as fuck all the time.

“I get it. Me and Lizzie always argue.” The blonde said, sounding so sure of himself. Like this fight wasn’t the worst thing to ever happen to the ginger, like he could’ve known that without being told so. “Gem'll come around, eventually.”

“How do you know it was her fault?” Fwhip asks, tail curled tighter around himself. He isn’t even sure if it's Gem’s fault anymore; honestly it feels like it's more his fault than anything. He had been the one to start the argument, after all. But maybe it's none of their faults, maybe it's their parents, Fwhip doesn't know. All he knows is that he kinda wants to cry whenever he thinks about the fight. He knows that he feels guilty. He knows he loves Gem so fucking much and that fighting with her hurts, but being at home and dealing with their family also really, really hurts. 

Part of him thinks he just wants his childhood back. When they were both small and whole and blissfully unaware of all the problems yet to come. 

“I just have a feeling our sisters are very similar. That's all.” Jimmy says, now fully leaning on him. Fwhip is still ignoring it, and couldn’t decide if the touch was annoying or comforting at the moment. He didn’t want to find out either.

“You're an observant little fuck, aren't you?” He snorts, finally looking up again.

“So I've been told.” The cod holds back a small giggle, the happiest he’d sounded all day, before and after this moment. “We're going back to the Castle before nightfall, by the way, and we'll be back out here almost everyday.” He adds, moving away from the half dragon. Fwhip tries not to miss the contact of their shoulders too much.

“Is this how you live now? Because it kinda sucks man.” He huffs, uncurling himself slowly. He can’t imagine having to basically run an empire, on top of living at his horrible house and dealing with his horrible family. All while being barely sixteen as well….

Sometimes, it was very, very, very hard not to feel bad for Jimmy. To not feel a kind of companionship with their horrible situations all the time. It was very hard.

“I know. But I like the swamp more, so it's okay.” Jimmy mumbles quietly, and it sounds like he’s lying. He then nudges Fwhip a little harshly, and nearly topples him off the couch. It seems the feelings talk is complete over then, and it’s back to business as usual. “Now get up, we don't leave the swamp after sunset, and the afternoon’s already halfway over.”

“Fine. Bossy .” Fwhip huffed, and managed to get to his feet. He followed the other across the small shack and out of the door, into probably a horrible first night at the Prisma Palace, with many more to come after it. Jimmy said nothing as they walked and were brought back to his home, not a single word, and it was all he needed to say.

#ron.writing #ron.fic #jimmy solidarity #fwhimmy #empires smp #ily (im not supossed too) #fwhip #empiresshipping #empires shipping

[imhereformysciencefriends]

@mcyt-yuri-week Day 5: Rarepair!

Gem/Puffy because faves should kiss. And flirt. Excessively. Read on AO3 here

Princess Gem was in the lighthouse running some mild repairs when she first caught sight of the ship on the horizon. Ships were not strange things in Dawn. She herself had built the port, after all, but this was not one of Dawn’s ships, nor did she recognize its sails nor its flag. It wasn’t a pirate flag, thank goodness, she wasn’t sure she was quite up to task to deal with seafaring pillagers at the moment, but there was still a stranger at her shores.

She descended the lighthouse and crossed to her port, wings folded behind her for the time being. She didn’t know if this was a threat yet or not, and butterfly wings made for delicate, easily shot targets if she wasn’t cautious.

The ship was modest. Typically there would be a crew of maybe four people for a vessel this size, but it was possible for one person to man such a thing alone, if the person was practiced. Gem stood at the stone wall shoring up the small cliffside, hand resting on a crenellation, and watched as the vessel’s one-woman-crew heaved the anchor over the side, fastened her boat to the dock, and staggered off.

The bow-legged sheep hybrid (ram? She had large, curling horns) glanced up and caught sight of Princess Gem, and flashed her a big smile.

“Hey girl,” she called, leaning her elbow awkwardly on a pile of crates Gem had ready for trade when one of her own ships returned from their current voyage, “are you from Tennessee?”

“...What?”

“Cause you’reeeee the only ten I see!”

Gem stared at her, wide eyed and flabbergasted and maybe just a touch pink to the cheeks.

“Are you drunk!?” she shouted down, trying to sound appalled and mostly just coming off as embarrassed.

The sailor clicked her tongue and snapped before she pointed two double pistols Gem’s way, staggering slightly with her weight removed from the crates. “I am so dehydrated.”

“Oh well for goodness sake!” Gem unlocked the gate to port and descended the steps, catching the sailor before she could tilt hooves over kilter into the seawater behind her. “Did you not pack enough water for your trip?”

“Got blown off course,” she muttered, leaning on Gem heavily, “nasty storm.”

Well. At least she was alive. Gem huffed.

