#(/lh ill work on them... eventually)

[chrisrin]

woah! look at him go!

[starry-sophrosyne]

... @toadettely @sopping-wet-cat-wizard y'know, april fools is over, BUT...

"No, what am I saying- That's too mean, I can't do that-" "Fufufu~ But I can~"  (｀▽ ´) // "YOU-" (/｀ᗣ ´ )/

(also for reference bc GUESS WHO CAN PEN- XD /hj /lh /silly):

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(TW: blood/gore, death, car crash incident, graphic imagery)

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S&S: There is a world where Brent never meets Eevee. There is a world where he wakes up one morning, yawning as he rubs his eyes. He'd been somewhat exhausted by his gaming session with "Sofist" last night, not that it was unenjoyable. He gets ready for the day as per usual, nothing out of the ordinary. It's all regular, for now, that is. Walking out of his apartment, he raises an eyebrow at the suspicious amount of cars stuck on the local road. Oh well, a crash of some kind? He shrugs and continues walking down the road. Ducking under some construction, he carefully avoids all the prying eyes and workers, taking his shortcut to the cafe. What he sees when he turns the corner, however? Well..

It's graphical, distraught to say the least. He can see the limb of somebody, splayed across the road in a pool of blood. He winces. Damn? They'd been sloppy setting up the perimeter apparently, blocking it from normal eye-witness view, but not from here. Either way, he couldn't make out too much between the ambulance and the police cars stationed in the intersection.

As for the authorities, he can make out them questioning certain people and speaking into their walkie talkies. Their faces are far away but filled with concern as they discuss with each other. Meanwhile, the paramedics tending to the body on the ground, and.. For some reason, he pauses. It's not in any of his good interests to watch this, to get involved with some random traffic incident of an unfortunate civilian, and yet? Something tugs at him, opposing his normal desire to stay out of conflict and general indifference/apathy. He doesn't know why, why this moment specifically?, but it doesn't.. feel.. weird. It's weirdly urging, instead bringing him to stop in his tracks. As he choicely watches the paramedics ready the body bag, he catches a glimpse of the poor man who had faced the consequences.

His hair was curly, coifs of coffee brown tinged with blood. His facial hair was the same color, and his gaze relaxed. His eyes were partially closed in a stereotypical thought of sleeping, with a glint from the sun revealing his hazed over green eyes, devoid of any brightness. What catches Brent's eye immediately, however, is his bright purple coat. Most of it is soaked with crimson gore, now a dark maroon, but even still. It's such a stand out, he can't help but wonder how the man even got hit in the first place.

After a few more seconds, the guided feeling seems to go away, and he turns his head away from the scene. (Unbeknownst to him, he'd been watching for, comparatively, far longer than a few seconds.) Best to move on, for whatever reason he felt compelled to watch EMTs deal with the body, almost as if he was making sure they would properly take care of him. It was weird, but whatever. He didn't have enough time to stay around and see him get sent off, realizing he was late for his shift. Despite his sudden spike of empathy, it was just another day, just with an unfortunate incident. He prayed for the man though, as he finally set foot onto regular sidewalk. May his soul, and whoever he is, rest in peace, for meeting such an untimely end.

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Walking into the cafe, the door closed behind him with the bell's signature jingle. Vern's head shot up, his face twisted with a hint of concern as he rushed over to Brent, who'd barely placed his bag on the desk before Vern grabbed his shoulders, gripping them firmly and causing Brent to jolt a bit out of surprise.

"Brent! Oh my god, you scared me-" "?" "-I saw the crash nearby, and you- came in a few minutes later than you normally do, and- oh god I'd just thought the worst!" Vern could hardly control himself from his ramble, spilling out his emotions, but he paused when he noticed the rather amused look on Brent's face. Brent only chuckled at him, despite the severity of the situation/his anxiety. Vern gave him a dirty look, but let out a sigh of both relief and annoyance relief, glad to know his friend was okay.

As Vern let go of his shoulders, Brent starting unpacking stuff from his bag. Placing his log sheet and charger down in the little table within the break room, Vern asked:

"Why were you late anyways? You normally show up before I even get here. Did something.. actually happen while you were getting here?" He added tentatively.

"..." He paused, his hands tightening around his laptop, contemplating if it was worth it to tell Vern. About the man he'd seen, eyes hazed over in death, body dull and cold, hair stiff with dried blood. It was something in it of its own right, something that he wished he hadn't seen. But at the same time, the death of this random civilian weighed heavier than it should've in his heart. He didn't know why, but still, maybe it was the sight of his eyes; ones that pierced his soul, staring at him even after passing. They were so.. cold. Almost as if they were blaming, in hatred. His blood chilled, thinking about it all, and a heaviness set in the room. Oh. Man, he'd never felt this way before. He'd just witnessed death, hadn't he? How was he acting like this was all okay?

He held in a sigh, settling for a tight exhale as he shook his head, not looking up from his stuff. No, it was best not to trouble his more emotionally affected friend with his.. issues. Were he to tell Vern, he'd likely become more aggrieved than him. Even still, looking up and noticing Vern's still apprehensive gaze, he feigned a small smile; keeping it up even as he looked back down in the black expanses of his duffel bag, now empty. He couldn't bring himself to meet his eyes. "I'm serious dude, nothing happened. Don't worry about it."

"... Alright, if you say so." The air was thick with tension, the silence being left unbroken. Vern's footsteps were soft as they padded against the tiled floor, the door slowly creaking closed behind him. One last glance behind his shoulder, before he fully shut the door, putting on a smile to greet the guests that had entered the cafe. Meanwhile, the room had become dimmed sightly with the waning sunlight as the light from the cafe dissipated. Brent stared down once more, as if questioning the true morality behind what he'd seen. With a sigh, his shoulder slumped. Sitting down onto the rickety foldable chair, he put his head in his arms, on top of the table. He wasn't ready to go out. Not just yet. Not while the green eyes of someone haunted him. He couldn't just go and pretend everything was okay, even he had no damn idea why the death of some random stranger had messed him up so badly.

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Vern found him struggling to think of positive messages to write atop his orders for the rest of the afternoon. Brent did not come out of the break room for a long time, and even once he did, he was silent as he worked. Nick didn't come in for coffee that day.

[madamadamiu]

If the list light cat shelter had an ending similar to the IDW comic's ending, it would go something like this:

Rung unexpectedly pulls out all the stops, and manages to get all of the cats adopted out! Unfortunately, you can't have a cat shelter with no cats, so the Lost Light is forced to shut down. A few notable fates of the kitties:

Drift and Ratchet get adopted out together. However, Ratchet sadly passes away not long after. He dies in a warm, loving home with Drift by his side.

Tailgate and Cyclonus get adopted out together, and live quite happily. For a long time afterwards, Whirl the goose can be seen loitering around where the shelter used to be. He seems sad and confused about where everyone went. One day, however, he appears in the yard of Cyclonus and Tailgate's new owner, and refuses to ever leave after that.

Rodimus is adopted by Thunderclash. Thunderclash loves him and gives him all the best treats and toys, but he has no other pets, and he often works long hours. Rodimus eventually becomes depressed from the crushing loneliness, his spark completely gone.

Nautica becomes the star of a pet blog.

Chromedome and Rewind are adopted together, however Rewind develops a degenerative disease that eventually leaves him blind. Chromedome spends long hours grooming him after he can no longer groom himself.

Swerve is adopted, surrendered to a different shelter, and then adopted again.

Ultra Magnus' new owner renames him "Minimus Ambus," and brushes him regularly, so he no longer appears as massive as he once did. As it turns out, the newly christened Minimus Ambus is not so grumpy when he isn't drowning under mountains of fur.

Ravage goes away to college and isn't heard from again for a very long time.

I said that all of the cats were adopted...but I lied. One cat simply couldn't find a new home. Unfortunately, the shelter can't stay open just for a single cat, so Megatron was transferred to the only shelter that could take him - a pro-euthanasia shelter. As he is handed over, the shelter worker there says that they don't know how long they'll be able to keep him - they'll try to find another no-kill shelter that will take him, but it's just as likely that they will have to put him down. No one ever finds out what became of him.

The reason Rung suddenly decided to make a big push to get all of the cats new homes? He himself has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. He wanted to make sure all of the cats had a place to call home before he was no longer around to take care of them. When he eventually dies, the world doesn't seem to notice. An obituary in the newspaper is the only sign that marks his passing, which reads: "The world may forget him, but the cats he saved never will."

Hey so this broke my heart into five bajillion pieces can you cut that out /lh

This has been living in the box for a while and I didn’t know if I wanted to let it out, but I feel like it would be a shame to keep it to myself.

As I keep writing more and more for the Cat Shelter AU, it’s hard to choose what kind of “ending” i want for it, if it would even happen. We all want the adventure to go on forever, right?

In the end, I decided I wanted to make a happier ending for the kitties. However, if the ending did go with the one that happened in the original MTMTE comic, it would probably look a lot like that.

Bravo🙏

[chernabogs]

ames you are COOKING (or should i say, planting???lol) SO HARD with the flower language prompts, 😭💖💞💖💞✨✨am really out here sobbing and crying over them like im watering these flowers with my Tears lol

so here i am requesting for these prompts: rosemary, begonia, pink camellia, dark crimson rose, purple hyacinth, blue salvia, zinnia

i picked these based on your initial tag about Maleficia and zinnia flower,,,, I SEE THE VISION so im requesting it now lol but also picked on prompts that reminded of Meleanor and Malleus,,, 😭i think therapy bills should be forwarded to Draconias instead, istg all they ever do is be in grief and loss /lh😭

if its too many, please feel free to choose whichever prompt you like and take your time in writing !! ☺️💞🌹✨✨

Ohhh I did my best here I promise LMAOOO. I tied in some easter eggs with other works i've done (namely Monody, Stasis, and Labours Gained). I hope you enjoy my absolute monstrous dump about Maleficia, whom I will die on a hill for tyvm

EMPTY CHAIRS

Inc: Maleficia, Meleanor, Levan, Lilia, Malleus (whole gang wow) WC: 4.2k :))) Warnings: Just some death, but I swear it ends on a happy note this time. Flowers: Begonia (How ghosts help the living live a little), Pink Camellia (Where I notice your absence the most), Dark Crimson Rose (The grave I visit everyday), Purple Hyacinth (The worst pain of my whole life and how it healed… multiple times) , Zinnia (The seats at the table and how they eventually became empty… multiple times) Summary: Moments where Maleficia was convinced her family was cursed, and a few times she truly wished this to not be the case.

