#they are NOT just a plot convenient tool

[evilminji]

This? Is driving me ~crazy~?

You know Anti-Force drugs and devices? Such as cuffs or collars?

Presumably, both rare and expensive, since Noteable Force Sensitivity is Rare AF? Not sure if it's more of a Fandom or Canon thing? But still, THOSE things? Yeah, you know THEM?

...... w-wouldn't... wouldn't they fucking KILL people?

Like? I'm not even joking here. We gotta remember, IN UNIVERSE, that the Force? Is FUCKING EVERYWHERE. All the Where. The LIVING Force is what CONNECTS and guides all LIVING things. "Guides" being the significant word there.

I'm not saying it would be IMMEDIATE death? Because Force Blanks exsist. Impossibly rare as they may be. But no one ever said they were HEALTHY. You CAN survive, for a pretty long while, after getting your internal micro biomes DEEPLY fucked up. Can even possibly repair them, depending on the damage.

And, what? Is the Midi-chlorian? If not a symbiotic microorganism? Living off you while giving you benefits in return? Health, durability, and The Force, in return for a place to thrive. Tied, inexorably, to your immune system and other vital bodily functions? To your SENSES. Your BRAIN FUNCTION.

Anti-Force drugs and Devices? Are awful... to those already a count of MULTIPLE THOUSANDS per drop of blood. What about much lower? If the device damages or suppresses all but the strongest Midi-chlorians? Does the average person HAVE enough to survive that?

Is it like radiation exposure? Deadly not in the immediate, but in the days to follow? In the sickness. The nausea. The weakness of limbs and the tiredness that drags. A seeping sense of unreality. Disconnected from others, who no longer feel "real". Do YOU no longer "real". As the interwoven connection you had, inside you, to the Force, is dying?

The Force is still there. You are still a part of it.

But you can't feel it anymore.

And it wasn't even something you knew you WERE feeling, until it was gone. Until people and the paintings of people, hold the same realness. Until you no longer feel connected to your own body. Sick, disassociating, and scared. Blood poisoned by the dying matter now floating in your veins.

There's a REASON, I would imagine, such devices are not standard issue. Mass produced. Expensive, dangerous, and deadly to those who DON'T have a high enough midi-chlorian count.

Even those who DO have a high enough count? Get sick wearing them! Need time to recover!

They are? Fundamentally?

ANTI-LIFE.

People throw them around in fanfic's a lot. As though just shutting off a major part of someone biology wouldn't have NASTY blowback. As though a Jedi probably doesn't fucking DESTROY those monstrosities, those ABOMINATIONS to the Force, every time they come across a set or vial of the stuff. Second only to the Sith, that sort of evil. Probably MADE by Sith. Evil. Nasty. Disgusting and no good.

Burn it.

You absolutely NEED to keep someone contained? Sleep. Nice lil Jedi enforced nap. Or drug enforced. Maybe both. They ALSO have FORCE rituals. Combine THEIR power against YOUR power. There are many ways. HUMANE and ETHICAL ways. They AREN'T SITH.

Just? Those things? Should be treated like the horrors they ARE, you know? They're not convenient plot devices! They are critical biology suppressing radiation collars and chemo drugs! Being PUMPED INTO PEOPLE by RANDOS!!

Shoved ON people! By FUCKING SLAVERS!

That SHOULD be HORRIFYING! They're ANTI-FORCE! <-!!! Which?

Is LIFE.

@legitimatesatanspawn @babbling-babull @spidori @mayfay @hdgnj @hypewinter @lolottes @leftnotright

[naburi]

GRAVEYARD SHIFT

CHAEYOUNG X READER

THEMES: ROUGH SEX, DOGGY, CREAMPIE

2K WORDS

Beep beep* the sound of the scanner echos to the whole store. Cold breeze enters the store as the customer opens the door on their way out. It’s 2 am and you’re working with Chaeyoung, a small petite girl who’s always in a bad mood.

You've been working in this convenient store for about three months now. It’s a small 24 hour store near your area. Your cheerful personality made it easy for you to get close with your coworkers besides with one person. You were a regular customer in this store before, that’s why you’re somehow familiar with the employees' faces before joining their company.

For the first few weeks, you have been only delegated to the opening shift which starts at 7 am. This wasn’t a problem to you as you’re an early bird. Your early tenure with the company was going smoothly until you were assigned to the graveyard shift.

Your coworkers warned you about the employee who only works on graveyard shift. They said she’s not part of the rotating shift as she requested to only work on midnights. She doesn’t have the most pleasing personality and often yells at a customer for their dumb actions. They call her “baby beast” due to her young age and hot temper. Despite her shenanigans, she’s been the longest tenured employee with her work ethic.

First night, you’re walking towards the store to clock in with your first graveyard shift. You’re confident you can tame the “baby beast” with your personality. As you’re getting close the entrance door, you saw a short curly haired young lady in the counter. You were in awe to find someone they call a beast have this pretty of a have. You tried to fix your hair and clothes slightly as you felt anxious talking to your pretty coworker for the first time. You finally enter the store and immediately introduced yourself. She look at you dead in the eye, didn’t even bother to look introduced herself back, “I know, we’re wearing the same uniform. Now go in the back and restock some items.” She said in monotone. You were in disbelief how rude this girl is and just go in the store room to do what she said. You’re annoyed while doing your work, you already made up your mind you don’t like this person and want to make her pay off her unruly behavior.

You’re already plotting how you get revenge on her until you hear a loud voice coming in the store. It’s not supposed to be audible in the storage room but due to how loud she is, you can hear clearly how she’s yelling at a customer due to them having a large bill all while only buying a few items. You were ready to storm back in the store until you met her gaze. She’s giving you a death stare as if she’s also mad at you. Still in shock of her behavior you just went through the night doing your work without bothering her.

Second night, you notice that there’s no one in the counter area and you're already hoping that she won’t go to work tonight. You’re going into the storage room to lay down your stuff until you see the beast reaching down to stack some snacks on the lower shelf. Her tight pants are hugging her thin legs and tight ass. Her tight top uniform highlighted her petite frame. You realized this is the first time you noticed her body. You noticed this view made your tool erected. She finally acknowledged your presence and looked at you from your feet to your head with annoyance all over her face like your existence bothered her so much. “What do you want?” She yelled. You don’t know what to say but you saw her eyes go back to your bulge. “Nothing! Don’t mind me!,” you said as you rushed in the back room embarrassed.

Third night, you’re both at the counter serving beers to customers who are already drunk and just drink more. You notice how small her hand is compared to the cold bottle she’s serving.

Fourth night, you found her stocking some drinks in the refrigerator, the light coming in the fridge bounced on her glowing face making her look ethereal. You hate how you get attracted to her.

Fifth night, she just yelled again at a customer by asking her some dumb questions. There is not a day where she wouldn’t yell at some random person. But always notice how quiet she gets after the altercation, maybe she’s feeling guilty after what happened.

Sixth night, she’s roaming the selves while you’re at the counter. Her tight ass sways as she walks, like a small clock in a hypnotic rhythm, you can’t help but look at her ass. She noticed how you can’t keep your eyes off her and for some miracle you notice her chuckle for a bit.

Seventh night, you request to work everyday as you badly need some money. You expect to be alone for tonight as it’s supposed to be her off day. It’s pouring rain and you saw a silhouette running down the entrance. It’s the baby beast, you didn’t bother to ask why she goes to work today and just assumed she has the same reason as you. “You didn’t even bother to open the door for me!? You already saw me running!” She yelled. She’s soaking wet, it doesn’t seem like she’s carrying an umbrella to protect her from this heavy rain. It’s been a few minutes now and she is still not coming out of the back room. You got curious and checked on her, you saw the bathroom door open. You saw Chaeyoung on the backside, she’s only wearing a white bra while her uniform is on her hand, twisting it trying to get the water out of it. Her wet pants revealed the form of her underwear.

You heard her say that she doesn’t have extra clothes to wear. She’s planning to work with her wet uniform on. Which you didn’t allow, you worry she would get sick if she tried to and you reason out there will be no customer due to how heavy the rain is. She was annoyed by what you said but she eventually agreed with you. You offer her a white t-shirt that is definitely bigger than her size. “Don’t cum in this short after I wear it” she said in a mocking tone. “What?!” You’re embarrassed by what she said as you realize that she noticed how hard you try to keep your eyes off of her but failed miserably. You go back to the counter as she changes her clothes. Chaeyoung realized that she can't wear her under garments because they got wet as well.

Chaeyoung feels uncomfortable only wearing a shirt while she’s sitting in the chairs in the storage room. It’s 2 am and the baby beast can’t find anything to do. She can’t work due to her only wearing a shirt, and she can't go back home with how hard the rain still is. You heard the beast called you for the first time not in an angry tone. You wonder what it would be, you saw her sitting in the corner with her arms on the makeshift table while her legs crossed. The big shirt can’t contain her perky nipples poking through it and the end of the shirt barely covering her private area. You

stood there awkwardly. Chaeyoung herself didn’t know why she called you as well, but she knows she wants something.

The baby beast stood up as well, now infront of you. She’s barely in your chest level due to your height differences. “Kiss me” she said shyly. You can’t believe what you just heard. “Kiss me, damn it” she yelled at you. Your body moves on its own like it knows what to do. You started kissing her sloppy which she returned more hungrily. Your hands move although her body before you push her in the wall beside you. You started to caress her small boobs over her shirt while still making out. It hasn't been long before you put your hands inside the shirt, uplifting it to expose her perky nipples. One of your hands reaches her womanhood which is already soaked in wet, your other hand finds one of her boobs groping her and findling with her nipples.

Your make out session gets interrupted by her soft moaning. Something clicks in your head, remembering how rude she is to you, remembering how you want to get revenge on her. You made the baby beast to lean on one of the boxes now facing her back towards you. This gives you a better angle to fondle her boobs and rub her clit. You start to get more aggressive on how you grope her small boobs, you can feel your hand sinking on it due to how aggressive you are. You started to give her neck kisses from the back as her moans keep getting louder while you move your hand now playing with her nipples.

One of your hands moves back to her pussy now glistening in wet. You keep trying to put a finger in while your other hand pulls down your pants to reveal your hard throbbing cock. Baby beast realized what you're about to do and tried to say no because you're not wearing any protection. You put your tip touching her wet entrance. She felt how big your head is compared to her small tight entrance. And tried to reason out to you that she can’t take it. But you brush it off and instead push it inside as quickly as possible. You let out a surprising moan, this is the tightest pussy you ever felt. And you made it your goal to make this pussy mold in your cock perfectly.

You started to pound her slowly, she’s already moaning loudly due to her not accustomed to your size. She tried to move around but you hold her hair to keep her hair in place while your other hand is holding her small waist. Her tight ass bouncing off you every time you pound her. Her moans turn into cries as you pick up the pace. The beast that’s always rude to you is now at the mercy of your cock. This turns you on even more, you hold her waist with your two hands to pound her even harder. Her cries now become inaudible begging. Which didn’t help her because this signals you to fuck her even more.

You pound her faster, you pound her faster, you keep changing the rhythm which satisfies her even more. She doesn't want to admit it but she gets turned on by how your eyes always wander on her body. She always noticed the bud on your pants from the second night. She has a hot temper but you made her feel a different type of hot. Now she moans for you to go even deeper to fuck her till her pussy molds into your cocks. She wants you to fuck her till she can’t take it anymore.

She even spread her pussy with both of her hands for you to get a deeper access. This made you more feral and bend her in the small table, you push her body to lay down on top of it while her ass hanging, waiting for you to fuck her again. The table cracking every time you pound her which both of you didn’t mind as you're too into it to even care this goes on for a few more hours, you have cum inside her for three times but you still can’t get enough of this baby beast. Chaeyoung is also at her limits, feeling her pussy soar while you still fucking her. Her throat was getting dry with all the loud moans she made. It’s now 5 am, the rain stops and you hear some people walking in the store. You put your hands to cover her mouth, you worry about the customers hearing her moans but not worry enough to stop pounding her, Chaeyoung looks back at you signaling to go out there. You also know you need to go now thus pounding her faster for the last time this morning to cum again before going back to work again.

You closed the door in the back room going back to the counter leaving a tired Chaeyoung sitting on the floor with your cum flowing out of her.

[a99jazzybean]

Midnight Snack

Chapter 1

Ch. 2

synop: Viktor is tired of his snacks being stolen, so he takes matters into his own hands. He plans to drug Jayce with aphrodisiac laced chocolates. Little does he know that you have participated in the thievery as well. Both you and Jayce face the consequences for your actions.

words: 5.2K

includes: smut, jaycexfem!reader, viktorxfem!reader, jayvik, non-consensual drugging, aphrodisiacs

a/n: This is some pure self indulgence. 18+ readers only!

It was a trap, one that you and Jayce were about to unknowingly step into. After months of your shenanigans, Viktor had enough. Now he would take matters into his own hands. Maybe now you would think twice before stealing from his snack stash. 

When you first spotted Viktor pecking away at some crackers, you had wondered where they had appeared from. He told you his doctor recommended he actually eat for once in order to not be exhausted by the end of the day, so his solution was to house a cabinet of treats for himself. While it still wasn’t the healthiest, at least he was getting some calories in. 

However, he found he wasn’t the only one that could be peckish in the lab. Jayce with his endless stomach had been polite at first. Asking if he could snag a bag of peanuts, requesting a bite from a chocolate bar, but then he became a bit too familiar with Viktor’s snack cabinet. Viktor often found the other man brazenly eating a bag of chips or enjoying a sweet treat without a single “please.” It wasn’t as if he couldn’t buy something himself. But no, Viktor’s snack stash was just “too convenient.” 

You on the other hand had maintained a polite presence. Always asking Viktor to indulge in his treats. Though with you, he doubted he would find it annoying that you took without asking. He even made sure to have snacks that you enjoyed on hand, loving the way you would light up when you found your favorite foods housed in his cabinet. Bouncing on your toes as you asked if you could snag a bag. Of course, he would allow you to. He could never say no to you. 

What he didn’t know was that you were no better than Jayce. While you might have asked for snacks when Viktor was around, if he wasn’t in the lab you could be a little greedy with his snack cabinet. If Viktor noticed something was missing, you would keep to yourself. Not wanting to throw Jayce under the bus as he knew of your secret proclivities. 

The two of you shared sneaky giggles as you picked away at the food when you worked together alone. Indulging in your favorite treats, Viktor none-the-wiser to your antics. Though, he did know Jayce was behind much of the disappearances. He hadn’t realized that you joined Jayce in the snack stealing, and you would prefer to keep it that way. 

Now, Viktor was irritated. His eye twitched as he looked at the almost empty container of pastries filled with sweet cream. This had to stop. His head whipped over to where Jayce was seated. The man was carefully soldering some new components with you beside him, handing him any small tools he requested. Narrowing his eyes at the thief, Viktor thought about how to take his revenge. He had been looking forward to indulging in some sweets that day, and now he was left with two sad pastries. It was infuriating. 

When he looked over at you, a small smile playing on your lips, an idea came to him. Sinister, yes, but it would be oh so gratifying. His attraction to you inspiring a devilish concept that would utterly ruin Jayce, but be wildly entertaining for him. 

“Everything good, V?” Your voice startled the man out of his plotting, jolting as he registered your presence beside him. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

He turned to you, a concerned look furrowing your brows. You had noticed him staring at the snack cabinet for a few minutes. A pang of guilt hit you when you had remembered how many of the snacks you had taken the previous night. Viktor decided to turn in early for the night. It was a rare opportunity for you, so you and Jayce took advantage of his absence. Nervously you bit your lip as you waited for Viktor to respond to you. 

“I’m fine. Just a bit irritated,” he grumbled, “Jayce appears to still have no morals. Still  stealing my snacks without permission.” 

“Sorry, V. He’s just got a bottomless pit of a stomach.” You attempted to lighten Viktor’s disdain. 

He only huffed at your words. Grabbing one of the remaining bags of peanuts, he turned away. 

“Feel free to take anything though. I know you’re kind enough to ask.” Viktor said as he pulled the bag open. 

Guilt panged in your stomach as you looked in the cabinet. You decided you would refill it yourself. It was the least you could do for the man, especially since he gladly shared his treats with you. 

“I’ll be sure to replenish your stock, V.” You gave him a smile, hoping your eyes weren’t swimming with guilt.