“I am Princess Gem, ruler of Dawn.”

The sailor grinned. “Captain Puffy; at your service pretty lady.”

Gem felt herself blush again, then snapped her gaze forward, focusing on getting them up the steps. “Let’s just get you some water!”

Puffy laughed, and let Gem all but drag her to the tavern. Across multiple bottles of water, a tankard of very thin mead, and two cups of apple cider, Puffy detailed what had happened to Gem. She’d been sailing since she was old enough to hold a rope and had all the overconfidence to match. She’d been on her own, something she’d done a billion times before, when a storm caught her blindsided. She’d survived and so had her ship, but she’d lost some supplies and had been blown far from the shore she’d been headed towards.

“Normally I have my son with me, and he can get rid of the worst storms. Guess I got too comfortable; didn’t prepare like normal people should.”

“You have a son,” Gem said, for some reason fixated on that fact and feeling… oddly sad?

Puffy grinned, waggling her eyebrows at Gem. “Yeah, but I’m single.”

Gem felt heat rise to her cheeks once again.

“And ready to mingle,” Puffy added lasciviously, leaning forward, and Gem shoved the glass towards her.

“Ju–just drink your juice!!”

Puffy laughed and hoisted the glass upwards, first, as though to toast, before downing it.

“You, um, feeling less dehydrated?” Gem asked, desperately changing the subject.

“Yeah. It’ll take a while to fully recover, though, hydration is best done in multiple smaller drinks done consistently and frequently overtime.” Again, that cocksure, self-assured grin of hers. “Guess I’ll just have to stick around a while.”

Gem was a princess. She was trained from a young age to flit lightly and easily from social situation to social situation, always fluttering above conflict and subtle insult and shadowed prodding. Her words were as delicate lace, intricate and woven into complexity.

This woman’s straightforward flirtations and direct approach had Gem’s heart pounding like a warhammer against her birdcage ribs. If Gem’s decorum was trained to look like stained glass, Puffy’s brazenness was a rock crashing through it.

And, on top of all of that, the captain had the audacity to laugh at her.

“You don’t play with sailors much, do you little lady?” she asked, reclining in her seat and crossing a leg over her knee. It gave Gem a very clear view of her. Her white-turned-beige shirt with ruffles over her breasts tucked into high waisted, big-buttoned pants. Her large captain’s coat hanging boldly off her shoulders, her elbows propped up to the sides. Her beads and coins strung throughout her hair, catching the light of the tavern and glinting distractingly. Her sailor’s muscles and big curling horns and the way the light caught on the dampness left on her lips.

“I—” Gem started when she realized she’d been staring, “Converse. With, traders, perfectly frequently.”

“And none of ‘em take advantage of how cute you are?” Why was her voice so loud? It didn’t sound this loud in Gem’s ears when they were on the dock. Well, loud yes but not this loud. Must’ve been because they were inside now. Puffy’s voice was simply filling the space, and echoing back.

“I’m not—it’s not, in a princess’s job description to be taken advantage of,” Gem stuttered, blushing at how the words sounded coming out of her own mouth. She didn’t mean it like that!

But Puffy laughed at her, and uncrossed her leg with a sharp thud of hoof hitting floor, and rose with a faint jingling of her hair ornaments. She rounded the table with lazy swagger, and it should’ve been impossible for a woman so short to loom so toweringly.

She stopped with her hip cocked against the table, and set a hand on Gem’s shoulder, deceptively slow and gentle. “What about fun?” she asked, voice now so quiet, so so so so quiet Gem had to lean forward to hear her better, her hand drifting off Gem’s shoulder to trail down her arm. “Is having fun in the job description?”

“I—” Gem cut off as she shuddered, Puffy’s hand, roughened with rope and seawater, caressing the freckles dotting the exposed skin of Gem’s own. She swallowed, unable to blink or look away. “I have plenty of fun.”

Puffy grinned like she’d won. “Yeah? Come by my boat and show me sometime, pretty princess. I’ll let you see something nice.”

Gem was so red in the face it made her lightheaded as she watched Puffy saunter away. It did not become a princess to lose her marbles so easily, but Gem simply couldn’t seem to relocate her composure. It was fully lost. Off in the fields somewhere. Or maybe it was leaping around Puffy’s hocks, admiring the way her fluffy woolen tail wiggled as she walked.

The moment the tavern door swung shut behind her, Gem tore her eyes away and grasped at the nearest drink, downing the entire thing in big, heaving gulps. She slammed the cup down in a distinctly unladylike fashion, gasping slightly.

Without distraction, she was now free to make eye contact with the tavern keeper. The tavern keeper who watched her very knowingly. Who had probably been watching her and Puffy since the two had entered in and ordered an absurd number of drinks.

