#I sit and think about a character and a date spawns in my mind

[cuteniaarts]

A while ago I randomly decided that Aiza/Emran’s birthday would fall on June 5th if the Avatarverse had the same calendar system as us, therefore, behold: my precious boy whom I love so so so much

[izumiphoenix]

Two Steps for One

There is this meme I saw somewhere on Pinterest back when I started playing (sorry, I don’t know who is the author):

Back then I chuckled and nodded, but after I got to know Astarion better, now I’m not so sure it’s fair anymore.

I’ve been thinking about how I went from feeling skeptical about Astarion to absolutely falling for him, face first.

Just today again, I saw in a discussion on Reddit with some people saying how there are surprisingly big numbers of players who can't stand him, maybe 50/50. Some said that even when they try to give him a chance, they can't go past the first meeting at the beach, and off to camp prison he goes.

I have this weird trait a friend once described as being a hipster – though I don’t mean it like that. But I am often skeptical about popular titles, characters or trends. There’s this thought that comes up in my head: “Well, I probably won’t like it.” And if I give it a try, I often end up liking it anyway haha.

Maybe it’s something a little rebellious, but I think it comes from the difficulty in fitting in that I've been feeling my whole life. Me telling myself – if everyone likes this, it doesn't mean that I have to, too. Even the fact that I made my first Tav a half-elf is related to me wanting to express this inner duality. And that's what made me naturally suspicious about the popularity of Astarion, which found me on social media when the game was released.

I’ve always loved romantic stories. When I was younger, I played a lot of dating sims and otome games, quickly falling for one character after another, then moving on just as quickly to the next story or crush.

The longest one was Hijikata Toshizou – or rather, his romanticized version, since he’s a real historical figure – after I watched Hakuouki. That crush was sitting in the back of my mind for years, resurfacing once in a while, until it quietly faded, maybe around the time I saw his memorial in Japan and realized he wasn’t actually my ideal anymore. To be honest, it had been a while since I felt that kind of strong character pull. Partly, I think, I overgrew surface-level romantic stories and felt a certain depth missing (or maybe it just became harder to impress me after I consumed so many of them haha). I was starting to think maybe it wouldn’t happen again. Until Astarion.

I remember the moment when my casual curiosity turned into something more – the first night with Astarion, during the camp celebration. Or rather – the morning after it. When we see him enjoying the sunrise, so disarmingly relaxed. And the scars on his back.

That moment already hinted at his hidden depth, but it wasn’t even that.

It was the way he responded when asked nicely.

And here’s the thing: during my first playthrough, I barely stayed at camp and missed a lot of the early interactions. There were no first night talk, no poison/knife/strangulation talk, no sharing preferences of companions' blood or the bear blood scene. My character didn’t even know he was a vampire at all yet! When they spent that night together, I didn't know anything about him – just wanted to see where this was going.

If you don't know he is a vampire spawn, he tells you he used to be a slave, and this was what his former master left him.

I had the impression that a character like Astarion would try to be evasive and deflect, change the topic, hide behind charm and wit, and avoid anything sincere, especially considering his proficiency in deception. But his answer was simple and straight. Yes, it wasn't all the truth, and he was slightly reluctant, but it was what he could give at that moment, and he did it willingly.

And that's what changed everything for me. It was unexpectedly open and sincere.

And I found myself wanting to know more.

After that, it happened so fast I don’t even remember how or when, exactly. But by the time of his confession in Act 2 (the one after Yurgir), I was already completely gone.

Trying to understand what happened and why, I realized that Astarion gave me something I’ve always longed for in relationships:

To be seen, understood, and met with the same sincerity I am trying to offer.

I’ve always been guarded when it comes to romantic relationships. I'd like to think I have a strong intuition, and most of the time, my first impression ends up being right, even if I don’t act on it. And the main deal-breaker to me is when I feel that a man doesn't truly see or hear me.

The reasons might be various – sometimes it’s projecting his own fantasies, sometimes it’s cultural, or maybe just emotional distance.

But whatever the cause, it makes me shut down.

Another, related fear is being taken for granted. It’s hard for me to say no, especially to people I like. And boundaries are still a challenge.

I had friendships as a kid that fell apart this way – I kept saying yes to everything, just quietly hoping they’d notice when it became too much. But it became something expected instead.

And I’m not saying I was in the right, or a victim, I hope you understand. I’ve learned that I had a big part in this too: I didn’t communicate well and thought people would just somehow magically know, and it wasn't fair. And sometimes I placed similar pressure on others, without even realizing it. But that childhood experience is a part of what shaped me and taught me to pay attention to similar patterns – to protect myself from being hurt.

But Astarion – he notices everything.

Maybe because his survival depended on how well he read people, including Cazador, not even a small detail or gesture goes unnoticed. Your choice of words, tone, how you react, how you treat him – everything matters to him, and he responds accordingly: opens up or pulls away.

And when you take a step toward him, he doesn’t just meet you halfway, but all the way, sometimes two steps for one.

And this is overwhelming in the best possible way. Maybe even healing, in a way I wasn’t expecting.

Sometimes I wonder if my bar is too high, but in the end, I just want this:

A relationship when two people see each other, attuned and actively choosing each other to build something special.

In the end, this is all it takes.

(Of course, it’s the same if you choose friendship with Astarion. It's just that personally the romantic side struck me especially deeply.)

So maybe that’s what makes Astarion’s romance or friendship so powerful – not because it’s perfect, but because it echoes the kind of mutual recognition and effort that many of us long for, whether in fiction or real life.

[missmorize]

My Personal Alastor Headcanons

Not because I'm a simp or anything ahahahah.... All SFW aside from some cursing of course. :)

I am sleep deprived and stupid so some of these maybe shit and have terrible spelling errors. My mind is running at 3% and some of these were spontaneously made up because that's how my mind works. Enjoy.

📻 Viv let us play with Alastor's sexuality and so I hc he is demisexual (totally not me projecting and basing it off my own experiences, nahhhh...) and he rarely falls for anyone, but when he does he falls HARD.

• That being said, the flirtation begins. He is terrible at it... He respects boundaries and is incredibly respectful but he 100% butchers pickup lines because he genuinely thinks our generation likes those.

- "If you were a vegetable you would be a cucumber."

- "Do you have an extra heart? Mine was stolen."

- Can demons have strokes? That's probably what you are saying

- Angel Dust hears and DIES. Surprisingly gives some solid advice.

- "Stop with the pick-up lines. Just be yourself and it'll work, trust me, ya weirdo..."

- So he does. AKA secretly follows you, will randomly spawn to open doors for you or pull out chairs, chivalry isn't dead, dear! Also tells you about his grizzly murders in his lifetime, if anyone disrespects you prepare for your knight in shoulder pads, will be slick and dedicates one of his radio shows to you and plays an old song from his day. Makes you SWOON. Angel is proud.

- Also likes dates to Cannibal Town and introduces you to Rosie. She thinks you are the cutest thing in the world, prepared to be coddled by both.

📻 He likes to play dress up with you if you let him. Picking out your wardrobe is SO fun for him.

📻 Is a top tier cook. Usually prefers meat and will cook that for you, but if he finds out you are a vegan/pescitarian/etc he will do that. Gets excited when you compliment his cooking.

📻 HE HAS A SECRET TAIL HE IS ASHAMED OF AND I WILL NOT HIDE IT. I LOVE WHEN POWERFUL CHARACTERS HAVE A MILD INCONVENIENCE THAT MAKES THEM LESS SCARY.

📻 He learns words and if it's not from Rosie... Be prepared because it gets bad and gets cringe.

- "Ah! Darling, I heard some demons today as I was on a stroll, they were from your era. What is a mee-mee?"

- "I see... I see. They also said the word "gyatt" to a woman, I assume that is a compliment, so my dear, you have a-"

- You stop him right there, explains what that means and he short circuits. He walks over to the corner and just places his head against it. "I would like to be alone for a while..."

- "If mama knew I said this she would beat my ass to next Tuesday..."

📻 I know it says he's not big on touch but I HC he really doesn't care. He never seems to show any recoil from it, but maybe its just if its strangers?

📻 Will educate you on everything he knows on the macabre and morbid.

📻 Will FORCE you to sit down and check out vintage stuff. Watching TV? Not anymore, there is a microphone cane through it. Charlie has bought you like six phones now...

📻 He is overall an attention seeking puppy.

📻 Does things that get him praise. He WANTS his ego boost and knows you'll give it to him.

📻 Gossips with you about everyone and anything, listens to you rant and will give some genuinely good advice unless its like about an ex or something.

- "Simple, dear! Just kill them."

📻 Jokingly (?) tries to get you to sell your soul to him.

- "All in jest, don't worry! I think the look on your face is HILARIOUS!"

📻 If he sees you upset he tries to make you smile.

📻 If you are short he will put things on the top shelf and stifle a laugh as he watches you try to get it. Bless Husk and Angel for getting it for you.

📻 Angel is the only male he doesn't really have a problem with, hence when he hears about Valentino he has a bit of anger, also just because he thinks hes gross and perverse. Someone like that doesn't deserve to be breathing.

📻 Whiskey is his forte. VERY picky with his drinks, he doesn't like the cheap stuff like Husk does. A lot of people say he drinks wine but I imagine he only likes the hard stuff.

📻 He is the type of man to leave the toilet seat up. Vaggie has voiced her opinions on it.

📻 When he got Niffty out of that toilet he probably waited until the bubbles almost stopped. He's a little bit of an asshole.

📻 Actively pranks Husk. Someone save the cat-man...

- Switches his alcohol with non-alcoholic and sees how long it takes him to realize or get drunk even though he's not.

- Plays poker against him but will actively cheat to make sure he wins 100% of the time.

- Puts cucumbers down to scare the shit out of him.

📻 Since he is a deer demon (a Stag at that) he is VERY territorial, especially of the Hotel. This is HIS home. Will never admit it though.

📻 ✨Sweet Southern Boy✨ (Not really a HC I just wanted to say that, nor is he really sweet)

📻 He hides his accent. It will come out though when he is extremely extremely angry or when he is extremely relaxed.

📻 Will wake you up by staring in your face, you may or not have screamed once.

📻 Bullies Sir Pentious. He's still pissed about him ripping his tailcoat and he holds a grudge.

📻 Also not a headcanon but doesn't mind personal space, will come into the bathroom as you shower for conversation and draw on the steamed mirror. If you ask him to stop he will and completely understands.

📻 Sits and stares at a wall sometime.

📻 Gets everyone to taste his coffee, it is mostly coffee grounds.

📻 Has ate a dog demon on more than one occasion. Unapologetically.

📻 You know those compilations of like people getting hurt on youtube? If he used the internet that shit would be the funniest thing in the world to him.

📻 Uses 1920s slang to confuse everyone.

📻 Jealous.

- Plationic: Um... He's your best friend, right? Why are you giving attention to others when he is RIGHT THERE. Oh? They can do that, well he can do it ten times better. Watch what else he can do! Yeah, he's the coolest, right?

- Romantically: Time to butt heads and flex every possible way. Will RUIN the person's confidence, the psychological warfare begins. He is the better one and he must make it known. If they start flirting with you, blood will be spilled.

📻 When people try and lecture him it goes in one ear and out the other.

📻 His hair tufts are his ears, that may actually be canon, not sure.

- If he gets comfortable enough and you scratch behind they he MELTS. It scared him at first but once he first fell asleep it was nice.

📻 Will tell you about his mother constantly. Bases a lot of his morals and being a gentleman off how his mother taught him and treats women like ✨queens✨

📻 I HC one of his biggest problems with Lucifer and why they had tha number was because he was absent in Charlie's life so much and since his dad left him and his mother he believes absent fathers are the worst. He believes you have an obligation AS A FATHER to be the best you can be and raise your child.

- Absent father? Will bully so hard. He hates them to a fault, even if it wasn't their fault. He refuses to take criticism on it and its one of the things he is most stubborn about. Man got some daddy issues he doesn't want to talk about.

📻 His daddy issues lead to abandonment issues.

📻 His mom passing away will make him be extra attentive if someone he cares about is sick.

- Will check in and only really care if it's the girls.

- Will probably tell the guys to suck it up. Rip.

📻 Touch and affection starved and just doesn't show it. I don't care if it's not in character, let me project my issues in peace.

📻 Says the most out of pocket shit just for shock value.

📻 Rosie teaches him things he isn't allowed to say.

📻 His favorite body part to eat is the heart. He thinks it's poetic.

📻 Owns a record player because of course he does.

- If you want him to try modern day music, you best be getting vinyls.

- If you pull up Spotify he will feel betrayed.

- "So... My radio show isn't good enough? You need some... Application to play music for you?"

- Will guilt trip you and not feel bad. You already use phones and social media, like... Will only indulge if you play HIS type of music, and even then he will bitch about how it sounds better on the record player and how he play it on his show instead.

- I clearly know nothing about how radio shows work and I don't care.

⚠️Mildly suggestive depending on who you are:

📻 Likes boobs, he just likes sleeping on them. He was a mama's boy and he probably rested his head on his mother's chest all the time growing up.

[how-to-train-your-pomni]

Y'all Answered and I Listened! Here it is, the Moment We've All Been Waiting For!

(Slight Warning: Because This AU Actually Has a Couple Dark Implications, I'll Mention Now That Caine is NOT a Good Guy Here. At All. He is the LITERAL DEFINITION of "Bad Guy"; A.KA. He Says/Threatens to do Some F[!^$&#]ed Up S[!^$&].)

Caine: So, I think we've both noticed that Pomni’s been acting... out of character, lately. Any idea why that is?

Jax: Why are you asking me? I'm not her dad or guard dog. *Under His Breath* Those titles go to Kinger.

Caine: Mhm... Well then, I suppose that, since you don't know; my most sneaky, elusive, up-to-date-about-everything little superstar! I'll just leave it be!

Jax, skeptically: Really? YOU are gonna drop something you're curious about? *Scoffs* Not buying it. C'mon, out with it. What're ya gonna do?

Caine: *Sighs Dramatically* Since you're so insistent on knowing-

Jax: All I did was ask.

Caine: I'll tell you! *Swings His Cane Around Once* I don't like Pomni, Jax. Or, I at least don't like this version of her.

Jax: Yeah, pretty sure we all gathered that.

Caine: Right! And, as you know, I'm not allowed to "rid the Circus* of a cast member just because I don’t like them! *Laughs Forcefully For Just a Second* So, the next best thing would be to accrue a reason!

Jax: Wait, go back to the "ridding the Circus" bit.

Caine, Ignoring Jax: I've noticed that Pomni’s gained some weight. Excessive weight, if I might add.

Jax: Gentlemanly.

Caine: *Rolls His Eyes as Best as He Can Manage* As if you have any place to talk. ANYWAY! Along with that, I've noticed other odd behaviors; ones I was originally content with deeming the fault of her... Abstraction.

Jax: And those behaviors would be...?

