#there we go. enough on the matter until i get my updated opinion.

[obsessedtomone]

Unravel Yourself Before Me ⛓️ Chapter 7 - Anomalies▸Shigaraki x femReader

Chapter Summary:

◤ Deciding against going in and torturing yourself for once, you turn on your heel to go home. You’ve been drained enough as it is, you don’t also wanna deal with the final fucking boss.

Then you suddenly bump into someone.

The smell of his distinct intoxicating—and probably unnecessarily expensive—cologne hits you first. ◢

Setting: University AU - No quirks (unless degenerate personalities count) Tags: Slow burn, Eventual Smut, Unhealthy/Toxic Relationships, Humiliation, Mentally Ill Reader, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to ??? Warning: Dead Dove – Do Not Eat | Mind the tags TW: Implied Su/Self H, Dubcon, Reader has a super shitty past like actually, Shigaraki Tomura is his own warning.

AO3 Crosspost | Chain Divider by firefly-graphics

Chapters: One • Two • Three • Four • Five • Six • Seven • Eight Updates every Monday!

Chapter 7 - Anomalies

You sigh.

Two whole days have passed since your phone call with Shigaraki. Both of them were a total fucking blur. You ended up spending most of your time at Taylor’s place, drinking yourself to sleep and watching shitty chick flicks, where you could almost distract yourself from reality.

Almost.

That was, until you finally got a call from the university.

Tapping your foot anxiously, you’re standing in front of the dean’s office. They called you in, because the circus finally reached the faculty’s door. You really didn’t want to be in school right now.

It was really difficult to dress more inconspicuously than you usually did, when you already looked like a nobody most of the time. A nobody that everyone fucking recognizes now.

Opening the door to his office, the dean gestures for you to enter. As soon as you’re seated, he initiates the conversation.

“You see, I’m certainly aware that it’s no longer as acceptable to bring this up these days…but back in my time, you’d just get expelled for doing the kind of stuff you kids get up to these days.” The older man leans in from his seat with a grimace. He fixes you a stern gaze and you shift uncomfortably in your chair. His disapproval being obvious, and his unnecessary judgment affecting you. You wanted to roll your eyes at him so badly, but you’re still somehow able to maintain a shred of composure.

What a tool.

“I’d like you to understand the gravity of your actions. You should know exactly why we called you in today. This is not just about having fun or blowing some steam off, no matter how stressful studying may be,” he gestured with his hands like a politician would. “With smartphones and social media nowadays, everything spreads like wildfire. Not only that but you’re also representing the entire school, not just yourself. You’re very aware of the position we offered you…” his hands clasp together, thoughtfully.

“Normally we’d just expel you and get over it, but I’d like to give you the chance to explain yourself before we do. I get that you’re young and want to have fun, but this is reaching beyond such silliness.”

A headache is beginning to form in the center of your brain, and you start feeling agitated, one of your eyes slightly twitching at intervals. You claw at the edges of the seat and your hand starts cramping up. It was becoming really hard for you to be able to sit still in and passively take it.

“And this will be my own personal opinion but,” Never in a million years, could you have guessed what the head of faculty was going to spit at you.

“–a lock that can be opened by many keys is, in truth, only a broken lock.”

If your eyes widened any more, they would’ve popped out of your head.

“Sorry?” you lean forward into your chair, giving him a chance to reconsider.

The dean clears his throat and adjusts his tie uncomfortably. As if he had any right to.

“You heard me, young woman. You shouldn’t sleep around with so many people. What would your future man think of you? Do young people these days have no shame anymore?”

Yeah, alright, this guy definitely jerked off to Shigaraki’s thread as well. You audibly gagged.

In a fit of rage, you got up, and slammed his desk. The dean flinched.

“Now listen here, young la–”

“No, you old creep, you damn well listen to me, before I report you to the education ministry for your inappropriate conduct, alright?” your voice had grown significantly louder, seething with anger.

He’s shut up.

“You want to get me expelled?” You circle around, hands around your back, calculating. “Not only one of your top students, but also the only poor fucking moron in this elitist ass university who’ll let you parade around as you please as your token little high achiever? Yeah?” you say, letting the calm fury take over for you.

Sure you’ve lashed out at teachers before, but this was the first time you ever confronted a person of higher position. Shigaraki was dead set on ruining your life, but you’ll be damned if you let another sleazebag talk down to you right now. Especially not this joke of a headmaster, who spends his nights browsing reddit only to slut shame students during the day.

You’re not sure if talking major shit to someone who could literally take away all your privileges will get you expelled, but thinking things through has never really been one of your strong points.

“I’m at your fucking beck and call whenever you need an idiot wearing your stupid little tight uniforms, to appeal to dumb investors and future student debtors with my pitiful life, am I not? ‘Look, kids! We are so generous to the lower class. Because of our great scholarship program, even degenerates with no future prospects will thrive and have the chance to become the best at our institution!’” you bark out a sardonic laugh and the headmaster frowns at your audacity.

“Tell me old man, if you expel me now, who is ready to take my place and willingly become your little puppet?”

“You’re out of line, Miss L/N, and I suggest—”

“I suggest you shut the fuck up and listen very closely to me. What you and the whole fucking university had the absolute pleasure of viewing, is nothing more than revenge porn. A very fucking serious crime.”

A flash of confusion crossed his face, making him pinch his eyebrows. For a second, you felt your gut filling with hope. Maybe he’ll understand after all.

“What? But—” he took a moment to think before opening his mouth again. “That doesn’t matter. What matters now is that you’re jeopardizing the institution and—”

“And, the videos and the contents were aaaall taken against my consent. I was young and intoxicated. Do I really have to spell it out for you?” you smile angrily. “It means that I did not consent to the footage being filmed, its publishing on the website, or the content in it. I’ll let you in on something, though. I’m sure you’ll love this.” you say, feeling the sweat building up under your armpits.

You hope it wouldn’t show.

I know exactly who the culprit is. And I’ll bet on my entire fucking scholarship that you know him too.” your admission brought a scowl on the principal’s face, but he still waited for you to go on with your little charade.

“So humor me. How famous of a character is Mr. Shigaraki fucking Tomura, among the members of the faculty board? He must have reached your dainty little ears by now with his beautiful criminal record, has he not?”

The dean's expression shifted from plain annoyance, to one of pure disbelief.

“Mr. S-Shigaraki?”

“That’s what I said. Due to a minor altercation between him, me and Mr. Reynolds, Shigaraki put me on his little hit list and decided I should never be able to show my face in public anymore.”

Suddenly, an incredible idea came to you.

“Say, if I get expelled now, and I tell him that I tattled to you, what’s the chance you keep your job, knowing what you know and his family being who it is?”

It was a really dirty move—one that you weren’t sure it’d work, but you’ll be damned if you cared anymore. None of these assholes cared for you anyway.

The dean finally stands up and turns to the window. He didn’t talk back or kick you out right away, which told you he was weighing his options on which terrible outcome to avoid.

“After all we’ve done for you—all of your opportunities to grow…” he sighs and you think you’ll finally throw up. “Acting entitled and jeopardizing my position for your own personal gain—you’re really not all that different from that—that sorry excuse of a man.”

“Guess I’ve learned from the best.” you smiled another strained smile, hiding your shaking hand behind your back. Is he seriously comparing you to Shigaraki?

Fucking seriously?

“Do you think we can take the posts down and erase any trace of the incident?” he asks, already suspecting what the answer would be.

“No, he’s not a fucking idiot. A sock puppet account will pop up somewhere else every time we’d do that. It’ll be like playing virtual fucking whack-a-mole. It’s what I’d do…If I were him.” you felt your gut twist.

“What about going to the police, then?”

You sigh frustratedly, unable to believe how stupid this fucking guy was. Who the fuck died and put him in charge?

“What about it? Hello? Do I have to remind you who we’re dealing with? I’m sure you’ve dealt with him more than I had to. And his…dad, or whatever.” you say, feeling irritated. Your eyes dart around the room and land on some random shiny trophy collection in his office. You wanted to go home so badly.

“Mr. Reynolds didn’t actually quit.” the dean revealed, unprompted. “It was Mr. Shigaraki who actually forced him to retire. Or rather his…paternal figure.” Your eyes widen briefly before going back to your bored expression.

Of course it was.

Why was he telling you though, when all it did was confirm that your childish threats could actually work. He couldn’t be this stupid. There must be another reason.

“Is that so? Color me fucking impressed.” you mock him. “You want me to care when you were so ready to kick me out 10 minutes ago, it’s kind of pathetic, really.”

Maybe Taylor and this administrative asshole are right. Maybe you and him weren’t so different after all.

The thought made you wanna gag again.

“Whatever, just suspend me for a week. I’ll pretend like you didn’t threaten to expel me and you get to keep sitting on your cozy ergonomic throne. Since all of this will be pointed at me, you can pretend you don’t know anything and keep your hands clean.If you fucking dare to take me off the scholarship program, I might have to write a fucking letter and hand deliver it to Shigaraki’s fucking doorstep. We go down together. Don’t forget that, sir.”

The dean turned back to you and gave you a pathetic look of resignation, but you didn’t linger.

You turn around and head outside of the office, feeling stressed beyond belief. You had no fucking idea how to deal with Shigaraki, but at least this one problem was dealt with. At least you didn’t lose everything yet. The thought of winning for once brought a stupid grin to your face. Finally you get some sort of justice.

There were, however, some questions plaguing the back of your head. You ran your palm over your face as you walked down the hallway.

Did Shigaraki really get so pissed at old man Reynolds that he made him quit over a warning? Sounds on-brand but it doesn’t quite add up. And does he also feel this good, when he plays dirty and wins against his opponents?

Of course he does.

He’s Shigaraki Tomura, after all. ───────── A lengthy sigh escaped your throat as you stared holes into the classroom door in front of you. On your way from the dean’s office, it finally hit you that you’d have to sit next to that psychopath once again. Your earlier bad bitch morale boost was quickly leaving your body.

Deciding against going in and torturing yourself for once, you turn on your heel to go home. You’ve been drained enough as it is, you don’t also wanna deal with the final fucking boss.

Then you suddenly bump into someone.

The smell of his distinct intoxicating—and probably unnecessarily expensive—cologne hits you first.

“Ah—aaAchOO!” you sneeze all over him, when the smell of chemicals immediately overwhelms your sensitive nose.

“EW, FUCK! Don’t fucking sneeze on me, idiot!” he barks, wiping himself off but not backing away. You just had to run into the last person you want to interact with today (or fucking ever).

“Shut the fuck up. You were in my way and you fucking reek. Not my problem.” you wipe your nose with the back of your sleeve. His red eyes glancing down at his shirt for a second before they turn to glare at you.

“Yeah, well at least half the college isn’t waiting to see my pussy getting pounded every week, bitch. Also class is that way.” Shigaraki sneers at you, pointing towards the door that you wanted to get away from.

You roll your eyes, feeling maybe a tinge of sadness at his remark.

Your eyebrows pinch downwards.

“And who’s fucking fault is that, huh?” you place your hands squarely against his chest, giving him a light push. Maybe it was the earlier win, your exhaustion, or the way he was taking your situation lightly, but you felt confident enough to provoke him again.

“Yours, obviously.” he chuckles and flashes you a playful smile, one you haven't seen since the first day you properly met him. “It’s ‘kay, at least you’ve got a pretty one. Maybe you should switch careers and become a pornstar instead. I’d watch.” he remarks with another wry smile, attempting to lighten the mood, his joke falling flat.

You frown at that and he sees hurt in your eyes, making him smile wider—a gesture that angers you and prompts you to shove at him. Hard.

“Whoa—” he’s taken aback by the sudden force, but surprisingly lets you push him without resisting.

“WhOa!!!” you mock his stupid fucking voice.

You keep shoving him down the hallway, as hard as you possibly can.

For all the stress, the hurt and the pain.

For exposing you to more than two thousand people online.

For putting you in danger by convincing people it was okay to harass you.

For looking at you with that sickening soft look in his eyes.

For feeling dizzy and foggy, because of all those anxiety meds you took, just so you could barely function today—any day.

Just so you wouldn’t be afraid.

Of him.

Of the world.

Tears welled up in your eyes—despite how much you tried to will them away. When you shove him one final time, he trips on his legs and grabs your arm in the process–dragging you to hell with him.

“Shit!” you stumble forwards, audibly bumping heads in the process.

You rub your forehead with your eyes closed, realization sinking in.

Oh fuck, was he gonna be mad and say you assaulted him or something? Charge you with some shit? You didn’t have money for a lawyer, especially not one matching his daddy’s big pockets and you also didn’t want to end up in jail or with another misdemeanor. When you do open your eyes, though, the sight that greeted you was far from what you expected.

As if reenacted from a shitty romcom flick, you ended up straddling Shigaraki’s lap.

Leaning back and supporting his upper weight on his elbows, his shirt was slightly raised, exposing his surprisingly toned and pale torso.

Your brows angled downwards.

You thought rich boys were supposed to be smooth and cared for—like expensive porcelain.

Not littered with endless scars and bruises.

Dark, fresh patches of purple, and long lines of white healed tissue, were covering almost every patch of skin your eyes landed on. How…did he end up looking like this?

Hearing him exhale softly, you look up and then at your hand—your brain finally processing that you reached out and brushed his skin. His body visibly shudders under you, making your eyes snap back to his flushed face, where the pair of familiar angry crimson eyes were boring into your own.

For a moment, he didn’t look invincible anymore.

Instead he looked…vulnerable.

You grimace, wanting to pull back, but he grabs you by your wrist before you can, pulling you closer to him, feeling his warmth radiate against you. His face was now right in front of your own and you cursed to yourself when you subconsciously glanced at his chapped, parted lips.

“What the fuck are you doing?” you whisper with no bite, voice coming off too soft. It was way less angry than you should’ve been with him.

“I don’t—I don’t know,” he replies honestly.

You search his face for any hint of insincerity, anything to make you snap out of it quickly, but you only find confusion.

By the time you regain some of your composure…you become painfully aware of your position. You were straddling him, sitting snugly against his lap, immediately feeling how hard—

“Don’t you dare fucking move.” he hisses at you, rosy blush covering his face down to his neck, when he too notices you figuring out the delicate position both of you found yourselves in.

He needed a moment to calm down, to compose himself, but you’re nothing if not a brat.

