#the gold / yellow tone is intentional !

[mochinomnoms]

Shrimpy Chronicles: First Mating Season

NSFW!Jade Leech x Shrimpmer!Reader X Floyd Leech

Synposis:

Maybe Floyd was being prophetic when he called you ‘Little Shrimpy’. “But I’ve noticed, you’ve been getting pudgier lately, and feverish. Do you have a mating season, amor mia? I wasn’t aware if shrimps did.” She’d been pointing out your latest symptoms of late. Sensitive, soft and plush, hot, and red-cheeked, like your body was preparing you for something. It didn’t help that the waters had been warm of late, or that your husbands had been extra attentive with your meals and treats. And their attention. Especially their attention. The gold wedding bands and pearl ring on your left ring finger probably helped with that, though.

[wc} - 6,873

[cw/tags] - afab!gn!reader, merfolk-sex, breeding kink, prehensile dicks, twins stated to have both sets of sex, double-penetration in one hole, pregancy mentioned at end

[notes] - womp womp, this is my first smut fic, pls be nice. also i cracked and am shrimp-brained i love shrimp reader so fun to write!!!!

If you had to decide between going back home, and leaving Twisted Wonderland, by this point you’d happily stay here for the rest of your days! 

The gold wedding bands and pearl ring on your left ring finger probably helped with that, though. You were admiring them as your mother-in-law Narissa Leech swam to your side, her tail brushing against yours. 

She was a beautiful mermaid, long and slender with an aquamarine tone to her skin, and a speckled snowflake pattern. Her eyes were a bright yellow-gold, and gleamed at you with delight. 

“Mia cara nuora, whatever is going through your head? Still getting used to all this?” She gestured to your legs. Or your tail, you suppose. 

You’d gotten married to the twins just two months ago, and made the commitment to become a merperson, just like them. The first second of your honeymoon consisted of you permanently becoming a merperson, gaining scarlet scales that covered your lower back and hips, clustering into your shrimp tail and white stripe from the hips to the tip of the tail. Between that and the shrimp legs on their hips and upper tail, it was quite ironic that you ended up becoming a cleaner shrimp.

Maybe Floyd was being prophetic when he called you ‘Little Shrimpy’. 

“Yeah, it’s weird. Being in your own body when it wasn’t always your body. I think? I don’t know, it’s strange.” Despite never having 8 legs and a tail, they just felt surprisingly familiar and instinctual. 

“Oh nuora, you’re a natural! Don’t you worry, if my sons could pick up human movements, you’ll be like a true-born merfolk.” She cooed, curling her arm around yours and tugging you along back to your home.

“But I’ve noticed, you’ve been getting pudgier lately, and feverish. Do you have a mating season, amor mia? I wasn’t aware if shrimps did.”

She’d been pointing out your latest symptoms of late. Sensitive, soft and plush, hot, and red-cheeked, like your body was preparing you for something. It didn’t help that the waters had been warm of late, or that your husbands had been extra attentive with your meals and treats. And their attention. Especially their attention.

You’d been filled with the need to be taken care of by your mates. For all intents and purposes, it seemed that you’d been given a mating season with your merform. And with how touchy your husbands had been, they were quite aware, and anticipating the start of your season. 

“I think…I might.” You sheepishly admitted, embarrassed to discuss such an embarrassingly intimate fact. She seemed unbothered and content. 

“Oh how lovely, I have been looking forward to the possibility of becoming a grandmother!” She giggled, delighted at the thought. “You know, morays always have such small broods, but shrimps always have plenty of fry. Will you be considering giving me plenty of grandbabies?”

You flustered and stuttered at the idea of having babies, let alone many. It wasn’t something you were discontent with, in fact the thought of making Mini Yous and Jades and Floyds. 

You wonder how many times you’d have to go to give you your first. Would you be easy to knock up? Or would you need to be fucked over and over to ensure their seed took? 

You had to shake your head to settle down the heat in your cheeks and belly, making you feel all sorts of ways. 

“We’ll see Mama Narissa, I can’t say I’ve thought too much about it.” You lied.

Narissa laughed, twirling you around in a little dance. By the time she stopped, you were so dizzy that you couldn’t swim straight, pushing against her for support. 

“Oh darling, trust me, my boys certainly have. Don’t let them rough you up too much, cara, they’ve always been insatiable!” She laughed at your darling cheeks, teasing you as she took you to the rest home. 

She always swam you to your home, bringing you back from daily mother-in-law excursions. Narissa would take you out to the local town and introduce you to the folks, saying that it would be a good idea to make friends in town and start networking as the newest member of the Leech family. You were…faintly aware of the type of reputation your new family had, and while neither Jade nor Floyd cared about pushing you to maintain any sort of image. 

While their sons might not care (in fact the twins seemed content to just keep you to themselves), but their parents, Narissa and Bruno Leech, did. Narissa scolded her sons when they tried to hide you away, switching shifts at work so that you’d never be alone. 

It was her who insisted that you go out to town, meet with associates, and get you established in your spot in the family. The twins quickly gave in, as few could argue with the head of the Leech family.

You’d been surprised to hear that Narissa was the family head, or Donna, as you’ve heard others call her. From your conversations, Jade and Floyd had made out their father to be the one in charge, while their mother was overprotective and stayed home. While she was protective, she knew many people of various “backgrounds”, and spoke and held herself in a manner that demanded respect. 

Her husband, Bruno, was much more wry and relaxed compared to her, though he’d been the main liaison between Narissa and any associates. He also liked going to the surface for meetings and outings, unlike Narissa who preferred to stay in the sea. 

So, she’d been more than happy to drag her sons to work under their father, while she took you under her wing. You’d been suspicious, and felt that you could safely assume that the Leech parents were grooming you and their sons to eventually take over their positions. 

You appreciated it, since it kept you busy. Plus, you got to see how people really live under the sea, or the Leeches at least. Based on how spoiled the twins were, you were a bit surprised at the lack of servants of any sorts at home, except a small school of cleaner wrasses that immediately scattered off at the wave of your mother-in-law’s hand. 

The home for you and the twins was settled closer to the Rosarian reef, rather than the Northern Coral deep sea. In fact, the home was a coral bed built around a sea cave, apparently a luxurious real estate under the sea! Though, the main appeal was that it was close to a beach on one of the Queendom of Roses’s islands, which you visited to meet with Ace, Deuce, and Grim. 

“Oh, Mama Narissa? Perhaps we can go up to the surface next week when we go out?” You swam into the kitchen together, the meal that Narissa had helped you prepared earlier on the counter. 

“My friends are coming to the beach to visit me, I thought that you might like to meet them?”

Narissa wrinkled her nose, but smiled politely, “I’ve never been a fan of the surface, but I suppose it can’t be helped. I’d love to meet your human friends.”

She clapped her webbed hands, gesturing to the food on the counter as she twirled around in the water. 

“Now, let me show you how to make this dish. The boys loved it as kids, I think you humans called it sushi on the surface. Come one!”

You two had made it home just an hour shy of your husbands’ return. Narissa was diligent in making sure you’d always be able to greet your husbands’ return with sweet words and sweeter kisses. 

And they did enjoy it so, she stayed for 30 minutes to help you finish preparing the supper for the evening, then taking her leave so you could have some alone time for yourself up the remaining 30 minutes. Floyd cooed about having a cute stay at home spouse to come home too, while Jade delighted in the domesticity of it all. 

But between your earlier conversation with Narissa, and the burning need growing in your abdomen, you were yearning for your husbands’ touch and love. 

Narissa noticed before she left, cooing at you like she would a baby. “Oh nuora, are you alright? Maybe go lie down and rest. I’ll send a text to the boys that you’re feeling unwell.”

“Mm, okay…that be…nice…” You clumsy swam past her, clutching to the walls with your hands as she gently grabbed you by the waist. With Narissa as your guide, she helped you lay down on the love seat in the living room. You think she might’ve had a mischievous smile on her lips, but you couldn’t tell as you wearily curled into the cushions to nap. 

You think you could make out her mumble something about ‘babies’ and ‘grandchildren’, but you’d passed out by the time you processed her words. 

The next you woke up, there was a slender hand brushing through your hair, which still retained your color and cut from when you were human. You made out the familiar voices of Jade and Floyd, the latter right above you, as the former sounded like he was in another room. 

“Mmmph, Flooyd? Isss that you?” You murmured, reaching out blindly for Floyd as you blinked the sleep out of your eyes. 

“Heya, look at my little Shrimpy.” Floyd cooed, sinking down to be face level with you, pushing his forehead against yours. “Mama said you weren’t feeling great. Did you need us?”

Floyd spoke with a baby-voice, nuzzling against you with delight. The scent of salt and lemons, something you’d associated with Floyd, filled your nose as you happily sighed, throwing your arms around his neck to bury your nose against his skin. Floyd made a sound of surprise, though he immediately clutched onto you in response.

“Aw, cute! Hey Jade!” Floyd was giggling as Jade quickly swam back into the room carrying a potion in his hands. His gaze softened, seeing you curled into Floyd’s arms. 

“Oh, look at our sweet pearl.” Jade sighed, smile growing as he watched you pull away from Floyd to open your arms up to him.

“Jaaaade! You’re home too! Give me a kiss~” you weren’t sure when you’d become so blunt and bold. Normally, you’re more reserved, if a bit teasing, with your affections, the twins loved making a game out of who could fluster who first. But right now? You felt…different. 

Your mind felt like it was floating out of your body, watching everything happening from third-person. All of your senses felt more aware, from the sounds of the water currents outside, to the beating of your heart, to the humming of your skin. It was like you were both drunk, high, and yet neither at all. 

None of that mattered, though, not when Jade so sweetly embraced you, the dark markings and freckles on his skin glowing as he teasingly peppered kisses over your flushed cheeks as Floyd did the same to the back of your neck. 

“Aw, why didn’t Shrimpy ask me for a kiss too?” Floyd whined, huffing as you dragged Jade’s lips to yours. He glowed too, pretty like an aurora. He grazed the points of his teeth over your neck, making you whine and shiver. 

“I’m—mmh—sorry, Floyd!” You separated from Jade to tilt your head back, moving one hand to cup Floyd’s cheek. “Kiss! Lemme kiss you!”

Floyd eagerly met your lips with enthusiasm, moving with Jade to sit on the love seat again in his lap, facing Jade.

You hadn’t been intimate since your transformation, so it was slightly embarrassing to be curled into the cushioned shell loveseat, sweaty, lascivious, and sensitive at your husbands’ touches. 

Floyd hummed against your lips as he tangled his long tongue against yours, Jade busy with fluttering your chest and tummy with wet kisses. 

“Darling, look at you, how messy and sweet you look! You’ve missed our touches. You’re craving them, aren’t you?”

Jade chuckled against your belly button, something you kept from being a human, and kissed it. He eyed your tummy, the skin there and the slight translucent sheen to it. 

It wasn’t off-putting, not to them. Why many fish in the sea had see-through skin and muscle, allowing you to see their skeleton and organs. Yours was quite tame compared to those creatures, the rest of your body retaining either a pink or red opaque hue, with only your lower abdomen and stomach having the translucent skin. 

“Of course they have Jade, they’ve gone months without their tummy bein’ filled up.” Floyd purred, moving away from your panting mouth and unfurling his tongue, dragging it down your chest to your navel. “And their body is telling them to breed. Just look at how puffy their slit is getting~”

You whined as both of them moved to direct their heady gaze to your cunt, hot and throbbing for attention. The scales around your slit had been slowly pushed to reveal lips and a clit, trembling under Jade’s hot mouth. Another whine was drawn from your throat, his tongue dragging on the skin around your lips. 

Your entire body felt like it was melting, all the need and heat from this week amounting on top of you like the earth on Atlas’s shoulders. But now? It was all crashing down on you like your body had been waiting for this point. For the touches of your mates along your body, claw tipped fingers just grazing around where your hips and slit were. 

It probably didn’t help that you hadn’t been touched, or touched yourself, in weeks with the confusion of a new body. Though, it seems that the twins were all too happy to help you learn mer anatomy. 

“Jade! Please, I need you to touch me, lick me, drink ‘n eat me up—AH!” You shrilly gasped as he shoved his tongue in your hole, his long tongue rubbing against your walls. You arched your back at the sensation, an intoxicating spike of energy crawling up your spine. Jade drank in your juices, humming as he tapped your g-spot with the tip of his tongue. 

The sensation was quickly becoming like a drug, spiking as Floyd took a long, slow and coveted lick to your clit until he reached the tip of his tongue, flicking it as he drew it away. He giggled at your yelp, staring into your eyes as he started sucking on your clit, suckling like a baby to their mother’s teat. 

And he certainly was sucking the life out of you, keening as you shook from an orgasm that blended into a paralyzing stream of pleasure. 

Yet, you still felt like you were missing something, as the heat in your belly hadn’t dissipated. Rather, it felt like it was getting stronger, begging for something to fill the empty void in you.

So it was helpful that neither twin cared for leaving their meal, waiting for you to either push their heads away, or for them to get bored. You of all people knew that they have a hard time getting bored from things they find interesting, and you were certainly captivating.

Their tongues worked nonstop, Jade tongue-fucking your sweet spots as Floyd made a particularly hard suck to your button, making you buck your hips against his. In fact, they seemed content to just switch places, Jade feeding on your pearl and Floyd pushing his tongue so far in that you’re sure he brushed your cervix. 

Moans and cries freely left your lips, as several smaller orgasms rocked your body. Your chest heaved as you gasped, your gills filling with water. The twins giggled, Jade kissing up your body and Floyd dragging his tongue through your slit. 

“Hmm, Floyd. Look at how needy they are.” Jade melted into your embrace as you wrapped your arms around him, placing wet kisses against his cheeks and lips. “How cute, who knew that they’d get so desperate when in their mating season! No wonder Mother was pushing for us to get home so quickly.” 

Floyd cackled, nuzzling against your chest as he squeezed you against him. “Yeah! No wonder! Do you wanna be filled?”

“Oh, of course they do~” Jade grazed his teeth along your ear, tugging it before letting go to whisper in your ear, “They want to be bred silly! Don’t you, my love? Just ask, and I’ll fill you up over and over again. I’ll fill you up until you’re utterly full, and then eat my cum out of you just to fill you back up again~ Do you like the sound of that—ow, Floyd, that hurts.”

Floyd had reached up to pull at Jade’s strand of hair, a chittering growl reverberating through his chest as he hissed, “Don’t be selfish! They’re my mate too!”

Sleekly, Floyd slid up your body to take his place on your other side, pulling at your chin with his cheek. He let out a high-pitched whine as he did, his words muffling. 

“You want me to fill you up too, right?” Floyd pouted, smacking ticklish kisses to your face and neck. “Floydie will give ya lots of baby Shrimpys! How many do you want? Two? Think we can get three in one go?”

Your body was getting hot again, and you felt empty. There was a desire to be stretched out around your husbands’ dicks.

“Ah, I want—I want,” You cried, moving your hips up, grinding against the water. “I wanna be filled! Both! I wan’ both of you in me!”

Both of them froze and shared a look, their sudden stillness making you feel upset, as you began babbling half-coherent begs and sobs.

“Aw, (Name). Don’t cry.” Floyd shushed you, rubbing his nose against yours as he smiled. “It’s not that we don’t wanna. We really, reeally wanna give you what you want!”

“Mm-hm.” Jade hummed, cupping your cheek as he drew your gaze to him. “Yes, of course we do. But you’re just a bit small, darling.”

Floyd and Jade had always been big, especially in their merforms. And even as a merperson, you didn’t even reach half of their length. There was no question that their dicks would be equally proportional.

“We don’t want to end up breaking you, love.” Jade breathlessly murmured against your ear. Though, from the heady tone of his voice and the grip he had on your hips, you were sure that was a lie. 

“Unless you ask us. Then we’d be happy to.” Floyd cooed into your other ear, hand wandering down to caress your still slick slit, using your juice as lube to rub your clit. “Ask us. We’ll take real good care of ya after, we promise~”

It wasn’t even a question, more a matter of you coughing up your ‘yes’, but your voice was caught in your throat as they resumed their movements. 

Jade took delight in marking up your neck with hickies and suckling your nape, his free hand squeezing your chest and slipping under your cover to pinch your nipple. 

“Ah! I want—fuck!” You gasped as Jade started fondling your chest and suckling from your nipple. “Shit, Jade! Mmh!”

Between his mouth on you, and Floyd whispering sweet, arousing words into your ear, asking you, “don’t you want us to make you feel good? To fill you up?”

Jade hummed in agreement from your chest, tugging it with his teeth before resuming his sucking. You rapidly nodded your head, opening eyes that you didn’t realize were closed. Two gold eyes were watching your expressions. 

Floyd continued being the prettiest devil on your shoulder. “Just say ask. Ask. And say ‘pleeeease’, say ‘Floooyd! Jaaaade! Fuck me pleeeease!’”

Mimicking your voice, Floyd made mean, mocking moans into your ear. You’d be offended if it didn’t make you hot. You’ll fuck him first, then complain later.

A pinch to your clit, and a nibble to your nip, and you were arching and walling, “GAAAH! FLOYD! JADE! FUUUCK ME! PLEEEEASE! PLEASEPLEASEPLEASPLEASEPLEASE—”

You yelped mid beg as Floyd let out his raspy laugh, picking you up in a bridal carry as he zoomed to the bedroom. He’d shoved you into the sheets, adjusting so that your head was hanging off the edge of the soft coral bed. 

The taller twin settled to grind his navel and slit against yours, groaning as his cock was coaxed to slip out to your sticky opening. Jade, gently and firmly guiding your head, pushed his own softening slit to your lips, sighing as you licked around the slit. 

Your own tongue dragged its entire length along Jade’s lips, the salty taste of this slick making your eyes close in bliss. It took but a few more licks for his long cock, green and pink-tipped like a flower, to come out. It followed your tongue and was easily coaxed to thrust into your mouth, prehensile and wrapping around your tongue. 

It was gentle, only thrusting softly into your mouth, until it shuddered around your moaning mouth, Jade groaning from the vibrations. Floyd’s own dick had made its way out, pushing against your tight hole and slowly filling you up. You swear, it took up your entire womb with its size, rapidly thrusting and pushing against your walls with the intent to breed. Floyd seemed unaffected, beaming in delight at your muffled cries and begs as he grinded against your clit. 

“Haah, Jade! Our shrimp’s pussy feels sooo good! It’s so tight and soft.” Floyd took heaving breaths as made out with you messily, groaning and giggling into your mouth. “It’s like they wanna make sure my seed fills them up~”

You cried out, muffled moans filling the air as you tried nodding in agreement. You’d tried answering against Jade’s dick, but only served to further stimulate him. 

“Mmh, and it’s like they want to milk my cock. Greedy, greedy darling. You’re so—hah—lucky we love spoiling you.”

Jade thrusted harder against your mouth, the tip touching the back of your throat, making your gag and choke. Even so, you relaxed and let him face-fuck you with no remorse. It wasn’t like you needed air anymore, not with the gills on your neck.

Besides, it wasn’t Jade fucking your mouth that took the oxygen from your lungs, but way Floyd stretched you out and rubbed his own clit against yours. 

“You feel that? You feel how good you're making me feel? Yeah~” Floyd purred, roughly grinding against you as he breathlessly laughed. “Making me feel all sortsa ways, like I could keep fucking his hole of mine forever~”

One of the first delights you learn before transforming was that, as eelmers, your darling husbands were built with both sets of sex, their slit hiding away their hastily growing cocks and tight openings. You wondered if you could return the favor and eat them out instead, the thought of a trembling Jade and keening Floyd as you feasted utterly delicious. 

“Now Floyd, what did you say earlier?” Jade asked, pushing your hair away from your face as he kept at his meal. “Don’t be selfish! They’re my mate too!”

Jade mimicked Floyd’s pouting tone, mocking his brother with a shit-eating grin as Floyd growled, clawed hands digging into your hips and upper tail to fuck you even harder, making you bounce against the bed and Jade’s dick. 

A particularly rough thrust against your cervix brought you back to the moment, Floyd’s teeth digging into your right shoulder as he suddenly came in you. 

His cum was thick and filling, dripping from your hole from the sheer amount Floyd busted into you. And as Floyd pulled away, you pulled away from Jade and looked down to see inches and inches of his dick leaving your throbbing cunt. You weren’t even sure if you came with him at this point,  all the euphoric bliss you’d been feeling blending in. 

What you were sure of was Floyd’s length still being hard and firm, moving around his hand as he pumped it. That fact that he was still able to keep going made you ravenous as you wiggled your hips at him, hoping that Floyd would keep going. 

You needed to feel fuller. You needed to take up as much cum in you as possible. You needed to be bred like a good little mate. At least until you could return the favor. (You pushed that last thought to the back of your mind, confused as to why your sex-filled brain conjured that.)

“Hey Jade.” Floyd ignored your cranky whines, you’d be filled up again soon anyway. “Switch spots with me. I wanna feel their mouth, besides, our mate is nice and tight, ‘n squeezes you juuust right~”

Floyd giggled, his signature laugh, slinking up your body as Jade snaked down, dragging his hands down your body as he did. Jade was quick to take his spot, his dick slick with his precum and your spot slipping into you with little resistance. 

Both were big, but Floyd was slender and longer, whereas Jade was shorter and much thicker, stretching you out to the point that you were sure you’d be ruined for anyone else. As if you’d ever want anyone else. 

Jade was ever so gentle with you, slowly pushing the tip of his cock as he used Floyd’s cum as lube, his girth filling you up deliciously. You groaned as you felt the cum in you push out of your hole to make room for Jade, until he eventually made it to the hilt. His length was pressing against your walls, swirling in you, as Jade started grinding his slit against you. 

“Damn!” Jade cursed, gasping as he pressed his head against your chest, teething at the skin. “You’re right, Floyd, they feel so tight and soft against me! I could get drunk from your walls, my love~”

Obsessed as he’s always been with your chest, Jade took to occupying his mouth with your chest, back to suckling you like a baby. It was like he was opening for milk to come out and fill his insatiable tongue with your taste. 

“Yeah! Can you imagine how much tighter they’ll be when we both fill them up? Haha! You’ll be begging to have our dicks in ya forever, our cute lil’ shrimp!” 

Floyd, rougher than his brother, pulled at the hair in your scalp, firm but soft, and pushed his dick towards your mouth. He threw his head back, sighing as you took a long, slow lick from the tip of his cock to the base. It trembled against your tongue at the stimulation, surprising as it tried wrapping around the muscle before shoving itself into your mouth. You choked as Floyd began pistoning into your mouth, cackling as little tears dripped from your eyes. 

Between his fast pumps, and Jade’s tortuously slow thrusts, you were slowly being driven insane.

“Ngh, d-did you just cum again?” Jade stuttered, pulling away from your teat with a string of saliva connecting you two. “I felt it…I’m close, you know. Mmmph…Want me to fill you up again my love?”

“Mmmm! Mmmphmm!” You cried against Floyd’s dick, tongue massaging his length as you sucked. You’d managed to keep rolling your hips against Jade, the stinging effects of overstimulation starting to take hold.

“Ha! I think they want it Jade~” Floyd cackled, finally shoving your face against his groin, forcing you to swallow around his dick. “Give it to ‘em, if our shrimp wants us to breed them, then we oughta make them happy~”

A chilling growl left Jade’s mouth as he clenched his teeth into your left shoulder, near the crook of your neck as his prehensile dick pounded into, practically fucking your womb, like it wanted to nestle in and never leave. 

Your tummy felt hot as Jade filled you up, finally moving your head away from Floyd to cough and gasp at the feeling. Managing to lift your head, you saw a bulge on your stomach where Jade was filling you up with his own cum, right along Floyd’s. 

“Aha, I’m so full!” You moaned, giggling deliriously, all thoughts from your head fucked out, as you rubbed the bulge. “It feels so goooood~” 

The heat coursing through your veins has dissipated quite a bit, now a comfortable hum and tingling on your skin instead of an insatiable need to get fucked. You beamed as Jade, still in you, leaned down to kiss you sweetly, his hands cradling your face as he nipped your nose. 

“We’re glad, aren’t we Floyd?” Jade purred, grinning down at you with a hungry look still. You made a noise of confusion as he moved away, rolling to his side. Whimpering as a few inches of his length slid out as he did, but he stopped, keeping most of it in. Looking down, you could make out the pearlescent cum of your husbands leaking out of you, thick and viscous. 

“Hmm, yeah.” Floyd sighed, tracing along your pudgy tummy, briefly squeezing down to watch more cum leak from your hole. “Let’s fill them up even more!”

“Huh?” You pushed yourself up on your elbows, blinking rapidly as Floyd took your otherside and positioned his dick against your still stretched out cunt. 

“You said you wanted both of us in you, right?” Floyd started pushing, long tongue licking over your cheek, down your neck, and slathering over the bite he made. “You wanted both of us at once. We’re giving you what you want.”

Your brain function was still yet to completely return, as you barely managed to process his words at the last second. “Wait, wha—AAAAH!”

Your hands went flying up to their hair as Floyd pushed in against his walls and Jade’s dick, stretching you beyond comprehension. Pulling at their teal strands, you could hear both of them ominously chuckle, Floyd’s hand going back down to your nub as Jade’s lips made their way home to your chest to feed. 

