#Anyways uh- I did this cuz it was funny and also cuz I’m not afraid to show love to Anton x Peppino those two are actually cute

[whereismyhat5678]

Guys.

I think I built up the courage to FINALLY post this one sketch I tried posting but then backed out like a wimp.

SO I’M DOING IT NOW. I AIN’T NO PUS-

(Tw: It’s uh- It’s uh- It’s It’s It’s- 🪭🔥)

That’s it- that’s the post- 💀

[planet-crait]

Okay so I lied I uh can’t find episode 6. Of anyone has help for that I would appreciate it. Anyways episode 7 does not have the intro and once again I am devastated.

It should be illegal to be that perked up on a Monday. Mondays are evil I have decided. Wait Hazel made a new friend? Dang it curse missing episode 6. Oh Jasmine uh she struggles to sing oh no. At least she’s proud to sing.

Oh Hazel. Fame is uh not what it’s cracked up to be. Is this technically cheating in a contest? Wait didn’t Timmy wish to be popular not involve Father Time? And Hazel being confused about the 15 minutes being literal is strange since that wasn’t her wish it was to be famous.

But also what’s the cost? If he offered a deal…what’s the cost? Fairy’s don’t usually have a cost or even a deal aspect it’s just wish then granted. Also we can clearly see their is hardly any sand in the top while their is quiet a bit on the bottom.

And I’m pretty sure later the watch looks the same despite have some 22 hours left so it’s a very odd choice to do this.

Also side note uh I had to break out a calculator to do that math and Hazel did it in her head? It I’m afraid of her power.

Wait is that squirrel supposed to be Timmy? Was he a squirrel at one point?

Wasn’t this guy a movie star before? Are they just reusing the not Timmy model or does he have two jobs and is working the grind? Not important at all I wouldn’t be surprised if they had to reuse models for stuff given the right budget but also it could be a commentary on the massive wage gaps for movie stars.

Hazel wears hand me downs. I appreciate that as someone with an older sister I always had those. Interesting she wears her older brothers clothes or is it just his shirt because she likes it and wants to feel close to him or she has to? Not important at all but interesting character thing depending on which it is.

Huh why did Cosmo become the interviewing girls mug?

I was wondering when the principle would appear again. Funny it’s this episode. I do like the show showing the haters side of fame even if it’s more over the top to get the point across. The more in the spotlight you are the more jerks come out of the woodworks. The kids all booing her is kind of hilarious though.

Wait they have a separate school for “famous” kids? What state is Dimedelphia in? Cuz Hollywood could potentially be in another state? I’m not sure how legal that is. But I’m also not sure if the legality of forcing all students to repeat a year if one student fails so I suppose that’s on track. I get they need to raise the stakes and give Hazel motive to undo the wish but it’s just. Well weirdly done for me.

Father Time has a boss? Wait Nick of time? Is she his boss? That doesn’t make much sense but who is the boss? I thought the point was Father Time was the ultimate timekeeper? How does New York minutes move faster than regular? I’m so confused about this.

Most head of her time? And mean. Not sure where that one came from lolz.

To help tighten up the script a little and to more organically bring in Father Time I would have had Hazel right off the bat with for her fifteen minutes of fame instead of Cosmo and Wanda changing it on their own. They’ve dealt with Father Time before and should know he’d get involved so having Hazel right off the bat wish for the fifteen minutes herself would fix that issue. Again I appreciate taking a different spin on Timmy’s wishes but for me I think the minor changes would help a lot to make it flow better.

Still not a deal breaker though just something to help out. I also really still don’t get the New York Minute thing. Is it a commentary on the fast pace of New York? Cuz other places are like that too LA coming to mind. Unless I’m missing something which isn’t entirely out of the question. The song was fun though. Onto episode 7!

[magireco]

out of curiosity what do you think of the characterization of homura in rebellion? i hugely dislike it but get the impression you enjoy it which i think is interesting cuz we seem to have very similar thoughts on homura pre-rebellion (CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG)

THIS IS INTERESTING BECAUSE IT DEPENDS ON WHAT FLAVOR OF REBELLION HOMURA YOU MEAN. i really really like the way she was done in the first half of the movie but as for the twist at the end...? mmm...

...okay, so... i've been thinking about saying this at some point but i keep avoiding it in fear of causing discourse and such bc... this is a really unpopular opinion apparently, but I really do not think devil homura was done properly. read under the cut if you wanna know why i feel this way!

the first issue i'm going to address is that there wasn't NEARLY enough buildup for it. i'm going to explain this from the perspective of a first-time viewer: what would you have thought would happen after the very last scene of rebellion leading up to them breaking homura out of her soul gem? when homulilly got purified and the flowers on her head turned to sakura flowers (y'know, the flowers that symbolize life and rebirth, homura being reborn from her witch)? did you think homura was suddenly gonna undermine madoka's godliness? because, uh, first-view me did not think that at all. and neither did almost anyone i know who watched it for the first time. not only is that poor setup but it's just so sudden and it feels so out of character compared to what we'd seen in the entire series as a whole, especially considering that the entire last part of the movie leading up until that was about purifying her... and saving her... there wasn't enough buildup. most people are like "but the flower scene happened!" but that's still way too vague...? it's hard to tell what conclusion homura comes to at the end, because we don't get to see any of her internal monologue... there is no other buildup after the flower scene... it just skips to homura realizing she's a witch. wouldn't that bring the viewer to think the flower scene was something that made homura realize she was a witch rather than her suddenly starting to form her plan? it always felt like to me the conclusion homura came to at the end of the flower scene was that she was validating madoka's bravery and telling her that if it ever came to that, she'd have the ability to make that hard decision. which is... so... weird? because i always interpreted that as homura coming to terms with what happened? i could just be interpreting it wrong though, but isn't that supposed to be our proof scene? our buildup scene? why would they make it so hard to understand? we need to know such important buildup points just as blatantly as the natural buildup to homura becoming a witch was. that's just from a moviemaking & writing perspective though.

secondly, i'm gonna discuss homura's motive. i actually ended up understanding were she was coming from after a while of being like "what the hell that makes zero sense!!!!". madoka is a 14-year-old girl who, in order to save the fate of every magical girl, literally had to sacrifice herself and erase herself from the world, and in the end, madoka just ended up saving homura again, and that must've made homura feel like her promise with madoka was never fulfilled. it's unfair what happened when you think about it and the law of cycles should not have been run by madoka herself because she, as any other 14 year old, deserves to be happy on earth. although it was said in magireco that madoka felt happy with what she was doing (and she felt like it truly gave her a purpose), she did admit to feeling lonely and homura probably made that assumption big time. but the way the writers went about it just made her seem so sinister... so out-of-character-ly sinister. what with the evil smirking and the deepened, almost... uh, sensual-seeming voice, and homura completely ignoring madoka's fear. it feels like they twisted her character extremely suddenly and it throws the viewer on a loop. they could've gone with that ending without making such drastic and sudden changes to homura's character, and if they were planning on doing that, why did they not give us more buildup? buildup that wasn't extremely cryptic that you have to scan and search every detail to get a clue? something i love about rebellion is that every time you watch you find something new, but how come some of the only clues illuding to devil homura's existence are in the op? it's odd. why didn't they go with something like making the incubators run the law of cycles? they were the ones at fault for causing it to be created. but honestly, the incubators cannot be trusted with anything, which is why it'd make sense for a magical girl to run the law of cycles, but if homura and madoka had the combined power to do so, what if they just remade the law of cycles so it was less unfair to madoka...? i don't know. either of those possibilites would make more sense than what happened.

something else that kind of irks me about it is that they demonized(literally, lol) homura's love for madoka. homura is very much a canon lesbian, and it's incredibly discomforting to me that they made her seem, outwardly to the viewer, so selfish...? please don't get me wrong, i'm not ACTUALLY calling homura selfish -- i know the entire akumura facade is a mask she put on, but like, it's so much more blatantly sinister than she is in the series when she's putting on the coolmura facade. it's going to really confuse the viewer and see every single one of her actions from the entire series in a completely different light, INCLUDING stuff that happened in rebellion itself. like the genuine sadness homura felt, the way we saw into her soul and felt her pain, that genuinely made a lot of people i've seen think that it was ingenuine upon first inspection... they made homura turn "evil" out of her love for madoka, as if it's a bad thing to fall in love, and as if love for another girl was what corrupted her soul gem... i understand that gen urobuchi probably wanted to explore that kind of path where love leads to obsession or whatever, but homura was selfless to a fault, constantly trying to force herself away from the others in order to not get attached, and deeply afraid of seeming creepy and predatory and scaring(she said this herself), which is exactly what she ends up doing at the end, and i feel so awful that they did that to her... how is the viewer supposed to know what her true motives are at that point? it gets all scrambled up after they did that huge plot twist. i'm going to address another thing super quick before people jump in my ask box over this, i understand also that it would make sense for homura to be obsessed with madoka, but in the series, it was never shown in this light, and like i said, if they were going to do this, why'd they even have the purification scene at the end at all? the buildup is all wrong . it also just made me upset that this ending caused SO many people to start literally believing homura is evil because of her actions at the end, and it made people become even more vehement on their beliefs that homura is obsessive and ps*cho...

i was really confused when i watched it for the first time (and also sobbing hysterically, literally, my funniest rebellion story as someone who has genuinely watched the movie 40-ish times, i remember vividly the first time i watched it i started sobbing on my hands and knees on a yoga mat in my mom's room). also like, just to prove my point a teensy bit more, the ending was so ambiguous and out of nowhere that one of the first google results to "madoka magica rebellion" is "madoka magica rebellion ending explained" because it shocked people so much that that was the first thing they needed to google. also, the fact they left us on such a vague cliffhanger and then abandoned the movie series for a total of 8 whole years only to make a sudden comeback in god's holy year of 2021 was almost cruel. LIKE GUYS I JUST FINISHED UP MY DEVIL HOMURA HEADCANONS IT TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH!!!

...anyways, um, i really have to address the sexualization. madoka magica, previously, was a series that avoided fanservice in the show, at least, but why did they make akumura's design look like that...? it shows an unsettling amount of skin and like, every three seconds in the end they're focusing intensely on her lips and her eyes and... it's almost like the writers forgot she was 14, but they never seemed to forget that in the series? what happened????? in the transformation scene, we get closeup views of homura's thighs and back and stuff and it's all open everywhere... they made her tights into thigh-highs... in the whole series, even when she went to school, she always wore tights, and she was wearing tights in her magical girl outfit too... they absolutely deliberately did that to sexualize her further so they could make official art with her thighs out. speaking of official art that unsettles me, why does so much of the official art make the whole outfit just glued to her body and you can see all the shading on her features... it's just. ugh. anyways.

i went off a LITTLE too much on this and i know this is probably gonna get me some weird glances in the fandom and i am open to hearing other people's opinions but i don't think i'll ever stop disliking the effect this plot twist had on the fandom's interpretation of homura and although i'm like UNDENIABLY incredibly hyper excited for the next movie, i'm kind of...nervous for what this is going to bring? i don't want this next movie to cause the same amount of discourse the ending of rebellion did and i legit just want to see homura happy. another one of my main issues with the ending is just that homura is SO unhappy when she literally deserves to be happy SOOOOOOO BAD and just take a break from all the loops ... i'm Praying to madokami out there that that's what happens.

i know this is all really funny coming from someone who draws devil homura on a regular basis and literally writes her, but like... i'm a lesbian i'm allowed to<3

ANYWAYS thanks for listening this was a fun ask!!!

[marshieee]

If my fic “we just changed” was a show.

Interview with the cast!

Cast: Y/N, osamu, atsumu, suna, futakuchi, aone, and aj (me)

A/N: just wanted to make this cuz it was funny in my head lmao

Atsumu

Interviewer: so what was your favorite part?

Atsumu: of course the part where i was featured in!

Interviewer: oh! Looks like you had fun filming that?

Atsumu: ya bet! I got to punch samu in the face!

Interviewer: punch? Like fake punch right?

Atsumu: no...

Interviewer: n-no?

Atsumu: *shakes his head*

Interviewer: ....

Atsumu: ....

Atsumu: ehem anyways...*nervous laugh*

Atsumu: PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR STORY “WE JUST CHANGED” BY AUTHOR AJ AKA MARSHIEEE!! AND ALSO PLEASE DO SEND HATE TO SAMU!!! I WOULD LOVE TO READ THAT!!

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Osamu

Interviewer: so osamu who’s your favorite cast?

Osamu: of course it would be y/n and aone

Interviewer: and why is that?

Osamu: well for starters y/n is really nice and kind, she’s also very friendly so we got along very quickly.

Osamu: aone was pretty nice too, he’s kinda intimidating at first given by his height but when you get to know him, he’s actually a very nice person.

Interviewer: have you formed a friendship with the two?

Osamu: oh yes most definitely.

Interviewer: then who is the cast that you don’t get along with?

Osamu: ....that’s pretty obvious of course that shit head brother of mine atsumu.

Interviewer: o-oh

Osamu: the director said to fake a punch that dipshit literally punched me in the face!

Interviewer: i heard..

Osamu: now we have to take a break for a day since my lips were swollen

Osamu: and the director said he was kinda satisfied because we don’t have to take any takes anymore because that was perfect!

Interviewer: um please calm down.

Osamu: oh sorry, please check out our story “we just changed” by author aj aka marshieee, AND I KNOW IM A SHIT IN THE STORY BUT PLEASE DO ME JUSTICE ATSUMU LITERALLY PUNCHED ME IN THE FACE THAT ASS—

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Y/N

Interviewer: so y/n what is your opinion about the show?

Y/N: it’s overwhelming especially when we released the first part and it immediately got a lot of attention! I really didn’t expected that

Y/N: I also love the story especially the angst hahahaha.. actually I’m a sucker for angst

Interviewer: hurt to comfort?

Y/N: uh huh

Interviewer: well i most preferred comedy.

Interviewer: anyways, do you get along with everybody?

Y/N: very much! The staffs are nice, director too! I got along with the cast just fine! They were sweet and fun to be with.

Y/N: i also never expected that miss aj would be in the cast! She’s very nice, helping me with my lines and what exact emotions I should show.

Interviewer: I’m glad to hear that anything you wanna say to the people?

Y/N: Yes, thank you for the support and please keep supporting us in the next upcoming parts! And do check out “we just changed” by author aj aka marshieee!

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Aj

Interviewer: thank you for having me today

Aj: with pleasure

Interviewer: so how do you feel being a cast on your own story?

Aj: it’s actually a bit weird feeling.

Interviewer: how so?

Aj: well my character is a hoe in the story if you can tell hahahaha... but I’m not complaining since i was the one who made it.

Interviewer: i see, then may i know how do you feel about the intimate part with osamu?

Aj: oh! The part one?

Interviewer: yes

Aj: it wasn’t that intimate actually but it took us few takes since me and samu gets shy after the kiss hahahahaha...

Interviewer: will y/n get a happy ending or not?

Aj: I’m still thinking about that since i would love if y/n don’t but that’s too mean because as you can tell she didn’t do anything wrong osamu was just a big dick.

Interviewer: hmmm... anything you want to say?

Aj: right um thank you so much for the supporters of our story “we just changed” especially those devoted readers and watchers! I know who you are and i love you so so much! Please let’s be moots or something🥺❤️ and please continue supporting our story!

Interviewer: i heard you had another story that’s on going?

Aj: ah yes! Please do also check out bokuto’s story “home” give the baby love😭

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Suna

Interviewer: so suna how was your time in the film?

Suna: it was fun even though i only got a few screen time I’m pretty sure i out shined the miya twins

Interviewer: i guess you did

Interviewer: did you enjoyed when you’re on the set?

Suna: yeah especially with aj

Interviewer: oh looks like you and miss aj are close?

Suna: of course we are!, we love to tease the twins most especially atsumu hahahahah that dipshit gets provoked easily sometimes

Interviewer: i see, anyone else?

Suna: futakuchi-san, we have the same vibes

Interviewer: would you like to have a scene with Futakuchi?

Suna: oh yes with aj too! Where we tease atsumu and osamu, that would increase the ratings don’t you think?

Interviewer: that...that would...never mind, anything you want to say to the people?

Suna: thanks for the continuous support! Please ask aj do a part featuring me, futakuchi and aj being sassy because we are. Don’t worry I’ll make sure I’ll show up in the upcoming parts.

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Futakuchi

Interviewer: so futakuchi how do you feel about being featured in a side story and part four?

Futakuchi: i feel special, superior to be honest i feel fabulous hahahhahahaha...

Interviewer: how about being y/n’s cousin in the story?

Futakuchi: i feel this older brother vibes you know? Well in the story i am babysitting y/n but also off set

Interviewer: oh really?

Futakuchi: yes hahahahaha.. i take care of her off sets too, she’s like my little sister you know?