Fuck you and fuck your stupid orders, you think, experimentally rolling your hips against his in an attempt to further rile him up.

“Aaah, f-fuck—” Shigaraki lets out an unexpected whine, throwing his head back and already feeling overstimulated.

You feel electricity running through your body at the sound, making you buck your hips involuntarily while your hole clenched around nothing.

“S-Stop it, I’m serious.” he uselessly warns you again, voice raspy and dangerously low.

“Yeah? Gonna cum in your pants from a little friction?” you taunted him shamelessly. “Surely, our number one villain can handle a little more action. Don’t tell me you’re a pathetic quickshot that gets off on ugly bimbos dry humping him?” You roll your hips again, pressing harder this time.

Despite talking a big game, you can’t help but shiver every time your clit drags against the length of his cock, regardless of the layers of clothing that separated you.

“Fuck—I said stop it!” he snaps at you, eyes shut tight as he tries and fails to shove you off of him. He was breathing heavy and quick, the sight of his flustered face only spurring you on.

Grabbing his wrists and pressing his hands flat on the ground, you manage to pin him under you.

It makes you feel powerful like this, on top of the Shigaraki Tomura—the guy who desperately wants to completely and utterly destroy you.

“Did you fucking stop—nnh—when I t-told you to? When I begged you to?”

You didn’t give him time to answer, opting to repeatedly grind against him instead and feeling the familiar heat building up between your legs.

Eyes closed and back arching from your own pleasure, you try, but miserably fail to hold your own pathetic voice from moaning together with him. It felt—It felt fucking good. You wanted him to get you off—the thought of it leaving you feeling incredibly disgusted and stupidly aroused at the same time.

“Y-You…You fucking—hnng—brat...” he groans lowly, digging his nails into his palms and struggling not to go over the edge, but feeling painfully close every time you moved your hips, every time you spoke to him.

He almost lost it when he heard you moaning for him. It made his head spin, seeing you getting off on this too. Getting off for him. Because of him.

And he wanted so much more.

In a moment of weakness, you feel his hands slip away from your hold, fingers slowly creeping up your thighs, but before you can really think about it, he rolls you off of him and onto your back, desperately pressing himself—slotting himself—between your legs again. You look up at him in a daze, gasping and panting when he begins moving against you, quickly regaining control over the situation. The sight of your brows pinching and your soft whimpers turned him almost feral. He swallowed hard.

Were you always this fucking cute?

“You do understand, that—haah, that there’s going to be consequences to your actions, don’t you?” he groans into your ear breathlessly, rutting against you more violently. You’ll never admit how many times he’d be able to push you over with just his stupid fucking voice, or how fucking good it felt when he pressed himself into your slit.

You’d never admit it—but your traitorous body told him everything he needed to know.

And then he fucking kissed you. A tentative rough peck on your soft lips at first, to half silence your growing cries. Nobody else was allowed to hear you like this. Nobody but him, he quickly decided.

You gasp when he bites your lip and he takes it as permission to slip his tongue in, rolling it over your own with no technique, teeth clicking while he sinfully swallows your moans.

He eventually slows down, lips barely touching yours as you manage to catch your breath. A needy groan escapes you when he leans in to bite your neck so hard, you think it’ll leave a mark.

Shigaraki smiles against your throat, feeling on top of the world.

Just a second longer, he thought. A second longer before he’ll take you to the back of his car and fuck you senseless where no one can interrupt you.

“Shh, you don’t want to be caught while we’re still in the hallway, do you? Unless you’re into th—”

Your eyes widen and in an instant, you manage to shake him off of you.

What the fuck were you doing? In public? With him?

After all that shit he put you through?

“Hey,” he looked at you with obvious concern. You don’t pay attention, almost stumbling backwards again while you pick up your bag and start getting up.

“No, no, no, no—” a panic attack sets you off and you promptly get up to leave.

“Wait, don’t fucking go—! Goddamn it, just—wait!” he gets up and reaches for you, but you’re quick to pull away, bolting for the exit and out of his reach.

Always just out of reach.

Both of his hands move to his throat to dig into that familiar itch and scratch it until there’s nothing but pain and blood under his fingernails.

Tomura felt hurt.

You were so good for him a moment ago, and he was for you. Why were you acting this way now?

Why are you rejecting him, again?

He tried to push this feeling down, to not let it surface, but he wasn’t clueless as to what he felt, he just didn’t want to admit it. Rather he was taught not to admit weakness. To destroy it. To own it.

Why was it that you were so fucking different? He didn’t expect to feel or act any differently with you than he did with everyone else who pissed him off. To him, you were an anomaly. An anomaly he needed to destroy. An anomaly he wanted to own. An anomaly he—

Tomura’s breath hitched, eyes widening.

An anomaly he liked.

#shigaraki x reader #shigaraki x y/n #emotional hurt/comfort #shigaraki tomura #unhealthy relationships #dead dove do not eat #trigger warnings #shigaraki tomura x reader #shigaraki fanfiction #shigaraki x you #tenko shimura #tomura shigaraki #college au #reader is female

[destinygoldenstar]

Which Pretty Cure Would WIN Squid Game? (2024 Update)

Hello.

A couple years back I made an analysis post discussing which Pretty Cure would win Squid Game in that scenario, taking their skills in mind and being as non-bias as I could.

Since then, more seasons have come out. AND my opinions on certain characters placements have changed as I realized some errors in my logic.

So we’re re-doing it!

Fun, right???

I’m going to go through every challenge in Squid Game and see who’d be front runners and who’d be eliminated. Until we get a final two and then a winner.

Some rules though:

No weapons

No power ups. This is based on their own natural skill. If their Pretty Cure powers give them skills they don’t have without it, then that ability will not be factored.

I am only doing major Cure characters. Bright & Windy are the same characters of Bloom & Egret. No ancient Cures, no 11th hour ally’s, as they simply don’t have enough about them to factor.

My opinion on them as characters doesn’t matter here. Some characters I don’t care for can do great in the game while some of my favorites get eliminated very early. I’ll give reasons why I make the choices I do

I won’t be doing Wonderful. That season isn’t done yet. We can’t factor it. There’s just not enough info.

So that gives us 78 Cures as contestants.

Let’s begin.

Red Light Green Light

This game is about patience and mobility. Contestants have go get across the finish line without getting caught moving by a red light. An inability to stay still and wait the light out will spell doom.

Front Runners Of This Challenge Include:

The Suite Cures ; I never factored it the last time I did this, but I realized that because they’re all music based characters, they have an excellent sense of rhythm that gives them a huge advantage. So they’d be really good at the game and knowing when a red light would hit. (Plus I think Ellen and Ako are the types to hide behind people) So this season of Cures pass with flying colors.

Cure Beauty ; If you rewatch Smile, she specifically has avoided getting snagged at stuff more than her teammates. She’s very calm in situations and is persistent in all of them.

Cure Amour ; She’s a literal robot, so… you know. I know some would say that should be non-factored. But it’s not from any Pretty Cure powers, that’s just her body. As such, she’d be great at following directions.

Cure Macaroon & Cure Cosmo ; Same reasons. They’re the types that would take advantage of the game and hide behind people. Can’t ignore that.

And… that’s all the front runners I can think of.

Now for the hard part.

For the Cures that DON’T pass this….

I think Futari Wa-Fresh are all fine.

Blossom. I know people are gonna ask. I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say she passes this, but BARELY. I know she’s very shy and scared, but unlike some others I can think of, she has shown she can be patient even in scary situations.

As for her partner, Cure Marine, that’s our first one to go.

I know. We’re already losing fan favorites.

But this girl just CANNOT stay still no matter what you do. On top of her being insanely reckless of a character.

There’s even an episode where she actually got frozen and her face was STILL moving.

Especially if she thinks she can take a bullet to the forehead…

Yeah she’s a goner.

Sorry Erika Stan’s.

And we’re keeping the ‘getting rid of fan favorites’ train going, because Cure Happy is also out.

More than other pinks, she’s a huge klutz. And that’s for multiple reasons, whether that be hyperactivity, recklessness, or just plain bad luck. If anyone’s the first to trip under pressure, it’d be her.

Cure Peace is joining her.

I love her as a character.

BUT a main trait of hers is that she is extremely sensitive and a huge crybaby.

First bullet fired, she’s gonna freak out and try to run away.

Cure Felice is eliminated for a different reason.

This one in particular solves all her problems through magic. Which isn’t allowed here.

Considering that overconfidence, she’d not care about a red light and try to run it. Not because she’s arrogant, but because she’s a kid without that discipline.

Cure Custard is also out.

For the same reasons as Yayoi was pretty much. Especially since she is based on a squirrel, which is a pretty skittish creature that jumps at anything.

And the final one eliminated this round is…

Cure Sparkle.

One big factor of this character is that she is not good at following directions. We know she means well, but in a game like this, that’s just a fatal flaw that spells your doom.

I was debating on Cure Earth as well, but after thinking about it I think she’d pass barely. She’s a newborn born in an adults body and incredibly naive about the world but she’s not necessarily dense. (No offense Sparkle)

That’s 6 Cures out ; 72 Cross the Finish Line and move on to the next round

Honeycomb

In this challenge, contestants have to perfectly carve out a shape of a honeycomb candy. Breaking it will result in failure. This challenge involves contestants to be able to manage a steady hand to be able to carve out the shape.

Right off the bat, EVERY Cure from KiraKira and Delicious Party are INSTANT survivors.

No questions asked. Both of these seasons are heavily based around cooking, KiraKira especially specializing in candy. Which means these Cures have the exact skills, so this challenge is a breeze.

I mean except for Himari, who already got eliminated. RIP.

Amour, AGAIN, would also pass this.

Yes her strength is… nuts. And inhuman even without powers. BUT not only does she have great steadiness, she also proved she can carve stuff out well.

It’s not about strength. It’s about controlling that strength. And Ruru has proved she can.

For that same reason, Cure Sunny is surprisingly also safe.

Yes she’s the hardest hitter of her team, and a volleyball player, but 1) Volleyball does require you to aim the ball with your arm effectively, AND 2) Akane has a culinary background and shown to have skills to save herself.

Cure Honey is also a very obvious stand out.

Same reasons for Akane, except even more so. Food and cooking is pretty much her entire character.

And… come on her name is literally Cure Honey. She’s got this.

Cure Scarlet also survives.

Thanks to her violin skills and her nature of tranquility with her craft, she knows exactly what she’s doing.

So we have quite a few Cures that pass with flying colors. But what about the ones that break their cookie?

Despite the success last round, the first one on this list to go is Cure Beat.

Siren is, well, a cat. Born a cat with PAWS.

And even after she became human there’s not any moment in the show where she’s shown to have a steady hand, in fact the opposite with her massive handwriting and her skill being a guitar.

I know people are gonna argue I should’ve given her a pass like Towa because they both play instruments, but keep in mind Towa has more going for her than that, and the guitar is a much more loose instrument than a violin. Especially the one she uses.

The reason the other cats pass is because they’re either chefs, or in Yuni’s case, was an alien form of a cat that had hands. And both those characters are far less reckless than Siren is.

I hope that’s a good reason that you can understand.

Milky Rose is also out.

This one is a born mascot plushie without the steady hand. Now not to say she never had precision, but Milk is known to have such an arrogant sweet tooth that she would just not care about the challenge and eat the cookie.

And even if she didn’t, she doesn’t have much skill involving the candy to save herself.

But now we move on to a sadder one to see go, Cure Sword.

Yeah… this is kind of an obvious one. And I’m pretty sure no one will argue against it.

This girls hand is HARD. In this case for the worst. And she has next to NO skill involving a steady hand as shown constantly. That includes cooking related when she slashes a cutting board by just hitting it once.

Yeah, that’s a quick break right there.

Okay, so Cure Magical is at a very unique disadvantage.

Liko is a stubborn perfectionist and is very hyper focused on getting things right.

She’s the type to overanalyze the best strategy to cut her cookie-

And then the timer would run out in her.

And even if that’s not the case, we’ve seen what her magic does.

But since we eliminated four purples in a row, let’s change it up. Cure Yell.

She’s designed as a cheerleader. But that does NOT translate to ‘steady hand’ in any way.

If her hair styling skills are horrible, what chance does she have?

I know some might say that Flora should be out too for these reasons, but the difference is that Haruka actually showed improvement in hand steady skills and that can’t be ignored. Hana on the other hand doesn’t really have these moments.

Though if people are sad about losing a well liked Pink, not to fear, we’re losing one of the least popular Pinks also, Cure Star.

Hikaru is RECKLESS with a capital R. I’m someone who doesn’t dislike her as much as other people for it, but I can’t ignore that it’s doom spelling in a game like this.

Plus she’s also daring enough to pick a harder shape like the Star. (Ha. Cure STAR.) But she would NOT know what to do with that.

Okay breaks over from the Purple Cure slaughter. Next out is Cure Earth.

I gave her a past last time. That ends here.

Again, she’s a newborn in an adults body. And just… it would just be impossible to have that precise knowledge to be able to do this.

Cure Majesty is also gone for that same reason.

But it’s even more so, as she’s a BABY. There’s just… there’s no way.

And lastly, in a pretty bittersweet, mostly bitter case, Cure Summer and Cure La Mer go out together.

For different reasons. Minatsu is like Hikaru in the sense that she’s more of a reckless character, and in her case a victim of slapstick. Unlike her teammates she just doesn’t have any noteworthy hand steady moments to save herself.

Laura on the other hand is a mermaid. Mermaids live in the water where pressure is very different. So she’d easily get the pressure to cut a cookie wrong.

You can say Melon Bread should be a factor, but I’d disagree as that’s a much softer sweet than honeycomb.

So yeah, it’s sad. But hey, at least they go out together.

10 Cures Break Their Cookies ; 62 Successfully Cut Out Their Shapes And Move On

That number was bigger last time. But after thinking about it I do feel I was too harsh on some of the sporty characters and didn’t acknowledge sports DO have precision involved to do these sports. So I guess I redeemed myself there.

Midnight Brawl

This isn’t really a canon challenge, but several victims are claimed in it that it should be counted for. A lack of needs and sanity breaking events will snap a ton of people to violence. So it’s everyone for themself here.