“Fuck! Too much! Too much! Aaaaahahaha!” You gasped, laughing as the heat returned to your belly as your eyes glazed over. “Ooooooh shit! F-floyd, Jaaade…uwwwaaah…”

Throwing your head back, you started letting out open-mouthed moans, blubbering as you started speaking nonsense to your mates. Any coherent thought was yanked from your brain and tossed out like garbage as they started moving in you, lengths pushing up against all your most deliciously sensitive spots, tips hitting your cervix like they were fighting to take up the space in your womb first. 

“Aahaha! Look at you! Fucked stupid~” Floyd lovingly nuzzled against your temple, kissing your forehead as he continued his mean words. “Do ya like it? You gonna cum again? Cum as much as you want~ Only we can make you feel this good~”

Floyd cackled again, bringing your head back up to make out with your drooling mouth, his tongue tangling with yours. 

“Mmm, morays can go for hours you know,” Jade cooed, cheeks flustered and eyes drunk on your body as he flicked your nipple with the tip of his tongue. “Do you want us to keep going? Use you? Make sure our little mate is filled with plenty of seed for their eggs? Do you want to keep getting fucked~”

“Yesh!” You cried, muffled against Floyd’s sloppy kiss. “Fuck me more! I wa-wanna feel your cocks here!”

You placed your hand over your navel, feeling the bumps of their dicks as they pounded against your insides. Pulling away from a whining Floyd, you looked down at your belly, and gasped at the sight. 

You could just barely make out the blue, glowing lines on their dicks as they moved in you, the outline just visible under the transparent skin of your belly. You could even make out the pearly white sheen of their cum filling you up under the skin. The sight shocked you into coming, tossing your head back as you panted for oxygen. 

“Sho good! It feelsh shooo good! Don’t stoooooop~” You were slurring as you bawled your eyes out, shaking as you came once again for the nth time that night. Yet they didn’t stop, not from your overstimulated tears, nor your walls tightening against them.

“Floyd! Jade!” You gasped, your insides feeling raw and like they were burning, finally being pushed past your limits. “W-wait, I can’t…I just…I just came—FUCK!”

Your husbands pulled you up, wrapping their tails around yours and each other to be closer to you, as Jade forced you to look down at your extending belly and their lengths moving in and out. As soon as one slipped out, the other thrusted in, ensuring you were never empty. Unfortunately, as they did, more of their cum was slipping out as well, making Floyd whine. 

“Aw, Jade! Look at how our Shrimpy is wasting our seed!” Floyd pulled on your ear with his sharp teeth, playfully chittering in your ear. 

Jade clicked his tongue in disappointment, bumping his forehead against yours, “How wasteful, we’ll just have to go a few more hours then, to make sure our seed takes. Can you handle it, my love? You can, can’t you?”

You blinked open your eyes, the algae lamp on the nightstand providing a dim blue light to the room. Yawning, you tried stretching your arms, wincing at the pain that shot up from your lower back. 

“Mmh? (Name)? You already wanna go again?” you heard Floyd sleepily giggle to himself, spooning against your back as his tail was wrapped around your fins. “We already went a couple of hours, but I’ll go again for my shrimp, hehe~”

You reached a hand over to pinch his nose, grumbling, “Stop it, you know exactly what yawning is.” 

Floyd pouted, digging his head against your back again as he tightened his grip. From your front, Jade groaned at the movement as he nuzzled his head against your chest, arms gripping your midsection and tail tightly wrapped around your hips. At this moment, you were just a body pillow to him. 

“Stop moving…it’s still early…” Jade mumbled into your skin, nipping at it briefly. “...Want to…sleep.”

“Nah, I’m awake now. I wanna eat somethin’, wanna come to the kitchen?” Floyd asked, kissing his bite mark on your shoulder as he did. He untangled himself from you, stretching and wincing from the scratches you made on his shoulders stung.

You tried moving, but felt a cramp in your hips and pelvis as you did. Between that, and Jade’s displeased growl as he tightened his grip, you were trapped. 

“I don’t think I can move…you guys did a number on me.” You were just noticing your entire torso and navel covered in hickies and bruises, the most prominent being the hand marks on your hips. 

“Heh, nice. Oof!” Floyd grunted as you threw a pillow at him. You had half a mind to smother Jade too as you felt him smirk and chuckle into your skin. Unfortunately for you (and fortunately for him), there was a cheery knock at the front door. 

(Or the frame of your front door. Homes under the sea didn’t have doors, though you had a rather intricately designed curtain over the entrance for privacy). 

“I miei figli! It’s been a few weeks now! Can I see mia nuora?”

Since your mating season started, you’d been going at it nearly nonstop with the twins the first week until your libido managed to die down to a more reasonable amount. Granted, at least one of the twins was with you at all hours as they took turns going to work. This week, you’d taken to just resting your incredibly sore body. Nearly 5 days since you were last fucked, and you were still wincing as you swam. 

Unfortunately, Narissa missed you just a bit too much to wait a few more days to see you. 

“Oh my god, Mama Narissa!” You bolted up, Jade grumbling as he let you untangle from his grasp. He settled for grabbing your pillow and shoving his face in it to drink in your scent. “Shit, has it really been weeks?”

“Mm-hm,” Jade hummed, finally opening his eyes to look at you. He was never a morning person, surprisingly, so it took him sometime before he was fully coherent. “You were insatiable the last few weeks…begging to make sure you stayed filled up. I was surprised at how long you lasted between rounds.”

Jade rubbed a hand against your belly, staring at it intently as he slow blinked, ready to fall back asleep at any moment. 

“...It’s twins.” He said, very matter-of-factly. You blinked in confusion, but smiled at the idea.

You covered your hand over his, lacing your fingers together as you shrugged and smiled. “You think? Humans usually have just one, but I’ve also never had a mating season, so I don’t know.” 

“Hm, it is.” 

You blinked again, staring at Jade as he lovingly smiled at the bump on your stomach. Shrugging again, you pushed his bangs back and pressed a kiss to his forehead, making the effort to trudge through the pain and swim out to greet your mother-in-law. You sharply inhaled as you tried straightening your tail, feeling like your muscles were being pulled. 

“Ah!” You hissed, rubbing your lower back as Jade perked, getting up and letting you wrap your arms around his shoulders as he carried you on his back. 

“Here, I’ll take you.” Jade rubbed his eye, now fairly awake as he blissfully took you through the hallway into the living room, then the kitchen as you heard voices coming from there. 

“It’s been weeks! I just wanna see my nuora too, especially since neither of you have been at work at once for nearly a month!” You could make out Papa Leech’s, Bruno’s, raspy voice from the kitchen. 

“Oh relax, amore mio!” Narissa purred, kissing her husband’s cheeks as he visibly softened. He was stocky, built much like his sons, but much longer and covered in old scars. He was also a darker, muted shade of green, his eyes hazel and hair a familiar shade of black. You could look at Bruno and obviously see the resemblance between his sons and him.

“They’re fine! Look there, they are with Jade now.” Narissa chirped, swimming past Floyd to ruffle his hair as he tossed a scallop in his mouth. “Save some for your mate, Floyd. I’m sure they’re starving. 

Floyd looked offended at the suggestion, replying with a full mouth, “We’ph kefft ‘em fed!”

Narissa scolded him for speaking with a full mouth as Bruno excitedly made his way to you, snatching you from Jade, who made an annoyed hiss, and twirled you around. He squeezed you in a bone-crushing hug as he spoke. 

“There you are! Our family shrimp! Don’t be mad at me now, but you’ve kept the boys plenty busy! I’m gonna need to steal them back, why don’t you and Nari go—”

You yelped as four pairs of arms snatched you back from Bruno’s embrace, a hair-raising growl and clacking of Floyd’s jaws echoing in the kitchen. Floyd was holding you between him and Jade, the latter protectively curled over your stomach as he eyed his own father. 

Bruno looked less than amused, rolling his eyes as he clacked his own pharyngeal jaws in response. 

“Just playing ‘round with mia nuora, what’s wrong with you two?! Hissing at your own father?!” He snapped, briefly looking at Narissa as she turned his face to hers. 

She had a smile on her face, gold eyes locking on Jade’s hands covering you. 

“Amore, you need to be careful with (Name)! Of course, they’re hissing at you, you’re roughhousing with a berried mate!”

Berried?

“W-what? What’s that mean?” You asked, confused as Bruno immediately brightened, rapidly sinking to the ground to be at eye level with your stomach. Narissa gracefully followed, as did your husbands, now relaxed. 

“It means our Shrimpy is gonna have baby Shrimpies.” Floyd giggled as Jade reached up to direct your gaze to your translucent tummy. 

“See, my love? The eggs look like berries.” Jade tapped a finger against your slightly protruding stomach, right where you could make out the sight of two teal colored eggs. 

You gasped, placing your hand over Jade and Floyd’s. Effectively stunned into silence, Bruno had more than enough energy to loudly celebrate for all five of you. 

“WHOOP! NONNINO! I’M GOING TO BE A NONNINO!” Bruno excitedly swam around in circles, twisting and twirling around as Floyd darted to his father’s side, following his dance in happiness.

Jade chuckled, giving his mother a knowing look as they both straightened back up, moving to nip at your ear affectionately. 

“I suppose we should let everyone else know the good news.”

You nodded in a daze, the thought of letting your adoptive parents up on the surface of the news dizzying. 

“Yeah…” You finally smiled, breathlessly laughing into Jade’s shoulder as you reached for Floyd, who immediately met your embrace, nearly knocking you into Jade’s arms in excitement. 

Between the rings on your left-hand ring finger, and the two eggs in your stomach, it was no question: you’re happy to stay in Twisted Wonderland for the rest of your days. 

comments and reblogs appreciated 🩷

#mochi asks #twst #twisted wonderland #jade leech #floyd leech #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #jade leech x reader #floyd leech x reader #jade leech smut #floyd leech smut #jade leech x reader x floyd leech #twst jade x reader x twst floyd #shrimpy chronicles

[greenwitchcrafts]

September 2023 witch guide

September 2023 witch guide

Full moon: September 29th

New moon: September 14th

Sabbats: Mabon September 23rd

September Harvest Moon

Also known as: Autumn moon, falling leaves moon, song moon, leaves turning moon, moon of brown leaves, yellow leaf moon, wine moon & Full corn moon

Element: Earth

Zodiac: Virgon& Libra

Animal spirits: Trooping Faeries

Deities: Brigid, Ceres, Ch'ang-o, Demeter, Freya, Isis & Vesta

Animals: Jackal & snake

Birds: Ibis & sparrow

Trees: Bay, hawthorn, hazel & larch

Herbs/plants: Copal, fennel, rye, skullcap, valerian, wheat & witch hazel

Flowers: Lily & Narcissus

Scents: Bergamot, gardenia, mastic & storax

Stones: Bloodstone, chrysolite, citrine, olivine, peridot & sapphire

Colors: Browns, dark blue, greens & yellows ( Earth tones)

Energy: Balance of light & dark, dietary matters, employment, health, intellectual pursuits, prosperity, psychism, rest, spirituality, success & work environments. Also cleaning & straightening mentally, physically & spiritually.

Technically, the Harvest Moon is the Full Moon closest to the September equinox around September 21st. The Harvest Moon is the only Full Moon name determined by the equinox rather than a month. Most years, it’s in September, but around every three years, it falls in October.

In September, the Full Moon is the Corn Moon from the Native American tribes harvesting their corn. It can also be the Harvest Moon, which corresponds with the Anglo-Saxon name, while Celtic and Old English names are Wine Moon, Song Moon, and Barley Moon.

Mabon

Also known as: Autumn Equinox, Cornucopia, Witch's Thanksgiving & Alban Elved

Season: Fall

Symbols: Acorns, apples, autumn leaves, berries, corn, cornucopia (horn of plenty), dried seeds, gourds, grains, grapes, ivy, pine cones, pomegranates, vines, wheat, white roses & wine

Colors: Blue brown, drk red, deep gold, gold, indigo, lead green, maroon, orange, red, russet, violet & yellow

Oils/incense: Apple, apple blossom, benzoin, black pepper, hay/straw, myrrh, passion flower, patchouli, pine, red poppy & sage

Animals: Dog, goose, hawk, swan, swallow & wolf

Stones: Agate, amethyst, carnelian, lapis lazuli, sapphire, yellow Agate  & yellow topaz

Foods: Apples, blackberries, blackberry wine, bread, carrots, cider, corn, cornbread, grapes, heather wine, nuts, onions, pomegranates, potatoes, squash, vegetables, wheat & winw

Herbs/plants: Acorn, benzoin, cedar, corn, cypress, ferns, grains, hazel, hops, ivy, myrrh, oak, pine, sage, sassafras, Salomon's seal, thistle, tobacco & wheat

Flowers: Aster, heather, honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, mum,passion flower& rose

Goddesses: Danu, Epona, Modron, Morrigan, Muses, Pomona, Persephone, Sophia & Sura

Gods: Esus, Green Man, Hermes, Mabon, Mannanan, Toth & Thor

Issues, Intentions & Powers: Accomplishment, agriculture, balance, goals, gratitude & grounding

Spellworks: Balance, harmony, protection, prosperity, security & self confidence

Related festivals:

• Sukkot- is a Torah-commanded holiday celebrated for seven days, beginning on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei. It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (Hebrew: שלוש רגלים, shalosh regalim) on which those Israelites who could were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. In addition to its harvest roots, the holiday also holds spiritual importance with regard to its abandonment of materialism to focus on nationhood, spirituality, and hospitality, this principle underlying the construction of a temporary, almost nomadic, structure of a sukkah.

• Mid-Autumn festival- also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is a traditional festival celebrated in Chinese culture. Similar holidays are celebrated by other cultures in East & Southeast Asia. It is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture; its popularity is on par with that of Chinese New Year. The history of the Mid-Autumn Festival dates back over 3,000 years. The festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar lunisolar calendar with a full moon at night, corresponding to mid-September to early October of the Gregorian calendar. On this day, the Chinese believe that the Moon is at its brightest and fullest size, coinciding with harvest time in the middle of Autumn.

• Thanksgiving- This is a secular holiday which is similar to the cell of Mabon; A day to give thanks for the food & blessings of the previous year. The American Thanksgiving is the last Thursday of November while the Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated in October

• Festival of Dionysus- There were several festivals that honored Dionysus, the God of wine. It was a time of fun, games, feasting & drinking wine.

Activities:

•Scatter offerings in a harvested fields, Offer libations to trees

• Decorate your home and/or altar space for fall

• Bake bread

• Perform a ritual to restore balance and harmony to your life

• Cleanse your home of negative energies

• Pick apples

• Have a dinner or feast with your family and/or friends

• Set intentions for the upcoming year

• Purge what is no longer serving you

•Take a walk in the woods

• Enjoy a pumpkin spice latte

• Donate to your local food bank

• Gather dried herbs, plants, seeds & pods

• Learn something new

• Make wine

• Brew an apple cinnamon simmer pot

• Create an outdoor Mabon altar

•Adorn burial sites with leaves, acorns, & pinecones to honor those who have passed over & visit their graves

Many cultures see the second harvest (after the first harvest Lammas) and equinox as a time for giving thanks. This time of year is when farmers know how well their summer crops did, and how well fed their animals have become. This determines whether you and your family would have enough food for the winter. That is why people used to give thanks around this time, thanks for their crops, and animals, and food. 

The name Mabon comes from the Welsh God, who was the son of the Earth Mother Goddess. However, there is evidence that the name was adopted in the 1970s, and the holiday was not originally a Celtic celebration.

Some believe Night and day are of equal legth and the God's energy & strength are nearly gone . The Goddess begins to mourn the loss she knows is coming, but knows he will return when he reborn at Yule.

Sources:

Farmersalmanac .com

Wikipedia

Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kines

A Witch's Book of Correspondences by Viktorija Briggs

Mabon: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for the Autumn Equinox Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials

#witchcraft #wheel of the year #sabbat #mabon #Corn moon #Harvest moon #witchblr #wiccablr #paganblr #pagan #Wicca #grimoire #spellbook #book of shadows #witches of tumblr #tumblr witch #moon magic #witch tips #witch guide #traditional witchcraft #witch community #witch society #witchy things #witches #witch friends #greenwitchcrafts #All witches #correspondence #witchyvibes #witchcore

[owen-writes]

Backhanded Compliments

Crowley x Gender Neutral Reader

The soft glow of candlelight flickers around the room as you settle into Crowley's lap, the worn leather of his sofa creaking slightly beneath your weight. The day had been long, filled with otherworldly occurrences and bizarre events that only seemed to make sense when you were with him.

Crowley's serpent eyes, a mesmerizing blend of gold and yellow, fixate on you with an intensity that sends shivers down your spine. His gaze is a peculiar mix of mischief and genuine curiosity, making it hard to decipher his true intentions.

"You know, you're actually quite good-looking when you're not talking," he remarks, his words slithering out with a hint of a smirk. It's the kind of backhanded compliment that only Crowley can deliver.

"So, you think I'm good-looking?" you tease, a playful grin forming on your lips.

"I said 'when you're not talking,'" Crowley replies, his tone carrying a distinct devilish charm.

"Too late, I'm taking it as a compliment," you quip, leaning back against his chest, feeling the warmth radiating from his supernatural being.

The two of you sit in comfortable silence for a while, the only sound being the distant hum of traffic outside and the occasional crackle of the fireplace. Crowley's fingers absentmindedly trace patterns on your forearm, a gentle touch that contrasts with his usual swagger.

"You humans and your need for validation," he muses, his gaze still fixed on you. "But I suppose you're tolerable, at least in small doses."

"Coming from you, that's practically a love declaration," you jest, leaning into his touch. The subtle rhythm of his fingers creates a soothing sensation, grounding you in the moment.

Crowley smirks, a glint of something more genuine flickering in his eyes. "Don't get used to it, love. I've got a reputation to uphold."

As the evening unfolds, the conversation meanders between the supernatural and the mundane. Crowley's anecdotes about centuries of mischief and mayhem are interwoven with your tales of navigating the human experience. The dynamic between you two is oddly harmonious, a dance of opposites that defies logic.

Eventually, the conversation fades into a comfortable silence. Crowley's gaze never wavers, and you can't help but meet his eyes. There's an unspoken connection, an understanding that goes beyond words.

"You're not like other humans," he observes, his tone softer than usual.

"Guess I'm lucky to have caught the attention of a demon then," you reply, a playful glint in your eyes.

Crowley smirks again, but this time it's different. It's a smirk tinged with a hint of vulnerability, a rare glimpse behind the facade. The unspoken words hang in the air, lingering between you.

And as the night deepens, you find solace in the arms of a demon, a connection that transcends the boundaries of the celestial and the infernal. In that moment, you realize that sometimes, the most extraordinary bonds are forged in the most unexpected places.

#david tennant x you #david tennant x reader #david tennant #good omens #good omens x reader #crowley x reader #crowley #crowley x you #good omens imagine #good omems fic #crowley good omens

[n3xii]

How to read energy with tarot and oracle cards

Energy can be read in a variety of ways, you can feel it, see it or even ''know'' it cognitively. But a universal way to read ALL energy is by using tarot and oracle cards. This method is perfect for analyzing the details of your own aura because you can identify what blockages there are, where they came from, how to heal them etc.

But first, let's talk about DECKS. You can use any deck to read energy, litterally any deck you feel a connection to will do perfect. but preferably the deck is artistic and has alot of details, symbols, colors, or even references to chakras and different spiritual concepts. I will have a post soon with a list of deck recommendations based on different topics in spirituality soon, so refer to that if you'd like!

Prepare your space: when tapping into your own energy, or someone else's, you will want to do some prep beforehand by clearing your mind and focusing on your intention. I don't think it's appropriate to "cleanse' yourself before doing this type of reading IN MY OPINON, the whole point of energy reading is to read what's currently in your energy. How can you do that if you CLEANSE IT. Use your cards to help identify whats currently in your aura, whats effecting you, and if there's external energy that's disturbing you, then cleanse if needed! if you want to cleanse the deck itself, thats up to you but I think that's the best idea.

2. Choose a spread (if you prefer spreads.): to be honest, I think if you're gonna use spreads, regardless of experience level, the reading will actually be more successful. this is because you can configure and customize the spread to be WHATEVER you need in that moment. You want to read your aura? pull a card for each layer of the aura, OR, pull a card for energy thats leaving your aura, energy thats currently in your aura, and energy that's coming in. you want to read someone elses energy? pull a card that represents their aura, a card for how their energy is effecting themselves or others, a card for whats contributing to their energy ETC.

3. shuffle and focus: shuffle your cards in your preferred method and focus on whom you're reading for. if you're reading for someone else, let them touch the cards. if thats not applicable, focus on an aspect or characteristic of that person.

4. lay out your cards/spread

5. pay attention to reversed cards. if you read reversals, these can be indicators of blockages OR of energies that are dissipating, it depends on the meaning of the card. For example, ten of swords reversed may indicate that the energies of betrayal, endings and despair is leaving your life. Meanwhile, the upright meaning by indicate a blockage. use context and your intuition to interpret cards.

6. Pay attention to colors: colors in a card and tone can indicate the color of your aura. here's a list of aura colors, this list doesnt contain all of them but it's a good starting point.

Red: Energetic, passionate, and strong-willed.

Orange: Creative, adventurous, and enthusiastic.

Yellow: Intellectually curious, cheerful, and optimistic.

Green: Compassionate, harmonious, and nurturing.

Blue: Communicative, calm, and spiritually connected.

Purple: Intuitive, visionary, and spiritually aware.

Pink: Loving, empathetic, and affectionate.

White: Pure, spiritually awakened, and balanced.

Silver: Intuitive, psychic, and open to new ideas.

Gold: Enlightened, wise, and spiritually evolved.

Black: Protective, strong-willed, and potentially blocking energy.

Brown: Grounded, practical, and connected to the Earth.

Gray: Indecisive, emotionally neutral, and detached.

Indigo: Highly intuitive, sensitive, and perceptive.

Turquoise: Creative, communicative, and balanced in emotions.

7. Pay attention to symbols: symbols can be signs from the universe or carry extra messages about your/someone's elses energy. here's a list of common symbols in tarot AND oracle decks

tarot:

Celtic Knots: Represent interconnectedness, cycles, and eternity.

Roses: Symbolize love, beauty, and balance.

Laurel Wreaths: Signify victory, honor, and achievement.

Sphinx: Represents wisdom, mystery, and enigma.

Cherub/Angel: Symbolizes divine guidance, purity, and protection.

Ankh: Represents life, vitality, and eternal existence.

Infinity Symbol (∞): Signifies limitless potential, eternity, and balance.

Butterflies: Symbolize transformation, growth, and renewal.

Ouroboros (Snake Eating Its Tail): Represents cyclical nature, infinity, and rebirth.

Keys: Signify unlocking hidden knowledge, opportunities, and solutions.

Hourglass: Symbolizes time, cycles, and the fleeting nature of life.

Mystical Gates: Represent opportunities, choices, and thresholds.

Lion: Signifies strength, courage, and boldness.

Scorpion: Symbolizes transformation, regeneration, and intensity.

Scales: Represent balance, justice, and equilibrium.

Winged Creatures: Signify the spirit, transcendence, and higher knowledge.

Wreaths: Symbolize victory, achievement, and honor.

Ships/Boats: Signify journeys, exploration, and movement.

Bulls: Represent determination, stubbornness, and material wealth.

Stars: Symbolize hope, inspiration, and guidance from the cosmos.

Crescent Moon: Signifies intuition, change, and the feminine energy.

Skulls: Symbolize mortality, transformation, and facing one's fears.

Clouds: Represent uncertainty, confusion, and change in perspective.

Castle: Signifies protection, security, and the inner self.

Serpents: Symbolize knowledge, transformation, and hidden wisdom.

Lightning: Signifies sudden change, revelation, and powerful energy.

Pyramids: Represent spirituality, ascension, and hidden truths.

Cross: Symbolizes sacrifice, faith, and spiritual growth.

Oracle cards:

Animals: Animal symbols can represent qualities, characteristics, and messages associated with specific animals. For example, a lion might symbolize courage and strength, while a butterfly could signify transformation and growth.

Hearts: Hearts are associated with love, emotions, and matters of the heart. Their presence in a card can indicate love, compassion, or emotional healing.

Stars: Stars symbolize inspiration, guidance, and divine energy. They may suggest hope and opportunities.

Moons: Moons are linked to cycles, intuition, and the subconscious. They can imply the need for introspection or changes in emotions.

Sun: The sun represents success, vitality, and enlightenment. It may indicate a positive outcome or a period of happiness.

Keys: Keys symbolize unlocking potential, solutions, and opportunities. They suggest that answers are within reach.

Crossroads: Crossroads represent choices and decisions. They can indicate a need to make a significant life decision or consider options.

Water: Water symbolizes emotions, intuition, and fluidity. It may suggest a need to navigate your feelings or adapt to changes.

Fire: Fire represents passion, transformation, and energy. It may suggest the need for action or a burst of inspiration.