If he noticed your expression, he didn’t say anything.Instead giving you a smile of his own, the curve of his lip accenting the mole above it. Drawing your eyes to his lips… 

You shook your head, you knew it was unprofessional to be thinking about Viktor in that way. He was your superior after all, but you still indulged in the fantasy of him every so often. 

With a nod, Viktor returned to his workstation. His eyes lingered on you as you made your way back to Jayce. He felt jealousy bubble up in his chest. While you were both their assistant, you often worked with Jayce. Viktor tended to be a one-man band at times and rarely needed help. Jayce was consistently asking for your assistance with tasks, often finding himself working on projects that required two sets of hands. Most of your time in the lab was monopolized by the golden boy, and it might have been a bit intentional on his part.

Jayce wasn’t an idiot. He could tell that Viktor was attracted to you, and well, he had to admit to himself he was as well. Extremely intelligent both in book and streetsmarts, and absolutely gorgeous to boot. When Heimerdinger offered you up as an assistant, the two scrambled to accept the offer after one meeting. Not only would they have someone competent working with them, you could certainly liven up the place. 

Liven it up, you did. Your laughter echoing in the large room, your words of encouragement caressing their egos, your murmurs of determination as you struggled on a project by yourself. While you were intelligent, it seemed you could be a bit oblivious. The men tried, they really did, but their favoritism toward you was blatant. Geez, Viktor always bought you your favorite snacks. Jayce was no better, finding excuses to give you gadgets and little novelties he had created in the forge. Though could you blame them? It was you, and they wanted you. 

However, all of you still managed to keep up some facade of professionalism. Only considering the actions as something a close friend would do. A close friend that would make sure to hug you before leaving the lab. A close friend that would tuck your hair behind your ear for you. A close friend who may stare into your eyes a second too long. A close friend, yes, that’s all. 

Viktor shoved the brewing feelings down, returning to his work on new Hexgem prototypes. Pretending he didn’t feel a sting when you laughed once more at a joke from Jayce. One that was probably terrible, but had you giggling regardless. It was fine, after all, Viktor knew the other man would get his commuppance soon enough. 

As the sun set in the lab, you found your eyelids began to droop. Your body kept jolting you up whenever Jayce requested a tool or part from you. Exhaustion was settling in. Jayce paused, softly smiling as he caught you falling asleep once more. A strong hand jolted you awake again. An apologetic look was on your face when you realized Jayce had caught you. 

“Why don’t we get you home, hm?” His hazel eyes glittered in the light of the golden hour. 

You nodded. 

“I can walk you back to your place, if you want.” He offered. While his work at the lab wasn’t over just yet, he wanted to spend more time with you. 

“I would like that.” You said softly, trying not to look into his eyes. 

Often, you found yourself worrying that the men would discover your affections for them. It made you skittish at times, concerned your words or actions would come off in the wrong way. Still, despite it being more intimate, you always took them up on their offers. Whether it was to snag lunch, or walk you home, you gratefully accepted. Always wanting more of their time and attention. 

Viktor watched the interaction out of the corner of his eye. Biting his tongue, he huffed out his frustration. Once again, Jayce had gotten to you first. He couldn’t blame his partner though. Jayce had a charisma that Viktor did not possess. Still, he had managed to grab your time quite frequently. Something that aided in pushing his worries aside. Overall, the men were mostly equal in their interactions with you.

You did find yourself working with Jayce more than Viktor, but the latter man would find time to pull you into conversation during the many lull periods you would find yourselves in. The moments only made Viktor’s affections for you grow further, it was a blessing and a curse. You were a delicious distraction. 

“Alright, I’m packed up.” You patted the satchel hung around your shoulder. “Ready?” You turned to Jayce.

“Yup. I’ll be right back.” Jayce squeezed Viktor’s shoulder. 

The evening was pleasantly warm as Jayce escorted you to your apartment. Golden rays of sun licked the rooftops of Piltover casting a glow over the two of you. Jayce often seemed to radiate his own light, in this moment he looked almost angelic. Catching you staring, he gave you a smirk.

“Like what you see?” He teased. 

A blush bloomed on your face as you shook your head side to side. “I-it’s not like that. I just thought the sun on you looked neat.” 

“Neat? Hm, I’ll take it.” He shrugged with a chuckle, enjoying your flustered state. 

“You’re kinda cruel, you know?” You grumbled.

“Cruel, me? No…” He eyed you, waiting for a snippy retort.

Instead, you turned away from him with a huff. 

“Aww, don’t be like that.” He cooed. 

A strong hand reached for your chin, lightly forcing you to turn your attention back on him. 

The way your eyes glowed in the sunlight made him hold back a gasp. He shouldn’t indulge in this. All he was supposed to do was escort you home like the gentleman he was, but gods did he wish he could enjoy more of this. 

“Is everything alright?” You reached for the hand on your chin and removed it. 

Your touch brought Jayce back from his thoughts. Right, escorting. 

“Uh yeah. I was just enjoying the sunset.” He said softly. 

Cocking your head to the side, you raised a questioning brow. Oh, you were too cute. Jayce very much wished to kiss that confused pout on your lips. Instead he wet his own, and turned away to continue walking to your home. 

He was sure it would only be a matter of time before he cracked. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you returned to the lab the next morning, you found a very pleased Viktor. Curious, you walked over to him. In his hands he held a box of chocolates. A note was stuck to it, and Viktor looked down on it with a smile. 

“What’s up?” You asked, curious as to what confections were inside the box.

“Oh nothing, I just received a nice gift from one of our sponsors.” He chuckled to himself.

It was a ruse, something to entice Jayce. He knew that the man would gladly take the bait.

Right on time, Jayce entered the lab. 

“Something going on?” He asked as he made his way over. 

“Yeah, Viktor got a gift from one of the Hextech sponsors. I’m a bit jealous.” You said, arms crossed in annoyance.

“Did I get something?” Jayce’s eyes twinkled at the thought of a sweet treat.

“It appears you did not. Though the note that was given to me did specify work that I did on stabilizing the Hexgates…”

“I was working on the Hexgems! And it was easily a one man job.” Jayce grumbled.

“A one man job that got me a gift.” Viktor shook the box in front of Jayce’s face.

“You gonna share?” You asked. 

Oh. Viktor was not prepared for that. Guess he’d have to let you down lightly.

“Sorry dear, I think I’ll keep these to myself.” He looked over to his snack cabinet. “Especially considering someone keeps indulging in my other sweets.” He said pointedly at Jayce.

Jayce’s eyes flitted to your face and you subtly shook your head at him. Eyes narrowing at even his thought of betraying you. 

“I guess you have a point.” He dejectedly walked over to his workspace. 

Pulling your satchel to the front, you opened it and grabbed a few bags. They held snacks to replenish Viktor's stash. 

“Speaking of your snacks, I brought refills.” You shook the bags for emphasis.

Viktor gave you a bright smile. The one that had you looking at his lips once more. 

The action made his heart swell. Of course you would do this for him, sweeter than the treats you had bought him.

“I appreciate the gesture, but don’t feel the need to make up for Jayce’s transgressions.” Viktor took some of the bags from you.

“Transgressions? You’re making it sound like Jayce offended you…” You chuckled awkwardly. That sting of guilt returning. 

“I mean, I eat your snacks all the time too.”

“Yes, but you ask me to. Something my partner seems to forget at times…” He eyed the man who had begun working. 

“Well, don’t be too hard on him.” You said, giving Viktor a small smile.

He nodded, then moved to place the snacks in his cabinet. You hoped he didn’t realize that you were complicit in the thievery. 

The rest of the day went by smoothly. You worked alongside both of the men as they worked on a prototype for a small generator. They were attempting to make Hextech work on a smaller scale. The Hexgates were able to handle energy output due to their massive size, now they were looking to make the technology more portable. 

After many long hours, Viktor decided to turn in for the night. You decided to stay and assist Jayce with more of the project as the man was on a roll. A few minutes after Viktor exited the lab, Jayce turned to you with a cheeky smile. 

“So, you wanna try those fancy chocolates Viktor got?” 

“I don’t know Jayce…” you thought for a moment, “Viktor did seem pretty irked that we’ve stolen from him.” 

“Yeah, but he thinks only I have stolen his snacks. You’re in the clear, Miss goody-two-shoes.” He chuckled. “Though I feel like you owe me for keeping your name out of my ‘transgressions’.” He put his fingers up in quotation marks.

“I guess…” You mumbled.

“So… try the chocolates with me?” His hazel eyes pleaded with you. 

With a huff, you nodded. What could be the harm? Jayce would be blamed for it after all…

“Fine. But it’s still all on you, got it?” You pointed a finger into his face. 

He grabbed your hand with another chuckle. 

“Of course.”

With that, Jayce strutted over to the snack cabinet, dragging you along with him. He pulled out the fancy box and lifted off the lid. 

“Oh, these look good.” His mouth was watering at the sight. 

Peeking over his shoulder, you felt your own mouth water. In little squares were around a dozen chocolate pieces. It was almost hard to pick what you wanted to try, they all looked delectable. Jayce grabbed a piece for himself, then offered the box to you.

“I’ll eat half so you can try the other part.” He said. 

You nodded, as you looked over the chocolates. Fingers dancing above them as you made your choice. Finally, you decided on a piece with salted caramel filling topped with sea salt. Both you and Jayce bit into the pieces in tandem, moaning at the creamy flavor. Jayce had picked a piece filled with a jam, though he couldn’t quite place the flavor. 

After swallowing your half of the piece, you felt Jayce press his other half against your lips. You opened your mouth, allowing him to place it on your tongue. His fingers brushing past your lips, making you blush at the intimate action. Again you moaned at the taste, you too couldn’t place the flavor of the jam. It was delicious, but odd. 

You performed the same action with Jayce, placing the other half of the caramel piece on his tongue. The man lightly sucked on your fingers as you pulled them out, making you softly gasp. 

Both of you stood in silence, staring at each other. Pink dusted on Jayce’s cheeks while yours flared red. 

“Anyways… probably should get back to work.” Jayce broke the silence. 

“Mhmm.” 

You returned to Jayce’s workspace, and continued to assist as he put components together. As time ticked on you felt yourself growing hot. Shrugging off your sweater, you attempted to cool down. It was already dark outside, so the sun couldn’t be the issue. Looking beside you, you noticed sweat prickling on Jayce’s forehead. 

“Are you hot?” You asked.

“Huh?” Jayce looked up at you. Something was different, but he couldn’t place it. He was feeling a bit warm though. 

“I guess I am. Mind turning the temp down?” 

You nodded and walked over to the thermostat. Your eyes widened as you realized that the temperature was fairly low. They had to keep the lab cooler due to the heat from some of the Hextech, but at the moment nothing would be producing the amount of heat you were feeling. Walking over to a vent, you felt to see if the air was working. You waited a moment, then a gust of cool air hit your hand. Okay, that’s odd.

“The temperature is already low. And the air unit seems to be working, I can feel cool air.” You said. 

“Huh, odd. Well, I’m almost done here…” In his peripheral he spotted your thighs as you returned to the workspace. 

As if acting on instinct, Jayce reached out, placing a warm hand on your thigh. The action made you squeak. So soft. He thought as he squeezed the muscle. 

“I-is everything alright, Jayce?” You attempted to maintain your composure as he began to knead your flesh. Heat began to pool in your core and you could feel the fabric of your panties dampen. What was going on?

Jayce’s hand reached up your skirt and you jolted away. An animalistic growl escaped the man. He shot up from his chair, towering over you. Looking into his eyes you realized they were blown out. His breathing was harsh. It made you shiver, you couldn’t tell if it was out of fear or arousal.

Looking over at the snack cabinet an epiphany hit you. Shuffling to the side, you tried to move away from Jayce, A strong arm stopped you. Then you were pulled into the man. He nuzzled into your neck, groaning. Your body melted into him, making you release a whine.

“Fuck, since when did you smell so good?” His voice was low.

“J-jayce.” You tried to maintain your composure, you needed to check something. 

As you attempted to pull away, Jayce only pulled you in closer. 

“Don’t go.” He breathed out. “Please.” 

“I’m not going anywhere.” You continued to hold off the effects of what was happening to you. Hoping your short period of clearheadedness could get you away from the man. “Just let me check something.” 

“Promise you won’t go?” 

“Promise.” 

With that he released you. You quickly made your way to the snack cabinet and pulled out the box of chocolates. Looking over it, you spotted a piece of paper attached to the bottom of the box. 

“Shit.” 

In Viktor’s handwriting you read the vindictive message out loud. 

Hope you enjoy the chocolates, asshole. 

Love, V. 

“Viktor fucking drugged us!” You exclaimed. The effects of what you now assumed was an aphrodisiac hit you like a train when Jayce returned to you. 

“He what?” Jayce asked incredulously.

“He drugged us. I-I think it’s an aphrodisiac. That’s why we’re feeling like” You motioned over yourself. “This.”

“How do we stop it?” Jayce had managed to somewhat pull himself out of the drug’s effects. 

“We can either wait it out.” You sucked in a harsh breath at the next statement. “Or…” 

“Or?” Jayce’s eyes were pleading with you.

“Or we allow the effects to take over.” 

“Are you suggesting…” He licked his lips in anticipation. 

It was growing too hot now. It was going to be too late. 

Two large hands reached for your face, then you felt Jayce’s warm lips pressed against yours. Your eyes widened as he deepened the kiss, then fluttered closed. Allowing yourself to  fall into the drug’s effects, you let out a moan. Jayce took the opportunity to slip his tongue in your mouth. Trailing along your tongue, making him groan. Pulling away, you whined. A trail of saliva snapped between you.

“You taste so fucking good.” Jayce said between kisses down your neck. 

You moaned as he kissed, bit, and sucked on the column of your throat. Marking you as his. 

“You have no idea, “ he pressed a kiss to your lips, “how badly I’ve wanted this. No, how badly I’ve needed this.” 

You nodded in agreement, buzzing off of the pleasure of his touch. 

“Please let me have you, I need you. Please.” He whined. 

“Take me, take me, Jayce. I’m yours.” You moaned as he accepted your permission. 

Strong hands lifted you onto the worktable behind you. A tearing sound had your eyes widening as you watched him rip off your blouse. Buttons scattered to the floor. Next came your bra, landing next to the remains of your blouse. Hot lips found their way to one of your nipples while Jayce used his hand to tease the other nub. You shivered and cried out at his touch. The drug made your body feel like it was on fire with pleasure.

“I need to taste you.” Jayce gasped before kneeling in front of you. 

He pulled you to the edge of the table then buried his head under your skirt. Teeth leaving love bites up your thighs as he reached his final destination. Pressing his nose against your clothed pussy made you moan. He groaned in response as he breathed in your scent. It was addicting. Over your panties, you felt his tongue lick over you. You shuddered and whined, needing the fabric gone.

As if reading your mind, the man tore off your panties. Without a care, he dived back in. Sloppily licking through your drenched folds. Groaning as he got a taste of you. Bittersweet with a delicious musk. He needed more. His tongue dove into your hole as he nosed your clit. Grabbing his hair, you ground your pussy into his face. Gasping and moaning at his ministrations. A knot was growing in your stomach, tightening with each lick and suck on your clit. 

“Jayce, ah, Jayce…” You groaned his name, earning a moan from the man. 

For only a moment he pulled away from you, the look on his face had your thighs clenching. His lips and chin were drenched with you.

“Cum on my face, please.” He begged, then dove back in. 

You cried out again, as his tongue returned to lapping at your folds. The knot growing tighter and tighter. With a suck to your clit, you screamed. Blinding pleasure, making your thighs shake around the man’s head. You felt yourself spray your slick onto the man’s awaiting mouth. He took everything you gave him. 

After easing you down from your high, Jayce pulled away from you. His eyes were glazed over in bliss. 

“You squirt.” He chuckled. “That’s so fucking hot.”

Then he dove back in, desperate to make you cum again. The action made you scream out in pleasure as he continued to lick at your overstimulated pussy. The table beneath you was gathering a pool of your release. 

Jayce brought you to your peak once more, making you cum on his face again. Your hand on his hair keeping him in place as you ground yourself into his mouth. 

When he pulled away, he had a dopey smile on his face. His eyes still blissfully glazed over. Still, he had enough wherewithal to continue what he started. 

At first you thought he was going to have you suck him off, but he swatted your hand away when you reached for him.

“Sweetheart, I need to fuck you. I need to fill you so fucking bad. Make you mine.” He was babbling to himself as he freed his cock from his pants. Then he began to rub up and down your sensitive folds. The head of his dick occasionally catching on the entrance of your pussy making you gasp. 