Caine: Odd cravings, mood swings, hormonal imbalances-

Jax: Wait, you can monitor-

Caine: All things, as I've studied, are associated with one thing. *Voice Losing Its Happy Edge* Pregnancy.

Jax, slightly nervous: Uh-huh...

Caine: Now, Jax; you're my friend. And as my friend I'm hoping you'll be open and honest with me.

Jax: Yeah, sure. Whatever.

Caine: Good. So, tell me, is Pomni pregnant?

Jax: Not saying yes, but what if, hypothetically speaking, she was?

Caine: Then I'd have no choice but to terminate the baby!

Jax: WHAT?!

Caine: Now Jax, we both know Abstractions are dangerous. They're mindless beasts with no moral compass or functioning brain.

Jax: You're aware Pomni’s only partially Abstracted, right? You haven't missed that? The fact that she's still lucid and can recognize us all?

Caine: Even still, letting her have this... spawn... could put everyone at risk! The stresses of childbirth could very well kill her, and we wouldn't want that!

Jax: We wouldn't?

Caine: *Chuckles* Oh, Jax; I may not constantly be around, but I can still see things you think I can't. What you've done is adorable, truly. Getting... acquainted with Pomni’s body in such intimate ways, luring her into a false relationship, making her think you care! Your deceit truly brings tears of joy to my eyes. Even still, a baby with your mixed code could be monstrous! Who knows what the thing would look like!

Jax: Uh-huh. And who's to say the kid won't be normal?

Caine: ...I'll let you think on it. If you truly believe this spawn is worth the time, effort, and risk, I'll let her keep it. If not... I'll personally find a way to rip open her stomach and tear the mistake in half.

Jax, genuinely shocked: *Gulps Audibly* Uh... y-yeah, okay. I'll... I'll do that. Think.

Caine, regaining his happy demeanor: Good choice, my boy! Now, I think you've been hidden from your peers long enough! Let's get you back to the Circus, shall we? *Snaps*

Jax: *Wakes Up and Sits Up With a Gasp* It wasn't real. It wasn't real, it wasn't real, it wasn't real. Pomni’s okay. Everything's fine.

Caine: *From Somewhere Deep in Jax’s Mind* Don't take too long, Jax. You know I don't like to wait.

Jax: Oh, my God...

It's real

[coldflasher]

for the wip ask game. 7 and 11 and 17 x

7. do you outline before writing? if so, what’s your outlining process like?

i have honestly got out of the habit of outlining which is very bad, this is why i keep struggling and getting stuck because i am someone who NEEDS an outline, but instead i've been just coming up with random scenes on the fly which works fine until i run out and then i end up sitting there like the fish in bags from finding nemo like 'now what, genius'

but my outlining process is basically just 'sit down and brainstorm, stare at various different beat sheets and story methods and try not to go insane'

also i have to outline by hand, that is very important. don't know why but it all has to be hand written.

11. are there some wips that you just don’t think you’ll ever finish? 

much as i hate to admit it, and prefer to live in denial land where i'm convinced that every wip will one day get the ending it deserves, there are plenty of them that will more than likely never see the light of day 😭 the most notable one that comes to mind is that at one point i was planning to do another sequel to aftermath, that giant 500k s1 rewrite i did where barry and len were dating from before barry even became the flash. i have maybe 20-30k of a direct sequel to that that's basically a mashup of s5 and s6, where barry vanishes in crisis and then in a moment of desperation and poor decision making, len sends their adopted son back to try and prevent crisis from ever happening, only for them to discover that him travelling back is what causes crisis in the first place.

i genuinely LOVE that fic and what i wrote for it, but i feel like i've kind of moved on from those versions of the characters and grown so much as a writer and there are just so many things i don't like about the original fic that spawned it that i just. don't see myself ever finishing it, unfortunately. i feel like aftermath is a very stark contrast in my writing journey bc it was basically the last thing i wrote before doing my writing degree so there's such a huge difference in how i wrote and the whole vibe of it. i'll always be fond of aftermath but also im moderately embarrassed by it as well, so yeah. but maybe i will post snippets one day or something, because i genuinely LOVED the dynamic i wrote between michael and len, it was so fucking fun.

also i once wrote a fic where coldflash get whammied by a meta and, under the effects of what is essentially a metahuman love spell, decide to literally run off to vegas and get married and team flash have to hunt them down and try to stop it. this one feels like a crime because i have like 90% of it written so i would just have to finish and then edit it BUT i wrote it so long ago (we're talking like 2017) that to get it to a state i'd be happy with, i'd probably have to rewrite it in its entirety, so. never say never though cos now i'm thinking about it...

17. what do you do to motivate yourself to write? 

i honestly have been struggling with this forever BUT im doing camp nanowrimo right now and it's actually been so motivating. i'm fighting for my life here bc i lost the last three nano events i did, capping out at like 35k each, after a previously unbroken streak of almost a decade, but this time i was like COME HELL OR HIGH WATER I REFUSE TO FAIL THIS TIME. i'm like 3k behind, but it's fine, probably... rocks back and forth in a dark room

thank youu!

[opheliawillowbrook]

How the Cookie Crumbles

To say his brothers fought would be an understatement: They warred. That. That was the better word. However, it was Dick who was the peacemaker among them. The mediator extraordinaire, translating all his brothers’ woes and misunderstandings into less doom-pending transgressions. But to say this unofficial, yet very necessary part he played was tasking was yet another understatement of unspeakable proportions. It was a FUCKING LOT.

“I swear to God, Drake. You and Brown are a special kind of stupid.”

“Shut up, Damian! It’s a good idea!” Tim grumbled in reply.

“Yeah! You’re just mad you didn’t think of it first!”

Dick’s face fell upon hearing the argument and considered turning the other way, but he’d learned the hard way that his lack of interference could result in bloodshed. Damian did have a history of stabbing Tim, and Robin had an impressive body count, according to Jason. I’d better  make sure he doesn’t add two more.

“Well, fuck me and my  entire life,” Dick droned in frustration. “What are you three bitching about now?”

“Damian keeps saying our idea is stupid,” Stephanie tattled.

“Yeah!” Tim added with crossed arms. “He says we lack the fortitude for good ideas!”

“You do!” the current robin exclaimed.

“Damian?”

The youngest batboy rolled his eyes and reasoned, “Listen, I know these two brain donors barely have two brain cells to rub between them—”

“That’s not the only thing they rub!” Jason called from the other room.

Damian again rolled his eyes in contempt and continued, “And I’ve accepted, as a member of this family, that everyone gets to act a little stupid from time to time. However, as much as I would like to respect their commitment to their shared stupidity, I feel as if they are abusing the privilege and it needs to stop before one of them gets hurt.”

“Wow, he actually cares,” Jason added from still in another room.

“Have you been sitting there listening the whole time?” Dick asked, near facepalm.

“Affirmative,” Jason confirmed, entering from the hall.

“And you did nothing to stop them fighting?”

“It’s funnier this way.”

“Do I always have to be the responsible one?”

“Affirmative,” all four said with little thought.

“Okay then,” Dick sighed with reluctance. “Damian, I know you find it hard to accept the choices of others, but you need to understand that free choice and expression is about accepting that others may not make the same choices as you, and that’s okay. It’s the same as you choosing not to take my dating advice and ask Raven out because you’re afraid of rejection—”

“Shut up, Grayson! This isn’t about me!!!” Damian spat.

“Damian has the hots for Raven?” Jason teased. “You have good taste, Mighty Mouse. She got a great—”

“Don’t even finish that sentence, Todd!” Dick and Damian ordered in unison.

“I was gonna say personality,” Jason droned. “Get your minds out of the gutter. I mean for fuck’ sake.”

“Sure you were,” Tim replied with a glower.

“Yeah Tim, cause you never stare at her tits while you talk to her,” Jason added, throwing him doubly under the bus.

“Dude, are you trying to get me killed?” Tim said, shooting an elbow into his brother’s ribs as Damian and Stephanie both glared. Spurring Dick into a further mood for murder.

“My point being is, just because you don’t like other peoples’ ideas, doesn’t mean they’re stupid.”

“Tell them the idea, guys!” Jason urged, stirring the pot.

Stephanie and Tim looked at each other and nodded, as though they’d discovered the holy grail itself. “We’re gonna write a series of YA novels and sell them on the web!” Steph sang optimistically.

“Yeah, it’s a huge and diverse market,” Tim added.

“And with established characters, we’ll make a killing.”

Dick’s brow furrowed. “That sounds like fanfiction?”

“It sounds like utter bullshit,” Damian sneered, not single fuck given.

“It’s not bullshit,” Tim snapped. “YA novels make up a huge portion of the market. People love those things.”

“Then name one YA novel that has sold more than a manga in the last 10 years?”

Tim shrugged. “I can’t think of one at the top of my head, but there they definitely exist and sell.”

“Yeah, so does my fanfiction based on this family,” Jason added under his breath.

“What?” Everyone asked.

“Nothing. Continue.”

“So anyway, I told Damian it’s a foolproof plan.”

Dick rolled his eyes with a bit of doubt, but who was he to judge or discourage their creativity. I mean, he dropped out of college after all? “I’m not saying I believe it’s bulletproof, because frankly, nothing is. But I’m curious why you would consider telling Damian? I mean, he hates most things.”

“And Drake. I hate Drake.”

“We’re all very aware, Dami,” Dick drawled in annoyance. “But yeah, why would you tell him anything important to you? Especially that?”

“Well, we kinda needed a loan. I knew Bruce would undoubtedly say no and, well, Damian has money.”

“Because I make good business decisions.”

“I don’t know why I thought of asking you?”

“You didn’t, Jason told you to,” Stephanie confessed, recalling an earlier conversation.

“Jason, really?” Dick tsked.

“Hey, Damian does make good business decisions. Who do you think cleans and invests money? It’s certainly not Alfred.”

“Because Alfred would have nothing to do with your blood money, Jason. And Damian, I’m very disappointed in you!”

“Grayson, I don’t know what high horse you are riding on today, but you better come off it. Father told me if I wanted money, that I needed to earn it and that I should get a job. So I got one.”

“Laundering money for Red Hood’s criminal Enterprise is not a job!”

“Actually it is. Mighty Mouse made us an LLC and everything. I own several Wash & Folds, all legitimate! Thanks to Hell Spawn here! I’m actually considering making him a partner.”

“So will your LLC fund our YA Novels?”

“Oh fuck no!”

“Come on, Jay! We have a solid business plan,” Stephanie pleased.

“You’re business plan is a bunch of meaningless numbers written on the back of a napkin and poorly illustrated versions of us,” Damian said, holding up the napkin in question.

“Okay, so it’s not the final draft, but we’re working on it!” Tim said pointedly.

“Yeah, as tempting as this all sounds, I didn’t make my money making half baked business decisions,” Jason reasoned

“No, you made it by taking over Gotham’s drug trade,” Dick clarified with disapproval.

“Which was a solid business decision.”

“Why do I even talk to you?”

“I don’t know why I talk to any of you,” Damian scowled, arms crossed, grateful there was no shared genetics between him and his adoptive kin. “I don’t understand what father saw in any of you.

“I can’t answer that,” Jason replied. “However, I can tell you, from personal experience, what he saw in your mom.”

“Do you wanna die, Todd?”

“Do you wanna not have a job?” Jason wanted. “Also, been there done that. But hey, if I died twice then I’d have buffy status so don’t threaten me with a good time, kid.”

“On that note, I’m leaving,” Damian grimaced. “I have to meet Raven, anyway.”

“Oh,” Dick sang. “You have a date!”

“It’s not a date.”

“Bet you wish it was a date,” Stephanie teased. “Y’know, if you just stopped acting like a dick all the time, I bet she’d go out with you.”

“Shut up, Brown.”

“Oh no,” Dick smiled. “I know it’s hard to believe, but he’s nice to Raven.”

“Hey keep that shit up,” Jason added. “If you’re nice to her, she’d be nice to you!”

“I hate all of you,” Damian proclaimed and stormed away.

“Fuck you too! See you at work Monday! Jason called, earning a tiger middle finger.

“He might be an asshole, but he’s a good kid,” Jason nodded with a sense of pride, causing to Dick to silently scoff. “Still needs to get laid though.”

“Bruce is gonna be so pissed when he finds out you pulled Dami into your bullshit.”

“You’re using Raven’s pet name for him now?” Jason mocked. “And fucker’s gonna have to prove it first; there’s a reason I hired ‘Dami’ for that job.”

“Dude, fuck you; dig your grave,” Dick lamented. “And don’t come at me with one of your tired ass death jokes, they’re getting old.”

“Suit yourself,” the Outlaw glowered as silence set in.

“So Dick,” Tim dared sheepishly. “You, um, wanna invest in--”

“Absolutely not,” the elder hero replied.

Leaving Jason to chuckle. “And that’s the way the cookie crumbled.”

If you enjoyed that feel free to leave me kudos 👉 here on Ao3 lol. If you have any remdom prompts send them my way; maybe I’ll feel inspired 😘

[ct-multifandom]

Everyone always makes jokes about how Bustier would react when an akuma strikes and almost her entire class is suddenly making crappy excuses for why they need to get out. Maybe she has them all figured out and supports them, or maybe she just feels bad for what they’ve been through and understands the desire to evacuate, even when that specific akuma shouldn’t be a threat to them. Maybe Marinette’s fooling-no-one bs has made her numb to even marginally better bad excuses.

But as funny as that scenario is, I wonder what Mendeleiv would think. Each time, these two kids in particular need to scram. IMO that’s so much more suspicious than everyone going. Does she use her scientific mind to correctly put the pieces together? Realistically, probably not, so here is where we enter fanfic prompt territory.

She begrudgingly assumes they’re taking advantage of the chaos to go vape in the bathroom or some crap

She starts snooping, and walks in on them hiding in the big stall seconds after transforming. She asks what they’re doing and Marc’s like, “uhhhhh DRUGS” and Zoe facepalms while Mendeleiv’s like ugh typical alt kids

Her gaydar is irreparably out of whack, and she thinks they’ve been playing Super Penguino until she finds out Marc is dating Nathaniel and has to sit down for a second.

Two options here: Mendeleiv genuinely likes Marc because he’s attentive, responsible, and most importantly, good at science. When she finds out, she’s like, no baby, why, you can do so much better than him, and Marc’s like, why do you have personal beef with a 14 yo

OR she hates him because he spends all class writing at at some point she realizes that he is in fact not fervently taking notes but rather writing fiction. She has flashbacks to teaching Bustier’s class and has a moment of how the hell haven’t I connected these two dots before

And here’s my favorite scenario:

Mendeleiv is convinced that Zoe and Marc are Ladybug and Chat Noir. She just needs the solid evidence to prove it.