This is a tricky one as there’s multiple ways you can survive this. Whether it’s naturally being a good fighter who can defend themself or being stealthy event to hide and wait the brawl out.

In this case, it’s tricky cause they’re ALL fighters in a way. It’s just about who is better at fighting than others.

Cure Macaroon is a stealthy person and a deceptive one. She will have no trouble hiding out the event.

Cure Muse is also in that category. As despite her small size, she was a vigilante for such a long time and kept to the shadows. Hiding is pretty natural to her.

Cure Cosmo could actually do it either way. She has the skill to defend herself AND she is a master at disguise like Ako. She has no problem here.

Cure Sunshine, even without powers, is a master at combat being from a dojo and all. She has no problem defending herself.

Cure Moonlight is also a veteran warrior, so she’d have no problem with defense.

Cure Rosetta is also someone who has trained in martial arts outside of powers, so she’d survive no problem. Even if she’s the barrier warrior of her team.

Cure Flamingo has absolutely no trouble committing to assault when she deems necessary. She’d probably be the first to snap.

Cure Sky is also a trained warrior with plenty of strength to go around. So she has no problem.

Now for the hard part. Who doesn’t survive the night?

The first one to go is Cure Whip.

Unlike the rest of her teammates, Ichika has nothing going for her besides being a baker. And with KiraKira’s combat style compared to the others, she’s far less capable of a fist fight as a result.

What can she do? Cream someone??

Yeah that just won’t work.

Cure Yum Yum is also gone.

For the same reasons that she is just a cook. And her personality in particular makes herself very noticeable.

But while Yui is a soccer player, Kokone is quiet and can hide, and Amane is a vigilante with skill, Ran just doesn’t have anything.

Shiny Luminous is probably the weakest cure remaining.

Aside from from being an amplifier, Hikari just does not have anything compared to the others around her.

Of the Yes 5 Cures, Cure Lemonade has the worst shot at this.

She’s expressive in lifestyle so she wouldn’t think about hiding, and compared to her teammates she has the least noteworthy of skill to fight anyone off.

Unless she had rope, but no weapons.

And now we lose a fan favorite unfortunately, Cure Blossom.

For the mockery of ‘weakest Cure ever’, Tsubomi should be really proud of herself for surviving the first two games.

Unfortunately her run ends here. As that mockery does play a factor. Tsubomi is very easy to scare, so it’s not hard to find her, and she’s just too fragile to fight anyone off.

But if that’s too upsetting, not to worry, Cure Ace is also out.

This might be controversial, as Aguri is one of the most overpowered Cures ever…

But only WITH her powers.

Without them, she’s just a regular girl. And given her nature of always butting into things, always saying her opinions, and going on anyway, she’d be too arrogant of a character to hide.

And without her powers, she’s done for.

It hurts cause she’s one of the younger Cures here… but that’s probably the only reason why it hurts.

And finally, the last elimination is, and it absolutely breaks my heart as a Stan…

Cure Grace.

Look, I can’t be bias here. Nodoka doesn’t have much going for her here.

Her hospitalization background does no favors and gives her a physically weak disadvantage going in. Without her powers, she can’t do anything, and even if she tried, it’s damage her health, which would sure be deteriorated at this point in the game already.

That and Nodoka is a pacifist. Sure she’ll fight when it deems right. But she’s one to look for the least harm as a solution. In the world of Squid Game, this is a failing move.

So sorry. She’s my fave. It hurts.

7 Cures Get The Boot ; 55 Cures Survive The Night

Tug Of War

This is another strength based game. Two teams play tug of war against each other and losing side falls to their doom.

This game requires good strength and teamwork. Preferably both.

Now, in the context of Squid Game, there’s be two teams.

I’m not doing that here. Because you come up with ANY match up here, and results would vary.

Instead I’m gonna continue to factor them individually and you can infer from that they’re on the losing team.

From future Eliminations you can interpret the 27 that’d get eliminated here.

This is also tricky, as naturally, all of them are strong and good at teamwork to a degree.

But for the BEST ones at this,

All the Duos left together. (Melody & Rhythm, Black & White, Bloom & Egret, Lovely & Princess, Amour & Ma’Cheri, Sky & Prism, Wing & Butterfly)

More than the others, these Cures are VERY devoted to their teammates and it shows. They’d survive easily.

The Fresh Cures are all very team focused in their move sets and lifestyles.

Also helps that all four of them are still here.

Cure Dream is an excellent leader of a team of 6.

And shes the only 6 Team Leader left in the game. She’d be great at working with a team.

Cure March and Cure Soliel are both strong and the eldest of many siblings. They’re known for teamwork.

Cure Heart is a HUGE standout here.

She’s the student council president, the leader of her team, and a very strong a determined fighter on her own, and is always taking the selfless route of her team first.

More than anyone else here, if anyone’s carrying the team to victory, it’s her.

And finally, Cure Moonlight.

This is a strange one, as last time, I actually eliminated her in this round because she wasn’t a very big team player and took the longest of anyone to join a team. And even then there were complications.

BUT, looking back, I feel like that was my biggest error in that previous list. As while that IS true, you can’t ignore that Yuri IS one of the STRONGEST Cures remaining.

Regardless if she is a good team player or not, if you’re strong enough to hold the rope, you can survive.

So there, I redeemed myself.

So yeah, there’s a lot of good Cures here. What a shock, a show all about teamwork has characters great at teamwork.

But there ARE exceptions to that, surprisingly.

First one is Cure Muse.

1, she’s the smallest and therefore weakest one left.

2, she’s a loner. It’s who she is.

Lethal combo.

And sadly Cure Cosmo.

She was a front runner before, so WOW, what a downfall.

Literally.

While she’s not as weak as Ako, she is also a huge loner and didn’t cooperate with a team even after joining, she was just kinda along for the ride.

Cure Spicy and Cure Finale are both gone here.

Both of them are natural loner who struggle with others, and constantly go on their own and are just social communicators.

Cure Fortune. For… pretty much all the same reasons as the previous combined.

And finally,

Cure Miracle and Cure Fontaine.

The thing that screws them over here is their respective teammates, the Mahou Tsukai Cures and the Healin Good Cures.

Who, aside from themselves, have ALREADY been eliminated.

So they’re alone here.

It’s sad, honestly.

7 Cures Are On The Losing Team ; 48 Cures would hypothetically survive

Marbles

In this came, pairings are pinned against each other to ensure one of them gets all the marbles.

There’s multiple ways to go at this. You can play a marble game. Or if you’re not good at that, there’s always manipulation.

With that in mind, I think the obvious contenders are the villain Cures, especially the born ones.

That’s Amour & Passion.

They’d have no problem.

Cure Macaroon is also a master manipulator without even needing to be a villain.

It’s honestly impressive.

And… that’s it.

Not a lot. That’s because all of these characters are so good hearted that they just wouldn’t be able to hurt their partners.

With that in mind…

We gotta talk about the partners.

I think we’d know who’s pair up with who, not knowing what the game is.

And if Amour made it…

That means her little Cure Ma’Cheri is a goner.

It doesn’t help that she’s younger, and therefore just not a manipulative person.

Plus I think she would allow Ruru to go on.

If Cure Peach is Setsuna’s partner, then she’d also go.

Love is an overbearing person anyway who devotes herself to people.

And then, Cure Chocolot.

Try and convince me Yukari wouldn’t be Akira’s partner. But Akira is very loyal and devoted to people. Sure she’d try to fight to save them both, but once she realizes they can’t, Akira would give Yukari the marbles.

Then there’s the other duos. Melody & Rhythm, Black & White, Bloom & Egret, Lovely & Princess, Sky & Prism, Wing & Butterfly, and the other teams left with just two of them left. Berry & Pine, Sunshine & Moonlight, Gelato & Parfait, Ange & Etoile.

I don’t see these characters manipulating the other. SO… Which ones would sacrifice themselves so the other would move on?

I feel it would be…

Rhythm, White, Egret, Lovely, Prism, Butterfly, Pine, Moonlight, Parfait, Ange

These characters I feel like would have a slightly more devotion towards their partners that they’d sacrifice themselves.

Then there’s the others.

March, Heart, and Soliel, though front runners last time, go here.

They’re all very loyal and devoted, overbearingly so.

Cure Honey goes here, as she’s very trusting towards villains as shown

Cure Scarlet is an interesting elimination.

Yes she’s also an ex villain, but she’s a BRAINWASHED ex villain. It’s because she was manipulated as a child. And years of that would taint her ability to BE manipulative herself without that.

And to even it out to have 24, we need to eliminate six more.

I believe this would be…

Precious, Sunny, Mint, Flora, Milky, & Coral

I’m putting these six together because I don’t have a good reason for it individually.

It’s just that the others have more brain power and guts going for them.

That was a brutal round. And it’s gonna get worse with 24 left.

Glass Stepping Stones

This is by far the worst one.

Get in line. Step on one of two glass panels one at a time. One is safe, the other breaks and you’re gone.

There are NO stand outs here.

This is mostly based on LUCK.

BUT there is ONE factor that we can use to determine a final two.

The line order.

They get to pick their numbers. So it really goes down to who is prideful enough to pick a low number and who’s resilient enough not to.

Out of these, the one I feel would pick #1 is…

Cure Princess.

Out of all them, Hime is easily the most prideful and spoiled of the bunch with her inheritage.

And that will spell her doom for sure.

Cure Sky is not too far behind.

Her whole thing is being the hero, therefore, she’s very confident in her abilities and would think she could pass this.

And going on with it, I think it’s safe to say student council characters would definitely feel the urge to do sooner.

So…

Sunshine, Beauty, Aqua, Diamond, Mermaid, & Selene.

Then there’s more headstrong characters.

Melody, Black, Bloom, Gelato, Dream, Flamingo, Rouge, & Twinkle

Which leaves 8, who I feel would be humble enough to pick higher numbers.

This is hard.

SLIGHTLY, I think the next ones would be Macaroon, Berry, Rosetta, & Papaya.

Which leaves 4

And with that in mind, Etoile and Passion BARELY miss the Top 2

This might be VERY controversial, but of the four left, that half is the lesser stable.

Homare has trauma from her figure skating career and taking on a major role, which is why she’s be further in the back, BUT she HAS shown improvement on such and thus that can’t be ignored. It’d be a dare she’d make to pick the 4th to last number instead of the last one.

And Setsuna, while she is NOT dumb, or arrogant, or even prideful, she is someone who acts on impulse when it comes to time. Especially if, at that point, the timer was almost out. She’s be desperate. And to call her a very emotionally stable person in these sorts of situations is just false.

Which leaves the Final Two, Cure Amour and Cure Wing.

Cure Wing because I feel he would be the one to pick the back number out of everyone. He has survived in his own in hiding for a long time and never broke in sanity, and his nature, while selfless, is also reserved and patient enough to recognize his playing field.

Therefore, he would be the most humble and go last.

And Cure Amour because she too, while able to hold her own, also recognizes when to stay in the back and reserve herself. She did go in disguise. I know that probably means the same should apply to Setsuna, but there is one thing that made me choose Ruru over her.

Her robot nature.

If ANYONE here would be able to tell the glass apart, it’s her.

So she’s at a pretty huge advantage no one else has.

Squid Game

And now, the titular Squid Game. The finale. One acts as the defender. The other acts as the offenser.

And… honestly in the game it’s more of a ‘fight to the death’ type of deal.

And considering which two are left…

I feel like this is even less of a debate than last time.

We LOVE Tsubasa and he deserves it, BUT this scrawny bird boy stands next to NO chance against Ruru.

Ruru is a robotic figure with better defense than him, she’s so much stronger than him that she could throw people in space with ease, and could predict his moves before he could even make them.

Maybe Tsubasa is faster. But that can’t play any factor if he can’t get through her robotic figure. Which he has no ability that can do that.

So… yeah, the Bird Boy falls here.

Cure Amour Wins Squid Game.

She was the victor last time, and… that didn’t change on redoing it. She just had all the skills necessary to win.

#pretty cure #squid game #yes pretty cure 5 #smile pretty cure #delicious party pretty cure #precure #smile precure #suite precure #futari wa precure #delicious party precure #go princess precure #happiness charge precure #healin good precure #healin' good precure #heartcatch precure #hirogaru sky precure #fresh precure #hirogaru sky! precure #hugtto precure #kira kira precure a la mode #star twinkle precure #tropical rouge precure #cure amour

[rock-n-serval]

2.1 Penacony thoughts [part5]

**BIG STORY SPOILERS** Chatting up until the end of the current story so if you haven’t finished it yet then I’d encourage you to do so before reading any further.

Before all the big reveals happen, I appreciate these few dialogue options we get right after the Aventurine fight. It sounds like they’re all asked in rapid succession and the last one is completely valid considering how often we actually switched viewpoints during this update.

Once Sam appeared, I knew it was finally going to be the moment where we learn who he truly is. As they list out the other hunter’s specialties and his own lack of one, he mentions “there is only one method that I use,” and I wanna say it’s deception..

..because lo and behold, everyone was completely right and the person beneath the armored suit is indeed Firefly herself. I’m not surprised, just interested in learning about her reasons. Was that death of hers planned and why? Has she always been Sam, even way back during the Jepella Rebellion trailer? Or does that device in her hand allow her to appear as Sam? Because didn’t we hear to talking to a “mecha” in that one dreamscape last patch? She just seems so out of place among the other Stellaron Hunters but I’m eager to learn more about her once we pick up here next update.

Also, I’m just gonna say it.. I wasn’t truly upset over her “death.” I feel like we were kinda forced to care for her after she gave us a tour of Penacony, but that alone wasn’t enough for me to get properly attached. That time was real brief and only took up a small section of the previous update. Not to mention the many weeks in between updates where I spent much time thinking about almost everyone else aside from her. Most other characters we’ve met on this planet received trailers, drip marketing and so much more to get me invested into learning about them while Firefly’s presence was short lived. I would genuinely be upset if anything bad happened to Black Swan, Acheron or Sparkle and I’m already emotional over Robin, Aventurine and maybe even Sunday. There’s stuff going on with Gallagher and Misha that I’m still curious about and we haven’t even properly met Boothill yet but I’m so excited to see him. Maybe my opinion on Firefly will change during the next update, but for now I really don’t have any strong feelings about her other than simple curiosity. I am pleased to see her still alive for the Trailblazer’s sake, but if she somehow survives this entire story and Aventurine doesn’t..hmpf.