Looking down, your eyes widened. He was massive. Not just in length but in girth. Even though you were soaked, you wondered if he would fit inside of you. Jayce was ready to test that out. 

His blunt head pressed into you, your mouth opened in a moan. He groaned as he continued to push in. Desperately wishing to be pounding into you, but he at least realized you needed to adjust. When he was all the way in you both breathed out. Through your belly you could see the bulge of his cock, the image made heat pool in your core. He really was going to fill you, and you couldn’t wait. 

“You feel so fucking good. I need to move, please.” His eyes pleaded with you. 

You nodded, then gasped as he moved in you. Pulling out slowly, then slamming back into you. The action making you scream and writhe in pleasure. The man set a quick pace as he fucked into you. Your legs wrapped around his torso, keeping him connected to you. 

The familiar knot had returned and was building up once more. He could feel your climax on the horizon. Your pussy tightening as he hit your sweet spot. His pelvis brushing up against your clit with the perfect amount of pressure. 

“Jayce!” You gasped out as you came on his cock. 

Your climax brought him to finish. The tight gummy walls of your pussy milking every drop of cum out of the man, as if begging for him to breed you. 

As you came down from the highs of your orgasms, Jayce leaned over you. Cock still twitching inside. He pressed a hot kiss onto your lips, and you returned the kiss. Tongues intertwining. 

Inside of you, you felt the man harden again. Already ready for round two. That aphrodisiac was certainly something. 

Jayce pulled out of you, marveling at the way his cum spilled down your legs. He pulled you off the table and flipped you onto your stomach. Groaning in pleasure, he shoved his cock back inside of you. 

“So tight, so perfect…” 

He thrust into you at the perfect angle. The head of his dick hitting that gummy spot inside of you, making your orgasm come faster. Your pussy clenched around him again as you came. A loud moan escaping you as he continued to fuck you through your climax. The pleasure continuing to build. 

“Gonna--gonna fill you up. Make you mine.” He growled, leaning down and pressing his hard chest against your back. The new position making him fuck you deeper. 

Your mind was gone, all you could think about was the pure pleasure the man was giving you. The only sounds you could make were moans and gasps.

After bringing you to climax again, Jayce came in you a second time. Hot ropes shooting into you, making you shiver. 

All you could do was take it. Take everything he gave you as he manhandled your body. Claiming every part of you as his. The skin on your neck and chest was bruised with love bites. His finger prints emblazoned on your hips from his hard grip, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Jayce wouldn’t be leaving unscathed either. Your nails had dragged scratches down his back, and you left love bites of your own. Falling completely into the animalistic need to breed with the man. 

Beneath you a pool of your combined spend had gathered. It seemed the aphrodisiac gave Jayce the ability to unload into you multiple times with no need to rest. 

It had been hours since your tryst with the aphrodisiac had begun, but it didn’t look like there was an end in sight. Both of you continued to remain as horny as you were when you began. The feeling only spurred you on further, making Jayce continually cum in you as you spasmed around him. 

The two of you were too distracted with each other to notice an onlooker. Viktor had expected Jayce to be affected by the aphrodisiac, but you as well? Well that was quite the surprise, though not necessarily an unwanted one. The man knew how to end your suffering, but decided this punishment was much deserved. Though it did help to watch your fucked out face as Jayce continued to fuck his cum into you. 

When he had his fill of watching, the man made his presence known. Clearing his throat, he smirked as Jayce stopped pumping into you. The man had you in a deep mating press, his cum seeping out of your abused hole around his cock. Before Viktor could continue, Jayce groaned loudly. Cumming in you again, though no relief came with the action. 

“F-fuck you, Viktor.” He growled through clenched teeth. 

“Seems like some of you is still here after all.” Viktor mused, enjoying watching Jayce struggle. 

Beneath him you shifted your hips in a whine. It seemed as if you didn’t care that Viktor had entered the room. All you wanted was to be taken by Jayce. 

“Ah fuck.” Jayce breathed out harshly as you began to move yourself up and down his cock. 

Another orgasm was building in you as you used Jayce. He didn’t let you take control for long. Opting to slam back into you, making you climax. Your spend mixing with Jayce’s again. Your body was boneless as Jayce now used you to cum again. Another hot spurt filled you. 

“As much as I enjoy watching this, your efforts to end the effects are in vain.” Viktor said with a teasing tone in his voice. 

His hand traced down your body, making you shiver. Long deft fingers found your clit, causing you to jolt and clench down on Jayce. 

“Would you like to end this?” Viktor looked up at Jayce with dark eyes. 

Jayce nodded profusely.

“Please.” 

“Very well.” 

[alexiethymia]

MaoMao's Way of Affection

[spoilers up until LN 12 and WN 10 so read at your own risk]

After such a long time, we finally get a hint of reciprocation when even without orders or prompting, it's MaoMao herself who seeks out Jinshi after the harrowing ordeal she went through.

I'm not sure how the WN will differ from the LN but her words with how she describes Jinshi's arms around her, "heavy but not immoveable" and Jinshi asking her to make him let her go and eventually opting not such that she ends up falling asleep in his arms actually perfectly describes their relationship.

Despite their problems, I do adore this relationship. On the one hand, you have Jinshi who ends up falling for someone who cares not a whit for his appearance. MaoMao is actually the perfect person for Jinshi to fall in love with because of his complex. Should he succeed, he can be assured that his looks had nothing to do with it. For the first time in his life, Jinshi can fight for something with his own above average, but not excellent capabilities.

And tropey as it is, I think MaoMao does have a soft spot for that slightly pathetic part of Jinshi. Honestly, to compare him to the person she respects most in the whole world? A daddy's girl through and through. In other words, MaoMao, even as she denies it, is not impenetrable to that earnest side of Jinshi and because of that, even as she might snark and say she's just following orders, she can't help but be his support - a useful tool rather than a useless burden.

I love how the both of them mature and progress and how the relationship reflects that. As compared to that forceful scene back in LN5, it's actually this innocent scene that cements the progress they've made and that they're slowly meeting each other halfway. Jinshi tries to restrain himself, and MaoMao, thanks to Chue, slowly stops trying to hide behind that convenient excuse.

Because the thing is, MaoMao is a hypocrite. In the same way, she rebukes Jinshi for not being clear, she also gets to hide behind vague half-truths. Why not say no once and for all? "I don't want to be your wife." Is it just because he's the Imperial Brother? Compare and contrast how she treats Grand Marshall Kan for example. And even if he is the Imperial Brother, MaoMao knows in her heart of hearts that Jinshi wouldn't ever punish her for rejecting him. She knows, after everything, that he just isn't that kind of person (the certainty that he wouldn't ever be involved in any assassination plots, the almost unconscious instinct to prevent something she knows Jinshi wouldn't want even if it might be for the good of the country or for her own safety as long as she plays dumb). I really do love how like Suiren, MaoMao is his ally. (No wonder mother-in-law Suiren approves.)

Isn't it more painful - for Jinshi - and more troublesome - for her - to continue to have this hanging between them? But MaoMao is only human. There are things she knows would be the best course of action as long as she operated solely on rationality, but unexpectedly, Jinshi - despite not knowing it - brings out that irrational part of her. She knows it would have been in her best interest (if her best interest truly was to escape the marriage) to just let Jinshi continue being vague, to not put a name to his intentions, she later realizes that this is Jinshi's own consideration for her, but her true emotions push forth. She knows it - what Jinshi feels for her, compares it to a lovestruck patron, so what gain does she get from hearing it verbalized out loud?

She struggles with his special consideration for her, the proof of deeper feelings, in his words and actions. I think she would be able to justify it in her mind and accept being his wife if she knew it was only because she was a useful tool. Because if so, then she could also justify it to herself that she was staying with him only because he was useful, that it was solely on the basis of reciprocity.

I mean the reality of the world they live in is that it's not a place to cultivate love. Marriages are political more often than not. Within MaoMao's way of looking at things, a marriage of convenience might have been more palatable. For Jinshi's part, I can see him being ready to accept that even if MaoMao does accept his proposal, she would marry him while not being in love with him. On the flip side, I think part of his strong motivation to break away from the Imperial family would be to remove, without a doubt, from MaoMao's mind that she would be punished for rejecting him since he would no longer have that power. In other words, part of Jinshi is ready for MaoMao to reject him but he wants it to be solely her choice. In other words, he would also want her to give it to him straight just like she demanded he do for her.

Speaking of special consideration, it is hard to say whether MaoMao's actions towards Jinshi are those she would do for any other patient (since she's actually softer than she gives herself credit for), but the things she does without orders are telling - like stroking his hair while putting him to sleep, kissing his cheek, ingesting something she knows she's allergic to without his knowledge for a plan to sniff out his enemies (pity this didn't make it to the LN), getting mad that his accomplishments were getting stolen from him despite him not caring about it, and glaringly - attempting to break a taboo the person she respects most in the world imposed on her, just so she can better take care of Jinshi. For all that MaoMao is comfortable in her place in the world and doesn't want to venture out of her comfort zone, calling it too troublesome, she does exceed a lot of her limits - true because of that unexpectedly strong sense of duty - but also because of or for Jinshi.

MaoMao acknowledges to herself at this point that no other person besides Jinshi can give her the same comfort. She does want to have a child someday, if only for the experience of giving birth. It may not be a burning passion, this may not be enough for her to call it love, but I can also see a scenario where she accepts Jinshi because he's the only one she would be comfortable with so that she can give birth. In other words, another convenient excuse. But conversely, even after succeeding in having MaoMao for a wife, I can see Jinshi still pushing because for once in his life he can fight his hardest and win or fail on his own merits and no one else's, and also simply put, he loves her and so he would want her to love him back. Even if it isn't the norm in the world they live in. He'd still want to continue fighting for that elusive flower. A perfect push and pull. In other words, it's up to them how they decide to meet each other half way. And I'm excited to see what the future holds for them.

[fannedandflawless]

The Great Galleon Plot Hole

You ever sit there re-reading Harry Potter and suddenly get punched in the face by a plot hole so loud it drowns out the Hogwarts Express?

Because I just remembered something:

Wands are the most essential magical tool in the entire wizarding world—your literal magical lifeline—and they cost less than a decent meal in Diagon Alley.

Meanwhile, broomsticks? Luxury items. And somehow, everyone’s just… fine with that?

✨Absolutely not.✨

Let’s talk about it—because the wizarding world economy is giving narrative convenience over logic, and I have questions. Big, wand-swinging, Gringotts-auditing questions.

But Why Is the Soul-Bound Wand Cheaper Than a Broomstick?

THE WAND IS YOUR LIFE

It’s your weapon.

Your shield.

Your link to identity, emotion, power, precision, and survival.

You can’t even perform most standard spells without it—unless you're a trained wandless magic user, which is incredibly rare and usually requires advanced discipline or heritage-based skill.

It chooses you. It bonds with your magic. It’s irreplaceable. So how much does it cost?

Roughly 7–20 Galleons. Literally less than a decent cauldron—or, depending on the wand, not much more than dinner and dessert in Diagon Alley.

According to J.K. Rowling, wands sold at Ollivanders are generally priced around 7 Galleons, though some fans speculate they could range up to 20 Galleons depending on wand complexity or materials. If we use the exchange rate Rowling once suggested (1 Galleon = ~£5), that means the average wand costs £35–£100—cheaper than a modern mobile phone, and it lasts your entire magical life.

Considering the effort it takes to craft them—rare magical woods, powerful cores like phoenix feather or dragon heartstring, and the expertise of a wandmaker—this price range is still shockingly low for something that serves as a witch or wizard’s most essential magical instrument.

—

MEAL PRICES IN THE WIZARDING WORLD

Let’s quickly look at the cost of food in the wizarding world, since we’re comparing life-altering artefacts to lunch.

From the Hogwarts Express trolley:

Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Chocolate Frogs: ~1–2 Sickles each

Harry buys a dozen items with a handful of Sickles (17 Sickles = 1 Galleon)

A full trolley binge? Roughly 1 Galleon.

In Half-Blood Prince, we also get a glimpse of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley prices:

Butterbeer: ~2 Sickles

Light lunch at the Leaky Cauldron: ~1–2 Galleons

Full sit-down meal with drinks and dessert (e.g. Madam Puddifoot’s): ~3–4 Galleons

So yes, a wand could cost less than a proper meal out—especially if you’re treating someone.

—

THE BROOM COSTS 50x MORE?

A Nimbus 2000 is gifted to Harry—major moment. Retail: ~100 Galleons.

A Firebolt? Easily over 1,000 Galleons. That’s more than Arthur Weasley’s entire annual salary, and he works for the Ministry of Magic. Literal luxury transport.

Some Hogwarts students can’t even afford a broom—they borrow school spares.

So what are we saying?

“Yes, your enchanted flying stick of wood is more expensive than your magical soul-bonded wand.”

🚨 IT’S A PLOT HOLE. A BIG ONE.

We’re expected to believe that the literal core of magical life is cheaper than school transport, postal birds, and half the Hogwarts supply list?

—

ROWLING’S LIKELY INTENTION:

A cheap wand makes magic feel accessible to everyone.

Expensive brooms show status and privilege (Malfoys flexing 101).

It creates visual contrast: Ron’s taped wand vs Draco’s top-tier broom.

But from an internal logic standpoint?

You can’t ride a broom into a duel. But you can hex someone across the room with a wand. So why is the life-sustaining object priced like a trinket?

—

HEADCANON FIX (Because We Always Clean Up for Her):

Wands are partially subsidised by Hogwarts or the Ministry. → A “no child wandless” policy. A right, not a luxury. → Ollivander charges less than market value to protect magical equality.

Brooms are like cars. → Basic ones are cheap. → High-end ones are status symbols (think: Quidditch Rolex on a stick).

Ollivander keeps prices low on purpose. → His family name is legacy. → He’s not selling wood and string—he’s handing over destiny.

—

🫠 BONUS RAGE: OLLIVANDER HAS TO EAT, TOO.

Wandmaking isn’t hobby work. This man carves magical wood, cores it with dragon heartstring or unicorn hair, and attunes it to individual children’s energy signatures.

And you’re telling me he charges 7 Galleons and calls it a day?

Meanwhile, in the Muggle world, wand replicas at Universal Studios theme parks sell for £40–£70, depending on whether they’re interactive or display-only. That’s almost the same as—or more than—the actual wand price in-universe. And those don’t even come with phoenix feathers.

Either he’s surviving on principle alone, or there’s a secret Wand Subsidy Act nobody talks about.

—

“If my wand is cheaper than an enchanted kettle, someone’s cooking the books—and it’s not in Potions class.”

Capitalism really said ‘Expelliarmus your wallet.’

—

💸 If wand prices made you blink, wait until you see how Severus Snape maintained a house, a potions lab, and an aura of controlled menace on what Slughorn called a “meagre” salary. → Read Spinner’s End Wasn’t Poverty—It Was Privacy.

[hayatheauthor]

can you write some tips on writing amnesia for a character? <3

Note: thank you for your ask! I'm sorry for replying so late I took a break from Tumblr for a bit.

In this guide, I'll be covering a balance of information on amnesia and how to write it. Some topics I mention are the types of amnesia, how they impact characterization, and how to write a believable portrayal of memory loss. I hope this blog is to your liking anon.

Understanding Amnesia: Types & Realism

Amnesia is not a one-size-fits-all condition. There are many different types of amnesia and each has unique effects on a person’s ability to recall past events or form new memories. You should research the type of amnesia you're going to use in-depth before incorporating it into your writing, but here's a quick breakdown of the types: 

Retrograde Amnesia – The inability to remember past events while still being able to form new memories. This is common after traumatic brain injuries.

Anterograde Amnesia – The inability to create new memories while retaining past ones. A well-known example is the film Memento, where the protagonist loses the ability to form new long-term memories.

Dissociative Amnesia – Memory loss resulting from psychological trauma rather than physical injury. In extreme cases, this can lead to fugue states, where a person travels or assumes a new identity with no memory of their past.

Selective Amnesia – The loss of specific memories, often linked to a traumatic event.

Transient Global Amnesia (TGA) – A rare, temporary condition where a person suddenly loses memory for a few hours or days before recovering.

Many fictional portrayals of amnesia tend to exaggerate its effects or resolve it in unrealistic ways. In real life, memory loss is rarely total, and individuals often retain habits, motor skills, and emotional reactions even if they don’t recall specific events.