The eye colors and hair length check out. Hell, why not just swap hair colors with each other for the sake of the disguise

Somehow she can never recall a situation where they’re in class while LB and CN are confirmed to be out fighting. People just don’t get akumatized smack dab in the middle of the school day like they used to. Which is great and also really nice of Hawkmoth because class doesn’t get interrupted but the evidenceeee

It finally happens. That goth chick from Caline’s is crying over something and all her kids run to comfort her, but get sucked into her sentimonster. Mendeleiv follows suit, cursing that the one time it happens is when she’s not teaching her own kids, but to no avail. She gets caught too. At least her theory’s not disproven.

(After Ladybug finishes forming her team) Zoe is an amazing actress and Marc can weave together a believable scenario on the spot but that doesn’t save either of them from the inherent suspiciousness of instantly skedaddling at the news of an akuma

Sure, Zoe only “moved to France” recently, but that could be a coverup. Her family is insanely rich and powerful, so she could have been homeschooled in secrecy, allowing her the freedom to be a superhero during “school time”. Maybe she only started school to make more friends and participate in extracurriculars? Plus, Queen Bee was revealed to be her own half-sister. It’s all connected.

Marc cryptically spawned into existence at some point and Mendeleiv doesn’t like to think too hard on it. He didn’t “transfer” like Zoe. He just appeared one day. Her working theory is that he’s always been there, just much less memorable until he decided to spontaneously reboot his entire aesthetic to something a lot more “main character”. Could he be transitioning? Like, probably, but certainly not from “invisible” to “visible”. Either way, it’s much too late to pull the casual, “hey, did you get a haircut?” to test the waters.

She thinks they might have something to do with those little flying sprite thingies nobody else ever seems to see or believe her about...

[spencersstrawberryjello]

Forehead Kisses (Spencer Reid x nb!MC)

Summary: Caelan has to deal with the emotional aftermath of a case gone wrong, and Spencer comforts them when they have a breakdown.

Content: Hurt/Comfort

Warnings: Minor descriptions of violence in relation to the case they were on, mild panic attack (after a nightmare)

MC’s name and pronouns: Caelan (kay-len), they/them

Word Count: 1951

A/N: This was written at the request of a friend of mine, so that’s why it’s a bit more specific in terms of character traits/description.

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“Hey.” Spencer came to sit in front of me, elbows on his knees as he leaned forward and lightly put his hand under my chin, guiding me to meet his eyes. “You ok?”

“What do you think?” I snapped. He flinched a bit, and I felt immediate guilt flare up in my chest. “I’m sorry. I can’t… I just don’t want to think about it right now.”

“I understand,” He said softly, “Seeing this kind of stuff - it’s hard, even after years.”

I just nodded, trying to force the thoughts of the case out of my mind by staring at the floor, allowing myself to zone out. Spencer’s touch brought me back to reality, squeezing into the airplane seat next to me and wrapping his arms around me. I shifted a bit so that my head was buried in his shirt, letting him hold me as I tried to avoid thinking about the horror I’d just witnessed. I heard footsteps come from near the cabin, pausing near us just as Spencer spoke to someone nearby. 

“Case was hard for them. They’re not really answering me about anything.” I assumed he thought I was asleep as he spoke to whoever was standing next to our seat. 

“Are they going to be ok?” It was Hotch. 

“They’re strong, at the very least. I think they just need to go home, clear their head. I’m going to try to stay with them tonight, just to make sure they get to sleep alright.”

“Good,” He said it in the definitive “Hotch” way, like they were just discussing a case. It almost made me laugh, but I stopped myself before I gave away that I was awake. 

I felt Spencer nod and heard Hotch’s footsteps retreat before Spencer leaned a bit closer to my ear. 

“I know you’re awake, Cae.”

“Dammit,” I muttered in response, and he laughed softly.

“You're dating a genius, remember? I could tell based on your breathing that you were awake, dork.”

“Excuse me, I don’t think you can call me a dork when you’re the one who knows Star Trek front to back!”

“In my defense, I know everything front to back.”

“Oh shut up,” I lightly hit his arm, and he laughed again. 

“You’re ok with me coming home with you tonight, right?” He clarified. I grinned, my face still hidden against his sweater. 

“Dr. Reid! Being a bit bold, aren’t we?” I teased. I didn’t need to see him to know he was blushing. I guess knowing I was asexual still didn’t keep him from getting all flustered at the mention of anything remotely sexual; it was sort of adorable.

“I - I mean no I know that you don’t like that stuff, I would never try to -”

“Babe. Relax. I was only teasing. Of course I’m ok with you coming home with me.” I leaned my head back to look up at his face, “I’d really appreciate it, actually.”

“Ok. Good.” He sounded relieved, relaxing a bit in the leather chair as he held me a bit tighter. We spent the rest of the plane ride in silence. I’d felt a bit better joking with him, but the minute I allowed my mind to wander again, the gore I saw earlier flashed through my mind. I buried my head further into Spencer’s chest, trying desperately to block out the rampaging thoughts, and he picked up on it, pulling me closer to him and whispering again. 

“Hey. It’s ok. You’re safe with me, babe.”

I nodded against him. “I just want to get home.”

“Tired?”

“Exhausted. But I’m worried I won’t be able to sleep.”

“It wouldn’t be surprising if you had trouble with sleeping after what we all saw today, I mean -”

“Yeah. I know.”

He lightly rubbed my back in comfort, placing a soft kiss on the top of my head as we felt the plane start to descend. 

“Baby. We’ve gotta go,” Spencer prompted as the plane bumped to a landing. I groaned, reluctantly getting up and grabbing my backpack while he grabbed his bag from the chair in front of us. He slung it across his chest, and I grinned. 

“I love that little satchel.”

“I know, right? It’s really effective -”

“It’s adorable.”

“It’s a bag.”

“You make it adorable.”

He laughed at that, though I saw a blush coloring his cheeks. We got off the jet, heading back into the office. 

“Reid,” Rossi called Spencer from across the room, making both of us stop and turn in his direction. Rossi jogged over to meet us, lowering his voice to ensure the rest of the team wouldn’t hear. 

“I’m going to give them some paperwork to fill out, just to debrief. I trust that you two can get caught up tomorrow? Hotch told me that they were… not doing great.” 

“You can talk about me like I’m here, Rossi,” I half-joked. I’d quickly realized joking about it was the best way to keep my mind distracted.

“Sorry. Just wanted to be clear.”

“Yeah, we can catch up tomorrow morning. I’d rather just get home,” Spencer answered. Rossi nodded resolutely.

“Sounds good. I expect it. Caelan… you did good today. Really good.”

I offered him a half smile - a habit I’d surely picked up from Spencer - and we made our way out of the office, Spencer guiding me to his car and letting me get in the passenger seat. 

We drove back to my apartment with only the sound of music playing softly through the car radio. At some point, Spencer reached over and took my hand, holding it gently and giving it a light squeeze as he drove us to my house, parking and letting himself in before leading me through the hall and into my bedroom. 

“Wait wait wait,” I stopped him, turning back towards the door. He let me go as I went back to the front door of my apartment, double and triple checking that the door was locked and the alarms were set. 

There’s only so long you can go in this profession without becoming at least a little bit paranoid.

“Ok. Ok, I’m good,” I said, returning to the end of the hall. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I get it, babe,” He put his arm around my shoulders, walking with me to the bedroom. “Do you want to change?”

I nodded, and he opened my dresser, pulling out a pair of soft pajama shorts and an oversized sweater, one of his own that he’d given me after we first started dating. He unbuttoned the button-up shirt I’d been wearing, shrugging it off my shoulders and slipping the sweater over my chest, leaving a soft kiss right on the base of my neck as he did so. 

“Can you stand up for me honey?” 

His voice sounded soft, and I was already starting to let my mind wander again. I knew he could tell; he wasn’t trying to make any kind of further conversation, just letting me process the events of the day in whatever way I could. 

Spoiler alert: it was not going well. 

I stood up off the bed, letting Spencer help me undress the rest of the way and change into shorts. Once I had, I finally climbed into bed, allowing the warm comforter to envelop me as Spencer quickly slipped off his shirt and dress pants, grabbing the light brown sweatshirt and grey sweats he’d left here and climbing into bed next to me.

“Are you ok with me holding you?”

I nodded again, and I felt him immediately wrap his arms around me, pulling me close to him. I could feel his chest rising and falling against my back, and one of his hands ran lightly through my cropped hair as he pressed another light kiss on my jaw. He peppered my upper body with soft kisses, continuing to run his hand through my hair, and I felt my eyes starting to get heavy. I blessed him for giving me something to think about besides today’s case, and I kept my conscious thoughts focused on him as the gentle touches quickly lulled me off to sleep.

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You know, it’s really not fun to wake up screaming. 

“Please. Please stop just put the gun down please -”

“Caelan! Baby - Caelan wake up!”

Spencer’s voice jolted me out of my sleep, but it wasn’t much relief. I woke up in a cold sweat, immediately feeling a familiar nausea gnawing at my stomach. I wasn’t sure if I was going to cry or throw up, I was still trying to comprehend what was real and what was solely from my nightmare. 

The only problem was that the nightmare was spawned from reality. 

“Hey,” I heard Spencer talk, but it was distant as I tried to bring myself back to reality. “Baby, look at me.”

I turned to face him, and he gently placed his hands on my arms to stop my body from shaking, trying to ground me. He reached one hand up, brushing away tears I hadn’t even realized I was crying, whispering soft reassurances to me as I got my bearings. 

“Caelan, you’re at your apartment. You’re safe - I’m here. You’re safe with me.”

I nodded, slowly processing his words as I blinked in the dim lighting. I knew Spencer didn’t like the dark, so the bathroom light had been left on with the door cracked, providing just enough light that I could see his face as he held my arms still in his grasp. 

“You had a nightmare. Based on what you were shouting before you woke up, I’m assuming that you were relieving what happened in the field today. It’s not surprising, I mean, the same thing happened to me; usually it helps if you just -”

He went on another one of his tangents, his voice helping to calm me down as I sucked in deep breaths, bringing my heart rate back down to normal. The panic had mostly subsided, being followed quickly by a crushing wave of grief. 

“Spencer…” His name was all that I could say as I practically fell into him, prompting him to move his hands to hold me in a tight embrace, knowing I was less erratic now. I clung to his shirt, letting all of the emotions I’d been struggling to process go as he held me steady.

“It’s ok,” He whispered as I sobbed in his arms. “You’re ok. I’ve got you.”

“I should’ve stopped him, Spencer - I could’ve stopped him! Before he - he -”

“I know babe,” He held me a bit tighter, “But you can’t blame yourself for what happened to that girl.”

“She was innocent! And I just stood there and watched her die!”

“Caelan, there was nothing you could’ve done that would’ve stopped him. He was a devolving iradomaniac, he would’ve shot her no matter what you said.”

“I could’ve knocked the gun out of his hand! Or shot him! Or -”

“Honey, listen,” He pulled back from the hug, cupping my face with his hands, “You cannot do that to yourself. You’re going to make yourself crazy if you go down that spiral. This was not your fault, understand?”

I sniffled, nodding as he pulled me close to his chest again, letting me bury my face in his sweatshirt. Even after being at my house, the smell of his cologne still permeated his clothes, and it made my heart swell. 

“I love you so much baby, you know that?” He pressed a soft kiss to the top of my head. 

“I love you too.”

He wiped the tears from my ears, and we sat together, holding each other close as the sun came up on a new day. 

[midnights-light]

Ladybug and the Hound

So before I begin I need to say a few things

This is my first attempt at writing a fanfic so it’s most likely going to suck and all that jazz

I do not own any characters in the DC or Miraculous universes (if i did everything would make little to no sense so yeah)

Can we all agree that  @ozmav is an amazing writer?

If you don’t like Daminette, don’t read it’s that simple

I am also going to use “Dogs are a Ladybug’s best friend” by @kelelamentia for some inspiration on this cuz I love that idea

All characters are going to be OOC so just be prepared

If ya’ll like it I might write more just let me know if I should write more or if I should never think about writing again (I have low self-esteem so if it look like I am hating on myself it’s because I am but I’ll get over someday but if you criticize me please at least try to be constructive criticism)

Now onto the terrible thing I decided needed to exist

LB-Ladybug

CN- Chat Noir

M-Marinette

Di-Dick

D-Damian

B-Bruce

T-Tim

J-Jason

A-Alfred

The Meeting

It was a normal Tuesday, ya know? Birds are singing, the sun is shining, the Eiffel Tower collapsed, ya know the usual. Well usual for Parisians who had to deal with this for 4 almost 5 years now but for those who just wanted a vacation like the Waynes... well let’s just say they were unprepared to see the Eiffel Tower come crashing down just a few blocks ahead of them as they were walking to get some pastries from Tom and Sabine Boulangerie patisserie for a afternoon snack and to walk Titus (they brought Titus because Damian refused to leave him alone in the mansion for two weeks while they are on vacation so Bruce reluctantly agreed to bring him with them). So them being them ran towards the fallen tower and see a few people dead and some injured. They help the injured, but just as they are about to get the remaining few out of the wreckage a girl in a clearly ladybug themed suit comes crashing to the ground creating a few cracks to form on the ground. She gets up with a groan just as a dog in a fox themed costume came running up to her and helps her steady herself. “Thanks, Hound.” says the spotted girl and as the batfam are about to check if she’s okay a... IS THAT A GIANT BABY?! Well the giant baby comes walking towards the girl and the dog when a voice shouts “If you go on a date with me Ladybug I will come help you just accept your feelings for me already!” 

Damian's POV

As soon as the spotted girl heard that she looked towards the owner of the voice and low and behold it’s a guy in a leather cat suit and on the outside I look indifferent to what is happening but on the inside the only thing I can think is ‘What is going on in this city!’ because I was just expecting a boring two weeks of ‘required’ vacation in the ‘city of love’ I hate the nickname of the city because as Father has shown love is a weakness. But apparently the city of love is not as boring as I thought it would be. The girl (ladybug I think is her name) now has a look of murder in her eyes and the dog (hound is what she called him) growled at him as ladybug said “Chat, you can’t be serious! You just caused the Eiffel Tower to fall and kill and injure people!” CN-“Yes because you can’t realize that we are meant to be together!” LB-”No we are not now either help or shut up so I can focus on gigantitan!” CN-”Fine then i’ll just sit here and enjoy the show” That one interaction makes me question if this is how it is everything something like this happens.