But instead of remarking, the tavernkeeper merely asked, “So are you the one paying for those, then?”

“She—oh she didn’t even—!” Gem gasped, realizing Puffy had left her with the bill. “Oh that little—I’m gonna—!”

She was going to—!

Going to…

She…

Gem’s face, flushed red with a mixture of arousal and fluster and embarrassment at being lightly swindled, felt surely that there must be steam rolling out of her ears by this point. She dropped her burning face into her hands, hiding behind her curtain of hair and red to the tips of her ears.

#captain puffy #captainpuffy #geminitay #gempuffy #puffygem #mcytyuriweek2023 #mcyt yuri week #empires #empires smp #empires s2 #dream smp #dsmp #mcyt #my writing #haro writes #flirting #brazen flirting #rarepair

[caspersickfanfics]

Hello :) hope you’re doing okay! Since you mentioned still being open to head canons and stuff- I’m currently thinking about how tighnari would potentially use his own sensitivity to noise and crowds to cover for Cyno if they were in some sort of public setting and Cyno wasn’t feeling well. Like I’m imagining the gang all met up to play TCG or something, and maybe it’s a packed night with other members of the mates around as well. Maybe Cyno is just a little too glassy eyed for Tighnaris liking and a little too quiet. He’s not paying attention to the game…he hasn’t touched his drink, he just seems…distant. Shivery. Not good…

Alhaitham and kaveh pickup on it but leave it to nari. Tighnari would make a big show about wanting to head out early due to a headache and ask Cyno if he’d walk him home as a way to get him out of there with out him having to look weak in public.

bonus points for Cyno being genuinely concerned for Tighnari, thinking it was real (he’s out of it, definitely feverish he doesn’t know what’s going on) and instantly starts checkin on him once they leave, offering to take his bag, apologizing for the noise etc. Cyno is so quick to move them away from the noise off towards the peaceful forest. It’s Only then that Tighnari stops him, slaps a hand to Cynos his forehead and lets out a fond sigh. “You silly thing, im *fine* it’s you im worried about. You don’t look like you’re feeling very well. And you’re warm…let’s head home okay? I’ll take your temperature there.”

the next day Cyno can barely get out of bed, and doesn’t eat a thing, but thankfully it’s a short lived bug and he recovers soon after many, many naps.

HI oml this is SO CUTE!!! (Also I am doing much better now, everyone has been so supportive 😭💕)

But this- Cyno being so out of it. “Distant. Shivery. Not good” is a GEM. And this is so in character for Tighnari!! I can absolutely see him just being like “This was fun, but I have a headache so I’m leaving now. Bye!” on the regular when he actually does feel bad, so of course it’s a convenient and believable excuse when he needs one. I could see Kaveh pushing things along as well, being like “oh yes, this usually happens with the noise, you both have a safe trip back!” And Alhaitham being like “I have a headache too” just because he also wants to leave lmao

Of course Cyno being worried about Nari, that’s so precious, I love them sm 😭 Cyno’s probably a bit grumpy that Nari lied because it’s confusing to his fever brain and he doesn’t fully realize it was entirely for his sake and not to trick him, which Tighnari just finds adorable 🥺 Kaveh and Alhaitham go to check on him the next day and he’s just NOT doing well at all. They’re impressed Tighnari picked up on it so quickly and relieved that Cyno’s getting the rest he needs 🥹

Also THANK YOU so much for sending this ask, I was really worried my recent post would mean people would stop talking with me and then I’d be even more bummed and seeing this in my inbox really made my day 💕💕💕 you deserve the world for always spreading so much kindness!!!

#sick cyno hc #relevantlucidity #tighnari hc #genshin hc #cas chats #THANK YOU SM FOR THIS it literally made me emotional 😭 #will do proper tagging when i’m home from work 😬

[mechaknight-98]

Gathering act III: Jaheria’s respite

Emma and I space-sifted to the BRIPE warehouse. To my surprise, Dexter and Connor were there.

when Dexter saw me he began to laugh. which made Connor smack him in the torso.

"Sorry, we heard about yesterday." Connor apologized.

I shrugged and said "No big deal"

Emma turned to me and said, "Really you are going to let him get away with that?"

"Well I can take it on the chin and laugh at him the next time he does something dumb or uncouth or I can hold onto it and let it fester. I chose to wait for the next time." I explain

"What if there isn't a next time?" Emma asks disgustedly

I shrug and say "Well then I lose that trade but it's Dexter Eunbi who is constantly telling him stuff about not being dumb or something like that. Which I guess is a roundabout way of saying "There will be something to laugh at later."

Emma groans as we follow her. I got another text from Mina she was asking if I could help her learn commander.