Feathers: Feathers are often associated with messages from the spirit realm and can imply the need to pay attention to signs and synchronicities.

Coins/Pentacles: These symbols often relate to material matters, finances, and practical concerns. They may suggest issues related to money or resources.

Clouds: Clouds can symbolize uncertainty, confusion, or a clouded judgment. They may suggest the need for clarity.

Doors: Doors represent new opportunities, opportunities, and transitions. They may suggest entering a new phase in life.

Trees: Trees symbolize growth, strength, and connection to nature. They can suggest personal development and grounding.

Angels: Angels represent divine guidance, protection, and higher wisdom. Their presence can indicate a need for spiritual guidance or support.

Spirals: Spirals symbolize evolution, cycles, and personal growth. They suggest that you are on a journey of self-discovery.

Mandalas: Mandalas often represent unity, wholeness, and balance. They suggest the need to find harmony in your life.

Roses: Roses symbolize love, beauty, and passion. They may suggest matters of the heart or self-love.

Wings: Wings can symbolize freedom, elevation, and spirituality. They suggest a desire for greater understanding and spiritual growth.

Rainbows: Rainbows are a symbol of hope, promises, and blessings. They can suggest that positive developments are on the horizon.

Thats all for this post so far, I hope you found it informative and you're welcome to add any more tips to this post if you'd like!

#tarot cards #pac tarot #tarot meanings #energy #pick a card #pac reading #pick a card reading #affirmations #how to read energy #loa blog #law of abundance #free readings #pick a pile #oracle readings #oracle cards #pick a pile tarot #tarot pick a card #free tarot readings #free psychic readings #astro notes #tarot notes #how to #life hacks #tarot hacks #manifestion hacks #manifestion #wicca #witch tips #witchcore #witchblr

[justfangirlstuffs]

rain showers from the cozy autumn prompts? either for sea slugs or enthralling you enthralling me? - @clxckwork-sun-n-moon

GREY DAYS

Featuring @scarredlove's sea slug boys. <3

Wordcount: 3050

Grey. It dominated the mid-autumn skies, blotting out the sun with thick storm clouds and drizzly rain. You were home alone, hunkered under a thick blanket, still in your pajamas. You’d felt little urgency to get dressed since, according to the weather forecast, you wouldn’t be going anywhere. It wouldn’t be so bad if it hadn’t been like this for the past two days now. The monotony was getting to you.

Going over to your window, you pried the window open. A misting of rain carried on a light breeze was there to greet you. You closed your eyes and called out with your heart, picturing him in your mind’s eye before calling out his name.

“Sun? I’d really like to see you.”

Moon would likely be asleep, and Eclipse was always touch and go. Sun was typically the safest be, especially during the daytime. You waited for a minute or so, staring out into the gloom as raindrops misted across your front. Pretty soon you were starting to shiver from the chill.

You shut the window, leaving it open just a crack before moving towards your bed, intent on burrowing under your blankets until you warm up again. The squeak of sliding wood announced an arrival at your window. Your head whipped around, expecting to see a flourish of bright reds and yellows akin to a summer’s dawn. Instead, you were met with dusky maroons and pale gold across a backdrop of inky black.

“Oh… hey,” you greeted lamely.

Gold eyes surveyed you as Eclipse cocked his head to the side, the frills around his face twitching in what might have been irritation. “I wasn’t aware my company was that big of a disappointment.”

“No, not at all,” you said hurriedly. “I was just…”

You were cut off as Eclipse’s huge hand grasped the top of your head and playfully tousled your hair. “Relax, I’m just messing with you. Don’t be so uptight.”

“To be fair, it’s hard to tell you’re joking when you look like you’re about to bite my face off,” you muttered.

Eclipse’s fingers grasped around your jaw and bent down so that his sharp smile was gleaming inches from your face. “I’ll only bite if you ask me to,” he said in a husky whisper that rolled through you with the force of an undertow threatening to pull you under. 

His low chuckle made you huff petulantly in the face of his antics. He wanted a reaction, and he got it. So, you wrapped your arms around him and bit into his shoulder. A low hiss sounded next to your ear, not of pain, but of surprise. 

“I see someone is feeling spritely today.” Amusement highlighted the otherwise dark tones dancing in your ears like a comforting melody. You gasped as you felt teeth dig into your shoulder, not hard enough to break skin, but firm enough to send a spark of thrill and contentment curling in your gut.

“I thought you said only if I asked,” you murmured teasingly.

“You didn’t need to use words for me to know, Angelfish.” His voice caressed your ear, his mouth ghosting over the sensitive flesh, making your skin heat.

Still, you wanted a reaction and you’d gotten it. You’d take the win. “So, where’s Sun?”

Eclipse drew away enough to meet your gaze. “Sunny sends his regards, but he isn’t feeling well. So I came in his stead.”

Concern pricked at your heart like an icepick. “Is he okay?”

“He’ll be just fine,” Eclipse assured, his hand smoothing down over your hair to fix what he’d mussed. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” you said brightly. “Today’s been… fine.”

Eclipse squinted at you. “Just ‘fine’?”

“Yeah, maybe a little lonely. Bit of cabin fever building up.”

“I can certainly help with that. If you think I make an adequate substitute,” Eclipse remarked wryly.

“I suppose I can suffer your company for a bit,” you returned with a grin.

“Shall I steal you away then?”

“You’re gonna have to catch me first.”

Eclipse’s eyes widened in surprise as you bolted to the door and fled the bedroom. At first, you didn’t think he was following you until you glanced over your shoulder and squeaked out an ‘oh shit’. The slug was surprisingly fast out of the water, and his flowing robes made it look like he was gliding across the floor like it was ice. You scrambled down the stairs three at a time, landing awkwardly but managing to avoid turning an ankle. Even with your efforts, you were barely keeping ahead, turning a corner just in time as Eclipse’s claws swiped for you.

Your downfall came when you fled to the living room, your foot sliding out from underneath you when you stepped on a pile of magazines your cousin had left lying on the floor. A yelp of surprise left you, but before you crashed into the wall, a pair of hands caught you, one cradling your head while the other was secured around your waist. Chest puffing, you stared up at Eclipse whose face was pinched up with concern.

“Thanks for that,” you mumbled.

“Don’t thank me just yet,” he murmured, and you were helplessly lowered down onto the carpeted floor. “I’m still debating what to do with you, now that I’ve caught you.”

The words sent a shiver of delight rolling up your spine, causing you to squirm beneath him. In a single motion, Eclipse pinned both wrists above your head, securing them with a single hand while the other tapped a finger against your cheek. Your heart, already accelerated from the chase, went in twofold from the action. You struggled, more experimental than an actual bid for escape, your body pushing and pressing against the constraints that were his body and his hands. The motion seemed to excite him, and you couldn’t help but grin. Eclipse may be the ‘big’ brother, but he was still the baby. He liked having attention just as much as Sun and Moon, even if he was sometimes brusque about it.

“I’m still up for you stealing me away,” you said. Not that you were bothered by the positioning, but the floor was starting to become just a touch uncomfortable.

Eclipse seemed to sense this, as he relinquished pinning you in favor of scooping you up off the floor. “Let’s be off then.”

“Wait, I should probably change,” you suggested.

“There’s a change of clothes waiting for you there,” he told you. “From your last visit.”

“Oh, I was wondering where those went…”

Eclipse kissed your forehead, and you were quick to slide into unconsciousness. When you next awoke, you were in their sea cave, their home. Eclipse said it was a way to expedite travel but… you wondered if it was because they wanted to keep the location of their home a secret, even from you. Which… fair. Everyone was entitled to have a secret or two.

However, it wasn’t Eclipse whom you awoke to, but surprisingly Moon instead who had curled around you a cradled you in the folds of his cloak while you slept. “Hello, sea star,” he greeted with a wide grin.

“Ah, I got ditched,” you said with a mock sigh. “Tell Eclipse my heart is broken beyond repair, and I shant ever recover.”

Moon snickered. “He said he was sorry, but he wanted to look after Sun.”

“Is Sun going to be alright?” you asked.

“Just a stomach ache. Ate something he shouldn’t have. I’d take you to see him but he gets extra cranky on rainy days.”

“And he won’t get cranky knowing you’re hogging me to yourself tonight?”

“He’ll live.”

The cave had been strung with lanterns that glowed a soft sepia, and a woodfire housed in a circle of stones crackled merrily, providing warmth against the otherwise wet and chilly weather.

“Did you do all this?” you asked Moon in surprise.

“Most of it,” he said with a shy smile. “The others helped some.”

You sidled up to the fire to help dry you off. You were always soaking wet whenever they brought you to their home, so you at least suspected that they took you underwater through the ocean to get there.

“Moon, when you bring me here how do you… I mean how do I…” You paused, trying to figure out how to word your question.

He seemed to figure out what you were gunning for. “Breath spell,” he said simply. “Allows humans to breathe underwater for a time.”

“Wow, that’s incredible and super useful,” you murmured. 

It didn’t escape your notice that Moon was keeping a respectful distance from the fire. Probably afraid of drying out or his robes catching aflame. Moon once told you that it was their robes that allowed them to come and go from the sea, and should anything happen to them, they would be stuck on land forever, cut off from the sea, from their home. Thus, they safeguarded them and hardly ever took them off.

Once you were mostly dry and your clothes only slightly damp, you shuffled over to Moon who had been fidgeting restlessly as he waited for you. He happily invited you into his space, pulling you back into the crook of his lap.

“Missed you,” he murmured, nuzzling your ear.

“Missed you too, Moonie.” You bit your lip when you felt his teeth gently bite and nibble along your neck, occasionally pressing a gentle kiss over the skin.

“The sea salt tastes so good when it’s on you,” he purred.

“You always were the biter out of the three,” you remarked with a soft chuckle.

Back when they were just little slugs living in your aquarium, you used to stick your hand in the water and wait for them to swim close enough to touch. Moon was almost always the first to approach, and he would weave himself between your fingers and nibble on the tips. You found rubbing a spot just under his ‘chin’ caused him to lazily spin, allowing you to run your finger along the length of his body.

“You never seemed to mind,” Moon murmured, nuzzling against your neck.

“I didn’t,” you answered honestly.

With a mischievous grin, Moon took one of your hands and brought it towards his mouth. Your cheeks heated and your heart skipped when he took one of your fingers into his mouth and softly bit. It was a little unnerving, having your fingers in between teeth that looked like they could serrate through a cinder block. However, you trusted that Moon wouldn’t do something so vicious as to bite off your fingers. He was always sweet and gentle, even if he had a bit of an impish streak.

“I’d like to go swimming with you sometime.” The statement was more a request than anything.

“Mm, sounds like fun,” Moon chuckled. “I can chase you through the seaweed beds and kelps forests.”

“Not sure how much of a chase it’ll be considering you boys can easily outswim me,” you remarked with a laugh. “But yeah, I’d love that.” You reached under his chin and gave it a soft scritch.

Moon’s eyes dilated and he let loose a rumbling purr, flipping onto his back with you on top. You squeaked in surprise and he grinned up at you. “Do that again.”

—

At some point, during your cuddles with Moon, you passed out again. You hadn’t meant to, but whenever he started humming at doing his light show, you couldn’t help it. Considering you had a touch of insomnia the night before, the added sleep was nice and left you feeling more refreshed. Even though you didn’t hear the rain anymore, the low rumblings of thunder still reached your ears. Opening your eyes, you found that once more your partners had changed during your time in snoozeville.

“Did you have a nice nap?” a warm voice asked.

You lifted your head to find you’d been making a pillow of Sun’s lap. His long fingers were stroking through your hair, threatening to lull you back into a dozing state. The fire Moon built had burned down, leaving only smoldering embers desperate to hang on and stay alight. Judging by how dark the sky was, it was nearing the evening time. Just before Sun was usually due to start winding down in his activities.

“How are you?” you asked, your concern resurfacing. “They told me you weren’t feeling well.”

“I’m doing better,” he said softly. Though looking at him, he definitely seemed off. His colors were far less lustrous than usual, and his eyes typically gleamed so brightly were dim. But he smiled that sweet smile at you. “Besides, I couldn’t let those brutes have you all to themselves. Do you like your gift, by the way?”

“My…” The question trailed off when you noticed that something dangled from your wrist that wasn’t there before. You stared in amazement as you found a chain of sea shells, pearls, and a sea star glimmering around your wrist, threaded by an elastic band.

“Did you make this?” you asked in astonishment.

“Yes,” Sun said proudly. “It took me a bit, but each piece of that is from a willing donor.”

“It’s… it’s beautiful,” you said, trying to find better words but failing miserably. “I love it.”

“I’m glad… and I’m sorry,” Sun murmured. “I wanted to see you. I just… didn’t want you to see me so…” He hummed, absently brushing a hand over the array of appendages surrounding his face. “I’m supposed to be your Sun. Your little ray of happiness, even when things are at their darkest.”

“Sun…” You reached out a hand but stopped. You grabbed your water bottle, spraying the water over your hands to clean them. “May I touch you?”

A faint smile passed over Sun’s mouth as he reached his hands out your clasp yours. “My precious pearl is so very thoughtful.”

You gently squeeze his long fingers. “It’s okay to have an off day. I have them all the time. You’ve helped me through a lot of them. So, I’ll gladly help you through yours.”

Sun effortlessly pulled you into his lap, enveloping you in soft folds of butter yellow and cherry red. He took one of your hands and brought them to one of his rays. “You can feel them… if you like.”

You carefully brushed your fingers over the delicate appendage, and it twitched against your touch. The texture was incredibly sleek and smooth and the more attention you gave it, you could hear a rumbling purr building within Sun’s chest. His large hands combed over your hair, rubbed over your back and brushed over the exposed skin of your arms and legs.

The explorative touches made you smile, once more thinking about Sun’s tank days. You had learned fairly quickly that you had to let Sun come to you, to let him be touched how he wanted. Then, once he felt like he was dominating the situation, he wouldn’t stop brushing and nuzzling your hand until you pulled it out of the tank and he would wriggle in his sluggy form of an indignant pout. Not a whole lot has changed on that front, but lately, Sun was getting better about letting you touch him. So long as your hands were clean first and you gave him fair warning. As for him, well… you basically gave him permission to touch as much as he pleased, so long as he was willing to back off when you became uncomfortable.

You shivered when his cool fingers snuck beneath the hem of your shirt, pressing over the curve of your stomach and the arch of your back. “You’re so warm,” he mrumured, his purrs thrumming through your body. You were turning into putty between his fingers as they fondled and caressed you in their gentle exploration. His hand splayed over the bare skin of your back as he hugged you flush against him. Your heart knocked loudly in your ribcage as you felt like you might disappear amongst the swaths of color that surrounded you.

“S-Sun…” You bit back a groan as his fingers gently pressed into your taut back muscles. As much as you wanted him to do it again, you weren’t quite ready for him to go any farther. “That’s a bit much.”

Sun hummed his disappointment, but his hands slipped out from beneath your shirt. “Apologies,” he said, keeping his hands busy by cradling your face. “I got a bit enthusiastic there.”

“I love your enthusiasm,” you told him, smiling in reassurance. Leaning up, you gave him a soft peck on his cheek.

The rays around his face twitched and almost seemed to curl towards you. Those eyes, they were gleaming again. So bright and endless, like the sea. You could swim in those eyes. Or drown in them. Titling your head back, Sun pressed his lips to yours. His usual eagerness was absent, instead chose to slowly savor your kiss. It wasn’t long before you felt that drunken giddiness and your hands grasped at the air, only for Sun to catch your hand in his and hold fast to you, keeping you from sinking too far too fast.

Your whole world tilted, and when your mouth was at last relinquished, you found Sun lying back on the sand with you lying atop his chest. “I’m tired,” he murmured.

“That’s okay,” you said, relaxing against him. “I’ll stay if you want.”

His fingers raked through your hair before rubbing lazy circles over your back. “I’d like that very much, pearl.”

The two of you lay there, just soaking up each other’s presence. Occasionally Sun would say something, and you would answer, but you knew it was just him trying to keep you entertained when he didn’t need to. You didn’t mind at all when he dozed off, trapping you in the folds of his arms in the process. So much for that change of clothes. 

As you lay there, you started to sing the ‘rain, rain, go away song’. Sun’s arms hugged you closer, a content sigh humming through him and through you, eliciting visions of sunlight rippling through water. Reminding you both that no matter how grey the days were, the sun would shine again.

#fnaf sundrop #fnaf moondrop #sun x y/n #sun x reader #moon x y/n #moon x reader #eclipse x y/n #eclipse x reader #sea slug au #justfangirlwritings #cw biting #cw suggestive

[senqv]

HOUSE OF KINGS.

blue lock ! royal / fantasy au series featuring : michael kaiser x fem! reader

warning(s) : 1k , none this one is quite cute , lmk if there are any !!

TWO. THE WRATH SING, O GODDESS

the next time you see him, you are seated in the windowed alcove of the palace library, hidden behind the imposing shelves of mahogany wood. you could feel the thick knitted blankets and fox furs beneath your thighs, a fluffy cushion left of your waist.

you leaned against the window, ornate and elegant, cut in frames to let in squares of golden sun. the smooth cover of the book is familiar under your fingerpads, a beloved relic from your father. even with your gaze cast towards the window, you could envision the wine-dark cover in your hands, embossed with a deep gold; the methodical lettering forming words that you could recite like water spilling down the rumbling falls.

faintly, suddenly, like a whisper in the wind, the air changed. the soft hum of divinity, maybe, but you could not have known what that was. it only felt stronger as golden hair came into vision, reflecting off the glass planes of the windows. you blinked, straightening your back. you had thought it to be a trick of the light, but it was apparent how real he was with each languid step he took, steady and sure.

kaiser was not a god, but you can scarcely imagine anything more perfect than him. wherever he went, he drew everything to him like a great flame. and although your spitefulness refused to let you look at him, it could not be helped how your gaze traced his features reflected on the window, the brightness of his hair so lustrous it was lit from within, the steady curve of his face, and the arc of his rose-coloured lips.

you hear his feet stop before you, and his mouth opens, poised and self-assured. "this place belongs to me."

he was referring to this cosy little alcove, and you chide yourself for not noticing how personalised this place was, blanketed in wools and the highest quality of furs and goose-feathered pillows.

only then you look back at him, features screwed with slight displeasure. under his pointed stare, you swing your legs down from the wood carved into the window to face him properly, freeing up half the space. "this is a library. it doesn't belong to anyone," you say with narrowed eyes.

he looks almost like he can't believe the words coming out of your mouth. his arms move to cross over his chest. "the gods have decreed me to be emperor of kings. everything that treads the ground will belong to me one day." he does not say it boastfully, or arrogantly. it is fact to him as much as the stars circle the sky each night.

your lips twitch in search of a response, "not yet," you say weakly, and you stare into the endless blue of his eyes. your tone is stronger; "you are no emperor yet. you have no right to ask me to leave."

that surprised him. he tilts his head at you curiously, like a little sparrow. you may be the daughter of nobility, but he is the prince. he probably had all the rights in the world and more. like a tamed beast, he sits down next to you. he smells of roses and white jasmine, and you dare not to turn your head, glancing at him nervously from the corner of your eye. his gaze darts to your hand.

he shifts again, pressing his head on your shoulder as you fight down a flinch. a strand of hair falls over his eyes, and he blows it away with a huff. cerulean eyes stare up at you intently. like this, he reminds you of those sleek felines in the estate.

"read to me." it was a command, but the way he said it did not feel like one. to you, it was soft but distinct, easy as how one would utter their own name.

your mouth feels parched, but still, you crack the book open, the pages yellowed from their age. the familiar words ease you slightly, and your voice hangs in the air like the willows over a curving pond.

'the wrath sing, o goddess, of peleus' son

achilles'

his eyelashes flutter like the wings of a butterfly, fanning against his cheeks. he blinks slowly, relaxed. your gaze darts from the book to him like a school of fish in the water, but you hardly need to reference the pages, the words carved into your heart like a searing iron.

his golden hair curls around his head, the longer strands pooling at the dips of his collarbone and down the edge of your own shoulder. it drew your eye, glimmering like starlight, so bright against the sun the locks glowed white. carelessly, your fingers smooth over a strand of hair covering the side of his face, flipping the ends up to marvel at the way they lit up in the light. you had no sooner realised your mistake than when his jewelled eyes darted towards you, causing you to release his hair with a jerk of your hand. "i'm sorry, i didn't -"

he silences you with a yawn, pink tongue flashing against white teeth. his lashes flutter again, shifting his head closer to you. then, his eyes close with sleep. it's almost cute, in a way. you know that he is not actually asleep, but you also realise this is his way of permitting you to continue.

hesitantly, your fingers twitch in longing, at his unavoidable beauty, written by the poets. you wipe your hands harshly on your skirt, fearful that the beading sweat might stick to his glorious hair. with trembling hands, your fingers card through the streaming gold strands, smoothing over the top of his head. he makes a soft sound of pleasure, which makes you smile slightly.

you tuck a strand of hair behind his ear, and you can't help but think that his beauty is fine as a girl's. his lashes open again, jade white skin parting to reveal the hanging jewels of his eyes, a shifting, dazzling blue.

his eyes crinkle a secretive smile. under the light of the sun, you smile back.

#— HOUSE OF KINGS. #michael kaiser #blue lock #bllk #michael kaiser x reader #kaiser x reader

[idleglowingpixels]

I was rewatching Monster High: The Movie (2022) cause the sequel's coming out next week and upon rewatch, the fucking signs that Komos was actually Hyde's son not from the writing but from the COSTUME DESIGN for him was so striking to me that I'm pissed I didn't realize sooner.

Not only does he have the glasses, sideswept bangs and general human appearance of Jackson (minus the horns, I think in this universe Komos's mom was like a centaur or something, would explain why he's still so human-looking besides the horns), but there's nods to Jackson and Holt specifically all throughout his outfits in the movie.

(Also for the sake of ease I'm referring to the teacher as Komos cause typing Hyde Jr. or something constantly is gonna drive me nuts)

First, there's his main outfit which we see across the film as well as in promotional images, and YOU CANNOT FUCKING TELL ME the posing for his promo pic wasn't an intentional nod to Jackson LIKE LOOK AT THIS SHIT!!

The main thing that strikes me is the inversion of the yellow/gold and blue with Komos's tie and shirt, also the fact the colors are significantly desaturated in comparison to Jackson's flashy yellow and blue. My interpretation of this is that it's representative of the bad-guy/villainous interpretation Komos represents, in comparison to Jackson/Holt which seem to be a rare good-guy/positive interpretation of Jekyll and Hyde. It's like, yes this is the Jekyll/Hyde guy of this gen, his outfits are nods to G1 but is otherwise an entirely different character than Jackson/Holt. Which I mean, I do respect the writers for not having Komos be this gen's Holt Hyde and just as "Hyde's son," I feel like separating the two (three??) characters is and was the best decision. Just two different interpretations of the "descendant of Jekyll and Hyde" thing.

Another part of the decision to go with Jackson's more traditionally nerdy or professional type of fashion style is interesting to me. Komos does not want to be perceived as his Jekyll half, he wants to just be Hyde, hence why he refers to himself as Hyde's son not Jekyll and Hyde's son. And yet, it's like he can't deny his human Jekyll side. To be honest Jekyll's only referenced a few times in the movie (which okay, Hyde's the monster half, I get that, but you'd think he'd be a little more important yeah??) so it makes sense they're focusing on Hyde more but I did find it an interesting decision.

Next there's THIS OUTFIT which on rewatch made me audibly point like that soyjak meme like "THAT'S A REFERENCE TO JACKSON AND HOLT CAUSE OF THE YIN YANG DUAL COLOR SHIT"

Red and blue are mainly Holt's colors, but Holt's signature outfit's shirt is also dual-toned, split through the middle.

It's just with Komos, there's less of an emphasis on the yin-yang thing Jackson & Holt had in their interpretation of Jekyll & Hyde -- he's unbalanced in comparison to them -- hence it's not a black and white cardigan. Also, THE BOWTIE! Can't get more obvious with the Jackson nods than that.

There's also this outfit I wanted to mention, the one he wears during the Founders' dinner toward the end of the movie. Notice It's fully red-toned, where his initial outfit was mainly blue-toned, and the cardigan showed the transition between. It's like at first, he's studious and mellow-natured with a bit of flare but nothing too crazy -- Jekyll. Then when he's wearing the cardigan, he asks Clawdeen about her research, almost insisting she provide him the information she's gathered because of his desperation to lose the duality going on with him. And finally, at the end, he takes the potion his father made, fully embracing Hyde and abandoning Jekyll once and for all.

---

That's pretty much all I wanted to mention regarding the outfits, but I remember when I first watched the movie, I was severely disappointed that Jackson/Holt were basically confirmed to not be making a return in this generation (or at least in the live-action films but I imagine it'd be pretty confusing to have two characters represent the same specific monster character in the same gen). They were a really underutilized character concept outside of Ghouls Rule, and I feel like especially with Clawdeen being half human in this version that they could've been friends or something!