Interviewer: you do have a little sister right? Maybe your brother instincts are kicking in whenever you’re around y/n

Futakuchi: probably, that is possible because she do remind me of my baby sister.

Interviewer: should we be expecting something from you in the upcoming parts?

Futakuchi: *shrugs* maybe? Who knows right?

Interviewer: it’s up to miss aj huh?

Futakuchi: yep

Interviewer: anything you would like to add?

Futakuchi: ah yes i know the others already said this but thank you for all the support! And keep supporting our “we just changed” it’ll be a blast.

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Aone

Interviewer: aone hello!

Aone: hi! Thank you for having me today

Interviewer: so aone how do you feel being casted?

Aone: i never really expected that I’ll be casted actually

Interviewer: oh really?

Aone: hahaha.. yes so it was shocking at first when she said that I’m part of the story.

Interviewer: i heard she personally wanted you to be part of it since she really likes you.

(Aj in the background: TRUE)

Aone: *laughs*

Interviewer: but how about your screen time? How do you feel about it?

Aone: i think it’s good, the story is mainly focused to the two main characters so yeah..

Aone: i may not have a lot of screen time but i do know that my character had a huge role on helping y/n move on and i think that’s enough for me.

Interviewer: i am glad to hear that, anything you wish to say?

Aone: thank you so much for appreciating our story believe me we appreciate you MORE and please keep on supporting us! To our devoted readers and watchers i would just like to say i love you so so much please take care of yourself.

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We just changed masterlist is right here! If you want to binge read it why not? Reblogs are also appreciated❤️ accepting mutuals also! Requests are open too so feel free to request anything just read this simple rules.

My inbox are always open so don’t be shy to interact with me🥺👉👈 , and i really want to make an event but I’m afraid that no one will participate. But anyways have a good day and thank you again! I’ll do my best to keep you from starving my darlings💕

[beelsnack]

Hiya! I saw ur post about u being stressed at work so please take ur time with this request! There's no rush! Ur wellbeing is more important 💖 But when you get the time how about some headcanons for an MC who is very cute and naive but got teased for being so at RAD so they try to dress "cool" and pretend to be all badass but their tough persona just makes the demon brothers uwu even more cuz they think it's adorable how hard they're trying

Ah, thank you for being patient, Nonnie! I hope this was worth the wait!

I realized a bit too late that I may have misinterpreted your request a little, but I hope it turned out alright anyway. ^^

-----

Lucifer: “Careful, my dear, your face may get stuck like that.”

When the human turned around to greet him, they had their normal cheerful grin on their face. However, Lucifer watched as their expression turned surprised, then frustrated before they managed to school it back into the hilariously deep frown they had been forcing all day.

“Would you mind telling me why you’re making that ridiculous face?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” They fell into step beside him. Even though they had pretty much figured out the layout of RAD, Lucifer insisted on walking with them to the Student Council Chambers. At first, it was just to make sure they didn’t accidentally end up in the torture chambers in the lower levels, but now he genuinely enjoyed the few moments they had alone together. Hearing them chatter on about their day lifted his mood exponentially.

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed.” Lucifer inclined his head. “Force that scowl for much longer and you might pull a facial muscle.”

They wavered for a second before sighing. “Did it really look that bad?”

“It was quite an unnatural look for you.” he replied, a hint of laughter in his voice. “Would you mind telling me just what you were trying to do?”

“...Some demons in my class told me I smiled too much.” they admitted. “So I was trying to...not?”

Lucifer paused, regarding them with a raised eyebrow. “What in the Three Realms does ‘smiling too much’ mean?”

“I’m...not sure honestly,” they shrugged.

“My dear,” he stopped in front of them, placing his hands on their shoulders. “I don’t particularly care what those other demons think or want, but I will not have you depriving me of your beautiful smile.”

Mammon: That was his jacket.

It was way too big on them, making them look even smaller than they already did. It was also very clearly not part of the RAD uniform - not that any of the brothers wore their uniforms correctly, but the human was usually pretty up to code with theirs.

He caught up to them in a few steps and grabbed onto the collar of their - his - jacket. “Hey, human! Just what do you think you’re doing?”

They squeaked in surprise, and for a moment Mammon was caught off guard by how unbearably adorable it was. When they turned around, they were grinning sheepishly at him.

“H-hi Mammon.”

Oof. Honestly, he did not anticipate how seeing them wearing his clothes was going to affect him. The sleeves came down to their knuckles, and they had curled their fingers around the cuffs almost instinctively, It was too cute, he felt like his heart was trying to smash through his ribcage.

“You - you got a whole lotta nerve, stealing from the Great Mammon.” he released their collar, they both continued walking, although he had completely forgotten that his class was in the complete opposite direction.

“You left it in my room, though.”

“Doesn’t explain why you’re wearin’ it!”

“I’m sorry.” they sighed, beginning to shrug the jacket off of their shoulders. “Some demons were picking on me, so I thought they would leave me alone if I dressed a bit tougher. It didn’t work anyway, so I’ll give it back now.”

They were just about to yank their arms out of the sleeves when Mammon shook his head.

“Keep it, if it makes you feel better.” he definitely wasn’t blushing, nope, not even a little bit. “I’ve got others, so just accept the Great Mammon’s generosity.”

Leviathan: “Please tell me you didn’t pay a stupid amount of cash for those.”

The human frowned up at Levi, putting a hand over their new headphones almost protectively. “I paid a perfectly reasonable amount!”

“I wouldn’t pay anything for those,” he frowned. “The manufacturers would have to pay me, actually.”

“Alright, alright, I get it!” they huffed. “I just bought them so people would stop talking about me when they think I’m listening.”

Levi tilted his head. “Huh?”

The human sighed, playing idly with the cord of the headphones. “Some demons in my Curses class like to freak me out by saying how yummy I look when they catch my eye. I kind of hoped that they would stop if they weren’t getting a rise out of me.”

A white-hot surge of protectiveness crashed over him as the human curled in on themself. He might have been a giant otaku, but he would be damned if he let anything happen to his best friend. Well, more damned than he already was, anyway.

“You should have just said something,” he shoved his hands in his pockets. “I have an old pair you can have. They still work fine, but they released a limited-edition Ruri-chan version and obviously I have to rep my waifu so I’ve been using those - “

Satan: “Can I ask you something?”

The two of them were on their way to the RAD’s library. Satan honestly didn’t need to study, but the human definitely did, and using an academic excuse meant that Lucifer was more likely to leave the two of them alone.

“Of course,” Satan held the door open for them. Without even bothering to look, he began walking over to the table that had basically become their territory. Even if there were other demons there, they would probably scamper off.

“How do you get people to be afraid of you?”

Satan paused, raising an eyebrow in an expression that definitely did not make him look strikingly like Lucifer. “Me specifically?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, being the Avatar of Wrath gives me a leg up.”

The human scowled. “Damn it.”

“Why would you want people to be afraid of you?” Satan asked as they sat down. Up until this point, the human’s modus operandi was being so sweet that nobody ever wanted to hurt them, so the threatening angle was a complete 180.

“Some demons in class were making comments about me being dessert.” they mumbled, taking out their textbooks before slinging their bag over the back of the chair. “I honestly couldn’t tell if they were talking about my personality or my flesh, so…”

“Okay, first of all,” Satan leaned forward on his elbows. “We kill them.”

“Satan, no.”

Asmodeus: “Oh, darling, what have you done to yourself?”

They really needed to get a “Do Not Disturb” sign or something. Not that it would stop anything, but still.

Asmo at least had the decency to shut the door behind him, but that was as far as it went. He was openly staring at them, doing his best impression of the Scream painting.

“The makeup tutorial made this look so much easier.” they sighed, leaning back in their chair.

“They always do,” Asmo came over behind them, placing his hands on their shoulders as he leaned down to look at their laptop screen. “Never trust the ones on Sinterest.”

Their final product looked nothing like the model on the screen. The wings of their eyeliner were crooked, and one eye was longer than the other. The contouring made them look like a clown, and somehow they had gotten black eyeshadow on their nose.

“That’s quite the change of pace for you, darling.” Asmo commented, “It’s a look, but why the sudden switch?”

The human remained silent, their bottom lip quivering in a way that made Asmo want to gathering them up in a blanket. Eventually, they sighed again.

“All the succubi look so cool, and I always look...” they paused. “Human.”

“Darling, I don’t know how to break this to you - “

“I know, I know.” they grumbled. “I just wanted to look badass for once!”

The puppy-dog pout they had going on wasn’t doing anything for that particular look, but Asmo decided to keep that comment to himself. Instead, he spun them around, hands still on their shoulders. “Now, now, don’t make that face. Let’s see if we can’t fix this up a little, hm?”

Beelzebub: “What are you doing?”

He hadn’t meant to scare them, but they jumped like he had jumped from the ceiling. The yelp they let out made him feel guilty. Maybe Mammon was right when he said that Beel was disturbingly sneaky for someone his size.

Usually the gym was empty when he came for his morning workout, so seeing the human seated on the workout bench was a definite surprise. Not a bad one though.

“Beel!” the set the weight down. “Um…g-good morning…?”

“Morning,” he replied, making his way over to where they were situated. “You’re not usually one to workout, much less this early in the morning.”

“I, uh…” they stammered. “I wanted to get a little stronger, is all.”

“Not that I’m going to stop you,” he set his gym bag down next to the weight rack. “But why?”

They grumbled under their breath, but eventually sighed. “Some demons at RAD told me I looked chewy.”

“I mean, you kind of do.”

“Hey!”

“All humans look chewy, though.” he shrugged. “It’s not a bad thing. But you want to build up some muscle, right?”

They pouted, and Beel really wanted to reach out and pat them on the head. Instead, he sat next to them on the bench and handed them the weight they had been using.

“Okay, so you want to hold it like this…”

Belphegor: “You had a funny dream last night.”

They had learned from experience that telling Belphie to stop invading their privacy by watching their dreams did exactly fuck all, so they just huffed in annoyance as he flopped against their shoulder. “It wasn’t funny.”

“Amusing, then.”

“For you, maybe.”

They felt him smirk against their shoulder. “You really think a leather jacket and sunglasses will make demons think you’re tough?”

“More than skipping around with flowers in my hair would.”

“I think you would look cute with flowers in your hair. Let’s take some black roses from Diavolo’s garden.”

“Aren’t those poisonous?”

Belphie shifted, nuzzling into their neck as the professor walked in. “It’ll help with the tough image.”

“For about 4 hours until I start foaming at the mouth.” they folded their arms, jostling Belphie from their shoulder.

The demon laughed, pillowing his head in his arms as he leaned forward onto the desk. “I like how you are now. If someone starts giving you trouble, I’ll kill them for you.”

“No cannibalism, please.”

“That’s more Beel’s territory.”

[justcallmefox89]

Truth or Dare Part 3

It’s Arianthi’s birthday and Diavolo has decreed she can have anything the Devildom can provide.  She requests a slumber party at the House of Lamentation; her, the brothers, the angels, Solomon, Diavolo, and Barbatos.  Asmo has suggested a game of Truth or Dare and everyone is ready to play, but things quickly spiral when secrets and risky dares collide. 

TW: body image issues. eating disorders

Written from the perspective of my female MC, Arianthi.  

I’m adding a different mood playlist to each installment of this series, just songs that I listened to while writing and feel embody each part of the story.

Blackpink - Playing with Fire

Ursine Vulpine - Wicked Game (cover)

Dark Sarah ft. JP Leppaluoto - Dance with the Dragon

Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know

Hollyn - I Wasn’t Good Enough for You

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

Everyone refreshes their drinks and we all gather in a circle on the floor; Belphie immediately lays his head in my lap and Asmo cuddles up on my other side.

“Hey sleepyhead, you have to play too,” I say, ruffling Belphie’s hair gently.

He gives me a lazy smirk.  “I will.  I can’t wait to learn all your secrets.”

“Oi!  I wanted to sit next to Arianthi!”  Mammon complains.

“Too bad!” Asmo and Belphie say in unison, wrapping their arms around me. 

I shoot Mammon an apologetic smile and he grumbles as he walks away and sits next to Simeon. 

“Ok, what are the rules to this human game?”  Diavolo’s eyes are glittering with excitement, while Lucifer looks like he’s trying to hold off a migraine. 

“Super simple,” I answer.  “Everyone takes turns asking another person truth or dare.  If you say truth you have to answer whatever question you’re asked, no matter what it is.  If you say dare then you have to do the dare, no exceptions.”

“Ok!  Everybody is clear on the rules so let’s go!  Birthday girl gets the first turn!”  Asmo squeals in excitement.

I take a glance around the circle and settle on Beel, innocently eating cake. 

Perfect.

“Hey Beel, truth or dare?”

He looks up from his plate in surprise.  “Ummm, dare I guess?”

You truly are a kind and generous God.  Good lookin’ out. 

I shoot my eyes heavenward for a moment, then refocus on Beel.

“I dare you to streak around the House of Lamentation.  Twice.”

“Urk!”  Beel chokes on his cake, and Mammon slaps him on the back.  Eyes watering and cheeks flushing Beel looks at me.  “For real?”

“It’s the rules.”  I shrug innocently.  

Asmo is cackling with glee next to me, Diavolo is snickering, Lucifer looks like he wants to die, Solomon and Satan are wearing matching smirks, Simeon looks scandalized, Belphie is silently shaking with laughter, Leviathan is red to the tips of his ears, Mammon is glaring at me, and Barbatos is stone faced. 

Beel shoves his plate away and heaves a sigh as he gets to his feet.  He slowly starts stripping down, until he gets down to his boxers.  He starts to walk to the front door before I stop him.

“Uh uh Beel, boxers too,” I say with a smirk.

He blushes all the way down to his chest and quickly steps out of his boxers.

“Goddamn Beel!” I exclaim without thinking.  I already knew he was ripped but this....... this is perfection. 

“Arianthi!” Mammon claps his hands over my eyes while Beel rushes out the front door.  

We all rush to the windows to watch Beel complete his laps around the house. Mammon stays close behind me trying to cover my eyes every chance he gets.

“I could give you something to look at that you’d like better than Beel,” he mutters in my ear angrily.

I turn around and look him.  “Do you really mean that Mammon?  You want me to see you like that?”

“W-w-well I mean,” Mammon stutters are he turns bright red. 

He’s saved as Beel sprints back into the house and slams the door behind him.

I roll my eyes, frustrated with his emotional constipation.  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”  

I turn and start walking back into the living room.

He grabs my arm to stop me.  “Whaddya mean by that?” 

I try to jerk away from him but he holds tight.  

“C’mon, answer me.”  Blue eyes meet mine, pleading.

“Let her go.”  

We both jump at the sound of Diavolo’s stern voice behind us.  Mammon opens his mouth to argue, but Lucifer’s presence next to Diavolo stops him.  He lets go of my arm and takes a step back.

“It’s fine guys, we were just talking.”  I give them a quick smile.  “Let’s get back to the game.” 

We all settle into our places in the living room.  

“Ok Asmo, since this was your idea it’s your turn,”  I tell him.

Asmo grins, slowly looking around the circle until he settles on Solomon.  “Solomon, who has been your best lover since you’ve come to the Devildom?” 

I roll my eyes and laugh a little.  

Typical Asmo.  He has to know the answer will be him. 

Solomon takes a sip of his drink, his expression serious.  “Definitely Arianthi.” 

Oh shit.

“What?!”  Mammon’s yell is so loud everyone winces. 

The rest of the group immediately starts bombing Solomon with questions. 

Asmo turns to look at me, his expression equal parts shock and pride. “Seriously?”

I shrug and take a long drink.  “Yeaaaaaah.”

“I’m both jealous and intigued,” Asmo says, curling a lock of my hair around his finger.

“Asmo!  Get your filthy hands of Arianthi!”  Mammon yells again. 

He whirls around to look at Solomon.  “When the hell did this happen?” 

Mammon turns back to look at me.  “I thought I was supposed to be your first man?”

I stare into my drink, knowing I have nothing to feel guilty about but feeling guilty anyway. 

Solomon looks at him and shrugs calmly.  “It was Asmo’s turn and he’s asked one question.  I believe that’s all I’m obligated to answer.”

“You motherfu-” 

“Ok, so I think it’s Diavolo’s turn,” Asmo interrupts.

“Solomon, truth or dare?”  Diavolo looks unusually serious. 

The brothers and Simeon all turn to look at Solomon, waiting on his answer.

Well, damn.  

I chug some more of my drink, already dreading where this is going.  

“Truth.”

Goddamn you Solomon.  Goddamn you and your magic dick and your pretty face.

“When did you and Arianthi have your little encounter?”  Diavolo’s tone is cool, his expression unusually serious. 

Lucifer tenses next to him, while Barbatos is almost smiling.  