Choosing the Right Type for Your Story

Amnesia can be used in various genres, from psychological thrillers to fantasy epics. It's often a plot device or opportunity for character development, so it's important you pick the right type of amnesia.

A thriller or mystery might use amnesia as a tool to conceal crucial information, allowing the protagonist to uncover the truth alongside the reader, in which case Selective Amnesia might be a good fit. A romance could explore the emotional toll of memory loss on relationships, where one partner remembers everything while the other has Retrograde Amnesia and forgets them.

If your story revolves around identity and self-discovery, dissociative amnesia or retrograde amnesia may serve the plot best. If you want to create suspense by limiting what the character can learn over time, anterograde amnesia can add significant tension.

Take some time to consider why your character needs to have amneisa, what you plan on achieving with it, and whether or not you want them to recall what they've forgotten. 

Characterization & Emotional Impact

Amnesia isn’t just about forgetting—it fundamentally changes how a character interacts with the world. A character suffering from memory loss might experience:

Fear and paranoia – Who can they trust if they don’t even trust their own mind?

Grief and loss – The realization that they’ve forgotten people or parts of themselves can be devastating.

Frustration and helplessness – Simple tasks may feel overwhelming, and social interactions may be fraught with confusion.

A shift in personality – Without their past experiences shaping them, they might react to situations in unfamiliar ways.

Relationships also play a crucial role. Loved ones may struggle to reconnect, while old enemies may take advantage of gaps in memory. This emotional complexity adds depth to an amnesia storyline, making it more than just a convenient plot device.

Medical Insights on Amnesia

To write a realistic portrayal of amnesia, it’s essential to understand its medical and neurological foundations. Memory formation involves various brain structures, particularly the hippocampus, which plays a key role in storing long-term memories.

Causes of Amnesia

Head trauma (e.g., concussions, strokes, aneurysms)

Psychological trauma (dissociation due to extreme stress or PTSD)

Infections affecting the brain (e.g., encephalitis, meningitis)

Substance abuse (alcohol-induced blackouts, drug-related memory loss)

Neurological disorders (e.g., Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, brain tumors)

Memory Recovery & Treatment

While some cases of amnesia are reversible, others can cause permanent memory loss. Treatments often include:

Cognitive therapy to help the brain form new associations.

Medication for cases linked to neurological disorders.

Hypnosis or psychotherapy for trauma-induced memory loss.

Fiction often portrays amnesia as something that can be instantly cured by another head injury or a dramatic emotional revelation, but in reality, recovery is often slow and uncertain.

Writing Realistic Amnesia Symptoms

When crafting an amnesiac character, it’s crucial to depict their symptoms accurately. Some of the most common effects include:

Confusion and disorientation, particularly in familiar settings.

Difficulty recognizing close friends and family members.

Emotional reactions to people or places they don’t consciously remember.

Trouble forming new memories (in cases of anterograde amnesia).

Physical symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, or fatigue.

By integrating these symptoms into your character’s behavior, you create a more immersive and believable narrative.

Unraveling Memories

Memory recovery should feel natural rather than forced. Instead of a sudden, convenient realization, consider gradual memory restoration through:

Sensory triggers (smells, sounds, touch that evoke forgotten memories)

Therapeutic methods (therapy sessions, hypnosis, journaling)

Unreliable memories (false memories, altered recollections)

Emotional breakthroughs (re-experiencing an intense emotion tied to a memory)

It’s also worth deciding whether your character will ever fully regain their memories. Some narratives work better when the character must move forward without ever reclaiming their past self.

Common Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them

While amnesia can be a powerful narrative tool, it’s easy to fall into unrealistic portrayals. Here’s what to avoid:

Instant cures – Memory loss doesn’t resolve itself with a single emotional moment or another head injury.

Overly selective memory gaps – Forgetting only plot-relevant details makes amnesia feel contrived.

Ignoring emotional consequences – Memory loss isn’t just about lost facts; it’s about lost identity and relationships.

Lack of research – A poorly researched amnesia storyline can feel lazy and inauthentic.

By steering clear of these clichés, you can create a well-rounded and compelling narrative.

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

Something something the concept of granting meaning and importance to an object/phenomenon/person by giving them a name

It is especially relevant in the world like the one ASOIAF is set in, where the name serves as an extremely important defining factor for many characters (mostly a family name but also their given one). And boy, did HotD writers lean into this - in their own way.

I am not the first one to point out that Jaehaera's name hasn't been mentioned in the show at all - not once. But guess who got to have one?

Sure, everyone absolutely needs to remember a girl who was raped by the prince (who is now the king) and who, except for that fact - which serves the purpose of vilifying said prince (and, in some way, by association, the entire TG) - had zero relevance to the plot. And so we have Dyana - because this absolutely unbiased show can't have anyone forget that the Greens' candidate for the throne has some deplorable proclivities. She even got some extra screen time in season 2: once again, absolutely unnecessary except for reminding the audience of her existence - and of Aegon's sins.

But who cares about the only remaining child of the king; the girl who came within a hair's breadth from death and then lost her twin brother; the one true joy left to her mother? Why would she even need a name?

Jaehaera's fate in the show is uncertain (the writers didn't do away with her at the very least) - but for now she is not even a tool of the story but merely a dead weight that just had to be there for Blood and Cheese to have someone to choose from. And then she was simply conveniently (nearly) forgotten becoming just "Helaena's daughter" - no name, no face, no emotional attachment from the audience. I just wonder if the writers' unwilingness to actually involve Jaehaera in the story (or just let the viewers properly see her) comes from them being equally unwilling to make the audience remember her brother whose death and its consequences they are so eager to sweep under the rug in order to minimize the PR damage done to the Blacks.

P.S. Speaking about the importance of names - they need to be not only revealed but also remembered. Jaehaerys didn't end up nameless - but how many times was he actually called by his name in the show? Right off the bat I can remember only one such case: Aegon asking Helaena where he was in episode 1. And while I believe this was not the only time (I am terribly sorry but right now I can't make myself rewatch any part of season 2, not even for science - so feel free to point out the rest), I have a distinct feeling that he still was far more often referred to as "boy", "child", "son", "heir to the throne" and whatnot. Once again: no name, no memory - which IMO is exactly what the writers were going for.

[kaygee-doodles]

I don't get why Reader having a bad family is so common in XReader stories?? Idk if it says something about the writers or what

Some of these are just guesses, BUT!

Reason one: conflict! A good story thrives on having antagonists, and family is usually convenient.

Reason two: Healthy family dynamics are often nuanced and most people don't want to read an entire chapter based on your family and how it works, especially since it's a reader insert.

Reason three: Ease! The stories are about you. Not your aunt, sister, cousin, whatever. Easier to just write them out if they aren't going to be interesting.

Reason four: Popularity. The stories with a lot of OCs don't tend to do well, numbers wise, in fanfiction. People want to see who they know doing stuff. They came to kiss a skeleton, not bond with a family member that they might not have in real life.

Personally, in G&D, Readers' parents are a plot point for why she's Like That, and a good tool to highlight just how ingrained and messed up the segregation in her universe is. It also bolsters the notion that Reader was very alone, emotionally, and physically until Shinanigans happened

[justabrick]

"Say you bring this whole place down, waltz outta the rubble with all these precious brains... Nothing changes. All the guys in charge are long gone. And we've got offices 'round the world."

I'm in an analytical mood again, so bear with me.

All the guys in charge are long gone.

Isn't it curious that Sundowner is implicitly excluding himself from 'those in charge'?

How much power over what's happening does he actually have?

It's all speculation, naturally, but I think it's possible to fill the gaps based on some other topics explained in decent detail in CODEC calls. Namely: Desperado, World Marshal and operation Tecumseh. And a little general cyborg info. So, operation Tecumseh – a false-flag operation planned by Steven Armstrong to ensure the revitalization of the war economy and his subsequent election, giving him free rein to reorganize America as a "survival of the fittest" society. Raiden and Maverick deduced that it involved President Hamilton's visit to the Shabhazabad region of Pakistan, and assassinating the President while making it seem as though Pakistani rebels were responsible for the assassination. And Desperado existed only to become the perfect scapegoat in this plan. Why I think that? First, reputation. It's as if Desperado LLC is purposefully trying to present itself as overtly evil to the public, it's aknowledged several times throughout the game.

What a name it is indeed. Quoting a dictinary: "A desperado is someone who does illegal, violent things without worrying about the danger." And the listed synonyms are: criminal, thug, outlaw, villain. Lovely. It's like writing "I'M EVIL" across your forehead. And speaking of exactly that. Agressive branding. We get to see three PMC's in action throughout the course of MGR's plot: Maverick, World Marshal, Desperado. Of all three of them Desperado marks their property the loudest. Raiden doesn't have Maverick's logo anywhere on his body, believe me, I've scoured all of his shiny metal ass for it. Regular Maverick soldiers from the prologue don't have the horse head anywhere on them either, neither do their vehicles. Only Gemini have these cute, easily missable pins on their jackets.

And I don't think I've seen World Marshal's logo on any of the enemies we fight, both their soldiers and and their UG's seem very "default" in that regard. Meanwhile Desperado:

(render by Yare-Yare-Dong) Especially prominent on Excelsus, a humongous advertisement for Desperado's involvement in the assassination, a good half of the final fight takes place on a giant Desperado logo.

Even the Winds themselves are branded like cattle, right on their chassis loud and clear.

All this to say is that they're advertising themselves as thugs and seem to be actively chasing publicity for it. No wonder, such reputation would make them a very convenient and believable target to pin the blame on. Why look deeper into it and try to find a potential secret third party behind them if this PMC already has an established history of extreme behavior? You'd think it would be pretty difficult to start out and grow with such presentation and their preferred clients being... fringe groups to say the least. That brings me to the idea that Desperado was never truly independent, and was always nothing but Armstrong's tool. Just a couple highlights to suggest how much money they must be getting from him. Quoting Kevin: "Of all registered PMC troops, we're still talkin', what, 3% have enhancements? Maybe 5%, tops? (...) Plus the surgery is highly specialized -- expensive as hell. Not to mention maintenance costs after that." Desperado is majority cyborgs. Imagine the costs. And the cherry on top - EXSELSUS. Boris: "I know Desperado makes good money, but this is not a thing thugs like that could purchase."

But even if they did start out independent it doesn't really matter, since with the amount of money Armstrong invested in them, his fist is so deep up Desperado's ass that he can use it like a Muppet. Seems Kev thinks the same: "Probably, given Desperado and World Marshal are basically one and the same. Careful down there..." There is no way Desperado could have continued to exist after Tecumseh. They're an american organization involved in an attempt on POTUS's life, they'd be torn apart immediately at the very beginning of the "war on terror" that Armstrong planned. The only possible excuse they could have used, as Raiden told Courtney, is to claim that their client set them up. But... That would never work with their track record of international terrorism and a history of assassinating high ranking politicians like N'Mani. And after all this exposition, let's circle back to the original question.

How much power over what's happening does Sundowner actually have? Chief Operating Officer of Desperado Enforcement LLC... sounds pretty nice if you don't think about it too much. Now let me put it more... idk, truthfully. De facto leader of a terrorist group that tried to kill the President. Scapegoat to end all scapegoats, eh? Especially with his colorful history of investigations for atrocities like torture and desecration of remains.

And Armstrong absolutely did intend for him to die as a result of Tecumseh. Don't believe me? Look.

What is Desperado? Lawless gang. And Sundowner - an extremist and a madman. Yeah. And when I'm calling him a scapegoat I'm not implying that he's innocent at all, dude's a monster. However! However. The real force behind the entire plan is undeniably Armstrong and World Marshal, NOT Sundowner and Desperado. Sundowner doesn't even believe in Armstrong's dream to be honest. None of the Desperado bosses we fight do, for that matter, but it's a topic I'll elaborate on in some other obnoxiously wordy post. Senator wants a future where everyone is free to fight their own wars, to fight for what they believe in. Does Sundowner personally fight for some kind of grand ideal? Well I guess he wants to see the return of war economy, but not to bring his country prosperity or anything, no no no. He wants war for the sake of war, just because that's what he loves, and what he thrives in. Sundowner is consumed by bloodlust, and the specifics of the cause that allow him to feed it don't matter all that much. Another proof is that he doesn't really care about the cause is that he yaps about Tecumseh to Raiden. First time in the server room can be chalked up to overconfidence (though I doubt it), but he actually answers Raiden's question on what's gonna happen in his last CODEC call, essentially sabotaging the entire mission by giving Jack a lead to follow. Could have kept his trap shut and Senator would have gotten what he wanted. But what about the quote "Even at mach two you wouldn't make it!" tho? Well I have a couple thoughts, they have to do with Sam.

So, Monsoon sent him to go "report to the chief." Safe to assume he went up to the server room, and him and Sundowner discussed what to do next. Ever wondered how Sam got to the spot his duel with Raiden takes place? Well there's this one easy to miss CODEC with Wolf in file 6: "Raiden: A World Marshal helicopter crashed in this vicinity earlier. It was en route to deliver a cache of cyborg repair materials. Should you locate any conspicuous crates, cut them open. See what is inside." Obviously his bike is still parked in Denver and I sincerely doubt Jetstream rawdogged it almost all the way to Solis on his own two legs, so that crashed helicopter is likely to have been his transport.

Server room is directly connected to the roof and helipad, Sundowner must have been the one who specifically sent him off to Solis. He is Sam's direct superior, let's not forget that. One of CODECs once you arrive at Pakistan: "Still, they've got to know I'm here. Sam was smart enough to figure out I'd take that launch vehicle." Idk if it's just Sam himself who figured it out, to be honest. Sundowner is shown to know a whole lot about Raiden, child soldier training, his experience with VR, the Patriots – it's reasonable to think he'd know of his connections in Solis as well.

So yes, I believe Sundowner purposely sabotaged Armstrong there. He's a lot of things, but he ain't stupid.

On the topic of sabotage, the way he was "defending" the HQ as Raiden advanced up the building is quite something. Not feeling like booting up the game to get the screenshots, but if you look up at HQ in the beginning of file 5, the building is utterly shagged. The only structural damage Jack himself caused I can think of is slicing up the helipad and everything else is basically Sundowner ordering the security to bomb the hell out of their own skyscraper.

And I see why he'd do that. It's logical to grow resentful of the company and the man that's setting you up to either get thrown in prison or killed as part of their plan. He can't not know that it's the fate that awaits him, he's aware what Tecumseh entails and he knows that all the blame will be pinned on him. So he might as well make his swan song as bombastic and destructive as possible.

There's also a big chance that he's actually indentured to World Marshal much like a lot of it's contractors, and that tie is likely to be stronger than the average cyborg's, because custom chassis are EXPENSIVE. I personally interpret the way he became involved with Desperado and by extension World Marshal as Armstrong plucking him out of some metaphorical ditch and offering him a way to escape the crippled potato life he was forced into after his run-in with an IED. It's not a charity though, and the price is what I was talking about above.

That would also explain why he's such a good sport about losing to Raiden. He must have lived with the knowledge of the exact date his life would end, either literally or by being dragged into court, so he's already made his peace with it. The other Winds seem to have done so too, judging by resignation in their last words. Not Khamsin though, that dumbass was definitely in the dark and it shows.

So in conclusion, does Sundower have power? Over day to day operations of Desperado – yes, over his own fate – ha. Haha. No. In the grand scheme of things his death does not matter. All actual strategic decisions are made by Armstrong and other "guys in charge" whoever they may be, meanwhile Sundowner is just a figurehead to pin their actions on.

At least Raiden gave him the death he would have wanted. It is flattering to fall to the state of the art cyborg who suplexed a Metal Gear. But that's just my speculation. I hope there are some interesting thoughts to find here even if you don't agree with the overall picture.

[chocolatepot]

I was working on a post about "cozy fiction", but then I realized I needed to take a step back and talk about the Romance genre, because I've come to realize that a lot of people in fandom don't have as much experience with it as I used to think.

(I'm capitalizing "Romance" here to distinguish it as a genre from the concept of romance-as-in-love-stories, hopefully that will be clear going forward.)

Traditionally, Romance has been a strictly defined genre with rules that were partly convention and partly publisher-imposed. For instance, there were two types of romance novel: short and long. The longs are those thick mass-market paperbacks that used to have painted clinch covers, written to stand alone or possibly as a series of fewer than ten books by one author. (Lisa Kleypas. Eloisa James. Bridgerton.) These are generally about 100k words. The short books, "category romance" of half the length, would be popped out by a company like Mills & Boon or Harlequin, dozens a month, somewhat disposable, not typically marketed as being by a particular author. If you've worked at a library book sale, you've probably seen at least one box come in that's just stuffed full of these.