A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world.  It knows no law, no pity.  It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.

Their family may be cursed. 

For many decades now Maleficia had toyed with the possibility of such a matter in her mind. It had first passed briefly with the death of her father—the second monarch to take over after the initial uprising—and the subsequent death of her mother a few weeks later. No one was surprised when she went. Her grief for the loss of her love had been so profound that it had flooded Briar Nation, drowning both cattle and crops in her dismay. Maleficia had postponed her own coronation as the cleanup occurred. It felt ill-boding to be crowned while bodies were floating down the mountain pass. 

The thought had returned once more when her husband vanished at sea, leaving her with a newborn hatchling on her own. Her love had been a strong headed man with adventure burning in his blood—it had been what drew her to him to begin with. That, and he was the only ex-sailor she knew who was bold enough to try and hold her for ransom. Wiping the deck with him had captured his heart—and the fact that he had been a dragon settled the Senate to a degree. But the sea is a fickle mistress, and although her love had skill and he had drive, even the most knowledgeable of sailors can never predict its next move. 

She had not flooded Briar Nation like her mother had, and she had held herself together before her people, although the empty space in her bed and at the dinner table deepened the wound nightly. It was in the quiet moments alone when it was just her and Meleanor that she felt his absence the strongest. 

In the beginning she loathed him for leaving her. Whenever she cradled their daughter as the hatchling shrieked and protested, blowing flame, and biting for flesh, she loathed him. Whenever she dealt with the Senate or another disaster befalling the Nation, she loathed him. 

But when Meleanor learned to fly, learned to run, and shifted into her two-legged form for the first time, the hatred began to fade. Because although he had vanished into the mists on a voyage destined to fail, he had left her with the greatest treasure she could ever have—and for that alone she could hold no ill will. 

Perhaps this sentimentality is why when Meleanor dragged a thin, sickly-looking bat into the halls of Black Scale, Maleficia heard her out.

“Please let him stay!” The princess had asked, green eyes wide as she grasped her mother’s skirts. “Please, mother!”

The other child had shrunk behind Meleanor, but shadows could not hide the burning defiance in the boy's eyes—a gaze of confrontation, and one that nothing truly innocent should hold. This is why she lacked the heart to say no. She quietly hoped that Lilia, as she would name him, would be the one to slay whatever reaper was following them—that the burning anger she had seen would ignite a fire that would cleanse the family of its suffocating misery. 

With the presence of Meleanor, Lilia, and eventually Levan, the silent table Maleficia had sat at for so long soon became a place of raucous conversation again. Although she found herself scolding the three children more than once (especially Levan for his non-subtle attempts at discarding food), the lingering warmth she would feel as she gazed at the trio made her confident that this family curse was on the bend. 

Naturally, it didn’t last. 

The first time she heard of the Silver Owls, Meleanor was 200 years old and more focused on warding off suitors than an unmarked ship. Maleficia had allowed her daughter to indulge by instead consulting with an advisor alone in the dark of her office. The concern lingering in the advisor's words would grow to haunt her.

“Perhaps it is temporary?” She posited, trying her best to remain optimistic on the matter. Plenty of people came and went from Cape Sunrise. A single unmarked ship with a few scraggly sailor’s was not something she felt the need to stress over. The advisor seemed doubtful on the matter.

“But they have tools. Items designed to dig up our soil,” they had insisted, but Maleficia dismissed the concerns with a wave and a blase response. 

“Let them try. They will not be able to break the first layer of our land.��� 

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The first one to leave the table had been Levan. There were many soldiers and nobles who vanished before he did but, selfishly, he was the first one that Maleficia really felt the absence of. Levan had grown up from a non-confrontational child to her son-in-law, a general of the princess and a father to the future heir. His compassion had not faded despite the years of war that now tore the Nation apart. Maleficia knew this by the way she came across him one night, cradling his egg so gently while murmuring against its shell. 

When he had noticed her, he had not corrected himself; if anything, he held the egg even closer. They had not exchanged too many words that night, but she sat next to him on the bench in the gardens, the silence speaking volume of her support to his decisions. 

“You will return.” It was not a question—it was a demand. Her voice held the authority of a queen who had seen many, many losses in her long life. Levan had remained silent for a moment longer as his lips brushed against the shell of her grandson's egg. 

“Always,” was the promise he made, and the last words Maleficia heard from him. When they didn’t receive notice for several days after he left, the conclusion was drawn that he was either dead, or the closest one could be to it. Meleanor held herself well in lieu of this information, as had Maleficia. 

But the empty seat felt an ill omen. 

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The next one to leave the table had been Meleanor. When she was younger, she used to rest her head on Maleficia’s lap as her mother had fixed her hair. She would ramble on about her day and what she got up to with the two boys in the nonsensical fashion that many children do. Maleficia had listened with amusement, although her mind had always been half-focused on what she needed to do for her meetings the next day.

The regret of not giving Meleanor her full, undivided attention sunk in deep when she felt her daughter’s magic cut off. The bond in their family was intrinsically woven to allow them to get a sense of whether the other members were still alive. If asked, Maleficia might say it’s something of a dragon trait. Most of the time it served to be a blessing to allow her to know her family is alive and well. 

When it cut off mid-emergency meeting, the abruptness had been so profound that she nearly collapsed then and there. Her breath had hitched, her words stuttering to a stop as she stared wide-eyed at the Senate members surrounding her. At first, she hoped it was simply a fluke—a disruption in the magic—until she didn’t feel it return and the horrible, tar-like panic of a mother when her child goes missing welled up in her heart. She was tearing out of the room before any of the Senate members even had a chance to speak, screaming for her guards and her soldiers to tell her what was going on at Wild Rose. 

Her daughter, who spent her childhood running through the forests and laughing in the face of suitors. Her daughter, whose hair she would braid and then re-braid again when the girl somehow got burs in it. Her daughter, who was set to become a mother herself and experience all the precious moments Maleficia had. 

Her daughter, whose body wasn’t even recovered at the end of it all. 

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The final one to leave the table was Lilia. In wake of the princesses passing, Malleus’ egg was put in the cradle tower, and Maleficia was designated to spirit him into hatching. She felt the faint connection of their magic from within the thick shell that guarded his body. His warmth, the subtle movements he made; they were all indicators that he was still alive and well despite his tumultuous arrival.

But Maleficia didn’t know if he would oblige. Hatchlings often needed the love of both parents to be shepherded forward—and Maleficia, now over eight hundred years old, already felt the strain of her magic from the conflicts going on in her Nation. There was no doubt that she held love for her grandson—but a lingering fear that her love wouldn’t be enough burned in her mind. This is what made her turn to Lilia, to send him on his quest around the world to try and find an additional means to bring the young prince forward.

For the first few decades, it worked well. Maleficia held the egg on a nightly basis and poured as much of her love and magic into it as she could. The egg consumed it all in a greedy fashion, demanding more every time she returned to the tower. One would think that Malleus was starving within by the way he pulled, and tore, and ripped at her powers to fuel his own development. 

Then he ceased feeding. She recalls the first night it happened; everything had been going well, until the connection was suddenly severed, and the green glow within the egg dulled back into a faint tint of color. Maleficia had initially dismissed it as a one-off event. Until it happened again, and again, and again. 

There’s a curious sense of panic that fills someone when they do everything they can to no avail. The panic she felt came in the form of a privatized breakdown in the tower. For many decades now Maleficia had toyed with the possibility of a curse in her mind. Now, she was beginning to consider that it was not her family who was cursed, but rather just herself. 

First it came for her father, and her mother shortly after. Then, when it grew hungry again, it ate through her husband and that of her daughters. Then it came for Meleanor herself, and now whatever reaper followed them was looming over her shoulder as she held Malleus’ egg and begged him to take something. 

Pleas fell from the lips of a monarch as she rocked the egg, stroked its shell so softly, whispering to just eat a little more, just take a little more. But the egg had remained as cold and aloof as it had for several nights now. Her desperation mounted in an order to Baul to summon Lilia back—to slay whatever reaper was following them before it pried the last of her bloodline from her hands. 

Her hopes of his role as the vanquisher of death came in an explosive hatching that she was informed of after it occurred. When she requested for Lilia to be brought to Black Scale to be reinstated in his role in his efforts, the Senate had then informed her that Lilia Vanrouge would never step foot in the capital again.

And so, in a span of mere moments, the final seat was emptied—and Maleficia found herself alone once more. 

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Grandchildren are the best reminders  of the beauty and innocence of childhood.

When Malleus was first brought to her after he hatched, she didn’t want to touch him. The purple hue of his stomach and the way his green gaze darted around, drinking in the new world he emerged to, reminded her so much of Meleanor that she wanted to laugh at the cruel irony. The hurt that smouldered in her heart ignited back into a flame that found her turning a cold shoulder to the hatchling. 

“Go clean him. He has amniotic fluid all over.” She remembers ordering, voice deceptively calm for the turmoil happening within. The wet nurse that was hired obliged as the hatchling shrieked and protested the frequently changing environment around him. His cries made Maleficia clench her jaw tighter as she stared resolutely at the battle plans drawn before her, her hands gripping the table enough to turn her knuckles white. 