Once again, Solomon is the epitome of calm.  “The first week of the exchange.”

Solomon directs his next comment at Mammon.  “At that time I believe you were still refusing to call her by her name and doing anything you could to avoid your responsibilities towards her.” 

Solid point Solomon.  Solid point.  

Mammon starts to stand but is yanked down roughly by Beel.  

“Your turn Mammon,” Diavolo says, not taking his eyes off of Solomon.

These motherfuckers. 

I realize what’s happening a moment too late. 

They’re working together.  Assholes. 

I scowl are the carpet. 

Belphie wraps his arms around my waist and hugs me.  He realizes what’s happening too.  I relax a little more when I feel Asmo's hand squeeze mine.  

“Solomon, truth or dare?”

“Truth.”  

Of course Solomon isn’t going to back down from their little game.  

I finish my drink and start in on Belphie’s. 

Lucifer attempts to cut in. “Maybe you should choose someone who hasn’t gone twice in a row Mammon.”

“Nonsense.  We play by the human rules,” Diavolo answers before Mammon can.

Lucifer sits back and waits for Mammon’s question like the rest of us. 

“Where did this little hook up happen huh?  ‘Cuz it sure didn’t happen here, I woulda known about it.”  Mammon is straight up pissed and my guilt is slowly turning into annoyance. 

He has no right to be angry over something that happened months ago, before we had even started hanging out.  He didn’t have a claim on me then.  Shit, he doesn’t even have a claim on me now.  

“At the library.”  Solomon smirks.  “If you would like specifics on where in the library- on one of the study tables, against a bookshelf, in front of the window that looks out over the quad, and in one of the armchairs.”

Diavolo and Lucifer look like they’re in shock, Simeon looks like he desperately wants to be anywhere else, Beel is still eating cake not even tuned into what’s happening, Levi turns red and stares intently at the carpet, while Asmo, Belphie, and Satan are outright giggling.  Barbatos just looks at me with a smirk.

“Wha-?”  Mammon is so angry he can’t even speak.

“It was a busy afternoon.”  Solomon takes another drink, looking at Mammon over the rim of his glass.

I snort into my own drink, laughing, Asmo’s giggles infecting me. 

Mammon looks at me, a mixture of rage and hurt on his face.  “You really think this is funny?  Him just spouting out your business like you’re just some -”

“Some what?”  Belphie interrupts, suddenly alert.

Mammon bites back a response.  “Nothing,” he mumbles.  

Belphie looks up at me from his position in my lap.  “I think I’d like to take a turn now.  Arianthi, truth or dare?”

“Dare.”  

There is no way possible this night can get any worse.  Might as well just go hard in the paint.

“I dare you to kiss,” Belphie trails off as he looks around the group.  “Levi.”

Levi’s head shoots up so fast I’m afraid he cracks his neck, while Mammon lets out a low growl of pure rage.  

I shrug and finish off Belphie’s drink, before I slowly crawl across the carpet to Levi.  When I reach him I throw one leg over him and straddle his lap.  

Levi is blushing so hard I can almost feel the heat radiating off his face.  

I put my hands on his shoulders and lean down to whisper in his ear.  “Hey, if you’re uncomfortable or you don’t want to do this we don’t have to.  I’ll make Belphie give me something else.”

Levi doesn’t say anything for a long moment, refusing to meet my eyes.  

“It’s ok Levi, I don’t want this if you don’t,” I reassure him as I move to get off of his lap.  

His hands shoot out and grip my hips, firmly settling me down into his lap.  

“I want this,” he whispers so softly I can barely hear him.

I can feel everyone’s gaze on us as I tip Levi’s chin up so I can look at him.  He’s still a little flushed, looking nervous but also excited.  I can feel his hands shaking as he holds onto my hips.  

I gently bring my mouth down to his.  I can hear the wolf whistles and Mammon’s shout of anger before I devote my full attention to the kiss. 

Levi is clumsy at first, pressing his lips a little too roughly against mine.  I lick at his lower lip, encouraging him to open his mouth, flicking his tongue with mine when he allows me access.  He moans into my mouth at the intimate contact, sliding his hands under my robe to stroke my back, before pulling me down while simultaneously thrusting up against me.  

My eyes fly open at the contact and I gasp, giving Levi an opening to fully explore my mouth with his tongue.  I eventually pull away, giving his lower lip a little bite before I rest my forehead against his. We’re both panting a little, and I reluctantly pull away from him to return to my spot next to Asmo and Belphie.

I sneak a look at Diavolo and Mammon.  Diavolo looks extremely displeased and Mammon looks like he wants to murder Levi.  Mammon glares at me with something like betrayal on his face.  I return his look with a stubborn one of my own.  

He doesn’t own me.  He can’t even admit that he cares about me.  

“Damn.” Belphie smirks at me as I reclaim my seat.  

“Ok Satan, your turn,” he calls across the room to his brother.  

“Mammon, truth or dare?” 

Oh no.  That’s the smile that means nothing good is about to happen. 

I try to telepathically beg Satan to forget whatever he has planned.   

“Truth I guess.”  Mammon shrugs.

“How do you really feel about Arianthi?”  Satan asks. 

Oh no.  No no no no no.  Belphie and Satan are trying to force Mammon to say how he really feels about me.  On one hand, yes, he needs to admit it or quit trying to claim me.  On the other hand.......this could be a total disaster.

Every eye in the room is now fixated on Mammon.

“Whaddaya mean?”  Mammon scowls.

“It’s pretty obvious that you have a crush on her.  Do you want to date her?  Will you miss her when the exchange program is over?  Or would you want her to stay?” 

Mammon shrugs.  “What do I care what some stupid human does?  She leaves and it’ll be like she was never here.  Not like I’d ever date her, I’m THE great Mammon after all.  I’m a damn model............. if somebody’s going to be with me they have to look good.  I’m one of the lords of the Devildom, why would I settle for some chubby, average looking human?”

Suddenly all the air is sucked out of the room.  I can only focus on Mammon.  I halfway register Belphie sitting up and Asmo gasping next to me.  I can’t breathe.  He could have broken one of my bones and it would have hurt less.  Suddenly the old chorus of doubts begin running through my mind. 

Not good enough, not skinny enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough, never never never enough. 

I’m on my feet before I realize what I’m doing.  “I uh, I’m going to run to the bathroom real quick.”  

I’m faintly aware of Diavolo trying to grasp for my hand before I bolt out of the living room and up the stairs to my bedroom.  

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

Solomon looks at Mammon stoically.  “You really are the stupidest demon in the entire Devildom.”

“I can’t believe you said that,” Simeon scolds.  “That was unnecessarily cruel Mammon.” 

The twins glare at him while rage twists Asmo’s delicately pretty features.  “You asshole!  You complete and total scumbag!  If I could set you on fire I would!” 

“I didn’t know this was going to happen,” Satan says softly, a guilty look on his face.

“No one blames you,” Lucifer reassures him, while Barbatos and Diavolo nod in agreement. 

Levi glances nervously at the door, wondering if he should go after Arianthi. 

I don’t want her to hurt herself.  I don’t know how she’ll take this.  And I’m the only one who really knows........

“Why’s everybody all mad at me?”  Mammon asks, throwing his hands up in the air.  “I just answered Satan’s damn question.” 

Levi snaps.  “You know why?  Because we all know it was a bullshit answer!  We all know you want her but for whatever stupid reason you won’t admit it!  She cares about you even though you’d sell her for a fucking Grimm and you bounce back and forth between being jealous and treating her like she’s replaceable! She’s deserves so much more than you.  So much fucking more.”

Levi launches himself at Mammon and the room erupts into utter chaos.  

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

I open the door to my room as quietly as I can and sigh in relief when I see Luke is still asleep.  I pass my hand over the closed door, murmuring the words to the spell that Solomon taught me to ward the door against demons.  Only humans and angels can pass through. 

I can’t handle seeing the boys or Diavolo right now.  

I numbly gather up some clothes as I make my way to my bathroom.  Belphie’s sweats.  Beel’s t-shirt.  Levi’s hoodie.  

I drop the clothes on the tile floor and softly click the lock.  I lower the robe Asmo gifted me and look at myself in the mirror.  

Fat arms.  Thick legs with cellulite on my thighs.  Love handles.  

I pinch at the excess skin and fat on my stomach and feel the oncoming sting of tears. 

It’s stupid to be surprised by this.  So fucking stupid.  Stupid to get your hopes up.  Of course he doesn’t care about me.  He’s right.  He’s absolutely right. 

Panic starts to rise as my shoulders tense up and my stomach clenches.  I struggle to control my breathing as I remember everything I’ve ate and drank tonight.  

Get it out, get it out, get it out.  Do better, be better, be worthy. Get it out.

I turn on the shower to drown out any noise and I reach for my toothbrush on the sink.  I kneel in front of the toilet as I gag myself.  I’m vaguely aware of someone knocking on the door and I think I hear Luke’s voice.  I ignore it.

Get it out.  Do better.  Have more control.  Be better.  Be worthy. 

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

Luke runs out of Arianthi’s room and down the stairs, speeding towards the living room where he can hear raised voices.

“Hey!”  He gasps, screeching to a halt just inside the doorway.  

He’s momentarily speechless watching the scene unfolding.  Mammon has a bloody lip, while Levi has the beginnings of a black eye.  Beel restraints Levi and Lucifer holds onto Mammon.  Everyone is screaming except for Barbatos and Simeon who are backed into a corner, out of the fray.

“Hey!” Luke shouts.  He shrinks back as every gaze in the room turns to him. 

Simeon crosses the room to stand next to him.  “What’s going on Luke?  Is everything ok?”

“I-I woke up in Arianthi’s room and I heard her in the bathroom.  I think she’s sick,” Luke answers softly.

Levi’s head snaps up.  “What do you mean sick?”

Luke hesitates at the intensity in his voice. 

“What do you mean sick!”  Levi shouts. 

“The shower was on so I couldn’t hear very well but I’m pretty sure she was throwing up.  And crying.  I knocked on the door but she wouldn’t answer me and it was locked, and I was worried so I came looking for you guys because I didn’t know-”

Levi wrenches away with from Beel with a sudden burst of strength and sprints out of the room, moving towards the stairs.  The brothers and Diavolo hesitate for a moment before chasing after him, leaving Luke, Solomon, Barbatos, and Simeon behind.

Luke looks at the others, worried and confused.  “What’s going on?  Is Arianthi going to be ok?”

“I really don’t know,” Simeon whispers. 

[otometearoom]

I Finished Tsumugu Logic!! Overview/Rant

It took me a month, but I finished the last chapter of the game and got the true ending. I will keep playing to get all of the other bad ends, etc. 

I have so so many feels about this game, y’all. I will be highlighting a few chapters in the game, so if you haven’t finished it. Beware of spoilers!!

[MANY SPOILERS/ENDINGS BELOW]

To recount my feelings throughout the game for each character: 

1. Tsumugu is a cutie pie. I actually really related to him, because I’m also at that point in my life where I have to decide what exactly I want to do for the rest of my life. I just finished university, but I’m still unsure about my career ahahah. So, seeing Tsumugu struggle to figure his life out was refreshing. 

2. “Sosei” is so hot. I laid eyes on him and thought, uh-oh, he’s my new addiction ahahah. I would buy his merchandise if there was any. The dude loves sweets (how cute is that) and he has such a good head for mysteries (my dream man). Plus, he’s a tsundere but really cares about Tsumugu, often giving hints and advice to him. He’s a very trustworthy older brother/senpai. I could gush over how much I love Sosei for ages. His drunken habits -> those are to die for. He becomes so lewd and straightforward. I love it. 

“Koyo”, on the other hand, I didn’t like him as much as Sosei. Which is weird, cause I love ikemen. Maybe I’m just drawn more into the withdrawn, mysterious guys?? I do like the concept of twin brothers though. I have a bit of a dirty mind so when the twins said they shared everything, even their gf, I was like ohohoho, 3p? 

I absolutely enjoyed the twins together though. I love seeing them pretend to be the other. I wish they had more of an appearance lol. I could even say that Sosei and Koyo are a scale higher than Tsumugu for me. I wish the twins were the main protagonists ahahah. No offense Tsumugu. 

I’ll just summarize my first impressions for others real quick: 

3. Kotoko - I thought she was cute, but I never really liked her and couldn’t quite pinpoint exactly why. This feeling will come into play later on. So at first, I was like meh, she’s okay, I guess. But, as I learned more about her, I really didn’t like her character that much. I mean, I wouldn’t say I hated her but I didn’t find her as a good fit for Tsumugu. 

- When she told Tsumugu to be a salesman or whatever. I was like, do you even know Tsumugu? Lmao. I didn’t know if it was just me empathizing with Tsumugu cuz I’ve often been told of what I should be, but no one asks what I want to be. 

- When she didn’t want to help Mirei, I thought how odd, for someone who tries to befriend everyone, she’s not doing so well as a heroine. I mean, it was realistic, at least. But, I think the chapter where she admits that she tries really hard to fit in so others will like her was starting to draw some red flags for me. It made me wonder how much of her was ‘real’. Idk if I’m making any sense though.

- When she swung the knife at Tsumugu, I didn’t hate her as much as I did when she swung the knife at Sosei (who protected Tsumugu) and killed him. I was furious then. 

4. Sally - I admit I was really turned off by the girly lolita style. Mainly because I’m more tomboyish irl. But, she had a good sense of justice so I actually liked her. It did come as a shock to me though that she was the “gorilla” girl that was forced to kiss Nozaki. Tbh, I was kinda sad she died at the end. Like, I know she killed Hikone, but I could understand her motive better than I could understand Kotoko’s motive. Maybe cuz I have an older brother and can’t see myself being a brocon? ahahah. 

5. Toma - In terms of hotness, he comes 2nd right after Sosei. He’s a really good friend. And I absolutely adore how he scares ppl with his glare lol. i love yankees ahaha. He’s not afraid to speak his mind. He’s a very solid character.

6. Daimon - My girl crush. High key curious who she’s arranged to marry because her fiance seems boring. Who takes an hour to choose a handkerchief? Anyways, Im sad that Daimon and Sosei never got to meet because I’m low key shipping them. Idk if they’d click well romantically because they’re so similar, but I would’ve loved for some sort of interaction. They’d make for an epic couple, solving mysteries. I really wanna write a fic for them. 

7. Tsukasa Tsukasa - I didn’t like him because of the cheating and blaming on my poor Toma, but after that, he was okay. Plus, he helped write the Tsumugu’s love letter to Kotoko. Which I find is funny, because Kotoko copied Tsukasa’s writing, thinking it was Tsumugu’s. Ahahah. The lesson here, folks, is that don’t use your own handwriting in love letters, you never know if you’re crush will copy said handwriting into your own suicide letter. 

8. Mirei - that girl can sing. I kinda cried after hearing it cuz I was going through something at the time and it really encouraged me. 

9. Landlady & Hikkimori - Both names that I can’t remember off the top of my head. I think both people are fun. The landlady is super supportive. And the hikkimori refusing to talk with Sosei made for a fun dynamic. I genuinely enjoyed seeing Sosei offended. Nice way to see emotions on my fave character. 

10. Other characters (Rindo, Happy, Travel Club Members) - I genuinely did not care enough about ahahah. I think I even enjoyed seeing some of them murdered, tbh. They were really horrible people in different ways. 

The Black club members headed under Fumi. Like what? How do you control victims to be assailants and live with yourself to be a future kindergarten teacher? Like what? I couldn’t live with myself if I was her. Plus, her disproportionately large boobs were really weirding me out. I can’t believe Yu died all because Fumi wanted to f*ck him. It’s like one day you’re living your best life and someone thinks, ah, I wanna ruin this person. 

Don’t even get me started with Nozaki. That dude is a piece of trash. Human garbage. He knows how it feels to be a victim and yet thinks it’s his right to assault women. I wanted to slap that guy so hard. So many times. He was like the boy who cried wolf. He kept pretending to be dead and eventually died in the hands of Kotoko. XD I wonder what his last thoughts were. To have died in the hands of someone he trusted. 

Hikone was another nutcase. From what I understood, he just saw everyone else as characters in his book. Sure, he didn’t physically harm anyone, but doing nothing and observing is just as much of a crime as committing it. 

Shun. I never really like cutesy guys. But when he turned out to be an ex-pimp plus lover of Fumi, he fell off the likeable scale. 

Yoshimoto being an uncontrollable drunk murderer was the only thing needed to complete the psycho Travel Club members. Tbh, I thought he was the one behind the killings at first ahaha. 

Suguha. I thought she was a tough chick. It was cool to know that she had another motive to get closer to Fumi. Because I thought it was weird how she took her cellphone at the BBQ restaurant. It’s nice to know that SEEC still foreshadows like that. 