Subgenres are very much marketing tools, each with their own readerships and fandoms who use the labels to find out what to read next. Contemporary, historical, time-travel, science fiction, "inspirational" (overtly Christian); LGBTQ+ romance, Black romance, and YA romance are newer additions to the roster. There's both fantasy romance and paranormal romance, the latter usually being urban fantasy with vampires and werewolves and the former being high fantasy. These can be broken down even more into very particular sub-sub-genres, like shifter romance, billionaire romance, etc. And then there's "erotic romance", which can in theory be any of these but is particularly characterized by having longer and more detailed sex scenes. (The level of detail we typically get in E-rated fics, basically. Despite the reputation Romance has for being "basically porn"/"porn for middle-aged straight women", the sex is usually not that porny.)

The expectations for each subgenre can be very strict, depending on the publisher. For instance, Mills & Boon's "True Love" line requires a "relatable heroine", a hero who is strong and successful, an aspirational feel in glamorous, modern locations, and sex that's hot and emotional; they even list appropriate tropes for True Love series novels to be based on, like marriages of convenience, secret babies, friends to lovers, and "falling for the boss". But even outside of this kind of literal requirement, there are all kinds of informal ones -- what the reader expects, based on common tropes and clichés.

In Romance, the main plotline must be the romance. That sounds obvious, but please think about it a moment! That diagram you remember from English lit class is supposed to be filled in with plot beats that relate to the progress of the relationship: the inciting incident relates to the couple's chemistry, the rising action is their increasing intimacy, the climax is the point of greatest tension and release in their love story, and the denouement shows that they stay together and have a happy ending. (There MUST be a happy ending. Literally must. There have been many fights about this in Romance fandom, the occasional new author thinks they're doing something clever by not having them be together at the end, it causes drama and yelling every time. HEA is a requirement.)

There can be subplots relating to external issues, but ultimately these must serve the development of the romance rather than simply being an interesting story. Working on the mystery gives the couple reasons to be alone together, solving it inserts an obstacle into the relationship or resolves the misunderstanding. The female main character's family's financial troubles give her a need to get married and a secret she has to keep from the male main character so that he can think she's lying about something else later, but it's still not going to be a book about an impoverished gentry family's path to solvency.

And to some extent, it just comes down to a formula. The main characters need to be introduced within the first couple of chapters, if not the first chapter. Both romantic leads need to have their own point-of-view chapters so that the reader can get to know them equally, see how they like or dislike each other, and have a front-row seat to the misunderstandings in their heads. There is no official declaration of where the first kiss should be, or the first sex scene, but if you read enough of the same subgenre, you'll see that these things tend to happen around the same time in each book.

Romance is a wildly successful industry. I don't know the statistics, but I've heard that it helps to subsidize other branches of publishing. Romance fandom is much like other fandoms, but in my experience they treat the books themselves the way other media fandoms treat fic: where I might post, "hey, does anyone have good recs for OFMD fics with fake dating and mutual pining?" (ie with a specific fandom), Romance fans are more likely to ask on Smart Bitches Trashy Books or r/Romance "does anyone have good recs for Regencies with enemies to lovers?" The individual characters don't matter too much, though reccers might note specifics that readers might find objectionable, like "at the beginning, the duke is really insulting and you might have a hard time with that" or "fyi, the marriage of convenience in this one doesn't happen until two-thirds of the way through".

And, possibly because Romance is so successful and its fanbase is so strong, this is starting to bleed into other genres. The invention of "romantasy" is fascinating to me! Nobody can 100% define it, but my go would be that it's fantasy fiction with a plot that focuses heavily on romance, but that if marketed as Romance would probably get reviewed negatively for having too much non-romance plot (and as fantasy is still going to get some fantasy fans complaining that there's too much romance). I could also talk about stuff bleeding in but that's really another issue altogether. And this bleeding-out is where we're starting to get that culture clash of people being irritated with book promo that focuses on the tropes within the story. In Romance and now romantasy, where it's understood that the plot of a book is at base "two people meet, fall in love, struggle, then finally confess to each other and have a happy ending", the tropes in who the characters are (wallflower, rake, single mom, cowboy, admin assistant, billionaire) and how their romance goes (enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, cinderella story) are crucial to figuring out what you want to read. With people not used to Romance, or not realizing that they're being shown books that are based on the romance formula, the tropes appear to be shallow gibberish.

And I think this is enough to set up my cozy fiction post, thank you for reading. Next time on "Cassidy lectures people in a longpost ..."

[lacunammmm]

MHA Only Has Four Important Female Characters And The Rest Could Comfortably Be Removed With Zero Impact

You could remove almost every female character from this series and nothing changes. Rather than discussing who goes, let's start with who stays. The list isn't long.

-Toga, because she's one of the villain team's MVPs and removing her from the story leaves a massive hole where she used to be. -Uraraka, removing her takes away a major supporting member of Deku's cast. It COULD be done. You COULD just restructure all of the moments between Toga and Uraraka to happen with Deku instead. It would just be really janky.

If we stick to canon's story beats, you'd have a scene where Izuku watches Toga kill herself after their fight and then he rushes off to kill Shigaraki. Uraraka stays. -Nana Shimura, since she's All Might's trainer and also Tomura's grandmother. -And either Mei Hatsume or Momo to act as tech support. Objectively speaking, you don't need them. Momo's contributions in canon were making the tracking devices that led the heroes to Garaki's nomu lab during Kamino, and she made a gas that knocked Gigantomachia out...AFTER everyone got finished jumping him and landing their hits, of course. You could write Momo out by conveniently having Mei invent devices that the heroes use before they know they need them. Or you could scrap both of them. They find the nomu lab because the cops analyzed power expenditure rates in the city and saw the warehouse. They assumed this was either a hydroponics weed farm, or something shady was going on. It turns out to be a nomu lab. They beat up Machia just as they did in canon, except he goes down and stays down. -Eri, on the other hand, is an edge case. She contributes nothing but two things towards the end of the series: restoring Mirio's quirk and healing Deku's arms. She's underdeveloped as a character entirely. She's not a character. She's a trauma prop and a moeblob. She's a major plot device and a reason the Overhaul arc plays out the way it does. You functionally could replace her if the story was willing to have Aizawa get abducted and Overhaul figures out some means to create bullets out of the guy's DNA. You'd have Present Mic there to attack the Yakuza alongside Deku in this universe instead. It's messy and it turns the Overhaul arc into the Aizawa Rescue Arc but it could be done. You'd just have Mirio either not get shot, or he does get shot and we have consequences for once. Mirio in canon proceeded to do basically nothing after his arc, showed up later to defeat Mister Compress, then help stall Tomura. For the sake of not having to change much, we keep her. But I do think a story where Deku rescues his teacher has better bones to it, since Eri does nothing after her arc. They make her smile at a school festival and her years of trauma are fixed. -Recovery Girl is another edge case but the story doesn't care about her as a person. She's a tool to heal main characters and enable them to recover near instantly from their injuries. You could replace her with a talking healing pod from DBZ and get the same end result. We just replace the scenes where she complains with Nezu doing it. Nezu, to All Might and Midoriya who are both in healing pods: You guys really ought to go less hard, eh? But who am I kidding? Plus Ultra! The rest of them? You could functionally ditch and not much changes. I'll go through all of them in a lightning round. Mirko: Replace her with Gang Orca. You know, the really tough mutant guy who could fight Inasa and Shoto at the same time? The guy the story barely used after? Yeah, we dust him off and slot him in. Midnight: Even her two best friends didn't care about her after she died. If we have to kill a teacher who doesn't affect the plot, kill Ectoplasm. Hagakure: Besides discovering Aoyama, what does she ever do? Deku could have just as easily discovered Aoyama...when All For One orders him to capture Deku. It's REALLY OBVIOUS Aoyama is the spy when he's attacking! Tsuyu: She saves Izuku from a shark mutant at the USJ and then does nothing else until she becomes Uraraka's video game assist against Toga. Mina: Her arc is already shared with Kirishima. You just have him eat the rest of her screen time and story beats. Kyoka: Absolutely superfluous. She sings a song once, loses an ear to AFO, and then makes the quirks in him briefly rebel. Have Tokoyami fight alone and we end up in the same place.

All the girls in class B: Class B was a waste of space and shouldn't have existed. Nejire: The big 3 didn't need to exist. Clearly only Mirio actually mattered. The story wanted to show how great Mirio was at the time. Let him fight Nejire and Suneater's foes and show off his POWER. Ryuku: Her most notable scene was getting beat up by Tomura, then is MIA until the final war, where she fights a background character. Magne: She existed just to get brutally murdered by Overhaul. The author NEVER cared about this character.

Inko: If she was never seen and the story didn't bother to get into who Izuku's parents are, what changes? Nothing. So we have 5 essential female characters: Uraraka, Toga, Momo/Mei, Eri, and Nana. 4 if you're willing to do an Overhaul arc rewrite and ditch Eri. 3 if you decide Momo/Mei's contributions aren't needed. This isn't a problem unique to MHA, by the way, this series is just especially bad about it.

[kanene-yaaay]

The Benefits of a Restful Sleep (and other things that a friend can help you with)

Kanene's notes: In my defense, Dogday is way too cute and kind. That was his mistake. Now I just HAD to make an entire story where he is alive and the Player is both the most stubborn bean ever and the biggest softie to set a foot in the factory. That is it. That is the entire story. Warnings: Mentioned death as a form of reset, angst and mention of injury and blood. It's discussed but not too deeply and isn't the main plot of the story. Raspberries, nibbles, lots of teasing, hurt/comfort and roothing fluff. Reader is adressed with they/them. Around 9.500 words. Heavily inspired by @fluffymary 's wonderful, incredible stories. Take a look at them too :D

[~*~]

You were exhausted.

That was a problem.

Sure, tiredness wasn’t really a new feeling in your life when you looked at the big scheme of things. Even before you went back to your old workplace, it used to cling on your bones, to fill your mind with memories and to pull your spirits down at any time of the day when a kid’s laughter or flowers would remind you of everything you tried so hard to leave behind.

(And look where you are now.)

The constant ‘fighting for your life’ thing also hasn't been helping a lot lately. Adrenaline and the will to keep on living were perfect for the battles but could only get you so far when the feeling of danger and fear scrutinized all of your steps, stalking in any and every corner, waiting for the right moment to strike. Days and hours became a total mess and the longer you spent on exploring and surviving, the more and more things that were once important started to fade to a background thought in your head.

Food was one of them. Water. Sleep. The debris and destruction brought a lot of memories and enemies but hardly a safezone where you could actually sit down, breathe and rest for a bit. It was fine, though. The solution was simple and quick. 

Dying.

Sounded harsh when you thought about it in that way, to be honest. 

Resetting. 

Or something like that.

Not during a fight, of course. After the first couple of times, it quickly became annoying and no fun at all to have to experience all the chase and… other things more than once. However, on other occasions, missteps into an abyss happen and sometimes a bad calculation using the grabpack could be fatal (and more frequent than you should admit.) 

You couldn’t deny its convenience. In a blink you would wake up, not hungry, thirsty or exhausted, a few meters behind your previous location and then you would be ready to go until the pain of hunger or the feeling of being in a brick of passing out appeared once again.

It was not the best, you knew, but it was a good enough solution. 

It was fine.

(It was fine.) 

Especially now, when you have someone else depending on you to survive. Saving Dogday had been tricky and much, much harder than the alternative. Keeping him alive after that, during the smiling critters chase and the aftermath, even more so. None of this didn’t really matter, though. It was worth it. 

The beginning had been tougher. With all the emotions, the changes, pain (and how to keep going after all of that), going back to Home Sweet Home and getting into more trouble trying to turn on all the generators. The fact that, not very longer after getting into the Daycare, you found a new, clean fabric and a set of tools to take care of Dogday’s injuries was the perfect help, even if the coincidence of that encounter had bordered on a miracle that made your skin prickle in discomfort as you had stared at the sewing kit localized (placed) just a few meters away from you two. There was no way that this could have been accidental. 

(Ever since you set a foot in this factory not a single encounter, voice, tape or battle seemed a coincidence and the fear of the image that this puzzle was creating haunted your every choice.)

Nevertheless, beggars couldn’t be choosers. Even though Dogday stayed unusually quiet for a really long time after his injuries were taken care of, he still insisted on using it despite both of your strong suspicions, not wanting to be a ‘burden’, anymore.

You disagreed strongly with that word, of course. Not only because his knowledge of the place and the little shortcuts or hidden spaces had been essential both to escape from the hungry toys and to make your path confusing enough to mislead any pursuers you had was essential to your survival, but also because… 

Damn. 

You just really missed this.

Chatting. Having someone truly by your side. No second intentions or guesses or working around to earn a couple of moments of dialogue. Just a companionship and a fighter if needed, someone bright who could, just with their presence and company, help to keep your focus and your objectives in mind. 

Dogday’s voice was raspy and rough but his words were light and kind. He would insist on calling you ‘angel’ and gesture excitedly around when he was talking, pulling your attention back when you began losing yourself in your thoughts. He would help solving the complicated puzzles spread through the factory and hold your hand tight to hide the tremble of his own paws when you both went through somewhere too dark. He would joke and hold and help and you wished you could put in words how no trouble in the world could make his presence here not worth it. 

That is why you couldn’t afford passing out right now. That is why you kept pulling one foot after the other and continued your path to the end of this hell.

Unfortunately, the very reason that kept you moving forward was the same one blocking you from actually managing to reset your body and get over that tiredness.

The fact that Dogday cared.

He was smart and quite smooth too. That was clear after all the times he would ‘accidentally’ get in front of you when you managed to step a bit too close from a deepless hole or how he would suddenly remember a shortcut that would have you to deviate from the giant abyss you had been eyeing for a few moments ago or when he distracted you as he followed another direction, a light pull on your wrist and a inviting conversation on the tip of his tongue, the pit getting farther and farther away.

It was a bit endearing, you couldn’t lie.

However, when a badly placed hand of your grabpack successfully made you slip from a fatal high and you only had time to listen to a surprised yelp (or more like a ‘yap’?) before a giant orange arm held you close to a fluffy chest you were actually torn between hitting something in frustration and melting in the warmth.

Dogday smiled, looking down. 

“Ops, you almost fell in there, angel.” His eyebrow was crooked and his expression filled with tension and confusion. Yep. He definitely realized what was going on. That kind of sucks.

He started heading the other direction, taking a different path to where you were going. “You‘re really tired, aren’t you? Saving everyone must cost a lot of energy.” His eyes softened. You struggled to keep yours open, body inevitably relaxing with his voice and kind touch. “And, well, I don’t think you had a lot of opportunities to rest since you got here too, right? Ehehe. That is… a bit worrisome. Humans need plenty of sleep and we have been walking for a long time already!”

You have survived longer without it. It was fine. There were more generators that had to be turned on before anything else. Those were your priorities.

Dogday acknowledged the end of your sentence before shaking his head vehemently, his ears flopping around in an endearing way. 

“The generators have been turned off for a long time now, a few more hours won’t hurt. You are our priority, angel.” Dogday tried to not let his tail wag in adorableness when he pulled you closer to his chest and you let your head and eyelids fall with a really tiny, quiet sound for a moment too long before opening them and watching him in a stubborn manner. “And I think I know somewhere where we can hide for long enough before continuing.” 

He watched as you deviated your gaze, thoughtful. Almost there.

“Besides, my kind angel” he let his posture go, just a little. The exhaustion from… everything showing from the light of his eyes to the darkness of his mouth. Trusting had been what got him stuck but also what freed him. He could offer this human a bit more of it. “I-I really think I need time to recover. Sometimes it just… hurts.”

He looked down and you didn’t need to follow his gaze to get what he was saying.

Oh.

Oh.

That was what settled it. You nodded. But he had to put you on the ground. 

You kept your expression firm and ignored his playful chuckle and the way he only pulled you closer with your words, because if he kept holding you, there was no way you would not fall asleep instantly and you both couldn’t afford that until he got to that safe place.

With a huff and a beginning of a pout he acquiesced and put you on the cracked floor, getting your point. He had to hide his snickers with his paw when you wobbled on the same spot for a second before eventually gathering your strength back, feeling a million times more tired. 