A few times she went to him in the beginning. The encounters lasted only as long as Maleficia could tolerate seeing how similar he looked to Meleanor before she would depart and leave him in the care of his wet nurse once more. Guilt fought with anger in her heart about the circumstances that she found herself in and her inability to overcome them. She could feel the ghost of her daughter chastising her in the corner for being so cowardly in her approach. 

The breakthrough arrived when Malleus became ill. Grieves—a fever-like condition that affected fae children in particular—resulted in Maleficia sitting with her grandson one night as the exhausted wet nurse was excused for a long overdue break. She held him on her lap in the dark as his small form fought his fever, whispering how the stars that looked down from above were the eyes of the people who loved him, keeping him safe in this world. Her voice had cracked as she spoke, and it was only when a small whine left him did she realize she was hugging him tight to her body. 

“I am so sorry,” she had choked out, unsure if the apology was for the hold she had or the neglect she had given so far. “Please forgive me.”

Malleus had twisted in her arms, small wings fluttering before he settled himself down and began to doze. He had already forgotten what upset him to begin with. She wished it would always be that way—but she knew that was nothing but a vague hope. 

She loathed Meleanor for leaving. Whenever she cradled Malleus as the hatchling threw his tantrums, blowing flame, and biting for flesh as all children seem to do, she loathed her. Whenever she dealt with another part of the war or signed another treaty alone, she loathed her. 

But when Malleus scrambled onto her lap mid-Senate meeting, chased after courtiers, and flew for the first time (admittedly, into a flock of pigeons), Maleficia loved her. Because although like her father she had vanished in an ill-fated decision, she had left a small reminder that she was never truly gone. Maleficia could comfort Malleus, could see the ghost of his mother in his clever little eyes, and for that alone she could hold no ill will. 

Meleanor’s death had proved to be far worse than anything else—but her gift of the small dragon in her lap felt like the first steps towards recovery again. So, she had kissed between his horns that night and promised to herself that she would do all that she could to give him a future free of the misery that plagued their family thus far. 

___________________________________

In the aftermath, she spent time with him whenever she could. Via dinners, via having him sit in on meetings, via walks in the gardens—whenever she could, she would be there. However, despite her newfound presence changing some things for the better, she remained unable to quell the curiosity that burned in her grandson's mind. 

She found him in the mausoleum once. He was standing on the toes of his mother with his small hand touching her stone-carved face. Maleficia had not been to the mausoleum since the boy hatched so many years ago. The raw memories still stirred in her heart and seeing him look up at his mother with such a gaze of innocent adoration did nothing but unsettle her more. 

When he noticed her, his face had lit up into a smile as he hopped back down and pointed up to one of the other statues. “This is grandfather?” 

Maleficia’s gaze slid to where he was pointing. A strong jaw, a dangerous glint in stone-etched eyes, and a faint smirk painted the picture of the man she had once loved and held so dearly many years ago. Maleficia nodded. Malleus, taking this as encouragement, then ran back to the other statue he had been touching with his small hands. 

“And this is mother?” 

Again, Maleficia nodded. The painful similarities between Malleus and his mother were more apparent when they were side to side. If Maleficia were to squint, she could mistake Malleus as a younger Meleanor: the same horns, same hair length, even the same streak of mischief that got both into so much trouble. 

Malleus had hummed thoughtfully before stepping down again. “Do you miss them?” 

A deceptively innocent question. Of course she missed them. All she had left of her family was one grandson and three empty coffins: a husband at sea, a daughter in the hands of humans, and a son-in-law somewhere in the moors. “I do,” she offered back. “I miss them greatly.” 

Malleus had asked her why, then. Children like him were filled with innocence and wonder about the world. He had no knowledge of the bodies that were lost, or the tragedies that had predicated his birth. Her reply did nothing but fuel an unease in the boy, for moments after she offered it, he ran back to her and threw his small arms around her waist.

When he hugged her, he clung with a ferocity that was baffling for his size. Her hands rested on his head and stroked his hair soothingly as she had done with Meleanor many times before she guided him away from the tombs and the memory of family he never met.

She should visit them more often now. 

___________________________________

She rediscovers that there’s a privilege in watching someone grow. Lilia’s gradual return into their lives helps ease the stress of raising a child again in her older age, which is partially why she turns a blind eye every time Malleus slips out of the palace to visit the man. She’s honoured to observe in a more passive manner the way her grandson changes and grows as a person. She watches him go from spiteful towards humans to more amiable with the arrival of Lilia’s adopted son. As he grows before her eyes, she begins to see less of Meleanor and Levan in his features and more of just Malleus—the quiet, albeit arrogant, boy that was hers. 

Time goes by faster as she ages alongside him. One moment he’s clinging to her skirts, and the next he’s off to NRC, and then finally, 178 years have passed like the blink of an eye. She used to bemoan how slow time was—and now she wishes it to ease off a bit.

She’s sitting in the gazebo in the gardens for reprieve, a novel in hand as the screaming of insects choruses a song for her amusement. The aroma of flowers surrounds her and for a moment she feels utter peace in the world. The summer is ending and there are no celebrations or events to concern herself with. For the first time in what feels like eons, Maleficia Draconia can breathe. 

The sound of someone approaching puts a pause in this. 

She lowers her book to peer over at whoever is coming, hoping silently it isn’t an advisor or a courtier seeking out an audience on the sly. Fortunately, the sight of two horns and a scowling face turning the corner nullifies this as she turns back to her book. 

“Finally decided to see the sun?” She muses as she hears him stepping onto the gazebo platform. She waits for his response, but only comes to feel surprised when Malleus kneels by where she sits and does something that he hasn’t done in a long time now—he places his head in her lap. At his age, his body is too tall now to really kneel efficiently at her side, but by the gods does the boy try as he hits his head right down. Her hand comes up on instinct to brush strands of his dark hair behind his ear as he looks over the gardens, his shoulders tense with stress. 

They’re silent for a moment, listening to the sounds of screaming insects from beyond before Malleus speaks.

“The gardens look atrocious.”

Maleficia raises an eyebrow as she lowers her book to look at where he’s staring. Her hand continues to stroke his head soothingly as she huffs a soft laugh. “Our groundskeepers are going for a more ‘untamed’ look this season.”

“I have counted twenty-six thistles in the minute I have been here.” Malleus shoots back as his hand comes to rest by his face. “It’s late in the season. They might be growing lazy.”

 “Nonsense. You know how hard working they are. You spent ample amounts of time with them when you were younger.” She fails to hide the smile teasing on her lips with this comment. Malleus’ temper tantrums had landed him in more than enough problems in his youth. Problems which were often rectified by a gentle lesson of how hard it is to fix up his messes—garden destruction included. 

Malleus deigns her with a unprincely snort in response. They fall back into a warm silence as she keeps her hand on his head and returns her attention to her book. She knows that something is on his mind, but she retains her silence both to give him an opportunity to speak, and to enjoy the moment that they’re having. In the privacy of the garden, they can get away with this rare display of familial affection. 

She feels him sigh as his eyes flutter close before he speaks up. “Do you ever feel… unease?” 

“Unease?” She hums quietly as she turns a page. “On many occasions I have, yes. Unease tends to go hand in hand with some of the things I have dealt with.” 

She knows he doesn’t mean in the sense of his royal duties. Malleus is an unusually quiet and introverted boy—but she had noticed him being more so the past week as summer began to inch towards its end. He opens his eyes and sighs again before withdrawing to sit back on his knees. 

Maleficia wisely closes her book and sets it down before affixing him with as stern of a look as she can muster without chuckling. “Sighing and moping in the corners does little to aid me in providing advice.” 

Malleus’ gaze goes upwards to stare at the ceiling of the gazebo before his expression drops to a pout. “I am feeling reluctant to return to NRC.”

“Oh? And why is that?” 

Maleficia quietly reaches her hand out to brush his bangs back from his forehead, revealing the scale pattern beneath. Malleus’ eyes flutter shut at the gesture as his pout remains present.

“Three years have passed now, and I have yet to feel included in the school environment. Spending my days with those I already know from here hardly feels like an efficient use of time.” His jaw clenches. “Every effort I make to form any sort of connection to others feels like it’s a pointless endeavour at this rate.”

“Malleus, you must be patient with these things. It takes time for people to warm up to the likes of us. You must simply continue being yourself, and the right people will make the effort to get to know you. I understand it may seem upsetting right now, but you must simply keep trying your best.” A faint smile touches her lips despite the worry gnawing at her heart. She wishes she could do more, but she also understands that these are things he must figure out himself. “You’re going to this school to gain new experiences and see the world beyond our little Valley without the Senate looming over you. Things will work out in the end.” 

Malleus’ body seems to relax at her words as he opens his eyes again. His expression eases to his usual neutral look as he nods slightly. “... yes, I suppose you are correct.”

“I often am.” She pinches his cheek lightly, causing the scowl to immediately return to his face as he jerks to avoid her grasp, making her laugh in turn. “Besides, are you not excited to see Lilia, Silver, and Sebek more often again? Well. More often than you do already.”

A pointed look has him averting her gaze as she picks her book up again. His demeanour reminds her of Meleanor, but the similarities no longer ache when she considers them. This was Malleus—her grandson, not his mother, nor his father—and she was eager to see the person he was still destined to become. “Now, you should be packing, should you not? We don’t need the crisis we had last year where we were all hunting down books for you last minute.” 

Malleus groans softly before rising to his feet and brushing his pants off. He presses a brief kiss to her forehead, coaxing another smile from her lips before he pulls away. 

“Yes, grandmother,” he grumbles with all the moodiness of an embarrassed teenage boy, and Maleficia can’t help but feel happiness at seeing it. Cursed or not, she will continue to enjoy these moments of joy as long as she may have them.

[asharkapologist]

@ak1ra-lovely requested headcanons for Joe Warren, and I have come to deliver! I quite like Warren, he's somewhere in my top 3 favorite Ad Astrans (the ranking order changes a lot hahaha).

But first and most importantly, I must give @astra-galaxie a HUGE, HUGE thank you for helping me with some of these headcanons! Astra you're amazing ilysm. I will credit her with the headcanons she helped flesh out!