All that aside, the scene with Gallagher and Sunday was.. a lot to take in, but once again we have someone else calling Sunday crazy. Perhaps he should go to therapy.

The framing of this scene is nice and sorta confirms those purple nightingales do in fact see everything happening on Penacony, acting as Sunday’s eyes and reporting back to him. At least that’s the vibe I’m getting.

This is quite unexpected? Honestly I feel like every time Sunday is involved there’s a new plot point that’s introduced into this giant story. Both sides definitely have it out for each other, that’s for sure.

What in the hell is this twist??

Sunday thinks Gallagher is in disguise, but after the hound tells him to take a closer look, Sunday starts to notices all these little details about him that seem reminiscent to 52 other members of the Family.

I wish I could say this idea is foreign to me, but it actually reminds me of Kamui from the second season of Psycho Pass and how his body is made up of 184 different people and 7 personalities. Kamui was also unable to be detected by any scanners and that also reminds me of Gallagher and how almost no other Bloodhound knows who he is.

And I haven’t the faintest idea on what Sunday means here but I noticed the voice over doesn’t even say “minion of the Enigmata” no matter how many times I tried to replay this line over.

It’s at this moment where I started to waiver with my distrust towards Sunday and actually start to feel bad for him a little bit solely because of the strong emotion in his voice when he questions why Robin had to be killed. It at least prevents me from thinking he had any part of it.

Then we head into a cutscene and dear god, things happen quick. This one shot of Gallagher reminds me of his light cone just because of the lighter.

This frame of Sunday looking down on him feels so intense and I kinda love it with both the intense shadows and harsh light.

And then..? Our angelic and handsome man gets killed?? Presumably by another memory zone meme I guess I dunno it happened in an instant and all I have to show for it is splatters of goo??

Oohhh my goodness.. this story took such a turn. Many of them actually. Seeing how Sunday is a puddle on the floor similar to what happened to Firefly, I wanna believe that he’s gonna be okay? If she could survive, surely he can too. Maybe? I’m still not to sure about Robin’s condition and I’m being so darn hopeful that Aventurine is alive somehow. That’s definitely the death that hurts most for me if true. Anyways, I’ll end it here and just say there’s many answers to look forward to with the next update. As always, I’m not trusting anyone! Astral Express family only!

(originally written on 3/30)

#honkai star rail #sam #firefly #gallagher #sunday #gameplay #rnsposts

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

I reread my own fic A Light That Never Goes Out last night and remembered that I actually have notes for it so here y’all go, I’m dumping them here! 🌈

Ch 1

okay so here we go, here’s me explaining the candle thing again

To the newer folks who might not know, when you meet Ephemera in khx (browser chi), he asks you to get a candle from the Moogle because the Moogle wouldn’t let him get one. You’re more successful than he is, and throughout the quests where you’re traveling in the sewers with him, you go ahead and clear out the Heartless while he holds the candle so the flame doesn’t go out. The sewers visibly look darker too, until you both reach the end

You can watch it here

Ch 2

It always bugged me that the union leaders never got to fully grieve Ava or any of the other foretellers on screen. As far as they know, they perished in the war, they’re gone. So I wanted to let Ephemera have a moment to miss her, as one of her friends and someone who liked being around her

I also think that out of anything that happened during the war, it would’ve been really poignant if Player remembered their interaction with Ava. Of course, that’s part of their pain that was meant to be erased via union cross, but I imply that in this fic, Ephemera has gradually been helping them sift through the memories rather than completely suppressing them. Slowly re-exposing them to the memories so they don’t have a total breakdown.

As someone very close to Ephemera, it just feels more right and fair to him that Player gets these important memories back. It’s his sign of trust

Ch 3

It’s the shortest chapter, but still one I really like

It’s important to me that you know just how smitten Ephemera is with Player, and also how great of a friend Skuld is

She plays a wingman role in this fic, basically the one who encourages these two oblivious pining dorks to get together and helps when they need a third opinion

Ch 4

As I said in the notes, this is an expanded/updated version of an ask prompt which you can read here

The most important change to me was Ephemera asking to kiss them first rather than going in all gung ho. It feels more in character for him. Plus we love consent in this household!

Ch 5

I miss khux’s avatar boards…but not buying them!! 😜

The black and white tuxedo Player tries on was foreshadowing for Ephemera struggling to choose between a black and white tuxedo in ch 9

I also just really love Ephemera in red boots. It’s like…a Thing for me now. This will not be the last you hear of it

Now’s a good spot to mention that Ephemera’s absolutely relentless when it comes to being flirty. Not in the “whoa he‘s got rizz” way, but more in the “wow this guy’s a massive cheese ball” way. He’s been like this in my head since 2016 (I blame Kam. Love you Kam!!)

Ch 6

This was written with the intent of Player being somewhere on the ace/aro spectrum (one of the meanings for the chapter being called Purple is a reference to the colour purple on the ace flag). I didn’t really elaborate on it or even mention it because honestly, I’m not ace and I wasn’t sure if I was portraying it accurately enough for it to be a prominent point

What I wanted the focus to be on was simply that Ephemera would love them, no matter what they feel or don’t feel. This applies to chapter 10 too, where he’s very understanding of whatever their opinion on having kids is

Ch 7

The jokes about the barter system is actually from a bunch of skulmerayer mini prompts I tried to write but ultimately couldn’t figure out or even fit in anywhere else

Eph and Player should’ve been able to hang out in Candy Kingdom together like they did in Cy-Bug Sector…..I stand by this

They both have a severe case of the sillies, amplified when they’re around each other

Ch 8

I think Ephemera gets bad dreams too, especially after the war. He often dreams about how hurt Player got, or worse, not being able to save them at all. And now he has bad dreams of the canon universe, where he lost everything, including Player

But this is a different timeline, where the two of them, and Skuld, were all able to escape the data world and meet up with the other leaders again to plan their next move in a new world

Ch 9

In this alternate timeline, all the union leaders continue their work together in Scala ad Caelum at the main tower. Honestly, I didn’t really think of how this would happen, but just imagine some kind of override where they’re able to create a new world at the expense of losing Daybreak Town forever. That part sadly stays the same

Skuld tells Ephemera, “You’ll be alright on your own.” It’s a callback to what he told her before leaving her party.

I like listening to Chikai (orchestra), starting it right before Ephemera pulls out the wayfinder :)

LISTEN I just think gifting a wayfinder can also be a romantic gesture. The sokai fans get this. It can be a big romantic gesture in place of giving someone a ring. It’s cute and made by your partner’s own hands, doesn’t get in the way of gripping a keyblade properly, and always lets you find each other again no matter where your travels take you across the worlds. Its pretty! It’s unique! It’s cute!!!

Ch 10

This is a 10 year timeskip, they’re all in their mid to late 20s now

Ephemera and Player have settled down in Destiny Islands, but take trips to stay in Scala for a few months at a time to relieve the others of their leader duties (and later to teach at the academy). So essentially they live both in Scala’s tower, and in their own home on the islands throughout the year

I feel like in this universe, Blaine would settle down first. Him having a kid on the way ended up giving Ephemera a bit of baby fever, which can often be what happens amongst friends and family around the same age

I have a headcanon ingrained in my head that Eph was raised by two moms who owned a library, so he’s always been surrounded by books growing up

I intentionally kept it vague whether or not he and Player would conceive or adopt children mainly because of Player’s ambiguity and also cause I could easily see them doing a mix of both

(I also headcanon the two of them being a t4t couple so there’s a lot of ways the having kids conversation can be interpreted anyway :D)

but basically, they both end up being parents in canon, so why not make them be parents together? 😊

In conclusion: I love them your honor. Thank you for reading!!!

#altngo #my fics #ephelayer #khux #my posts

[demonslayedher]

How do you think Obanai (and my favorite little dude, Kaburamaru) interacted/got along with all the other hashira realistically on a daily basis? Like did he actually enjoy being around any of the other hashira and talking with them? Did he consider himself to be close with any of them besides Mitsuri? We've never really gotten a look at the daily life of Obanai (or any other Hashira for that matter) and how he feels about any of them, besides the tiny bit in the fan book, so I think this would be an interesting topic. He has such a complex personality due to his backstory, which really changes how he interacts as well. This question is kind of just asking what you personally think, feel free to answer it however you would like. I really love how you realistically analyze the characters so I would love to get your opinion on this :) Thank you for all the awesome content!

Thank you for reading and enjoying the analysis! Let's dive into Iguro, especially his relationships with others!

Iguro is one of those characters who didn’t capture my interest for a long time, especially because I was so worked up over the raging battle with Muzan and Tanjiro’s condition that when I got the weekly update that was Iguro’s backstory, I was like, “no, not this! Keep the story going!! AAAAHH! I waited a week to see what happens next!” I still feel like that timing was a disservice to his character, as I didn’t digest his complexity until much later (speaking of digesting, I never liked the design of the snake demon lady in the first place, as she felt comically evil for her baby-eating and contrived torture of “save this one and make him look more like me” approach).

And he truly is a complex character, and once that clicked for me, he’s remained as interesting to me as everyone else in the cast. Part of the reason he doesn’t stand out as much as first is because the interesting sides of him are subtle, as opposed to the surface level stripes, bandages, heterochromia, and snake buddy. But, all those factors together certainly make for an impactful design. And hanging out up the tree and judging people, really, what a statement of an entrance.

Since the first appearances we get of Iguro all showcase his tendency toward harsh judgement of others, it’s easy to type-cast him as grumpy and hateful, unless you happen to be Mitsuri, whom he likes enough to bequeath socks to. Sure, even, the most grouchy of and touchy of people can have a crush and gain a soft spot for someone; this made Obamitsu initially not very interesting to me too. Like, yeah, duh, of course he likes Mitsuri, who wouldn’t like her, I love her, and because I love her I guess I can’t help but like Iguro too because I want her to be happy.

Which just kind of brought out my frustration with him. Why can’t you get over yourself and just let her be happy!? She doesn’t care about your “tainted blood,” man, just let her love on you!! You’ll BOTH be so-o-o-o-o much happier, dummy!!

These being my feelings, I was twice as irritated with the Iguro backstory chapter appearing where it did. However, there was still some time before the final chapters were published, and this gave me more time to spend with Iguro in the context of fighting alongside Tanjiro, and going in as a Muzan-sized choking hazard. And then I had a vivid dream one morning about an AU in which he and Mitsuri were, in fact, married with small children, but due to a brain injury, they had a 50 First Dates sort of situation in which Mitsuri still thought they were in the “friends but not lovers” stage and Iguro was doing his best to care for the children (who missed their mother as they knew her but did their best to be understanding) as well as keep Mitsuri blissfully unaware so she wouldn’t be sad that she forgot about her children. In true KnY style, this had Tanjiro finding out by accident around the time of Pillar Training, and being shocked (and thinking it’d be kinder to let Mitsuri know she actually does have a happy marriage), and Iguro warning Tanjiro to back off and pretend he saw nothing. And then, after this emotionally involved dream, I woke up and immediately saw spoilers that Obamitsu was canon! They confessed love to each other and promised to get married! And then died. So yeah, that was quite a morning for me. And then after the Obamitsu shock I saw spoilers about dead!Tanjiro, so yeah, that was quite a morning.

So then where did this take me later? Ah, yes, I took an interest in Kaburamaru’s origins first, and this was my backdoor to pondering more about Iguro’s past. I remained interested in Kaburumaru’s origins and went to visit those snakes in person, and I wholeheartedly love those snakes now, especially the one who came up to the glass to say hello to me. I love you, little snake out there in Iwakuni.

While thinking more about the island (not exactly a place you’d expect to find rich people) and family upbringing is intriguing, what truly interests me about Iguro is his emotional complexity. The fact that poetry is his pastime (including senryu, which have more flexibility for cynicism) is what really got me. He’s not just a ball of hate sitting up there in the trees judging people, he’s appreciating the beauty of nature too, d’aaaaw. His personality is as striped as his haori!

However, he doesn’t seem like the type to express any of his sensitivities, he doesn’t mind that people generally only see him for his harsher side. Maybe he doesn’t hide his sensitive interior world, but he lacks people with whom to share those bittersweet appreciations for life put into elegant form. Sure, this awareness makes him look at Mitsuri for her natural cheer and brightness, loving her exactly for who she is, but she’s kind of bubbly and bad with words so she probably wouldn’t make a conversation partner for poetry appreciation. Again, it seems like a private activity for him, so I don’t think this would make him sad in any way.

However, as he prefers not to talk about himself and these interests, that makes his relationships with others very interesting, and I had a lot of fun with writing a short fic from his perspective to dive into more of these aspects of his character. I’ve found it fascinating that he and Uzui ever would have found themselves in a conversation about their pasts (as described the second fanbook), and I had a mad, mad desire to see how that ever would have happened, and what would had prompted it and made them feel inclined to put their trauma on display to each other. Not that I think they’d have been buddy-buddy after an experience like that, but at least open and frank with one another (clearly, Iguro feels his relationship with Uzui is one in which he can say, “you can’t retire, but good job on the lowest of the Upper Moons, I guess”). In this fic I also had Iguro meet Oyakata-sama, whom, among the whole cast, I suspect would have the best understanding of Iguro’s sensitive side.

The next most likely character to see this is Himejima, as he’s sensitive to everyone’s sensitives, as evidenced in the second fanbook. What with Iguro’s deep respect for Himejima, I don’t think Iguro would trouble with conversations about anything more than typical Pillar duties, though. I say respect because Iguro’s black-and-white judgements of others are based on how reliable he finds him, and he finds Himejima reliable. He wouldn’t say that about just anyone. It also squeezes my heart to picture him having a relationship with Kyojuro that goes far back, in any range of what sort of relationship this was. For instance, if Iguro stayed at the Rengoku estate initially and little Kyojuro was actively involved in Iguro’s care, that means Kyojuro probably kept a vested interest in Iguro getting stronger and learning Breath technique and passing the Final Selection and climbing the ranks, and this might had looked like checking in with him on a friendly basis once or twice a year. Or, perhaps their encounter in childhood was brief, and Iguro was initially embarrassed when he ran into Kyojuro later who happily inquired about his health and acquisition of Breath technique, and Iguro might had been a bit shy as first because Kyojuro KNOWS his past and how frail and helpless he was a child. However, what with Kyojuro having such a bright and cheerful personality like Mitsuri’s, he’d probably feel as ease with him very soon.