Urg. Relaxing was a mistake.

“Don’t worry, it’s not too far from here. We will get there in no time!” 

(...)

Took longer than he expected for you to finally lay down, but it was worth it. The place was one of the old dorms so there were a lot of pillows and mattresses thrown around, a few somewhat still holding a good condition for use. With the help of some furniture and moving around, you managed to barricade the door and build a sort of nest hidden in a farther corner so that it would be really difficult to notice through any window. 

The human seemed ready to pass out at any moment, yawning and giving the door a last look, watching every creek and tear on the walls for anything that could be dangerous, even after all their previous care to make this place as safe as possible. Silly dear.

Dogday has always prided himself in being perceptive. Both because of the kids he once needed to watch and take care of and also because it’s important to notice and understand the details around your teammates so he would know when to help them.

(Old habits die hard, as it seems.)

And, yeah, maybe it had something to do with how long he spent without seeing a human or how he missed having someone (anyone-) who cared so much around. But he couldn’t really help to watch, prod and pick every little detail and gesture of yours around as if he was collecting flowers in a garden. Humans were so… expressive, and this one wasn’t different at all. 

Angel was fierce and determined, going silently and non stop through the facility and all their objectives with a focused mind and precise movements. Their senses and general environmental awareness were good, too, catching hints and dangers just a second or two after Dogday himself caught them, which, considering their small ears and eyes, was an incredible feat. 

Still, like a true angel, strength and kindness walked side by side with them. Dogday didn’t say that only because that person was the literal reason he was alive today, but simply because it was clear as water how much of a true softie you were inside. It was in the way they fired only around the small smile critters, avoiding to actually burn and kill them (even though he didn’t really know how he should feel about it), on how they carried and treated his wounds and how all their features - tensed, anxious and angry - softened everytime they looked at him. 

It was on the way that they walked slower to accompany him, amusing his rambles with pokes of fun and interesting additions and in how each touch or word was filled with tenderness and respect. He didn’t feel like a toy with them like some old employers had made him feel before or a failure as… others made him believe.

So, his companionship was extremely captivating and maybe that was why it hadn’t been really hard to notice how the little tiny hints and actions came together to form a quite worrisome image of how disregarding about their own safety they were. Jumping into fights, crawling into dangerous, small spaces without thinking twice (he couldn’t get them there, if he needed he couldn’t get them there-), following strangers’ orders and running over cliffs as if their life wasn’t the thing that mattered the most and Dogday would always be there to catch them when they fell.

(What did they use to do when he wasn’t?)

Even now, he huffed as the human slowly took off the grabpack while still not even lowering themselves on the mattress or trying to get comfortable even though they seemed ready to slip into unconsciousness at any time now. Alert to the very last second.

It felt a bit nostalgic, if he was being honest. At least helping someone to go to sleep was a kind of problem that he knew how to solve. 

With no further ado, he let himself fall on the soft pile with a ‘oof’, slowly rolling around the cleanest pillows they found and hugging the mattress as a loud, relaxed sighing fled from his mouth. His entire body seemed to untense with the unexpected comfortable feeling. How long had it been since he could just enjoy being surrounded by softness and safety like this?

His tail began contently thumping on the pile, another sigh leaving his mouth and making him forget for a moment his objective as he rolled more and more on the spot, the pure feeling of bliss taking over his senses until the sound of amused chuckles brought him back to reality.

He opened his eyes only to find an incredibly fond gaze looking right back at him. The absurd weight that haunted his friend’s shoulders seemed to have disappeared for a moment and, if he really concentrated enough on those kind eyes, it was like the rest of the world became unfocused. That is right! Dogday shook his head, as if cleaning it from his distracting thoughts. He had a mission to accomplish! Get the human to rest! No more fooling around!

“Hmmmm, It’s so, so, sooo comfy here!” Dogday controlled his voice so his playful tune wouldn’t show too much and give away his plan. He got a pillow and shoved his face on it just to highlight his words. “Like a kingdom made of clouds, where all the citizens get to lay down and rest all day, everyday and their favorite hobby is to cuddle and snuggle. Sounds like a nice place, don’t you think?” 

You agreed, snorting when two expectanting lights turned around and Dogday patted the spot right beside him, only smiling bigger when you pretended to roll your eyes and finally, finally, laid down, barely touching the pile before your body crumbled the rest of the way.

It was… really soft. Even more than you expected from such old furniture but that could be the exhaustion talking. A relieved groan filled the place and before you could process that it came from your lips two arms came and carefully pulled you to a bunch of even softer fluff, which automatically made you snuggle closer, hugging the pillow (friend?) and relaxing, body aching with how much tension flew away from it so quickly.

A sweet voice said something in the background, but all of your senses melted together with your muscles when a hand began rubbing your back, drawing light circles on your spine and following it to your neck, briefly massaging it before going back to the back rubs.

That nice voice kept talking and you could briefly distinguish the words ‘deserve’, ‘rest’ and ‘good’ before the hand got a bit too close to your side and you giggled. The hand stilled but it was okay, it just tickled, that is all. No need to stop. 

This was really nice, you kind of missed it. 

You snuggled more.

All of it. It’s been a while.

As the darkness of the unconsciousness started taking you away, an amused, fond ‘aww’ was the last thing you heard.

(...)

You woke up with a scare.

Nothing necessarily happened, but your body immediately tensed, in alert. Blurry eyes traveled with speed around the room in search for any kind of movement, the silence helping to amplify the sound of any enemy that could be closer. 

One second, two seconds…all you could pick up was the paused, calm snoring of Dogday still being deeply asleep.

Right. Safe. You were both safe.

You let go of a breath you didn’t even realize you were holding, blinking rapidly to scare the sleep out of your sight as you looked up, mind finally getting time to grasp the memories from last… (night? hours? day? irrelevant). The quick beating of your heart started to slow down to a normal pace and you laid down again on the mattress, now wide awake.

Dogday was still sleeping. That was good. He deserved all the peaceful rest he could get after everything that happened.

And, to be honest, it was quite amusing to watch him sleep. Each time he snored his big ears flopped just the slightest bit around and from time to time those little muffled barks would appear on the back of his throat and his tail would wag a bit, not so different from a real dog.

(He truly was a marvel of science.)

At one time you could almost swear he said a name, but it was so low that you couldn’t quite catch it.

Beyond all of that, you couldn’t deny how right Dogday had been, resting really did wonders to your body and mood. You could feel your mind clearer and your muscles less stiff, even if still quite sore. Also, it was made in a rush, that is true, but the soft pillow pile really was comforting enough that it didn’t make it any easier to get up and go on about your day.

Still, as always, there was work to do. It really wouldn’t hurt to get up in the vents and walk around a bit to see if there was any murder toy wandering close so you could attract them away before they could interrupt Dog’s sleep. 

It wasn’t anything really that urgent, however,… It felt weird not doing anything in this place, to deliberately choose to stay instead of to move. Letting your guard down last night had been literally the only thing you could do with how exhausted you were and having a trustful friend close by your side, but now? When you were more rested and nowhere close to the exit? The jittery feeling was already catching up to you. 

You tried to get up, only to be stopped by an arm closing on your midriff, a nose being pressed on the top of of head and nuzzling it with care before a raspy voice - you really needed to find some kind of oil or toolbox to help with his voicebox, sometimes it felt like he was always with a sore throat - glitched for a half second before coming to life in a quiet, slurred “Angel?”

Good morning, sleepy beauty.

Dogday huffed in amusement. Silence washed over you both once again.

A while passed and no more words were exchanged. Uh, probably went back to sleep already. You tried to carefully extract yourself from his hold. 

“Mm? What happened?” Dogday yawned, sounding a bit more awake this time. “Do we have to go?” He propped himself in one elbow, using his enormous height to peak over the hiding place and watch the door and windows, ears perking up in a search of any strange sound. “I’m not listening to any danger. This is a good spot.”

You agreed, feeling a tad bad that you woke up your companionship unnecessarily with your unrelenting thoughts. Nothing really happened, you assured, he could go back to sleep if he wanted. You could stay with the guarding shift.

Rubbing his eyes and yawning more, the sentient toy then changed his focus to you, noticing the slight drop in your tune, mind becoming clearer as he added to that detail the stiffness that went back in your shoulders. His brain tried to connect the dots.

“Did you have a nightmare, sunshine?”

No, not really. 

“What happened?”

It’s all just… too much thoughts. You wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep like this, not without a distraction. It would be the best if you got something to do, so he could go back to his nap. It was fine, you would stay awake in guard.

“I see.”

He laid back down, however, instead of letting you go and immediately go back to sleep, as you expected, he began massaging your shoulders, mouth turning into a pout when that didn’t make you melt completely in blissful slumber like last night, but at least got some of the tension out. 

Even if it felt like the human continued to hold onto every last drop of stress for some reason, refusing to close their eyes or fully relax. Knowing their current situation, Dogday could understand. But still, his friend should be able to enjoy this little chance of a rest that they’ve got. They were both so tired and finally had a good place to spend some good old lazy time without being worried about running for their lives or seeing nightmares at each blink of eyelids. It was not the best spot that the factory could once offer, of course, yet nowadays it was like a piece of heaven.

He wished he could help his angel to enjoy it. Yesterday they seemed so happy. But unless he could think in a good distraction…

A sudden thought then popped in his head, a memory from what happened the previous night. An idea.

Hm.

“Sunshine, do you like games?”

Games? Like… hide and seek or catch? 

Dogday nodded, looking eager. 

Yeah, you did. Even so, you don’t think that making up some ruckus will be good to keep up their hidden spot, well, hidden.

“No, no! This one doesn’t involve running or anything that could give up our location. Actually, you won’t even need to move from where you are to play it.”

Really? Well, it was worth a shot, then. 

“Alright. Do you remember what happened when we found those old rags in one of the corridors a few days ago?”

Yes, you did.

You watched as Dogday chuckled, like he knew something you didn’t and, with a crooked eyebrow, you stared at him, trying to remember the mentioned moment better. 

Nowadays his fur was no longer the bright orange that it once was like the old cardboards and tv episodes showed, but at least it got a resemblance of a cleaned state after using some good-enough rags you found on the way to one of the generators. You both did the best to take out the debris, dust and blood from him. It took longer than it should because the taller toy kept squirming and wiggling around in an adorable inescapable fit of giggles, not really being a big help as, in between his laughter, he kept claiming that it really, really tickled. 

As a good friend, of course, you just grabbed the rag he let fall after a bit of lil cleaning on his poor ticklish tummy and racked both hands up and down his sides, scribbling away while he hid his smile behind hands, muffling his loud crackles. The cleaning didn’t stop there and hunted each tiny spot and slight hint of dust off him with plenty of scratches, prodding and drumming everywhere your hands could reach, catching all the titters, snickers and snorts that danced in the rhythm of your fingers. Your own giggles did not take much longer to follow them. 

Dogday’s paw continued to run in a light touch on your back and suddenly a bolt of electricity jolted you up when your mind connected the memory of his playful demisse to what he just said.

Your eyes widened and his expression opened into a smirk, sensing the very same moment you got to the conclusion that you were about to get absolutely and utterly destroyed with tickles.

You tried pushing him away, one hand twisting behind to catch his wrist as the other hand fought to snatch his free one, which kept flying away from yours in a game of mouse and cat. 

“Wait, angel!” He couldn’t help but laugh, especially as your movements got more and more uncoordinated the longer they kept this little game, even before he truly attempted to do anything. A wobbly smile was already taking over your face, only growing bigger when every swipe he did in your direction - only to be deflected by your hands - made your entire skin tingle and prickle in anticipation. Each adorable reaction only assisting in making Dogday more determined that he choose the right distraction. “Don’t you want to know about the game? I bet that you will love it! I used to play and win all the time so I can teach you every special trick of mine.”

No, no, no, no! You knew exactly what he was doing! There was no such thing as a game!

“Gasp!” You were sure that Dogday would be dramatically putting a hand on his chest if it wasn’t for the rough housing, but sudden noise was successful to break your concentration. He used his trapped hand to sneak a quick jab on your side, ripping out a delightful screech before you slammed your back again on the mattress, both hands now in front of you, no longer moving, yet still ready to defend and attack. “I would never lie to you, my beautiful, beautiful beacon of light, the only and one sunshine, my angel.”

He was not going to succeed in distracting you again with those sugary sweet nicknames! You knew exactly what he was doing and you wouldn’t let him get you.

“No, no, you got me wrong, angel.” Dogday booped your nose, seeming like he couldn’t control himself with excitement and a smug kind of joy that only grew the longer you both stared at each other, waiting for the moment to strike. His tail wagged and he pretended to lounge at your stomach, stopping inches before touching it and drinking the way that a squeal escaped from your mouth, body stuck into a position between laying down and curling on itself, giggles quickly filling the room. Actually, you could feel yourself getting giddier at each second, completely aware that there was no way for you to get out of this and no other option besides wait for the next attack.

The way that this thought only made butterflies go crazy on your belly should be illegal.

Dogday continued as if nothing happened. “This isn’t the game. The game only starts when I start to tickle you, silly! And it is called ‘Try To Not Laugh’.” He managed to waltz through your defenses, his index finger and thumb catching your side in a grip way too light to even be considered a pinch. It made you try to squirm with a snort to the other direction, as if he just had unleashed a ruthless attack of squeezes on the spot. 

His grin glimmered and he let you go, chuckling. You could feel the phantom touch still. 

(Why did his paws have to be so fuzzy!?) 

“It means that you can’t giggle, squeal, snicker, chuckle, snort, chortle, shriek or laugh! No matter how much it tickles, itches or ‘feels funny’.” Dogday counted each reaction pulling up a finger and you tried to not let your face melt as he just kept talking, looking more and more delighted with how each word seemed to make you twitch on the spot, his paws clawing in your direction when he was done. 

Before you could think, he went for your neck, fingertips barely, just the slightest bit, grazing the skin before you catched his wrists and pushed them away, scrunching your neck as tiny tickly sparks spread like fire across your nerves. A sound akin to a keysmash left your lips and Dogday looked like you had just given him the best news of his entire existence.

He tilted his head and watched his own captured paws for a piece of moment before shrugging. He continued on with his explanation.

“In turn I will try my true best to make you laugh. And that can mean anything! I can fill your entire cute neck with aaaaall the raspberries that it could ever want, wiggle my claws on your ticklish armpits, play your ribs like a very lovely piano, squeeze your sides non stop until you’re dancing around like a wiggly worm, maybe even give your tummy a few scratches and scribbles, or, or even better! I can play ‘This little piggy’ with your toes over and over again until your sweet laughter fills this entire room like the sweetest melody. And then we can do it all over but with you giggling and snickering ringing free the entire time! Doesn’t it sound like a fun idea, my angel?”

Oh, you were going to die. Whether he decided to tickle you right away or keep the teases for who knows how long, you don’t think that your face would survive being under so much heat for so long.

Besides, this is not fair at all! He will win it anyway, you couldn’t hold on your laughter forever while he t-, while he attacks you.

“Aww, but, sunshine, tickling is hardly an attack!” His face got closer and suddenly you realized that he did not need any free hand to accomplish his first promise of tickles. 

With wide eyes you tried to roll away, but to do so, you would have to let his paws go, and you knew very well that the moment this happened, it would be a game over for you. For the way that Dogday grinned in your direction, he reached the same conclusion as well. “Also, I can’t even touch you, right now! I think you can win this.” Dogday wiggled his paws in your hold, as if proving his point. 

With (an eager) trepidation, you watched as his face continued to get closer, prying a couple of titters when his floppy, fuzzy ears brushed your own ears. He chuckled at your reaction, a mix of fondness and playful, fake frustration painting his words. “Sunshine, you’re already giggling? I will have to take my last words back, then, I don’t think this game will last too long, anymore.” 

Oh ho ho, he should just wait, because when you get him back you then he was going to see who was-

Dogday shoved his face on the crook of your neck and immediately began nuzzling the spot without a worry in the world, successfully cutting your threat short.

Wait! Wait!

“Don’t mind me, angel, please continue.” He huffed and puffed on the spot, shivers running in a hilarious cacophony across your every sense, almost ripping a squeal from your lips. Actually, just like his words hitting the skin, you could feel the way that snickers began pooling in your throat, waiting for any tiny chance to escape. You clamped your mouth shut, a muffled snort taking over. You were going to at least try to hold them in and try your chances at winning this childish game, for your own pride, if nothing else. 