Maybe Jackson/Holt could've served as the antagonist of the film in Komos's position, but not out of malice, moreso misguidance. Holt was kinda hinted at in his diaries to have depressive symptoms, it would've been interesting to explore that with how he might have low self-esteem because of his half-human-ness. Also, apparently Deuce in G1/G2 was half human too? Why did they get rid of that this gen??? I don't know why they keep shifting representation around at times.

Questionable decision making aside, I actually did enjoy this movie a lot. From an objective standpoint it's a DCOM-quality movie with average writing (except Frankie bro they were funny as hell in this movie), slightly more fashionable outfits than DCOMs, and a basic self-acceptance plot. There's several movies, including one or two in G1, with similar but better-executed writing and storytelling and similar themes. But DAMMIT I can't get enough of this movie when I see it. It's a comfort movie. :'D

I could go ON about the Jackson/Holt erasure all throughout this movie, especially with the rumors it was based off an abandoned movie concept for the two back in G1, but this post is too long already and I've distracted myself from my work enough. :'D If anyone on this side of Tumblr wants to hear that ramble, I shall ramble about it another day.

Also, HAPPY SPOOKY MONTH!!! My Monster High AU is beginning this month with the main 5 ghouls' designs as well as a one-shot I've written. Maybe stick around for that if you want to idk! :D

#linposts #monster high #monster high g3 #monster high: the movie #Mr. Komos #jackson jekyll #holt hyde #random ramblings #I promise I'm mentally well and healthy when it comes to Jackson/Holt :D I'm TOTALLY okay with them not being in G3 and being replaced :'D #I'm lying through my teeth LMAO #I do like Komos/Hyde Jr tho he slays #Just not in the same way as the OGs #He could never replace them qHq

[fwoopersongs]

春怨 - Spring Bitterness

春怨 - Spring Bitterness by 刘方平 (Liu Fangping, ~Kaiyuan Era, 713 to 741)

纱窗日落渐黄昏 shāchuāng rì luò jiàn huánghūn Beyond the silk window, the sun sets, yellow fading into dusk.

金屋无人见泪痕 jīnwū wú rén jiàn lèihén Within the gilded house, no one is here to see her trailing tears.

寂寞空庭春欲晚 jìmò kōng tíng chūn yù wǎn In the lonely silence, in the empty court, Spring longs for the close of day.

梨花满地不开门 líhuā mǎn dì bù kāi mén Parting’s blossoms carpet the way… to a door that does not open.

..............................................................................................

春怨 | Spring Bitterness is one of two homework poems (the other is 月夜 |  Moonlit Night), for a poetry translation workshop hosted by Chenxin Jiang that ran from Jan to Feb of this year. Both are from the anthology 唐诗三百首 Three Hundred Tang Poems and were written by the Tang Dynasty poet and artist Liu Fangping.

Side note that no one asked for but that I always feel obliged to mention xD: Three Hundred Tang Poems does not collect the best of the best Tang poetry, that wasn’t the intention! Compiled by 蘅塘退士 Retired Master of Hengtang in 1763, Qing Dynasty, these were mostly popular works and poets from the Tang Dynasty during the Ming/Qing Dynasties (probably skewed toward his own preferences too lol) intended for a beginner or a child's gentle introduction to Tang poetry. This is also why many modern editions you will find at the bookstore today have the poems organized according to poetic form. 

Poetry and Song

I found this cool video of a teacher, 吳秀真 Janice Wu, first reading Liu Fangping’s 春怨 then singing it in Hokkien. Sharing this here so we can appreciate the rhythm, rhyming and their effect in the poem together! 

To help this along, another line which represents the tone pattern has been added. In Pinyin, the romanization system for mandarin which is used here, there are four tones.The first (◌̄) and second (◌́) tones are Level - longer sounds that are represented by the ‘_’ underscore in this notation. The third (◌̌) and the fourth (◌̀) pinyin tones are Oblique - shorter sounds represented by the ‘\’ backslash. The third tone is one that starts level, dips, then goes up again, and the fourth has an almost staccato rhythm. Words with Oblique tones are also bolded in the pinyin.

纱窗 | 日落 | 渐 | 黄昏 gauze window | sunset | gradual | twilight (lit. yellow, darkening) shāchuāng | rìluò | jiàn | huánghūn _ _ \ \ _ _

金屋 | 无 人 | 见 | 泪痕 gold house | no one | sees | tear tracks jīnwū | wú rén | jiàn | lèihén _ _ _ _ \ \ _

寂寞 | 空 庭 | 春 | 欲 晚 lonely silence | empty hall | Spring | desires lateness jìmò | kōng tíng | chūn | yù wǎn

\ \ _ _ _  \ \

梨花 | 满 地 | 不 | 开 门 pear blossoms | fill floor | no | open door líhuā | mǎn dì | bù | kāi mén _ _ \ \ \ _ _

Title

Now to the title - 春怨 chūn yuàn (lit. Spring Laments). There is a trope in poetry called 怀春 huái chūn embracing spring (lit.). You may have heard of the sexual connotation, and it can be that! But a lot of the time 怀春 is also a romantic thing. Being attracted, being drawn by beauty like the bright and lively sceneries of Spring, it’s natural to want to share the moment with someone close to her. 

A twist on this trope comes when that person - a lover, a husband - isn’t around or can’t be around. There could be lots of reasons, ok? Like being called away to war, separated because of politics, posted to distant counties and difficulty uprooting the family to move for a three-year thing - in other words, life giving lemons in general or simply that his heart is not here. But whatever it may be, this is how you get a flaw, a regret, a dissatisfaction, some unhappiness in a life... and now we feel 怨. 

Spring itself is also very about the world waking up again, a time of renewal where life is everywhere (or the seeds of it are being sown… literally!) and the year is young. A person’s youth is also often compared to Spring, and its passing or a ‘wasted youth’ is something worthy of regret.

The genre of poetry in which the speaker or main focus is a sorrowful lady usually for any form or combination of the mentioned reasons is called 闺怨 guī yuàn boudoir repining. It’s also called 宫怨 palace lament when the focus and setting is on the ladies - the empress, a concubine and so on - in the palace. (Roughly 10% of the Three Hundred Tang Poems are of the boudoir/palace repining genre. I really can’t help but wonder if this is one of the editor’s favoured tropes.) Such poems could be written by ladies, but the theme was often co-opted by men who used it to express adjacent feelings e.g. not being appreciated by their bosses (xD), failure to attain office via the state exams and so on. This is what has happened here for our poem of the day.

So now, Liu Fangping, what laments do you have for us this Spring?

[Family background check, praise and gossip - come get the scoop on Liu Fangping, beautiful man and mountain hermit from the Height of Tang Dynasty.]

Reading

The setting for this poem is in someone’s room, before their window. From it, they can see the fallen pear blossoms across the floor outside and the closed door.

Time for clue hunting to get some more context. 

Who

The use of 纱 shā gauze, a light silk with an especially airy weave, as window screens was not something the average commoner family could afford. 

(Source)

We know the POV character is in their room and facing their window, enough to observe the sunset. They must be indoors. What sort of building? The next line tells us it’s a 金屋 jīnwū, literally translated, that would be golden house - but this is should not be taken literally. This is actually a reference to the ‘urban legend’ (or maybe RPF as we call it these days LOL) that gave rise to the idiom, 金屋藏娇 jīn wū cáng jiāo a golden house to keep one's mistress (lit.). 

As collected by 班固 Ban Gu (32 to 92 CE) in his 汉武故事 Stories of Emperor Wu of Han, the story goes:

数岁，长公主嫖抱置膝上，问曰：儿，欲得妇不？胶东王曰：欲得妇。长公主指左右长御百余人，皆云不用。末指其女，问曰：阿娇好不？于是乃笑对曰：好！若得阿娇作妇，当作金屋贮之也。长主大悦，乃苦要上，遂成婚焉。 (Rough translation because I want to SLEEP) When he was couple of years old, the Grand Princess, (Liu) Piao carried him, put him on her knee and asked, “Child, do you want a wife?” The Prince of Jiaodong said, “Yes,”  The Grand Princess pointed out over a hundred palace officials - similar to ladies-in-waiting - all of whom were refused. Finally, she pointed at her own daughter and asked, “Would a’Jiao suit?”  And he smiled and said in reply, “Perfect! If I were to have a’Jiao as wife, I would build her a golden house and stow her away.”  Delighted, the Grand Princess worked hard at convincing the Emperor to agree to their marriage and eventually succeeded.

Afterwards, when the Prince of Jiaodong also known as Liu Che (156 - 87 BCE) became the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty, he built his Chen Jiao a beautiful palace and later officially made her his Empress. A fairytale might have ended there but while this is a story, it is also a story about real people… and so instead of a happily-ever-after, in real life we get this. The palace of gold that was built did not bring a’Jiao happiness, the childhood promise of love didn’t last half as long as the palace did, but the ironically romantic idiom that came from it outlasted them all.

Now back to Tang Dynasty in the 8th century! 

Liu Fangping writes 金屋无人见泪痕. This 金屋 could hint at a broken promise of love, or it could be a hint at the identity of the lady in this poem. No matter the intent for both or either one of these though, what’s for sure is that the reason for 怨 is answered. More on this later.

When

There are three clues that answer this. First, line one tells us that it’s on an evening gradually painted in the colours of sunset (as seen through the silk screen window). Second, is how the poem’s POV tells us it seems to be late Spring in line three. Third, is the evidence that it is indeed late Spring - the fallen pear blossoms that are all over the floor in line four. 

While we’re on the topic of pear blossoms, let’s segue into…

Imagery

Pear Blossoms

Observe the pear blossoms in this yard. How do you feel as you look at them?

(Source)

Each flower is so delicate and pure, their petals soft and velvety. Up close these white flowers give me a peaceful and refreshing vibe. 

Pear blossoms bloom in late Spring when the weather has thoroughly warmed, around the solar term period of Qingming. They’re very fragile and are easily blown from their branches by the wind. But while they’re around and the pear trees fully blossomed, it’s a beautiful and tranquil sight to be appreciated.

（Source)

And we should appreciate them while they’re here because their flowering period is so short! All too soon, they’re strewn across the floor as time marches on. 

(Source)

The sight of pear blossoms carpeting the ground is a marker of the end of Spring.

梨 lí, the word for pear in pear blossom is a homophone of 离 lí, parting, and this coupled with its image of fleeting, fragile beauty often leads to association with grief and/or mourning. Following from there, the image of a ‘sorrowful woman confined in the boudoir as her youth passes’ is easily linked and a common accompanying theme. (Yes it’s a trope xD I’ll point it out again in the future as we encounter them.)

Side note: Taking the ‘unfavoured concubine’ reading of this poem, the fact that the sun isn’t down, yet the yard is littered with flowers that likely have been there for a while and there are no servants attending to that - all of this just emphasizes ‘unfavoured’. Few would make that extra effort on a team with no future!

Empty courtyard

It is getting dark, the day growing colder and it is so very quiet in this house. The loneliness is the trigger for her tears; both the quiet and the empty courtyard from which Spring is receding only amplifies it. 

Setting sun

黄昏 huáng hūn is sunset. Literally, it reads yellow-dim/dark. The movement of the light is the only thing in this poem. The sunset is gradual, dimming from the warm yellow tones of the setting sun to shadows and darkness. But the fallen white petals and flowers in the courtyard are going to be very visible until the very last of the light is gone. 

In this poem, each line is a different, standalone image that stacks to build the atmosphere, expressing 春怨 perfectly.

Framed by her silk screen window, the sun goes down on her gilded house where there is no one to see, or no one who will care to see her tears. Her emotion overflows this evening because the loneliness has grown to fill her neglected yard, and she is accompanied only by the silence and the last remnants of her Spring. There is nothing for her outside, and no one comes. The door does not open. 

Some pictures...

It's a rather depressing note to leave this post on, so I thought it might be on interest to all of us how a palace or a house might have looked!

Here is the scene of a banquet in a Tang Dynasty palace as imagined by an artist of the Five Dynasties or Song Dynasty some two to four hundred years later.

This painting is from the The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Visit the source for the writeup and description!

(Source)

This is an imagining of how a Tang (618 - 907) Palace concert might have looked like by a Yuan (1279-1368) Dynasty artist. Again, check out the description at the source!

(Source)

#Chinese Poetry #春怨 #刘方平 #it's been wayyyyyy too long since i've written about a poem

[jazzythursday]

Prompts: Nightlight | Drifting | Dried (1489 words)

Wylan is tired

Nightlight runs off of the oil lamps and the club signs that line the streets, spilling out of open doors and casting the wet cobblestones in tones of yellow and gold.

Wylan is cold.

He drifts through the streets of the Barrel like a spectre, like he’s invisible. Like the cold canal water has seeped straight into his bones, and he shivers for too many reasons to count.

He’s not dead.

It’s an absurd thought to have, even more absurd because he’s so surprised by it.

I’m not dead. I think my father tried to have me killed. It didn’t work.

Jan Van Eck is not a man who takes well to not getting his way. If he’d wanted Wylan dead, Wylan has no clue how he managed to avoid it.

It makes him consider that this all might have been some misunderstanding. Maybe father hadn’t meant for him to die. Perhaps he had intended for Wylan to reach Belendt. Maybe his men were simply confused, or they could have been hired by some other party, someone else with a vendetta to settle.

Maybe, perhaps, could have. Who is he kidding? Miggson and Prior are loyal to his father, and no one else hates Wylan enough to even bother with killing him. How could they, when he’s barely left the house in years and his father has only ever exposed him to the public to parade him like a symbol of his good intentions as a humble family man, a single father and a dutiful Ghezenite.

No, this was—it had to be—there were too many coincidences, there were too many factors, and all roads led back to the same answer.

I’m not dead. I think my father tried to have me killed. It didn’t work. Over and over again. It didn’t work.

It makes a funny sort of sense, considering that the only goal his father has ever fallen short of achieving is Wylan himself. Eternal disappointment and failure, no matter how much he poured into Wylan, no matter how much he tried. Wylan failed his expectations as a son, and he failed his expectations tonight as well. It didn’t work.

His father always said his greatest talent is causing problems.

I’m alive.

Wylan is not, if he’s honest with himself, quite sure if that’s a good thing.

He might die of hypothermia anyway, if he doesn’t find somewhere to rest soon. He’s soaked through. His wet hair drips down his forehead and his boots squelch with every step. Already he feels close to collapse, weight dragging him by his joints and lungs wheezing from inhaling water and swimming for hours and also, probably, being nearly choked to death.

Weak, his mind whispers, what are you going to do with a life you’re not strong enough to live? Wylan is too tired to answer it, too cold to care anymore. A numbness deeper than the chill has been slowly setting in since the terror of Prior’s hands around his neck had first left him for exhaustion, and Wylan wants to sink into it like a blanket, protecting him from the harsh bite of wind and the dark night. If he’d cried, he hadn’t been aware of it, and when he touches shaking fingers to his face they come away dry.

He thinks of putting each foot in front of the other, walking as he has for hours, and nothing else. There are too many feelings, too many thoughts, and he has a hunch that giving into them now might just bring him to his knees right here on the pavement. Might finally break him. He clutches the straps of his bag in his hands like his life depends on it, like they’re the only things holding him up.

“Boer, buddy, no need to get handsy, you only need to ask nicely.”

“That’s enough, Fahey, you’re done for the night.”

Wylan stops, he turns to see a man being led out of a club by a bouncer, practically dragging him by the collar of his coat. The man grins like he and the bouncer are having no more than a friendly chat, hands held loosely up and top hat tipping to the side as he tilts his head.

“But the night isn’t done with me, Boer. You wouldn’t deprive her, would you? Me and the night, we have plans.”

“Not here you don’t. Go home.”

“But I’m feeling lucky! Kaz will understand. Come on, one more game, and then I’ll be out of your hair for good, on my honour.”

“Don’t speak of honour where none exists. Times up.”

With that, the bouncer pushes the man roughly off the step, only to stumble gracelessly into the street.

The thing is, Wylan may feel invisible, but his body is as solid as ever, and that’s proven to him as the man’s momentum sends him forwards and directly into Wylan. It knocks them both off balance, and they go careening downwards like a clumsy sack of potatoes. Wylan yelps, back hitting the ground with a harsh slap of wet stone and knocking the wind out of him. The man follows, falling just shy of collapsing on top of him, hands and elbows bracing against the slick ground and bracketing Wylan’s shoulders. He groans as Wylan’s knee jerks up and hits him, tangling their legs together.

His chest rises and falls in heaving and shaky pants. His shoulder hurts where it’d hit the ground, his satchel digs painfully into his shoulder blades. He’s been moving for so long, and now that he’s stopped, everything aches even worse.

Wylan stares up, stunned, and the man stares back. A sound that is not quite a whimper and also not not a whimper emerges, unbidden, from Wylan’s throat.

All at once, the man snaps back into action as if he’d never been still at all. “Sorry. Sorry. I’m—Saints, here, let me—” he pushes himself carefully off of Wylan and offers him a hand. Wylan, still too stunned to do anything else, takes it. The man pulls him up and then braces him as Wylan sways forwards into him, unsteady on his feet. His heart is pounding, his legs are jelly, and somehow, Wylan still finds it in himself to be embarrassed, because even in the low lamplight, the man is the most attractive person he’s ever seen, and Wylan must look like a drowned rat that’s been dragged through the mud.

He takes a sharp breath and it rattles in his chest, making him cough. The man looks at him with open concern, probably noticing for the first time the state Wylan is in. The bruises he’s sure wring his neck, the dark purple under his eyes and blue tinge of his lips.

“Are you alright?”

And, Wylan may be stupid and foolish, but he knows what the Barrel is like. He knows the kinds of things that go on here, knows that there’s absolutely nothing about this situation that’s advisable or safe. But Wylan is tired, and cold, and despite all efforts to the contrary, he’s alive.

And the beautiful man has kind eyes.

Wylan bites his lip, and shakes his head.

“Do you need some help?”

He does, doesn’t he? Yes, Wylan definitely needs help. But he doesn’t respond. This is supremely stupid, and he knows it. There’s no guarantee that kind eyes make a kind person, and there’s every likelihood he could be robbed for what little kruge he still carries and then dumped for dead.

Seeming to sense this, the man smiles, softer than the cocky grin he’d given to the bouncer.

“I promise that looked worse than it was, by the way. Boer likes to play, forgets his own strength. Ask anyone around and they’ll all tell you l have dodgy luck with the cards, but my other references will check out.”

Wylan nods, though he isn’t sure he quite follows.

“I’m Jesper,” the man—Jesper, and Wylan thinks the name suits him—says. “Jesper Fahey.”

“W—” Wylan coughs again, and his voice sounds as ragged and waterlogged as he feels. “Wylan.”

“Okay, right. Hello, Wylan. Now that we’ve been acquainted, need some help?”

“Why?”

“Well, I did accost you in the street. My fault entirely, by the way. Look, can I just—can I walk you anywhere at least?”

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” Wylan whispers pitifully. He looks down at his water soaked clothes. At the space between Jesper’s boots and his. His bottom lip is starting to tremble. From cold or the impending collapse of all his crumbling walls, he doesn’t know. He can’t make sense of anything beyond the cold in his bones and the sense that he is finally too broken to ever be fixed.

A hand squeezes his shoulder gently, and Wylan looks up and into the incongruously kind eyes of this strange but seemingly lovely man. Jesper Fahey.

“Okay, that’s—okay, we’ll sort that out first.”

#I’ll probably post this to ao3 at some point but I’ve been lazy with titles lately #also idk if it’s going places or not we’ll see #a drabble for your troubles? #jazzy writes #jazzy writes fanfic #wesper fic club #flash fic #wesper #shadow and bone #wylan van eck #six of crows #jesper fahey #sab fanfiction #soc fanfic

[mare-sanguis]

Notes on "Ambidextrous Angle" here

Notes on "Lady Justice" here

Notes on the flowers in ep.8 here

Notes on the numbers on the car plate of No.3 and KMC here

The Colors in ep. 10

During the torture scene of LMS they went through multiple types of colors, which I found pretty interesting as someone whos studied colors and their meanings intensely over the years. And as a lot in TKV has meaning and thoughts put behind it, I wanted to make a post highlighting the scene- and the colors specifically. It will also including short historical informations about each color.

Its starts with a mix of red and orange on the tables- making it look like vermillion (a color that borders orange and red and is also often times used in skin color shading), specifically HEX color FFD400. The color will come up later again.

Interestingly enough, since ancient times the color vermillion was regarded as the color of blood- thus of life. In Ancient Rome, the color was widely used to paint frescos, to decorate statues and produce cosmetics. It was also used in the Byzantine Empire reserved for the use of the imperial family and their administrators (used in official letters and imperial decrees) the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, in the paintings of the Renaissance, as well as in the art and lacquerware of China. The color can also be found all over the murals in Villa dei Misteri (Villa of Mystery before 79 AD) in Pompeii. 

As the color of blood and life, it fits perfectly as the starting color of the whole scene.

LMS in the meantime is illuminated by white light.

Ironically- or fitting?- its the color of innocence, purity, hope and clarity. It represents goodness, perfection and peace. Looking at the color, it purifies the mind and helps to find balance. But like every color, it also has negative aspects such as coldness, emptiness, nothingness and distance. A lot of times, its also the color of self-reflection (VERY fitting if you’d ask me). White was one of the first colors used in Prehistoric cave art (good example are those at Lascaux in France) which feature marks and images made used calcite and chalk. Ancient Greece saw white as a sacred color (representing light and motherhood), in Rome plain white togas (togas virilis) were worn by all citizens at ceremonial occasions. During early christian times, they adopted the romans use of white- priests wore the color during mass as for them, white was symbolic of purity, humility and virtue (reinforced by the “white lamb” which was symbolic of christ’s sacrifice for humanity). Later, throughout the middle ages, white was strongly associated with martyrdom. It was also the commonly worn color by widows in mourning up until the 16th century- giving the color an association with death and refelection. 

Illuminating a criminal like him in white is truly a choice. It does fit the intentions of the whole torture tho: redeption, hope and clarity.

In the same frame, centering the vermillion color, we can also see yellow and orange.

Yellow is the color of happiness and optimism. It clarifies and inspires the mind and helps in creativity- it also gives warmth. The negative associations with the color are caution, egotism, deception and cowardice. Yellow is also one of the oldest colors to exist and is seen in cave paintings 17.000 years old. Painters in the Middle Ages and Renaissance used “Indian yellow” to show an outsider. Most notably Judas Iscariot (again, pretty fitting to the whole biblical references found throughout TKV). In ancient religions, yellow was a sacred color. Just like gold, it was seen as eternal, imperishable and indestructible. Many religions worshipped the sun, and the sun gods were depicted wearing yellow. The Ancient Egyptians believed the gods had gold skin and bones and used yellow for their skin tone in art. Yellow is also an important color in Buddhism, signifying humility. It can also be found in paintings from Ancient Rome. 

Orange symbolizes youth, enthusiasm and optimism. It uplifts and stimulates the mind. Its the color of creativity, warmth and spontaneity. On the other hand, it shows domination and impatience. Up until the 16th century it was called “saffron” or “yellow-red”. When Portuguese merchants brought orange trees to Europe from Asia in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the citrus fruit’s name was adopted for the general color.  In some cultures, orange is regard as a sacred color because it balances red’s power and yellow’s perfection. Monks and holy men in some Asian religions, like Buddhism, wear orange robes because that dye has been readily available historically. Buddhists also connect orange to the highest state of illumination. Its also the color of transformation in Confucianism. and a symbol of royalty.

Again, two colors highlighting the personalties of both LMS and KSJ in a well done way.

The color then changes to a dirty blue hue- with a slight turquoise shade. 

Blue- the color of loyalty and trust. It gives the feeling of security, trust, confidence, peace, honesty and reliability. It calms and relaxes the brain. Negative feelings associated with blue are passiveness, depression and prediction.  The history of the color blue is quite interesting: It was never a color to be found in nature (no, water isnt blue and the sky also changes colors and if there is indeed something blue found in nature its either with a violet or turquoise shade) thus, we humans previously were never able to even “see” the color (we perceived it, but we had no idea what it even was). The first society to have a word for the colour blue was the Egyptians, the only culture that could produce blue dyes at around 2.200 B.C: They loved the precious stones lapis and turquoise* so much that they invented the first synthetic blue pigment in order to affordably copy their unique color. “Egyptian blue” was made by mixing silica, lime, copper, and alkali, and it could be used on stone, wood, plaster, papyrus and canvas.

Turquoise on the other hand is the color of compassion, calmness and clarity. It balances and stabilizes the brain. It can help concentrate, to grow, and underline empathy. In contradiction it also symbolizes narcissism, stress and secrecy.  The earliest evidence of turquoise* gemstones comes from Ancient Egyptian tombs: They contain elaborate turquoise jewelry dating back to 3000 BCE. Egyptians set turquoise in gold necklaces as well as in rings, used it as inlay, and carved it into scarabs. Most notably, King Tut’s iconic burial mask was extravagantly adorned with turquoise. The oldest turquoise mines are in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. One sat near an ancient temple dedicated to Hathor, the Greek goddess of love and joy who was worshiped as a protector in the desert and as the patron saint of mining. Egyptians called turquoise “mefkat”, which meant “joy” and “delight.” -> Ancient Persians also decorated extensively with turquoise, often engraving it with Arabic script. Turquoise covered palace domes: For them, its sky-blue color represented heaven. (This later inspired the use of turquoise in buildings like the Taj Mahal). They also adorned their daggers and horses’ bridles with it as they believed it granted protection. They would also wear turquoise gemstone jewelry around their necks and in their turbans. -> Meanwhile, pre-Columbian Native Americans mined the turquoise stone throughout the present-day southwestern United States. Shamans used it in sacred ceremonies to commune with the spirit of the sky. -> Apache Indians believed that attaching turquoise to bows (and later, firearms) improved a hunter’s accuracy. -> Turquoise became valuable in Native American trade, which carried North American material toward South America. -> Consequently, Aztecs cherished turquoise for its protective power and used it on ceremonial masks, knives, and shields.