[katpapple]

A Test of Courage

A Test of Courage

A Banri x Kat fanfic

This is a self ship fic, uwa. Hope you like it! qwq

Focus was drawn to the tv screen as the competition occupies his attention. Well, most of it anyway. Banri’s brow furrowed, his eyes narrowing with a frustrated growl. Itaru on the other hand had a completely stone faced expression, magenta irises honed in on the fight as he won the match once again. The younger man let out a sigh of defeat, rubbing his temples in small circles.

“Dammit…” He muttered. Banri’s skills were rusted. Though they shouldn’t have been; he practiced fighting the character Itaru was good at with her, after all. What was causing him to feel so distracted? His mind was drifting all over the place to so many different thoughts, but it always went back to those smoky blue eyes - that rosy cheeked smile - and those wavy blond locks. The image left a lasting imprint, one that was shaking him to the core. 

“Wow, your game was off today,” Of course Itaru noticed. “Alright, spill it. What’s going on?” And go figure he would want to know what’s on Banri's mind. This made the Autumn Troupe leader groan as he was trying to find good wording.

“It’s nothin’. Must be an off day for me.” Yeah, no kidding. He was just reiterating Itaru’s point. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk, it’s just that the words were escaping him. He didn’t wanna sound like a fool that wasn’t making any sense. Though right now, it felt like nothing was making sense to him. Why did he feel this way again?

“You like Kat a lot, don’t you?”

“Huh?” The brunette took a glance at the man sitting next to him.

“I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that you like her in a romantic sense. Your expressions seem so much more soft and doting around her. Plus, Kazunari said you two eat lunch together more often at class now.”

Shit. Banri’s cover was blown. Light brown strands were slicked back through his fingers as he tried not to keel over from the blatantly humiliating callout from Itaru. Now he remembered why he was so off today. It was Kat; She was all Banri could think about right now. He thought about playing it cool, feigning ignorance, but that wouldn't work. Not when Itaru knew him well enough to pick up on his mood just from his performance when gaming. A disgruntled sigh left slightly chapped lips, and Banri rested his chin in the palm of his hand.

"I don't know what it is about her, but-" He paused. "Whenever I'm near her lately, I kinda freeze up and I can feel my face getting warmer." Honestly, it pissed him off a little. He thought he sounded so stupid; getting this flustered around a girl he'd known for about a year now made him feel like some sort of protagonist from a romance anime. Even now, he felt his face rise in temperature, and he could deduce that his cheeks were definitely flushed. God, he felt so hopeless.

"Wow." A reaction that caught the young man off guard.

"The hell do you mean by that?" The question caused Itaru to chuckle, a smile decorating his face with mischief.

"Sounds to me like your life's not in super ultra easy mode anymore, am I right?"

The worst part was that Banri couldn't disagree.

"Ha ha, very funny Itaru," He replied in a mocking tone. "Though, I ain't gonna say that you're wrong. Cuz you're not."

"Well, if I'm not wrong, what's stopping you? Are you scared of rejection?"

"Ha! Scared of rejection? I'm Banri goddamn Settsu," He said that with a smile that so painfully indicated he was scared. "I can bet if I confessed to her right now, she'd be-"

"Banri, I know you're lying." That sentence… Why did it cut so deep? It shouldn't. It was true, of course, but the fact he wasn't able to get away with it made him feel like a deer in the headlights. An anxious pang in his chest only grew as Itaru continued.

"Just like always, you're afraid of losing. Typical Banri mannerisms for you, I guess." 

"A'ight, ya don't have to rub it in, bastard…" Both men let out soft laughter. Though Banri's was born out of fear. It pulsed in his heart, every scenario in his head playing out with the worst possible outcome. These feelings of longing- of teenage anxiety- of a racing heartbeat and lovesick laughter- all of it was so foreign. So exciting. Yet all the same, incredibly terrifying.

"It's just… she's such a cool person, y'feel me?" Banri started. "I mean, she's smart, she's kind, and so freaking talented on stage. And whenever I see her smile and gush over something she loves, her face lights up and it's just so fuckin' cute." At that moment, he snickered, looking at Itaru eye to eye for the first time in that conversation. "And, shit, don't get me started on how her occasional moments where she gets a bit flighty and airheaded make me so damn happy. Like, she can be so mature and caring, but also a bit of a klutz who doesn't always think things through, but also super passionate and energetic, just-"

"Your perfect girl, right?" Banri nodded in agreement with Itaru's statement. In all senses, to Banri, Kat was perfect. Even with all the little flaws and quirks, like her occasional bursts of temper, the way her face flushed tomato red when embarrassed, it was all lovely to him. The two of them got along so well, but he remembered that it’d be likely she’d just like to be friends. 

“I wanna tell her. I want her to know how much she makes me smile, man. I want her to know how god damn beautiful she is. But I don’t wanna make things awkward between us either, y’know?” This elicited a tired look from Itaru.

“Dude, it’s gonna be awkward within the first stages of dating anyhow. Better to tell her and at least get your feelings out and face rejection rather than keep going down this back and forth with yourself.”

“Well how the hell am I supposed to do that?!” The blonde shrugged.

“Meh, I dunno. Never dated anyone so I’m useless in that department.” That just turned Banri’s frustration into desperation.

“At least give me something, dude!” An eye roll from Itaru.

“Look, the best advice I can give is ask to talk to her and see where things go from there. Tell her how you feel about her. Y’know, regular confession stuff.”

“Guess that’s a start…” That unfortunately didn’t do much to settle the nerves from the realization that- oh no- he had to confess to the woman he’s slowly grown to pine for this past year and a half. This wasn’t going to be easy, he knew that for sure.

The next morning makes itself known to Banri from the sun’s rays tickling his face, and the absence of Juza’s snoring. It was the weekend, so he didn’t really have anything to do. Accept… he DID have something to do. Something he desperately didn’t want to do, but wanted to do at the exact same time. He could smell breakfast from his room. Pancakes and bacon. It distracted him from the nervous sensation in his stomach.

After a quick shower, he walks down the stairs, sleep still leaving him in a daze as he reaches the dining room. Pretty much everyone was here, save for Itaru and Masumi who were sleeping in. Kat was on the couch, sketchbook in her hands as she waited for Omi to finish breakfast. She looked up from the paper in Banri’s direction, and gave him a soft smile that melts him into a puddle of happiness.

“Morning, BanBan.” BanBan. A nickname she gave him that she used for some lighthearted fun. It caught him off guard, and he thought it was silly, but after a while, he really grew to love it. It was a nice little term of endearment to the both of them. Though mainly, she was too cute to say no to. Her laughter whenever she used it was enough to get him to laugh along from how infectious it was. Banri sat next to his fellow classmate, and gave a half smile in return.

“Mornin’ Kat. Good to see your face. Always brightens my mood.” A light giggle and a faint hint of blush on those already rosy red cheeks caught Banri’s attention. 

“Aww, look at you being all sweet and charming today. Who are you, and what have you done with Banri?”

“Pfft, wow, rude.” The two of them laughed quietly so as to not disturb everyone else. Lord knows Sakyo would be up their asses for it later if they were too loud. “For the record, I’m nice and charming all the time. I’m Banri Settsu after all.” That got Kat to snort.

“Oh my god, that’s so corny, I love it.” Banri chuckled at that. 

“Yeah, it was, my bad.” Then the fear returned. He could hear his heart beating like a hammer, and his hands quivered ever so slightly. “Hey uh… after breakfast, could I tell you somethin’ at the park?” Kat raised her brows inquisitively.

“Huh? Oh, sure!” On cue, Omi called everyone to the dining room. Breakfast was ready. Kat set down her drawing supplies, and made her way to the table, Banri following suit behind her. Today’s breakfast was simple, pancakes, bacon and hard boiled eggs. Kat smiled happily; they were some of her favorite things to eat for breakfast.  Banri sat across from her, the both of them eating in silence aside from occasionally joining in for small talk with others at the table. Though Banri had a hard time eating at all. The anxiety from what he would have to do later made his appetite seem smaller today. He excused himself after only finishing about half his plate, which surprised everyone at the table. He gave a quick tap to the young woman’s shoulder. 

“Just meet me there, ok?” A nod accompanied by a hum of confirmation from Kat was Banri’s cue to leave. His shoulders tensed up as he left, putting on his shoes before starting a jog to the park. The whole time he ran, he could feel his resolve waver more than it already was. ‘What if it isn’t worth it? What if she’ll feel uncomfortable?’

‘What if we’ll never be the same after this?’

It scared him so bad. And it manifested into tears threatening to spill and pour down his cheeks. His mouth felt dry, his breath laboured as he sprinted frantically to the park, stopping in his tracks at the park’s fountain before it all broke loose. Choked sobs left him as he tried to catch his breath. His lip quivered as tears rolled down his cheeks. Banri tried to collect himself, wiping his eyes and nose, and steadying his shaky breath. This break in confidence made him feel so stupid. He felt ashamed for being so afraid. He felt even more stupid because he knew Kat would ask what’s wrong. He didn’t want her to worry. He wasn’t used to it. His parents never paid much attention; he was perfect at everything. Right now though, he was far from that supposed perfect man he was. He was vulnerable; he was second guessing himself. If Kat saw him like this - all clumsy and anxious over a confession - what would she think of him? 

“Banri?” That voice made his heart sink. He felt like he was in such deep shit right now. His blood ran cold, but his face was red from crying.

“Banri, are okay? Oh god, were you crying?” Her worried tone made Banri feel so secure, but it was so odd to him. The young man wanted to brush it off, say it was nothing, but that was a lie he knew she’d see through. ‘Fuck it,’ He thought. ‘Might as well follow through on what you told yourself you were gonna do Banri.’

“Yeah, uh… I was.”

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“Nah, nah. Well, I mean- I guess? I just- I dunno, I kinda got something on my mind and it’s really stressin’ me out.” A hand came to Banri’s back; a reassuring touch to let him know he was ok. 

“Do you wanna talk about it? I’m always here for you, BanBan.” That smile that followed her words felt so warm and welcoming. And the way she said ‘BanBan’ was so different from any other time she said it. In most instances, it was used to joke around with him when they were messing around being idiots together. Here, it was affectionate, and born of concern for her friend’s well being. Somewhere in his heart, Banri felt it wasn’t ok to be open with her despite her reassuring he could tell her. But right now, he didn’t care about his worries. His brain was silently screaming at him right now to get it out, to just go for it even if you two just stay friends. That was ok with him. It may be a bit awkward for a while if she doesn’t reciprocate, but that wouldn’t change how much he liked spending time with her as a friend to begin with. Worries be damned, he supposed it was at least worth a shot.

“Yeah, thanks.” Deep breaths. In and out. “So, I’ve kinda debated back and forth since the last week or so whether or not I should tell you this, cuz I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. But I wanted to tell you how I feel about you, cuz I have a lot on my mind about a lot of stuff. Ever since we started hanging out over the past year, I’ve kinda started to feel really anxious around you. My heart races, my face gets all red and shit, and I start losing my words.  I really don’t wanna beat around the bush with this but I- I really like you. Like, romantically.”

Silence. It hung over for about a couple seconds, but to Banri it felt like a fucking eternity. At this point one could drop a pin and it would be heard that was how silent it was at that moment. But shock filled the young man’s sapphire eyes when Kat took his hand and held it. She cast a little glance, before looking away with a timid smile. She looked like a blushing bride. Banri didn’t know what to do he was so nauseous from the anxiety, but somehow, gently reciprocating the touch felt so natural and normal. Their eyes finally met, and Kat had a really goofy smile. It was lopsided, and one could tell she was happy but also really nervous. Her face was red, which was unsurprising given she’d get like that when she’d be caught singing by the other company members.

“Y’know, I uh… I’ve kinda wanted to tell you the exact same thing so I’m like, really happy right now.”

“Wait, really?” Kat nodded fervently.

“Yes! Y-Yes I- God, I’ve felt so scared too cuz I really didn’t wanna make things awkward between us if you didn’t feel the same way, But you’re just really fun to be around, you’re really handsome, and I love watching you act cuz you try super hard, and it makes me wanna try just as hard too! A-And I really wanna make you as happy as you make me, so… um…! Yeah, I-I really like you, like, a whole lot!”

Banri’s eyes widened in awe. Was this real? Was this a dream? He wasn’t sure, but a big smile spread across his face, and he started to laugh in relief.

“Holy shit, can I hug you please?” She nodded, and Banri hugged her so tight. He felt so happy. It may have been silly of him to cry tears of joy, but nonetheless he did. Just when he thought the tears had dried up, the euphoria made all the emotions rise up to the surface again. He pulled back to look at Kat, and she was crying too. Looks like she was just as scared as well. It made him feel a little better about everything. Banri tenderly brushed his thumb across her cheek, wiping away her tears.

“God, I knew you were adorable, but do you have to have such a cute smile?”

“What can I say? I guess I’m like your little ball of sunshine.”

“You’re damn right about that,” Banri placed a featherlight peck on the cheek. “I love you so much, Kat.”

“Love you too, Banri.”

Those words made him happy. So, so happy. Right now, time stood still. He wanted to stay like this. To stay close, in a warm embrace, pressing gentle, nervous kisses to each other’s lips. And right now, in this little moment, they would stay like this for at least half an hour. Banri vowed to himself, as they both stayed comfortable in that blanket of love, that he would make her so damn happy. Lucky for him, he was already well on his way.

[daily-dose-of-imagines]

(っ◔◡◔)っ 𝕄𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝕌𝕡♡

hii,, hope you two are doing well uwu. ok so far, ive only been requesting stuff n i figured might as well just ask for a matchup too lol,,,for knb, haikyuu, free, and fire force (i know ur rules said only 3 so it can be any three from those 4 lol) 

my name’s lily and uh basic stuff..i’m a female high school student around 156cm maybe 157 on a good day;3 im bi but with more of a preference for guys (who are tall, like as long as ur a tall guy/girl whatever, i will prolly automatically start simping akdhfj) 

i have long black hair that’s usually straight but on a slightly wavy side. my skin’s like a light-ish brown and my eyes are chocolate brown,, or so i’m told. i’m on the more busty side and would say i’m fairly curvy(?) but my grandma keeps saying i’m skinny and need to eat more:))speaking of eating, its like absolutely one of my favorite things ever lolol (so yeah kinda contradictory lol)

according to a test i did i’m ESTP-A altho i don’t rlly know much about personality types so i can’t say for sure if that’s accurate. even tho i’m usually extroverted i can be pretty introverted a times to so(?) ambivert(?) i guess. pisces (but i wouldn’t say i’m a perfect example of a pisces) im somewhat emotional and yeah kinda artistic i guess, just not in drawing lol. i can do other stuff well just not drawing akjdj,,,school-wise i do pretty well despite being lazy and procrastinating a lot (i guess you could say i’m the aomine of academics🤪) oh yeah im also on the school volleyball team and a few other “academic” clubs (MUN, etc.) i can also play the piano altho i don’t rlly play classics,,mainly anime songs akjdjd. yes, i’m a major weeb. my room’s full of posters and manga and my wallet’s full of emptiness;-;

ok some more random things about me…i’m apparently rlly impulsive, i am a pretty confident person but like i still panic a lot before competitions or anything like that ajhdjd also when i panic, i ramble…a lot. actually i think i ramble a lot on a daily basis regardless of whether or not i’m panicking oop— uh back to the confidence thing, if it’s in terms of a crush or someone i like, i don’t hesitate to confess or anything like that unless the situation is kinda complicated and it’d be hard to be together or like i’m not 100% sure of my feelings stuff like that,, basically i don’t rlly have much of a fear of rejection(?) but maybe that more cuz i haven’t rlly liked liked anyone THAT much yet. oh ohh i lovee baking esp. cookies altho i get lazy a lot so i haven’t been baking as much. ah yes another thing about me my brother will never stop teasing me about…my fear of fish:) they creep me out ok. i love snakes and crocs tho so uh ?? idk i’m weird like that lolol. oh yeah i have a little brother and sister so a lot of people see me as the “responsible older sister”. is that true? i’d say yes, my bro n sis would say no🤡. one last thing, i love elephants more than anything in this world🥺🥺💗

oof ok that was pretty long— sorryyy and thank you for taking time to read through all this akhdjf 

»»————-　♡　————-««

Hello @pinkcowgirleggpanda~! Thank you for your request~! I’ll be handling the KnB portion of your match-up~! ^^

» » Admin Ko

And I’ll be doing the other two! Thank you for choosing us and I am so sorry this took so long to get out ;;!