He didn’t have his paws to tickle, right? I mean, how bad could it really be?

Dogday hummed, each word vibrating on the skin in an almost unbearable manner, making you want to jump away and at the same time let yourself get lost in the sensations. “What were you saying, angel? Please, don’t stop because of me! You know I always love to hear what you have to say.”

You shook your head, partially in an attempt to somehow escape from the tickling and partially to dissipate the energy that was building up on your system. Anything to not focus on the snickers bouncing freely in your chest.

“No? Not a word? Aw.” You could feel the fake pout the sentient toy did right before letting his features go back to that dangerous, mischievous grin. “I have a question for you, then! Do you know what is the tickle puppy favorite’s fruit?”

You knew a trap when you saw one, so you kicked your legs, trying and failing to let out any protest because you were sure that if you stopped pressing your lips in a tight line for even half of a second, there would be no stopping from the waterfall of laughter.

“Raspberries!”

A shriek almost made you lose when he unleashed the first raspberry, more and more of them being quick to follow right after. On the base of your neck, your collarbone, under your chin and in every inch on the unprotected spot. There was nowhere safe from the awfully buzzing that made every other feeling disappear, seeing to tickle every nerve and making tingles to run crazy in absolutely everywhere. He even grazed the back of your ears with a couple of raspberries, cooing when you tried to shrink and hide the spot by pressing them on your shoulder, only succeeding to leave the other side of your neck completely free for more nuzzles and tickles, an opportunity that Dogday was fast to take, taking turns in bashing every side of your neck in a tickly attention. 

Another quiet, muffled squeak painted the air.

Dogday lifted his head again, entire demeanor completely melting for a piece of time when he saw you (oh my stars, look at this amazing smile!) before that joyful light was back in his eyes. Once more, he tried wiggling his paws out of your hold, but your grip continued to be as firm as ever, your wobbly smile shining in a challenge.

Oh, you’re just so fun!

“Gasp! It seems like I am stuck! Oh no, angel, what will I do now?” His gaze then traveled to your stomach, and all the hints that softness had ever been present in his features instantly evaporated as his face became something more playful, even a tad devilish, with a hint of hunger. 

“My, my,” you didn’t exactly know why, but his voicebox glitched, jumping between a light taunting tune and his usual lower one. “Is that a delicious tummy that I see? Poor thing, it must be so cold to be shaking like this. Well, and what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t offer any help, huh?”

Your friend was quite tall and kind of clumsy when he walked around, too. Now, how that clumsy toy was able to, in a span of less than a blink, take a gigantic breath and immediately attack your stomach with it was a true mystery that you didn’t had a lot of time to think about when your entire body took a screenshot for a long, long second, ticklish sensations exploding in a frenzy, before your entire torso instinctively beginning to trash, loud peals of laughter jumping freely on the tip of your tongue, begging to be free. They cheered in excitement and only grew stronger when other smaller raspberries took their turn to explore every spot, every sensitive creek or place of your stomach, breaking more and more of your barriers, little by little. It took every single ounce of strength to not lose the game right here and there.

Dogday didn’t even pretend to be holding back, anymore. Right as you survived another tiny raspberry that got way too close to your side to be an accident, a nibble appeared, catching you so out of guard that it made your arch your back, legs kicking with adrenaline. But the tickly, light nibbles weren’t diverted, intertwining with tiny raspberries in a mischievous dance that increased your internal laughing into a tenfold.

That was when one of them hit the spot closer to your bellybutton and you couldn’t take it anymore. Your hands let go of his wrists to push his stupid smiling - so proud and so bright - face away, body squirming and eyes crinkling on the corners with mirth.

“I am free!” He laughed, pretending to not hear the tiny low titters flying from your mouth as you regained your strength, taking the breather as what it was. His ears twitched with every cute little giggle and he kind of wanted to immediately go back to bash every sweet, soft spot in tickles you until that beautiful laughter was ringing loud and free across the entire room and that soft, relaxed state you were in became so much common that he wouldn’t see you stressed ever again.

But he was going to wait for you to rest a tadbit first, that was the main objective of their game, afterall.

Feeling calmer, you looked at your friend, who jolted in the same place, seeing to get out of a trance. He recovered quickly and lifted his paws, easily slipping into the tickle monster persona as he slowly clawed in your direction.

“Now that my hands are free, I wonder where I should attack next…” He looked thoughtful, slowly bringing his paws closer and closer to your torso, wiggly fingers softly scrapping the ticklish skin, but not really drumming on it, not yet. “Maybe I should try your armpits first? Aw, but you were so jumpy when I squeezed your side that one time! And you seemed really excited when I mentioned tickling your ribs… Ah! So many options, so many options… We will have to try every single one of them, of course. What do you think, my giggly angel? Which one do I tickle first?”   

None! Absolutely none of them!

“None?” He tilted his head, knowing very well how cute he looked like when he did that. “But then … Oh! I see!” Dogday snapped his fingers and you were pretty sure that if this was a cartoon a lamp would appear shining right above that absolute, silly, mean, goofball. “You want me to tickle your legs!” 

What!

At your wide stare and sputtering pretenses of protests his smirk turned sharp, which didn’t quite help the anticipatory bolts of electricity that suddenly left you feeling even more ticklish than usual, trying to curl and hide your legs but feeling him dig more on your torso every time you did so. He continued. “That is why you didn’t stop kicking and squirming the entire time I was tickling your neck and tummy, right? Aww, sunshine, if you wanted my attention so much, you could’ve just asked!”

That was literally not the reason at all! Dogday!!

He hummed in an answer, turning around and easily pinning your legs by holding your ankles down, his touch so gentle that you were pretty sure that if you really wanted and struggled you could escape from it.

(And if that didn’t make everything even more endearing, you honestly didn’t know what would.)

Without wasting any more time, Dogday started squeezing the sensitive spot right above your kneecap, skillfully jumping from one leg to another unexpectedly, digging on the skin and following your leg around with no problem as a new round of kicks started once again, keeping up with the tickling. The ticklish sensations made your head spin, tingles spreading across your muscles and teasing all the nearest tickle spots, leaving them prickling in anticipation and a funny kind of energy that made every nerve of your knees crazy as more and more squeezes and pinches continued unmercifully assaulting the spot non stop. 

A sudden move and you yelped when your legs were lifted, his curious hand worming its way under your knee to lightly scratch the sensitive skin there. The touch was so incredibly fuzzy, so adoringly soft that the sudden change from the rough to light technique almost ripped a series of snickers from your throat without permission, the hilarity and urge to laugh taking over your every thought. 

Dogday continued scribbling and drawing shapes, leaving a couple of pokes here and there just so he could listen to those delightful muffled snorts.

(He would really love to listen to them more clearly, though.) 

“You really love this, don’t you, angel?” 

You barely sputtered out an answer before being obligated to clamp your mouth shut, uncontrollable laughter making your shoulders bounce as he took the chance to crawl his fingers upwards to your thigh, skittering them there for a couple of seconds before spidering them right back to under your knees, repeating the cycle for a couple of times before mirroring them on the other leg. 

“When I tickle you.” He scratched under your knee. 

“When I tease you.” He squeezed your calf.

“When I fluster you.” He swiped at the space right under your toes.

“It’s really adorable!” His paw stopped right on your sole and he pressed it, firmly enough that it didn’t tickle, still, for some reason you couldn’t stop your smile from becoming even more wobblier, the giddiness growing stronger and spreading in your every cell just like the heat that seemed to take over your face. 

“Especially because I can’t wait to hear aaaaall those cute giggles and beautiful laughter that you have trapped right there.” Suddenly, he raked his fingers up, from your heel to under the toes. A squeal filled the air. Dogday’s eyes shone, like an arrow findings the target. His fingertips curled, kneading on the skin. “That is why I have to apologize, angel, because I lied to you. That is a game that I just have to win.”

He then attacked.

It was less than a half of a piece of time, but suddenly your soles were being overcomed with scribbles, scratches and wiggling everywhere they could reach. There were digging fingers under your toes and a spidering that followed them to the pads, tweaking and scritching them all while curious pokes payed attention to the entire path of your arches, even if shouldn’t be possible for him to be tickling both places at the same time. Nevertheless, Dogday’s paw was so big that he was able to torment both of your feet at once while still holding them through all the resulting kicks those created.

And the teasing… Of course there was also the teasing.

“There we go! Oh my, oh my, look at you! You just can’t help being so adorable, now, can you? Awww, angel, you always get this… sweet expression when you are happy, so I like to call it your happy face! It’s delightful. The corner of your eyes gets all crinkly and your face gets all soft and your smile… your smile is the best part, it’s so bright! No matter the size or the time, it really feels like we have our own special rays of sun down here.”

He found a rather sensitive spot right above your heel and immediately concentrated on it with all his might, drumming and prodding there as if the salvation of this entire factory depended on making you laugh.

“That is why it was so easy to see how much you love tickles, sunshine. First when you were tickling me a few days ago and now. Since we started that game… you didn’t even ask me to stop and all while you simply never ceased looking so adorably full of joy like this! I could really spend the entire day just here, you know? Tickling you silly over and over again.”

That did it. The barrier broke. Loud peals of laughter were fished from your lips. Every sound and reaction filled the air in a frantic, unrestrained melody of mirth. 

Now, with them flying freely in the room, there were uncontrollable, hysterical giggles when Dogday decided to knead your calves up and down, those only being taken down by an unstoppable crackling, painted with one or two snorts, as his paws wiggled away to squeeze right above your kneecaps, taking his sweet, sweet time to give the ticklish skin under it a few swipes before moving away.

Finally, he let your ankles go, both paws resting on your sides, unbothered by all the squirming and protests that this simple act created, drinking in every reaction with a so fond, so tender gaze that it bordered on dotingly as you got another break.

You tried to take big gulps of air, but everytime your gazes found each other, titters grew anew, distracting you and leaving you in a constant state of a silly, giggly kind of joy.

M-Maybe he should reconsider! You laughed already, he won the game! That should be the end of this, right!

Dogday chuckled, fingers tuttering in their spot, curling and uncurling slowly, content to feel the trembling on the skin under them. 

“The end? But we just started! And you still got so much beautiful laughter trapped right here to show.” With his index finger, he highlighted his word by tapping on your belly, right in your bellybutton, ears perking at the screech this brought. “So many cute snorts and melodious shrieks that I would love to meet. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t help to let them out, huh?”

A flow of words, more unintelligible than anything, fell off your lips. A mix of pleas,  threats, high pitched giggles and some indistinguishable sounds that could only be considered a true keysmash rather than a sentence. Dogday hummed in agreement and nodded his head as if it was all a well constructed and understandable sentence.

“I knew you would eventually see my point, angel. You’re such a delight, you know, that?”

He smiled, so kindly and caring, and then he digged.

His paws, big enough to cover your entire midriff drummed non stop, squeezing the lower part of your stomach while scratching everywhere they could reach. He stayed there for a while before his wiggling fingers crawled up, scribbling and pinching your sides unmercifully. They looked for any weak spot, any lovely place that would make you snort and squirm away and latched there with pinches and kneading until your back arched, only then moving back to tickle your stomach until you went back to try to curl yourself in a ball, starting the cycle over and over again. 

You felt almost high with laughter, the thought that it tickled, it tickled so so much and more than anything ever taking over your brain in sync with the loud, high pitched squeals and belly laughter (ha- Dogday would love that pun if you could say it to him) that chased after each other. After so much teasing, every tickle seemed to be accompanied by the brush of thousand of tiny phantom feathers that still tormented your stomach even when he moved away to your ribs, carefully pressing down on the bones and quickly scribbling with so much skill that it should be illegal the actual, loud crackle such a simple action created.

Your hands flied to hold his wrists, caught between pushing them away and pulling them close and, at seeing that, the sentient toy couldn’t help but feel himself melt and snicker fondly, barely controlling the urge to shove his face back on your neck and nuzzle and nibble the daylights out of it in a pure attack of cuteness. His tail was wagging so much that it dislodged a few pillows from where they were.

“Such a good friend. Such a cute, nice friend for me. For us.” The praises fell from his mouth naturally, your companionship too focused on keeping those happy reactions to really think too much about them. “You do so much to all of us, to me, and keep going above and beyond just to accomplish what you set your mind in. You’re brave and one of the strongest humans I’ve ever known. And there is so much kindness in you that I could talk the entire day about it! You saved me, you cared and tried and sometimes down here it feels like a nightmare but you… you make everything so much better, like a true angel. That is why I love this nickname so much. It really fits you.” 

You tried to answer, to say how much especial, strong and essential Dogday was for you as well, but every time a single coherent word slipped from your lips he immediately reinforced his attack, fully aware that if you said anything sweet he would inevitably let his guard down and you would be able to turn the tables, and he really needed to say all of that to you before that. 

His tickles were now focusing on keeping up the flow of starry laughter, watching them grow up to chortles and tune down into snickers as he scribbled in between each bone, keeping track of every special spot that pried a shriek from your lungs only to randomly attack it with prodding and poking, slowly fishing all kinds of joyful sounds that you could make.

He then buried his paws in your armpits, swirling the fingertips there for a few moments before digging energetically, fingers dancing and prodding every inch they could reach, which immediately made your arms come down with a loud chortle, head shaking and legs kicking at the sensation.

How was he so good at this?

Dogday gasped dramatically (not again-) and lightly pulled his paws in faux alarm, not really stopping his attack. “Oh no! Once more, you have trapped me!” Such a goofball. Such a silly, mean goofball and you could not wait to put your wiggly hands on and see how flustered you could make him be. “Dang, I really didn’t want to resort to this but I guess that I have no other option but to keep tickling and tickling and tickling on your poor ticklish pits forever and ever until the end of our days.” He then winked when he found your shining eyes. “But you would actually love that, wouldn’t you, my giggly sunshine?”

That was it. You were going to die. Right here and there. The playful tickles, the unrelenting teasing, the fond stares and gentle words… you could actually feel your entire body about to melt.

With a strength you didn’t even realize you had, you pulled your arms up to hide your flaming face, a pitched ‘eee’ sound mixing with the hysterical, absolutely uncontrollable laughter, your body rolling to the side and curling, shoulders bouncing with the force of each of your giggles.

Dogday let go of you, giggling together with your reactions, resting his hands on the ground and just observing, amusement and care clear as water in every trace of his features.

After a while, you felt a paw lay on your back, retracting for a bit when just that made you wiggle away, a new round of chuckles spilling, before it came back to rub your shoulders, touch kind and too firm to tickle. “Okay, okay, sunshine. I’m done. You can calm down for now.”

Laying down on the floor giggling yourself silly didn’t feel so embarrassing when Dogday’s own quiet snorts and snickers were quick to accompany you, especially since the rubbing really felt relaxing, making you melt on the touch bit by bit. 

After a few minutes, when a comfortable silence had fallen on you both, you rolled on your back, finally being able to stare at your companionship without feeling like you would explode. Dogday smiled bigger at your direction. He lifted a paw to gently wipe a tear from your cheek, not thinking too much about it.

“That was so fun! I didn’t know you were so ticklish, angel. You are almost as bad as m-” He stopped right in his tracks when a gasp and a new string of titters fell like a waterfall from your mouth and you pushed his paw away, fastly rubbing your cheek so the feeling of fuzzy tickles would go away. It was like the softest makeup brush had just touched your skin, and you had no idea that just this could tickle so much.

Dohohogday! You sahaid you werehe done! 

But your companionship didn’t answer. Astonished, he stared at his paw before looking at you again, gaze jumping from one to the other like he was watching a tennis match.

Suddenly his entire face brightened like the sun and he looked at you as if you had just said the funniest, most brilliant pun he had ever heard in his entire life.

“Aaaangel!” Every letter was bathed in pure, disbelieved delight.

No! You knew very well what that tune meant! No way! Nononono! Don’t you dare!

“Are your cheeks…”

Dohohogday! Don’t you come closer!

“Ticklish?”

Before you could push yourself from the mattress and jump away, there were two thumbs softly scratching on your cheeks, scribbling so lightly that it immediately made a giant smile take over your expression. Titters started to fill the air once more.

“Oh my… angel! This is adorable!” Dogday looked like he was about to bounce around the room with how much excited he was, his voice getting higher and glitching in excitement. “I can’t believe how fun and cute… You just… Ah, sunshine, I can’t help but!”