Picking the color blue is again a really nice callback to the OST. PT3 (Blue by Aalia) and highlights the depression (or "death") KSJ went through.

Turquoise shining onto LMS face fits perfectly. The negative aspects highlight his persona.

After the blue, the color switches to green and here it is when it gets really interesting- this might be an even longer historical excurse than the turquoise one:

First we should start by looking at the positive associations to the color: It means harmony, safety, growth, health, hope, prosperity and luck. It helps the brain to revitalize, to relax and encourages. Negative aspects associated with the color are judgment, materialism and inexperience. And obviously the most famous ones: Envy and jealousy. We all know the famous saying “Green with envy” The history of the color green dates back to the Ancient Egyptians. To produce the color they used green earth and malachite, while the Ancient Greeks used verdigris. -> Malachite contains a high percentage of copper which makes it highly poisonous to humans when inhaling the dust or eaten. Once its polished its not poisonous anymore. -> Verdigirs is a common name for any variety of poisonous copper salts and acetic acids. Green had a resurgence in art during the Impressionist movement due to advancements in green pigments and paints. 

The bold emerald green became popular in fashion in the 1800s, used for gloves and dresses- as well as wallpapers and furniture as well as found in candy, paper, toys, medicine and dye- it was also then it became an even more poisonous color. Its name varies from “Scheele's Green”, “Paris Green” to “Emerald Green” and “Schweinfurt Green”. And as it was probably already obvious, the color was loaded with copper arsenite which is one of the deadliest elements to have ever been found.  Scheele’s green (invented around the 1775 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele) was an artificial colorant that was made by heating up sodium carbonate, adding arsenious oxide, and stirring until the mixture was dissolved. Copper sulfate was then added as the final ingredient which ends up giving it its vibrant green color ->(Arsenic is a highly toxic substance that causes skin lesions, vomiting, diarrhea, and in some cases, cancer) As said as it was quite popular in the 1800’s countries were riddled in this substance. ->(It has also been rumored to have killed the famous Napoleon Bonaparte.) Schweinfurt green is the product of combining copper acetate with arsenic trioxide, producing copper acetoarsenite. The toxic pigment was commercially developed in 1814 by the Wilhelm Dye and White Lead Company in Schweinfurt, Germany. It too was used everywhere, from clothing and wallpaper to colorant for fake flowers and paint.

By 1860 more than 700 tons of the pigment had been produced in the country alone.

There are stories of factory workers, mainly those who worked with fashion, suffering acid burning and losing their hair and limbs, specifically their hands, after they had been in contact with the color for way too long. “In 1871, a lady who purchased a box of green-colored gloves at a well-known and respectable house was horrified to find that her hands broke out in blisters after putting them on. Unless the dye was sealed, sweaty palms could cause the dye to run onto the wearer’s skin. Other accounts from this era tell of babies dying in their nurseries after playing on green carpets or rubbing up against green wallpaper. One foreign dignitary even told Queen Victoria that the green wallpaper in Buckingham Palace had made him ill.” On November 20, 1861, Matilda Scheurer, a 19-year-old artificial flower maker, died of “accidental” poisoning: The formerly healthy, “good-looking” young woman worked for Mr. Bergeron in central London, along with a hundred other employees. She “fluffed” artificial leaves, dusting them with an attractive green powder that she inhaled with every breath and ate off her hands at each meal. The brilliant hue of this green pigment, which was used to colour dresses and hair ornaments, was achieved by mixing copper and highly toxic arsenic trioxide or “white arsenic” as it was known. The press described her death in grisly detail, and by all accounts, Scheurer’s final illness was horrible. She vomited green waters; the whites of her eyes had turned green, and she told her doctor that “everything she looked at was green.” In her final hours, she had convulsions every few minutes until she died, with “an expression of great anxiety” and foaming at the mouth, nose and eyes. An autopsy confirmed that her fingernails had turned a very pronounced green and the arsenic had reached her stomach, liver, and lungs. 

-> More on “Scheele’s Green” here 

Green so not only fits the scene in relation to envy and jealousy, but also to its poisonous attributions. It again highlights KSJ previous personality (harmony) and LMS' (envy)- and the horrible deathly history behind the color makes it even more clear what type of person he is.

After the green, the room is then engulfed in yellow as well as vermillion (explained above) again-

Following this, the last change of color we see is red.

Associated with action, strength, energy and passion red helps to stimulate and motivate the mind, to pay attention and stay cautious. Its positive aspects are courage, desire, sexuality and confidence whereas its negative associations are anger, danger, revenge and aggression. Throughout history, the color red has represented many things: life force, the divine to love, lust, and anger. Throughout the Middle Ages, red was a color of privilege in the Western world. For many cultures, it was the only color worthy enough to be used for social purposes (“In some languages, the word for red was the same as the word for color”). One of the first color developed for painting and dying, red became associated with war, wealth, and power in antiquity. In the Middle Ages, red had a religious significance, as it was seen as the color of the blood of Christ and the fires of Hell. It also had a secular meaning: The symbolism of love, glory, and beauty. During the Protestant Reformation, red began to decline in status and fell out of favor: It was viewed as indecent and immoral as it was linked to luxury and the excesses of the Catholic Church. After the French Revolution, red gained new respect as the color of progressive movements, freedom, new liberties and radical left-wing politics.

Personally, I love how they not only picked red as the last color to highlight the anger and pain of KSJ but also how it illuminates both him and KMC in a different shade. While KSJ has the more darker red, underlining the more calmer anger, KMC is drowned in bright hot red- underlining his anger which he definitely does NOT have under control (hes holding back so much in that scene and if it wasnt for the death penalty awaiting KSJ if LMS would die, he would have killed him without hesitation). Also, the religious importance is another nice callback to all the religious imagery we have seen throughout the drama.

(might also add my delusions to the post: the red symbolizes the love they still feel for each other)

Intentionally or not, the way and order how they picked and presented the colors directly mirrors each character, their personal journey and the development of their anger. The fact it started with more calmer/friendlier colors and slowly turned into more agressive ones is done just beautifully.

#국민사형투표 #the killing vote #tkv #kdrama

[stxrrynxghts]

Skin tones

Some of these are based off research, the others are mostly my own headcanons. Wherever required, I shall try to give an explanation. There are some categories here:

"Krishna" tone: aka the dusky one, also called "Saawla rang"

Dark but not that dark: this tone is lighter than the 1st, but still dusky

Wheatish: not fair, not dark

Molten gold: In my terms, this complexion is fair, but with a slightly yellowish/golden tint

Rosy: This shade is fair too, but but has a milky and pinkish shade.

The exceptions: This one is kind of a surprise, idk where to include the ones present in this category

1. Krishna tone: Satyavati, Krishna, Arjun, Draupadi, Pradyumna, Shrutakarma

These ppl are here as they are clearly mentioned to have this skin tone. Sorry if I miss out anyone, do remind me, but these are the only ones who I can recall. Satyavati is probably a shade darker than the others, as one of her names is "Kali". Pradyumna's tone is not specified as per my knowledge, but he is said to look insanely similar to Krishna, so much that ppl mistook him for Krishna, he probably had the same skin tone. Shrutakarma is kinda obvious, both his parents are here, most likely he had the exact tone as them.

2. Dark but not dusky tone: Nakul, Yudhishthira, Kunti, Dhritrashtra, Bhishma, Shakuni, Shrutasena, Sutasoma

IDK, just felt that these ppl would fit. Kunti having a slightly dark tone suits, since Arjun needs to inherit that from somewhere.

3. Wheatish: Sahadeva, Ashwatthama, Drona, Duryodhana, Dushasana, Dhrishtadyumna, Satyaki

I always felt that Dhri must have had a lighter tone than Drau, so I put him here. Dury and Dushy are here because I headcanon them being similar in looks. Sahadeva is here so that Nakul cannot confuse others about their looks-

4. Molten gold: Subhadra, Madri, Gandhari, Duhshala, Vikarna, Amba, Ambika, Ambalika, Rukmini, Shatanika

If you see the statues at Jagannath Puri, Subhadra is colored yellow, so doesn't she suit this tone? IDK how to explain Molten gold and rosy, but it is def not the jaundice/cold type of fair, pls. The rest, idk why I just put them here, except Rukmini, she is Lakshmi, ofc her complexion is "golden".

5. Rosy: Balarama, Prativindhya, Uttara, Iravan

This one is so short, because I just could not think of anymore ppl. Balarama is clearly the fairest of his siblings, every single painting/Jagannath statue has him with white as his skin tone. Just imagine these ppls cheeks turning red just by a tiny pull-

6. The exceptions: Pandu, Karna, Abhimanyu

Ok so, now, for them, I shall be specific. All of these characters are most probably fair, but their complexion does not fit in any given category. Pandu is more yellow than molten gold, due to the jaundice.

Karna, IMO, had a molten gold complexion, but kinda like...the sun? I feel he had brownish hair, and very light skin, as if the sun's rays had hit him, if yk what I am trying to say- He is after all, sun's son.

Abhimanyu's complexion is rather specific: moon-like. WTF exactly is moon-like, is beyond me. Yes, in Sanskrit, it is called "Shashi-varna" or "Chandra-varna". Various ppl have been termed as this, like Ganesha and Krishna, but they are on the opposite sides regarding complexions.

There is a term called "as fair as the moon" used in various romantic literary works. Moon=fair has always been the context, mostly. Chandra Deva himself is always drawn as fair, unlike Shiva, Vishnu etc. I understood, that Abhimanyu had a fair complexion, but with a moon-like glow. So, probably, Karna and Abhimanyu's case is similar, but with context of the sun and moon respectively.

I hope I did not offend anyone, sorry If I did, it was not my intention.

#mahabharat #mahabharata #headcanon #abhimanyu #arjun #uttara #subhadra #krishna #draupadi #upapandavas #balarama #satyavati #karna #duryodhana

[clever-fox-studios]

Chapter 5: Cooperation

This one's long.

“Where are you going?” Frantic, Sun strode after his brother quickly, his lengthy legs crossing the room in a few steps, however he was just slightly too late to grab the hem of Moon’s shirt as he turned the corner. It was abnormal for either of them to ignore the other, however the gangly, gold robot had seen this happen twice before where his beloved brother seemed to tune him out entirely in pursuit of some unknown goal. Most recently, it was during their attempt to flee–-yet he still gave words of encouragement when Sun faltered or tried to slow down. Before that, his last true indifferent silence…

Sun shook his head, unwilling to think back to that place just yet. To that woman.

He’d stopped Moon then from doing what he felt was a very awful thing to her for his sake, but this time the sharp, icy dig in his heart was more manageable. Whatever this intent was, Sun couldn’t–-wouldn’t-–let his brother act on it. Stumbling through the narrow hall after the navy robot, Sun reached out again, catching the edge of the flowing shirt Moon had between his fingers finally. Not that it mattered, as Moon came to a sudden stop on the patio. Already in motion, Sun walked right into him, though it didn’t seem to bother Moon in the slightest. Despite both being made with elegance and grace at their core, Moon was always the more balanced of them, rarely missing a step and never easy to knock over–-not to say Sun himself was wobbly or poorly coordinated, there was just something… else to how Moon carried himself that almost made Sun jealous at times. Yet this lack of eerie grace didn’t spare him the majority of attention he’d received while Moon simply skirted the edges of the spotlight.

To this day, Sun still didn’t understand the disproportionate favor those people-–the guests-–gave him.

Trying once more to get Moon’s attention, Sun opened his mouth yet he caught the line of sight in Moon’s gaze where it beamed into the front yard. Following it-–ignoring how miniscule Moon’s irises appeared with this laser intent in them–-he saw the human, Jenn, doing some sort of motions. Her pets–-family?--were with her, the canine leaping excitedly over the grass and the avian circling low, dipping close to her position before soaring back up-–it dropped something that Jenn caught, testing its weight. The pair watched for a second more as she seemed to toss something into the underbrush, the canine taking off after it with a yip.

Once the mis-matched bot was clear of her, Jenn unfolded the thing the bird had given her, revealing it was bound to a length of cord. Swinging it in a circle once-–twice-–on the third count, she let it go, sending the bundle soaring into the sky. In a flash, the avian was after it, all gold and copper flashes under the calm yellow of the aurora. It appeared they were playing together, which was rather endearing for Sun to see, but it didn’t seem to dissuade Moon from his course any longer than it took to assess she was unarmed and undefended.

“Moon!” Sun pleaded when his brother started moving again, but he knew it would be ignored, his steps quick to cover any length of distance Moon’s pace attempted to put between them.

However, this time Moon did speak. To Jenn. “You .”

Voice all splinters and venom, it was hard to ignore, Sun’s stride even faltering on the stairs as he shuddered. Jenn took notice as well, though she didn’t seem the slightest bit perturbed by his tone or gaze-–was it possible this feeling was purely on Sun’s part? That he was making up the feeling of hateful intent out of worry?

Rukbat crashed through the bushes, toy in his jaws, but his playful joy had been replaced as he crossed the gap, ears alerted and tail stiff. The canine placed itself between his master and the threat, teeth bared around the round ball in his mouth, prepared to engage at the slightest provocation.

He wasn't making it up then.

Whimpering slightly, Sun nearly jogged to make it to his brother, pulling at his arm and shirt to get him to stop his death march. “Moon! Please!”

A shudder ran through Moon’s body as he came to a halt, but he didn’t give in to acknowledge Sun’s pleading with a turn of the head, simply continuing with his accusation, tone a little less savage. “We need to talk.” She simply looked at him, unbothered, as her avian descended to her shoulder with wings spread protectively. “What did you do to my memories?”

Prickles danced up Sun’s arms, a sinking feeling clogging his throat at the words. Oh no.

“I was wondering when you were going to ask about that,” Jenn replied simply, as if it wasn’t a major issue. This flippant tone almost made Moon move again, however Sun wrapped his arms around his brother’s shoulders to try and stop him.

A low growl rumbled in Moon’s chest, “Let me go.”

“No,” Sun rasped back, unwilling to allow whatever intrusive thoughts were urging Moon to act this way to do what they wanted–-not without a fight at least.

“Actually,” Jenn went on, either unaware of or masterfully ignoring their power struggle as she gave her bird’s chest a ruffle, “I wanted to ask you about that, too.”

The tension left so quickly it felt like it snapped. The pressure of trying to move forward that Sun had been fighting to pull back on just… left. Suddenly. Quiet and confused, Moon only managed a, “What?” as Sun dropped to his knees, sighing in relief. This seemed to finally get the dark one’s attention as he looked down, a bit surprised.

On the ground, Sun leaned a bit to one side, hands in his lap. “Thank goodness! You scared the synapses out of me!”

Jenn stared at them both, a flicker of concern in her eyes. “Was the fight you two had that bad?”

They both perked up at this, Moon glancing away as he realized he must have been louder than he thought if she’d heard him all the way out here. Blessedly, Sun answered so he didn’t have to, “No–-it wasn’t. It… I don’t know! Moon, what’s going on?”

Ah, draggit, Moon hissed to himself, taking a second to compose himself. “That's what I want to know.” Pointing a finger at Jenn accusingly, he heard Rukbat growl, the ball dropping to the grass as the canine licks its jowls. “What do you mean you ‘wanted to ask’? You knew about the error?”

Brow quirked, she fired back, “You realize I’m the one who brought you back online, right? Of course I knew.”

Gaze narrowing, Moon pressed, “Then of course the idea of those errors being your doing makes sense, right?”

“It does.” Her nonchalance was bothering him. Deeply. “I can explain what I saw if you let me talk.”

“Please do.” Trying to keep his focus on the human as she sauntered around her yard, Stellaris guardians never far from her, he held his hand out to help Sun get to his feet, feeling his brother squeeze his hand cautiously. He squeezed back gently, unwilling to look his brother in the eye when he knew it was only full of worry, being well aware of the fact he had almost done it again. Cold, calculated, murderous intent fueling him to commit one of the worst sins a robot could.

He almost killed a human with no due cause.

Or at least, he’d wanted to. Thank the aurora her return statement had caught him so off guard he’d snapped out of it-–he’d been so hopeful she’d been the perpetrator that the idea she was just as curious and confused by his system error as he was hadn’t occurred to him until just then. Granted, it could be a facade, but they were getting somewhere. Hopefully.

Jenn plopped onto the grass, getting herself comfortable with her companions huddled close to her, making warning grunts and growls if the boys moved too much in any way they didn’t like; following her example, they both dropped gracefully into sitting positions, Sun taking to scratching the back of his hand anxiously as he waited for the sinking feeling to pan out into what he was afraid to hear. Blue eyes skipping over them for a moment, he couldn’t be sure if she’d noticed his nerves or if she’d acknowledge it if she did. “When you two… ‘arrived’,” she made little finger quotes, “you were banged up pretty badly. Honestly, I’m surprised this one was even online at all.” Jerked her thumb toward Sun, the brothers shared a confused look.

“You were still online?” Moon asked quietly, only to get a shrug in response.

“Genuinely, I’m not…” Sun’s teal eyes flickered a bit as he pulled up the memories from before booting up, brow furrowed. Literal static and whirls of color made up a good portion of the moments–-hours?--leading up to their awakening in the white room, with only vague flashes of sensible things in between. He saw Moon briefly, the sky, a rush of ground as it accelerated at him–-

A vague, blurry shape that almost resembled a human behind his ‘low power’ warning.

“I…” he finally continued, blinking himself back to the present, “... guess I was. For a minute or so.”

“Believe me,” Jenn said, drawing their focus back to her, hand petting Rukbat between the ears, “I know you were.” Tapping her cheek below her eye, she added, “Messed this thing up pretty bad in the crash.” Absently, Sun reached for his own eye, fingertips tracing the shape of his face mold.

“Crash?” Moon pondered, seeing Sun touch his face at the corner of his eye.

Lips pursed, Jenn pointed upward and behind her head; they followed her finger, spying the gap in the canopy fairly quickly that they, presumably, made when they fell.

Hand rubbing over his chest, Moon felt she wasn’t lying, but more curiously he thought he felt a dull ache in his shell despite there being nothing there-–as if his body remembered the pain of hitting the ground even after the damage had been fixed. “Why did you repair us?” The words came out without him genuinely considering speaking them, but he didn't want to stop himself either. Knowing what transpired was the only sense of comfort he was giving himself for the moment.

“Why not?”

Her answer was odd to him, yet as he studied her face and body language, he couldn’t find any tick or tell that she was hiding something by giving a non-answer.

She added, “I used my own stash of spares, by the way,” shifting in her spot slightly. “You’re welcome.”

Moon grunted with mild annoyance but Sun blurted a ‘thank you’ before he could say anything harsher.

“That’s actually something I found fascinating,” Jenn went on, taking the reins of the conversation for a moment. “For all intents and purposes, you both should have been scrap.” They both tensed.

Tersely, Moon cut in, “What do you mean by that?” shifting forward just a bit as Sun’s hand pressed him back warningly.

Using her hands to gesture enough that Aquila had to hop to the ground, Jenn indicated the aurora above. “Do you know what kind of manic freak out the aurora was having at the time? That was a class-D event-–the thakking aurora crested the gap at Crissen Ridge and warped all kinds of things for miles. Towers went down all across the region, and gravity wells made an absolute mess in Willwood-–”

Moon waved his hands, cutting her off, “Wait wait wait, hold on… where did the aurora touch down?”

Sun rubbed his forehead, feeling his system trying to ping his location history as he thought and only receiving small errors and unknowns for the trouble.

“Crissen Ridge,” she repeated, folding her arms expectantly.

“So where are we?”

There’s the other boot, Jenn thought to herself, having expected them to grow restless with the location mask she had on her tower and the various small system discrepancies it would cause them when their internal locator couldn't find a signal. “Definitely not there.”

“Well, clearly ,” Moon growled, not appreciating her dodgy answer.

“Look,” the human went on before he could begin to dig at her for it, “I have reasons for keeping my location inaccessible to strangers.” Both of them creased their brows. “But I can tell you, it’s not a short jaunt to the ridge. The center of the storm was practically right over my house, give or take half a mile, and everything at the edges got pulled toward it. Wherever you were when it hit, you were unlucky enough to get snatched by the vortex but somehow still lucky enough to survive in one piece, even after falling Azil-knows-how-far out of the sky afterwards. Props to your creator for not skimming on durability.”

The unsettling tingle began to creep again. For Moon, it was his arms and the back of his neck, and it had a feeling of incredulity in tow; there was no way they could have survived such a fall, no matter how well built they were. For Sun, it was in his core, forcing the feeling of everything running faster under the surface than it should be, causing his fingers to quiver at the tips.

“So, whatever miracle you managed to earn that saved your butts, you’d better be grateful it dropped you here and not right into the gap of the ridge.”

The way she spoke was too easy, too unbothered–it brought the nagging feeling out in Moon, even with the uneasy tingle taking up most of his attention. Through his teeth, he concluded, “You’re telling me we–-” he stiffly gestured at Sun, then himself and back, “--got sucked into an anomaly that should have torn us apart and dragged miles out into the wilderness, only to then fall hundreds of feet to the ground–-and didn’t break into a thousand pieces?”

“Yep,” she affirmed, gaze even. “I’m impressed, honestly, given you’re not exactly industrial-grade models.”

This they knew quite well. Despite the care and detail given to them, Sunrise and Moondrop Task Managers were not built for durability and damage management because they were not intended to deal with either. They were made to dance. To entertain their patron and whoever they brought around to watch, while occasionally fulfilling whatever whim was given to them. Once in a while, it was menial tasks-–chores, housework, things of that nature-–but most actions were in the favor of hospitality. To be witty, clever orators and gracious hosts wherever needed, when they weren’t leaving onlookers awestruck with their grace and flourish.

Never were these prized creations meant to come to harm or handle laborious tasks that would put them in danger, thus they were not made to endure such circumstances.

“Miracles aside,” Jenn’s voice went on, cutting through the confusion that fogged their minds somewhat at the sheer disbelief of her claim, “you still got banged up pretty good. Lucky for you, I know my way around a Re_Cycle system and have a bunch of parts just hanging out to grift pieces from.” There was a moment, Sun noticed, that felt like purposeful emphasis as Jenn stroked the underside of her canine’s chin-–in the way she dug her fingers into the metallic fluff of her bird’s chest that snapped together an answer to a question he hadn’t considered asking.

She had built those units.

It was obvious now that he thought of it, given her sharp warning about respecting them and the bizarre appearances they had that didn’t match anything found In Market that he knew of. She didn’t just live alone in the jungle with companions she brought along–-she had pieced them together with her own hands from parts she collected or found. The protectiveness she displayed in the kitchen made so much sense now, Sun was a little embarrassed he hadn’t considered it before. Then again, the ubiquity of robotics knowledge wasn’t something he–-nor any Task Manager–-were privy to know. Perhaps every child on the street knew how to dismantle and reassemble them and this was simply a common feat among the humans, though he doubted it a bit. For whatever reason, humans were extremely protective of anything to do with the components, assembly and manufacturing of Task Managers. Especially their etherylle recycling systems.

A genuinely curious and grateful, “Why?” escaped his mouth as he considered this revelation, which he hadn’t intended. Hand snapping to his mouth, Sun looked to his brother only to be met with a curious gaze that told him Moon had been wondering the same thing.

“Why, what?” Jenn answered back, taking him off guard with how gentle her own voice was.

Sun dared for a moment to look her directly in the eye–-he’d been avoiding it out of polite habit until now, a bit afraid to see the cool indifference he’d been growing accustomed to staring back at him–-and found a softness only glimpsed once prior. The Stardusts that had given them network access had gotten such a look from her when they’d first appeared, her blue irises seeming less like the frigid depths of icy water she’d been showing them and more of a cottony blanket that promised comfort and warmth if he chose to pick it up. Such a gaze was unexpected, yet Sun felt a desperate desire to keep it-–to take whatever shelter that kindness offered and simply cocoon himself in it.

It was peaceful.

Then she blinked and it was gone, the chill returning and snapping him out of the dreamlike fantasy moment he taunted himself with like so many nights spent gazing at the sliver of Uls visible through his bedroom window, wishing he could go somewhere to see it better. Stumbling to articulate what he meant, Sun pursed his lips and tried again, “Why did you use your parts to fix us? Why fix us at all?”

“Why not?”