Anyways, on to the headcanons!

With the exception of Rozetta, he's the most academically intelligent member of Ad Astra. He consistently got a 4.0 GPA in school, was frequently popular with teachers, professors, and his fellow students, was in a fraternity in college, and was often in student councils. Never got in trouble, never got a single detention.

Well, there was one moment in school where he wasn't terribly popular: in early elementary school, he was the kid who reminded the teacher of homework. But once he quickly realized his classmates didn't appreciate that, he stopped said behavior.

I personally headcanon him as Peruvian and Vietnamese, as well as bisexual.

Astra helped with this one: Joe likes to both look out of windows (especially on planes) and take walks throughout the day to think and let his mind wander.

Related to the above, he likes to journal. His journaling isn't necessarily coherent or organized like Rozetta's autobiography, just his honest thoughts and experiences that he keeps very private.

He wore glasses as a kid, hated those, got contacts, still hated those, and ended up getting laser eye surgery (bro has never seen Final Destination 5 lol).

He was actually genuinely a bit disturbed by Bateman's murder of Meera and privately thought any woman who caught Christian's eye should probably run as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

Note: Not a hc, but I find the fact that Joe says "darn it" and "oh, heck" in Reap What You Sow really funny. He may be willing to blow up someone with a car bomb, but he is NOT saying any bad words.

He quite likes Julia's parents (see her headcanons for more details on them), and wishes them no ill will. When he would see how affectionate she was to them, he wondered a few times if he should reach out to his family (as they had drifted apart over the years), but never got around to it.

If Ad Astra successfully took over the world, all of them would probably eventually get bored, especially if chunks of the population were brainwashed/drugged. They've taken the super serum (in this AU where it wasn't killing them), they won, now what? While Bateman would needlessly terrorize the population for entertainment, Joe's guilty conscience would likely start to slowly creep up on him, especially as he would've almost certainly killed multiple people by that point.

Another one made with great help by Astra: He was on his high school's debate team, and then later the debate team for his university. (In fact, he and Louis were both on their uni's debate team. I see you Louis/Joe shippers out there/lh).

Astra straight up came up with this one completely: Joe volunteered/did charity work a lot before he became mayor. Not out of the goodness of his heart, but rather because he knew doing that would make himself look good, enhance his resume, make people like him, build up his network, and help him in his political career.

Rozetta's accidental earthquake caused him quite the headache because of how much of an economic and humanitarian crisis it caused. Very expensive. He didn't yell at her for causing it like Christian probably did, but he was privately very frustrated and irritated with her.

The Demon Fish gave him like. So much stress. Everyone in Ad Astra (well, everyone not in prison) was like "Did you do this?" "No, why would I? Did you?" It was a mess. This is the one calamity they didn't cause. Joe was banging his head on his desk, hoping that SOMEONE could catch these stupid fish and get rid of them. He was thrilled to see those little mfs get transported to San Diego.

Despite his annoyance with the fish and allergy to shellfish, he actually enjoys walking on beaches, listening to ocean noises, and learning about marine biology-related subjects. His formal schooling may be over, but he still likes to learn.

....Would you believe me if I told you I initially was struggling with these? Especially because I ended up writing way more than expected lololol

I hope you enjoyed these, and Astra, thank you SO MUCH for helping me! You are a true queen 👑

[oyasumillie]

What's monkey Orlov's fit in the story of all your characters?

/SLAMS DESK/ Yes, I wanted to talk about that! I'm going to put it under this because this might be long

So, in my story, the gem team was created by scientists and supervised by the Verans (i forgot how it is written ;; but Antauri's masters) because they foretold that the monkey team would fail fighting against skeleton king (which eventually didn't ocurred, as they submitted to the evil on their own in that episode).

So that's the context.

About Orlov now. The scientists worked hard to get the first successful gem monkey. And that was Orlov. He was supposed to be the leader of the team, that's why he has a black diamond ad his gem.

What happened with Orlov was that he was very talented managing both the power of his gem and the power primate. The scientists were very proud of him for that. But the Verans weren't really sure.

Why? Because Orlov's nature. He was more calm at first but as he kept improving he started showing red flags. You see, Orlov doesn't have ill intentions (unlike Orlov in my OU), but he has a chaotic nature, more likely chaotic neutral. They started to wonder if he was fit to be the leader of the team or if it was okay that he was acquiring so much power.

Eventually, some incident happens when Orlov loses control (not sure exactly how yet) and they realize that he is a threat. So, they tricked him to keep his guard down and captured him. To make sure to get rid of him, they took the gem on his chest and broke it.

They thought that was all but there's a thing about the diamond wielders. They have two gems and to kill them, you need to destroy both gems and even then you can be so sure that they are gone. Instead they get trapped in other dimension within their gem.

And that's where Orlov went and was trapped in (hence the chains around his wrists).

That's the origin story of Orlov haha

Now, with my other monkeys. In the original AU, only Althea and Orion know more about Orlov. That's because they were made to avoid the mistake they made first. They decided to separate powers, making Althea the one that wields mystical power and Orion wields brute force. They both have knowledge in what the other do, but there's certain inclination to what they are meant to do.

So, in the original AU, Orlov is more like past history. The team doesn't really involve with him.

But I have this other AU, in which the full gem team survives, but they are forced to stay in their planet, mainly because Althea's orders. In this AU, she's aware of the other scenarios that could have happen to her team, so she wants them to be safe as possible.

I picture this scenario in season 5 (cries), where the monkey team realizes that they need extra help to continue with the battle. That's when Antauri reveals that he knows about the gem team and that might be able to help.

They travelled to the gem planet (I can't spell it, gomen), and meet the gem team. They ask for their help but Althea refuses immediately.

Some other things happen in between but it would be too long to talk about, it isn't relevant either. So, what ocurrs next is that when the team is leaving, they are attacked by sudden sharp pieces of rocks, mainly targeted at Chiro.

I'm still working on this, but I've thinking that Mandarin took control of Orlov's broken gem, but was still able to use his powers (not at full capacity tho).

The mission then is to retrieve the gem (and kick mandarin's butt /lh). Eventually, Mandarin founds the missing pieces of the gem (all of the parts were in really hidden places but you know, he's not dumb and he was trained there before, so he knows where he's going and he was aware of Orlov's existence, so does Antauri btw).

He puts the pieces all together and fixes the gem, which sets Orlov free. Mandarin hopes to use him to fight the hyperforce, but Orlov attacks him instead.

Why is that? Because during his imprisonment, he could catch glimpses of the gem team and he grew fond to them (unlike OA!Orlov that he resents them, specially Althea).

I'm haven't thought much about what happens next, but the thing is that Orlov is out and Althea doesn't have the heart to lock him up again. So now, she has to make sure that he doesn't go out of control.

And the gem team eventually goes to help the Hyperforce, but that's another story.

So yeah, this is what I can tell about Orlov :>

[watermelonfrog2]

Do you have a dnd character or any other oc I could try to draw? (with any additional information as well bc I’ve been getting so invested in all my friends’ oc lore lmao.) I’ve been trying to draw more recently and I’ve just started collecting other’s ocs apparently. For definitely completely non nefarious purposes >:) /j

BOY DO I !!! also I saw the dnd character drawing you did for Soop it was so cool, like genuinely!!!!! I have 2 dnd characters (and one oc but I want to focus on the dnd characters!!)

---SOOP NO READING THIS ONE SPOILERS FOR THE CAMPAIGN The first one is for an active campaign, her name is Alina (cant remember if she has a last name.) Her story is basically, she was abandoned at this wizard/scholar/tower thing and was looked after by like the teachers and who ever. but when she turned 16, she was ousted from the tower because, unknown to her until the moment she was ousted was that she was believed to be the child of a prophecy (THE prophecy, but Ill get back to that). When she was 16 somehow it was revealed she was not the child of the prophecy, Oh also I forgot to mention she's a half elf sorcerer, but she thinks shes a full elf sorcerer. The reasons this is is because she was abandoned by her parents at the school tower thingy *because* her father believes that her mother slept with a human and i.e half elf. Her parents are these really rich nobles. We met them in session 2 of our campaign, and thats when she realised they were her parents because before that she had no clue. After being ousted ffrom the tower shes just been roming the country, until she eventual stumbles upon the other memebrs of our party where they reluctantly work together, first because they were hired for a mission by the barkeep, and now because theres something more sinister afoot with politicians nad shit. Theres more to be explored, but we havent played too much of it but im so so excited too . (The reasons soops not allowed to read it is because it has secrets that she doesnt know). Oh yeah The propechy is like a propechy about waro r somehting and my character was supposed to be the key to stopping it but no longer because they are no longer the propechy child. at the time of the story they are 18. They are heavily inspired by Aelwin Abernathy from D20's Bad Kids campaign (cannot remember what its called) For drawing them, heres a refrence! (i drew this >:DD)

---Soop you can read now. My next character is one for the campaign soop is dming!! It hasnt started yet but im really excited! My character is a tabaxi rogue. They're 19 if I remember correctly. Their lore is more dependent on the worl around them. Basically they were apart of the religion blah blah blah in the religion there was this guy (woman) called the Head Scholar, whose like the pope. They were an apprentice under the Head Scholar and basically the head scholar was/is experimenting on how to cure this disease/make spirits so they killed and revived my character! and a bunch of other people, but after my character was killed and revived they ran away. This was when they were 16. I think? And they also had a found family (that they found after running away) that were taken/killed by the Head Scholar as a way to get my character back. Their name is Tabi, with no last name. Since the campaign hasnt started yet they havent met the rest of the party. THey dont stay in one area too long as they are being sort of chased by the Head Scholar, more details to be added when the campaign starts/if Soop tells me more stuff. Refrence for them under neath, wich i also drew!

You can pick either you want!! Thanks so much for asking me I love talking about these two. I will trust you when you say no nefarious purposes/lh. >:DD

[ekholocationn]

Hi Ekho! What is Pira's opinion on all of the known Overlords?