"Sure I can but are you absolutely sure?" I replied

":). I trust your heart and you love the game so it can't be all bad." was the reply. I had just finished typing when we stopped and Emma asked "DID you hear anything I just said?" I turned to her and responded

"So recently Excalibur has resurfaced, and we need the help of the last three people who have interacted with him. Dexter and Connor's experience was the most recent as one of the Knights of the round had him, and you called me here because I had faced the last true wielder."

"How did you get all of that while chatting on the phone?" Emma asked dumbfounded.

"AUDHD I think?" I said questioningly. Emma chuckled.

"Well, I need you all to recover the weapon and bring it here. I will be going to provide support and that's it. If you need me to talk to someone in a "Normal" way I am your girl." Emma explained

"Okay! Works for me." I exclaimed calmly. Dexter and Connor nodded

"Oh and Tj. Please be careful. Astrid expects you in tip-top shape tomorrow." Emma adds

I nod as we all get ready to go to the warp point. after arriving in Colorado Springs, Colorado I get another text from Mina "I am feeling pulled to Red Blue Green...Tina, I think you called it."

I chuckled and replied "Temur, but don't worry I got you." I text back then I add, "My first recommendation is to start small with Arena. I will send you the link. Please don't buy anything." I text back to her. I get a ;) and a "thank you." before I am called on again.

"We have arrived at the edge of the compound where Excalibur is being held," Emma says

I nod and walk out, and I am shocked to see several KKK flags. I turn to Emma who is bursting at the seams with laughter. I turned to the other two presenters and asked if they knew anything about this. They shake their heads profusely. I nod then turn to Emma again.

"Why would you do this?" I question, and at this point, Emma is still beside herself with laughter.

I checked my phone and saw that Mina had downloaded Arena and sent me a screenshot. I groan seeing she bought the starter pack that came with several packs, some gems, and a pet. I groaned as I typed back to her. I sent her ":( I told you not to buy anything."

"But the cute pet. look at him I named him Mocha," she replied

She also shows me all the packs she got just from booting up the game. "I like the animations." she says as she sends me a screen recording of opening one of the packs where she got a "Miirym Sentinel wyrm". I told her that would be an excellent Red Blue Green commander for her. She sent another ":)" Back my way. as we walk further to the last seen area of Excalibur I get another text that reads. another reads "Oh this is a lot harder than I thought it would be." there was another that said "How do you keep all of the mana stuff squared." "Wait this is just math."

I chuckle reading her texts.

"Man who's got you smiling so bright?" Connor asks.

I catch myself falling for Mina again and internally tell my heart to stop it. "Nothing mostly memes," I respond

Dexter laughs and responds. "I know what your meme smile looks like. that wasn't it. Seriously though tell us your secret is safe with us."

Connor nods in agreement but Astrid turns to me and says "I don't agree to any such principle a secret is only safe with the persons it applies to.."

" I guess I can't then" I respond. Emma laughs and then says

"I am kidding. Go on tell them about your crush on Mina"

Connor and Dexter's eyes widen, "What now?

Emma laughs and says "Well Astrid was telling me how interested in learning Commander she was, and how embarrassed Tj was when everyone else watched."

Connor began to stifle his laugh while Dexter fully indulged. I let it slide until I noticed someone was coming our way. I gave them the universal zip and pointed to the lights coming our way. Dexter and I hid. while Connor (who looked close enough to white) and Emma (who was white) didn't.

I watched in terror as one of the people coming was wielding Excalibur.

"Who are you two?" the man said

"Oh, we are recruits," Emma said on her feet. the man in response said

"You lie recruits aren't due for another three weeks. you're here for our sword."

I race out to grab both of them as the man swings Excalibur and a searing flame burns my eyes. I quickly cover my eyes with slime to prevent damage. when the burning has stopped I turn to the two hooded individuals, and rage just consumes me. "BACKBREAKER; SEVER ALL THE TIES. BACKBREAKER; REACH INSIDE AND SEE IF I'M LIVING. BACKBREAKER; EVERY FEAR CONSUMING," I scream before I black out.

When I "came back" I was sitting back in BRIPE's HQ with a very terrified Emma, a relieved Connor, and Dexter. what was surprising was that I had Excalibur in my hand. I looked around for someone to hand it off to. What was scary was when I did so an arm and hand fell off the blade. So I just set the blade down. and started backing up. As I did I bumped into Artio. she looked at me with eyes full of sadness. she lowered herself to my eye level and just gave me a bear hug, and for the first time in several days, I felt at peace.

I felt better over the next few days as I walked back to Astrid's office. Emma was outside the door. she had a disapproving look. she sighed and said"Thank you for saving me. I should have taken the situation more seriously and not teased you. I should have been more focused," I shrug to which she responds "This still changes nothing between us though, but I owe you one." I shrug again "Can you do something besides shrug?"