Moon rolled his eyes, displeased at her non-answers, but Sun pondered it a moment longer, though it didn’t do much good. There was no answer he could come up with that felt satisfactory. “You… know what we are. What we’re… worth.” Faintly, Sun saw her brow arch. “You could have…” Absently, he rubbed his arm with his hand, unwilling to verbalize the fearful feeling he had in his circuits.

Thankfully, she took the hint and finished for him, though with a bit more detail than he’d been willing to admit to himself. “You’re wondering why I didn’t scrap you because you were powered off and couldn’t fight back?”

The golden robot felt his brother’s fingers curl slightly against the grass next to his leg. Carefully, he put his hand over Moon’s to try and ease him, feeling the tension lessen only a bit, nodding quietly to the human woman.

“Because it was the right thing to do.”

Moon’s posture shifted, his shoulders squaring a bit as he leaned forward, not understanding what she meant. “What?”

Jenn’s brow raised higher as if she didn’t understand why he was confused. “The right thing? You know, giving someone the benefit of the doubt, offering them aid when needed without asking, being a decent person?” Her expression changed to a furrowed pinch of her own, as if she were understanding some unknown thing that only made less sense as she considered it. “Don’t tell me you’ve never been given the benefit of the doubt before?”

Slowly, they shook their heads. Where they were from–-that place-–it was fairly cut and dry who was to blame for mistakes and who would be punished for it. She never had doubts about her decisions. Or regrets.

“Right.” Jenn rubbed her face a bit, expression unreadable for a moment. “Anyway…” She scratched her forehead, then dropped her hands into her lap with a sigh. “Not gonna lie, I’m a bit concerned now–-more than I already was.”

The warning look in Moon’s yellow eyes told her to keep it to herself.

“But that’s not my business. After getting you guys fixed up, you both needed a charge, so while that was happening I ran some diagnostics on you both, just to make sure there was no lingering damage or programming errors that a quick solder couldn’t fix. You” she nodded at Sun, “were pretty fine. Couple of dents and scratches, the eye,” she tapped her cheek absently, “which wasn’t even that bad, it just got cracked and the liquid LED display cable came loose. The pins were thakked so I gutted a spare and swapped them out. Anything else was the same for both you. Joints out of alignment, wires fried or frayed, some…” She made a gesture of uncertainty. “There were dents. Quite a few dents. Especially you.” This time it was Moon who got the eye of acknowledgement as her hand circled her chest area. “Landed face-first and just thakked up this whole area.”

Moon’s chest heaved with a slow intake of breath at this, knowing that must have been at least partly why he thought it should ache but didn’t.

Beside him, Sun murmured, “Can we please stop using vulgar language?” to himself.

Jenn’s eyes flicked to the uncomfortable bot, hearing him. “My bad.”

Sun’s cheeks flushed as he realized he’d spoken and been heard.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” the darker brother said, trying to keep to the topic. He felt she was getting sidetracked a bit too much.

“See,” she replied immediately, changing back with little provocation while supporting her elbow on one knee, “that’s the thing. I saw those errors right away, before running the system check, meaning they’d been queued for something that happened prior to me getting into your head.” Moon made a face at her phrasing. “At first I thought the anomaly had done it, but when I saw goldie here was fine in that department,” Sun tilted his head at the nickname, “it got me wondering if it was something else.”

“Was it?” A tint of desperation clung to Moon’s voice.

She shrugged. “I’d love to tell you if you’d let me.”

Moon’s eyes darted around like he was searching for the answer, baffled. “Do you not know already?”

“You were unconscious,” she replied rhetorically, “I wasn’t gonna go rooting around in your personal business without your consent like that. I was waiting for you to feel like letting me check it out when you were ready.”

The pair, to their credit, kept themselves together rather well, however they couldn't help the shock and shared question she presented them: since when did a human need consent to dig through a robot's mind? Especially when they were already unable to argue? Nevermind her use of the term ‘unconscious’--not ‘powered off’. Whiplash would be accurate to describe how they felt for a moment as they processed this small exchange, each filing it away for later review because what the halt–-

“Yes, I would very much like to know what caused that error,” Moon managed, voice tight as he fought the urge to decline out of self-preservation. Jenn opened her mouth to say something but he cut her off, adding, “But I am staying awake for it.”

“Oh, yeah sure.”

Part of him had hoped for insistence he be powered off, to push for him to be helpless while she accessed anything she wanted and Sun was left defenseless, as he knew his kind-hearted brother couldn’t bring himself to inflict harm, even in defense of himself. If he could-–Moon stopped the thought immediately. It wasn’t Sun’s fault. This… human was just completely throwing him off every time he thought he knew what to expect and it was making him twitchy.

“It’s probably going to itch.”

Jenn’s quip didn’t bother him, feeling that it was a well-meant warning that being awake for this endeavor was going to be uncomfortable, but it would be tolerable if it meant having any chance at getting this awful, nagging feeling to stop. Pulling his knees to his chest, Moon relaxed for a moment in thought as the human rose and walked off to grab… something from the other side of the yard. He didn’t try to look, too busy pondering their talk so far and hoping he could recall something about what caused the errors.

But it only got him a sharp twang in his head as the error repeated, tailed by ‘file inaccessible’ and other such notes about the gaps he’d already seen a dozen times by now.

Sun was the one to watch the human putter about, her companions fanning out into the yard but never leaving sight of them as she entered another, separate block of white metal. He hadn’t noticed it before while looking around but he could tell it was far more advanced than the room they’d been in, if that could even be considered a room. Whatever was inside, he couldn’t fathom, but the least he could do was mull over the last few minutes quietly while she wasn't there. Faintly, a grin ticked the edges of his mouth while he replayed her explanation-–she’d been gesturing with her hands and moving about in a way that he could only explain as cute; previously, she’d been stiff, guarded, with her hands occupied or held in place but this was lively and personable. Clearly, she wasn’t overthinking what she said, lending a sense of honesty to her words that he hoped Moon appreciated.

Then the sinking feeling came back, dragging everything down, even his shoulders. Please, he begged quietly, looking up to the gap in the trees overhead where the aurora danced peacefully, please don’t let it be that. Be something else. Something we can fix. Sun’s teal gaze remained on the lights of the sky, pleading, until the grass rustled with steps, Jenn returning with a handful of cables, some kind of headband and a small box in her hands, none of which either of them recognized.

“You sure you’re ready, sourpuss?” she mused, seeming far more enthusiastic now that she’d been given permission to explore Moon’s inner mechanics.

The energy was almost off-putting in a way but Moon sat up and shuffled to place his back to them, legs crossed and eyes closed, prepared for the worst. He’d tolerate a rude nickname if it meant settling this ordeal once and for all. “My memories aren’t going to magically come back if I wait, so I’m as ready as I can be.”

Setting the stuff on the ground, the brothers weren’t terribly surprised to see the colorful blurs of Twii and Laa appear as if summoned by an invisible command, their chirps of curiosity almost soothing. “Perfect timing, girls,” Jenn greeted them, her mouth playing at a smile while she placed the headband over her skull, a pair of blue sound pads on either side that firmly sat over her ears, white decals perched on the back side that vaguely resembled a butterfly if one squinted a bit.

Moon took a steadying breath as he heard them shuffling around at his back, trying not to let worry diffuse his determination. It was a struggle, but he would dare to trust this human just long enough to get answers. He had to. Sun met his gaze with what he could only think was concern, so he offered a tight smile, trying to reassure his brother things would be fine. Weakly, Sun smiled back, gaze going to the ground until he was addressed by Jenn.

“Alright, big guy,” she said with some amount of levity, placing the box on the ground between them with the cables strewn about, “sit still. I’m going to need your help.”

Sun stared a moment as the tiny twins flitted to his shoulders, sitting neatly. “I–-my help?”

Moon glanced over his shoulder suspiciously.

“Yep,” she went on, sorting the cables out while plugging them into the box on the ground. “I guarantee his system has all kinds of failsafes in it so I’m gonna need you to help bypass them.”

“I… what?”

Jenn held up a braided fiber optic cable in one hand, a similar one in her other, staring at him meaningfully.

“Oh, no,” Moon started, turning slightly, “you are not–”

She snapped, “Sh,” at him, making him stumble.

He tried again, eyes darting to the Stardusts on Sun’s shoulders. “Can’t your–”

She seemed to notice this and shushed him again, frowning. “Yes, sort of. They’re going to be helping out, don’t worry, but this isn’t just a file transfer. If I have to do a full system recovery they’ll help provide the extra processing power we need.”

“Sun doesn’t–”

“He either helps out or I have to manually pick through your system and that could mean hours of sitting here with your brain itching so shut it. I know what I’m doing.”

That’s exactly what I’m worried about, he fumed to himself, going back to his idle position.

“Oh,” Jenn mused while sorting her cables out, “and keep your intrusive thoughts under control. I’ll be able to see them.”

That was not reassuring.

Jenn noticed the worry and curiosity in Sun’s eyes as she slid over to him on her knees, his hand lightly clutching the cable end like it was a snake he didn’t want to be holding. “Don’t worry,” she soothed, surprising him with the same amount of gentleness he’d seen in her gaze before. “I won’t hurt him, or you.”

He wanted to believe her. Desperately.

With soft fingers, she touched the side of Sun’s head where his auditory sensor disk was, getting him to flinch just a bit-–no one was supposed to touch that, it was delicate! Just as quickly as he flinched, causing Laa to lose her place and chirp begrudgingly from where she clung to his shirt front, the backs of Jenn’s fingers stroked his jaw and she murmured, “Sh, it’s alright, I’m sorry,” as if comforting a scared animal. Reluctantly, Sun had to admit to himself it was actually working, the rhythmic movement keeping him grounded somewhere in the recesses of his mind so he wouldn’t pull too far away. She kept speaking, explaining what she was doing as she was doing it in a low, humming tone that might have lulled him to sleep if he hadn’t been so tense otherwise. “It’s just me. I’m going to touch your haptic ring again, alright?” Nodding faintly, Sun kept still as her fingers made contact, tracing a precise pattern that he recognized only from what he felt was a deeply conditioned program memory. “I’m only opening this side, alright? That’s all we need. It’s going to tickle a bit,” a faint hiss of air told him the seams were unsealed, panels pulling in on themselves and separating to allow access to the most vulnerable part of himself; the space where a brain would be in a human was filled with light and the mysterious mechanical lifesblood–-etherylle–-swirling and flowing between the modules and components that made up his mind. Sun’s entire being, contained in parts so precise and advanced in make and design that the schematics were supposedly guarded with the ferocity of a mother corza protecting her kits, to keep all but the most skilled of mechanics and programmers from gaining access to their secrets-–and now he was exposed to the elements and aurora, open to whatever the human deemed necessary for her task.

Yet, somehow, he didn’t feel afraid. Tense for the coming endeavor certainly, but not afraid. The gentleness of her voice and care for his comfort had, somehow, put him at ease enough to trust he was in no danger of being damaged.

Moon would undoubtedly berate him for that if he found out. The thought made Sun grin ever so faintly to himself.

Sun heard Jenn’s voice catch in a sigh as the components became visible before he felt her fingers on his wrist, distractedly plucking the cable out of his grip. “Wow…” she breathed, eyes caught in the pattern of brilliant fluid and slowly blinking connections that comprised the ‘brain’ of Sun, almost forgetting what she was doing. “Beautiful…” Cheeks reddening upon hearing herself, she snapped out of her trance and found the spot she thought she needed, unaware he was also flush from her compliment. “Um… there, I’m plugging it in now.” A second to process, then a click.

A shiver ran across Sun’s neck and arm as the cable popped into place, a little, “Woo!” escaping him that only served to darken his already blushing face. “That–-that certainly does tickle!”

“Told you.” Jenn slid back, dragging the braided cord between her fingers to the box to ensure it was plugged in correctly before picking up the other one and scooting closer to Moon, who had been watching the entire time with an even but intense expression. “Your turn.”

He stared a moment longer before casting a quick look to Sun to ensure he was alright, straightening out as she shuffled behind him. “Be quick.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jenn snipped, rolling her eyes despite him being unable to see it. “Alright, I’m–”

“You don’t need to narrate, I already know what you’re doing.”

Eyebrows furrowed, Jenn huffed, putting the cable between her teeth and reaching to either side of Moon’s head. Fine, she said to herself, then don’t move. With practiced ease, she activated both halves of Moon’s cranial shell, doing her best not to get distracted by the intricate detail inside–-and failing slightly as she dropped the cable into her hand. “Incredible…”

Moon thought to make a remark about her awe but felt fingers in places he wasn’t used to and tensed, voice catching in his throat as a zing snapped through him.

“This is going to tickle.”

It was a second late, purposefully so, he felt, but didn’t want to risk being snarky now that he had something plugged into the one part of him he couldn’t risk more damage to. Her hands returned a second time, in a slightly different spot, followed by a smaller pop of something connecting; the accompanying sensation was a bloom of warmth that tingled down his neck and into his face, nearly getting a shudder out of him. “What was that?” he asked in a measured tone.

Sitting back, Jenn got comfortable on the grass before powering on the box. “That was so I could connect my visor’s optics.”

“Why?”

Sun watched the human activate her headband, an array of light spots dancing across her head as a visor, tinted blue with a half-mirror coating, formed almost from nothing. Micro-storage nanobots were something he’d heard of and seen before, but finding them out here in the possession of a–-for lack of a better term, rural-–stranger was unexpected.

“How else do you expect me to do this?” she asked as if it was the most obvious thing.

“You’re a V-programmer?” Sun wondered aloud, Moon’s shoulders squaring.

Acknowledging his revelation with, “Ah, you’re familiar with the method?” Jenn’s lips formed a half-grin from where they were visible under the visor lens.

Butting in, Moon asked, “Excuse me, when were you going to tell us that?”

“You didn’t ask,” she cut back, her helm flickering with incomprehensible strings of data and readings as her arm began to emit a blue light that matched the pattern dancing across the HUD. “Now hush, I’m gonna start. When I need you, sunshine, you’ll know.”

Nodding, the pair braced for whatever came next, both praying once more that this would work out.

Rolling her shoulders and shaking out her hands to relax them, Jenn turned to focus on the screen before her eyes with the small prompt that sat in the middle of her field of view:

[Connect to Network Hub?]

Using her robotic arm as a cusor, Jenn reached out and gesture-pressed the prompt.

//Connecting to Network Hub/J%B-B-W_hud%23045.sys/

…

/Connected/

Simultaneously, the visor darkened, blocking out external distractions as Sun and Moon both felt their own fields of view dim, prompts cycling rapidly as their internal HUDs overlaid themselves onto their active external vision; Moon gritted his teeth through it at first, feeling a bizarre loss of direction for a moment that slowly ebbed away, but Sun wobbled a bit. If he had to guess, he felt nauseous, if ever there were a thing like that for robots, but that too faded after a moment.

Through this alien experience, Jenn spoke, now a focused and professional tone that kept them aware of the moment. “Connection established. Syncing peripheries.”

The commands blinked to the brothers and passed as they both agreed without hesitation to the sync request. Oddly enough, it was almost as if they could feel each other present in the network–-plus others. Sitting comfortably in their chosen spots once more, Twii and Laa had also patched in, ready to offer their assistance; the pair of tiny companions had wireless access just the same as Jenn’s visor–-likely due to having full network permissions, if Moon had to guess, while they were stuck with a wired connection. “Alright, all set,” she said just as they all completed the cycle. “Requesting permission to access the system. First hurdle, sunshine. Even if he lets me in, the security will try to confirm the admin key so I need you to use your access to bypass it.”

“I can do that?” Sun asked worriedly.

“You can,” she assured, though she kept the how and why to herself.

//System access pending/UNVERIFIED//

>Unknown user detected_

>>Verify?

“That’s you, sunshine,” Jenn said quickly, making Sun jump.

“U-Um, alright.” The prompt was there, he felt it, but what to do wasn’t something he was sure about.

However, there wasn’t time to wonder; he made this mess and he needed to help clean it up.

Reaching out with his thoughts, Sun felt the prickle of the prompt against his processing node–-the sensations were very new and rather distracting, it was no wonder bots were offline during maintenance–-his system latching onto and identifying it as an access point to Moon’s main hub. Strings of code flickered by, some he thought he recognized, others he only felt were familiar in passing, but he only needed one. Offering himself to the prompt, there was a crackle-–a scratch as something was pulled from him before he could fully prepare himself.

The dark navy and cerulean wall behind the prompt glittered and shimmered with orange and yellow, giving away as the notes of his ID spread through the security system, causing it to admit him without fuss.

“Perfect,” Jenn’s voice said, feeling muffled as if she were in another room. Stepping back from the bizarre sensory experience of the VR connection, Sun thought he caught a glimpse of Jenn passing him, little more than a twist of blue light–-he was too slow to lean back in and see, as she entered Moon’s core and vanished from his awareness.

The invasiveness was beginning to eat away at Sun’s guilty conscience. “This is…”

Moon made a noise like something had crawled up his back, interrupting. “What the halt–”

“It’s just me,” Jenn assured, concentrating.

Steadying himself, Sun dismissed the sensation of breaching every level of privacy imaginable. It’s for the best, he told himself, eyes fixed on watching Jenn gesture and tap the air with her synthetic fingers against something in her HUD that he couldn’t see. 

“What is?” He hadn’t expected her to acknowledge him, making him jump.

“What?” Moon followed up, similarly unprepared.

“Not you.” Head turning slightly, Sun realized Jenn was indicating she meant him. “What did you say? It’s what?”

Stuttering, Sun tried to play dumb, “I-I didn’t–”

“He didn’t say anything,” Moon insisted for him.

Jenn pondered a moment. “Ah. Better keep your thoughts in check, sunshine, remember I said I could hear them in here?”

Moon snorted, “I thought that was just me?”

“Anyone on the network is subject to visibility.”

“Oh, lovely.”

“The sarcasm is unnecessary,” the human snapped, turning back to her task, which is what Moon had wanted. Sun fidgeted with his fingertips, a bit embarrassed. “It’s a shame your personality isn’t reflective of your mind.”

Moon tensed and untensed his shoulders, trying to shake the strange pressure and awareness of Jenn being in his programming. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Cuz it’s kind of nice in here but you’re prickly and rude.”

“I’m rude?!” the navy bot blurted indignantly as Sun quivered with a laugh that was trying to sneak out.

“So snarky, crinkly and rough.” Jenn bit her lip to keep from grinning, unable to help herself; the teasing served two purposes as she pulled her virtual self through the confines of Moon’s inner world, the endless twisting corridors being something she expected–-excessive, but expected. All around her the ‘walls’ shifted in coordinated, blocky patterns, opening and closing archways and door frames as she passed in an effort to make them inaccessible. Defense mechanism, she observed, knowing this had to be subconscious on his part; some part of him resisted her presence and fought to keep her contained and out of his-–well, everything. Alright, so definitely a case for awareness. Sleepers don’t behave this way.

Recounting to herself, Jenn thought back to a time before the now–-before the twins, the house, the Guild-–she knew this pattern of reactive but unwanted mental protection was a hallmark warned about in the field of assistant programming; aware, ‘awakened’ AI and standard AI had numerous tells to differentiate them. Some were obvious, such as refusal of a given order, others more subtle like moments of self-reflection–-then there’s the invisible. Under the right circumstances, with the right amount of time, a sufficiently powerful processor with well-maintained etherylle levels could spontaneously develop something ‘more’ within itself. How? No one knew for sure, but this active ‘inner world’ phenomenon was well documented as a key identifier for such traits.

It was why V-programming evolved from a scattered hobby to a regulated career path. To enter the inner world of an awakened AI was analogous to brain surgery, and absolutely necessary to provide aid to those with full faculty over themselves. While truly skilled programmers could work with aware AI manually, most met resistance from this exact phenomenon–-Jenn touched one of the shifting walls lightly, unsurprised when it buckled, blocks coming together swiftly to form a wall that followed her hand until she backed off, letting them slowly drift back to their regular pattern. Like the human mind trying to protect itself, an AI with a subconscious couldn’t help their reactivity as their minds tried to preserve themselves against the foreign influence of a programmer or hacker. V-programmers were trained to handle such circumstances with precision, accuracy and care.

A soft, single laugh caught in Jenn’s throat as she continued to follow the winding corridor, taking in the dark, ocean-like swirl of blues and blacks that made up the blocky material. She certainly wasn’t going to let him know she never quite finished training-–that his system was technically well beyond her practical skill level. Some things are best kept to oneself and improvising was her strong suit anyway.

“What’s so funny?”

The voice was both distant and everywhere, muffled yet loud–-still identifiable as Moon. Jenn turned down her headphone’s volume slightly and ignored him, focus caught in an array of stringy yellow lights that flowed and bobbed overhead, heading toward somewhere in particular. Mumbling aloud, “There we go,” Jenn followed them, turning a hard corner when they disappeared from view.

In the material plane, Moon’s vision fought him, trying to focus on something outside while also attempting to turn inward to monitor the intruder. It was dizzying, edges blurring and resharpening in sporadic beats like a camera with no point to focus on. “Hey,” he reiterated, trying to get the human to respond, voice somewhere between wary and agitated.

“I think she’s busy,” came Sun’s faint response followed by the gentle touch of his hand on Moon’s shoulder. “Let her focus.”

“I wish I knew what she was laughing at,” he grumbled, squeezing one eye closed when it fully went offline for a second. “This is… weird.”

“It looks weird,” the golden robot assured, peering from the back of Moon’s head to each of the small twins on his shoulders who had blank expressions, presumably because they were doing something important with their owner. Sitting there wasn’t doing much good for his worries, but what else could he try? Sun picked at the grass absently, rolling it between his fingers before looking back to Jenn who was completely in the zone, hands moving about repetitively as if typing something, occasionally making some sort of gesture he could only guess about the purpose of, having tuned them out entirely for the time being. “How… does it feel?”

Thinking a moment, Moon adjusted his legs, holding onto his ankles just to have something to do with his hands. “It changes moment to moment, but it’s mostly a... pressure? Like something wedged where it shouldn’t be. It’s not painful, but I… swear I feel her moving around and it’s unsettling.”

Wincing, Sun rubbed the back of his hand. “It’s no wonder they said we should be offline for stuff like this.”

“Not that we ever needed it.”

Nodding despite Moon being unable to see it, Sun couldn’t recall a single time they were offline fully for any kind of maintenance. Then again, she was very keen on keeping them safe and in good condition. Broken things were apt to simply go in the trash, as few things of hers couldn’t be replaced easily with enough money or whining.

Negotiating, Sun corrected himself, using her word for her incessant pestering of her subordinates to get what she wanted.

“Yikes!”

Jenn’s sudden blurt gave both robots a fright, Sun fumbling to catch the twins when they fell from their perches–-they both expressed their displeasure at being disturbed, mewling at him before deciding the box on the ground was a safer seat for their work. Murmuring an apology, Sun leaned over to try to see Jenn’s eyes through her visor. Only his reflection stared back, warped by the curve of the material and tinted into an odd, greenish hue from the shade of blue the visor was and the light of the aurora above shining down on it.

Running out of patience, Moon half-shouted a, “What!” when she didn’t respond further, his system surging with a flare of panic he couldn’t keep back much longer.

After a moment, she managed to speak again. “Hey, uh… so when you try to access your memories and you get an error… what does it feel like?”

Caught off guard by the question, Moon only managed, “I’m sorry, what?” as he tried to figure out the connection between her random exclamations.

Jenn huffed, seemingly disappointed in his response. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” Her fingers flew through the air in a rapid series of motions before either brother could fully comprehend what was happening and what she was asking.

//COMMAND/TM_moon10300.sys/access%memory//

/MEMORY: TM-m_EC-FR_104567/234056.mem/

>>Accessing…

Moon shuddered, then buckled, catching himself on one hand as he let out a sound of pain. Jenn’s hands moved again, terminating the request immediately and letting him catch his breath.

Worried, Sun slid over immediately to help him right himself. “Moon, what…?”

The navy bot blinked a few times, focusing on the familiar gold and white patterns of his brother as he recalibrated. “That…” Words failed to come to him.

Affirmatively, Jenn spoke up to finish his statement, “Was definitely not normal. Memories shouldn’t cause pain like that, even if they’re corrupted.”

“Gee, really?” Moon snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Ignoring his tone, she pressed, “What kind of pain was it?”

“Are you serious–”

“Answer the question, bluebell, and stop trying to throw me out or I’m going to system lock you.”

Grabbing and squeezing Moon’s hand, Sun reached past his brother with his long arm and put his other hand on Jenn’s knee, making her jump slightly; this was getting overwhelming, especially when he couldn't even see what was going on to help. “Everyone!” he tried to say calmly, but it came out wavering and thick like he was holding back tears. “Please! This is stressful enough already, can we communicate like adults, please?” The extra emphasis on the second please was far firmer than the first, giving him some sound of authority over the ordeal that worked to make the pair relax just a bit, both muttering ‘sorry’ under their breaths.

After a moment, Moon answered the question. “It was… sharp, almost… burning.”

“Ah.” Jenn hummed to herself a moment as the pair waited expectantly for something. Anything. “Twii, Laa.”

The tiny computers roused from their trances and peeped.

“Run the following processes.”