Oooooh hmmmm lemme think. I don't know all of them by name, and the ones I dont know the names of we dont have enough personality to go off of, so ill just do the few i know

vox: do i even need to say anything here /lh

velvette: fairly neutral! tho she doesnt enjoy the times velvette tries to rope her into a selfie. at least velvette Tries to run her department well enough

valentino: hates his ass. holy shit. but she tries to keep herself composed around him bc she knows that a) vox can rein him in eventually and b) val has more power than she does so she could get herself in some serious trouble if she really lashes out. val does frequently push her to the edge very easily no matter how hard she tries to keep herself calm. motherfucker Knows what hes doing and does it anyway because yknow. It's Val.

alastor: very much a pain, she doesn't hate him as much as val or have that strong rival feeling like vox does but she still doesnt like him. sees him as more of an obstacle than anything, cuz the more time vox spends obsessing over him is less time he's focusing on running his company which means more work for her probably

rosie: probably doesn't feel too strongly one way or another. tho she knows rosie has connection to alastor so pira probably avoids her

carmilla: I can see her viewing carmilla as just someone voxtek occasionally does business with, nothing major. probably also thinks she's a bit of hypocrite for being in the weapon buisness and yet wanting to avoid war. though she DEFINITELY would have been intrigued when velvette brought news of the dead exorcist

zestial: Uhhhh i dont know much about him to make a huge call either way. i can see her being a little bit afraid of him though. like not to a huge degree just kinda unsettled by him

I'll be real she probably. doesnt care for any of the other overlords too much. like theyre just kinda there for her. which sucks bc i love rosie and carmilla a lot LMAOOOO she mostly deals with the vees anyway

[altosys]

alright. fdc is dogshit and it's about time someone said it. (tw: ableism, grooming)

To introduce myself, hi, I'm Electra, frequent fronter in the Alto System. I split off of the former host, Ice, and thus used to be "part of him" (i guess?) and as a result have direct experience with with the FDC community.

So... my experience with FDC. (For anyone who doesn't know, I'll give a brief summary: FDC, short for "fake disorder cringe", is a phenomenon where people repost someone's disability-related content and claim that the person in the video is "faking" whatever disorder they say they have - usually plurality, autism, tics, and BPD.)

Back in 2021, I was going through a mental health crisis as well as frequent psychotic episodes. Assuming I had some form of schizophrenia (since that's the closest I could think of), I started to panic about if anything was real, if I should be locked up somewhere, if medication would numb everything, and so on. Eventually I found a video from a schizophrenia awareness channel, and from there I found their Discord server.

Now, mind you, I didn't have therapy at the time. So this place was the best I got.

I eventually met someone on there (who went by 'Poof' - if she sees this I hope she cries herself to sleep knowing I realized I actually have DID), and she seemed really nice. She knew the ropes of the place, hell, she even got me a place in the high rankings since she told her boyfriend (who was the admin) about me and so everyone knew I was "one of them".

I eventually used the vent channel one day to talk about some suicidal ideations I was having. No plans mentioned, nothing. Just that I felt incredibly inferior. And also that I wanted to go to therapy and be on medication to manage my debilitating, life-threatening anxiety (turns out I had several anxiety disorders, general anxiety and panic disorder).

To which Poof, and two of her friends try to convince me that "medication bad, it never works for anyone" and "we'd know since we're professionally diagnosed with schizophrenia". So, realizing that I could never be one of them unless I had their exact struggles, I lashed out and said "maybe if I actually had schizophrenia y'all would listen to me." Now obviously this sounded bad. Very very bad. Especially out of context.

Poof betrayed me, but she was the only friend I had. And mind you, this was the very first time I'd ever felt so conflicted (insert a picture book called "baby's first BPD split" /lh).

Eventually, I left the server, knowing I wasn't welcome there anymore. I felt outcasted, betrayed, and so heartbroken.

I went back to what she got me into, and all of the FDC mindsets, as well as the time she told me that she bullied someone off of the server because they self-diagnosed with Bipolar, but didn't know the difference between Bipolar (abbreviated as BD) and BPD (to which she called people with BPD "toxic"). And I realized how fucked-up it was. I realized that she straight-up gaslighted me into seeing anyone with mental illnesses other than schizophrenia or autism as toxic and most likely faking.

And then I realized.

She wasn't just your typical FDC asshole, she was a straight-up groomer. (I know introjects aren't their source, but if I had a nickel for every time I said something about someone grooming me in hopes that it gets a whole community banned from the internet, I'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice)

I'm not sure if I want to get into detail at the moment, but basically: she'd tell me about stuff she didn't want anyone else on the server knowing (her love life, where she lived, etc.), despite the server having a "no NSFW" rule her and her boyfriend (one of the admins) were fine with a borderline-ERP going on between two of the server members in the general chat, and in hindsight I wish I'd left earlier. Among other things, as well as my main point of *literally grooming me into being an FDC supporter.*

So, *sighing*, from June to November 2021- wait a second hold on here, I'm starting to sound like my source. Speaking of being an introject, the very moment someone claimed to have an introject in their system, Poof would be like "nope. faking." Especially with popular media (My Hero Academia, Hazbin Hotel, DSMP, etc.) and with factives.

Then again I realize how ableist she actually was: Thought people with BPD were toxic, claimed to be a "narc abuse" survivor, absolutely against the very thought of self-diagnosis, constantly played the Trauma Olympics:tm: to prove she was right about anything and everything psychiatry-related, would fakeclaim someone the moment they were both queer + neurodivergent (despite being pansexual and having 6 diagnosed mental disorders herself), laughed at "weird" things needing to be TW'd (eg. caps lock)

As for my "am I schizophrenic" crisis, turns out I had Fantasy-Prone Personality (the main reason I suspected being schizophrenic), a bunch of dissociation-related neurodiversities (DPDR + DID) (explaining why things didn't feel real at times), General Anxiety (which caused my panic in the first place), and being somewhere on the schizophrenia spectrum (someplace vv close to Schizotypal) though not for the reasons I thought. So yeah.

Last note about FDC, they've started fakeclaiming and laughing at RAMCOA survivors. Jesus fucking christ, what's happened to this already-trainwreck-of-a-site? Someone reposted a tumblr post of someone saying "we should get rid of FDC because of how it's especially ableist towards RAMCOA survivors" and the FDC poster added the caption "guess someone's pissed". Like, no shit?

Anyways yeah. Fuck FDC, fuck groomers, and if anyone has any shit experiences with FDC they'd like to add you're more than welcome to put them here. <3

Stay safe, y'all. -Electra ⚡

[kits-ships]

water, electric and rock for the pokemon ask!

- @selfshipdork

very fitting that i got the guy who hates the entire beachy vibe of broa/dchurch. very cool /lh

[Water]: What does a beach day with your f/o look like? Do you go swimming or check out the boardwalk?

alec absolutely does not want to go to the beach. the vibes are all wrong and its a sensory nightmare.

luckily for him, eden doesn't care for the beach either; ESPECIALLY english beaches. swimming in the ocean is already chilly in the US, so england's weather makes the water entirely too cold for her!!

instead, she coaxes him into having a picnic with her near the cliffs overlooking the beach. alec is originally against the idea of being so close to such a steep drop, but they keep a safe distance away from the edge :) this way, they can enjoy the sights without all the sand and saltwater flying around and they get a little peace and quiet!!

[Electric]: When did you realize that you were in love with your f/o? When did they realize that they were in love with you?

eden's first realized that their 'no-strings-attached' situationship maybe had a few strings attached when alec had a massive episode and looked like he had dropped dead. she essentially turned into his guard dog and refused to leave his side until she was forced to go to work with ellie. after that? she was like. huh... that emotional outburst over a guy i have an oddly intimate relationship with was weird. ah, anyways-

her big realization happened after he'd brought her along for his interview alongside the press. sure she knew she was his assistant and was present for a lot of random meetings, but an off-the-record interview where he revealed so much information about himself all in one go?? eden thought she was gonna pass OUT, baby.

alec, however, realized his feelings much earlier- particularly when he first ended up in the hospital. did he want to admit them to himself at the time? no, but he certainly was feelin something for the woman !! instead of mentioning it, however, he decided to just wallow in the fact that his love life was a disaster and that he had (supposedly) unrequited feelings for his fwb. it was not a fun time for mr hardy.

[Rock]: What kinds of gifts do you get each other for your anniversaries/birthdays/etc?

honestly im not sure. he is a very new f/o but ill try to answer anyways :3

i think eden buys fancy, expensive liquors, self-care stuff, and stuff like handmade, leather wallets for alec. that, or she goes out of her way to make a mug from scratch for the guy. she even makes sure the handle is big enough for him to comfortably hold and adds a little notch that he can hang a tea bag from !!

alec's first thought is jewelry. what kind of jewelry, exactly, he doesn't know. he could honestly spend two or more hours just squinting at a case of sparkling stones and still not pick something out. gold?? silver?? ROSE GOLD?! he cant choose!! it takes him a while but he eventually decides on something dainty and, if he can, he begrudgingly tells the jeweler something sweet he wants engraved on it. also, no matter how much he spent on the engraving, he will not tell eden that it's there; that's for her to notice in a few weeks and get happy about all over again :)

[fbfh]

rocks at your window pt. 8 - ricky bowen x reader

disclaimer: this series contains smut and chapter by chapter warnings, so as with all nsfw works, ricky is aged up to 18+!! ricky and reader are 18 and in their senior year

additionally, we're working towards a ricky x therapy plot so he's going to start expressing some symptoms of mental illness and bpd but he does get therapy eventually and has a good support system but he gets worse before he gets better yk. Obviously I'm not a professional and this is for entertainment so while I have done my research pls take this with a grain of salt!! or several!! /lh

!! contains some spoilers for season 1 of hsmtmts, and previous chapters of this fic !!