"Well, what would you like me to do?" I ask

she groans annoyed then says, "Tell me yesterday an aberration and that monster that came out of you was just a bad dream," she pauses and then says, "Yesterday was quite frightening." Emma said with a very uncharacteristically demure tone.

"I wish that were the truth, but Lami-Orochi is always there. I will say it's never that bad though...I guess everything has been getting to me a lot more than I thought." I said contemplative

"I hate that I am going to say this but if you want someone to talk to I am here for you," Emma said. we both looked at each other shocked but instead of teasing her I took the better path and said

"I appreciate it," I say to Emma I hug her which surprises her stiff. after breaking the hug she is frozen at first but hugs me back. After that, I walked into Astrid's office. Astrid was super chipper and bright today.

"Thank you for protecting Emma for me. She told me about the craziness." Astrid says

"Hopefully not too much." I tease

"Only how you defeated the wielder of Excalibur single-handedly as he was trying to burn an entire forest, but what else should she have expected from my bestie who's fought, Titans." Astrid paused before saying "I am sorry again for turning on you, and I just want to thank you again for helping me. is there anything I can do at least to repay...besides the Porsche."

"Um actually if this goes well can you buy Ive's company? I don't like how they're treating their girls." I ask

"Tj. I know you're mad but..." Astrid starts

I cut her off and explained "I am not mad at that...I am mad at the circumstances that brought me here obviously, but what I really don't like is how they went about resolving the issue. No, I will admit I fell for an Idol I got caught up in the fantasy of it working out the worst mistake any K-pop fan could make. I made a mistake and it won't happen again...however, I would like for you to take care of Ive since their own company won't."

"Always the hero." Astrid teases

"I guess. Let's get to work." I say

Astrid nodded and I got another text from Mina who was playing Miiirym. I smiled. Astrid noticed and said

"It's Mina isn't it?" she asks

"Is it that obvious?" I ask in return

"Well to most no, but I've known you almost ten years Tj. I know all your tells. So before we talk tell me what you feeling." Astrid says in between laughs

Seeing no way out of this I oblige my friend “Yeah I've fallen for her and I hate it, and I know I just made that mistake but I am not going to let my heart run the show this time.” I assert firm

“Wait why?” Astrid asks confused,

“Because I just got out of a “relationship” with another idol,” I say

Astrid pursed her lips before saying, “You know I would call that more a fling. You two were only an item like a week and a half maybe? You have been separated longer than you were together.”

“Regardless I'm not ready,” I say firmly to Astrid

Astrid laughs and when she realizes I wasn't joking asks, “Why not?”

“Well mostly because I…”I start.

Before I could finish Astrid said, “Before you tell me you don't think she likes you. Keep in mind she listened to you talk about magic for two and a half hours.”

“It was over two hours?” I ask

“Yes, and you only stopped because the rest of Twice was watching you for the last 30 minutes, and you got embarrassed,” Astrid says in between bursts of Laughter.

“What if I'm not ready or good enough,” I say ashamed to Astrid.

Astrid smiles and then says,” You know my worry for you wasn't any of that my worry for you was could you play "the game" to get to a relationship.” I looked up at Astrid, “You are so incredibly kind and caring that any girl would be lucky to have you. Not me though I'm too crazy for you. Your frustration about “the game” is what held you back from being cuffed and now you've got a model esque star who likes you. Just take the chance dummy.”

I nod and then smile before saying “Okay I trust you”

“Great now let's get to work so I can go on a date with my girlfriend,” Astrid exclaims proudly

After another day of work and spewing my guts to Astrid I get a text from Mina. “Hey can you come over I need your help.” the text reads. I groan and head that way. I tell Astrid who reminds me to be firm with my boundaries. On the way out I see Yujin and her boyfriend walking into the lobby. I sneak past them and smile. They seem so happy and cute together. When the couple bumps into Astrid they begin to chat, and I leave before I am noticed. Or so I thought

“Why is TJ avoiding me?” Yujin asks Astrid looking in my direction as I walk out. her boyfriend tenses at the mention of my name.

“Well knowing him it's because he's probably not ready to talk yet, but please know he's not mad at you or anything just has a lot going on and you know how he gets,” Astrid says

“Yeah, when he locks in he locks in hard.” Yujin agrees with Astrid to go on a double date with Astrid Emma, and her boyfriend.

I arrive at the Mina's apartment complex. I get to the elevator and ride it to Mina's apartment. I knock and am met by Dahyun and her super-bright smile. Once upon a time when I was a baby “Once”, I considered her my bias due to both being the same age but times change.

“Hi Jio,” she says happily. I smile and look at her confused

“Who's Jio?” I ask

Dahyun looks at me confused “I thought was your name that's what Astrid said” she exclaimed frustrated.