His relationships with Shinobu and Muichiro seem purely professional. He wouldn’t want to spend much time with Shinobu in the first place purely on the basis of gender, but he wouldn’t dislike her for it, and his respect for her is genuine (she’d probably be the most likely to appreciate poetry in the same vein as him, though). For Muichiro, I love that he has concern for him, but he would respect Muichiro’s skills in a way that wouldn’t make him feel like he needs to keep an eye out for his wellbeing like he does for Mitsuri, on account of Mitsuri not always being as level-headed as she should in battle. I like to imagine that instead of feeling inadequate seeing Muichiro’s genius levels of skill, Iguro instead has observed it here and there, and realized aspects that he can incorporate into his own short-person swordsmanship.

Okay, but speaking of my own fics again, and seeing as this one was purely for indulgent Pillar interactions, I had SOOO MUCH FUN making Iguro the second most uncomfortable person in this fic.

Iguro hating the sight of Giyuu is pure and simple hilarious to me. Moving on.

What I truly wish we could had seen more of is Iguro and Sanemi hanging out together; I imagine this looked like griping sessions about Giyuu following Pillar meetings. If Mitsuri brings out the white in Iguro’s personality, then Sanemi brings out the black. Sure, the black is always on display for everyone, it is the side of Iguro which best suits his Pillar duties, but in Sanemi’s presence, it’s not just professional, it’s fun. Venting is a bonding experience and they can both relax in each other’s presence with this, and I imagine that makes them open to hanging out in any other kind of context, too. They’d have that level of comfort with each other that, say, if anyone else approached Sanemi while he’s smiling and enjoying the company of a stray dog, he’d probably be embarrassed and defensive if approached by anyone else who might comment on that nice side of him, but if Iguro were to come up and say, “hmmm, so you like, dogs?” Sanemi would probably be like, “yeah, I love dogs” and continue enjoying the dog. Iguro, being at ease in Sanemi’s presence, may even be inclined to pet the dog too, even if he doesn’t connect with that animal as much as Sanemi does.

I also really, really love how Iguro’s complexity comes out in his treatment of Tanjiro. If it’s his choice, he has nothing to do with that annoying brat with the demon sister and who got him scolded by Oyakata-sama, and even worse, that brat is buddy-buddy with Mitsuri. However, in battle, that means nothing. He and Giyuu both are worthy comrades and Iguro treats them as realistically as the situation calls for, similarly to how he will admonish Mitsuri if that is what the battle requires. He can set aside his black personality with such ease that he can adapt to and sync with Tanjiro instantly, and this also means entirely setting aside the ire and accepting Tanjiro into the white side of his personality as soon as Tanjiro has gained his trust. Iguro’s a polite man who knows how to express his honest gratitude, too.

If he chooses to express himself, he does it well. It’s always a matter how of “if”, though.

Those who get to know the real Iguro, who are shown the multiple facets of his personality instead of only the professional ones, are few and chosen. Like how the stripes of his haori obfuscate his true form underneath, choosing when and how to reveal himself, to whom, is such a core part of Iguro’s character. He’s got a lot of self-knowledge, which also makes him able to read others well.

If he chooses to, anyway.  

EDIT: Forgot to add my take on Kaburamaru's interactions!! My take exactly is here in this fanart. Kaburamaru is friendly dude.

#iguro obanai #kny fandom theories and meta

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for being friends with my ex?

First of all sorry if this will be long This whole situation is kind of a mess really. I (30F) recently started dating a guy (23M) who I'll refer to as J. Yes, I know there's a 7 year age gap between us and to be honest I was hesitant to even start dating him especially because we met in a vet clinic (he's a veterinarian, I had to take my cat but don't worry she's okay) but he just kept insisting and I guess I'm bad at saying no to people. Either way we've been dating for about a week now.

Now part of why I'm dating him is also because I really want to get over my ex fiance (34M). I'll be referring to him as D. D and I broke things off a day before our wedding was scheduled so you can imagine how messy that whole situation was. But ultimately it wasn't an angry break up or anything. I realized I just didn't love him enough that way to marry him and neither of us were truly ready for a commitment like this. And then there's the matter of how we were friends even before we felt any romantic attraction towards each other. He was actually one of my first friends in this city. All this to say, I didn't want to cut him out of my life completely. We're still very close. If anything we have better communication and a better appreciation of each other since we decided to keep our relationship platonic.

It all worked out good until just a few hours ago J told me he's uncomfortable with me staying friends with D. I just don't agree with that. There's seriously nothing between us anymore, it's been months since we broke up! But I asked my assistant/friend R (31M) how he would feel about me and D being friends if he was dating me (which he was weirdly dismissive about by the way, I'm not sure why he's so against the idea of dating me he'd refuse to think about it even for the sake of a theoretical scenerio) and he said he thinks it's weird too. And this next thing I'm going to say might sound weird but I honestly trust R's opinion more than J's. I don't know if it's because I've known R for longer or if it's because he's way more mature not even just in actual age. But now I really don't know what to do.

UPDATE: Well now i truly feel like an asshole. I gave in to what everyone around me said and tried to sever my friendship with D. In the worst way possible. I told him I was going to my hometown for a few days because my dad is sick (he isn't actually I feel horrible for lying about this) as an excuse to cancel our racquetball session only to plan on playing racquetball with J. Except D found out and altough he said it's fine, I could see he was hurt. I mean of course he was hurt, racquetball was our thing plus I straight up lied to him! I tried to apologize and I hope we'll be able to be close again but I still feel like a total asshole and an idiot for listening to J and R about this.

UPDATE 2: Well guess who decided to cheat on me with their ex just a few month after this incident? Honestly as much as I'm really mad and disappointed right now it feels like kind of a relief to be out of this relationship. I can guarantee I will NOT stay friends with J after this that's for sure. As for D I'm still friends with him and I literally couldn't care less what anyone thinks about it anymore.

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality

[canyouhearthelight]

Nihilus Rex, Ch. 12: Aftermath

Here we have what should be the last really technical chapter for...hopefully the rest of the book. Fingers crossed. Although I am sure we can sneak some more stuff here and there if someone asks for more technical stuff, just not so many unending chapters of it.

As always, on the even-numbered chapters, I wrote while @baelpenrose co-wrote and beta'd.

Some legends are told

Some turn to dust or to gold

But you will remember me

Remember me for centuries

And just one mistake

Is all it will take

We'll go down in history

Remember me for centuries

Fall Out Boy, “Centuries”

Lash

“I heard it was part of a bigger hack.”

“Everything I’ve seen about that goes back to some QAnon boards. They think everything is a conspiracy.”

My heart rate picked up just a bit as I looked over dozens of similar conversations across several message boards.  It was entirely too close to home, but felt completely surreal at the same time - I had been part of a coordinated attack against major financial institutions, and no one even believed the scale of what had actually happened.  Not even the people directly impacted, if everything from our botnets was accurate.

In the immediate aftermath, over truly horrendous spinach pie and far too many dolmades, Nils and I had kicked around what-ifs and half-assed contingencies.  It had all boiled down  to keeping an eye on our feeds, waiting for updates from Bishop if he caught anything, and laying low until the attack had aged out of the news cycle.  If online communities started piecing anything together, the plan was to sow misinformation and redirect.

We had definitely called it on the news portion - pundits were still arguing over whether the slain men were heroes of the middle class out to free people from the bonds of financial indenture, or anti-capitalist villains trying to destabilize the global economy.  Every late night show had a self-referential monologue about the deceased, followed by a person-on-the-street segment with split opinions like some ghoulish, real world version of the Boondock Saints.  No one could agree if their goal had been just the one attack, or if there was a secret manifesto somewhere with their ultimate strategy.  What everyone did agree on, however, from the Department of the Treasury, to the OCC, to all major news networks, was that the people responsible had been gunned down by police.  Body camera footage had been released, sometimes uncensored, with all six men declaring loudly that no one else was involved, nobody had put them up to this, nothing had inspired them. 

No One. Nobody. Nothing.  Anyone who had interacted with Nils online and had two brain cells left to rub together would have known immediately.

Except… Our damage control had done its work for us.  Every single time I had been alerted that someone was suggesting a larger plan, the same response had come: That’s QAnon nonsense. A conspiracy. I bet you think the moon landing was fake, too.

Nils had joked about his handle then. “Would you buy that my handle is also an Odyssey reference to be a contingency for exactly this?” He’d said, half joking.

I squinted, half smiling at the memory. “I bet your minion morons believe that.  I do not.  Especially not having seen how far back your handle goes, in some form or another.” She waggled a bite of food at him. “Nice try, though. The bravado almost sold it.”

“Fair enough. Speaking of handles, Lash. Can I get your real name?” He’d said, as they’d shared dinner after the fact. “I haven’t tracked it down as a matter of respect, but we’ve been friends for a while and I would like to know. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” 

“You aren’t allowed to use it,” I had made him promise. Something about sharing my first name had always felt too… exposed. “Not in person, not via text, not at all.”

He’d given that weird smile that seemed almost like his signature, the one that seemed like he was laughing at something somewhere else, and said, “I promise. I’ll only call you Lash.”

“Then I will tell you when all this dies down and you can’t rat me out to the authorities.” He hadn’t been expecting that, and I winked at his shock. “Shouldn’t be too hard. Not like you would rat me out anyway.” Truth be told, I liked having him at something of a disadvantage.

He inclined his head at a little bow, “As you wish, Lash.” He raised a glass. “This was really fun though. Good working with you.” 

Now, I was staring feeds on three monitors, a week out, watching the entire financial sector and public refuse to believe anything more serious had happened than six armed men breaking into a major bank Guy Ritchie-style.  All three of us had expected some form of damage control, but there was nothing to control.

Almost like I had cursed myself, my phone started buzzing violently across my desk, sending me to my feet hard enough to almost knock my chair over.  “Spam Spam” showed up on my caller ID - Bishop.

“Please take me off whatever list this is,” I answered carefully. Bishop did not call me. He messaged me through about a million proxies, but calling was a no-no.  Paranoid did not begin to describe the man’s communication habits.

“Just a moment of your time, Miss,” the voice came through. “I am calling on behalf of Bloomberg to offer you a one year subscription for only $1 per week. That’s all your basic financial and stock news, for $52 a year.”

“That’s nice, but I’m broke,” I sighed, taking note of the site before hanging up.

My stomach sank when the phone buzzed again, this time a message from Nils. “Uh. Quick meetup somewhere secure. We may have overshot slightly. In a good way.” 

Definitely not good. “Let’s meet at the usual spot. We need to talk about the project for class, anyway.” I sent the message and didn’t even check for confirmation before gathering my stuff with one hand while I checked my news skimmer with the other.

Well, fuck.

Nils was waiting at the shitty hacker cafe, and he looked tense, eyes sharp. He barely waited for me to sit down. “So. There’s a thing. Remember when we were making the worm? And we had to shave some stuff off to make it small enough to still function? And we had to simplify some of its seeking parameters? Uh…it…I just realized that everything in Blackbox…”

“Shut the fuck up,” I hissed, glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention. “You and B reached out within about five minutes of each other, and he managed to tell me to check the news. I saw. We overshot by a couple orders of magnitude, yeah.”

“Yeah. Explains why no damage control. Until someone leaked it, I don’t know that they were legally allowed to admit it could be hacked.” 

“We need coffee,” I stammered out, running a hand over my head. “And B. But coffee first.” Without waiting, I bounced up and ordered for us both. When I came back to the table, he was bouncing a knee - not out of place in a place that specialized in caffeine addiction for the ADHD set, thankfully. “I don’t suppose you carry a flask or something? Could only make it taste better.”

“My flask is for energy drinks when I need caffeine in emergencies because my head is starting to hurt from withdrawals, so, no. It absolutely would not. I appreciate the suggestion though.” Nils’ voice was flat. “I’ll reach out to B and tell him to get over here. We have a bit of a security concern to address. A slimy, perverted security concern to address.” 

“He doesn’t know my actual name or my face,” I told him pointedly. “I’ll drive the bus if you’ll do the throwing, it comes to that.”

“He knows your handle, he’s better than we are at breaking encryptions and worse about boundaries, he absolutely knows your name.”

“I don’t think anyone is going to trust any records scavenged from a defunct elementary school or a birth certificate. Those are the only places my actual name is listed. I don’t even drive.” I thought about it for a minute. “But backing up his stuff remotely to make sure we have any sex trafficking or worse would be a good idea.”

“Honestly I was thinking simpler. We have a crime that he was accomplice to, he can’t blackmail us without incriminating himself without claiming he didn’t know what it would be used for. He might get immunity for the tip, but that takes time. He’s attempted to solicit you for indecent shit a lot, and attempted to get me to engineer…basically letting him do sex crimes, a few times. I kept the messages after turning him down, you? If nothing else it kills his credibility as a witness and ruins any ability he has to get us convicted of anything.” 

I gave him a dirty look. “What kind of amateur do you think I am? I have all my dirt on everyone backed up where no one can find it except me or my parents. External drives, somewhere safer than that server we just fucked up.”

“Of course, my apologies.” He looked a little calmer with the idea that Weasel was handled. “They’ll try to trace us but our databombs will have made such a brutal hash of anything they could trace that they won’t know where to start looking. At a guess they’ll move to a different system against future hackers - and I don’t envy the next suckers to try this.” 

I tapped my chin, trying to think what Bishop would point out. Something simple we would be missing. I wasn’t good a peopling, but Bishop was surprisingly adept - “They have six dead bodies, a drive designed to fuck shit up, and six cell phones that had been in contact with you.  So, first link is you. Let’s start there.”

“Burn phone, pre-paid, cash, with an out of state number, picked up ages ago for something else entirely, under an alias I no longer use, again invented for something else entirely, and called through wifi service using a vpn. Said burn phone has now been utterly destroyed with its remains scrubbed of fingerprints and the remains tossed into a dumpster, whilst I was not carrying my normal phone, on the opposite side of town from where we normally spend any time. I think that about covers it.” 

“I don’t ever want to hear anyone say women watch too much true crime,” I muttered. “You literally could have just taken it apart and used a belt sander on it, handed the pieces to a makerspace. Or donated it to a Goodwill bin.”