>Admin 𝕋

𝕀 𝕊𝕙𝕚𝕡 𝕐𝕆𝕌 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙…

ᴛᴇᴘᴘᴇɪ ᴋɪʏᴏꜱʜɪ

Precious iron heart~! Despite his persona on the court, he’s actually a very sweet, protective, and kind spirit~! He is definitely your stable and solid rock in any situation / scenario you might find yourself in~! In terms of being emotional, he’s rather in touch with his emotions and will definitely be able to help ground you or at least bring you back to sensible ground if your emotions get the better of you and make you more stressed out than need be.

Other then that, he’s super curious and interested about your hobbies~! He likes to support you and honestly will keep you in line if you happen to stray too far from what needs to be done. He won’t really lecture you, but he’ll remind you that to get out of the hell that’s called school you gotta at least finish with passing. He wants to see you succeed and will feel bad if you happen to fall into a slump or a mood where you end up upset at yourself. 

He will definitely be out to support you at any an all of your games~! He’ll always be in the stands with the other Seirin members to support~! (Really he drags them against their will, but they end up coming on their own to support you after seeing how cool it was)

Teppei will definitely be a big help on your impulsive moments. He loves and worries over you and will definitely evaluate a situation quick enough so he can decide whether or not what you’re doing is good or not. He thinks it’s absolutely adorable when you ramble and before games he’ll be the one to gently cup your face before pressing a sweet kiss to your forehead for luck in hopes of calming you down. He knows you’re gonna kick ass anyway. 

In terms of PDA, he’s not super handsy, but he does love to let others know that you’re definitely taken. He’ll hand you one of his shirts on a whim if you are in need of one. He let’s you borrow his jackets and hoodies. He’ll always have an arm around you too~! 

⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿　　✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘶𝘬𝘦 𝘠𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘬𝘪

This cool and somewhat overprotective man is definitely someone who would be perfect for you! This man will be able to keep you grounded, and be able to makes sure that you get things done, and not procrastinate your work! One thing that he will really like about you is that fact that you can be super open and inviting with everyone you meet, but then be amazed at how when you are by yourself you are quiet and just overall a soft. The contrast will be intriguing to him!

You say that you are impulsive, and he can help you  with that no problem! Help you stay out of your head and keep you in a calm state of mind, so you don’t do anything impulsive and start panicking about something! He understand the feel of anxiety so he will do anything he can to make sure you don’t always feel that when you are around him!

He’ll take into account that you eat a lot, and will use it to his advantage so that whenever you guys are on a date, he will literally buy you food the whole and loves watching you eat until your heart’s content. He loves seeing your face when you enioy the food that you eat. It’s one of the reasons why he started liking you, because of how open you are with things that you like and enjoy.

He will think it is absolutely hilarious that you have a fear of fish, like I mean he won’t outright say it, but in his mind he will think it is funny, but adorable. Another thing that made him like you, only because it was so charming to him.

Physical features and PDA: He won’t necessarily care for PDA, as in if you were to want to engage in pda he will, but he won’t ever actively want to do excessive pda if that makes sense lolol. He won’t care if you are skinny, but it will be easier for when he wasn’t to pick you up and throw you in a fun way! And with your hair I feel like he will love just to put his hands through absently whenever you guys cuddle!

⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿　　✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

ᴛᴏʙɪᴏ ᴋᴀɢᴇʏᴀᴍᴀ

One word, chaotic. But in a good way! See you and Kageyama would like two puzzle pieces, and the reason being is because he is emotionally stupid, that you can definitely help him with that! I mean, seriously, he needs some help. Help him. Anyways, you and Kageyama will have a blast with each other; he will be the type of person where your mental battery doesn’t get drained because he is just a quiet as you can be and just as soft. The cuddles would be endless and amazing because of this.

He will like how confident you are, from confessing to someone to being confident in competitions and such. And if he were to see you that you are panicking, he will do his best to calm you down. Key phrase here is do his best. He might not be that good at it, but you love the spirit. He is more of an introvert so him trying to make you feel better is gonna take a toll on him, but he will do it to make you feel better! Because he loves you!

This boi will love that you eat so much. He will have literal eating contest with you and then pass out when you win and he ate too much food. He’ll like how you aren’t afraid to show your “boyish” for lack of a better word. He’ll also love that you play volleyball and will want to play with you all the time. I mean it. All the time. Literally will push a volleyball in your face until you say yes to him, and then he’ll stop when he is satisfied.

Kageyama, when he finds out that you bake will definitely want to eat some of your baking! You’ll mention it in a passing way, and he’ll stop you in your conversation and immediately want you to bake for him, which you obviously can’t, but you think it’s either way and tell him you will the next day! Next day comes around and he scarfs down the cookies like he depends on it, and when done will give you kiss as thanks. It’s kind of gross though because his mouth is still full lololol.

Physical features and pda; Like Sousuke, he isn’t one to actively look for pda, but if you were to hold his hand or cuddle with him in public, he will unconciously respond to you, he will really not think about and it’s the most adorable thing ever! He will just lean into and play with your curly hair and not really think anything of it. He will get laughed at by his friends, and he will be embarrassed but he won’t stop once he gets started! You are also just very huggable to him!

[puppypaw-wc]

i just wanted to ramble ‘bout undertale... hhhhhhhh.

aka me just describing the whole plot of the game... this one’s just the ruins tho cuz i don’t think tumblr would let me type out the whole game’s plot in detail.

i understand if y’all don’t wanna see this so it’s under the cut.

soooo uh. the opening “cutscene”/whatever you call it is just a few images with text explaining the events prior to the game.

“long ago, two races ruled over earth: humans and monsters. one day, war broke out between the two races. in the end, the humans were victorious. they sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell. many years later . . . mt. ebbot. 201X. legends say those who climb the mountain never return...”

the last frames show a human who you’d at first assume to be the player character climbing the mountain and falling in; however, it is not the player character (frisk), as the human in the intro only has one stripe on their shirt, while frisk’s shirt has two.

anyways after that you get presented with the start menu (it’s track is creatively entitled, you guessed it, start menu!) with instructions on how to play the game. once you start, you get to name the fallen human.

now, this is honestly kinda ingenious. it doesn’t say “name your character”, it doesn’t say “what is your name?”; no, it says “name the fallen human”.

there’s also responses to some specific names.

like if you name yourself “fight” (or something like that) or “mercy”, the response is “that’s a little on the nose, isn’t it?”, though the name’s still allowed to be used.

naming yourself one of the main characters’ names (or however much can fit) also elicits special responses, and most of them aren’t allowed to be used, but there’s a couple instances of them being usable. like papyrus’ name is too long so if you enter “papyru” as your name the response is “I’LL ALLOW IT” and the name’s allowed to be used. the names “blooky” or “napsta” (as in napstablook) are also allowed, with the response being “... (they are powerless to stop you)”. my favorite is either naming yourself “flowey” or “temmie” tho.

the name “flowey” gets the response “i already CHOSE that name” (flowey had the ability to reset/save/etc. before frisk) with it not being allowed, while naming yourself “temmie” gets the response “hOi!!!” as a reference to the species of temmie (temmie is best undertale character /hj) and is allowed. it used to make tem flakes heal more but that was removed for some reason.

ANYWAYS the game starts after you name yourself (the “true name” is chara, which elicits the response “the true name”, so i’ll be referring to “the fallen human” as such). you start out with your armor as the bandage and your weapon as the stick... both of which have 0 of their corresponding stat.

in the next room, you meet a talking flower, who introduces himself.

“howdy! i’m flowey! flowey the flower! hmm, you’re new to the underground, aren’t’cha? golly, you must be so confused! someone oughta teach ya how things work around here. (oop i’m listening to the undertale ost and finale started playing-fitting-) guess lil’ old me will have to do? ready? let’s go!”

you then find yourself in a battle. on the bottom of the screen, there’s two things: your LV, which is 1 at the time, and your hp, which is 20/20. in the middle of the screen is the bullet board, with a red heart inside. flowey’s above the bullet board. oh, and in battles, everything’s black and white other then the heart and some attacks.

“see that heart? that’s your SOUL. the very culmination of your being! your SOUL starts off weak, but grows stronger with LV. what’s LV stand for? why, LOVE, of course! you want some LOVE, don’t you? *he winks* down here, love is spread through little, white... “friendliness pellets”. go on! collect as many as you can!”

now, here, there’s two options: run into the “friendliness pellets” (which makes this part go by faster) or dodge them, which elicits some funny responses from flowey.

“hey buddy. you missed them. let’s try this again, shall we?”

“is this a joke? are you brain dead? RUN. INTO. THE. BULLETS friendliness pellets.”

“you know what’s going on here, don’t’cha? you just wanted to see me SUFFER. who would pass up an opportunity like this? DIE.”

running into them elicits basically the same thing as the last response, though he states that “in this world, it’s kill or be killed” first. i also don’t remember what he says if you run into them cuz i always dodge them... cuz it’s funny...

you find your SOUL surrounded with the “friendliness pellets”, and it seems that you’re doomed to death... but when they hit you, instead of harming you, they heal you.

flowey gets a confused look on his face before he’s hit with a fireball and goat mom toriel appears!

“what a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth. do not be afraid, my child. i am toriel, caretaker of the ruins. i pass through here everyday to see if a human has fallen. you are the first to have come here in a very long time.”

she also says some other stuff but i don’t remember it so. :shruggie:

anyways, you follow her into the next room, where you find a four-pointed star; a save point.

“the shadow of the ruins looms above, filling you with determination. (HP fully restored).”

this is your first opportunity to save, which is interestingly enough not just a game mechanic; it’s an in-universe feature as well.

(okay wtf undertale ost on shuffle, it played temmie village and then tem shop immediately after, wtf???)

anyways, toriel guides you through (read: does for you) a few puzzles, before you find yourself in a long hallway, where she says she wants to test your independence by making you walk to the end of the hallway by yourself. 

she’s just hiding behind a pillar at the other end of the hallway.

toriel says that she has a few errands to run, and gives you a cellphone before leaving. you can get some funny calls if you do wait, and at the end of it all her phone gets stolen by a dog. despite this, she still calls you when you leave the room. she does actually have special dialogue, though: “My apologies. A strange dog kidnapped my phone.”

anyways, you travel through the ruins, getting encounters with the enemies (froggit, whimsun, loox, vegetoid, moldsmal, migosp), who you can all spare.

i forgot the dummy battle tutorial, basically toriel has a training dummy as a battle tutorial.

things you can do:

talk to it: this makes the battle end, and makes toriel seem happy with you. it’s technically the right thing to do but the others are funnier.

fight it: this kills the dummy, though it doesn’t give you exp, and thus you can still get a true pacifist route.

flee: you run away from the battle and toriel says that it’s a good strategy... but it’s just a dummy, it can’t hurt you and doesn’t seek revenge.

do nothing: if you do nothing for eight turns (including missing attacks), dummy “tires of your aimless shenanigans” and leaves. toriel is confused by this, but continues on as if nothing happened.

whatever you do elicits a different response in a future mini-boss’ pre-battle dialogue, so. yeah.

ANYWAYS!

the ruins’ mini-boss is napstablook, a ghost who, according to themself, “usually comes to the RUINS because there's nobody around”.

to spare them, you need to cheer three times; this makes them show you their “dapper blook” trick, which is a top hat made of tears. they stop attacking to await your response, and if you flirt or cheer, the encounter ends.

also random fun fact: just like with the dummy, killing napstablook doesn’t give you exp, and thus a true pacifist route doesn’t end.

“FIGHTing Napstablook causes them to remind the protagonist that they are a ghost and therefore unable to be killed; they were only lowering their HP to be nice. They then vanish, and the protagonist suffers a loss of one "experience point" (not the same as EXP). This action does not abort the True Pacifist Route since it does not accrue any EXP.”

(x)

oh yeah, did i mention that EXP and LV don’t mean experience points and level?

flowey was actually correct about LV being LOVE. however, it’s an acronym, namely for level of violence. EXP, on the other hand, is an acronym for execution points.

continuing through the ruins and doing some puzzles (one of which includes several holes you must fall through to find a switch, one of which has the faded ribbon, a piece of armor, in it), you can get the toy knife, a weapon, before heading to toriel’s house, where she’s made you a butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

you see, earlier on in the ruins, she asks if you prefer butterscotch or cinnamon (if you’ve reset/loaded a save from after this point, she actually remembers your answer), before asking if you’d turn up your nose at the sight of the other/if you have allergies. there wasn’t enough of both at the store or something along those lines if i remember right.

anyways, you go to sleep in your room (yes, you have your own bedroom and yes, that is pure, and yes, toriel is the best), and she puts a slice of the pie on the floor for you to collect. it’s a healing item that restores all your hp, but i’d recommend saving it honestly.

toriel’s reading in the living room, where you can talk to her and either ask how to leave, or just talk to her. you do have to leave for the game to progress, though.

after asking her how to leave like three or four times, she goes downstairs and talks to you before fighting you, asking you to prove that you’ll be able to survive.

you see...

“Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die. You naive child... If you leave the RUINS... They... ASGORE... Will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand? ... go to your room.”

the fight with toriel is one that people often mess up on, though the strategy for her fight is actually foreshadowed by an npc froggit earlier on in the ruins.

many people think that you have to weaken her, or just end up killing her because they don’t see how else to do it.

so, what does happen if you kill her? well, it depends.

if you attack her once she stops attacking:

“You... ... at my most vulnerable moment... To think I was worried you wouldn't fit out in there... Eheheheh!!! You really are no different than them! Ha... Ha...”

on a neutral route:

“Urgh... You are stronger than I thought... Listen to me, small one... If you go beyond this door, Keep walking as far as you can. Eventually, you will reach an exit. ... .... ASGORE... Do not let ASGORE take your soul. His plan cannot be allowed to succeed. ....... Be good, won't you? My child.“

on a genocide route:

“Y... you... really hate me that much? Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you there. Not you... But them! Ha... ha...”

fun fact: until today my dumbass though that “them” was referring to chara and only just realized that it’s referring to the monsters further in the underground.

and now, it’s time for flowey (slash indicates a break in the text).

on a pacifist route (where you don’t kill anyone):

“Clever. Verrrryyy clever. / You think you're really smart, don't you? / In this world, it's kill or be killed. / So you were able to play by your own rules. / You spared the life of a single person. / Hee hee hee... / I bet you feel really great. / You didn't kill anybody this time. / But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer? / You'll die and you'll die and you'll die.Until you tire of trying. / What will you do then? / Will you kill out of frustration? / Or will you give up entirely on this world...... / and let ME inherit the power to control it? / I am the prince of this world's future. / Don't worry, my little monarch, my plan isn't regicide. / This is SO much more interesting.”

on a genocide route (where you kill everyone, exhausting the kill counter until the “but nobody came” message appears):

“Hahaha... / You're not really human, are you? / No. You're empty inside. Just like me. In fact... / You're Chara, right? / We're still inseperable, after all these years... / Listen. I have a plan to become all powerful. / Even more powerful than you and your stolen soul. / Let's destroy everything in this wretched world. / Everyone, everything in these worthless memories... / Let's turn 'em all to dust.”

(note that by “chara” i mean “whatever you named the fallen human”)

and that’s it for the ruins.

uh. yeah.

sorry for rambling about undertale so much on main, i love it too much.

[afterspark-podcast]

G1 Episode 35: Transcript

Episode Show Notes

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Stinger]

S: It's like, we do get a view of what the robots seem like to the humans and it’s basically that they're massive dumbasses. 

[Intro Music]

O: Hello, and welcome to the Afterspark Podcast, an episode by episode recap of the Generation 1 Transformers cartoon.  I'm Owls.

S: And I'm Specs.

O: And today we're gonna be talking about episode number 35: Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 1. Let's talk about giant robots today, shall we?

S: Sure.

O: And I got a new mic! So hopefully I sound a little bit better because my headset mic was disappointing. 

S: You sound good to me.

O: [Laughter] I'm just hoping for an improvement, quite frankly. Today we open on a wide green field where a scientist is flying an unmanned drone via a remote.

S: The Autobots are, you know, very complimentary towards the- about the drones maneuvers and a few feet away Soundwave clearly wants a break from Decepticon shenanigans and is taking a nap in Ironhide's backseat with Blaster.

O: A very strange booty call, perhaps? 

S: Either that or him and Blaster just have, you know, scheduled naps in and, unbeknownst, to Ironhide he was their next meeting spot.

O: That seems rude to a coworker, but- but what do I know about Autobot co-worker shenanigans? Ravage then ejects from Soundwave, who is still a boom box, uh, before being detained by Blaster.

S: Did Blaster not want Ravage tattling about what they do in their downtime? 

O: Possibly. You mean boombox cuddling? Blaster kind of finishes transforming? He’s like half transformed grabbing Ravage and Soundwave gets bumped out of Ironhide before transforming himself and just flying off.

S: Oh and, to clarify, the entire scuffle with Blaster and Ravage is literally inside Ironhide's, um, caboose? 