“I pause and say my name is Theo not… you know what I like Jio so yeah it's Jio.” I say not to make Dahyun feel worse. Dahyun smiles at my acceptance of yet another new nickname.

I walk in and Chaeyoung points to Mina's room and says “She's in there waiting for you lover boy.” I shrug confused and Chaeyoung notices my tattoos. “Oh those are so cool,” she states I say thank you and go to Mina's room. She's lying on her bed and staring at me when the door opens.

“How do you beat counterspells," she asks with an adorable pout.

“That depends on the colors. My recommendation for green is always a veil of summer or an autumn veil, but if you're in blue you can just counter them back” Mina nods takes out a notebook, and starts writing it down. As I stand there awkwardly she pats the floor next to her bed where a nice little cushion is waiting for me. Almost immediately after sitting down her hands are in my hair and on my shoulders.

“So why is blue the only color with ways to deal with things on the stack?” Mina asked quizzically

“Honestly I don't know. That is one of the things I think is a failed design space. I think there's room for something like a fight target spell in green or a deal damage to target spell in red.” I reply

“But Green already has fight spells,” Mina says confused

“Let me explain when I say fight target spell I mean target spell on the stack not on the battlefield. So like let's say you have Miirym out and I'm trying to counter one of your Old Gnawbone you cast. I (and other players) should have the ability to have a spell that isn't just Blue to deal with it. Before it resolves” I elaborate

“Okay, I think I get it,” Mina affirms I nod and just let her continue to run her fingers through my hair. we sit together for a while as the emotions begin to charge the air, but it's not as overwhelming as I'd thought it would be. Out of the blue Mina says, “Thank you for teaching me all of this. I feel like I'm getting better so much faster than I would be otherwise. You know you're a really good guide.”

“No problem Mrs. Myoui,” I reply

Mina turns me to face her and says, “Call me Mina. We are friends aren't we Jio.”

The way she said that was emotionally charged insanely. Her hands wandered down to my collar where she turned my face to hers. I look into her big soft brown eyes and I feel safe. I feel like I could tell her anything and she would just be like "okay" and be okay with it. the guarding of my heart and mind all just kinda crumbled and I leaned in and kissed her. She smelled nice. We sat there for a moment lost in our little world. When my brain came back online I looked at her and all my worries came back in full force I had fallen for another idol, and she had me in deep.

“What's wrong?” Mina asked concerned as she wove her hands in mine. I hesitate to answer but her presence drags it out.

“I really like you,” I say

“I can see that, and I really like you as well.” Mina teases while still holding my hand.

“But I don't want to cause trouble for you with JYP,” I say

“Why would you? You know we can date so it's not a problem, besides most people think I like Chae and Momo," Mina said teasingly. then there was a pause as I tried to establish some level of boundary because I still felt "dirty" in all of this, "You know you're so cute when you're flustered.” Mina teases

“I love that you care so much for others too. Now kiss my boyfriend.” Mina says before bringing my head back up to hers and thrusting me into a heated kiss.

If I were to describe intimacy with Mina it was "involved". She was handsy. I felt her caressing my cheek my neck my shoulders and my upper body. She only paused to say, “Don't be afraid you can touch me as well.” to put this to practice she put my hand on her waist as she had me melt more into the kiss. When we finally stopped she smiled and smirked “Okay now that that's done, let's get down to business.” she said as she took out her notebook. “Help me build a paper deck so I can play you.” I smile and say

“Okay, whatever you say Mina.” we spent most of the rest of the night deck-building. We took a little break to order some take-home but for the most part, we stayed in her bed spooning and deck building. That's when I saw how invested she was. She wanted to build Mirrym on paper, which made sense because she had been playing the deck non-stop since she downloaded Arena. She had a lot of really good ideas to translate it the only issue was Commander and Historic Brawl were exceptionally different so when I started showing her all these other cards and strategies she quickly pivoted from Mirrym to Animar, Soul of Elements because it filled a similar niche, but pivoted back to Mirrym since she knew Mirrym so well at this point. The only thing I was adamant she added was the Maskwood Nexus and Archetype of Endurance. She was unsure because it was extremely mana expensive and she didn't know if it was worth the investment. I asked her to trust me and she did so she added both

We both eventually fell asleep. I dreamed about her all night, and when I woke up seeing her wrapped in my arms was a bit wild. I quickly attempted to remove my hands but Mina was jolted awake by the action and turned to me asking what was wrong

“I uh felt.” I stammered

“Your hands were fine,” she said before pulling me into another kiss that led to a make-out session. When we were finished we got up and I headed back to the penthouse. While I did so Mina smirked at me the whole time.

“What is something wrong?” I asked

“No just looking at my handsome boyfriend be all flustered,” she said confidently.