*Time skip because i can’t write smart plans or fight scenes*

Dick’s POV

After ladybug got his watch thing off his wrist she and hound tore it apart which released a black butterfly and the giant baby was now back to a normal sized baby. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?1 I’M SO CONFUSED! After I stopped questioning reality I realized that ladybug was comforting the kid (HE COULDN’T BE OLDER THAN 4 YEARS OLD!) she picked him up and was about to throw her spotted thing up in the air for some reason but was interrupted by the cat boy saying ‘Pound it!’ and acting like he actually helped her and didn’t just sit there on a roof watching ladybug and hound do everything. What the heck? Ladybug walks over to me and asked if I could hold the kid for a sec and I said sure because she looks ready to murder. After she hands me the kid she walks over to cat boy and started yelling at him about how he can’t just be reckless like that but it seemed to just go over his head as he replied saying something about how she owed hit to him to date him but I quickly stopped listening when the kid started crying because of all the yelling going on so I started to talk and play with him to cheer him up until he pointed to ladybug as she yelled miraculous ladybug and tossed the spotted object into the sky. I was confused about what she was doing until I saw a swarm of ladybugs appear and start fixing the damage, healing the injured, and even bringing people back to life. Then she came back over and was about to ask something but then a shrill beeping noise came from her earrings causing her to ask if we could watch over the kid until his mom came and picked him up. Titus and Hound were playing until she called him over to her and then they jumped, yes JUMPED, up to the roof and left. “What the hell was all that and does anyone else want to kill a cat boy?”

Tim’s POV

“So that all really happened, huh? It wasn’t really just a coffee dream?” I say and then look at everyone else has a different reactions to what just happened: Jason is looking at where dead bodies had been but now they were alive, Bruce is trying to understand what just happened, Alfred looks concerned, Dick is keeping the kid happy, and Damian is trying to keep Titus from running after Hound. I notice other civilians just walking around like nothing just happened and I’m just thinking ‘How long has this been happening and how have we not noticed? WHAT IS LIFE!?’

Jason’s POV

I look at everybody that was dead just walk away like nothing happened and I am about to ask Bruce if he know what that was when I feel someone bump into me. I turn around to see a girl around Damian’s age on the ground picking up the stuff she dropped while rapidly apologizing while a dog, presumably hers, was sniffing her making sure she was ok and had what looked like a glare on his face when he looked at me. M-“I’m so so sorry Monsieur! I wasn’t looking where I was going.” J-”It’s alright little lady, but if you don’t mind me asking, what’s the rush?” M- “Well you see I’m supposed to be helping in my parents bakery after I finished walking Captain but we got caught up in the akuma attack so I’m running a bit late. My names Marinette by the way. I don’t think I’ve seen you before are you visiting?” What’s an akuma? I’ll file that away for later for replacement to look at but for now. J- ”Yeah we are here for a family vacation to take a break from work. Would you mind if me and my family follow you to your parent’s bakery? We were heading to one for a snack but it seems we got turned around during the attack.” M- “Sure just tell me your names first so I at least know you to some degree cause I’m not supposed to talk to people I don’t know. I hate life but I’m not ready to die just yet.” She laughs and I swear it feels like the world just got a whole lot brighter, J- “Of course where are my manners name’s Jason. I have a feeling my family is going to love you and your dog.” I say as I hold my hand out for Captain to sniff and after he does he stops giving me what I swear looks like a glare but he’s still standing near Marinette when I notice my family looking at me and Marinette and Alfred asks me, A- “Master Jason are you going to introduce us to the young miss?” J- “Oh right, guys this is Marinette, Marinette this is Alfred he’s our butler/ grandpa, the one who looks like he’s about to pass out is Tim, the one playing with the kid is Dick, the stern one is Bruce, and the  one with the dog is Damian.” I say.

Damian’s POV

I hear Todd talking to someone and introducing us and as soon as I turn to glare at Todd I see the most beautiful eyes in the whole world. they look like sapphires and her hair is like the midnight sky. She looks like an Angel... wait WHAT!?  I only zone back in as soon as Todd told the Angel my name so I did what not even I  was expecting, I took her hand, gave the back of it a kiss and said, D- “Nice to meet you Angel.” I was not smiling when I saw her blush and I for certain do not want to make her blush again... but if I have a chance to then I will take it. Then I hear a low growl and I then notice that she has a dog (yes she loves animals to!) that is looking at me like he’s going to rip me to shreds and I will forever deny that I was a little scared. M- “Sorry Damian, Captain’s just a little protective of me and doesn’t like strangers being around me.” D-”I understand.” I say then I hold out my hand for her dog (Captain I think it was) to sniff and after he does he still growls at me but doesn’t look ready to tear me to pieces so progress towards getting to know the Angel before me. And then my good mood is ruined by the sound of my idiot brothers and father, the traitor, snickering behind us. I turn and scowl at them but they don’t seem to care. Meanwhile Titus and Captain appear to have met and are now chasing each other around making me and the Angel laugh. Her laughter sounds amazing and her smile makes it feel like the world brightens up just a little. M- “So shall we start walking to the bakery?” A chorus of yes comes from my family and then we start walking. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

BONUS

*Whispering* J- “Am I going crazy or did Demon Spawn just laugh and smile at Marinette?”

Di- “No I heard it to *gasp* do you think he has a crush?”

J- “Are we sure he’s capable of having a crush?”

T- “Well I’m sure she will be good for him, but what I’m confused about is how she doesn’t recognize who we are. I mean how does she not know us she didn’t even seem to recognize our faces.

A- “I think Miss Marinette will do Master Damian some good.”

And Bruce is just looking at his youngest son with pride. His first crush and he’s able to witness it.

So as I said in the beginning this is my first fanfic and It’s most likely terrible so let me know if I should never write again, if you want another chapter, or if I should just reevaluate my life choices.

Chapter 2

[square-blunt]

I have a history quiz due on Sunday, why am I writing this character analysis of a sixteen-year-old minecraft streamer for fun-

I am hyper-fixating on the Dream smp. This has caused many problems for me. I have been in the fandom for a semi-short amount of time, since Tommy’s exile, but I was immediately attached to him, because of the arc he was in and the relationship with c!Dream. I was amazed at how much he actually went through because I only had a quick rundown from a friend. And this ‘much’, I think, actually validates the many ‘controversial’ choices that Tommy has been forced to make. Keep in mind that a lot of these choices that Tommy made were unwilling- and sometimes both of the options have very big consequences. My name is Nix, I kin the gremlin child, and thank you for coming to my very biased ted talk. Essays are just scholarly rants, and I will now rant about this angsty block gremlin child.

I feel like we forget that he is a child. I feel like those who criticize c!Tommy forget that he’s a literal child. He is 16. And he has already been through an unspeakable amount of trauma. It’s almost sickening, the fact that a lot of these adults know what Tommy’s been through, they know that he’s a kid, and yet they treat him like an adult, and they expect him to act like an adult and punish him when he doesn’t. They expect him to make choices like an adult like he hasn’t been traumatized like he hasn’t been through literal wars, saw his best friend get blown up by his brother, had his other brother blow up the country, had his father kill that brother, and then get emotionally manipulated into isolation until he almost fucking killed himself, and then that first brother and his father blew up the same country again with the guy that emotionally manipulated him into almost killing himself. He is still a child. And the adults of the server seem to fucking forget that. Puffy is one of the only people to stand up for him, and yet no one listens to her. Big fucking surprise. But she stands up for him still, because she understands the fact that Tommy is a child and he should not be expected to act like an adult. She understands this. And no one else seems to. Ghostbur treats him well, but that’s because Ghostbur treats everyone well. I’m not saying that everyone should treat Tommy nicely because he is traumatized, what I am saying is that they have no excuse to treat him like shit. These adults should treat him nicely because they should be decent human beings (Or piglin hybrids or half-enderman or furries or whatever else). They shouldn’t be fucking assholes to Tommy especially because he’s been hurt by assholes almost all his life (on the server, I mean). They should be nice to everyone, but especially to Tommy because he’s been hurt so much. The people who believe that Tommy should ‘learn a lesson’ (cough cough Philza) and try and ‘teach’ that lesson through violence (COUGH COUGH PHILZA [and technoblade but like, techno’s an enigma that I’ll talk about later]), like, it’s not gonna work! It hasn’t worked the ten million other times they’ve tried before! Like fucking jesus the kid already lost his disks and his country and half of his family, what more lessons can you teach? Like yeah. Tommy, he has fucked up in the past. He’s made mistakes. But I personally believe that he’s been held more than accountable for all of them. Stop. Using. Violence. To. Try. And. Teach. Tommy. A. ‘Lesson’. 

Most of this does stem from c!Dream and his iron grip on the serve, and I am a firm fucking believer that he was the one to blow up the community house with the sole purpose of framing Tommy. Because that is something Tommy would do. Because he's ‘grown up’ in an environment where the only way to work through your issues is to blow shit up. Tommy knows that there are other ways, but every time there has been a conflict, violence seems to be the only way out. And it is perfectly in line with Dream’s character to know that and use that against Tommy. I think Dream also knew that Tommy would end up going back to Tubbo in the end, too. That’s another thing, I don’t think Tommy betrayed Techno. Like, yeah, Tommy left him, but he didn’t betray Techno in the normal sense of the phrase. One stream before that, Techno legit said “Oh I’ve just been using you as a pawn for my own personal gain up until now but y’know now I actually don’t physically want to kill you so good job I guess. By the way, I’m blowing up everything and killing everyone you’ve ever loved whether you like it or not. You don’t have to help me, you can just let it happen and sit it out I’m cool with that-” LIKE BITCH EXCUSE ME? Tommy has given up two lives, his disks, he’s been exiled twice, his country has been blown up twice (by that point)- and now Techno is telling him that he’s gonna blow it up again? Because you people seem to forget, Techno blew up Tubbo first. Techno. Shot. First. Sure the butcher army didn’t have to go after him when he went into retirement, but Techno shot first intending to kill Tubbo, did that, got away with it other than Tommy yelling at him right after it, and then worked with Dream to spawn withers and blow it up after they killed Schlatt. Sure, Techno gave them gear. But during that, whether he was knowingly contributing or not, Dream was corrupting Wilbur and Techno was contributing. Once again, knowingly or not, he was still doing that. And Tommy realized this. Tommy cares about L’Manburg. He cares about Tubbo. He cares about Wilbur. And Techno hurt all of them. Tommy didn’t forget that. And yeah, Techno stood for Tommy during that whole ‘this guy’s with me’ thing, but like, Techno still offered to hand Tommy over for the favor. Techno could have kept his mouth shut. But Techno still saw Tommy as somewhat of a pawn for his own personal end- blowing up L’Manburg. He said, ‘Oh we’ll get your disks, Tommy, don’t worry, but you know I’m gonna just gonna side with the guy who isolated you from everyone you ever cared about first to blow up one of the only things you have left of Wilbur but you know, government bad, they took everything from me, don’t mind the fact that I killed your best friend and blew everything up no it’s all their fault-’ Techno saw Tommy as an opportunity. Techno didn’t care about Tommy’s well-being, until maybe the day before but even then. (Yes, I know about the ax and Ranboo giving it to Techno and all that bullshit and how he’s hesitant to let anyone in bc everyone has ‘betrayed’ him but he said. To Tommy. Directly. That he was simply using him for his own personal gain). At least Tommy was open about what he actually wanted.

The disks, I feel like, are more than just disks. They represent all the sacrifices that Tommy’ ever made for L’Manburg. Notice how, yeah Tommy wanted the disks back when he had L’Manburg, but that ‘I-want-my-disks-back’ arc really picked up when he was in exile/when L’manburg was taken from him. L’Manburg and the disks are interchangeable. If Tommy has L’Manburg, he doesn’t have the disks. If Tommy doesn’t have L’Manburg, he wants the disks back. And he’s said this from the start. That’s why he gave the presidency to Tubbo was because he knew that he would be a bad president. He wanted his disks back. That want has always been there. But notice that when Tommy gets to Snowchester, he says to Tubbo “I want the disks back.” Not ‘I want L’Manburg back’. Tommy wants the disks. He knows he’s lost L’Manburg, (even tho L’Manburg is the bond between him, Tubbo, and Alive/Ghostbur but that’s a rant for a later date) so maybe he can get his disks back. One thing I should touch on is Tommy’s struggle between choosing his disks and choosing people. Don’t get me wrong, I know that if it came down to Tubbo or the disks, he’d choose Tubbo, but in little things. Like when Tubbo invited him to stay in Snowchester, Tommy didn’t respond but instead asked for his help in getting the disks. Tommy has trouble getting his priorities straight in minor things. I think that’s why Tubbo is such a good fit for Tommy. Tubbo knows that Tommy would choose him over the disks if it came down to it, and Tubbo understands what Tommy has gone through, and Tubbo understands that even when Tommy can get a little too fixated on the disks, he will still put his friends first. That’s what the others don’t get. That’s why, I think, Tommy told Tubbo to give Dream the disks on the 5th. Because Tommy realized that by saying “The disks were worth more than you ever were” he is putting the disks above Tubbo- he’s putting himself above Tubbo. And this ties back into the emotional trauma that Dream inflicted on him, he was told that Tubbo didn’t care about him, that no one cared about him, and Tommy wanted to not be that. Tommy wants to care about people, and because Dream had invalidated what care was shown to Tommy, he believes that that is the bare minimum. He believes that ‘being kind to other people’ is the norm, especially considering the way he was treated before the exile. Dream has made it so, that in Tommy’s mind, the only way to show someone you care about them is to put them above yourself. So by saying that the disks matter more than Tubbo, Tommy is putting his own needs above Tubbo, and therefore, he doesn’t care about Tubbo anymore. And he still cares about Tubbo despite Dreams, and Techno’s, best efforts. He felt that the only way to apologize is to give up what he wanted, to make sure that Tubbo knows that Tommy does actually care about him. Granted this could have completely backfired. Tubbo could have seen that as, ‘If the disks are worth more than me, and Tommy’s giving up the disks like they’re worth nothing, then what am I worth to him?’ but thankful Tubbo knows that Tommy didn’t mean it. Because Tubbo knows Tommy for who he really is when he’s not hurting, or manipulated- when Tommy is Tommy. Not Techno’s sidekick. Not under Dream’s influence. And Tommy knows Tubbo knows.

This is why, in the end, Tommy was always meant to side with Tubbo. Because Tubbo and Tommy have cared about each other from the start, meanwhile Tommy went to Techno at his lowest, and Techno, for the most part, was using him for his own personal gain. Tommy knows that he wasn’t himself, too. When Tommy offers for Tubbo to move in with him, Tommy was doing that as a sign of ‘Hey, I’m trying to heal, I know I’m fucked up, and I need you to help me.’ Tommy is trying to heal. Tubbo, and Puffy, and Ghostbur (Maybe Wilbur will, too) are trying to help him heal. (Ghostbur less so, only because I don’t think he has a proper grasp of how much Tommy has been put through, but he’s trying his best and I love him for it) And maybe, the other adults on the server will start acting like adults and quit expecting Tommy to be one. Tommy is a threat- to Dream. Dream knows that Tommy is the main protagonist, and he knows that Tommy can take him down. He’s tried to turn everyone against him, and it was working for a while. But maybe the others will understand what Tommy’s (and tubbo, of course, but I’m gonna give Tubbo an essay of his own later) been put through, all the choices he’s been forced to make- with all options being not very good, and actually try and help to take Dream down. Because Tommy does want his disks back, but he also wants to make sure that Dream won’t hurt anyone ever again. The disks would just be a plus. I’ve been Nix, and if you couldn’t tell, I am a Tommy apologist.