“I’ll remember that for next time.”

Bishop showed just after that, making a point to ignore us while getting his coffee and sitting at a table two over from us, facing away.

“I knew getting involved with both of you at once would get exciting. So. We want to talk about what you little maniacs have been discussing before I got here so I can go over what you missed?” B’s voice was vaguely amused, and a little tense. “I should mention, I’ve already gotten a message from Weasel. He put it together. Hopefully you two have a contingency for that.” 

“Oh, the usual,” I answered airily, arching a brow at Nils. “Blackmail and making sure there aren’t any other tracks to cover. Nils overdid it with his phone, but it should work.”

Harvey’s voice took on an amused note. “Alright then. I’ll tell Weasel to pound sand. Am I to take it you kids had fun the night of the job?”

“Food was hit or miss, and there was some half-delirious contingency planning around damage control.” I rubbed my face. That felt like a decade ago.

Nils was looking embarrassed and Harvey looked amused as the older man continued. “Pity. You two were getting really wound up and I was hoping you’d be able to take a load off that night. From the looks of things, Nils’ usual bullshit and choice of pawns is working out on deflecting suspicion against a bigger conspiracy - I think the feds are reluctant to give conspiracy wingnuts credibility.”

Someone isn’t paying attention to politics, I mused internally. On the surface, I just smiled and took a sip of my coffee, suppressing a grimace at how bitter and nasty it was. Cold brew…. How hard did you have to try to fuck up cold brew, I swear. “Either way, the damage had controlled itself so far.  Any updates since you called? I checked my skimmers right after, but the news was sparse.”

“So far an announcement that 4Chan white supremacist boards are going to be looked at more seriously as a breeding ground for stochastic terrorism coming from the FBI, unsurprisingly now that they’re affecting rich people.” 

Nils gave an evil chuckle. “Oh good, that’s a pot I was stirring a bit ago. Unmanaged retaliation against cops in a predictable timeframe for whatever happens to them and we can let the system eat itself and look away from us, thank you very much…”

The only reason my head didn’t bounce off the table when I dropped it is because my arms cushioned the fall. “Don’t get me wrong!” I held a hand up blindly. “After the revenge porn thing, yes, scrutinize breeding grounds. And at least everyone knows the guys who are currently taking the fall are not - “ I pointed at myself emphatically. “But I am not a fan of ‘unmanaged’ retaliation against a group with airtight legal protections and a poor track record of reading perp stats correctly.” It was the most polite way I could say ‘racist assholes’ without everyone in the cafe looking at me.

“Options: I have to actively take command of the right wing gun nuts a la some shitty real life Code Geass-ripoff shenanigans to manage them, or I let their anti-government shit lead them to fight actual problems for a change, or I let them continue believing that the Jews were running the world and that everyone who couldn’t pass a paper bag test were their foot soldiers in need of shooting - right as the ax was about to fall on them. Guess which option I figured involved the least collateral damage? If you prefer I decide to go whole hog on the aesthetic and try ripping off Lelouch vi Britannia harder, which to me seemed worse than telling them they were going to have a cop problem rather than a Jews run the world problem…” Nils response was less annoyed than exhausted, and unlike our previous conversation where it was clear that he hadn’t thought it out and felt bad about it, his tone indicated that he’d thought this one through and had simply picked the least evil available option he saw. 

Thankfully, Bishop’s unending focus on ‘simplest solution is best solution’ saved me palm abrasions and an assault charge from strangling the cute but dumb motherfucker on the spot. “Since the heat right now is on an actual breeding ground for incels, alt right, and revenge porn entrepreneurs, we could just let them chase their tails and keep laying low. White collar crime is historically white, et cetera, ipso facto Columbo Oreo.”

“I like that idea,” I agreed, putting as much reluctance as possible behind the sentiment. Realistically, Nils as Commander and Chief of the Fucknuckle Wingnut Army was not giving me the warm and fuzzies.

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #original fiction #nihilus rex #afterverse #science fiction #original science fiction #traumatized characters #modern dystopia #modern fiction #my writing #friend's writing

[doodle17]

Look, I love BaTDR as much as the next Joe. It was, in my opinion, very much worth the wait. It's one of the only games I would literally give up any of my prized possessions to experience for the first time again.

One thing I would change about it though, is, well... The Ink Demons design. I honestly don't know why they changed it. It was perfect in BatIM! And the more updated version in some of the early merch designs looked great! I by no means hate his new design but, allow me to explain.

Huge Rant and spoilers below the cut.

His old model seemed more like a "failed attempt" which is what he is. But his Dark Revival model looks way to demonic for me. Because despite the word "demon" in his name, he isn't an actual demon from hell, if that makes any sense.

I mean, I guess His voice matches his new look a little more, BUT I would've loved to see the game with the more bendy-looking Ink Demon. Unfortunately, the new Ink Demon, frankly looks nothing like bendy. It could've been all the experimentation that twisted him into, how he is, I suppose.

I just wished they left his design as it was originally. I'm mean, could you imagine something like this in 3D?

I personally think the new Ink Demon isn't that scary. But this one? It'd be absolutely haunting knowing this feller was stalking your every step. Speaking of stalking, I'm also going to talk about another problem I have with this guy.

Chapter 3 is probably the most disliked, maybe even hated chapter in BaTIM. But believe it or not, it's actually my favorite chapter! Because of the Ink demons mechanic in it.

He is constantly after you in this one, and unlike the rest of his appearances, which are all scripted, he appears at random. Yeah, and it actually feels like he his hunting you. It's terrifying to be walking down a hallway, only for him to appear right in front of you out of NOWHERE.

I was hoping there would be something similar like this in BaTDR, but sadly, we got nothing like it. Instead, it's not even that scary!

In BaTIM, if he saw you, the chase was on. It was a frantic search to get to a hiding spot, or else you were dead meat. And gues what... He never stopped chasing you until you hid or until he caught you.

But in BaTDR? You have a timer. No chasing or anything. Where's the rush of adrenaline to search for a hiding place WHILE he was right behind you, breathing down your neck? The aggressive chase music, as his his foot steps became louder behind you? I would've LOVED this kind of thing in BaTDR! Especially with the old model!

I could even see it playing out similar to the mobile game Granny's mechanic. If you hid, but he saw you hide or you didn't hide fast enough, you'd still get caught, like in boxes, under desks etc. Maybe only Mirachle stations could be the only ones he couldn't get you in, no matter how hard he tried.

BaTDR is a great game, and the Ink Demon is one of my favorite characters. His backstory and behavior is so fascinating to me. And I loved what they did with his story in BaTDR! Especially how they weakened him into his more docile state, which is Bendy.

But, he doesn't look like a failed attempt. He doesn't look like Bendy at all. Again, I'd understand if it was maybe the experiments performed on him that made him look the way he does, but, I don't know... it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth, and a longing in me that just wishes they kept his model how it was... I hope that someday we could get an update that changed his stalking mechanic and model, even though I know, it's unfortunately unlikely.

I hope you enjoyed my rant, I just really has to get my thoughts out there, they've been boiling in my brain since dark revival came out and I had to share.

#Batdr #bendy and the dark revival #bendy and the ink machine #Batim #boris and the dark survival #Batds #Bendy #Ink bendy #ink demon #the meatly #Bendy and the dark revival spoilers #dreams come to life #the lost ones #Dctl

[thewickedlywenchy]

Happy Friday!!!! Hope everyone is doing great! Sorry for being such a terrible tumblr friend this week. Just so much going on.....and STILL without air conditioning!! And this week has been miserable with temps in the upper 90s.

I've been back and forth to the Dr A LOT due to my knee. I haven't given you guys an update since the mri, I have a torn lateral meniscus and also in that same area there is zero cartilage. It's bone on bone with bone lesions....which is a fancy medical term for "hey, your bones are rubbing together and the outer covering is now gone and you actually have erosion going on" It hurts like a MF and so far I haven't been able to get anyone to give me anything for pain. The ortho wants to do a total knee replacement.....but not until I lose 100 lbs. Yeah ok.....so I have an appt with an actual sports medicine DR at the University of Tennessee in a couple of weeks to get a second opinion. Hopefully we can brace it, maybe do pt, and avoid surgery for a bit AND get some pain relief!!! To make matters worse, on my right side I have a surgically reconstructed ankle from about 25 yes ago. Rods, plates, pins etc.....favoring that ankle is what damaged my left knee with muscle inbalance. Now that my knee is hurting that ankle has flared up in a big way. It's never ending. Getting old sucks.

Enough complaining.......if you read this far I love you!! I've missed hanging out with y'all!! I hope everyone has an amazing weekend. I'm looking forward to a little down time this weekend to shoot some content for you guys!

Kisses and squishy hugs!! What are your plans for the weekend??

[callmearcturus]

Pregnant Dave? :O

lmao lemme tell you the whole story since i don't think i'm gonna write the actual chapter, there's too many other stories ppl are waiting for updates to. so i'll spell this out.

(lol this wound up being long enough to almost be a chapter so for context: this is a summary that functions as the epilogue to out here the good girls die. that fic is explicit, DaveKat but also very strong nonsexual KarkatRose vibes. content includes a trans man getting pregnant, no in depth discussion of the physical aspects of that but he does so willingly.)

for context: this takes place maybe a year after the end of the fic. by now, Karkat is a councilor for Vineyard because of course he got into local politics. Rose works as his secretary and basically works on her own political agenda from her desk. Rose has ambitions to make Karkat governor someday. Karkat is loudly adverse to this, but Rose is building quite a coalition of her sex workers' union, small business owners, hospitality workers, etc. so, give her five or ten years.

in Vineyard, Karkat and the Twins are a common topic of the proverbial grapevine. a handsome former Ranger who brought twins back from Vegas? my god.

No one quite knows what is going on there. Is Karkat fucking his secretary? or wait is he cheating on his secretary with her brother? or wait is he sleeping with both of them? also sometimes its hard to tell them apart.... they come from back east, are they manipulating Karkat? what the fuck is going on there? this is all encouraged by Rose, who says its a benign way to keep Karkat in the local news and that helps come election time.

dave is mostly relaxing, decompressing from a long life in a high stress job, and hanging out with karkat's dad and learning to cook and tend to crops. he tries out hobbies. it's nice. unlike rose, he doesn't really have an ambitious bone in his body.

ANYWAY: but like. the reality of being sex workers, rose and dave have gotten pregnant before, but by now they know the signs and they probably keep an exact cocktail of medicine to either Plan B themselves or medically abort as needed. like that just.... seems logical for the setting? not a huge deal.

in Vineyard-by-Navarro though, I think it eventually happens to Dave again and Rose is first to notice and is like "mmkay lemme run to the pharmacy" and dave's like "hm." and keeps going "hm" for a while and thinking a lot. like, a lot.

rose gets kind of impatient with him and they have a minor fight in the living room. karkat comes home and is like "do you guys need a mediator or should i just wait outside until you're done" and dave is like "actually. i think we could use a third opinion here." and rose is just like "kldsjalksdjf SHHH"

but dave and karkat talk and are game to give it (baby) a shot. so rose changes on a dime and shifts into a mindset not unlike a bomb defusal expert. she makes plans and shit and sets up for an expansion to be put on the house, all that.

the only thing that adds a wrinkle; dave is pretty okay with the whole "dude having a baby" thing but he doesn't want it to get out around town, he just doesn't want to deal with Other People's opinions on the matter, right? so. obviously. rose and dave need to swap places. that's just logic.

that's how Karkat learns that Rose and Dave purposefully keep their hair approximately the same length, and with a little work, they can mimick each other. when Dave drops his drawl and puts on Rose's posture, Karkat is lowkey freaked out, but Dave always is quick to drop it when no one is around, discard it with the casualness of tossing out a balled up paper.

still, the fact they can fucking just swap gives Karkat a reminder of his first impression of them, that a pair of New Vegas twins were dangerous.

anyway, Dave goes to the office with Karkat and answers to "Rose" and-- okay he's not as good at Rose's actual job but when word gets out that "Rose" is pregnant, everyone goes easier on him anyway, it's fine. and it makes lunch breaks a lot more interesting; dave gets bored, finds a gap in the schedule, and has a locked-door meeting with Karkat. the rumor mill is having a ball with it.

Rose, on the other hand, is SO FUCKING BORED. she's so bored. every night she grills Dave on what he DOES all day. Dave's answer does not impress her. so Rose eventually gets so bored, she goes out as Dave and looks for a job, and settles on an open afternoon position at the Vineyard radio station.

which in turn leads to another hysterical fight that goes a bit like

ROSE: Perhaps I became concerned about my dear brother, sitting around at home with nothing to enrich his life, wilting like a cactus bloom. DAVE: aw no fuck that and fuck you, I entrusted you with my identity and you go and get me EMPLOYED? you got me a JOB? ROSE: You know there are many who would be extremely blessed to have such a service. In fact, you may find that you are already very popular at Radio Wine. DAVE: you are playin with some fire, sis, given who is wearing your stupid fucking heels and sitting at your stupid fucking desk for the next few months. ROSE: That threat is more than a little uncalled for. Did you not notice I went out of my way to select a job I thought you would be amenable to? KARKAT: [silently eats dinner, shaking his head to himself. how the fuck is this his life. how.]

so that's life for a while until Dave is far enough along it's reasonable for him to prep for having a baby. "Dave" conveniently informs her new employer at the radio station that she's gonna be the midwife and needs to be on-call to run home. everything is set.