wc: 3k

genre: fluff, slice of life

pairing: ricky bowen x (afab she/her) reader

warnings: making out, more fake texts (please politely ignore that it's facebook messanger it's the only fake text app I could find that's actually functional), nina tries hoovering, nina is generally a messy bitch, kourtney is a good friend, ricky is a sappy down bad bitch

summary: you and Ricky spend the night before opening having a classic sleepover at your place. Ricky falls even harder for you. Nini follows a hunch.

song recs: when you're home - in the heights, better left unsaid - ariana grande, research me obsessively - crazy ex girlfriend soundtrack/brittany snow, home is in your eyes - greyson chance

a/n: I WAS SO EXCITED TO FINISH THIS CHAPTER I LISTENED TO THE WIZARD AND I FOR HOURS CAUSE IT WAS THE ONLY SONG THAT COULD MATCH MY TRIUMPHANT ENERGY. as always thank you to cici for beta reading next part posted at 10 good reviows prepz fuk off xxx666xxx. been reading more my immortal if you couldn't tell. I, like profesor trevolry, am too adikted 2 volxemortserum.

tags @yesv01 @hopefullhearts @thatawkwardlittlefangirl @afidiofobia @aliyahsutherland @pikzel @demirunner @brinaslittlefreak @girlfriendwhoseawitch @matiere-detoiles @ifilwtmfc @uselesssapphickitten @nxstalgicnxbxdy @ggclarissa @n-slayaaaaa @stormi-ames @brinaslittlefreak @rainforest-daisies @sunshineangel-reads

Sleepovers at your place are something that’s become a staple in Ricky’s life, and he doesn’t think he’s ever needed one more than tonight. It’s the one night the whole cast has off before opening night, so of course you’re going to spend it together. Tech week was one of the most intense things Ricky has ever experienced. It was one week straight spent at the El Rey, doing homework in between scenes, getting used to costumes, sets, lights, and props, and more importantly, getting used to all of it together. The first full run through felt surreal. If the last few rehearsals had been that exhausting and amazing and exciting, he can’t imagine how great opening night will be. 

So what better way to decompress from a week straight of late nights and re-running the same numbers and scenes and working out the kinks, than being where he is right now. Ricky sits on your bed across from you while you sort through the snacks you’d picked up. There’s a comfortable, cozy energy between you, like there usually is. This is exactly what you both need, he thinks. A relaxing, fun night together before you gear up for show time. You’re trying to contain your excitement, but he can see it simmering, growing stronger in the back of your mind. 

The door opens and your mom enters, holding the last few DVDs of shows you’ve been in. 

“Took me a little while to find them, but here’s Matilda - regular, and the stripped down version - and Fun Home.” She smiles, beaming the way she does whenever she talks about you performing. 

“Thanks mom,” you smile at how excited she and Ricky are about your shows. Ricky looks at the titles in her sharpie handwriting on the plastic cases, excitement fluttering through him at getting to see more of you performing. It might be corny to say, but you’re definitely his favorite actor.

“Which ones have you seen so far?” she asks, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorway, happy to have someone to brag about you with and talk about your shows. Ricky lists off all the musicals you’ve watched together over the last few days. 

“...And we just finished Tuck Everlasting.” 

“That one’s my favorite!” she gasps, beaming, and Ricky agrees. He can see why; you brought the role of Winnie Foster to life, and he can’t believe it had such a short run. She’s about to leave, when she remembers the paperwork she dropped off at city hall earlier. 

“Oh, by the way,” she starts, “I heard back from Mitch in permits and zoning, and all the paperwork was expedited. Everything you need to perform at the El Rey has been approved, and you got a green light for opening night!” You and Ricky start yelling and freaking out - exactly what she expected - and you jump off your bed to squeeze her in a tight hug. 

“Thank you!” you cheer, and Ricky echos. 

“Of course!” she smiles.

“That’s amazing!” Ricky beams, “My dad said it might not be ready in time.” 

“Well,” she continues, “I may have pulled a few strings to get it expedited…” 

She barely gets the sentence out before you’re loudly thanking her again. 

“Okay, okay,” she says, calming down your cheers and heading for the door with a smile “have fun you guys.” 

She closes the door, and you’re alone again. He takes in a breath, embracing this moment, here in your room with you. He looks at your decorations, the snowglobe on your bookshelf, the posters on the wall and polaroids taped to your mirror. The jacket you had been wearing earlier is now tossed on the back of your desk chair, and your backpack is still where you’d dropped it earlier when you got home. 

He’s overwhelmed with that big warm feeling in his chest he gets whenever he’s around you. He loves your room, loves sleepovers with you, loves… he chokes down the thought. He can feel the urge to spill his guts, to bear his soul, but he shoves it down. As easy as it would be to pull you close and kiss the breath out of your lungs and tell you everything he’s ever felt for you, he knows the timing isn’t right. He fights temptation, helping you unbag the rest of the snacks you got to distract himself from the unspoken words he’s barely holding back. You hand him the stack of DVDs and your fingers brush. His heart jumps at the contact. 

"Here," you say, "pick one out." You smile with that easygoing energy that's become so familiar to him. Sleepovers have been a pretty regular occurrence for a while now, and they still fill him with a warm, bubbling excitement. He decides which one he wants to watch first, and you slide the disc into your laptop. 

“Oh wow,” he starts laughing at the grainy camera quality, “Matilda caught in 4k.” 

“Shut up,” you laugh, nudging him playfully, “this was from, like, 10 years ago.” 

At first it was hard to look past the sketchy camera quality and low volume of the bootlegs - or slime tutorials as you jokingly called them - but now he’s learned to see past it. He latches on quickly to your singing, feeling himself get sucked into the story right away. He’s seen another version of you performing as Matilda, but this one is the infamous stripped down one. Even though he knows the reasons behind the drastic set change, the critics were right - it does add something to the way the story is told. He realizes that even though they’ve kind of been flying by the seat of their pants to make it to opening night, it will still turn out okay.

After watching Matilda, you practice your stage makeup, and have Ricky help you pick out the perfect shade of Sharpay pink nail polish. You had put on High School Musical - it was practically obligatory - and you made it about 15 minutes into the sequel before you were in Ricky’s lap. His lips are all over you, pressing into yours, your neck, your cheek. He squeezes your waist, arms snaking around to pull you closer to him. He bites your lip playfully, getting you to gasp a little, and pushes his tongue into your mouth. Your hands are on his face, in his hair, and he can’t get enough of your touch. He lets out a soft moan into your mouth, angling his head to deepen the kiss. 

Your phone buzzes as he pulls away, kissing down your neck. He runs his tongue over your skin, biting, and making you giggle. You get so flustered when he kisses you like this, and he absolutely loves watching you get more worked up for him. You glance down, seeing the notification from the pizza place you ordered from on your phone. 

“Ricky,” you start, and he hums in response, biting your neck again, “Ricky, the-” 

You’re cut off by a knock at the door. He pulls away reluctantly, and you take in each other’s disheveled states. 

“Pizza guy.” you finish, getting off his lap to go down stairs. He sighs, staring at the doorway you just disappeared through. He’s still full of that frenetic energy he gets when you touch him. You look so sweet when you’re blushing and giggling for him, he wants to make you even more flustered like that. His phone buzzes with a text from Nini. He’s still getting used to seeing her contact without the hearts that always used to be around it.

Before he can finish typing out a response, you reenter the room holding up pizza and breadsticks triumphantly. He smiles and sets his phone face down. He wants to be here with you, eating pizza and watching sitcoms, trying not to get too nervous and excited about how close opening night is. The only drama he wants to think about right now is the onstage kind. 

Nina sits on her bed, homework forgotten as she rants to Kourtney over facetime. Ricky left her on read. Again. He never used to do that, not until he started hanging around you. Kourtney’s been listening to her talk about you to death for at least an hour, and she’s out of ways to respond. 

“I am so done talking about this.” Nini laughs, shaking her head. 

“Good, cause-” 

“It’s just, like,” she continues, and Kourtney thinks she should have known where that was going. It was at least the third time Nini declared she was done with the topic at hand. Nini continues, “do you think hanging out a couple times gives you the right to be so possessive over someone?” 

In the time they’ve been facetiming she’s cleaned her room, picked out her clothes for tomorrow, and finished her homework. She’s half way through her skincare routine, and secretly hoping this will wrap up soon so she can get some rest for tomorrow. 

“Like, last summer Ricky went on dates with a few girls - not just hanging out - and by the start of school he only wanted to be with me. So, really she’s just making herself look desperate. It’s just sad that he’s going to dump her soon and come back to me like he always does, and she’ll have no idea it’s coming. Like, that’s going to be really embarrassing for her, right?” the faux sympathy in her voice turns into a chuckle. 

Kourtney’s brow furrows. In spite of how sick she is of hearing about this, she can’t shake the feeling that you and Ricky are obviously closer than two people who have just hung out a few times. She’s seen the way you look at each other, the way you talk to each other. People who feel platonically about each other don’t do that. 

“Uh, Neen, what exactly did she say?” she tries to sound casual so Nini doesn’t get suspicious, but she’s so wrapped up in her train of thought, she doesn’t notice the I have a hunch about something look Kourtney always gets when she suspects something is up. 

“She was like, uh,” she begins in an exaggerated impression of you, “we like, totally hooked up a couple times, but we haven’t made anything official, but that still means he only likes me. Also you dumped him, so… like, you have no right to be in his life anymore, and he basically hates you now.” 

Kourtney squints. Through Nini’s very biased recount of the exchange you had, if any of that was verbatim, if you really did tell her you hooked up with Ricky… what kind of hooking up did you mean? Nini seems to think it’s the casual meeting up kind - let’s all hook up at denny’s after the show -  but Kourtney isn’t so sure. It’s none of her business, it’s really none of her business. Plus, pointing this out to Nini would just make her even more obsessed and freaked out than she is. She needs to move on from Ricky, and the last thing Kourtney wants to do is make that harder for her. She and Ricky aren’t together, and she’s certainly not going to be the one to enable any prying or backsliding, intentional or not. Instead, she redirects. 