O: Yeah they basically-

S: Trunk? I don’t know what-

O: [Laughter] The back part of his van. Basically, Ravage tackles Blaster and they sort of fall back into Ironhide. [Laughter]

S: Yeah. Yeah, it just makes the entire thing pretty awkward.

O: Why? You don't wake up with one of your mortal enemies in your backseat every day, Specs? 

S: Well, I sure as hell hope not.

O: [Laughter] 

S: So, you know, Ironhide it has some, you know,  junk going on in his- in his trunk, you see. 

O: Lord, not again. Why is it always Ironhide? It’s always Ironhide! [Laughter] 

S: He has a lot of space. 

O: This shot is just so awkward, anyway, it definitely looks like Ravage is topping Blaster inside of Ironhide and, I mean, I definitely believe that Ravage is probably a top but wow! That van is just rockin right there. [Laughter] And then Soundwave flies over to Megatron and Starscream who are hanging out upon a convenient verdant hillside.

S: And, honestly, they’re right in plain sight so I don't really get why no one notices them. The Autobots don't notice them. The humans don't notice them. Did they use an invisibility spray again or can we just see them because we're breaking the fourth wall?

O: Ah, I believe that's the power of plot convenience I smell. 

S: Starscream prepares to shoot the drone but Megatron knocks his arm down with a great bonk effect, saying something about needing to be more discreet. 

O: Discreet! You’re all standing out in the open! Soundwave was chilling in Ironhide five minutes ago, for Pete's sake!

S: Starscream says what we're all thinking, “Since when has discretion mattered to us?”

O: Megatron hands over something to him and says to use it on the drone.

S: And then, back to our opening scene, it appears Ironhide has woken up and would like to know what the fuck is going on. 

O: [Laughter] Ravage runs off and Blaster gets dumped on the ground as Ironhide transforms.

S: No one is having a good day.

O: No one is having a good day. [Laughter] 

S: Blaster explains this only as, “Rockin and rollin with savage Ravage,” which does not make it sound any less dirty. 

O: Nope.

S: Or less risque?

O: [Laughter] Ironhide exclaims that they need to tell Prime that, “Decepticons are afoot,” but considering we see the Autobots watching the drone which Starscream is flying directly over I feel like they should probably know already.

S: Yeah, I mean-

O: And- 

S: None of them have very good observational skills, let's just go with that.

O: No they don’t.

S: Except Perceptor. 

O: Yeah, but I don't think Percy's here today so they can't see shit. [Laughter] 

S: Percy's busy doing science. 

O: Percy’s, you know, busy doing his actual job, duh.

S: Man, speaking of the drone, it has a pretty weird design. Like, why does it have cockpits, let alone two? 

O: No freaking idea. Starscream drops the device Megatron gave him onto the drone and then it explodes.

S: Like what was the point of this entire thing? 

O: I don’t- don’t really know what this accomplished at all.

S: Yeah, yeah so Blaster and Ironhide run up to warn Optimus and then Blaster says that he just went three rounds with Ravage.

O: Jesus Christ. you two! This is a children’s show! [Laughter] 

S: So the Autobots roll out to check the wreckage because no one is going to address what Blaster just said.

O: [Laughter] No one- no one is going to address this. Okay!

S: Yeah and so along with them are: Jazz, Hound, and Mirage who were also, I guess, just hanging out doing whatever. 

O: Not fucking Ravage? [Laughter]

S: [Laughter]

O: But Megatron has a scheme while the Autobots are distracted. To which I say he could have just left Ravage in Ironhide’s back seat I feel like that was distracting enough but what do I know?

S: I don't know, man. And- and onwards to a very 80s lab in stylish Autobot orangey-yellow.

O: Don't you just hate it when you're working and the entirety of Decepticon High Command Kool-Aid Man's their way into your workspace?

S: Yeah and, honestly, Starscream just looks weirdly pale in this shot. Maybe imitating the Kool-Aid Man doesn't agree with him. 

O: See I think they just failed to get his makeup right for this shot, don't you?

S: Yeah, yeah, I think that's more likely.

O: [Laughter] 

S: Megatron tells the scientists to hand over the blueprints and he'll let them live.

O: Starscream gets mad and thinks Megatron's being soft and stomps in and picks up one of the scientists, threatening him with his null-ray.

S: It's like, Starscream, I'm not sure what that's- 

O: Helping? 

S: Yeah.

O: How is that helping? 

S: Yeah. The scientist just, like, points out where the blueprints are- are stored and then he's perfectly fine when Starscream just tosses them to the ground so, it’s like, okay? 

O: They go to open the vault, but the Autobots arrive. 

S: Why is the vault so big? Because it's, like, Decepti- it's like giant robot scaled.

O: They have extra big secrets to store inside? 

S: Oh god it's like the ‘her hair’s so big it's full of secrets.’

O: Except a door, a vault. Whatever.

S: Yeah. Oh and Jazz proceeds to distract Starscream with, you know, his loud music and light show.

O: But Megatron is apparently unaffected by this and goes to shoot the Autobots but then his fusion cannon is yanked off his arm by an invisible Mirage.

S: Mirage actually gets to use his ability today! 

O: What a concept.

S: Yeah.

O: And then Megatron basically runs over and kicks Mirage in the nads in an effort to grab his fusion cannon back from him.

S: No one's having a good day. [Laughter] 

O: [Laughter] No one is having a good day. 

S: And then Megs is then seen across the room, beckoning Soundwave and Starscream to follow him out of their Kool-Aid Man hole. 

O: Soundwave and Starscream clearly don't have any peripheral vision to speak of, you know, like the Autobots, and fly off- not noticing that the real Megatron is still very much in the same room as them and very much still trying to get this fusion cannon back from Mirage.

S: A fusion cannon and tug of war just doesn't seem to go well for anyone.

O: Right! Well, they're doing it from the sides, they're doing the smart thing where I don't think they're pulling on the actual barrel but, you know, while it’s pointed at them but still, yes.

S: Yeah, but yeah, you're right no one has peripheral vision or you know any observational skills. 

O: It was funny, too, when we were watching it, cuz even I was like, how the fuck did he get over there? And I totally thought it was an animation error. [Laughter]

S: I mean, if there was smoke or something you could forgive-

O: Yeah, yeah.

S: There is zero smoke. 

O: Yeah, there's nothing, like, you know, making it harder for them to see or anything. 

S: Yeah, and then Optimus comes in out of stage left, kicking Megatron, you know, in his keister, you know, through a wall. 

O: Megatron retreats. 

S: Now we suddenly cut to an amusement park, complete with carnival music and Ferris Wheels!

O: And after some shots of various carnival sites we are greeted with Bumblebee on the teacups with Spike and Carly.

S: This is, like, super poorly drawn but it's functioning like the teacup ride so I guess that's what we're calling it.

O: We gotta call it something. 

S: Or I think- yeah. Huh. Bumblebee is confused about why the ride is supposed to be fun until Carly, you know, just opens him up and turns off his equilibrium circuits.

O: Why-why does Carly know how to do that? Should I be concerned? 

S: She's a super genius and she is not afraid to, you know, effectively do internal surgery on her robot friends.

O: Ain't that the truth. The three of them seem to have a very full day planned as after they leave at the amusement park they go stop by the airport to pick up Sparkplug and, Oh God, Sparkplug is in a suit!

S: He's in a waistcoat, even! Why was he in a suit? Is he their legal representative? Or, perhaps, is he a more traditional flyer? 

O: [Laughter] Most interesting man in the world? 

S: Let's go with both.

O: Why not, why not? 

S: Spike sees two military jets fly into a hangar and questions why they're at a commercial airport.

O: Completely missing that their paint jobs clearly identify them as Thundercracker and Thrust. 

S: Oh god, maybe- maybe those are weirdly common paint schemes in their universe.

O: That- that would be strange. That would definitely be strange. 

S: It would be. I don't know. So, you know, Spike and company follow the mysterious jets and surprise! Decepticons! How did they even get out of the airport?

O: There wasn't airport security in the eighties, Specs.

S: That’s true.

O: Certainly not like there is now, anyway, besides they have, you know, the best pass in the world: the “My Best Friend is a Giant Alien Robot Pass” since Bee was in the airport with them.

S: Yes, but how did he get through the doors? 

O: Pfft- he got into an arcade, I'm pretty sure an airports no problem. Um, Bee calls Prime for backup but they're still cleaning up their mess at the lab they were out previously and Prime calls headquarters, instead.

S: Oh, they're just playing phone tag. So Optimus reaches Wheeljack and deems it necessary to let the Dinobots out of their baby closet.

O: Grimlock’s not happy about the orders, but Wheeljack asked nicely in his best dad voice and at the airport Bee and the Dinobots are then hiding behind a big passenger jet. 

S: God, Bee is so tiny compared to the rest of them, cuz he really comes up to their knees-

O: [Laughter]

S: But I imagine that the airport staff is having a conniption.

O: [Laughter] I would hope. Bee points to the helpfully labeled “Hangar” in all caps and tells the Dinobots the Decepticons are in there.

S: The Dinobots smash their way into the hangar, and into a bickering Starscream and Megatron. How did the airport staff not realize that-

O: Their entire warehouse or um, ware- it's not a warehouse-

S: -Hangar.

O: -Hangar was being used by evil robots? Who the fuck knows. 

S: Cuz, I mean, oh god, maybe someone was paying rent? 

O: I mean- Soundwave! Soundwave clearly set this up and was like- if we're paying rent, they won't bother us. I wouldn't blame him if that was the conclusion you reached.

S: Same!

O: [Laughter] So Slag proceeds to completely melt one of Starscream’s null-rays. 

S: No one's having a good day!

O: No one is having a good day.

S: Except maybe the Dinobots.

O: They get to destroy things.

S: Yeah. Outside Sludge saves Bumblebee by kicking Blitzwing into a wall.

O: Inside the hangar it gets Looney Tunes up in here with Snarl knocking over some barrels and the Seekers all falling on their faces.

S: That’s super Looney Tunes.

O: It's gonna get more Looney Tunes here in a moment.

S: Yeah. He also hits Rumble into Megatron and then they both fall backwards onto the computer console.

O: And Megatron just tosses Rumble off screen immediately afterwards.

S: I feel if I keep saying no one's having a good day we're just gonna be repeating that a lot so I'm gonna stop. 

O: [Laughter] 

S: Just take it as a given. Thundercracker and Thrust are taken out by Swoop and crash into the hangar, causing it to explode. And then Megatron pulls himself out of the wreckage. and orders an attack.

O: I mean, none of them are having a good day. Megatron's really not having a good day. 

S: Yeah. they’re- None of them are having a good day. At all.

O: The Dinobots have zero trouble with taking out the remaining four Decepticons by themselves because they’re the fucking Dinobots.

S: Yep, and Megatron ends up face-planting onto the floor of the airport terminal after Grimlock picks him up in his, you know, t-rex mouth and tosses him.

O: I mean, seriously, let's break this down: We've got the fusion cannon getting stolen, getting hit by Rumble, a building collapsing on him, and then getting picked up by a giant fucking t-rex! I'm just saying, that's a lot of things to pack into one day! 

S: Well, a few hours.

O: [Laughter] Yeah! Yes! It’s not even been a huge, long length of time. So he lands right in front of Spike and company and then, in the next shot, they're all outside. So did they gain teleporting powers? 

S: Maybe they just walked out the hole?

O: Past the passed out Megatron? That seems like a poor option, even if he is passed out.

S: I don't think some of them have very good survival instincts, ok.

O: [Laughter] Boy, do they not. The Dinobots returned to robot mode and Megatron and Skywarp shoot the passenger jets behind them, causing a massive explosion and sending all the Dinobots flying. 

S: I mean, that is a smart choice considering that, if they were entirely fueled up planes they'd have a hell of a lot of-

O: Fuel? Explosive fuel? Yeah.

S: Yeah. Megatron proclaims victory and not checking that the Dinobots are dead at all. 

O: Inferno, Hoist, and Red Alert show up and Hoist begins moving the Dinobots back to base.

S: By putting them into, like, one of the ruined planes and they tow it.

O: Right. I totally forgot about that.

S: It's- it seems like a really awkward way to transport your wounded.

O: [Laughter] It does, but they are so huge that I kind of understand it. So back in the Ark, Wheeljack, Ratchet, and Hoist are all trying to put the Dinobots back together.

S: And then they all wax poetic about mix- missing Cybertron and complain about the primitive tools they have to use.

O: Didn’t they- Didn’t you make them with those tools, Ratch? 

S: Yeah. Back at the airport, Powerglide is literally shitting bricks while him and Ironhide try to help repair the damage. Unfortunately, they are very bad.

O: It's like the worst building, ever. Grapple destroys it putting the roof on.

S: Did they even put a door in there? 

O: It really didn't look like it. It's funnier because Optimus seems like he's trying to direct Grapple and I want you to please envision Ro- Ron Swanson saying, “I know more than you,” for his response.

S: Yeah. Elsewhere, the Decepticons are all flying in the air before they all suddenly fall to the ground and Rumble and Ravage are both acting super strange. Ravage is running around and Rumble seemingly is not able to control himself and keeps punching Megatron.

O: Megs just sort of bats him away. I think this is, like, time number 4 getting tossed for poor Rumble this episode?

S: Yeah, poor guy’s just kind of a hacky sack. 

O: Little bit. You’re too tiny Rumble, we’re sorry. 

S: Megatron vows to figure out what the fuck is going on before we jet back over to the Ark. 

O: Wheeljack and Ratchet are putting the finishing touches on the Dinobots’ repairs.

S: Optimus calls the Ark and orders the Dinobots to stop the Decepticons who are running amok again. 

O: The Dinobots refuse after getting, you know, exploded last time and tell Optimus the kid-friendly equivalent to fuck off and then walk out.

S: And then Wheeljack and Ratchet have to watch their babies walk away.

O: So sad. The Decepticons are trying to gather Energon from a power plant in order to fix the whole, you know, falling out of the sky thing. 

S: The Autobots arrive and transform, all except for Jazz who seems to be stuck in car mode. And then Ironhide attempts some percussive maintenance and kicks him.

O: Which does, indeed, work and Jazz is able to transform the rest of the way. 

S: Megatron loses his ability to form words mid-sentence.

O: Starscream immediately proclaims himself the leader of the Decepticons before nose-diving right into a pile of Energon cubes. You know, exactly what you would expect to happen. [Laughter]

S: Ahh, things just start to go wrong. Ironhide’s-

O: Very wrong for everyone.

S: Yep, Ironhide’s Swiss Army knife powers have backfired incredibly badly, as this entire body freezes up when he goes to shoot Starscream with liquid nitrogen. 

O: Mirage thinks he has turned invisible but- but then gets beaned by Thundercracker when tried to attack him because he has not, in fact, turned invisible. 

S: Yep. Ravage successfully attacks Optimus before involuntarily transforming into tape mode.

O:  And Optimus just picks up the tape and dumps it into a barrel and I'm like, “You bastard.” 

S: Jazz proceeds to lose his groove and then Blitzwing falls into a hole of his own making. Starscream goads Megatron into action.

O: To which he responds, “If only to spite you!” Which if that doesn't summarize their entire relationship, I don't know what does.

S: True. Starscream takes aim at Optimus with Megatron in gun mode but Megatron's uh, performance leaves quite a lot to be desired.

O: Megatron then orders a retreat but the Cons are unable to fly and instead run away- on foot.

S: Back at the base, the same symptoms that are- the same- condition that seems to be affecting the Cons is also, apparently, affecting the Autobots. They have the same sort of symptoms and- yeah.

O: Optimus can barely stand.

S: And then he collapses into a pose that makes him resemble a giant toddler. It's- not very dignified.

O: No, no it is not. But fear not! Perceptor has it all figured out because, you know, Perceptor is the only Autobot that can do his damn job around here. 

S: Yeah, none of them have been eating their- well, none of them have been eating their leafy greens, effectively.

O: Or, in other words, they're missing an element that is necessary for their function.

S: Said element, of course, can only be found on Cybertron.

O: All the Autobots look worse for wear from all this but Jazz in particular is having a bad time with his bottom half stuck in car mode.

S: And, possibly, upside down. 

O: I- yeah, I can't remember and Powerglide is even missing his head. 

S: Oh dear. Yeah, cuz it's, like, not connected to his body. A headless airman, if you will? Carly and Spike run in and tell Optimus that Shockwave is sending a shipment of the missing element, Cybertonium, to earth.

O: The Autobots are, unfortunately, not in any position to do anything with this information for obvious reasons.

S: But Carly realizes that the Dinobots are still functioning normally, as they were built on Earth. And they don't include-

O: Don't require this to keep functioning, essentially.

S: Yeah, they just weren't constructed with it at all.

O: Yeah.