[ms-rampage]

Eden’s Gate: Aftermath Chapter 1 - After It All

Warnings: Light swearing, Paige has Dean Winchester energy in this one 

Word count: 1.9k

This is a short follow up series to Kidnapped leading up to the nuclear holcaust, and the beginning of New Dawn. 

Summary: After killing Jacob and John Seed, Paige and Kate Winchester still have Joseph left to get rid of, to save Hope County, and as well as Faith (Rachel) if she can keep her loyalty to the family, and not get on Paige’s bad side. Kate struggles to tell her family about her unsure pregnancy with John’s kid.

Guest OCs: Nate Massie (FC: Nick Jackson), Mark Massie (FC: Matt Jackson), Martin Quinn (FC: Marty Scurll), Cody Reynolds (FC: Cody Rhodes), Kenneth Smith (FC: Kenny Omega), Adrian Wray (FC: Hangman Adam Page)

Guest Characters: Mary May, Nick Rye, Pastor Jerome, Wheaty, Faith Seed, Joseph Seed (mentioned).

***********************************************

Paige, Kate, Mandy, their friends, and family are having some beers at the Spread Eagle bar celebrating the death of John Seed, and their freedom from his “marking”.

Pastor Jerome, Nick Rye, Grace Armstrong, Mary May and all of the residents in Holland Valley celebrating their freedom. 

The Whitetails were setting off fireworks as a sign of freedom from Jacob. 

“You did it!!” Mary May says to Paige.

Taking a sip from her beer, Paige shakes her head, “No. No that wasn’t me” she says.

“It was her” she says, padding Kate on the back.

Mary turns to Kate, “You killed John?”.

Kate nods her head “Yep, I had to, it was part of the job”, she chuckles.

“You Winchesters saved Holland Valley from John Seed, and his followers. We thank you for that” Pastor Jerome says to the family. Lifting his beer up as a cheer.

“So what are y’all gon’ do now?!” Nick Rye asks.

“Well first, I need to get my car fixed, blaming John for that, 2nd we’re gonna deal with Joseph. But until then we’re probably gonna take a breather before we wipe out the other 2 Seeds” Paige says.

“But Faith has a change of heart” Mandy says to Paige.

“Yeah, but I still don’t trust her” Paige says, taking another sip of her beer. 

“We’re gonna have to eventually” she says.

“Paige, we could really use her” Kate says, trying to convince her. 

She finishes off her beer, and asks for another. “Look, even if Rachel does have a change of heart, and has finally seen Joseph’s monstrous ways. Who says she isn’t lying. I mean this chick is a known liar and manipulator”.

Paige takes another sip of her beer.

“Aren’t you pregnant?!” Kate says watching her older sister's excessive drinking.

“I’m at the early stages. I’ll stop at 5 weeks” she says.

Kenny takes the bottle from her hand, and gives her water as a replacement.

“You need to slow down” he tells her, walking off with her beer. 

Rolling her eyes, “So anyway back to Rachel” she says, drinking her water. 

“She’s staying with us” Mandy says, drinking her beer.

“Well I have no say so in that” she says. 

“Paige. Faith can be helpful with us. If we ask her nicely” Kate says.

Paige intervenes “Okay. Her name is Rachel. She wasn’t the first “Faith” there were 3-4 of them before her”.

Kate rolls her eyes, "Fai-Rachel can be resourceful for us. She can help us track Joseph, and put an end to the Project”.

“Well, I'm gonna go check on my car” Paige says, getting up from her seat at the bar, “It’s at the auto shop next door, and I want to check on her. See how she’s doing”. 

She puts some money on the counter to pay for her drinks. 

“You coming?!” she asks, turning to Kate.

“Can’t. I have a date with Wheaty” she says.

“Alright. Don’t get pregnant” she jokes, then she leaves the bar to go next door to the auto shop. 

“Yeah, I’ll try not to” she says, softly.

No one, except her and Wheaty know of her pregnancy, and it’s John’s kid.

She doesn’t know how she’s gonna tell the others. How is Paige gonna take it when her little sister is carrying the spawn of John fucking Seed. 

Lost in her thoughts, Wheaty gently pats her shoulder. Her head shoots up instantly. 

“Hey, you ready?” he asks, a smile on his face.

“Yeah” she says “I’m ready”, getting up from her seat.

“I’ll be back later” she says to her mother. 

“Have fun. Don’t get pregnant” she jokes.

Kate stammers over her words “I wo- I won’t”. 

They walk towards Kate’s car. Paige sees them, and yells out as a joke. “Have fun you two!!!. Don’t get pregnant Kate!!” 

Kate looks back, and flips her sister the middle finger before getting into the car.

“So much longer is it gonna?” she asks the mechanic. 

“Most likely until tomorrow between 11am, and 3pm.” he tells her, "It's not too bad, for the nasty crush it was in".

“Alright that sounds good” she says. 

***************************************

Now at their date location, Kate and Wheaty are making out in a secluded part of the Whitetails not far from the Wolf Den. 

Her back against a tree, his hands on either side of her waist. Her arms around his neck.

He breaks the kiss, resting his head against hers, holding her close. 

“It’s so much more peaceful without Jacob” he says. 

She nods her head, “Yeah, it's so much more quieter without John” she says, looking off in the distance. 

He slowly moves his hands up, resting on the sides of her stomach. 

He looks down at her stomach, “When are you gonna tell the others?” he asks.

She looks down, and sighs, “I don’t know. I know they’re gonna find out eventually, when my stomach gets bigger. Abortion is out of the picture. Because I’m Catholic” she rolls her eyes.

He pulls her into an embrace, one hand on the back of her head, and the other on her waist. 

“I still need to take a test just to be sure” she says, her hands around him, resting her head on his shoulder. 

“If it comes back, and you’re pregnant. Just know that I wouldn’t mind being a stepdad” he says, stroking her hair. 

She pulls away and looks up at him. Her eyes widened, and in disbelief.

“Are you sure?!” she asks.

“I’m sure. I want to be there for the both of you” he says, with his hands on her stomach where the baby bump would be. 

She smiles at him then looks down at her stomach.

“I would like that” she says, and kisses him on the lips. 

Just thinking a day ago, her and John Seed had sex for the last time, and the fucker cummed inside her. Getting her pregnant, knocking her up, she might be carrying the Seed gene. The next generation of the Seed family. Abortion is on her mind, but she doesn’t want to kill the barely in development embryo. She wants to give it life, and maybe along the way, her and Wheaty can have kids of their own. 

After their date, she drops off Wheaty at the Wolf Den, and drives back to Holland Valley

********************************************************

Pulling into the driveway of the Winchester-Smith compound.

Kate gets out of her car, and goes inside greeted by the brothers Mark, and Nate.

“So how was your date?” Mark asks, having a big brother tone in his voice. 

“It went good. Thank you for asking” she says, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. 

“Where did you and Wheaty go?” Adrian asks, stepping out of the kitchen with a beer in hand.

“We just went to the Whitetails, and made out” she answers. 

“That’s it?!” Nate asks, “No sex?. No drinking?. No smoking? No other childish shenanigans?!”.

She rolls her eyes, walking past them into the living room, “No we didn’t do any of that” she says, dropping herself onto the couch, and turning on the tv. “Who else is here?!” she asks.

“Just us, Faith is in her room. Mandy gave her one when we came back here after we left St. Francis” Mark tells her.

“Has she been in there all night?!” she asks.

“Yeah just about” Adrian says, sitting down next to Kate. 

“Where’s Kenny, Paige and my mom?!” she asks.

“They went to raid John’s house” Martin says, stepping into the living room.

“For?” she questions. 

“To steal his clothes probably. I told them to steal some of his shoes, shirts and watches for me. We’re about the same size in clothes” Martin says. 

They laugh at Martin’s answer, “Of course you did” Nate says. 

“Cody went with them as well. I didn’t know him, and John knew each other” Adrian says.

Kate’s jaw drops, “I didn’t know that either!!”.

“Yeah apparently they went to school together, and then John was homeschooled, and they met again in Law school in Georgia” Nate says. 

Confused, “I thought Cody was a doctor?!?”.

“This was before he became a doctor. He wanted to be a lawyer but he changed his mind about his major”. Mark adds.

Kate raises her arms up, “Welp you learn something new everyday!!!!”.

She stands up, “I’m gonna go check on Faith” she says, and goes upstairs.

“3rd door to the left on the 3rd floor” Nate yells out.

She makes it to the 3rd floor, and goes to Faith’s room.

She knocks at the door, -knock knock knock-.

“Hey Faith?. It’s me Kate. How are you doing?”.

The door opens slowly, and Kate is greeted by the friendly face of Rachel Jessop. 

“I’m doing okay” she replies, a hint of sadness in her voice.

“That’s good, I just wanted to check on you. See how you’re doing” she says.

Faith nods, she gives her a soft smile.

“If you’re hungry I can make you something” she says.

She shakes her, “I’m fine”.

Kate nods, “Okay, well my room is on the 2nd floor, 2nd door on the left. If you need anything”.

She nods, and gives her a soft “Okay”, and closes the door.

Kate goes back downstairs to the living room where Kenny, Paige, Mandy and Cody had entered the house.

“Hey!” she says to them.

“How Faith?” Nate asks.

“She’s doing good. Probably a little shaken up, but I'm sure she’ll come around” she says.

“Has she eaten?” Mandy asks.

“I asked if she was hungry. She said she’s fine, I told if she needed anything that my room is on the 2nd floor” Kate adds. 

“You think she can be of some help with tracking Joseph?” Cody asks.

“I’m pretty sure. She spent half of her life living under his wing, I’m sure she’ll help out” she says.

“So how was your date with Wheaty?!” Paige asks, changing the subject.

Kate glares at her elder sister, and says “It went great thanks. Anyway back to Faith”

“Rachel!!” Paige interrupts. 

“Back to her. She is of some help. I know she can help us track Joseph, we just need to let her adjust first” Kate says.

“Well we can’t wait on her forever” Paige says.

“We have to Paige!!’ Kate argues.

“Why!?. Joseph is still out there, wandering about and we have no way of finding him. Rachel is our only way, and we can put an end to this whole ordeal!” 

Everyone exchanges looks, giving thought to the situation.

“We should let Rachel adjust first” Kenny says.

Paige gives him a look of disbelief, “Kenneth are fucking serious?!?”

“Yes, Paige I’m serious. We have to let her get used to her surroundings. All this is new to her” he adds.

“I agree we have to let her get used to this life” Mark says, Nate, Cody, Adrian and Martin agree with the decision.

“Whatever I’m gonna check on Cristina” Paige says, rolling her eyes and going upstairs to her room. 

The others say downstairs, and figure out ways to have Rachel open up to them. 

[hateswifi]

Rising from the Ashes: Of Second Meetings and Mysteries

So this is Part Six here is to my Master List and Part Five.

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

Marinette got up, went to work. Everything was normal a couple more customers than yesterday. Diana closed early because she was going to see family today she closed at three o’clock. After work, she headed home and ate a small snack before the driver arrived. She got into the car quietly and quickly

“Hello, Miss Marinette. I am Wayne’s butler and friend, Alfred Pennyworth,” Alfred said from the front.

“Hi, Monsieur Pennyworth. Thank you for the ride,” Marinette responded with a smile.

“It is no problem and please call me Alfred. That’s what the rest of the boys call me. Speaking of the boys, they're excited to see you again,” he said. Now ten minutes later they pull into a house, well not exactly a house but more like a mansion. The mansion was big, dark, and ominous. “Welcome to Wayne Manor, Miss Marinette. Please make yourself at home for the time you’re staying.”

“Thank you, Monsieur Alfred,” Marinette says, following him into the house. “Would you be able to show me where the last boy is? I’m sorry I was never told his name.”

“The young Master is this way, please follow,” Alfred said, walking down a long hallway. “Last time I saw all the boys were in the parlor. They were playing Ultimate Mega Strike Four. Have you heard of it?”

“I love that game! I grew up playing Ultimate Mega Strike Three. I also won the competition that my school participated in,” Marinette said, happily.

“Well they’re right in here,” Alred said, opening the door. “Boys, Miss Marinette is here. Damian, are you ready for your fitting?”

“Damian?” Marinette asks, looking closer at the boys. She realized it was her mystery first friend. She blushes remembering her conversation with Dick, Jason, and Todd. “You guys were with more for more than an hour yesterday and did it not cross your mind to tell me that he is your brother?”

“Nope. Did you say, Damian? Ohhhh… you mean Demon Spawn,” Jason smirked, wrapping an arm around Damian's shoulders.

“Marinette? You’re doing my measurements?” Damian asked shrugging off Jason’s arm.

“Diana asked me to come over after work, she’s visiting her family,” Marinette smiles. “You ready for me to take your measurements?”

“I’m sure he wants to give you more than just his measurements,” Dick laughs, Marinette blushes as Damian slaps him. “I meant your number, get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Come on we’ll go to my room,” Damian said, grabbing her arm. He leads her to his room, which is quite spacious. He stands in front of his floor length mirror. 

“You know Dick was right about one thing,” Marinette said, measure his shoulder blades lightly touching his back.

“What… what is that, Angel?” Damian asked, turning his head towards the small girl.

“Angel?” Marinette squeaks, surprised by his nickname for her. 

“Sadly, an angel without wings, but even after you got tackled by Titus you tried to pay for my meal,” he turned to look at her then leaned in a whispered. “Plus my brothers told me what you said about me.”

Marinette backs up flustered. “Well, you are incredibly nice, caring, and extremely handsome.” She says, wrapping the measuring tape around his chest to measure it, but was closer than she needed to be.

“Well what I wanted to give you the day we had breakfast was my number, but you ran off before I could give it to you,” she said, measuring his arm. 

“I wanted to give you my number as well but Dick called me to remind me about a meeting,” he said, smiling. “Angel, I was disappointed when I left you. Dick suggested to do a modern Cinderella, but I was embarrassed, especially after what Jason posted.”

“What did Jason post?” Marinette asked, backing up so she could see his whole face. 

“You didn’t see the picture? Oh right, you probably haven’t gotten into Gotham news yet,” Damian said. “He posted a picture of me holding a door open for you.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Marinette asked, crossing her arms. 

“Well I’m famous because of my father and I’m seen as the ‘Ice Prince’ of Gotham because I’m cold to most people,” Damian explained. 

“That’s what the guy at the grocery store meant,” Marinette realized. “I finished measuring you. I guess I should be going.” 

“I overheard what you told Alfred in the hall, do you want to play Ultimate Mecha Strike and maybe stay for dinner? Umm… my brothers like having you around as do I,” Damian offered, grabbing one of her petite hands.

“That would be wonderful by the way can I see your phone before I forget?” Marinette asks. He gives her his phone, she types her number in once she hands it back he names her contact Angel. She gives him her phone so she can put his number in. 