“Uh… I don’t think she can cut you out of his life for him.”

“Right?!” Nini exclaims, glad someone agrees with her. “Like, we’ve known each other since kindergarten. I’ve known him longer than anyone. You can’t get that close to someone that fast.” She sighs. “Also… there’s something about her that’s been bothering me…” Kourtney scoffs.

“What about her doesn’t bother you?”

“No, no,” Nini laughs, thinking back, “it was something Gina said…” it's been itching in the back of her mind for a while, and she can't ignore it any longer. She has to finally figure this out. She shakes her head, knowing she shouldn't keep Kourtney up any longer. "It's probably nothing. Whatever, I'll see you tomorrow night, Kourt." 

"Okay. Night, Nini." 

Finally, she hangs up. She should go to sleep. She has a big day tomorrow - it's opening night for god's sake - she should go to bed. Instead she opens her laptop, typing 'broadway matilda basement flood' into the search bar. She clicks on one article, then another. Eventually she finds a picture of three girls in matching Matilda costumes and is hit hard by nostalgia. She was obsessed with Matilda when she was a kid, always begging her moms to take her to New York so she can audition and be a Matilda on Broadway, be part of the friend group of other girls her age acting on Broadway together. The girl on the right was always her favorite, and she used to watch the backstage videos she was in for broadway.com vlogs all the time. She completely forgot about her Matilda phase, how obsessed she was with those girls. 

She looks at the caption of the photo, caught off guard by her favorite's name. It’s the same as yours. But that can't be you, right? The last names are different. And her parents are divorced. She remembers when you mentioned it at rehearsal once. She opens another tab, continuing to search for an answer. Hours pass and she's deep into the Google rabbit hole. Hours pass, and she confirms it’s you. You played Matilda on frigging Broadway. After extensive research, she pieces together that you and your mom both had you last names changed to her maiden name, presumably after the divorce, and it doesn't look like you've acted professionally since. She opens the same tabs on her phone to look at later. She shuts her laptop and flops back into her pillows. She stares at the ceiling in disbelief that you've somehow managed to keep a secret this massive from everyone. 

After eating a majority of the pizza and breadsticks, drinking several cups of tea, and watching some more Netflix, you and Ricky are finally ready for bed and curl up under the covers with each other. You're lying up next to his chest, your body heat minglinf together, and he doesn't think he's ever felt more at peace. Your hand is warm through his shirt, and he keeps pressing kisses across your face just to hear your sweet giggle. You smile at him, blinking sleepily, and when he looks into your eyes he feels it. He's home. He gazes at your face, enamored, never wanting to look away. You look so pretty like this, curled up next to him and half asleep. He's learned to tell when he's going to sleep really well and it's always on nights like this. He never knew how badly he needed to feel his breath sync up with yours, feel your hearts beating in time. He can't imagine being more content than he is right here, with you. Even the air in your room smells sweet to him, just because you're here so often. 

He thinks back, running through the whole night again, returning again and again to being right here with you. Every moment with you is amazing. You have this way of transforming the mundane into something special. He’s still in disbelief that he’s the one who gets to lay next to you at the end of the day, he's the one you have whispered conversations with when you're both stupid tired. He gets to be the one to make you giggle and smile over nothing. He remembers a tweet he saw a while ago that said 'You're in her dms, I'm dancing in the kitchen with her while the bread we made bakes. We're not the same.' You might not be in the kitchen right now, but he really understands the sentiment right now. You're cuddled into his chest, melting into his touch, blushing and hiding your face when he looks at you too long like that. It’s him, not some other guy. He doesn't think other guys could be as devoted to you as he is, they couldn't love you the way he can, the way you deserve to be loved. 

He's really glad you're with him and not with some fuckboy who would just want you for your body and break your heart. The idea that anyone could even think about doing that to you, even some hypothetical fuckboy, makes him sick. You're so sweet, so easy to love. He doesn't know how everyone you've met hasn't fallen in love with you, how every guy isn't throwing themselves at you. A twinge of jealousy passes through him at the thought. He brushes the thought aside, reminding himself that you're here with him. As if proving his point, you set aside your favorites squishmallow to cuddle him closer and his heart feels like it's going to burst. Girls don't do that if they don't really… really like someone, right?

You settle against him and let out a big sigh. He's had enough sleepovers with you to know that means you're about to be out like a light. He is too, and he fights off his heavy eyelids long enough to get one more good look at you before they close. He smiles as he starts to drift off. This is his favorite part, getting to fall asleep next to you do he can wake up next to you, just like he wants to forever. He can't imagine a morning where he doesn't get to see you, doesn't get to hold you in his arms, and he doesn't want to. He brushes that aside, and focuses instead on how nice you smell, how comforting your breath is on his neck. You're so warm, you make him feel so warm, and he can't get enough of your body heat and his becoming one under the mass of blankets. He doesn't know what tomorrow will hold, but he's so excited to experience it, to have his very first opening night with you. 

[miidorikawa]

HERE THEY ARE !!!

i think its pretty easy to tell equivalents but jic in top to bottom order its

25ji, mmj, vbs, l/n, wxs

the ones closest to the labels are unit leaders and theyre positioned how they would be in the ingame character screen (nobody cares but me but i will tell you anyways)

the vocaloids are their signature vocaloids besides miku (the ones that have their unit 3d model outfit preunlocked) which ended up being pretty close to canon with the exception of len, luka, and kaito which doesnt SEEM like a lot but. i put luka w 25ji bc 25ji’s signature. IS miku. and so kaito took her place at l/n and so len took HIS place at wxs

the full name of wxs’s equivalent is COTTON CANDY! it’s showtime☆ but i shortened it bc its kinda lengthy

more little brainstorms under the cut pls read them <3 /nf

i only have stuff for this unit bc it was my original swap unit

im gonna talk abt myself in 3rd person here for sake of clarity ok? ok.

so kanade solo composed for a while and gained decent popularity

toya reached out like heyyy…..im a fan of ur work….. can we collab pretty pls….

kanades like sure !

they both realize neither of them can reasonably do the mv (usually k does them but it’d make it take longer to come out and k’s lagging behind bc artblock)

toyas like okay. can i get my buddy to help

kanades like sure !

enter nene stage left /j

and thats all i’ve got. SO FAR

their nightcord usernames are k, kusane, chiku (PLS ASK ME HOW I CAME UP W THIS I FIND IT SI FUNNY /NF), and yoya

misc brainstorms relating to other groups

saki saw idols (not necessarily haruka, but maybe haruka) on tv in the hospital and she was like!!! that!!! i wanna be that!!!!

even after she gets out no agency wants the risk of an idol w a history of chronic illness :(

does saki sound familiar? its bc i stole this idea from @//lucypanpan’s swap saki lol

shes friends with minori at school and minori ALSO wants to be an idol bc shes. minori. /lh

they fail auditions together!!

eventually they get sick of auditions so theyre like hey what if we…..started an idol club….

only emu and kohane wanna join so its kinda useless to register it to the school so it just kinda plays out like mmj rooftop stuff

except its a LOT harder to grow from livestreams without ex idols to boost you so they do street performances too sometimes!

the only other misc hc (i guess this was more of a hopeful*cosmics section huh) i have is that shizuku joined cc! for the employee discount on phenny plushes for shiho

[anadorablekiwi]

Hiya here’s my intro post

Hi! I’m Kiwi! (Like the birb :D) And no, I unfortunately do not live in and am not from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Just love the place and the birds.

My mama’s (dragonsglare) Snickerdoodle recipe so i can indirectly make you cookies :D

My guacamole recipe 💚

A Questionaire website for when you feel like crap, which helps you with self care/executive disfunction/etc. Take care of yourself please. Found through this post

My LU love/hearts edits post here (will be updated as I eventually get around to more edits by reblogs)

I love all Zelink <3

Most my fandom stuff will be Honkai Star Rail stuff and Genshin Impact stuff, and the occasional legend of Zelda/linked universe. But I also reblog PJO/HOO when it shows up on my dash occasionally. My hyperfixations also change from time to time so dont be surprised by Dont Starve Together, Phasmophobia, Animal Crossing stuff, etc

There is absolutely NO room for hate of any kind on my blog, and this is a safe place for everyome. No Exceptions. (And to be 110% clear, that includes all who are lgbtq+/queer)

Social anxiety with a sprinkle of awkward, so I apologize in advance. 💜 I also crave interaction so please don’t be afraid to come chat or something 💙

Genshin UID: 640628605 American server, AR 60 (Kiwi)

747301959 Europe server, AR 35 (Rowi)

Honkai Star Rail UID: 601266085 American Server, TL 70 (Kiwi)

Wuthering Waves UID: 500675827 American Server, UL 46 (Kiwi)

I have siblings! Older brother is Pseudo, younger sisters in order are Doe (the married one) and Aria (@/arianight992) (as in these are their online names (Pseudo and Aria) or a nickname I gave them for tumblr purposes (Doe, after a female goat))

Choir/music/geology/birds from Aotearoa (NZ) nerd, (fake) adult, Christian. Self diagnosed ADHD and i have autistic tendencies

I don’t do reblog bait. And on a much more lighthearted note I don’t usually do those individualized positive reblog thingys for the sole reason of I don’t wanna accidentally leave anyone out 🥺😅😂

I have a couple side blogs! Writing side blog: @the-writings-of-a-kiwi-bird || Art side blog: @kiwis-doodles || Oc info side blog: @kiwis-ocs-sideblog || OCs meet au sideblog: @a-chain-of-chaos || none are very active, just whenever I get around to doing a thing (i live in shame /lh)

I have a loz/lu sideblog but dont know if ill use it or not

My (very incomplete) list of tags under the cut:

#kiwi answers- my asks tag

#kiwi vents/#screams into the void/screams into the abyss- my venting posts, no obligation to respond I just gotta get it out there sometimes

#kiwi rambles- random ramblings from me (usually) not related to LU

#kiwis lu nonsense- ramblings that are related to LU

#kiwi’s linksona/kiwis linksona Diana/kiwis linksona eli (<-old | new->) #kiwis ocs- stuff about my (linksonas) OCs! Eli is the first and the main one. If you have any questions about any please ask, i love talking about all of them!