I nod and reply, “I'll pick up your list after work and get you sleeves and a deck box. Do you have any preferences?”

Sana shook her head and said, “Just make sure they're cute and I'll be happy.” I nodded and kept moving. When I got back to the penthouse I got a question asking if I made it back safely from Mina. I replied “Yes dear” which led to her sending me a “:)” back as I walked I thought to myself this is going to take some getting used to. Opening the door I felt six expectant eyes staring at me.

“So where have you been” Astrid said in a teasing tone.

“I was with Mina. We deck built and nothing else happened.” I answer

Alex nodded and said “Right” sarcastically. As I moved around the penthouse. Aurora laughed before saying

“She has you wrapped around her fingers doesn't she?”

I nod which causes everyone to laugh at me. I go to the shower to get ready for the day. after that, I head to the office with Astrid. we get more prep work done when there's a knock on the door. Astrid opens it and I see Yujin. I blink rapidly hoping for a way out but not this time.

#kpop fanfic #fanfic #edh #mtg commander #twice fanfic #twice mina

[captain-writes]

If you’re taking prompts, can you do something with Jimmy overworking himself to the point of exhaustion and the other empires step in? I love sickfics with hurt/comfort.

Did I write this in less than an hour? Yes. It was wonderful. I've also posted the oneshot here on my Ao3 account!! Thanks so much for the prompt!

Jimmy wasn't sure quite what had happened, but he knew that he hadn't been in his bed with his cats sleeping on him the last time he opened his eyes.

Even more, he knew that no one lived with him, so the sounds of people downstairs and the smells of food coming from his kitchen were unusual and somewhat startling. He didn't quite have the energy to panic about it, however. So he pulled himself out of bed and began padding down the stairs, Norman cradled in his arms as Flick scampered along behind him.

Coming down to the base of the staircase, Jimmy blinked as he took in the sight of Sausage and Scott cooking in his kitchen as Lizzie and Joel played with Hermes in his living room. Shelby, Katherine, and Joey were sat on his couch near them as they seemed to be repairing his armor, which caused him to realize that the familiar weight of the protective gear wasn't pushing him down. Pixlriffs and Fwhip were going through some sort of paperwork over at his kitchen table. False was tinkering with his elytra and chatting with both of them. Gem and Oli had joined Sausage and Scott in the kitchen, but instead of cooking, they were pulling things out of storage and putting them back, presumably to sort the items.

"What are you all doing here?"

"Jimmy!" The rulers seemed to clamor over themselves to acknowledge the sheriff, causing the man to pull back from the attention. As he stepped back, his ankle caught the lowest stair, causing him to slip backward and land on his butt, now propped up by the fact that he was sitting on the third stair up from the floor.

"Everyone give him some space," Fwhip instructed, the man's voice carrying an edge that they didn't often see from the admin. "Jimmy, I found you collapsed out by the train. We were worried."

"Collapsed?" After a moment of thought, the story didn't surprise Jimmy as much as it should have. He had been over near the train earlier to deal with a few tasks that had cropped up, but he couldn't remember ever leaving the area.

"Have you been feeling okay, Sheriff?" Gem asked gently, approaching slowly and putting the back of her hand on Jimmy's forehead. The cool feel of her hand was soothing and Jimmy's eyes slipped shut only for him to hear: "Oh, Jimmy, you're burning up."

"I'll be fine. I've got stuff to do, gotta finish Tumble Town."

Gem frowned, unseen by the man in front of her, "You shouldn't be pushing yourself, Jimmy. You need to rest. If you've got a fever, you're not going to get better unless you allow yourself time to heal."

"Don't have time though. Already behind, not going to finish at this rate."

"What do you need to finish? If we can help, then maybe you could rest?" Katherine offered.

Jimmy frowned, a moment of uncertainty as he tried to figure out what to say, "Need to... need, uh, I have a list. It's in my vest pocket?"

Shelby recovered the article of clothing from the pile of garments that she sat next to, pulling a set of papers out of the pocket. It was then that everyone realized that it was not one page, but several, filled completely with to-do lists and duties that the sheriff had taken on.

Flipping through the pages, the witch finally looked up at Jimmy with concern etched into her features, "When do you find time to sleep, Jimmy?"

"But I just did?"

"You passed out!"

"But, I was sleeping? I had things to do, empire to run. You know how it is," Jimmy's nonchalance only seemed to concern his fellow rulers more, which confused him greatly.

"Jimmy, look at me?" Pix requested, drawing the younger man's attention his way. "Your health is always more important than your empire. Or anything else. You were collapsed on the ground in the middle of the day in the mesa. That can be dangerous."

"I have to finish my work though?"

"Jimmy, most of us don't even do all the things on this list. And you have things listed to do in other empires to help us."