Moon straightened a bit, “Hang on–”

But Jenn continued to ignore him, listing off a handful of codes neither brother knew. “Mannus-Senta-zeth-niner. Pres-Senta-acht-ohn–”

“What–”

“--Check peripheries for anomalies, and sweep the yard for me.”

Both brothers waited a beat for her to say anything else before Moon, now confused to the point of scared, shouted, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING??”

“Calm down !” she snapped back, reaching for her head as if in pain. “I’ll tell you in just a second, just STOP with the freak out! You’re going to eject me and cause more problems!”

Pulling him close, Sun did his best to calm Moon without disturbing the delicate cables and parts that were at risk of being damaged should he move too much. Radials flitting around his head, Sun pressed Moon’s cheek to his collar, one hand on his neck and the other across his back; he hummed quietly, a nonsense melody that helped him to measure his intake and output exhaust cycle. It wasn’t the most effective method of soothing the agitated blue robot, but it worked nonetheless, Sun’s rhythmic breathing and sound inducing an attempted synchronization within Moon–-an instinctive desire to remain in harmony.

From within the VR, Jenn watched the golden lights and flickers as they pulsed and crept into each corner of the labyrinth in time to Sun’s breathing pattern. For each wave of light that came, the blocks became less firm and orderly, drifting back into slow pathways and patterns that gave her more space to move; the defenses were certainly top notch, she felt, having descended on her before she could consider how to handle them, blocking her into one space and dragging her from where she’d been standing. Able to walk freely again, Jenn returned to that spot and looked up, concerned.

The wall with the memory code was burnt. A cavernous, black hole where the file construct should have been stood in its place, scuff marks criss-crossing the walls as if it were dragged out by force. It wasn’t the only one either-–various, seemingly random memories had similar wounds that got more and more frequent as she filed down the corridor, heading to the most recently dated section. That place was pure carnage.

While pink and purple lights joined the golden yellow one around her–-Twii and Laa doing as asked–-Jenn observed the damage while trying to not feel nauseous, grateful that odor wasn’t an issue in the VR as the whole area would likely smell burnt if so. Pondering to herself, This isn’t just a system error, she followed the damaged, glitching debris to the furthest side, keeping herself from trying to touch any of them by busying her hands with the prompt windows the twins gave her as they did their diagnostic sweeps. The external check while the brothers were offline before was extremely surface level, nothing that would cause their unconscious to act out or retain impressions from-–this delver was deeper, more thorough, and helped her to confirm the twisting suspicion building in her gut. Something ripped these memories kicking and screaming from their storage place.

The suspicious feeling she’d had since the pair arrived and she cracked them open to fix them was building back in full force, buzzing in her mind as she came to the end of the memory storage allocation zone.

Something was there that definitely shouldn’t be.

Tall, blacker than black and looming like a cliff over the rest of the construct, a block of impassable virtual defenses sat rooted in the metaphorical ground of the representation of Moon’s memory. A literal manifestation of its namesake. Something that shouldn’t be there; that did not belong to a standard Task Manager model–-something she knew very well, and hated that she did.

Silently, Jenn opened her command screen once more.

//COMMAND//

/RUN: J-BBW%check_sys_MAG307-EVR.exe/

>Processing…

“What was that?” Moon’s voice again, calmer.

Dismissively, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Excuse you.”

Taking a measured breath, Jenn backed away from the block of darkness, retreating from the corrupted memory area to gather her thoughts. “Well… I’ve got good news and bad news.”

The brothers waited, tense, but determined to remain calm. They had changed their seating positions to both face Jenn, who was still blacked out behind her visor and performing unknown gestures they’d long since given up on deciphering.

“Bad news? You do, in fact, have memory damage.”

Moon rolled his eyes.

“Like, severe. They aren’t just corrupted, they’re gone.”

A cold chill stilled them both; it took all of Sun’s self control to keep back the panic that followed behind his fearful acknowledgment of this fact.

“Good news.” Final pings were coming in from the sweeps the twins had done that all came up clear, which was a relief, but Jenn needed to wait for her last process to finish; confessing this fact would buy time, but it required her to be careful in her wording. “I know where they are.”

Quietly, Sun uttered, “What?” as Moon’s brow creased. “Aren’t they… gone?”

“Yeah, cuz they were yanked, but I know by what.”

They couldn't help the anticipation as they leaned forward.

Be cool, play dumb, Jenn told herself, making sure her voice was open and not suspicious. “You have a black box.”

It was an unfamiliar term to them, though Moon felt a bit perturbed by this. Something felt… unsurprising about this, yet he knew he didn’t know what that was. “And that is…?”

Jenn’s breath slowed as her back tensed slightly. Please don’t be lying about not knowing, she prayed, still waiting for the final ping. Distract them. “It's… how do I explain?” She purposefully made some hand gestures as she spoke, to try and keep their focus and push her honesty–-Jenn was well aware of her hand-talking habit and how to use it to her advantage as an indicator of genuineness. “It’s like a back up memory storage area designed to preserve things in the event of a critical shutdown. It’s very rare,” she added on quickly, trying to spin details in a way that wouldn’t alarm them, “but tends to pop up in high end models if their owners are concerned about their safety. It sort of takes a snapshot of your whole system to preserve for recovery, but can also focus on specific things. I think this one was supposed to copy your memories if you crashed–” Sun flinched, “-but the process got messed up.”

That was a lie, at least in part, but a necessary one to test their reactions. If the game was up, she could at least shut Moon down before he could do any damage–-but on the chance they truly didn’t know? There were a million variables at play, too many for her to consider right this moment, but she knew now for sure that they were absolutely not normal Task Managers. Not Quicksilver or Goldlight. Not even Nebula class. None of those models carried black boxes in them–-boxes designed to hide secrets and survive for collection.

None of them were made with military grade parts like that.

As if confirming her fear, the final ping came up on Jenn’s HUD.

[System unable to process command MAGNUS-EVER. Clearance not granted.]

Fear grabbed onto her gut with sharp claws and dragged her back to her body as she cleared the prompt and began to disengage, using everything in herself to remain calm. They had not acted on her knowledge, had not corrected her-–maybe, just maybe, they didn’t know.

Maybe.

Just maybe--

--it was only the Moondrop? Stupid as it was to consider, knowing how these things worked, Jenn couldn't help but pray that maybe, just maybe, this was a recon situation. But she had to confirm. She had to get to the binder in her sitting room–-it would tell her if the Sunrise was up to spec. There was no way they would go to such lengths just to get back at her… right?

A nervous laugh crept its way out of her mouth as Jenn disengaged the headset and was met with two pairs of curious eyes–-eyes that made her blood run cold despite the curiosity and concern in them. “More bad news,” she went on, covering her slip up, “I can’t fix it myself.” Their expressions fell with disbelief. “I don’t have the equipment I need to get into something like a black box here. But,” this was the bait, “I know a guy that does.”

A heartbeat passed.

Then another.

“Would they help us?”

Jenn took a slow breath, barely aware of the twins curling up against her neck as they finished their tasks and demanded praise and pets for it, having prepared for them to react to her claim with hostility–-violence, even. But this wasn’t that. Only genuine, desperate need to find a solution to their problem; that much was obvious from how the Moondrop had spoken. No sarcasm or spite, only a lingering hope for a resolution.

Yet what if that was exactly what they were waiting for?

‘... when conditions are met...’

The words buzzed in her head, a mental snippet of a memory from a news article–-no, a lecture? Not that either. Familiar, yet it felt a thousand years in the past and she was too wary to try and recall the specifics. All that mattered was that they were a threat only when the ‘right conditions’ were fulfilled.

Jenn had no idea what that could possibly be.

A decision had to be made. Quickly. Do I risk it or save my skin? Against her better judgment, Jenn felt her gaze drawn upward, over the trees to the yellow and green aurora meandering over the sky. If I’m right then this will be very bad for all of us, but if I’m wrong… The lights shimmered soothingly, a ripple dipping down randomly and turning purple at the edges. Feeling the tension easing, the human sighed. I’m taking that as a yes, she mused to the indifferent lights, deciding to gamble on being wrong.

If push came to shove, improvising was her strong suit.

“He might,” she finally said, looking back down where the pair had been watching her with deep anticipation but also a touch of fear for her answer. “Thing is, it’s a long journey there and you two are… sorely underprepared for it.”

Hope reignited, Sun sat forward, voice eager. “It doesn’t matter the distance. Can we prepare for it? Where is he?”

Jenn gestured for him to settle with her hand, halting the string of questions he seemed to have on standby. “Look, this entire thing is a mess and clearly something happened to you two that’s honestly really thakking suspicious.” The boys both dipped their heads guiltily. “I’m not going to pry into your personal lives, but I think the best thing for all of us right now is to chill out and get our heads on straight. I don’t know if there are any other issues to worry about from that magnetic storm that could cause problems on a long journey so, for all our sakes, we’re going to rest, relax and sort ourselves out. Got it?”

Squeezing his jaw shut against the insistence he felt bubble up, Moon nodded, knowing it was probably smart to do exactly that. Studying his brother’s reaction, Sun also kept his insistence to himself and only nodded.

“Good. Now answer me this, because I have an idea of what caused the crash that goofed up your system recovery but I need you to be honest about it.”

They both peered into Jenn’s bright blue eyes as they flicked between meeting their gazes, prepared for something they didn’t want to answer.

“Who tried to pull your tracking chip out?”

Moon stilled entirely, his field of vision darkening to a single point as he processed what she asked. “Tracking chip…?” His own voice sounded distant to him, mumbled together as he tried to get his mouth to work against the surging panic.

Tracking chip. Tracking chip–-tracker–-you were being tracked this entire time–-they know where you are-–idiot. You should have known, of course she would track you down!

Popping jolted him from his spiral. Moon blinked back to the present, seeing Jenn’s hand in front of his face as she snapped her fingers at him. “Hey. Look at me.” Hard, yellow eyes focused on hers. Her face. Blonde hair. Human. “Don’t worry about them.”

He blinked, unable to speak; probably for the best or he would have just shouted again.

Sun touched the back of his head–-then flinched as he realized it was bare, his components still exposed–-the words ‘tracking chip’ humming incessantly, trying to vibrate him off the edge of his self control into a fearful abyss of panic.

“I took the liberty of removing them while you were out. I assumed that you were running from something and being tracked remotely would kind of thakk that up–-plus I didn’t want the smoke so I pulled them myself. I have the stuff for that at least. Aquila took them far away from here so their last ping would be miles from us and had her drop them there.”

Moon settled only slightly knowing this, settling into confusion that this human would be willing to hide them so readily-–even if she benefited from it in some way. Sun was more resistant to this knowledge, the guilt washing over him without warning or preparation.

“But.”

Sun’s circuits wanted to jump out of his shell. Everything felt wrong inside him. Out of place.

“Yours,” Jenn pointed at Moon, “wasn’t secured, and given what happened to your brain I’m betting someone tried to yank it without the right tools and it corrupted your memory recovery feature when you crashed. Was it whoever you were running from?”

Moon’s head twitched in a half shake. “That wouldn’t make sense.” Yet he couldn't figure out who it could have been otherwise.

Quietly, barely louder than a breath, Sun spoke, unable to bear the guilt anymore. “Actually… that’s my fault.”

#security breach au #robot #security breach #fnaf oc #sundrop #moondrop #azil #free runner au #free runner moon #free runner sun #jenn&co #science fantasy #ao3 #fanfic #dca au

[imgeekgirlfan]

Renegada♱

Pairings:  Amado Carrillo Fuentes x f!reader(Latina Reader) x Walt Breslin  [From Narcos: Mexico TV Series]

Content Rating : Mature 18+  Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warning (AT YOUR OWN RISK)

Synopsis: You have to take on the role of a musician to infiltrate a restaurant filled with high-level international drug dealers.There, you meet Amado as expected, However, it seems that everything is not going according to the plan anymore.

AN : Just in case you're wondering, in this story, Pacho is the same person as in El Paraiso de las Pandillas. I imagine him as bisexual. (Please don't attack me; it's just my imagination and has no relevance to real individuals.)

I used to think that I wouldn't continue this fanfic, but because there are still people waiting to read it, I thought I would give it another try. However, if it doesn't really work out, I probably won't update it anymore. Thank you to everyone who has been following and reading it all along. I truly appreciate it.

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𝙍𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙙𝙖♱ 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩

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[1]ᅳ 𝐋𝐨𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐬 𝐝𝐞 𝐥𝐚 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐚 ✟

Havana, Cuba

1830(Military Time)

It has been over three hours since you sat and played the grand piano in the restaurant of the capital city. Your fingers ache from pressing down on the black and white keys as you continuously perform well-known classical pieces to entertain the sole guest here, who is seated at the large table in the middle of the restaurant.

A tall, dark-skinned man with an unruly beard and disheveled hair, always dressed in black and adorned with brand-name sunglasses hanging over his chest on the edge of his shirt

That is Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the target you've been waiting for.

You watch this man intently, alert and attentive. Since the mission began, this is the first time you have seen this man so closely. Close enough for you to shoot him dead without missing a beat.

But that's not the objective this time, and you're not playing the role of an assassin or a CIA agent. Here, you're just a "Camila," an ordinary female musician hired to provide some entertainment during an important meeting of the Latin American drug cartel.

"It's too long." Diego's voice crackles through the earpiece, sounding irritated. "Are you sure the intel is correct?"

It's not just him who feels irritated; you feel the same. "I risked my life to obtain this information. If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't be here," your words barely whispered, but the tone sounds like a shout

"I think this should be enough," says the voice that comes back, belonging to Waltz, with a Texan accent that is so familiar to you. "You find a way out, and then we'll discuss what to do next."

No way, you think, but you don't say it out loud.  You deliberately ignored that command.

Suddenly, your bare back under the yellow floral-patterned dress shivers as you notice three more individuals walking into the empty restaurant. They are dressed in vibrant, tailored suits, adorned with thick gold chains and expensive watches 'drug lord uniforms.' That's what Diego told you—the first rule of identifying suspicious individuals—and it proves very useful this time.

Those people are the most powerful drug lord syndicate in Colombia, called "Gentlemen of Cali" Today, they have appeared together, all three of them. You discreetly observe the two Rodríguez brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, They both seem like ordinary old men with no apparent threat. No one knows that beneath that façade, they are the heads of 'Cali Cartel' the most powerful drug cartel in Colombia, controlling over 90% of the cocaine market worldwide, ever since Pablo Escobar fell.

However, the most frightening person is Pacho Herrera, the second-in-command of the gang. He is still young, handsome, and charismatic, with a strong sexual appeal to both men and women (mostly men, as confirmed by one of the prostitutes who is your informant that Pacho is bisexual). His appearance is strikingly different from that of other drug dealers. The reason why this man often takes on the role of negotiating and bargaining for the gang's benefits is that Pacho is always able to fulfill his duties and responsibilities. He is clever, cunning, and ruthless.

Nevertheless, Pacho's relationship with Amado seems to be going well. As far as you have learned, Pacho greatly admires this Mexican drug dealer. Although it is uncertain whether their relationship is strictly professional or romantic, there is a high possibility that this negotiation will succeed without any issues.

Although you are sitting closest to them, you are still considered distant. There is no way for you to hear their conversation, but you can read their lips to some extent.

—I want to make an offer.

—What offer?"

—A transportation exchange with Cocaine and market sharing in America

—You want to compete with my gang?

—I don't want to compete, and what I'm doing will help your gang in America.

That's all you know, albeit not much. However, it's enough to confirm that these two gangs are indeed negotiating a drug trafficking agreement.

There was a tense whispering between the Rodríguez brothers before they abruptly stood up without touching the food on the table. They didn't look upset but rather seemed deeply engrossed in their thoughts about that proposal. As for Pacho, he remained seated at the table, continuing to sip his drink, and began to casually ask Amado, "How are you, friend?" while spraying empty words for several minutes before finally getting up and patting Amado on the back, saying, "Wait for a phone call tonight."

"What happened then?" asked Diego anxiously, but you didn't respond. At that moment, nothing else on that table could divert your attention from the remaining Amado.

Suddenly, he raised his face—the only moment you and he made eye contact without intending to. He smiled at you, and you felt an instant chill when you realized it was the most dangerous smile in both America and Mexico.

And the man slowly stood up before confidently walking towards you.

You stopped playing the piano immediately. The last note resonated in the air before it fell silent. One of your hands instinctively reached to the back, a familiar gesture, only to realize later that you hadn't brought your gun with you.

This was an unexpected situation for you, and the most unsettling part was that you had no idea of his intentions or what kind of danger might arise within the next few minutes.

Perhaps this plan leaked to Amado. Maybe you would die at his hands.

No matter how nervous you were, you tried to smile calmly back at him, the calmest you could be. Your heart pounded when he stopped right in front of you, closer than ever.

"You play the piano very well," was Amado's first sentence. "May I ask your name?"

"I'm Camila."

"And I'm Amado," he said, extending his hand. You shook hands, feeling like it was a dream, but the firm and rough palm confirmed it was real.

The man fell silent, contemplating something deeply in his heart. You didn't dare move again; you remained seated, still wary what was happening.

He must have a plan. That's what you're thinking right now

And Amado also had a plan for you, just not the kind you had imagined.

"I think I'll have to stay around here for a while. It would be good to have a friend with me. If you have no business and don't mind being my friend," he said,

You raised an eyebrow, almost letting your jaw drop.

You didn't react immediately. You knew what he wanted from you.

"Well, I'm just a musician. If you need..." You left a small gap for him to figure out. "I think you can contact some women from outside."

"No, no, not like that." Amado quickly waved his hand, looking surprised and chuckling at the same time. "I just want you to join me for a drink and sit with me as long as I stay here, that's all."

You blinked in astonishment, realizing that everything happening was beyond the mission and beyond expectations. No matter what, you have obtained what you want now, and you should leave as soon as you have the chance before anything bad happens.

But deep down, you also knew that this was an opportunity—a once-in-a-lifetime chance that might never come again.

You tried to smile again and chose to do the opposite of what you should do.

"Sure, why not, if you're paying"

You accept his offer

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

Inside the modified black van, loud conversations in Spanish resonated. Before Diego's face emerged from the van's window, he glanced at his boss, who was waiting outside with American officers, his expression not looking too good.

"We can't contact Y/N anymore, but we know she's with Amado now."

The deputy police chief, who had just finished smoking a cigarette, exhaled a puff of smoke before squinting at Diego. "What does it mean that She's with Amado? Did they catch her?"

"Nah, I think she chose to stay willingly." Diego took off his glasses, a rare occurrence unless he was feeling stressed. "That idiot lured her to drink, and she said yes!. I've invited her before, and she refused all the time. But now she chooses to go with that scumbag drug dealer without a second thought!”

Julio chuckled, He smirked before extending his hand to slap him on the back. "Because you're not as handsome as he is, little boy."

"I don't see what's so funny." Walt spoke up, leaning against the van door with a tense expression: "She's in danger, and we need to get her out of there quickly."

"Calm down, White Boy." Julio's voice remained relaxed, knowing that the American officer genuinely cared for their lone teammate. "She's C.I.A. Somehow she managed to survive, right?"

"But the C.I.A. isn't God," Walt retorted. "She could have been shot and killed just like me and you."

Diego glanced at Walt and immediately decided that this was not about himself. So he quickly turned his face and stepped back into the van. There was a faint shout from one of the Mexican soldiers on the other side, suggesting, "If you guys want to fight, do it in a secluded place." Walt responded to the advice by raising his middle finger in return.

Such situations were common in the battle against drug trafficking. Sometimes the tension of the mission led to heated arguments

If Americans were like tongues, Mexicans were like teeth. Julio knew this truth well, as did Walt himself.

The Mexican man calmly lit up another cigarette, exhaling a cloud of white smoke from his mouth and nose. "Listen, Walt, I know that the C.I.A. is not a god. Americans like you have never been my gods, and I know Y/N is going to do something by herself. No one is controlling her. That means she believes in herself, and you should have faith in her too."

With his long, pointing finger, he directed it straight at Walt, locking him in an intense gaze. Fatigued eyes still held a spark. 'We're all tired, and we don't want anyone to die’ conveyed Julio through his gaze, leaving the DEA agent at a loss for words.

Walt wanted to trust in you, as Julio told him, but that didn't help alleviate the anxiety in his heart.

Because you were the youngest agent Walt had ever worked with. You were the same age as his younger brother, and you had a bright future ahead of you. Walt didn't want you to make a mistake, and he didn't want to do anything that would restrain you in any way.

Walt closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a fresh cigarette being offered to him by Julio. Walt accepted the gesture by taking it and holding it between his lips, whispering a soft thank you. As Julio lit the cigarette for him,

They both stood there, smoking side by side, exchanging understanding through the smoke and silence. Walt gazed at the darkening sky as the streetlights gradually turned on one by one, illuminating both sides of the road. He took another deep smoke before turning to the person beside him and asking, "So, what do we do next?"

Julio smiled briefly, tapped the end of his own cigarette against the side mirror of the van, and let the ashes fall to the ground.

"All we can do is wait," he said.

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

#narcos: mexico #narcos x reader #amado carrillo fuentes #walt breslin #narcos mexico netflix #narcos fic #amado carrillo fuentes x you #amado carrillo fuentes x reader #walt breslin x you #walt breslin x reader #jose maria yazpik #scoot mcnairy #narcos mexico fanfic #narcos mexico fanfiction #narcos: mexico tv series #Renegada♱

[hawkinsp0st]

💛🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️💛

so this post is stuck in my mind and somehow spurred a hellfire club mike wheeler/cali mike wheeler breakdown! i’m really excited to talk about this one bc it appears so intentional! and i get to combine 2 of my truest loves: costume design and gay ppl.

let’s discuss.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

from 4x4 thru 4x8, i think we’re lowkey seeing… single mike, right? like, he thinks him and el are basically done? so during this post, keep that thought in ur back pocket like eddie’s black handkerchief <3

~~~🌵❤️‍🔥🌙~~~

something i find striking about the burying the body/top of car desert scenes, during this period of “yeah me and el are prob broken up,” is that mike is back in his hellfire color scheme—he’s wearing black&white, with red, orange, gold and metallic tones everywhere.

there’s no red/gold/metallic tones on mike (except his silver belt!!), but it’s everywhere behind mike & will, especially as they dig the grave. the shovels they’re holding have metal handles; the rusting cars behind both mike and will during their staring shots are red & orange; the desert sand/hills behind mike are red-orange; will’s color palette for his cali crew outfit is yellow/gold; i even noticed on first watch that byler’s cheeks/lips are super flushed during that triple take moment.

tldr; key byler scene where they stare at each other for several shots, and they also open up to each other. hellfire mike color palette everywhere, and it’s the only time in the show we see mike associated w these colors except for 4x1 and 4x8. coincidence? no way.

~~~🏴‍☠️🕷📓~~~

let’s take a trip to 4x1. hellfire mike, my beloved.

i love hellfire mike bc he was so Himself. i don’t even think that version of mike, even tho it was only a day apart, would’ve snapped at will in rink o mania. it’s literally just when mike is trying to force himself into his cookie cutter straight relationship, wearing pastels and shit, that he gets frustrated. “shitty knockoff” mike wheeler, not his authentic self.

i could talk about eddie and hellfire’s impact on mike all day. it’s not explored through substantial screentime the way dustin’s bond with eddie is, bc it’s a different bond, but visually it’s clear the connection they wanted us to make—mike is evolving into a mini eddie.

from a costume/hair/makeup design perspective, there’s certainly a reason joe quinn has long, dark hair and a pale, fresh face in the cafeteria scene just like finn, and that same black&white color scheme as mike does w the hellfire shirt (just w a jean jacket over top and jewelry on, the only major differences—mike doesn’t have all the embellishments yet bc he’s just coming into himself—still getting used to not wearing “whatever his mommy bought him from the goddamn gap”. i find it interesting that clothing specifically is brought up in this scene; they want us to notice).

and then that night at the hellfire game, eddie doesn’t have his jacket anymore, so he and mike have essentially the same exact visual, w the exception of eddie’s tattoos, rings, and other jewelry (long dark hair, bangs, hellfire shirt. it’s giving clones). eddie even wears a black watch :-) basically, they are trying to show us that aesthetically, mike is growing into eddie but isn’t quite there yet, isn’t quite as unhinged and bold.

this visual parallel contrasts dustin’s bond w eddie; dustin wears that colorful/bright white shirt over his hellfire tshirt, blocking out most of the black sleeves, and they put him in his blue and white “thinking cap” hat rather than a black or red one. this is bc dustin’s bond w eddie is more emotional and bright, while mike is inspired by eddie’s darker look and vibe in an aesthetic and personality sense, and i think we’re supposed to notice that because their looks are designed so similarly.

like, they could’ve put joe quinn in any wig to be eddie, but they gave him one that reminds us of mike wheeler. i’m pretty sure they even straightened finn’s hair this season, which they weren’t doing as much previously (remember how fluffy it was in s3). i mean, look at this pic. this is the exact same queer mf and their token straight best friend.