They walk out and join the rest of the boys, when they got there Dick was facing off against Tim. After a few minutes, Tim’s character died and Dick celebrates. 

“Ok Dick, I’m going to beat you, but don’t be salty when you lose,” Marinette said, taking Tim’s controller then sits down next to Damian. 

“Sunshine not gonna lie, I feel like I’m being threatened by a cupcake because those are some bold words coming from such a small person,” Dick says, nonchalantly. 

She doesn’t respond, but once the game starts she knows that Dick realizes he’s about to eat his words. She’s better at the game than the boys thought she would be. After losing three times to Marinette, he grumbles at the loss and crosses his arms while sitting down on the couch, he was being overdramatic. The rest of the boys laugh at Dick’s antics.  

“Damian, where’d you find your girlfriend?” Tim asks, shocked that someone had beaten Dick the master of games. 

“First off, she’s not my girlfriend. Secondly, she’s from Paris,” Damian smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. 

“Sure, you’re not dating at all,” Jason sarcastically replied with a snigger and an eye-roll. 

Marinette’s phone ringing interrupted Damian before he could respond. She smiles widely; Adrien was video calling her. “Do you guys mind?” Marinette asks. 

“Nope, not a problem. You can answer it right here if you want,” Jason said. 

“Cool thanks guy,” Marinette smiles, brightly. 

“Buginette! You promised to call!” Adrien exclaimed,  putting his face super close to the camera. 

“I had work today and yesterday. Plus you had school and countless other activities Gabriel has you doing,” Marinette justifies her actions. 

“Mar calm down I’m messing,” Adrien laughs but stops hearing the game. “Are you playing Ultimate Mecha Strike without me!? Mewouch Buginette you wound me.”

“Calm down I was just kicking Dick’s butt,” Marinette laughs. 

“This literally ray of sunshine killed me three times,” Dick cries, pushing his way into the frame. 

“So this is one of my best friends and part of my family, his name is Adrien Agreste. This is Dick Grayson,” Marinette introduces. 

“Take care of my Buginette,” Adrien says with a wave. 

“I’ll take care of the literal sunshine that stumbled into all of our lives,” Dick smiles back as Tim and Jason come up behind the couch. Marinette moves her hand back so everyone, including Damian, is in the frame. 

“Oh my gosh! Bug is that the boy you told Chloe about!” Adrien screamed, trying to point towards Damian, who still has his arm wrapped around her. Tim and Jason sat back down and Dick moved back to play more games. 

“Chaton! Aren’t you and Kagami supposed to be at a match it is Thursday night,” Marinette asks, looking at the time: five. 

“Bug, it’s already eleven here,” Adrien yawns falling onto his bed. 

“That’s why I’m so tired,” Marinette yawns also. 

“You should come home soon,” Adrien complains. 

“I haven’t even been gone a week and while I’m there I don’t want to be someone I’m not,” Marinette sighs. “I’ll probably be back for Chinese New Year though to honor my parents. I’ll let you know when I have a plan.”

“Night Mar, just know Paris isn’t as bright with you not here,” Adrien says, sadly. “Luka misses you too. Chloe was angry, but it’s because she’s just dealing with it differently.”

“I understand bye Adrien love you. Hug everyone for me,” Marinette waves. 

“Byeee!” He finishes as he hangs up. 

Marinette puts her head on Damian’s shoulder. 

“It’s good that you have supportive friends,” Damian states. 

“Ya, I miss them a lot. Chloe got angry last night and hung up on me because she doesn’t deal with her sadness by getting angry almost like a self-defense mechanism. Luka is a mellow person, but I haven’t talked to him since Monday. Kagami is lovably awkward. I think she shuts down a bit with grief,” Marinette explains. She then stands up while saying. “I think I’m going to head to my apart because in Paris, as Adrien said, it’s quite late. Luckily for me, Diana is going into work later than normal because she returning from her family.”

“Can I show you the way out?” Damian asks, standing as well.

“That would be lovely,” Marinette said then turned to look at the rest of the boys as she left. “Bye guys it was nice seeing you again.”

“Wait, are you having someone drive you home?” Damian asks, catching her hand before she could walk out the now open door. 

“I feel like walking. It’s been two weeks since I’ve been on a nice long walk. I’ll text you when I get home,” Marinette says, hugging Damian. She then waved as she walked out. 

Once she was a good distance away from the manor she transformed. She loved the feeling of wind in her hair. She swung up to the tallest building, Wayne Enterprises, and sat on top looking over the foreign city. Not long after she looked over the city she heard footsteps land and crunch in the snow behind. 

She jumps up and is in a fighting position as she demands. “Announce yourself.” 

“I could say the same to you,” a deep voice says from the other side of the building that was somehow shadowy. 

“Stop it, be nice,” another voice answers, then steps into view. “I’m Red Hood.”

“I’m Ladybug,” Marinette responds, dropping her stance. The other person steps into view. “You look like a traffic light. Seriously? Who wears yellow, green, red, and black?”

“Hey! That’s was my suit design!” Nightwing tries to defend himself. 

“How old were you when you designed it,” Marinette deadpanned, crossing her arms. 

“Twelve,” the traffic light boy said. “Wearing this costume is a right of passage and the name is Robin. Your concept isn’t much better. Seriously a ladybug?”

“Master chose to give me this miraculous; I didn’t have a choice. But I’m quite fond of the spots thought and I’m pretty sure I needed Tikki’s luck back when I first got the miraculous,” Marinette said, backing up. “Well, it was nice meeting you guys.” She then jumped off the building. Robin and Nightwing ran to the edge and saw her catch herself with her yo-yo. 

“A yo-yo? Is she an actual child?” Robin sighed. “Do we even know if she is a hero?”

“Red Robin, Ladybug is her name. Find out everything you can about her,” Nightwing states into his comm. 

They finished their patrol quickly and headed back to the manor. He received a text from his Angel that told him that she made it home fine. 

Tim has information on the hero when they made to the Batcave. “She is from Paris.”

“Was she one of the heroes that banned all supers from entering Paris?” Jason asks, pulling up a chair, he sat back facing the computer with his leg on either side. He had come to the Batcave when he had heard of the new to Gotham hero.

“Yes that was her and for good reason,” Tim says while pulling up the video. “This announcement made a little over two and a half years ago.”

A young Ladybug stood in front of Le Grand Paris Hotel while speaking into the crowd and cameras. “To all supers, we had previously reached out to, we no longer want any help from any superheroes besides the ones of either Chat Noir or my own choosing.’

“If akumatized, we don’t know how we would deal with superpowers on top of Hawkmoth’s powers. For the good of Paris do not enter here till further notice,” Chat Noir says. “Not only would the power be unbearable, but Hawkmoth would also know everything you know, including any secret identities. Thank you for all of your patients, have a good rest of your day,” he finishes before him and the young Ladybug jump off the scene.

“They look so young,” Dick says, leaning on the back of Tim’s chair.

“That’s because they were that young. Ladybug, now, couldn’t be any older than me. That means that, if Chat Noir is the same age, they started with this Hawkmoth bull when they were thirteen or fourteen. That god damn city put their faith in teenagers barely in high school,” Damian says, looking closer at the video.

“That’s not right,” Dick says, shaking his head.

“At least we had the choice, but who chooses to be a city’s only hope against the unknown?” Jason says, putting his head on his hands that were resting on the chair’s back.

“They recently defeated the terrorist, who was a miraculous holder named Hawkmoth. He had been terrorizing Paris for three years. Her partners’ names are Chat Noir, Ryuko, Viperon, and Queen Bee, they still do patrols and help with petty crimes. She had more partners, now retired never told why, but their names were Carapace and Rena Rouge, they haven’t been seen in two years. Chat Noir gave a statement earlier this week saying that Ladybug has left, but would be back sometimes or if Paris was in danger. She was last seen at a house fire of the Dupain-Cheng’s house and Bakery all people died. Only two bodies were found,” Tim summed up, looking at his brothers. 

“What’s Marinette’s last name?” Jason asked, looking at Damian. 

“Dupain-Cheng? But she said she was an only child,” Damian thought sitting down in a chair beside Tim. 

“She is by these pictures, but it says three dead,” Tim said pulling up the picture of her family standing out front of the bakery, this was back when she wore her hair in pigtails. 

“She said she didn’t want to talk about her past during the measurements,” Jason said. “Does everyone think she’s dead?”

“That’s true, right here, an article says all the Dupain-Chengs died in the fire two weeks ago on Saturday and were buried last week Sunday,” Tim said, scrolling through the article. 

“But she’s clearly alive, why would she move?” Jason asked, standing

“But more importantly there’s a connection between her and Ladybug. Wait… blue hair and eyes, petite figure. They were both last seen, well accounted for at the fire” Damian said. 

“They’re the same person, both from Paris and they were last seen around the same time. Both, Ladybug and Marinette, had a reason to run even if we don’t know what that reason is just yet,” Tim said. 

“Seriously, even Damian’s girlfriend is special? Why can’t we meet normal people?” Jason said, throwing up his hands and left the Batcave. 

“I’ll ask her about it next time I see her,” Damian said, leaving the Batcave as well.

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

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[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Secrets of Ears:  Chapter 4

Daisuke tried to wrap his brain around what Gennai said. He’d been created? It had felt kind of funny when he’d first heard it from Koushiro but to hear all the details like this – it wasn’t all that funny anymore.

His stomach churned a little bit as he stared down at his hands, then looked up at the others.

“So what does all this mean?” He wanted to know. “I mean – I’m not going to start wanting to tear apart reality or something, am I?”

“Unlikely. Gennai shook his head. “As I said, while you weren’t intended to develop a mind or personality of your own, you did. Which means you make your own choices, just like any other human or Digimon. But you will have to be wary of your dark side.”

“Dark side?” Miyako asked, eyes narrowing a trifle. “What’s that?”

“Just what he said,” Yamato answered. “All of us who have Viral blood have a dark side. The part of us that’s pure viral and takes after our Viral parent.” He twisted his lips for a heartbeat. “All of us have Digimon names. Mine is Chiguumon. But my dark side is Anbumon. They’re – not quite different people, not quite us.”

Jou nodded. “My name is Jitsumon. Dark side is Fuseiimon.” He made a face as annoyed as Yamato’s. “He drinks a lot more blood than I do. I do it because I need to. He does it because he likes to.”

“Aikoumon,” Sora quasi-introduced herself. “And my other side is Akuenmon. She’s not really someone you want to meet.”

Ken’s ears were naturally paler than the rest of him. Right now, Daisuke thought that the rest of him wanted to catch up to his ears in paleness. He swallowed.

“So what about us? Or the others?” His eyes flicked between Miyako and Koushiro.

“We don’t have dark sides. I’m Vaccine and Data, Miyako is Vaccine,” Koushiro told him. “As for the two of you, I can’t honestly be sure. You’ll have to encounter those sides to know their names. As for your own names – you’ll learn them. They’re written into your data.”

Daisuke wasn’t that worried about it. Gennai had just said that he could make his own decisions, so he wasn’t going to fret about a so-called dark side. What he worried about was Ken and what Ken was probably thinking. Ken had mostly accepted his past and moved on from it. But to hear that there was a dark side in him just waiting to get out…

Nope. Daisuke wasn’t going to let Ken worry about that. He’d not done all that work to get him to feel good about himself to let it all go to waste now.

So he stood up. “Well, thanks for letting us know. Come on, Ken. I want some ramen. You want ramen?”

Ken was on his feet a moment later. “Yes. I would like ramen.”

“Before you go,” Koushiro spoke quickly. “You need to be aware of this. Your powers are linked to the Digital World. The more time you spend there, the easier they will come to you. But now that you’re aware of them, they could manifest at any point. The key seems to be strong emotion. Watch yourselves.”

Daisuke didn’t waste another moment. He wrapped one hand around Ken’s, and wasn’t even remotely surprised that Ken’s hand shook in his grip.

He squeezed Ken’s fingers and smiled at him. This was weird, yeah. But it wasn’t anything that they couldn’t all get through together, just like they did everything else.

They settled back onto the train, neither of them saying anything about what they’d found out. Ken stared up at the train’s roof, his eyes half-closed, his hand still firmly in Daisuke’s. Daisuke’s fingers itched to bury themselves into Ken’s hair and do everything he could to soothe Ken.

He held back, though. He wasn’t going to bother Ken’s hair or even get close to his ears in public. He’d made a promise.

They stayed quiet all the way until they were in the ramen shop that Daisuke had wanted to go to today. Their partners stayed with them, just as quiet, Wormmon snuggling around Ken’s shoulders, V-mon leaning a little against Daisuke’s side.

It was V-mon who broke the silence. “I always kind of thought you smelled like a Digimon,” he said. “But I thought that it was because of me.”

Daisuke blinked before a laugh broke out of him. “Guess not.” He playfully tapped at V-mon’s nose. “Guess you need to get your nose checked.”

V-mon pouted, playfully whacking back at him. Ken chuckled a bit, but it sounded strained. Still, the ice had been broken.

“I don’t care who your sire was,” Wormmon said, squirming around so he could stare soulfully up into Ken’ eyes. “You’re my Ken-chan no matter what.”

Ken’s cheeks reddened and he stared down into his ramen bowl. “I don’t want to be like that again,” he murmured, hands clenching together. He swallowed for a second. “Do we know – do we know anymore if it was the Spore or if it was – me?”

“Does it matter?” Daisuke asked, shrugging. “You’re not like that now and you’re not going to be ever again. You know better. You’re not going to hurt anyone innocent ever again.”

He wasn’t surprised that Ken was worked up over it. He’d probably stayed worked up over it for a while. Even with Daisuke and Wormmon and all of the others telling him over and over that he’d grown and didn’t need to be worried about it. Ken worried. It was what he did.

“Hey!” A vaguely familiar voice declared and someone dropped himself down on Ken’s other side. Daisuke glanced over to see Tachibana Noriaki sitting there, flashing that brilliant white-toothed smile. Daisuke wondered if he should ask which toothpaste company sponsored him. “Didn’t think I’d see you guys here.”

Ken tensed at once, shifting to be closer to Daisuke. “Why not?”

“I thought you were gong on a date,” Tachibana teased. “You are dating, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.” Daisuke wasn’t going to deny that they were an item. “And we are on a date.”

Tachibana tilted his head. “You’re going out for ramen as a date? I took my girlfriend to the gardens. Saw some really awesome flowers there.” His eyes glowed warmly. “You should do something like that. Or to a concert.” He stopped, eyes suddenly focused on Ken’s ears. “Or would that be too much for those poor sensitive ears of yours?”

One hand flashed out and dug into Ken’s hair, squeezing his ears. He didn’t let go, even as Ken squealed and started to bat at him.

“Aw, it’s not that bad! You’re not a little kid anymore, are you? You should be used to people playing with your ears, especially if you’ve got a boyfriend!” Tachibana grinned, light glinting off of his teeth.