And before you could even blink, he shoved his smiley, stupidly fuzzy face right on your neck again, nuzzling there without a single worry in the world. His fingers kept  tickling your cheeks, sometimes even slipping to tease the back of your ears with a few scratches as he giggled in joy since he could literally feel the rumbling of your snickers. They twirled and spun in the air for much minutes more until his tickly attack from cuteness overload was finally finished and you both just kept layed down on the comfy pile, cuddling in between content sighs.

Dogday listened to your calm breath, saw how relaxed your entire body was and, according to the few sneaky peaks he had, saw that happy, full of mirth, smile was still in your face, leaving him melting in contentment, entire body relaxing as well. 

Perfect. His plan had worked.

Not that it was that big of a deal, but it had been such a long time since he had the opportunity to…

He was just glad that it worked. That he still got it in him. 

(Being playful. Happy. Helping the others. Being there when they needed him. Matter when it was necessary. Being silly and fun)

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t sense the hand coming until it laid on his head, playing with the fur there and scratching on that place right behind his left ear that never failed to make him embarrassingly become a mush of pleased hums and wagging tail. A low, sleepy voice crossed the air.

You said you would take him out of here. It’s a promise, Dogday.

How his angel knew exactly what to say was a mystery to him. And, it didn’t quite hurt, but his entire being ached at those words. His smile was sad and he was glad that the human couldn’t see as he blinked quickly, eyes suddenly moisty. “Alright.”

There would still be some revenge when you woke up, though. Be ready.

And that reminded him so much of others playful, sleepy conversations he had before everything happened that it ripped a surprised laugh from him. He tried to look up to see the very much likely mischievous glint in his friend’s eyes, but a few more purposeful scratches turned him right back to a content puddle. He nuzzled the human a bit more. “Sleep well, angel.”

You too, Dogday.

(And sleep well they did. Lost in a peaceful rest as the entire world outside left them be.)

[~*~]

Random fun facts!

-There is a parallel I made by mistake between CatNap and DogDay and the whole 'trusting and following the being that saved your life'. It's not too deep and Dogday isn't as bad as Catnap but that was an interesting thing I noticed :D

-Different from the reader, Dogday is more used to the time down there so he has a good grasp when day and nights happens in general.

-I am actively ignoring the plotholes here about food and water here. Ya know when you have to poke holes in a lid so the bugs in the container can breathe that is what I doing kjhgfdfghyhgfd

-Nothing to do with the fanfic but I kept listening to this song when I was writing it and I think it's cute.

[sewerpalette]

My Human AL-AN redesign!! The video is still a WIP because I got sick haha, but yk.

At first I was scared I wouldn’t see a lot of visual Improvement, since the video is only 7 months old, but I compared the two and wow, there is a huge difference and I’m very happy with it.

Also this isn’t really much of an AU(?) it’s kinda hard to explain but it’s basically just the alien designs replaced with humanoids for my personal convenience (can’t draw em very well), with some minor story altercation that doesn’t really affect the plot. I think with AL this is easier to explain as they canonically have the ability to cause visual hallucinations, so this design would probably just be an extension of that, not really how he looks. I always liked the idea of the architects being a little eldritch that way, they have a true form but it’s unphysical, the human mind can’t make it up so the individual simply chooses what to present itself as: at least that’s my personal interpretation/headcanon.

As I’ve said before in the first post about the concept design where I further explain my decisions -

, I gave him a burn scar over his face from the disease research facility incident wich I imagine stuck with him in a way it, in one way or another, burns itself through every body he possesses aslong as the transfer doesn’t go wrong and he remains with the memory (also obviously to resemble his face screen).

His attire is based off of those the alterrans scientists wear, the pattern is a mix of precursor architecture textures and shapes mimicking those on his body, the logo on the lab coat is inspired by the architect statues from BZ, wich i reaaaally loved.

Hair/face shaped to vaguely resemble his face plate thingy and horns.

Also gave them a bag in wich I imagine carries all the different tools that are built into their arms in the game, because I’d rather die than draw those again beyond blocking in rough shapes haha, bag coincidentally ended up having a sea dragon color palette wich I initially wanted to change but ended up really loving because it kinda symbolises his guilt haunting him a little. it’s also stacked to the brim with enzyme 42 for obvious reasons.

I also still stand by the idea that the architects would look a little uncanny when trying to resemble humans, they can mimic them to near perfection, but something is just off, the body ratio looks strange, neck a few centimetres too long, shoulders a tad bit too low, lower legs too long, face moving too monotonely, small things like that yk.

Had to rerender this because I started drawing at like 6am at wich point my brain was rotting so hard I completely forgot what brushes I use, but that doesn’t really matter since I love to render so yk lol.

I made a poll on Instagram asking wether or not people liked the glasses, because on one hand I felt it made the colors more even whilst directing attention at and lighting the face nicely, but on the other I don’t really wanna make every „smart“ character have glasses, so I decided that these are reading glasses, wich means he does have them but he can also go without.

here is the alternative without:

[ceo-of-merleon]

HELLO NEW BEST FRIEND, I JUAT GOT THE IDEA FOR A NEW MERLEON HEADCANON!!!!

The Purge began with the death of Queen Ygraine and the birth of Arthur. Before that, magic was legal and quite well-known amongst the nobility and common people, just a part of everyday life.

Leon would have been about 5 at the time magic was banned. Maybe six, as it took time for laws to be implemented across kingdoms.

There is a possibility there were people in his household who had magic. Maybe a servant who could clean his muddy clothes in a split second, so he didn't get into trouble. Maybe a nanny, or a tutor who could make the figurines in his storybooks come to life.

If Leon's father is half the man Leon is, there is a real possibility that his morals would have overshadowed his loyalty to the crown. So when the word comes by the King's messenger that all magic users are to be burnt alive, he send him back with the assurance that it will be done.

But instead, he start plotting.

Those who learnt magic and could stand to give it up did so. Those who couldn't, born with the innate ability, got help from a mysterious source to flee in the middle of the night, across the border to Dyfed and take a boat out of Albion, where magic was still welcomed.

And Leon, who is a curious little child, and confused as to why his father is disobeying the king, asks him knew night. And his father tells him "A man's loyalty to his morals must come before his loyalty to the crown, or he is bit a man at all, but a puppet with a sword."

And Leon remembers.

Leon obeys the crown. He joins the knighthood like his brothers, he serves his king, and he carries out Uther's orders without question.

And nobody but him notices when his blade cuts through grass or just tents instead of people. Nobody but him notices when his coin bag mysteriously falls a few feet away, conveniently right in front of the druid child hiding in the bushes. Nobody but him notices when he helps a child escape up a tree.

But the druids notice.

They notice when the child starts talking about the noble Knight of Camelot who helped them escape. And them another, who told them the same, and then another. It adds up.

So when their beloved Knight is dying, of course they will take notice. Of course they will pray to their goddess. Of course they will use the most powerful tool they have, the cup of life, to bring him back.

Even Gods listen when so many pray. They grant him the gift of immortality.

The druids aren't the only ones who notice.

The servants notice. They clean his armour, and his weaponry. Each and every time, it comes back bloodless. And if it doesn't, it's certainly not bloody enough to have been in a massacre.

Servants talk. Eventually, word reaches Gwen. And then, in her adorable way, she blurts it out at the most inopportune moment.

And Merlin finds out.

OOOO THIS IS SO COOL

ima add some thoughts to this….

Merlin would either immediately tell Leon about his magic like and idiot or not tell him anything and just get really close to him.

Everyone, including Leon, was heavily confused at to why Merlin was trying to get so close to Leon, he was practically stalking him.

Once Leon bumped into some Druids on patrol and was talked to them, Merlin, who was following him, tried to hide and hoped that none of them would notice him.

Of course, the Druids noticed and called him out, thinking surely Leon knew about Emrys and who he was.

And obviously, he didn’t.

Merlin realizing he had been caught, stepped out from the trees.

Leon was confused and terrified of Merlin being there.

Why was he here? Was he following him? Why? Would he tell Arthur what he saw?

Then he realized that the Druids had called him Emrys.

From being around the Druids so much Leon must have heard about Emrys, which only made him more confused,.

Why were they calling Merlin Emrys? Wasn’t he almost a god to the Druids? Merlin wasn’t a god. He was Merlin.

Apparently Merlin was not just Merlin, he was Emrys.

Leon and Merlin had a long talk after that, both having to explain the full story to each other (mostly on Merlin’s part)

They both grew very close after some awkward few days of processing what they learned about each other, so much so that people started to suspect they were courting.

Their denies of the accusations were not taken seriously, thinking they were just trying to keep their courtship secret.

Eventually, Arthur found out, who was not happy about two of his best friends courting.

Arthur demanded answers they couldn’t give, especially when Arthur wouldn’t take them just being friends as an answer.

So, as a last resort, they bought into the lie of them courting. Saying that they just realized their feelings over time.

This lie worked for a while, people still asked questions but most of them accepted the fact they wanted to keep their relationship lowkey.

This worked until they actually started to have feelings for each other.

[analviel]

Was thinking of Luo Binghe deciding to make Shen Qingqiu feel the hurt he'd felt, to return to him all those nights of helplessness, of being lost, of days and nights of hunger for food and warmth and a basic right to live, of being lost and working towards a distant illusion of a goal of 'better' never know

Of being removed from the hell you'd known as your home (the streets/Qing Jing Peak) that you could only call home for a lack of anywhere else and because there's one person there who smiled at you and was beside you (NYY/YQY) for all those times, who'd never really made things better, had smiled and was kind to you and to your tormentors and competition, but at least they smiled and was kind to you too- and you're now in hell of fire and blood, stripped of the idyllic filter of your childhood, pained that had been, but it was better than slaughter and fire and blood on your skin and tongue you forgot it was even still there.

But Shen Qingqiu already knew.

He knew, and he'd wanted to make Luo Binghe know.

And just thinking of how empty that must make Luo Binghe feel, because he'd grown into a person that would make others feel his pain because he'd been made to feel the pain of someone else.

Where do you go from there?

(Shen Qingqiu looked at the young Luo Binghe and saw himself - perhaps. Shen Qingqiu brought down so low Luo Binghe loomed over him and saw Qiu Jianluo- perhaps.

The beast and the beast.

Had Shen Qingqiu ever recognized Luo Binghe as a being seperate from his nightmares, from the boy that hid behind the skirts of the favoured girl, to the monster that laid waste to everything and seperated brothers?

Had there ever been a moment in his internal narration where Luo Binghe stood seperate on his own?

Had Luo Binghe ever been acknowledged as person and not just a tool or convenient plot for poetic karma?

What a perfect mirror.

Treat a child like a villain, punish every kind gesture enough times, and....)

[comikas-fandom-dump]

Thoughts on the Third Hokage?

He is an incompetent coward.

...

Okay, okay. Real answer. Before I go onto a full-fledged rant about all (or at least the gist) of my grievances with the Third Hokage, let me explain. I personally consider Hiruzen to be the "victim of the plot".

In spite of an earlier, much more sympathetic characterization, Hiruzen gradually became less and less likable as the story went on. But Hiruzen's fall from grace, so to speak, didn't strike me as Kishimoto's "goal", rather than a plot necessity. Konoha itself falls into a similar category.

It is no secret that the story is always positively biased when it comes to everything Konoha. Whether it is child labor or straight-up genocide, the story will always find a way to conveniently gloss over the fact that the Village of the Hidden Leaf is actually the Village of the Hidden Horrors.

None of this was done to fool the audience, however. Naruto's story simply grew more complex. Characters were in need of compelling backstories to make them sympathetic, and they needed compelling motivations to pit them against our heroes. In order to achieve both, systemic issues were introduced to the village's world-building and, as the village's head honcho, it was physically impossible not to have that reflect back onto Hiruzen. The village's grievances would always either act as proof of the Hokage's incompetence or complicity.

This is why I view Hiruzen primarily as a tool of the plot rather than his own character. As for my thoughts on Hiruzen as a character, that one is far more complex.

The Murder Grandpa

As I explained just now, Hiruzen's characterization is driven by the needs of the plot. Initially, he is introduced to us as this benevolent, wise, old man with a silly streak. He spends time with his subjects, advises them on their personal struggles, and is one of the few people who express their sympathies for Naruto's plight.

But that's only until the Chunin Exams roll around.

Notably, the exams were an editorial adjustment that was added later on as Kishimoto planned out his story. According to an interview, Naruto (the character) was supposed to meet other 4-man cells on individual missions. Editors suggested the Chunin Exams be added to speed up the process of introducing characters.

Regardless, exams are no mission environment. Whereas it is entirely believable for characters to encounter dangerous situations on a mission (due to unpredictable encounters while out in the wilderness), a contained, supervised exam cannot turn lethal without the conductors' permission or negligence. Yet, the story likely needed the danger to build stakes, resulting in Hiruzen needlessly enabling death and murder.

Sure, the shinobi world is supposed to be this unforgiving place with no friendships - Only armistices. But, if a so-called "replacement war" must be fought to protect the balance between their nations, why does it have to be carried out on the backs of their youngest and weakest? Why burden them by convincing them that they are carrying the prestige (and by extension, the well-being) of the village on their little backs?

Sure, it makes sense from a logistic standpoint to sacrifice fodder first before wasting your most powerful resources - But Hiruzen still claims to care about the lives of his subjects, declaring the citizens of Konoha as his family. So, for some reason, while condemning Orochimaru for abusing his subordinate's loyalty for his personal gain, he simultaneously has the nerve to take advantage of his Genins' aspirations and loyalty for the village's gain.

It's that same attitude that Madara already criticized on Hashirama. At some point in time, the abstract concept of "village" replaced the lives of its inhabitants in Hashirama's visions for the future. Both Hiruzen and the Hokage before him have forgotten that wars are fought so the weak and innocent don't have to die, only to sacrifice the weak and innocent so that wars don't need to be fought.

And, while I addressed this in a different post before, Hiruzen very much had the choice to conduct a far less brutal Chunin Selection Examination. In fact, he has held them before, albeit during wartime, and with far more guardrails in place than there were during Naruto's era.

Where Team Minato simply had to battle other teams, under the supervision of proctors, Team 7 participated in a 5-day-long survival training amidst man-eating animals and ninja teams from rival (if not downright hostile) nations and with no proctors.

So yeah. This was a deliberate choice on Hiruzen's end.

The Disaster Hokage

We've already discussed Hiruzen's hypocrisy in regard to the Chunin Exams. Much like his peers and predecessors, Hiruzen has forgotten the purpose of the village and what "protecting Konoha" ultimately means. He ended up resigning himself to the idea that true peace can never be achieved in the world of Shinobi.

It's... not something I like but it's a clever justification of a character's cruelty: By making him a pessimist. But oh boi, he's not just a pessimist and it's getting worse once you really dig into it. Here's a small list of other things that Hiruzen screwed up:

Permanently bestowing political offices onto his unqualified friends and former teammates in what is best described as nepotism.

Waging war on smaller nations or their territory and inflicting lasting damages both to its land and inhabitants.

Trafficking children to forcefully turn them into Jinchuriki (人柱力 = "Power of Human Sacrifice").

Failing to implement the mandatory inclusion of a medical-nin on each team, even long after two world wars with massive casualty counts.

Lowering Academy graduation ages to send literal elementary schoolers to the battlefield.

Neglecting orphans and allowing them to be harassed by the village.

Permitting the practice of slavery for the sake of "clan traditions".

Condoning and sweeping a genocide under the rug by blaming it on the minor he and his friend had been manipulating since (at least) the age of 11.

Failing to hold Danzo accountable for repeatedly forcing children into killing their friends and families and blackmailing a literal orphanage.

Failing to deliver justice to Orochimaru after kidnapping, experimenting, and killing dozens of children, besides committing various other crimes against the village.

Now, I doubt that I need to go into full detail. You get the gist: Hiruzen sucked as a Hokage.

Once again, and much like with Konoha itself, I doubt that Kishimoto ever really intended to give Hiruzen this bad of a track record, or, at least I doubt he did so initially when he first created the character. Even then, he probably hoped to save his characterization by making him an ineffective leader rather than a malevolent one.

Still, the staggering amount of mistakes and downright atrocities committed during his reign, right in front of his face, make it hard to believe it was all just due to incompetence. Some can perhaps be explained or maybe even excused with the "cruelty and unpredictability of the ninja world", ends-justify-the-means-style, but we never even see him try to circumvent that ugly fate even though he is, supposedly, the most powerful man in the village. You can use that excuse for a child or a mere cog in the system, not for the Hokage himself.

And yet, here we are.