Karkat is like "Are you two both addicted to, like... complexity? I feel like you made this whole situation much more complicated." Rose is like, "Well, yes. We are still con artists, and one of the techniques for controlling a mark is to make things just complicated enough that they are spending too much time trying to understand the situation." Dave nods. "Yeah, they're too busy keeping the dominoes lined up, so they have less time to catch you." Karkat points out, "Yeah but who are you conning here." And the twins change the subject because they don't want to admit they might've done all this out of habit.

anyway, the twins decide the baby should definitely be named Vantas so if in the future there is legal trouble and the NCR tries to deport them back to Nevada, either of them can claim to be the parent for legal protection. Rose says she'll use her connections to get them each a fake ID to back up the story. Karkat feels a headache coming on.

but baby is born! everyone takes some some time off, and dave and rose swap back. rose also notes aloud that being a family man looks good to karkat's future constituents. karkat tells her no.

the rumor mill spins up again when Karkat and Dave and Rose and new baby Vantas go on an outing to the broadwalk. eventually, Rose will start winding up karkat's mayoral campaign behind his back, and they'll all be happy. 8)

#Anonymous #my fic #dumb fallout au #this is basically another chapter for that fic #whomstve #davekat #end of year wrapup

[clydesavage-thefox147]

Okay, I owe a formal apology. I am sorry for everything I've said in regards to Thomas' new look. This is my 3rd time apologizing for this. Like I've said before I've struggled with the concept of change for a long time and I'm pretty sure we all have. And I'm pretty sure a lot of us were a bit jostled by Thomas' new change. But, I've come around and I am not as against it as I once was. I have deleted past posts and will attempt to be quiet in this specific matter. I know I have little to no say on this matter but I can still have my opinions/suggestions in mind. I understand why Thomas chose to buzz his hair and I'm glad that the rash has finally started to heal for him. I recall him saying it wasn't a permanent choice in the updates but if it is then, I'll have to adjust. If he keeps the beard then, I'll just have to adjust I guess, just like he'll have to. Like we all had too.

Again I am sorry for all of the comments I've said that hurt Thomas and anyone else about this topic. But, I still stand by the fact that the fandom needs to fix itself, it's been getting extremely toxic lately and I feel like it's going to get worse until it gets better again...which I hope it will soon.

If this apology isn't enough of you..then I will literally offer a blood sacrifice if you ever so wanted.

So again...I am sorry. Thomas, if you ever read this...I desperately wish I could hug you right now and bawl my eyes out into your shirt. I know you'll never forgive me probably..and I don't blame you. I've made mistakes but so have you. So, I hope we can put this all past us and hopefully put an end to this discourse. I love you Thomas. 💜

#sanders sides #sanders sides fandom #thomas sanders #virgil sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #fanders #roleslaying with roman #cartoon therapy #apology #forgive and forget #forgive me #ts criticism #ts sides #ts shorts

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

One cup down, time for the second one and some writing. ☕️

ESPN

CINCINNATI – Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was taken off the field in an ambulance after receiving treatment on the field for over 10 minutes, which resulted in the game between the Buffalo Bills and- Cincinnati Bengals being suspended until further notice Monday night.

I have a lot of thoughts on this matter having been through it myself, at the age of 17.

Was it a tragic accident? Yes. Is it the end of the world for Mr. Hamlin? No, definitely not. Is it scary? Oh, yes, it most certainly is.

WillowTree

Today, Jan 4th, marks the official start of our next chapter as WillowTree, a TELUS International Company.

So, yeah, we are now a part of TELUS International.

What do I expect? Bigger engagements over the next year with bigger brands. I see it as a huge positive.

Realistically, only time will tell, but I’m feeling really good about it. 👍🏼

Tech Dirt

Near the end of 2022, Elon Musk issued an edict to the journalism community. Obey me, he said, or you will be banned from posting on Twitter.

I’ve been reducing my use of Twitter each and every day for a while. I’m down to checking it once or twice a day because there are folks there I haven’t found on Mastodon.

Mastodon has definitely become by new social network home. You can search me out using @[email protected] or go directly to curmudgeon.cafe/@fahrni. I’d love to connect on Mastodon. 😃

Slate

In the past year, there’s been a sharp uptick in anti-LGBTQ incidents around the country. One group estimates that there’s been a 12-fold increase in demonstrations and political violence targeted at the queer community, just since 2000.

Love is love. LGBTQ+ rights are HUMAN RIGHTS! Look, if on the basis of religious beliefs you don’t agree with LGBTQ+ folks, fine. But they’re human beings who deserve to be treated as you would anyone else. Yes, it’s that simple, and it is a choice.

Let’s put it in Christiany terms. WWJD? Do you think Jesus would’ve shown nothing but hate and contempt for the LGBTQ+ community? I think not. He would have shown them kindness, compassion, and above all else, love. ❤️

Goto 10

Another BASIC game I made back in the 80s was one that I actually designed with one of my younger sisters. She had expressed interest in all this “computer stuff” I was doing and wanted to know what it would take to make a game.

I’ve been following Paul’s site for a while and it’s a lot of fun. If, like me, you have a place in your heart for the BASIC programming language, subscribe to Goto 10 and enjoy.

NTDEV

It’s 2023, and Windows 11 is finally a mature operating system that most people would be happy to use. Sun Valley has finally arrived, and it’s all about a long overdue reinvestment in design under Panos Panay’s leadership. But is it enough? 
Let’s take a look.

TL;DR - Windows needs more work to bring everything up to a modern look and feel.

The author goes on to identify nine distinct UI styles, that’s right nine. Talk about technical debt.

From a code design perspective would it be better to go through all those UI frameworks and make them use WinUI 3 or would it be better to touch each individual application to update their UI?

I have been of the opinion you’d hit a wider range of apps if you updated the frameworks to use WinUI 3.

I’ve even written about it. I did get some great feedback that from that piece that basically said the design models are too different to make the Win32 API wrap Win3 UI. I can accept that. But, if it could be pulled off, an entire class of applications would look modern without their authors modifying them.

Perhaps a compromised approach would be to make some of the newer UI Frameworks use Win3 UI and rewrite the UI for old Win32 API apps? 🤔

NPR

When the employees announced they were unionizing, Microsoft vowed to remain neutral and let the employees make their own decision about joining, CWA said.

This sounds really great but the skeptic in me wonders how much Microsoft will allow this to happen in others areas of the organization?

Gaming is full of nightmarish stories of long hours and, even worse, abuse.

I’m hopeful this new union will address both of those and make for better work conditions. 👍🏼

Business Insider

While I’m always excited to see what innovations companies like Apple have in store, I have some serious concerns about betting on AR/VR glasses as a growth market.

For quite a while now I’ve had zero interest in AR/VR technologies. In my opinion AR could be useful in many industries as long as the tech is as easy to wear as a pair of glasses. I could see them being useful to mechanics, electricians, builders, and various trades I’m not thinking about. Otherwise they’re just expensive toys.

I thought Apple Watch Apps would flourish. They have for some developers but they’re mainly little views into data from your iPhone. That’s not bad, it’s just the way they are.

Hey, all I’d like to see is custom watch faces. That’s it. Then, perhaps, someone could create a watch face that looks like Dumbledore’s watch. Kim bought me the Fossil collectible one year for Christmas. 😃

[lixiepeach]

(Same anon here) It’s very interesting to me to see so many authors stop writing because of a lack of interaction because I completely understand why that’s disheartening but also I never personally feel that the feedback I could give would make anyone want to write more, I just don’t think my opinion means that much. In a way I’m very ignorant into what motivates fanfic writers to want to continue. I also don’t have an active tumblr account so the best I can do is read something I like and bookmark it for later

As someone who’s never even attempted to write because they have no talent I’m so in awe of people who are able to do that and out their work out there, and it’s so sad to hear that fics aren’t doing well. My feedback for the particular fic you were writing is that it hooked me instantly and your writing style is what I always look for in something to read. Truth be told I’ve been checking ao3 for an update every day since the last chapter but how could you know that until I tell you?

Regardless of my opinion/feedback it doesn’t sound like you’re in a good place to be writing, and I truly hope you can feel better soon because what you have written is phenomenal and I’m sorry that you haven’t been getting the interaction you deserve.

Interaction. Interaction is what makes fic writers want to continue to write. That's why we keep practically begging for it. That's why writers keep leaving this site, why they're not writing anymore is because we're getting to interaction. Reblog things. Send messages/asks/put things in the tags that you liked about it. If you don't have an active account, send anons like this. All you have to do is go on anon, send an ask and say "I loved (insert title here)" and you will make a fic writers day.

I see that a lot that people don't know what to say or they don't think anything they have to say matters. It does. It matters a lot. A heart emoji, a keyboard smash, literally "I loved it." Every comment I get (that's not a negative one) I read over and over and over even if it's just an unintelligible keyboard smash because I elicited that reaction from someone because of what I made. There's thousands of posts out there about how to comment, how to interact with fics if you're unsure of how to do it. You don't have to do like a book review with three paragraphs picking out every little detail you liked. Some people do that and bless them but it's not necessary. Just telling a writer you loved their work is enough to make them want to keep writing because they know someone liked it.

I appreciate your feedback. I'm really glad you've been enjoying the story and it's made you want to go back and look for an update all the time. It's really nice to hear that people are enjoying it. I mean, I could look at the hits to see how many people have viewed it but I can't tell how many of those people read it, liked it, keep going back or if they all just clicked it, read two paragraphs and left because they didn't. We can't see specifics on views on Tumblr or Ao3, just how many people have clicked on the story and how many each month. So hearing that you've been going back to it to check it means a lot.

I'll be okay. I'm just not really in the writing mood right now. I've got a lot going on in my life and I'm gonna get really busy soon so I don't know when I'll be writing again. Could be tomorrow, could be months from now. I honestly can't say.

#sorry this took like four days to get to #like i said there's a lot going on #and i really wanted to have a well thought out answer

[itsreallyjustme]

For as long as i can remember i've been attracted to this guy...

It's been a rough month, future me. But the last couple of weeks were great. I got to reconnect with an old fiend who happens to live with the aforementioned guy and it led to a couple of interesting nights and conversations.

It's cute. And nothing really happened, but it felt amazing.

He's a tad older than me, and he's known me since I was little so I always thought it was just one of those crushes I often got on people that are obviously never going to see me in that way (I've recently understood this comes from my own experience within the a-spec).

Let me get one thing straight here. It is totally platonic (at least it has been up until now), but that's in reality all I want (again, at least for now).

But You know me, future me (because I'm sure no one else is going to read this), I need to get these words out of my system both as a way of understanding them myself and so that I can come to revisit them later. So here I go, the confession:

We are compatible in every single way that matters. I'm mainly in love with his brain, he is so cultured it almost makes me feel stupid, but has this manner of explaining things without really making me feel that way.

Almost half a year ago i said my next move was going to be to befriend him, not as a step to anything else, but because I've longed for that kind of friendship -let's not lie to ourselves, I've longed for his friendship- for a while.

It's been 2 times now in which we stayed up all night just conversing. About life, about our stories, about everything that came up. In only two encounters we achieved a level of trust that I gather none of us is very accustomed to, which lead to revealing some "secrets" -or maybe "truths" is a more accurate description-.

Adding to that, we also are so alike in mannerisms that we get to be blunt with one another, because we realise when and where is the line. This allowed us not only to talk about some very difficult situations but also to ask for opinions on them and trust their judgement.

In some vague extracts of our conversations, we told stories that we haven't told before. We both came out to each other and afterwards explained how it's not something we do, preferring to let people see and guess what they want to see.

He told me and then showed me -and I'm inclined to add, entrusted me with- some delicate information, that I won't discuss out of respect, but that allowed me to get to know another part of him.

And you know what's funny? When I was younger, I used to think I liked him, like physically(?, and then -conveniently after I "discovered" my asexuality-, I realised that while I do in fact find him aesthetically pleasing and attractive, I value this -I'm gonna call it- friendship a lot. And it is more than enough for me.

This i add thinking about the fact that he is romantically involved with another, and I'm more than ok with that. Being able to talk to him is more than enough and not because I'm settling, but because it's just so nice.

When I told my friends about it, they both told me it sounded like the start of a love story and, surprising even myself, I answered that if it is, its going to be one hell of a slow burn, and that I'm not even worried about that.

We're just so alike that being able to discuss things with him is amazing to me. AND HIS VOICE, just exquisite

idk, i'm writing this after he messaged me on Instagram asking for my number so that he could send me some stories he wrote and we were discussing the night before.

And the conversation we had about them pulled me back up from a hole I had found myself in for the whole night.

It's all just so sweet, i want updates

Oooh, and don't get me started on the whole "I had a story in which I acted in the same way the villain for one of his stories acted, and he told me he understood where I was coming from doing what I did"

#dear future me

[beholdingslut]

it is HIGH TIME for me to reread cain and see if it still makes me feel the same. this is an especially good exercise for me since i’ve learned that opinions on things can and should, in fact, change — especially if you, like me, have a tendency to over-recommend something and then have to reconcile not liking it as much or it no longer being particularly worthy of that recommendation with a new mindset. that said i don’t think “The lord did not reply to this, but he looked very hard at cain and said, That mark on your forehead has grown bigger” will ever NOT hit.

#also i’m obsessed with his capitalisation. #cain #there we go. enough on the matter until i get my updated opinion. #mp3

[casuallyimagining]

Home (3)

Hybrid Min Yoongi x Female Reader; Platonic OT7 x Female Reader; Namseok; Jinkook

Summary: After helping Yoongi get away from his abusive former owner, you’re left to focus on your relationship and how it progresses. That is, until you find six other hybrids who need your help, and their former owner decides he’s going to make your life hell. Genre: hurt/comfort, angst, fluff Word Count: 3,170 Rating: M Warnings (updated per chapter): stalking, wild animal attack, major character injury, blood

Major thanks to @eatjeanjin for beta-ing this and for listening to me complain almost constantly. You’ve been nothing but helpful and sweet, and I’m so grateful for your opinions and assistance.

banners by @mintkims

Sequel to Fix You. Read it first.

Previous | Masterlist | Next

You heard a growl, and a yelp, and when you opened your eyes, both wolves were gone. Twigs snapped in the forest, and you could hear snarling and the snapping of teeth.

Yoongi sat a few feet away from you, having rolled away to avoid the wolf’s attack. He held his left forearm close to his body as he stared at the woods where the wolves disappeared.

“What happened?” you asked Yoongi quietly, carefully scooting over him. “Are you alright?”

Yoongi shook his head no, and when you reached out to see what was the matter, you saw his right hand was covered in blood.

The wolves rolled out of the trees, the brown one landing on top. It bit at the larger, silver wolf’s neck, causing it to yelp in pain. You heard Yoongi gasp. Apparently, the silver wolf heard it, too, because its head whipped over to look at you. That weird look in its eyes was back--it almost looked like it knew Yoongi.

You noticed absently that the collar was gone from its neck.

The silver wolf pushed the smaller one off and away and immediately lunged, going after the brown wolf’s neck. The two went rolling back into the forest, crashing through the brush. Your attention turned to Yoongi, who was staring off into the trees after the wolves.