Daisuke was on his feet already. He didn’t normally get too angry; he’d never really felt the need. It had to be something horrible to really trip his temper. Seeing this jerk fondle Ken’s ears like that, when Ken so very clearly wanted to be anywhere but here, did it.

“Let him go!” Daisuke snapped, and he wondered oddly why his voice sounded different, deeper, darker. Not for a moment did he think about what he’d been told earlier.

At least, not until a gleam of something caught his eye and he saw a long, sharp sword resting in Ken’s hand. Ken’s grip tightened and when he turned towards Daisuke, Daisuke could see red flames dancing in the back of them.

They’d been told the process would take time. It seemed that time wasn’t very long at all.

Part of him – a part that he’d never been aware of before – stirred. Those rage-spawned flames were so pretty. Not that anything about Ak – Ken – was ever not pretty, but there was something special about them regardless. He wanted to curl up in those flames and bask there forever.

Instead, he rested one hand on top of Ken’s, where the sword waited. He shook his head. “No.”

Tachibana either hadn’t ‘heard or wasn’t paying attention. He rubbed harder. “Hey, can you hear really well with these things? They look so weird, you should get some kind of benefit from them, right?”

As fast as Daisuke was, Ken had always been faster. He leaped to his feet, knocking Tachibana away with one hand, and brought his sword around to point at the other’s throat.

“Touch me again,” he growled, voice sounding far too much like the Kaiser, “and I won’t hesitate.” The tip of his sword rested on Tachibana’s throat. “And I won’t care.”

Daisuke strolled to stand beside Ken. “And I’ll give him an alibi. Anything he does, you pushed him to it. We told you to stop. You’re not listening. Either leave us alone or pay the price.”

Tachibana looked, to tell the truth, as if he were about to wet himself on the spot. Daisuke wouldn’t have been surprised. In point of fact, he thought it would have been hilarious.

Wormmon hadn’t moved from around Ken’s shoulders. He rested one pod on Ken carefully. “You don’t want to hurt him, Ken-chan,” he murmured. “He’s not worth it.”

“No, he’s not.” Ken replied. “But if he doesn’t leave me alone, I will.”

Tachibana turned paler even than Ken’s ears. He stumbled back, eyes flicking all over. “You’re insane!” He spat the words out before ducking away and fleeing for the door as fast as he could.

They were the only ones there at the time – they’d stayed long enough at Koushiro's that most of the usual crowd had gone home. The ramen chef had stepped into the back. The timing really couldn’t have been better.

Daisuke closed his hand once more on Ken’s. “He’s gone,” he murmured. “You can relax now. It’s all right.”

Ken stared at him,, the bright ruby flames still burning. Then he swallowed, staring down at the sword as if he’d never seen it before in his life. Daisuke guessed that he really hadn’t.

“What did I do?” Ken whispered brokenly. “What did I do, Daisuke?”

To Be Continued

Notes: One chapter left to go! Sunday wraps it all up. I rather enjoyed writing the confrontation between Ken and Tachibana. Tachibana will probably run screaming if he so much as spies Ken across the street now. He’s lucky Akogimon didn’t fully awaken. Akogimon would have skewered him and laughed about. Think Kaiser, but worse. Much, much worse.

[gascon-en-exil]

Mercilessly Judging the Men of Fòdlan: The Kingdom

It’s been a long time coming, over eight months in fact, but now that it may be assumed that the last of the DLC has been released and the fandom as a whole has settled comfortably into its various camps I think there’s no better time than now to answer that burning question: how raunchily, outrageously gay can the male cast of Three Houses possibly be? For those unfamiliar with this fun little series of mine, I’ve been applying my extensive knowledge and experience of gay male sex and hookup culture to the men of Fire Emblem, originally as a way of reckoning with the refusal of the games themselves to provide me with any worthwhile self-insert M/M content. I stand by that premise for FE16 - you all know how absolutely nothing appeals to me about m!Byleth or his prospects on that score - but in the years since my first outing of merciless judgment with Awakening that idea has expanded into something broader, an imaginative modern AU of sorts where all these guys are into men (if not always exclusively) and willing to put themselves out there in the lewd and semi-anonymous world of hookup apps in search of their preferred carnal delights.

A note on organization before we begin, as this material is too long to cram into one post. Excluding Byleth (as Avatars and their spawn always are for this project) there are twenty-one playable male characters in Three Houses. This makes for an even threeway division to preserve the eponymous conceit of the game, but not a particularly neat one. Aligned with the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus I therefore have below the male Lions, Kingdom knight and Azure Moon-exclusive Gilbert, and Faerghus-based underworld kingpin Yuri. As with all things concerning M/M outside of Byleth and his awkward S rank monologues, the Lions have it the most clear-cut.

The Empire

The Alliance

Dimitri

It’s rare that you can get a feeling for someone’s whole life story entirely from watching their presence in hookup spaces over time, but he’s an exception. Once a sweet, wide-eyed collegiate who looked eager to get dicked down by any reasonably polite and attractive top/vers, hard years have turned him grim and sad and just barely put together enough to be presentable for a clothed face pic, much less anything more revealing...and still eager to get dicked down. He’s been dealing with a lot lately, and even though he’s still game for a quickie from time to time (especially with muscle guys, a shallow weakness of his he’d blush to admit to out loud) a single roll in the sheets isn’t going to make him emotionally available. Apparently he’s already well-covered on that front as it is; with his charisma and open-minded way of looking at the world he’s made many friends and fuck buddies and companions who seem half like boyfriends and half like something indescribably beyond that, and a new trick would be hard-pressed to compete with that and likely wouldn’t want to if it means engaging with his demons. Still an enviable hookup partner though, with a full pert ass and a whole assortment of friends who love to play with him and anyone else who lands an invitation to his bed. His cock has left many a bottom drooling, but unfortunately he’s haunted by the memory of the time when he went too hard and nearly caused a medical emergency. Now he just takes it and doesn’t even let anyone ride him, but there are just as many men who aren’t complaining about that in the slightest. Has a very high chance of winding up in a tender and fulfilling poly marriage that’s still open on all sides - he’s got a lot of hot, sweaty love to give.

Favored erotic tea time subjects: body worship, muscle bears, group sex

Favored gift: a body pillow, on the infrequent occasions where he has to sleep alone with no one to cuddle

Dedue

One of those shy larger men who will never initiate conversation, because he’s been blown off one too many times for shallow reasons and isn’t expecting that to ever change. It doesn’t bother him greatly though, because as his profile states he’s in a relationship and he and his partner only play together so unless you’re only looking for friends - not impossible, as he’s got quite the array of engaging hobbies on display in his pics - you’ll have to accept that this bear has a cub...or something like that anyway. Bad at small talk and even a little embarrassed to talk about his expertise in the kitchen or the garden, it’s a completely different story when the lights are off where he’ll give cocky power bottoms and scoffing total tops exactly what they deserve. Sub bottoms on the other hand bring out his softer, cuddly side, and he’s more likely to be using his considerable weight to lovingly press them into the mattress as he opens them up with his tongue and eventually his dick. Is utterly devoted to his partner but enjoys watching him playing around with third parties, even if he’s almost never allowed to sit on the sidelines for the entire night. To the shock of everyone he’s actually a total vers, even if he leaves most tops stammering excuses and bending over for him anyway. He’s usually polite enough to stick to oral in those cases. He’ll never be the most sociable man, but he’s a real catch regardless in every other aspect and is no doubt looking forward to his inevitable wedding and only sometimes X-rated married life. Still fondly recalls the first time someone introduced him to the idea of sex while cooking, and now he takes it as a challenge (only when he’s cooking just for himself and his sexual partners, of course; he doesn’t want to be unsanitary).

Favored erotic tea time subjects: twunks, voyeurism, cum swapping

Favored gift: a chef’s apron short enough to let his junk hang free

Felix

Has a biting retort for every unsolicited nude and “looking?” ever sent to him, and he gets a lot of both when his pic is just enticing enough and his profile is full of enough acerbic wit to provoke the kinds of guys who actually read those things. Claims he’s vers, gets pissed whenever anyone tells him that’s just code for bottom, gets even more pissed after hookups when his partner points out that that’s totally true in his case. Prefers oral to conversation, both giving and getting, and he’s got a remarkable talent for handjobs that surprisingly doesn’t seem to be born from excessive masturbation. Not so great with fetishes - he punched the first guy to pull his hair while he was giving head, and passes made at him during his workouts leave him more annoyed at the interruption than aroused. Disarmed by anything too soft and cutesy so he’s not great with fems, but it’s unclear if this has anything to do with his lingering daddy issues that he’s not working out in the bedroom because they’re (probably) not like that. Not sentimental at all, but he’s probably got that one longtime slow burn affair he doesn’t bring up with his tricks. If anything ever comes of that he’ll vanish immediately from the app space, but until then he’s up for a 69 followed by a good long pounding - much longer than you’d expect from someone of his frame. Good thing too, because he loves making his partners cut loose and give it to him raw and hard.

Favored erotic tea time subjects: “straight” guys, dildos, pig sluts 

Favored gift: high-quality lube. and lots of it

Ashe

Everyone’s BFF, sweet and affable and able to bounce from friend group to friend group even without always having to take his clothes off. Usually finds himself as the token twink surrounded by men who are very much not that, because they value his friendship and reliability (and also his ass, as expected). Did not have the best home life and has probably had to do a few shady things to get by, but with all that mostly behind him anyone would be happy to date him or even just to take a walk with him, as he’s quite outdoorsy when he’s not taking care of relatives or less responsible friends. A bottom by expectation because there’s not much else one can infer when he shows up to bars and house parties alike in the company of guys twice his size who aren’t shy about being casually handsy with him. Still, has learned to be quite deft when the need arises and knows how to stimulate on multiple fronts, whether for one partner or several. His weakness for muscles is genuine too, and he loves a firm chest as much as taking some guy’s thick meat. Paradoxically doesn’t have a lot of patience for dumb jocks, but since he knows just about everyone worth knowing (and sleeping with) in his area and works the freckled fresh-faced young cutie angle with an artlessness that surprises some of his less gifted peers he’s bound to wind up in a comfortable relationship of some kind or another. Prefers to have sex with the lights on, and if given the option will cuddle for a long time afterward to avoid turning them off. His ass has freckles too, but he rolls his eyes when he gets asked that.

Favored erotic tea time subjects: gym sex, spit roasting, breaking in new bottoms

Favored gift: a sensible jockstrap, for workouts and for dates

Sylvain

Everyone you know has slept with him, but almost never more than once. You might have even met him in person long before you encounter his minimalist profile with its headless abs pic hitting you up with a shot of his erection measured against a beer can followed by an address. Gets a lot of action on that pic alone, but repeats are few and far between when he pulls out his phone right after pulling out of his guy of the hour and starts browsing through what’s on offer again and slow jerking. Not a big fan of FWBs met through hookups since he always feels like they’re being too clingy even if they just happened to get horny for him again a few weeks later. Does not like to talk, especially about his family, and he almost never extends an invitation to spend the night. Still, as callous as he is that cock is impressive and he knows how to put it to work. Good with his mouth too, and true to his cultivated total top persona he’d sooner rim than blow. He’s also successful and likeable enough in his personal life to have buddies who’ll play around with him, and he might even have some kind of nebulous long term thing going with one or two of them that they strictly don’t discuss. Bottoms only as a challenge, but he’s not great at it and doesn’t have the stamina to last very long while riding. Is on PreP and uses condoms religiously so he’s got that going for him, but testing after sex with him is still recommended because there’s really no telling how many other holes he’s filled that week. Likes twinks and twunks, but loudly refuses to ever be a sugar daddy no matter how desperate he might get in his later years assuming he doesn’t die of untreated syphilis or something equally appropriate and ridiculous.

Favored erotic tea time subjects: marathon fucking, double penetration, open relationships

Favored gift: a fleshlight molded into the shape of his favorite fuck buddy’s hole, for sentimentality

Gilbert

His pics are neither very current nor very flattering, and he doesn’t excel at small talk although he’s evidently been around long enough to know how to get an open-minded hookup over to his place from time to time. Encounters are fast and fumbling and drawn out more by his waning libido than anything else, and half the time he’ll settle for watching a guy play with himself in front of him while he makes an effort to get into it. It would be inaccurate to say that he’s not a romantic man; rather, it’s as though all his passion has been left behind in a difficult former life that he only reveals some of in long wistful moments over multiple encounters. Doesn’t get many repeats however on account of the lackluster performances, and also because his stubbornness bordering on self-righteousness about certain topics becomes very grating very quickly. Based on the stories he tells and the few pictures he has to show he was quite a catch in his earlier days, but circumstances and being closeted until much later in life kept him from exploring as much as he wanted. Has the potential to end up in a loving if not particularly sexual relationship with someone provided they’re extremely patient as he works through and/or learns to set aside his numerous hangups. There are worse fates...but never, ever call him daddy. It brings up a lot of bad memories, plus he just thinks it’s weird. Kink is something he left behind decades ago when he resigned himself to the knowledge that he wasn’t going to be getting much vanilla action, much less anything more exotic.

Favored erotic tea time subjects: mutual masturbation, actual straight guys, spooning

Favored gift: the balls to get some closure

Yuri

A consummate professional, albeit one whose marketing strategy carefully conceals that fact and also leaves no room for the kind of casual bigotry that flourishes on hookup apps - having a problem with “no fems” is expected from the build and the guyliner, but he’s all for equal opportunity sex even on top of that. Accustomed to the usual array of lonely and horny men who hit him up for pics and dirty chat and the occasional good time, and skilled enough in a variety of roles to perform whatever’s being asked of him. It’s not entirely clear where his own tastes lie; even the muscled closet cases who show up in his messages on the DL don’t seem to do all that much for him if they’re not paying. A former career in the arts has left him with an entertainer’s flair for pleasuring his clients both in and out of the bedroom along with an eclectic skill set that always finds a way to get put to work during sex. He can grind his hips, swirl his tongue, arch his back, and moan in the just the right ways to drive his partners wild, and all that experience also lends itself to his ability to patiently tutor even the clumsiest of lovers into something resembling competence, enough for them to get off if not himself. Bottoms more often than he tops, but he’s vers enough in skill and in preference to pivot when necessary and will probably have little trouble keeping this gig of his going later in life as well. He may not ever end in a proper relationship, but he’ll still do well for himself in an unorthodox way in keeping with the curiously world-weary optimism he sometimes espouses during pillow talk with guys who actually interest him enough for conversation.

Favored erotic tea time subjects: flip fucking, big top/small bottom, religious kink

Favored gift: creative restraints, for when he’s feeling acrobatic

[female-overlord-3]

Bring Them Home Ch 9

Shared Milkshakes <- ao3 link

Prev - Next

The second they walk through the door Liz clocks them and drags them over to a free booth near the back.