S: So they use Teletraan 1 to track the Dinobots down and they leave in Carly's car. 

O: Sparkplug jokes about not being sure he remembers how to drive it's been so long since he's had to drive, because they've been with the Autobots for however long.

S: Yeah, so they get there and Grimlock doesn't want to help at first, but thankfully Swoop manages to keep three humans from getting crushed. 

O: He picks up Carly's entire car.

S: That sounds about right.

O: And with a little persuasion the big ol t-rex does ultimately agree to help.

S: The Dinobots arrive at the space bridge and manage to make it past the Constructicons and actually- accidentally end up on Cybertron. I'm kind of wondering if the Constructicons have the same element issue or if they don't.

O: Well, if they showed up later than they presumably haven't been missing it for the past million years. Maybe that's why they were guarding the space bridge.

S: That's true.

O: We're, of course, not told any of this, so I have no idea.

S: And, actually, I'm wondering about the Insecticons, too. But that's neither here or near- neither here nor there, because they are Sirs Not Appearing in this Episode.

O: Yeah, they may not even know and Decepticons maybe didn't even call them. On the receiving end of the Dinobots, poor Shockwave is shocked to get a triceratops suddenly to the face.

S: Sparkplug manages to figure out that the Dinobots are on Cybertron but Grimlock refuses to return to Earth.

O: Carly volunteers to go to Cybertron since the Dinobots aren't in any mood to help. Spike says Optimus will never agree to something so dangerous.

S: Oh, I mean, it's not like Optimus can stop them.

O: In fact, he just sort of falls on his face when he tries. 

S: Yeah. Before they head out, Sparkplug gifts Spike a really lame looking communicator that sort of sticks to his thumb like a band-aid. 

O: Well, Wheeljack isn't exactly up to par right now so, hmm. 

S: Fair. Carly drives her car through Devastator’s legs to get to the space bridge like the goddamn badass she is.

O: And the episode ends with Shockwaves shooting the space bridge door as it opens - to which, join us next time for Desertion of the Dinobots, Part Two.

S: The Dinobots have arrived on Cybertron and they're ready to paint the planet red!

O: And I believe we have some fanfic for today.

S: All right, we have two pieces of fanfiction. We have “Walking with Dinobots” by BlushLouise- BlushLouise?

O: One of those.

S: Yeah. It's in the G1 Cartoon continuity. It's rated G, it's gen, there are no pairings and the characters are the Dinobots and Optimus Prime. So, in summary, “The humans have this show. It's called Walking with Dinosaurs. Until the Dinobots take an interest, that is. Or the many ways a Dinobot can sneak away to join the circus.” And that was just really cute. It’s been a while since I read it but really cute. And so our theme on that is “Dinobots getting to go around and do stuff,” I think.

O: Getting out and about, I believe. 

S: Ah, getting out and about, thank you. And then our second fanfic recommendation is “Wayward” by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1). It's G1 Cartoon, it's rated G, it's gen, no pairings, and our characters are Wheeljack, Dinobots, and [Chip] Chase. And in summary, “As the Autobots recover from their Cybertonium depletion and readjust to working with the Dinobots (again), only one mech in particular seems to be healing poorly- not just physically but emotionally. Naturally that catches some attention.

S: And again- Dinobots.

O: And both of these are one shots.

S: Yeah, they’re both one shots and the second one I'd originally picked for the second episode but I think it also works pretty well here.

O: And our fan artist for today is Charlotte Cha [Sha]? Cha? Cha [Sha]. They seem to primarily do IDW. They probably have a bit more of- a bit more things than that but that's what I’ve primarily seen they have a ton of to Dratchet stuff. Uh, they've got a zine for their Young!Ratchet/Vet!Drift AU, and I think it's super cute. Today we've linked to that zine. 

S: Yep, I have that downloaded somewhere it's really cute. 

O: Another cuddly Dratchet fanart- of Drift and Ratchet just cuddling. It's very cute. And Tailgate being a complete and total dumbass and Cyclonus being, like, ‘Oh no, I have to protect this tiny idiot.’ It is fantastic. A lot of their stuff I've seen has been more sketchy and they do do other fan art that isn't Transformers related. We will be able to link to their Instagram. They frequently also go by the username VoyVoy or Voyahora, I think, and then their Tumblr is like PrimeADV, so I have no idea and just went with what they have listed I think on their Twitter as the real name so. But I do recommend their stuff! It's super cute and we will be posting links. 

S: Mm-hmm. And that about wraps it up for us today.  Remember to check us out on Tumblr or Pillowfort as Afterspark-Podcast for any additional information, show notes, or links we may have mentioned.  You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at AftersparkPod (all one word) and various other locations by searching for Afterspark Podcast such as AO3, iTunes, Spotify, and Youtube, just to name a few.  And feel free to send us questions on Tumblr, Youtube, or AO3!  Till next time, I'm Specs.

O: And I’m Owls.

S: Toodles.

[Outro Music]

[tubb0]

stream liveblog: tommyinnit 8/22

I woke up literally a minute before he started so thats cool

he’s in a mood

he says he’s going to spend more time editing his videos (and upload less)

he also says his plan is two smp videos and then ‘something cool. something you might recognize’ 👀

oh so someone is building a tesck to compete with walmart. good.

theres a nether protal in tommys tower. he is not pleased

I just woke up idk whos been doing stuff but they’ve been quite busy

tommy is upset that tubbo was streaming with someone who ‘stole his brand’ (wearing a red t-shirt)

chat says his name is also tom

now hes in call with tubbo, yelling

‘you’re not just gonna go speak to this guy with more red in his shirt than me’

oh he hung up on tubbo

shippers will have a fierld day with this one (I desperately hope they don’t exist since these are children but yknow I’m sure they do)

you can see the corner of tommys bed when he fullscreens his facecam. he doesn’t have sheets or a mattress cover on his bed. do what you will with this (unless its weird then please dont)

tubbo_ has joined the game

tommy says he will ghost tubbo

also hey its fine to have a crush on tommy if you’re around his age but you dont have be weird and pushy about it

tubbo is doing the sad walk and tommy shot him

tommy: best friendship ended with tubbo. jack manifold is my new best friend

tubbo_ has left the game

chat is babying tubbo again :/

tubbo_ has joined the game

<tubbo_> sorry

tubbo_ has left the game

‘I always knew this day would come. thats why I was always mean to tubbo. I knew he would rob me.’

tubbo_ has joined the game

he left again... his spaghetti is ready

tommy is thinking of ways to but tubbo to work in order for them to earn back his friendship

wait did ponk steak tommys horse? I thought bbh did

anyways retrieve horsechamp

chat says niki lost ylyl because of tommy

wilbur was not pleased that she finds him funny (joking of course)

anyway niki is so pretty

it has just clicked for tommy that the horse is in fact his horse

oh hes on the run

tubbo has returned from eating his poggers spaghetti

tommy is stuck in a hole

tubbo: you know the pope? anyway heres my bee box!

tubbo keeps talking about the pope

tubbo has decided he doesn’t need tommys friendship and left the game

tommy says hes ‘like dream. his only friends are the numbers.’

he called tubbo and theyre both yelling now

tubbo claims to want more mature friends than tommy

tommy is accusing tubbo of being on drugs

the pope returns

‘this is like a divorce’ ‘yeah except I dont care’

they spent a second questioning catholicism

tubbo please why do you keep talking about the pope

tubbo brought up death and tommy shut that down real quick

tubbo out here with definitions

dream has joined the game

dream is only kind to tubbo and yet wont follow them back on twt

there something so endearing about hearing someone moving further from the mic when they laugh

chat is talking about the vlog gun so tommys watching wilburs stream

tommy: *upset about wilbur trying to break the vlog gun* tubbo: does this mean we can be together for mmc??

tommy hit tubbo of his balcony and now tubbo is regretting coming back online

tommy just murdered dream by hitting him with a minecart

ah fuck chat lost it and my streams starting to lag

skeppy is threatening to burn the doscs to avenge dreams death

tommy to tubbo: our friendship really hold this server together

did he lie?? absolutely not

deals are being made

well not really. tommy is trying to get a disc in exchange for dreams stuff

some pvp may occur

stream title has been changed to ‘war’ things are getting serious

tubbos wifi is failing us

oh the boys are fighting

a few thing happened in so little time but to summarize the way that tommy and tubbo trust eachother and silently cooperate is very cool. I aspire for this friendship.

for some reason its always so weird to me when I hear just dream talking to tommy and tubbo

I think its because drram is so stubborn and assertive but tommy does not care or put up with it so no matter what dream always seems to have the lowerhand which doesn’t happen often

I’m confused why is chat making such a big deal about wilbur ending his stream

ah a confrence with president soot

the other day everyone was afraid the server was dying but this seems like the start of another war

wilbursoot has joined the game

do you ever get so caught up in the drama of these stream and then it hits you that these are just a bunch of losers playing minecraft

wilbur... to be fair tommy didnt mean to kill dream... he warned him too

oh?

wilbur whispered to tommy to run while he was negotiating with dream and I think he told tubbo to kill dream but tubbo might also just be doing that for fun idk

dreams bringing up server rules... do it. ban tommy. your server will die immediately.

wilbur has scolded tommy and now tommy is ignoring him to plot with tubbo

sapnap!

I like the dynamic between tommy, tubbo and sapnap very much

sapnap has joined the game

oh my god I have to pee

lmao dream said tommy scams him often and tommy went 😬

‘everyone will call you bream for bitch dream’

tommy gave him his stuff

oh but some was never picked up

yikes dream is actually mad

damn tommy and skeppy are really going at it

chat says skeppy had the sword that dreams mad about uh oh

hehe tommy is very funny

tubbo is bargaining for tommy since dream killed him and is threatening his cow

if chat is right and skeppy actually has the sword hes pretty good at kying because I believe him but also I don’t know him well so

tommy is telling tubbo to kill skeppy now

aw skeppys stream sniping thats no fun

but anyway was that not the sword dream was looking for that tommy just showed in the chest????

so is sapnap on their side now? I think I missed something

no chat seems just as confused as me so

sapnap about betraying dream: it just seemed interesting idk

I think hes lying

chat has a point... I cant tell if tommy doesn’t realize or doesnt care that dream is watching his stream

wait that was cool

dream pearled away from sapnap but tommy saw the pearl and waited there so he could attack

ok but anyway while theyre chasing eachother around how did the minecart kill dream?? I’m pretty sure it does no damage and if I’m wrong dream was still in enchanted netherite and I doubt he was running around on like half a heart... unless he just did a /kill on himself for the drama??

tubbo broke all the ender chests and put them inside one... hes so smart

oh ok so tommy doesn’t care if dream is watching

fuck a bug flew in my eye

ponk and skeppy just reading the deaths in chat and making small comments lol

tubbo what

sapnap please

I’m very glad dream isnt in vc anymore because I bet he’s very upset and he gets scary sometimes

dont get me wrong I love him but yknow

oh no sapnap dont :(

tommy is getting so nervous about tubbos wifi going out because then itll be him against everyone else online lmao

tubbo: our relationship cannot be toxic because I am not in love with you :))

no tubbo not the pope again

tubbo please my head hurts

woah tubbo just killed tubbo while dream started killing him

oh he logged out and now dream is killing tommy

at this point dream is purposely not communicating with tommy and I’m getting nervous

oh hes back

go tubbo go

yknow what a man can do with 55 sticks?

tubbo accidentally locked himself in jail lmao

tommy is calling dream clay

he does not care

dream logged out (unrelated to above statements)

woah wait what tubbo is leading tommy somewhere secret that he cant even show on stream

tubbo you genius what do you have planned

tommy is playing his vlog to entertain stream while tubbo directs him to the secret

wtf tubbo

also they said sounds have to be off so I think the location might be in the nether or something because sounds will apparently give it away

dying is the only way they can leave??? but it cant be the end though right?

cuz like the achievements would show up

hmm

I don’t want to be too much of a snitch in case any of them actually are lurking on here but anyways tubbo is very epic

both tubbo and tommys mothers are teachers?

but they have a point dont skip your classes to watch someone play minecraft!

tubbo is such a good friend

they also say their in a tournament on the 31st so look forward to it

tommy is really throwing shade at shippers this stream. good for him.

oh and lowkey dnf shade too haha

ha tubbo almost leaked one of tommys video ideas

tubbo just wants to play fall guys

tommy is too self aware

but also he has a point. chat always sides with tubbo because they baby him

its kinda weird ngl

ahh my wifis going out :(

they’re watching the sunrise on tommys balcony while listening to blocks

oop tommy ended the stream because chat was being weird

gg tommy

anyway good stream go check it out if you havent already because I left some stuff out either because I type too slow or didn’t want to leak secrets :))

[whats-the-story-tc]

14th of February, 2020

“The One with the Long Way Home”

[THIS IS GONNA BE REALLY LONG, CUZ A  L O T  WENT DOWN, BUT THE ENDING IS REALLY GOOD. PROMISE.]

Another day, another flannel. And y’all know what’s funny? Yesterday, I said V has a shirt similar to what I wore. A day later, she puts it on. I hate her.

Physics first thing in the morning, and the teacher asked me to fetch some tests that we left in our classroom. As I went outside, and looked towards the teachers’ corridor, I spotted an oddly familiar wristwatch on an oddly familiar hand. I step back a little, so I can see the person in question better. Bingo, it’s V — and she was cutting paper. Blood froze in my veins as I walked away. I didn’t remember her promising us a test. Seconds later, I remembered that one of the younger boys I know from rehearsals told me they’re writing a test in V’s class, in second period. Thank God. 

English with V. Turns out, she did have some papers for us, too, but it was only classwork. Didn’t take a minute to recognise the metaphors in the exercise. Meanwhile, V took her dice out of her pocket, twirling the bag in her hands and fiddling with its strings. “Uh-oh...” I muttered. “I’m just playing with it, don’t be scared.” she told me, with the trademark half-smile.

Turns out, my solutions were all correct. Sometimes, I explained them to a confused Art Friend before V could, but she didn’t seem to mind much. I think she’s used to me not having much control over my words. She lets me speak. But when she did get into full-blown story mode, when Know-It-All asked her something... things got interesting. V, sitting on the edge of her desk, looked at him when she started speaking — then turned to me. As in, looked me directly in the eyes all the while she was explaining whatever she was explaining, for about half a minute or so. It wasn’t easy to keep eye contact, but I managed somehow. I’m getting better at it. When she finished, she looked back at him briefly, before walking back to the blackboard. I didn’t know what to make of it. I still don’t. It’s been two days since, and I get butterflies thinking about it.

V asked us if we could recognise what kind of stylistic thingamajig this one quote was. After thinking a lot, as I recognised it, I just couldn’t find the word, I blurted out: “Metonymy!” “Why?” V asked me. “Cuz that’s what first came to mind!” I surprised V to a grin, the rest of the class laughing as well. “I wish it worked like that.” she said.

But here’s the funny part. Know-It-All had no idea what hoarfrost meant (it was in one of the quotes), and thought it was a plant. The look on V’s face... if eyes could kill, he would’ve turned to ashes. The poor woman was shocked. She fully pulled out her phone, googled that shit, and walked up to him with the image search results on her screen. I think Incessant Questions Guy also asked to see it, and, though I don’t remember everything she said, she definitely called him “City Kid”. I was howling with laughter. 

Then I noticed. V types with only her right hand. The same way I do. I raised my hand immediately, and asked her “Sorry, off-topic question, but did I notice correctly that you type with only one hand, Miss?” I think she thought I was gonna call her out on it, because she said “Yeah. That’s what I got used to.” “Finally someone!” I answered. “I spent my whole life getting picked on for this!” She didn’t say anything, but someone else did. “Another similarity.” said Comparison Boy. Oh, the irony. Out of all people, it’s her having this in common with me. I think it would be easier to list our differences than what we have in common.

After V called Blonde Boy in the Back out on him doing fuck all in class, he didn’t take it very well. As we were waiting for our next class, I overheard him tell his friend “What’s going on with this [V]? She’s a dick, that one.” I had to physically remove myself from there so I didn’t say anything. Does discipline immediately mean someone is a dick these days? I’m afraid for my generation.

I don’t remember where my mood started going downhill. It must have been around homeroom, where things got pretty serious. Serious as in my stomach still sinks thinking about it. 

V’s presence in the next period made it slightly better, but didn’t solve things completely. “You know what’s funny?” she turned to me and Pocketwatch Friend, after I said that the other class should get their own loudspeakers (which, as V informed me, they did). “That [this one teacher] thinks yours is free property! [The one she was plugging in] is the other class’, as they took yours, then [another class] took it elsewhere, and then [that teacher] took it like it was free property!” Bless her soul, she was so riled up.