"I'm the Sheriff. I have to make sure that everyone else's empires are safe and their citizens are doing well. Chromia's had a pillager problem recently and there's a spider nest that I haven't cleared out yet near the Eversea."

“You apparently also check in on some of our villagers at least once a week. And you have a task listed here that just says ‘double food supply’. Has Tumble Town been having trouble getting food?”

“Doesn’t really rain a lot here, crops don’t grow super well. We’ve got enough, but there’s some new families that have moved in and Lyra and Sara both had children last season. We’ve got more mouths to feed, but it’s been a bad harvest so far. Not really looking good going forward.”

“Oh Jimmy, you know I’ve got extra food. Dawn had a good harvest this year, we could easily help you!”

“Right. Yeah,” Jimmy agreed, though the vibrancy seemed to drop out of his voice.

Scott blinked, set down the utensils in his hand, and left the kitchen. He grabbed Jimmy’s chin with just enough force to direct the man’s movements, but not enough to hurt, moving the man’s gaze upward.

“You are not failing your empire. You are not failing us. You are doing everything you can and that’s enough. You don’t have to do extra things to make up for whatever you think you’re not doing. Jimmy, you are doing so well. But we’re worried because you’re doing so much extra that it’s hurting you.”

Jimmy searched Scott’s eyes for some hint as to the level of honesty that the collector was showing. Finding no sign of a lie, Jimmy began to blink back the tears of exhaustion that were finally making their appearance, the sheriff unable to hold them back any longer.

“Scott, I’m so tired.” The sheriff's words were weak, but the admittance and honesty rang loudly through the already quiet house.

Scott smiled gently, “Go rest, we’ve got you.”

#empires smp #jimmy solidarity #empires jimmy #esmp #jimmy solidaritygaming #esmp jimmy #empires season two #empires smp s2 #sheriff jimmy #empires season 2

[krafteractuallywrites]

Some random hcs for Silver being part of Team Dark bc I think it would be cool if he joined them

The most likely way Silver would end up joining Team Dark is when he first travels to the past to try and fix whatever disaster is affecting his future. He'd be in a pretty rough condition from everything, and be freezing since he's so used to fire. Team Dark would see him wandering around, and since he looks like he's about to collapse, Rouge decides to take him in and get him in better condition before he goes out again

While recovering, Silver would begin talking about his ruined future and what's it like, which would motivate them to help him out (Especially Shadow and Omega, since they'll likely both live to see said future)

Silver would be fascinated by Shadow's Chaos Powers, and would try to replicate them with his Psychokinesis as best as he could. He'd also try and get Shadow to practice doing attacks with him that use both of their powers (Like Shadow flinging a Chaos Spear and Silver redirecting it by grabbing it)

When Silver and Omega are bored, Silver will pick up random objects and start tossing them at Omega to watch him blast them to bits

Rouge would immediately see Silver's powers and realize the potential applications of it, she would coach him on how to use it stealthily in order to steal stuff unnoticed

Silver would love Shadow's Chao as much as he does, and would play with it and feed it fruits whenever Shadow is away

Continuing from the previous one, the first time Silver opened the fridge in Team Dark's house, he immediately took and ate all of the fruits in there since they're his favorite type of food. Turns out the fruit were for Shadow to feed his Chao, and he refused to speak with Silver for a whole day afterwards. Whenever Rouge goes out to get stuff for the team afterwards, she buys twice the amount of Chao fruit so Shadow and Silver can both be happy

I like the idea of Silver knowing about the Time Stones and Rouge learning about them from him, but I think it would make equal sense the other way around too. Rouge knows a lot about precious gems, she probably knows about the Time Stones. Meanwhile, whatever apocalypse is affecting Silver's world would have likely affected Little Planet since it's present for a full month every year, and the Time Stones' power has to be linked to Little Planet in one way or another, so I think the destruction of Little Planet would make the Time Stones lose their power. Rouge would offhandedly ask him if he'd ever collected any of the Time Stones, and Silver would be like "The WHAT"

I think living with Team Dark would make Silver a bit more smug than he is in canon (Basically he'd just be closer to his Rivals personality), but at his core he'd still be really sweet, and would care about Shadow, Rouge, and Omega a lot

Silver would still be friends with Blaze in this AU thing, he'd meet her and have a deja vu thing kind of like he does in Sonic Colors DS, which would make him warm up to her (heh) immediately. Team Dark aren't really the type to go out frequently just to socialize with people other than each other, so Silver would just go out by himself every day or other day to hang out with Blaze for a while

#First time I've posted on here in a while #I haven't really had the energy to write anything in a while so I'm glad inspiration struck now and let me write all this stuff #Silver the Hedgehog #Team Dark #Headcanons #Oh yeah I really need to solidify the tagging system for this blog #I'll do that later though #Team Dark And Silver