"You guys are a godsend I was about to stab that guy in booth 8 if he tries and makes one more pass at me. Please tell me you've got news or something I can use as an excuse to leave. I was going to ask and see if you'd take me to your bunker so I could work on making more of the serum to give you guys a boost and… I-" she finally takes a second to notice them and how they're sitting, her and Alex on one side with Michael across from them. From Alex.

Her eyes go wide and am excited smile spreads across her face.

"Omg are- is this-"

Michael taps his foot against hers and gives her a look.

"A date. Yes." He looks to Alex and crosses his arms to settle more comfortably in the booth cushion. "Told you we'd be bugged."

Liz  glares at him and knocks her shoulders into Alex's.

"Your date is rude. Leave him."

Alex throws his arm around her and gives a quick hug.

"You could be working on being a better friend and letting me enjoy my date. If it's a disaster you can whisk me away upstairs."

Liz rolls her eyes at them and wiggles out of Alex's hold. "Fine. Enjoy your rude date and food made with love."

She drops next to Michael to give him a quick hug. "You both want your usual's?"

"Kyle's too but not for another hour."

Alex adds.

Michael smirks and gives Liz a hopeful look. "Add pickles to his shake for me Ortecho." He whispers loudly.

"Not if you want them in yours too." She throws back.

They watch her walk back to the counter and pass by booth 8. The guy Liz was talking about with a hand reaching out to touch her behind but jerks back when his drink tips over to spill all over the table and his pants.

Most of it gets on him.

"Consider yourself no longer a rude date." Alex says with a knowing look.

Grinning Michael uncrosses his arms and leans closer to him. "The few times being an alien comes in handy. Now before we start this I have one deal breaker question."

"Shoot."

"Do you still dip your fries into your shake like the heathen you forever are?"

With his elbows propped on the table and chin resting on his hands, Alex just smiles with a tilt of his head.

"Do you still eat your burger burnt and slurp your shake like a slob?"

They stare each other down with equally giddy and a mischievous glint in their eyes.

"Alex is a lost cause but at least Michael's learned to no longer slurp."

A deep voice answers and they both look up to see Arturo standing with their orders ready on a tray and his kind smile.

"Thank you Arturo. See I've grown and gained manners."

Michael taps his shoe gently against Alex's left as Arturo places their food in front of them.

"Will you two be needing anything else?"

He asks as he watches the two slowly get sucked back into their own little world.

"I think we're good Arturo. Thank you."

Alex says as he picks up a fry and dips it into his shake before eating it, never breaking eye contact with Michael who grimaced at him.

"I'll keep Liz busy. You two enjoy your meal." He winks at them before heading back to shew away his nosy daughter.

They eat and simply enjoy each others company, only venturing to talk about easy and light topics. When Michael brings up that he still finds it hilarious that Kyle didn't know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek, it's surprisingly easy to steer clear of the extra stuff that's connected to it.

The reminder spawns a debate about which character, movie, and show is better.

"You can't beat either of the originals Alex. Like it's the reason why it's still so popular." Michael declares as he points a fry at Alex.

Alex snatches it and eats it. "True but the new stuff is good too and we're able to do way more stuff that wasn't possible before."

"Ok ok. The old and first stuff is what made it good but the new stuff can get more creative. How's that sound?"

"Like a nicer way to say I'm wrong and you're right. Listen we can argue about this all day but the one thing I know we can agree on is that Oscar Isaac is hot."

"No no no the best character is BB-8 because they are small, adorable, and round. Also Finn is hotter."

"They're both pretty hot."

A silence falls upon them before Michael blurts out "they have the most chemistry out of everyone."

This seems to launch Alex into excited chatter.

"Oh thank god if I hear someone say that Rey and Finn are meant to be then I'm going to tackle them."

He grabs another fry and waves it around as he talks.

"Rey is the most badass though. Like sure she and Finn are nice but she doesn't really need anyone. What happened to being friends and found-family themes?"

Michael nudges the nearly empty milkshake out of the way when Alex's hand almost hits it as he keeps talking.

"She has actual practical skills! I'm still mixed on The Last Jedi but Rey and the new cast are awesome. Everyone just being together and working towards bringing back peace, that's what the people want."

All Michael can do is stare lovingly at him, soaking up Alex's attention and presence.

Alex raises a brow at him in question.

"What?"

"Can I hold your hand?"

Alex slides his right across the table to rest between them with his palm facing up. Michael swallows and stares at it before extending his right, just letting a finger trace along the lines and creases of Alex's. After a few seconds of that he gently takes it and leans closer so he can raise it to his face, letting it be held in his hand and pressed against his cheek.

It's like something finally settles, a grounding feeling. Being able to do this gives Michael the reassurance that it's happening, that he's here with Alex and their on an actual date. They're working on being together.

"You good?"

Michael just hums in answer, his eyes blinking open to see a look he can't place on Alex's face. There's this lightness  in them and happiness.

"Oh." He has seen that face before, only twice and he's only understanding what it means now.

"You love me."

His words make Alex's face do this complicated thing, like he's offended and trying not to laugh at Michael.

"I did tell you like two days ago? You were there and-"

Michael just stares.

"-And I thought you knew."

Closing his eyes Michael thinks those words over, for once his mind slowly working through everything. What to say, do, think.

"Sometimes I thought you did but I was never sure… I mean like we both knew it, that there was something more there but like I guess I didn't actually believe it until now."

Michael presses a quick kiss to Alex's hand before setting it down on the table, keeping his on top.

"I love you too. Still have and always will."

Alex laces their hands together.

"I know. I've known and held onto that for so long because loving you was never the problem, it was me and everything else."

Michael wants to correct that, that it wasn't all of Alex just the everything else, but he doesn't want to fight or this happy mood to drop.

"You are stubborn."

Alex smirks at him. "A bit."

"Can't seem to accept nice things."

"Oh and you're nice things?"

Instead of a teasing grin Alex expects, Michael smiles at him with a fond one.

"I'd like to be. You deserve nice things, things you want Alex."

The pained but hopeful look those words bring to Alex's face twists something in Michael's chest but he feels like it's good, what Alex might need to feel to start believing him.

"I'll think about it."

"You better."

They settle into a comfortable silence and unashamedly just look at each other.

Then a bag is dropped on the table bringing them back to reality.

"Sorry but Kyle's food is ready and we're gonna get a rush soon. You both can stay as long as you want though." Liz quickly turns and glares at the people coming over to the table. "They're still ordering."

The couple, tourists who've come straight from the UFO Emporium going by their headgear and shirts, look down at the empty plates but quickly move to a different booth when Liz's glare turns deadly. It softens when she turns back to them.

"Tell Kyle he owes me tip money. Good tip money. Leave your stuff I can grab it on my way back."

"Liz what about our-" Michael tries to ask, hand already reaching for his wallet but she leaves to grab more orders and seat the new people entering.

Alex and Michael share a look, Michael pouting as Alex eyes dance with amusement as he grabs Kyle’s food. The Crashdown is getting too crowded for either of them to enjoy the space anymore.

They exit the booth they're in and bring their things to the counter, getting an exasperated sigh from Arturo who takes them and waves them off when Michael tries to pay. Once the curtain covering the kitchen falls shut, Michael pulls out a 10 and drops it into the tip jar. He watches as Alex pulls out a 20 and shoves it into the jar before grabbing Michael’s hand so they can run out.

Alex is grinning giddily and Michael really wants to kiss him.

The need barrels through him and he starts leading Alex to his truck, hands moving to slide up to Alex’s shoulders and carefully pushes him against the drivers door. Michael is somehow out of breath as he just stares at Alex; his happy smile, the light in his eyes, cheeks starting to turn red from excitement, how his lips are a beacon calling to him but he needs to know what Alex wants. Alex must see it in his eyes, and Michael can see that it’s reflected right back.

“Can I-”

Alex grabs the lapels of Michael’s open shirt with his free hand to drag him in and crash their mouths together in answer.

Michael thinks this is his favorite kiss besides their first one. It shares that joyful giddiness from that first kiss but it's grounded now, certain. There's no fear of it being their last or trying to put as much feeling as they can because of a time limit. The promise of more. The feeling of finally.

[unfortunatematchups]

(Hello is this blog dead because I haven't seen you post since February)

nope, this blog aint dead. i have it open on a browser tab as long as im online to check on any new asks and messages. im going to leave a short explanation here for those who dont want to waste their time.

weve been busy with other interests and ive gotten something like a writers block. matchup block? since im the primary writer here, theres pretty much no activity as long as im not writing. thats it. no reason, nothing to do with personal problems. just a block. 

keep reading for the real reason. you might not like it, but here it is.

im going to use these john sprites to convey my emotion so it might clear up any doubts on how im feeling. lets start with the process of how i write a match.

this is what a draft looks like. i write out how i would rant about this pairing, errors and all, then i leave it for the next day to come back to this and clean this draft into a polished, three-pointer paragraph. the thing is, im the only one doing this, so its obviously going to take long. i dont mind, i love to type and see something spawn from my effort. 

the problem? these rants are people-specific. right. whatever im rambling about in the draft, its about the ask and the ask only. it wouldnt fit if you crammed it into another ask, it wouldnt make a lick-a-sense if it was used to answer someone else. but, when i start to polish it up with clear and coherent sentences, suddenly it becomes… static. it becomes plain and simple, uninteresting and linear. think of it like youre hearing about a book from someone you know and trust versus a review. the person you know describes why the book is great with a lot of passion and love, but theres a lot of errors in delivery and some awkward bits they havent flushed out yet. 

nevertheless, its enjoying and persuasive, because you can see how they love it so much to the point where it gets them like that. they dont plan out how theyll describe the book to you word by word, because theres no need to. seeing how it gets them excited gets you excited, so you buy their faith in the book. 

what about a review? its clean, its cut, its perfect in delivery. it has a flow, introducing you to the story and overall appeal, then maybe it digs down for a spoiler or two. it gels with you in a simple fashion, doesnt quite have that connection a passionate ramble has. because its professional. 

thats what ive been making this blog to be. professional. i answer the request with a polished, pretty and perfect answer. theres no personal connection. i could take a match, swap out a couple of words, maybe cut out a bit, and it would be clear for another match. it feels static to write those paragraphs, and it progressively gets worse each time i repeat the process. im chipping away at something so close, so personal and unique into something dull and professional because i want it to look clean.

but thats my end of the problem. i dont like how it comes out, so what? people enjoy it. they must be, seeing how theres fifty three fucking asks for matchups and 73 followers. 

i wont show all the asks i have in the inbox, but ill tell you what majority, if not all of them, sound like. 

“I’m bi/pan”, “I have brown hair/eyes”, “I’m chubby/short”, “I like art/gaming/reading/writing”, “I’m shy around people I don’t know, I’m crazy around people I know”, “I’m a nerd”, “I have ADHD/Anxiety”. 

of course, there are some exceptions. not everything i say is as is, but from 50+ asks, these are what about three quarters of them sound like. there are personal differences, like music tastes and obscure hobbies, but the general gist is there. 

im not going to say anything about the sexuality orientation, because im in a friend group where majority, if not all, are not cishets. yes, people like art and gaming. 

but thats it? these descriptors are such shallow answers. i can personalise a match for you, sure, but does it feel like its right? you like gaming. so what, do you like ALL games? from FPS to Dating sims to Horror games to Sports games to Adult games? do you like ALL art? Surrealism, sculpture, comics, abstract, even those where they splash paint and call it a day? really? i dont think im asking for a lot when it comes to being specific. some asks literally just go ‘im a bi female, 5′3, i like gaming and drawing, im sometimes shy but i can be sassy at times’. 

with everyone being so similar and vague, how am i supposed to give a match i feel is right? i might as well take everyones favourite boy david elizabeth strider and talk about how he likes your art and how he likes gaming and oh isnt it so great that you two like music. 

there are some unique ones, and its pretty obvious which ones they are because ive put in more love into them. and i havent been able to do that to many asks. 

and the physical descriptions. while im sure some of the characters do have types and preferences, i dont care for appearances. i dont care if youre fat or skinny, i dont care if youre tall or short, brown hair or blonde. you being morbidly obese or morbidly skinny may affect the match depending on how i feel the characters might respond to someone with those physical traits, but they shouldnt matter. 

i dont need how you look. i dont want how you look. its shallow and unimportant. it takes up space in the ask, because you could be using it to describe your personality or interests in detail. not that youre limit to one ask, you can send in an entire fucking fourteen page essay and id match you, as long as youre telling me something i can pair you with. 

telling me youre ‘chubby’ or ‘blonde’ doesnt help visualise shit. this shouldnt be new information to you or anyone else. writing shit like ‘he loves your curves!’ or ‘she likes how short you are because it makes you cute’ is bullshit and is simply self-serving nonsense. yes, its an additional bonus if your lover likes how youre short or fat, but that shouldnt be why theyre in love with you. a paragraph based on how much they like to hold you are appreciate your body is utter fucking nonsense. you appreciate your own body, and thats it. 

i dont feel inspired when i look at some of these asks. i dont feel like i should answer any of these because a) im not obligated to, this blog is just a side hobby and b) id be writing something i dont enjoy for people who might also not enjoy it. i dont deserve to sit at my laptop and write something i feel doesnt represent my work or ideas well, and the person who im matching doesnt deserve the half-assed boring paragraph of nonsense im pulling out of my ass just to clear the inbox. 

ive taken some time away from this blog and upon receiving this ask, i wanted to use the same old excuse every other blog uses: ‘we’ve been busy, so we went on an unannounced hiatus’. 

but thats not true. with the pandemic forcing lockdowns, theres essentially nothing else for us to do. if anything, this would mean that we have more time to write. 

so there it is. my truthful answer as to why nothings coming out of this blog.

part of this is my fault. i thought that maybe i could force myself to match all those vague asks that feel like theyre about the same person, just with a couple of changes. but i cant. i wont. im not going to keep writing shit i dont like, and im not going to keep giving half-assed matches, giving characters people are at the very least sure to be okay with. 

i want to write exciting, unique and adorable relationships. i thought that with the homestuck fandom being so vast and creative, maybe i would get the chance to meet and write for a couple of people who were just so different it would make pairings id never thought of. 

but nah, it looks like everything is the same. all the anon asks start to bleed together. the responses start becoming the same. im given descriptions that sound so tame, so generalised. like somehow, youre afraid of letting me know who you are as a person. or not, perhaps you just struggle with expressing yourself. thats why youre using anon to send in your ask, isnt it? 

i turned anon on because i wanted to respect privacy. i wanted people to be able to send in each and every detail about themselves while remaining behind a mask so they could get the best match without exposing every inch of themselves on a blog. maybe that was my mistake. 

ill leave the matches open, but im only going to do the ones that interest me. but if you decide that you dont give a fuck about the quality of the match, tell me or something. i have drafts that i can just post. maybe youd like that. 

-pretty obviously, mod olio.