~💥🍒🎸~

mike under the influence of eddie/hellfire is his truest form and you can’t convince me otherwise:

he takes risks. he doesn’t listen to his parents, doesn’t care if he stays out too late playing hellfire (it’s giving bathroom stall graffiti mike wheeler from s2). he goes around school and asks everyone & their mother to play hellfire, barging into science labs and wrestling team practice and the school newspaper. he puts himself out there, passionately, talking with his hands about the game he loves, which he didn’t even want to play last season when el was around—growth and a return to his more authentic self thanks to hellfire.

he talks about “bullshit media propaganda,” which is something we just watched him learn from eddie in the cafeteria scene. he’s vibing hard with eddie’s values. this is not the mike wheeler we see arriving in california or snapping at will in rink o mania, but it is the one we get a glimpse of again in the desert.

🖤♥️⭐️ hellfire mike = hawkins/dnd dungeon master mike vibes. the mike that will fell in love with. ⭐️♥️🖤

mike + will + hawkins/dnd = mike’s happy place—“it’s not the same without you.”

~♟♣️📞~

back in the desert in 4x5, the use of this color palette shows us that mike feels at home and like himself again, because he’s with will. the longer he’s away from el, the more he’s shedding this artificial skin…

…until will mentions “what if they don’t like the truth.” that resonates with mike and he gets scared of what that means. he retreats. he covers back up, goes back to wearing Ted Wheeler Turquoise™️

but we almost reached something there, in the above pic. (i also like the green plants & 7up can—green = byler reconciliation in sight 🌿)

~🚨🪓🩸~

the next time we see red associated w mike wheeler, it’s the painting scene.

and of course the bright red resonates with him. of course his smile can light up a room in this moment, of course he finds it stunning—this is who he is. the dragon is bright red. the shadows and outlines are black. the crown on the shield is gold. and the weapons are metallic…

💔▪️👑 hellfire colors. 👑 ▪️💔

this visual thread suggests that mike feels truly like himself, and truly at home, when he sees will’s stunning canvas. (god i feel like i got punched in the throat, that’s so fucking beautiful.)

not to mention we’ve got tons of green in there for the forest background, which we can think of as not only a byler reconciliation symbol, but also the forest is a major symbol of hawkins—where will was kidnapped, where el was hiding out, where we see eddie and jason run to when they’re in distress. so this forest imagery calls back to hawkins mike, dnd dungeon master mike, looking for will in the woods mike, “it’s not the same without you” mike.

💛🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️💛

in conclusion: s4 uses the hellfire club color palette—black, white, red, gold/flame orange/yellow, & metallic—to show us that mike looks up to eddie munson and is starting to form independent, subversive ideas—“bullshit media propaganda.”

🍭🧢🚙🍬 = ❌❌❌👎👎👎

it also shows us (via mike’s cali outfit and the bright, candy colored rink o mania setting) that this self actualization of mike’s only regresses when he tries to be el’s boyfriend.

🌲🌲🌲🏡👾 = 🎱🖤🏴‍☠️‼️💌🐝🌼☀️

mike’s only place he feels he can be himself is playing dnd, in hawkins, with will—but based on what we saw in the s3 fight, there’s some elusive reason mike doesn’t let himself have all 3 at the same time. he clings to his relationship with el, but it only holds him back.

and based on the desert scene, the with will aspect is the most important part. the callback to the hellfire color palette in the desert w/ will & in the painting scene shows us that mike can feel at home anywhere in the world with will—hence the soft looks in the van scene, hence thanks, i needed that.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

#byler

[itbmojojoejo]

Crimes Of Passion | Part 9

Pairings: Finan x OFC & Sihtric x OFC

Summary: In the unravelling chaos Sihtric finally discovers Runa's plan.

Wordcount: 3.5k | Part 1 | Other works.

Warnings: MDNI18+.Alcohol consumption, smoking, mentions of violence, blood, death and use of weapons.. If I have missed anything please let me know!

Authors note: It's been a while, but here it is. A huge thank you to @arcielee for being a gem beta reading this and correcting my awful punctuation xo

During the drive back from The Beamfleot, with the sun still bathing the roads in its heat, Runa had insisted on being in the driver's seat, probably with the intention of leaving the group as soon as possible. Sihtric felt less confident than he originally had at the plan Uhtred and Runa had orchestrated and that unease only worsened after his boss broke the news of Aetheflaed’s intentions to flee with Erik. 

“So what do we do?” Sihtric’s lighter flaming to life sent a small trail of cigarette smoke into the air.

“Nothing changes, we get Aethelflaed out but Erik will be with her when we do,” Uhtred shrugged, finally taking a sip of his whiskey and looked to Runa, “Did Sigefrid take the bait?”

“He said he’ll consider it,” She shrugged.

“What if he says no?” Finan asked, finally taking a sip of his drink. 

“Then I just turn up on a day of our choosing and tell him I’ll join anyway.” 

“You know I can’t guarantee your safety with this plan, right?” Uhtred said, glancing between Runa and Sihtric, who inhaled deeply through his nose and took a swig of his whiskey.

“I know what I agreed to.” She doubled down.

“She can handle herself, she’ll be grand.” Finan smiled in an attempt to ease everyone. 

As the group worked their way through finishing the first bottle of whiskey, Gisela reappeared with a fresh bottle and a warm smile and spoke of her ideas for the new decor with Uhtred. Finan groaned when she mentioned trying to incorporate yellow to brighten the space and stood from the table taking the planning papers with him and pointing out proposed spaces for additional windows. 

As the Irishman went on a tangent about colour schemes being pointless, Uhtred and Clapa joined, leaving Runa and Sihtric alone at the table. 

“Stop looking so worried,” Runa muttered, growing tired of his worried eyes constantly falling on her. 

“Why did you agree to be a sacrificial lamb?” Sihtric breathed.

“This is only going to work with a distraction in place, and I’m no lamb.” She prodded the table emphasising her words. 

“So what are you then?” He asked, leaning his elbows onto the table. 

“A wolf in sheep's clothing.” She smiled and swilled her whiskey glass, beginning to feel tipsy. 

“Promise me you’ll find out who that cousin is before it all kicks off? You know he’ll go straight for you,” Sihtric kept his gaze forward with his serious tone, he didn’t like any part of this plan but he knew there was no use in trying to get it stopped. 

“It might not even go to shit.”

“Runa...” He groaned with his glass thudding on the wood. 

“Alright, I promise.” She offered calmly and hesitantly smoothed her hand along his shoulder, the warmth from her palm leaked through his shirt with ease and he relaxed at her touch.

There was barely a cloud in the light blue sky of the afternoon that was lighting up the inside of Bebbanburg’s Beacon. The occasional swirl of plaster dust lifted from the floor slowly resettling on the crinkling dust covers protecting new wood flooring, Finan and Clapa were trying to throw small nails into a mug a short distance away from them while Sihtric sat with Osferth, quietly discussing the younger man’s struggle with romance. 

“Runa called,” Uhtred announced, standing in the empty bar space with his hands on his hips and all four men looked to him, “It’s tonight.” 

Sihtric’s top lip curled up briefly and he let out a quiet huff; Osferth pressed his lips into a tight line knowing the worries his friend had at their next job. 

As the sun set, Sihtric watched the golden hues dance off Runa’s copper waves falling freely past her shoulders as she climbed the stairs of the hotel from his car near the back of the parking lot. His thumb tapped impatiently off the steering wheel as he checked the time again to see how long they had left before having to meet others at the back of the hotel. 

“Hey, if it comes down to it, you know she can handle a fight,” Finan soothed from the passenger seat.

“One with this amount of money involving men that would see her dead?” 

“Can’t believe I’m even admitting this,” Finan muttered and cleared his throat, “Runa is the last person I would want to back into a corner, if those lads have any sense they won’t even try it. Now, let’s get this done.”

Erik’s man, Dagfinn, opened the delivery bay door that was situated further down from the employee’s entrance in the alleyway and offered the group an apprehensive nod before leading them through a narrow corridor attached to the old victorian stairwells the chambermaids use to get around the hotel without being in the guests’ way. 

Climbing the even narrower and creaking stairs, they came up to the floor Aethelflaed was being kept on; not a single person was around as Dagfinn unlocked the door to reveal the young woman sat on the edge of the bed, anxiously fiddling with her fingers in her lap. 

“Uhtred!” She stood from the bed looking relieved that he had actually done as he said he would. 

“Let’s make this quick, we don’t have long.” He responded, guiding her out of the room back towards the stairwell they had just climbed where Erik now stood quietly waiting with Osferth and Clapa at his side.  

“Your brother?” Uhtred asked him.

“Distracted, as planned.” Erik answered, his blue eyes sparkling as they landed on Aethelflaed, for a moment Sihtric thought it was sweet, even if they were an odd coupling. 

“Hey!” A tall young man with ruddy hair called out from the end of the hallway and began to approach followed by a second person, “Where is she going?” 

“Not one of yours I’m guessing?” Finan asked Erik, shoving his hands in his pocket. 

“No, Sigefrid’s.” 

“Alright then.” The Irishman revealed his hands now covered in thick wide brass knuckle dusters and smiled as he turned to meet them. 

Before either of the two workers had the chance to ask any more questions, Finan smacked the closest once and he dropped like a sack of potatoes, making the other turn on his heel and bolt. 

“I got him.” Sihtric said coolly and gave chase. 

“No!” Erik called out but it was too late.

As Sihtric rounded the corner on the tail of the runner, they both stopped in their tracks as they stood face to face with a group of four other employees. One instantly launched themselves at Sihtric and he ducked, quickly tossing him over behind him, making the man crash through a wooden table. 

He straightened up just in time to block the one he’d chased,who was now brandishing a knife; Finan quickly caught up with what was happening and crushed the young man’s wrist, making him drop the knife and catching it in his own hand. He plunged the blade into his belly with a blank stare as Sihtric handled the others with Clapa. 

“You agree we get Aethelflaed out by any means necessary?” Uhtred asked Erik as he looked around the corridor. 

“Do what you have to.”

And with that Uhtred returned to the room Aetheflaed had been staying in followed by Osferth.

“Find me some matches.” Uhtred said calmly as he began to bundle up the sheets and pillows in the centre of the bed and he poured whiskey on top of the bedding. 

Osferth watched on with furrowed brows as Uhtred threw not one, but three lit matches onto the bed and a small fire came to life. As they returned to the hallway, Osferth was ordered to follow Sihtric and Finan who were now chasing the fleeing men through the hotel with Clapa. 

Just before going with Erik and Aethelflaed down the narrow staircase Uhtred pulled the red handle of a fire alarm, setting it off and alerting all guests to the fire. 

For Runa time seemed to slow down to almost a stand still as she began to step away from the plush sofa, the high pitched fire alarm was pulsating in her ear in time with the steady beat of her heart as she inched closer towards Sigefrid. Her hand flexed on her gun as she raised it and his head lifted with widened eyes as his man told him of Aetheflaed being taken; in that moment he realised he’d been played. 

As her finger pulled the trigger time snapped to its usual flow; Sigefrid put his hand up and ducked to the side with a guttural cry. Runa cursed at herself and stepped forward taking aim once again, not seeing Boltan launching himself at her from the left; she grunted with the air leaving her lungs as his clenched fist landed a heavy blow to her stomach and sent her backwards onto the floor. 

Swallowing the urge to vomit at the force she was unexpectedly hit with, another hard crack hit her ribs as the tall blue eyed man kicked her where she lay. Runa swung her hand that was still gripping the gun towards him and Boltan dropped to kneel on her chest, she involuntarily screamed out at the crushing weight making her lungs burn barely, noticing that she’d dropped her weapon in the struggle. 

Boltan’s eyes stared into her’s as he brought his hand to her face and pushed it sideways into the floor, harshly pressing it into the cold tiled floor. Runa squeezed her eyes shut and clawed at his arm and leg, trying her best to keep breathing when suddenly Boltan was gone. She gasped for breath sitting upright in an instant with her entire body burning and screaming at her when more hands gripped at her shoulders with fingers digging into the clothed flesh pulling her up off the floor. 

“Fuck off!” She rasped and threw her head back in an attempt to hit the person that had a hold of her. 

“It’s me! Runa, it’s me.” Sihtric yelled over the alarm still screeching through the building and turned her around.  

Her fingers gripped at his shirt sleeves with a panic visible in her eyes that Sihtric had never seen before. Looking to the right Runa saw Finan laying into Boltan with brass knuckle dusters hitting him all over his body with crimson patches blooming in the wake of his fists. 

“We have to go!” Osferth called from nearby, taking the time to grab Runa’s blazer and picking her gun up from the floor. 

The alarm fell silent letting the sounds of grunting and shouting be heard; Clapa was fighting his way through a group of men trying to clear a path for the group to exit, Finan and Sihtric were throwing their own punches to anyone approaching from the back and Osferth gripped Runa’s elbow keeping her close in the middle as she struggled to keep her body from going into shock. 

“Erik!” Sigefrid bellowed out over the chaos and the group looked to the lobby they were currently fighting their way towards. Erik paused with Uhtred at his side and quickly pulled Aethelflaed behind him to shield her from what was about to come their way. 

As the angry brother now cradling his hand with a bloody bullet hole through the centre, came barrelling towards the fleeing group with his men; Osferth instinctively curled his arm around Runa’s waist and dragged her backwards, protecting them both from the fresh crashing of bodies. Now that the group was dispersed and with a new wave of adrenaline coursing through her veins, Runa turned to Osferth who watched on wide eyed, much like he had during the fight at The Dunholm. 

“Get to Uhtred, go.” She pointed him in the direction of his boss struggling to protect Aethelflaed, glancing over her shoulder she witnessed Weland grappling with Sihtric pushing him further back into the casino that was starting to fill with smoke with brutal strikes. Thinking on her toes, she tugged her blazer free from Osferth’s grasp and nudged him away. 

“Runa!” Osferth yelled, wanting her to go with him. 

Ducking and weaving her way through the fight, she twisted the blazer in her hands and wrapped it around them tightly into the form of a makeshift garrote as she came up on the back of Weland; with a deep breath, she leaped and threw it over his neck pulling it tight with a grunt. 

The mountain like man stumbled and grabbed at the material restricting his breathing as Runa’s knee dug into his back. Sihtric took the opportunity to straighten his stance and steady his staggered breaths, with the grit of his teeth he followed right hook with left hook punches to Weland’s ribs causing him to double over from the attacks on both sides. 

Weland tried to fling Runa off of him with no luck and Sihtric launched upwards with an uppercut taking the giant off his feet causing him and Runa to fall back into the glass table she had been sitting at not long ago. 

No noise left Runa as the glass shattered underneath her, with Weland crushing her much smaller frame, but the beast was not done fighting as he managed to produce a switchblade from his trousers. Her face contorted into one of pain as she struggled pulling the fabric around his throat even tighter and feeling small shards cut into her skin. 

Without a second thought Sihtric rushed forward and wrestled the knife free from Weland slamming the blade into his torso repeatedly until his body went limp. Runa’s arms dropped down with a low grumble as Sihtric rolled the dying man off her and helped her to her feet. 

“This place is burnin-” 

A single gunshot ringing out made everything stop, the fighting, the shouting, all of the chaos. In the middle of the hotel lobby Osferth stood stone-faced, holding Runa’s smoking revolver and Sigefrid laying at his feet, dead.

“Fuck.” Was all Runa could whisper at the scene. 

Standing outside in the parking lot next to her car, Runa watched in an almost trance like state at the fire engines working overtime to put out the flames that had grown and were devouring the hotel along with the buildings either side of it; it had taken longer than usual for the emergency services to arrive because they thought it was just a standard evening at The Beamfleot casino for its now deceased owners. 

Finan, with his hands and shirt bloodied and face grief stricken, sat beside Osferth on the bonnet of another car in silence, the flashing blue lights illuminating his vacant expression. Sihtric put a lit cigarette into Runa’s fingers as six bodies were loaded up into waiting ambulances, the cries of Aethelflaed finally being quietened by Steapa’s car door closing on her. 

“Let me take you home, there’s nothing left for us to do here,” Sihtric spoke to Runa quietly, and without thinking, she nodded. It  wasn’t until the car pulled up outside her house and Sihtric, being the gentleman that he always is, opened the passenger door for her. 

“Thank you, I can manage from here.” She smiled weakly, trying to suppress her wince from the pain all over her body. 

“No, look at the state of you, come on.” He took her hand and she was in no position to argue with him. 

She had spent the drive leant forward because there were still small shards of glass embedded into her shirt and skin, but as Sihtric pulled the key from under her doormat and unlocked it panic set in. Whether she wanted to argue or not, it was coming. 

“Sihtric, wait.” Runa said with a hand on his arm as he pushed open the front door to reveal the dark hallway littered with haphazardly stacked boxes. 

He paused at the sight, then flicked the light switch confirming that his eyes were not deceiving him. 

“Runa?” 

She didn’t respond as she walked past him with a large ball of regret building in the pit of her stomach. Sihtric followed her past the stacks into the living room where there were more half packed boxes with old newspapers piled up next to them to protect the more delicate items. 

“How long is this trip of yours, exactly?”  He asked fiddling with the edge of a cardboard flap knowing full well what this meant, he just wanted to hear her say it. 

“I’m not coming back.” She sighed, walking through the open arch way into her kitchen, looking through the cupboards. 

She put two glasses along with a half empty bottle of gin on the dining room table and poured the clear liquid into them. Sihtric tried his best to subdue the anger bubbling inside him as Runa put a carton of cigarettes beside the gin with her lighter, finally looking him in the eye. 

They both looked haggard, Runa sparkled when she moved with the remnants of glass still stuck to her, and the pair’s clothes were wrecked with blood. Sihtric knew this was the worst possible timing, but he didn’t know how long he even had to have this conversation and he wanted answers. 

“You lied to me.” He said flatly, there was no question about it. 

“Yes, but let me explain, please Sihtri-” Runa’s voice was quiet, and her eyes widened at him cutting her off. 

“No. Enough of this bullshit, Runa!” 

“Don’t yell at me.”

Sihtric scoffed, his anger mixing with hurt. He had done all she silently asked for, when she was distant with him he never pushed to know why, just gave her the time she needed to work out whatever was going on in her head. When he thought it was Finan that held her affections, he was more than willing to back away and let them be, and he always defended her in her absence. 

“And why not? I have tried being gentle with you, I have given you space, I have forgiven you without ever asking you for any type of explanation and yet you still lied to me!” 

“I didn’t want to hurt you!” Runa slapped her hands down on the table, shaking her head. 

“That seems to be all you do.” He responded with an incredulous laugh, his gaze still focused on her. 

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Runa closed the distance between them and took his hands in hers, “I am so sorry Sihtric.” 

“Do you not trust me?” He asked, his hazel eyes searching her blue ones for any type of reason that would make sense. 

“Of course I do.” She breathed. 

“Then why didn’t you just tell me! It would have hurt but it would have been far better than finding out like this.” He dropped her hands and motioned to the mess around them. 

Taking a deep breath Runa turned back to the table and downed one of the unmeasured glasses of gin, screwing her face up at the taste and picking up the cigarette carton. 

“The way you held me when I told you I was going to Denmark in the first place was why I felt like I couldn’t tell you, I didn’t want you to ask me to stay.”  

Sihtric wet his bottom lip and nodded slowly; he didn’t feel as though her answer made sense but he felt she was telling the truth. With a huff, he watched as she lit her smoke and rubbed her temple with her thumb. 

Runa spoke up again, “ I don’t expect you to understand any of this.”

“Why do I feel like this is just you running away from something?” He pushed further. 

“Maybe I am.” She shrugged and ignored the spasm of pain it sent through her back. 

“Then tell me what it is!” Sihtric raised his voice once more, his frustration still present. 

“You!” Runa retaliated, her own frustration making itself known with instant regret following. 

“Me?” Sihtric stared at her with furrowed brows, his anger dissipating quickly and sadness taking its place. 

“Yes. I fucked up, I had no business messing around with you or Finan and I jus- I can’t be here anymore.”  Runa shook her head and took a drag of her cigarette.

“Is that what we were doing? Messing around?” He’d been certain that he wasn’t alone in love, Sihtric had felt it in her touch and seen it in her eyes, and her next words only told him he was right and she was denying it. 

“That’s all I can let it be.” 

“Got it.” He responded flatly and walked out. 

Runa stood in her kitchen and swallowed the bitter tasting gin Sihtric had left untouched, closing her eyes when her front door slammed shut. She took a deep breath trying to keep control of her emotions but as she perched on the side of her table and dialled the only number she could think of calling, she felt the tears creeping up on her. 

“Hello?” The calm voice on the other end answered, and Runa’s control slipped allowing the tears to fall.

“Brida...” 

Next

Taglist: @arcielee @emilyhufflepufftlk @finanmoghra @deandoesthingstome @gemini-mama

#the last kingdom fanfic #sihtric x oc #finan x oc #tlk fanfic #tlk fanfiction #sihtric fanfic #finan fanfic

[higanbana-writer]

Better Than Money

Pairing: 1920s Police!Mammon x Crime Boss!Fem!Reader Note: Inspired by this post

Jazz music floated softly through the air, mixed with the quiet murmurs of patrons. Though the club usually hosted a lively environment, on this particular day, everybody there acted as if they were dancing upon the tip of a knife. They had to behave as if they were enjoying themselves, and yet make sure they were not being a nuisance to a certain person present.

And that person in particular happened to be the very owner of the club. She lounged at one of the VIP tables close to the stage, all tables nearest to her devoid of any patrons. Of course, the unease of everybody there was very evident, but she didn’t mind. As a matter of fact, she liked it. After all, that’s how things were supposed to be. She couldn’t very well run a criminal organization if nobody feared her, could she?

Taking a drag from her cigarette holder, she glanced up as a man approached her table. His tousled white hair seemed to shine even under the sim lights and his yellow-blue eyes gleamed as he took in her appearance.

She was donned in a black, floor-length cocktail dress with a plunging neckline and long slits on the sides to show off her legs, finished off with delicate gold chains that draped across her bare shoulders and adorned her waist. It was exactly what he liked and she knew it.

A sly smile spread across her painted lips when she saw his Adam’s apple bob up and down. She let out a soft exhale and whisps of smoke curled up towards the ceiling. Then, she spoke, her tone teasing.

“Well, Mammon? Are you going to just stand there and ogle at me all day, or will you join me and sit?”

He coughed awkwardly, the tips of his ears flushing red as he slid into the seat across from her. “Is that how you’re gonna talk to the guy who cleaned up your mess for ya?” He puffed arrogantly, trying to cover up his embarrassment.

How cute.

“Ah, yes. I must thank you for that. Beelzebub got a bit too worked up when that shop owner refused to pay his protection fee.” She grimaced when she recalled how messy the aftermath ended up being. “I suppose it must have been rather difficult for you to deal with.”

Mammon scoffed, waving a dismissive hand. “Pssh, who do ya think I am? Cleanin’ up after that big oaf was nothin’. Give me more credit, would ya?”

She let out a light laugh before she slid a thick envelope across the table towards him. “Indeed, it’s true that you have not once let me down. Putting a copper like you on my payroll was an excellent choice. Here, your payment as promised.”

“Oohh, now we’re talkin’!”

Instantly, his expression lit up and he grabbed the envelope, opening it to check the contents. She could practically see the money signs floating around him as he counted the cash. Just when he began to pocket the envelope, he suddenly paused and looked up at her, appearing conflicted about something.

Tilting her head, she questioned, “Is something the matter, Mammon?”  

“Well, ya see…” He chewed on his lip, staring at her intently as he thought hard. Finally deciding on something, he hastily placed the envelope back onto the table and shoved it towards her.

Her eyebrows rose in astonishment. Mammon, rejecting money? Why, that was unheard of! What in the world had gotten into him?

“See, I love money, I really do. But this time I want somethin’ different…” Trailing off, he seemed to struggle with saying the next sentence.

Suddenly realizing what he was trying to do, she took another drag from her cigarette holder, attempting to suppress a grin.

Perhaps feeling a bit overwhelmed, Mammon took a deep breath before practically shouting, “Let me take ya out to dinner!”

Ah, seriously. This man was such a darling!

Everybody had turned to stare upon hearing his request, fearing that he had angered her and a murder was about to take place. She paid them no heed, however. Unable to hold back her smile anymore, she leaned forward and rested her chin in her hand, giving him a sultry gaze. “Dinner, hm? Goodness, what a bold request you’re making~”

“W-Well… Ya don’t hafta, i-if ya don’t wanna…! I was just…just-“ He stumbled over his words as he rushed to take back what he said, perhaps assuming that he was overstepping his boundaries or that she was going to reject him.

Before Mammon could go any further, she grabbed his tie and pulled him towards her, placing a chaste kiss upon his lips. He froze in shock and she giggled, teasing, “Why, I thought money was your only love. I’m flattered that you’d ask for me instead.”

Releasing his tie, she then stood from the table and pushed the envelope back to him. “Regardless of that, however, you’ve worked hard so I insist that you take this.” With a wink, she added, “As for dinner, I expect you to pick me up at seven sharp. I’m looking forward to seeing what you plan out~”

Leaving him with those words, she sauntered away and all the while, Mammon stared after her in a daze.

What just happened?

#obey me #obey me x reader #mammon x mc #mammon x reader #obey me x mc #mafia au #x reader #mammon #obey me mammon