#kiwi draws- my drawings and doodles

#the kiwi bird writes/writings of a kiwi bird- my Fics and writing

#kiwi crafts- my crochet/whatever crafty thing I learn next posts! (Probably just crochet. Maybe some sewing eventually)

#kiwi gets love- so i can easily find and reread the love I’ve received when I’m feeling down

#much noms for little bird/noms for the kiwi bird- food related posts

#caps/caps lock- I know some people don’t like caps lock so when I use it/reblog a post with a lot of it i’m trying to tag it more

#kiwi yells self care (nicely)- my self care reblogs/posts (mostly my reblogs of self care bot) (i rarely remember to tag)

#kiwi q- my queue/scheduled post tag

#kiwis wonderful pets <3- the tag for when I post pictures of my cat(s) or dog(s)

When I play games and post about it I’ll tag it #kiwi plays [insert game here]

#kiwi talks genshin- self explanatory

#the songs of a kiwi bird- the rare occasion I post a video of my singing <3

#kiwi talks about writing- i talk about writing, mostly comments on any wips i may be working on

#kiwi (doesnt) take care of herself- food is hard water is hard what is self care (never remember to tag)

#kiwis anime saga- Ive started watching some lighthearted animes and i like yelling about them

#kiwi watches *insert anime here*- my ramblings about specific animes as i watch them

#kiwis epona- posts about my first car, whom i have fondly named Epona!

#kiwi save- posts I absolutely want to be able to find again

#kiwis produce adventures- i work at a grocery store in produce so any posts relating to produce are tagged this

[kai-strophics]

uhhh can i have a uhhhh chronic illness for goldric (one or both of them)? :D

Why must you hurt me in this way 😔? /lh

I'm gonna use curse in place of chronic illness as that's how it tends to work in the witch world (and also some sad angst)

Edric gets cursed by Emira with a illness that would limit his ability to fight for the honour to join the Emperor's coven (similar to what Lillith did with Eda).

It ends up being a lot stronger than she thought it would be and his body is far more fragile now, however he puts on a smile and tries to live his life to the best he can with it.

This is while he's 18 so he no longer lives with the Blight parents.

Amity tries her best to find a cure or atleast some medication for him, but it's extremely difficult especially with him living so on edge.

Him and Hunter started dating after he left the coven. Emira took his spot (Emira has a corruption arc in this au).

Hunter lives with the owl gang and Edric sorta just goes around place to place not really having a permanent settlement.

Hunter only finds out about his illness once he ends up coughs up blood in front of him one day and passes out in his arms. Edric kept his curse a secret from everyone so as to not make them worried and until then only he and his sisters knew about it.

Hunter immediatly starts bombarding him with questions about what's wrong and drags him to the nearest healer he can find.

The good ending:

Edric eventually comes to terms with his feelings of being a bother to other people and accepts Hunter and Amity's help to find a medicine that can keep his illness at bay.

He bonds really well with Eda due to them both having a curse and she teaches him about accepting it as a part of himself and what not. But still no cool harpy form for Eddie :(

The bad ending:

Edric gets into a fight with Emira one day while trying to protect Hunter who cannot fight in the moment. His body eventually tires out and his magic drains with it. Emira leaves with what she wanted from Hunter and leaves the two to lay there.

Hunter immediately runs over to Edric who is completely weared out.

He ends up dying in Hunter's arm.

[se7ens-oc-heaven]

i demand Hesperides Lore Dump /hj

Eyyyy look at me totally answering this ask when it was sent which was totally not like. A year ago. Or whenever it was /lh/s

But he's actually getting some content in my brain machine recently so Hesperides! Or Hes as I sometimes call him (maybe I should start spelling it Hess?)

So to put it simply, Hesperides is a near-immortal predecessor of the modern vampire thanks to some worldbuilding I did for the species. Got a lot of the perks and almost none of the downsides... Aside from of course being immortal and outliving entire empires, never mind people lol

Still, Hess has been around for a while and has hit a pretty chill point in his life because what happens, happens.... Even if that includes getting isekai'd into a dead-end alternate universe on the brink of collapse.

It's fine.

This is where the 'vamphunters' storyline comes into play! He gets kinda dropped into that other world on accident and it starts out like the magically charged 'alt-earth' he's familiar with, though with less emphasis on magic. But a bizarre "pandemic*" that should have run its course instead seems to run the world into the ground, turning people into a bland variation on yout typical zombie apocalypse.

Hesperides tries to save infected people at first, he has countless centuries of knowledge tucked under his belt, but nothing seems to work... He ends up changing tactics and wiping them out on sight, humanity can rebuild if there's less chance for the infection to spread after all. Along the way he picks up Luca and Cheshire and kinda unofficially adopts them, and spends the next few years keeping them safe while they try to wait out the "apocalypse" stage and seek out other survivors.

Except. That doesn't quite pan out for the gang, for some reason....

Eventually, after various plot, the trio gets isekai'd (in Hess's case, Again) back to Hesperides's home universe with its 'like us except all that aliens and magic shit is real and some stuff is better' Earth.

Hesperides gets his boys some goddamn therapy, and meanwhile he decides to sort out how the fuck it was even possible to get isekai'd in the first place, and why things went in such a weird direction in the other world. He joins one of the local superhero organizations, gets a goth bf with bonus kid, also adopts an au version of one of his existing kids, and alternates between being a cool interdimensional hero/detective and the goofy gay undead dad of the area.

...I think I gave some lore too much detail but also tbqh cut a lot of shit out. The dude has a lot going on for him lmao. Guess that's what happens when you live for thousands of years, huh

@ anyone reading, feel free to send in asks bc I'd love to talk more about the gang here!

*before anyone assumes, I wrote the vamphunters base plotline back in middle school, had nothing to do with Covid. Covid just somehow made the aggro spread of my fantasy illness unnecessarily realistic lmao

[gremlem]

UHHH LUVBUG BACKSTORY TIME I GUESS, TIME TO GET SAD/LH

Tw for, ableism, shitty childhood, mention of transphobia, neglectful parents,and general other shitty things

Okay, so what I got so far is that Bug was born, under both a first and last name they no longer use, to their parents ofc, one of which a fairly high ranking hero named Flashfire, and the other a government worker who worked in close proximity to them. Bug didn't show any signs of having powers until about 5, after experiencing an electric shock from a busted power cable, at which point they were promptly put into testing and training to learn how to control their powers and use them as a hero. Unfortunately as you might know, Bug's powers are incredibly unpredictable and well, glitchy, so training went,,, less than swimmingly KDJFJDJDJJSJDJDJS

when they finally had at least a rudimentary grasp on their powers at 11-12 they were tasked to "help" other hero teams with their somewhat easier to control supporting powers (it was mostly just to get them out in the field), and given a hero name, Shock-wave. As they continued though, more and more pressure was put on them to master their electrokinesis in order to actually place them on a team and stop villainy and criminals. In training they were taught to repress their emotions, in an attempt to keep more stable control over their electricity and make it pinpoint sharp. This went not so well, as was the trend in their training, and the pressure put on them not only by the researchers but their parents only made it worse. Trying to repress their emotions made them grow unpredictable and somewhat erratic, with them letting out bolts of electricity at random times and completely losing control of their physical form at others. IT ESPECIALLY DIDNT HELP THAT THEYRE QUITE MENTALLY ILL AND AUTISTIC WITHOUT ANY SORT OF SUPPORT FOR IT SKDJDJDJJDJDJDJDJDJDJD

The people around Bug only seemed to grow frustrated as their use to them lessened and lessened due to their mental state, with them eventually even being deemed unfit to work at 16. This was an especially devastating blow, as up until then, their whole sense of worth was based around helping others and being "of use" to the organization. Training stopped completely as they were deemed a lost cause, and it was decided the funds would be better put somewhere else. Bug used this newfound time to develop some hobbies, in an attempt to distract themself and keep themself going, however their parents were,,, less than enthused they weren't working on getting themself back onto a team (and this isn't even to mention the ableism they experienced and what went down when they tried to come out to their parents at 14 but y'know KDJDJDNDBDJDHDJDJHD)

At 19-20 they just left, moving into a shitty little flat, and started trying to get a "real" job. Over at the organization records were scrubbed and any public mention of them was taken down, essentially erasing them from history. It,,, didn't go great for a while, and while waiting for jobs to get back to them they took to the internet, exploring their previously mostly untapped ability to travel through the "webosphere". They started doxing predators and hacking sketchy websites, eventually making a bit of a name for themself in the strangest of places. The online villain community. Working retail by day and doing odd jobs for villains by night, they had found a niche that was,,, comfortable at least. The villains tended to not be nearly as corrupt or cutthroat as the government and hero organizations they had encountered, and they were free to use their powers the way they wanted, focusing on web travel, hacking, and viruses instead of their electrokinesis. They may have TECHNICALLY become a villain, but physically hurting people was still a line they didn't really want to cross. Eventually after a few years of doing this they took up a new name of their choosing, Luvbug, and finally dubbed themselves a villain, all the while still working a shitty job at walmart BFJKBJKBGVKSBRH

They honestly don't remember a lot of their life before age 16, and even after that its kinda fuzzy for a long time, both because of trauma, but also just general memory issues, but they still occasionally get,,,, flashes of their life before, often inducing a depressive (or rarely, manic) episode. They definitely have a better support system now than before but y'know, mental health is still a struggle, ANNNNDDDDD THATS WHAT I GOT SO FAR JKSDGVKJSDGVHKSDVHSDG