“We have to get you inside,” you said quietly, readjusting so that you could stand up. Something cold slid across your hand and you yelped, pulling your hand back.

Yoongi’s ears stopped tracking the movement in the woods and he turned to you. His eyes, pained but worried, darted across your face before drifting down your body. “What’s wrong?”

“Something touched my hand,” you explained, standing quickly and searching the grass.

You gingerly helped him stand, his copper eyes scanning the grass frantically. You tried to pull him back towards the cabin but he wouldn’t budge, staring at a small depression in the grass. His brow furrowed. It was just dark enough that you couldn’t make it out, but you were positive that Yoongi could see everything in the little clearing around the cabin. His pupils were wide as saucers, allowing him to see in even the lowest of light.

Suddenly, he reached down, grabbing at whatever was moving in the grass. He picked it up carefully in his bloody hand. “Stop! Stop fucking moving,” he hissed, holding the snake just behind its head. “If you bite me, I swear to god.”

The snake stopped squirming almost immediately and Yoongi shifted his grip on it so it wasn't hanging so limply in his hand. The snake wiggled a bit before wrapping itself around his wrist. The thing was almost two feet long, and it took up most of Yoongi’s forearm, but it looked surprisingly comfortable there despite the bloody handprint around its body.

“Yoongi?” He hummed, bringing the snake closer to his face to examine it. “What’s a desert viper doing in the middle of the woods?”

The snake was a pale brown, almost sandy in color, with small patches of darker brown dotting its body. Two small horns stuck out of its large head just above its eyes. It looked almost like a dragon without the wings. It watched you curiously, its tongue fluttering in and out of its mouth every few seconds as it smelled the air.

“He’s cold,” Yoongi noted simply, rotating the snake to get a better look at it. To its credit, the snake was very well behaved, it didn’t move, it didn’t go to bite, it didn’t even hiss. Its small, vertical eyes were trained on Yoongi.

“We need to get you inside,” you repeated, tugging gently on Yoongi’s shirt. His arm was still oozing blood, and while you were curious about the snake, you were more concerned about Yoongi bleeding to death in the middle of the woods while two wolves fought in the trees surrounding your cabin.

The viper--now a dark-haired man apparently named Hoseok, but whom Yoongi called Hobi--sat on the couch in the cabin. He was a little taller than Yoongi, and you could tell just from looking at him that he would be a bit more muscular than Yoongi, too, if he weren’t so malnourished.

“You hungry?” you found yourself asking him, much calmer now that you and Yoongi were both safe inside the cabin. You had put away the pie irons as soon as you had gotten back inside, but there was still food in the cupboards that you could whip something up as soon as you were done bandaging Yoongi up.

The cat hybrid leaned back against the kitchen counter, his arm outstretched so you could look at it. The scratches on his arm weren’t too deep, but they were bleeding pretty heavily, and that worried you. You held a folded paper towel to it, trying to staunch the blood even a little bit.

Hoseok shook his head, smiling politely at you before turning his attention back to the windows. You could tell Yoongi was tense, his tail hadn’t stopped angrily flicking from one side to the other since he’d told you to grab Hoseok a change of clothes. You wished you knew what to say.

A particularly close howl startled Hoseok, and he jumped to his feet, his attention now fully out the window.

“I should be out there,” he said worriedly, sparing one last glance at the woods out the window before turning back to Yoongi. “Don’t get me wrong, hyung. I’m so glad we found you. But-”

“You can’t help him right now, Hobi.” Yoongi’s voice was soft and careful. He grunted as you removed the paper towel to inspect his arm.

“I have to find some antiseptic,” you told him, replacing the bloody towel with a fresh one and pressing Yoongi’s other hand onto it to secure it. “Wait here.”

Your heart was pounding as you searched the cabinet in the bathroom for a first aid kit, or peroxide, or something. You knew Yoongi probably wouldn’t need it. Hybrids couldn’t catch diseases like rabies. But it wouldn’t hurt him, and it would make you feel better to know he wasn’t going to get an infection. You had wasted enough time already, getting Hoseok a change of clothes, and the scratches were large, almost the entire length of his forearm. You shuddered to think what would have happened had Yoongi not gotten out of the way in time.

Thank god for cat-like reflexes, you thought dryly.

You grabbed the antiseptic spray, gauze, and the roll of elastic bandage from the cabinet and rushed back to the kitchen. When you returned, Yoongi was standing in the same spot, leaning against the counter, his back to you. Hoseok stood beside him, helping him hold the towel to his arm.

“I am glad we found you, hyung,” Hoseok said resolutely, lifting a corner of the towel to inspect Yoongi’s wound before placing it back down. “We weren’t quite sure what to do when we left. But we had to get out of there.” Yoongi hummed, prompting him to continue. “He’s gotten so much worse, hyung. He almost broke Jimin’s arm back at Chuseok. I thought Namjoon was going to rip his throat out.”

“How are the others?” Yoongi’s voice was soft.

“We haven’t seen them since we ran away. They left with us, but we got separated when Seungri came after us.” Hoseok sighed. “What about you? Where are Jungkookie and Taehyung?”

“I wish I knew.” Yoongi sounded sad. “I lost them in the woods a few days after we left.”

It was Hoseok’s turn to hum, but you didn’t sense any judgement in it. “Hyung?” Hoseok was so quiet you could barely hear him. “Who is she?”

“She’s…” He sighed. “She’s a lot of things.”

“What does that even mean?” Hoseok asked, a slight laugh in his voice.

Yoongi was quiet for a while. “I love her, Hobi,” he whispered finally. You tried to stifle the smile that wanted to spread across your face. You knew they couldn’t see you from where they stood, but if one of them were to turn around, you didn’t want to be grinning like an idiot.

Hoseok cooed, and practically yelled, “Hyung!” You heard a quiet ‘oops’ and he adjusted his volume. “That’s so sweet. So you guys are together?”

“Not really.” You could almost imagine how red Yoongi’s face was at this point.

“Hyung!” It didn’t seem that Hoseok cared how loud he was this time. “Why?” When no response came, Hoseok continued. “I get it. Namjoon and I were nervous too, at first. But, hyung, you can’t let him keep you from being happy.”

The silence in the kitchen was almost deafening. You sighed softly. You would never tell Yoongi--he was hurting, and confused, and struggling through things in his own time--but it did hurt that the two of you hadn’t actually discussed what had happened that afternoon two years ago. He had kissed you, told you he loved you, and he hadn’t brought it up since.

You wanted to be patient with him. You didn’t want to push. You wanted to let him take things at his own pace, for him to be comfortable with whatever and however your relationship ended up. But fuck. Two years was a long time for anything. It was excruciating to wait that long to talk about the status of your relationship. You cared about him so much it hurt sometimes, so you had worried that maybe his feelings had changed. Hearing him say it was nice, but it still stung that he was keeping it from you.

You took a deep breath and walked the rest of the way into the kitchen, greeting Hoseok with a small smile. The viper hybrid beamed at you and stepped away, allowing you access to Yoongi’s arm. Yoongi hissed when you sprayed the antiseptic on the scratches, and as you were placing the gauze, you were struck by the sight: four bleeding scratches running perpendicular to a sea of short, pink scars, some more faded than others.

Yoongi must have sensed the shift in your feelings, because his other hand played with the hem of your shirt nervously, comforting enough without actually touching you. You were just finishing securing the elastic bandage when Hoseok jumped to his feet from where he sat on the couch, his golden eyes trained on the woods.

“He’s back.”

Hoseok threw open the glass patio door, running out into the night. When the wolf collapsed on the patio, he was there, cradling the wolf’s big grey head in his lap. Hoseok carefully stroked the wolf’s fur in an attempt to keep him calm while you and Yoongi approached.

“Is this...?” you asked Hoseok tentatively.

He nodded. “Namjoon. Can you help him?”

You didn’t know what to say. The wolf--Namjoon--was in pretty bad shape. His fur, once a beautiful grey, was mottled with blood, though you couldn’t tell what was his and what belonged to the other wolf. He couldn’t seem to stand and had barely been able to put weight on his front paw when he was making his way out of the woods.

Hoseok had tears in his eyes, one hand tangled in the thick fur at the back of Namjoon’s neck, his other hand continued to smooth down the soft grey fur on his head. “You’re gonna be okay, Joonie.”

“How can I help?” Yoongi knelt beside you, his focus firmly on your face.

You couldn’t blame him for not wanting to look at his friend right now, but you also had no idea how you became the de facto triage nurse.

“Warm water and some rags.” Yoongi nodded and stood. “Paper towels and tape, too. And clothes.” Yoongi looked at you skeptically, and you clarified. “Ones that you don’t like.” And with that, Yoongi was gone.

When you looked down at Namjoon, his deep brown eyes were watching you intently. You could see he was in pain, but there was something more there, too. Curiosity, maybe, and a protectiveness that you assumed came from spending over 20 years with Hoseok and Yoongi and enduring living hell with them.

Carefully, you placed your hand on Namjoon’s head, your thumb rubbing over the soft fur just above his left eye. “Do you have enough energy to shift?” you asked softly, attempting to be as soothing as possible. “I’m going to try to clean you up a bit, but it’ll be easier to dress everything and make sure things aren’t too serious if you aren’t a giant, fluffy wolf.”

His tail wagged once, weakly, and he blinked slowly at you, letting out a soft huff.

“That’s a yes,” Hoseok clarified, a sad smile on his lips.

You inspected his front leg carefully, doing your best to look at it without doing more harm than help. When you barely touched it to get a look, he whined and snarled slightly, but he didn’t attempt to bite you. Hoseok leaned in to whisper in his big, fluffy ear, stroking at the fur on the top of his head tenderly.

You shut the patio door quietly, Yoongi’s basketball blanket and an umbrella in hand. You had given Namjoon and Hoseok the bed in the loft so that they could have a comfortable place to rest for the night. Thankfully, almost all of Namjoon’s wounds were shallow--a cut on his shoulder, a bite on the neck--and most of the blood that had been on his coat didn’t seem to be his. And despite how bad his limp had looked, you didn’t think Namjoon’s arm was broken, just badly stoved and a little bruised. But that left you and Yoongi with the couch for the rest of the night.

Based on how the cat hybrid was acting, you wouldn’t be sleeping, anyway.

The sky was already starting to lighten, the stars starting to dim as the moon dipped below the horizon. It was early in the morning, and yet Yoongi refused to lie down. He sat resolutely on the couch outside, staring out at the woods, as if he was expecting something to come crawling out. But the early twilight had brought with it a light yet steady rain, just enough to dampen your clothes and chill you to your bones.

You sat beside Yoongi on the couch, holding the umbrella so it protected both of you. Carefully, you wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, tucking it behind him so he wouldn’t get cold. He uttered out a small protest, and you shushed him.

“I don’t want you getting a cold.”

“Hybrids can’t get colds.”

“Shut up and let me do this.” He huffed but leaned forward anyway to let you better tuck the blanket around him.

Silence enveloped you, and you could feel the tension practically rolling off Yoongi. He sat stiffly, ears constantly re-focusing on noises you couldn’t hear. Thanks to the rain, his hair was starting to curl. You could tell he was tired--when he blinked, it took him a second to open his eyes again, but he would force them open and stare out into the slowly lightening forest every time.

You sighed, reaching up and smoothing out the hair above his human ears. “What’s wrong?” you asked softly, scooting closer so your leg was touching his.

“Nothing.” His answer was quick. Too quick.

You could have seen right through him even without it. He was sitting too rigidly, he was too alert, and his hands were clutching at his tail instead of holding one of your own. But you stayed quiet, choosing instead to play with one wet strand of his hair, twirling it around your finger and tucking it behind his ear. Eventually, you realized the rain had stopped for the moment, and you put your umbrella down.

When he realized you weren’t going to respond, Yoongi sighed. “How’s Namjoon?”

“He and Hoseok are asleep.” You stopped playing with his hair then, your arm falling to wrap lightly around his shoulders. “You don’t have to keep watch, you know.”

“I know.” He refused to look at you. “I want to.”

You nodded, letting the silence return for a moment before speaking again. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to see them again.”

“It’s hard,” Yoongi said after a moment, his grip on his tail tightening slightly. “It’s nice to see them, but…” He trailed off, his eyes watching the colors change on the surface of the lake as the sun rose.

“It’s okay to be conflicted about it, I think. It’s your past colliding with your present. It’s bound to be a little confusing and scary.”

“That’s not even it.” He sighed. “I couldn’t protect them. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t. Hobi’s such a genuinely good person. Namjoon is fucking brilliant. They didn’t deserve any of it. I couldn’t protect them then, and I couldn’t protect them now.” His tail was fluffed up, the tip flicking this way and that in agitation. He seemed like he was strangling it. “I couldn’t protect you.”

“Oh, kitty.” You tugged yourself closer so your bodies were flush up against each other. You squeezed his shoulder, reaching for one of his hands with your free one and removing it from his tail.

You had no idea what else to say, so you let the silence linger, ghosting your thumb over the back of his hand. To be honest, you didn’t quite understand his need to protect you. It had become more of a thing within the last year or so. If you were walking somewhere, he would insist on walking between you and the street. When in the store, he would stare at any hybrid that got within five feet of you. At first, you had found it strange--and if you were honest, you still found it a little weird--but you figured it was just his instincts, like scenting or needing to be warm.

“What are we going to do with them?” Yoongi asked, changing the subject.

“What do you want to do?”

He sighed, and for a moment, you were worried he wasn’t going to answer. On one hand, you wouldn’t blame him. You could tell seeing Namjoon and Hoseok again was dredging up old, unpleasant memories. But at the same time, he was clearly worried about Namjoon, and from the easy way he fell back into conversation with Hoseok, it was obvious they were close. But then, he squeezed your hand. “I don’t know,” he said finally, his voice unsteady.

“Take some time to think about it.” You resituated yourself, pulling your legs up onto the couch and leaning into Yoongi’s side. He let go of your hand to drape his arm over your shoulder, pulling his blanket along so it covered you, too. You snuggled in, wrapping your arms around his waist. “Once Namjoon heals, we can find somewhere safe for them. Somewhere he can’t find them.”

“Or…?”

You shrugged. “We’ll see what happens.”

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