Now, because these loudspeakers were a little different, V had to choose a different spot to sit. That very spot was the other side of the desk in front of ours  — placing V in a way where she was facing me directly. Meaning I actually had to watch the film. As soon as Tatyana appeared with that extra ass hairdo, I said “Shame about that hair,” making V grin and repeat it immediately. And, when I pointed out that Tatyana is the only one wearing colour, my favourite absolute unit of a woman paused the film just talk about it, calling it a “good discovery”. I feel valid.

After class, I thought I’d be cute and help her out a little, and unplug the loudspeakers, as well as take them back to their original place, receiving a “many thanks” for it. As I told Pocketwatch Friend, whom I dragged with me, “I wouldn’t carry anyone else’s shit.” Not true, cuz I help everyone and their mothers cuz I can’t say no, but anyway. When I went back to our classroom, V was still there, giving the Onegin tests back to my classmates. Naturally, I went to check mine. “It’s always the names!” I said, looking at what I got wrong. “Always...” I heard quietly from the other side of the teachers’ desk. V wasn’t surprised. What did surprise her, however, that the actress playing Olga, Lena Headey, is the one playing Cersei in Game of Thrones. When Art Friend and I told her, she started grinning, all wide-eyed. “I didn’t even get that! You learn something new every day.” She was still grinning about it when she walked away.

After that, I started to think about graduation, totally randomly. What happens after. If V and I will stay in contact. How could I possibly ask her something like that. I kept spiralling into things, and took the longer way home, thinking more and more, until I pushed myself to the verge of tears for absolutely no reason at all. Honestly, though. I still don’t get why I did that. There wasn’t a reason. 

But let me tell you what there was this evening — a school dance. There is always one towards the end of winter. And once I finished training, I ventured into the crowd. The day couldn’t end with me crying alone at home and writing a sad post on it. I wouldn’t let it. And this is where Fate kicked in, as everything, that happened from then on, was a string of coincidences aligning a very particular way, too particular for it to be coincidences anymore.

I walked around in circles, eyes sharp, making small talk with a couple people along the way, looking for her, but not finding her anywhere. But... that couldn’t be. Every teacher was here, even the ones who never attend anything. There was no way she wasn’t somewhere among all these people. And as I made my way deeper into the crowd, I spotted a familiar shirt. She was sitting in the very front row. A judge. Every class has to present something, you see, as there’s a contest every year, judged by teacher. Well chosen, I thought to myself. V always sees everything.

But this also meant, that if I wanted to talk to her, I’d have to stay until everyone is done, with either a dance or a video. Am I seriously staying until I haven’t spoken to her? Maybe. Fuck it, I’ll do it. You only live once. - I texted to Pocketwatch Friend. Are you sure this is what you want? - she replied. And no, I wasn’t. No matter what was happening, my eyes were on V. The scoring paper in her hand, the pen in her mouth, the way her shirt collar was open, exposing the nape of her neck... unreachable, now physically, too. On the verge of crying, I waited for my Dad to stop talking to my coach so we could leave. I couldn’t take another minute of this.

Outside, I told Dad that I wanted to walk the long way ‘round home, because “today has been a lot” and “I want to think”. Then Dad posed me a good solution, so I wouldn’t be alone: “Why don’t you walk me home then?” As soon as he told me there was cake at theirs, I was sold. I hadn’t eaten in a while by then, and I would’ve needed some energy for crying anyways, so it definitely felt like a good solution. And it definitely was good cake, even though I nearly teared up at the dinner table about five times.

It’s time to get going, and Dad offered to accompany me until I’m about halfway home. And when he left, I got an idea. I couldn’t simply walk past school without being sad, so... why not go back inside? I could still wander around on the dark streets, listen to sad music and cry afterwards, if I wanted to. But, as I said before, I wasn’t about to let the day end like that. And as long as there was even just half a percent chance that there would be a happy ending to my night, I owed myself that chance to try. I’ve gone mad. - I texted Pocketwatch Friend on my way back. And even though she was trying to talk me out of it, I told her to tell me one reason why I shouldn’t, aside from the pain. It has hurt before. I could take it. But I knew that no matter what she said, she couldn’t talk me out of it. I was already at the corner of the building. I was going inside.

I walked up to the bridge, and ran into Art Friend. Thank God, someone I knew, someone I could talk to about what was wrong! And, of course, she wasn’t the only one there. There V was, just so my heart could hurt even more, stood at the railing, not looking up from her goddamn phone. Now that I saw her, I suddenly wasn’t so brave anymore. I didn’t want to bother her, so I chickened out of going up to her, even though Art Friend tried to talk me into it. I refused and refused until V walked away. Fantastic. I’m literally so fucking stupid

We kept talking for about ten minutes after that, Art Friend and I, both of us venting about our love-related woes to the other, and chatting with a few other people along the way. I didn’t know whether I should stay or go, I felt absolutely hopeless and confused at that point. Nothing made sense. After asking my poor friend about five times whether I should stay or go, I decided to stay. At least until she came back. And she did come back.

V and A walked down the stairs together, both of them joining the people standing at the railing as the band, comprised entirely of students, was setting up downstairs. Now’s my time, I thought, and went closer to where V was standing. One of the teachers, who used to be my homeroom teacher at about the dawn of time, noticed me standing behind her, and offered to swap places with me so I could see better, which would’ve put me even closer to V, who was, for your information, still on her goddamn phone. I politely refused, but she wouldn’t have it, and so, I wound up directly at the railing, my Art teacher next to me, V just slightly behind us. I think you can guess how nervous I was.

I ended up talking to my Art teacher, discussing some stuff in a couple sentences. Bless, she’s the best person to talk to when you’re nervous, as she’s a right laugh. And then. V came closer, bumping into the Art teacher’s feet as she did. The latter barely even noticed, even though V said sorry, so V tapped her shoulder to say sorry again. And there we were. The music started, V wound up between us, so now, she was standing directly next to me. Jesus bloody Christ. So much for a healthy blood pressure.

Listen, guys. We all know V is clever. She knew why I was still wearing my coat. She knew why I was standing there and she knew why I was so nervous and why I didn’t say a word to her. That might be why she decided to speak first. The music was loud, so she leaned closer and just told me “Look at those two stupid seniors in the corner,” referring to two boys dancing in this classical, wobble-your-shoulders kinda club dancing style. She even imitated it, making me laugh, but she was grinning too. Down by the stage, the people started a train dance, which V just commented as “Unbelievable,” still grinning. Meanwhile, I thought it unbelievable that I’m the one she started talking to when I haven’t seen her speak to anyone else all night.

“How were the performances from the first row?” I asked her, subtly referring to the fact that I saw her earlier. She leaned closer again, hand in front of her mouth like she was saying something confidential, and told me “To be honest, I was a little scared of the girls dancing hip-hop.” “Who, the younger kids?” I asked her, laughing. “No, no, the guests.” Yeah, I probably missed those. Anyway. “And how was our clip?” I continued. “I thought there were too few of you in it, but it was really well edited.” “Yeah, [Boy who filmed it] is talented at this. I was only in it, so I didn’t have to go to P.E.” And as the band started playing a new song, I told V “[They’re] really good.” “Yeah, I want to film them.”

And she did. Understandable, I think she teaches half of them, and they were really good. After that, there was silence. She pulled out her phone, and, as far as I’m concerned, she was texting, meanwhile I got a few words with A who was standing nearby, and took photos myself. I decided, that when the song ends, I’ll leave. I got way more than I hoped for, anyway.

“I think I’m gonna go now.” I turned to V, once we gave them the applause they deserved. “Alright.” “And you, Miss? Are you staying until the end?” “Well, I have to.” “And why is that?” Maybe this one I shouldn’t have said, as it was painfully fucking obvious. “I’m supervising.” “Oh. Well, then, have a good weekend.” “You too.” “And keep holding on.” “Thanks.” My Art Teacher waved to me, smiling, as I walked away, and I waved back. Yeah. There’s a bit of a difference between how I like her and how I love V.

I went downstairs to say goodbye to Art Friend, and, just before I left, I looked back up at V, who was smiling. I’m not certain anymore, and I don’t want to write misinformation, but in that very moment, I could’ve sworn she was looking at me.

I no longer needed to take the long way home, I went my usual way. Even so, I burst into tears, but those were of relief. I trusted my gut, went through with it, and my night ended really well. Then I spent the rest of that night and the next morning calling my friends and telling them in even more excruciating detail what happened between V and I. To be honest, it still doesn’t feel real.

See, I still don’t know if there even is a V and I to begin with. But something has definitely changed in the past weeks, I feel it. But I’ll leave this up to you to judge. All I know is that I’m over the moon. Good luck trying to get me off.

~ S ♡

[Every story I share here, no matter how specific I get with my wording, depicts actual events from my own life.]

[ghostsoapgirl]

Little Red

Baron Corbin/Plus Size Reader

A/N: There is no smut in this, it’s just implied. I’m not sure what to rate this so maybe my followers can help? Anyways, I’m on a Baron kick and he seems like he’d be protective of people he cared about so this happened. It’s almost 3 in the morning so I hope it’s as good as I think it is lmao. This is also the first fanfiction I’ve posted to this tumblr . So feedback will be greatly appreciated.

I saw a few Baron Lovers in my notes so I’m gonna tag ya’ll. If you don’t want me to tag you, I won’t.

@kittysilver86 @thegloriousdisaster @wrestling-edits-af @darktammy cuz I love you. @vonschweetz because I think you’ve read some of my dean stuff from my old blog. @queenofthearchitect

Little Red

She’s been working in the makeup department of WWE for almost six months now. She loved her job, truly she did, but being a heavy set woman surrounded by model like figures all day every day was detrimental to her self esteem. Of course, she had no one she could talk to about her insecurities except Nia, but even Nia was built in a way she could only dream of.

She was on her break, sitting in catering staring at reflection on her cell phone screen. Her eyes were blue and she always loved them but they didn’t seem to fit with her red hair. She had considered dying it many times but was always discouraged because everyone said it was such a lovely shade of red. Staring at herself only made things worse. He cheeks were just a bit pudgy, her lips just a little too thin, and don’t even get her started on her chin.

Before she could start picking apart the rest of her appearance, someone sat across the table from her. She sat her phone down on the table and looked up, only to meet the eyes of her crush, Baron Corbin. 

“Hey,” she spoke softly, adjusting the baggy hoodie she was wearing. She had shoved her phone in the pocket, keeping her hands there as well to hide her fidgeting fingers.

“Hey Little Red.” Coming from anyone else, she would have hated the nickname. Several stars had tried to get away with calling her that but she just glared at them until they decided it was a bad idea. Baron, though, the way he said it always sounded endearing while from others it sounded like mockery. “How much longer on your break?” She pulled her phone from her pocket, checking the time. It was halfway through the show and she was due back to her station in ten minutes.

“I have about ten minutes. What’s up?” She always tried to keep her voice neutral around Baron, afraid she may give her secret away.

“I was warming up and I, uh, kinda got a tear on the inside of my thigh. Think you could sew it up for me before my match?” Although she was a makeup artist, once wardrobe had found out about her sewing abilities, the less severe problems were sent her way when she wasn’t busy.

“Yeah, I’ve gotta do Becky’s hair when I get back so I’ll sew you up now.” She stood from her seat and headed towards her little area in the back, not even stopping to make sure Baron was following.

When she reached her station she pulled out her sewing kit. It was nothing compared to wardrobes massive kit but it got the job done, at least on the jobs that were sent her way. She listened as Baron walked up behind her, stopping just shy of the chair the stars usually set in. Except this was a thigh tear, and unless she was going to have Baron undress in front of her, she’d have to sew it quickly while they were on him.

“Alright,” she spoke as she had gotten what she needed. Baron’s suit pants were black so she went with a simple black thread. “I’m just gonna do this well enough to get you through your match. Once your changed, bring em on back to me and I’ll do something a bit more permanent.” Baron nodded as she moved him into place to look at the tear. The angle was awkward and her face was practically in his crotch so she focused intently on the seam she needed to work on.

She bent his knee, having him place his boot on the foot rest of her chair and knelt down and began sewing. Baron was saying something above her, but she tuned him out, focusing so she didn’t accidentally stick him with the needle in her hand. She went over the stitch a few times before deciding it would hold and she stood, brushing the dirt from her jeans. Baron just stood there, smiling down at her.

“Something funny?” She tried not to sound defensive but she just knew he was going to make a dirty joke about her being between his legs.

“I was trying to thank you but you didn’t seem to hear me. So I started rambling off asinine shit but I don’t think you heard that either.” She laughed, tucking the needle and thread back in her kit before turning back around to face him.

“I’m sorry, you’re right. I did tune you out, but only because I didn’t want to be responsible for stabbing you with a sewing needle.” Baron smiled at her before ruffling her hair and walking out. She didn’t have time to think what that meant before Becky was bounding into her area, plopping down in the seat and chatting animatedly about her newest promo. She began with brushing her hair but as she was putting the braid in, all she could think about was how thick Baron’s thighs had felt for the few moments she got to touch him.

*

Raw was officially over, meaning she had no more hair or makeup to do so she removed her hoodie before placing it on the empty chair. She didn’t normally remove her sweatshirt at work, too ashamed of the way she looked, but it was the end of the night and it was just so hot backstage. She put her headphones in as she cleaned and and packed away her things. She was listening to her music pretty loud, so when she felt a tap on her shoulder, she spun around, a gasp falling from her lips.

“I’m sorry, I called your name but you didn’t hear me.” She removed her head phones as she gaped at Baron, trying to gain her composure. She watched as he looked her up and down and she had to fight the urge to cover herself with the baggy red sweatshirt still sitting on the chair. She debated for a second. If she grabbed the hoodie and put it on, Baron would know how insecure she was. If she didn’t, he would get to see just how big she was and would probably never look at her again.

As she was trying to make up her mind, Baron caught her attention again. He was smiling, something that was so rare it caught her off guard and made her forget her little dilemma.

“Did you forget you told me to come back?” Right she thought.

“I did,” she decided to be honest. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.”

“Wanna talk about it?” He sat down as he talked, covering her hoodie with his body. There went the idea of covering up. He handed his pants over and that’s when she realized he had changed. He was now in loose basketball shorts, one of his cutoff shirts and he was wearing that beanie she loved so much.

“Not particularly,” she spoke as she took the pants from his hand before fishing out the needle and thread she had used earlier. As she removed the old stitch and began the new one, she found herself talking anyways. “I just, it’s hard being around all these skinny, beautiful women when I’m just me, ya know?” She continued the stitch, almost forgetting Baron was sitting right next to her.

“What do you mean, just you?” His voice startled her into dropping the needle. She picked it up quickly, trying to cover her falter and decided on what she was going to say next.

“I’m just plain. I don’t wear makeup, even though I’m a professional makeup artist. I do almost nothing with my hair except curl it or straighten it if I’m not wearing it up. I’ll never look good in any of the attire these women wear and honestly, being the biggest person behind the scenes and being bigger than the girls on the roster, that shit eventually eats away at you.” She stopped when she realized she just word vomited all over Baron. She was facing him now, having finished the stitch, and handed his pants back to him. “I’m sorry. It’s just been so long since anyone’s actually asked me how I felt.”

“You have friends here, Little Red, and I’m one of them. I don’t know if you’re hearing this from other people, but I swear,” she placed a hand on his forearm to stop him. He looked genuinely angry and she couldn’t remember the last time someone got angry on her behalf.

“It’s not that. Yeah some of the women talk but it’s nothing I haven’t heard before.” She pulled her hand away when she realized she was still touching him and shoved both hands in her jeans pockets. “I have a few friends here Baron, but none that I’m close to. I just, can’t bring myself to make an effort with people. I’m too worried about what people think of me, ya know?”

“Yeah, I do know. Everyone here thinks I’m an asshole but that’s just a character I play.” He stopped then, searching her face for something, before he continued, “but you don’t. You never have.” She fought really hard to keep her mouth shut, because if she spoke she was going to say something stupid and ruin whatever was happening at this moment. “Look, I can’t change how other people see you, but I can change the way you see yourself.”

“What are you talking about?” He was staring at her so intently now, she was actually just a bit nervous. He stood from the chair, setting his pants behind him and stepped closer to her. She backed up until her back hit the wall. Baron stepped closer until she could feel the heat radiating from him and she could smell him and that made her a bit dizzy. “God you smell so good.” She wanted to smack herself for letting that slip but the smile on Baron’s face showed that he didn’t mind.

“Do you trust me?” His arms were resting on either side of her head now, their face so close she could feel his breath on her lips. She knew if she tried to speak it would only come out as a squeak so she just nodded her head. Baron’s smile grew even larger, before he dipped his head down to place a small kiss to her neck.

She couldn't fight the moan that left her throat and she felt Baron laugh into the skin of her throat, before trailing his lips up to her ear. He nibbled on the lobe before placing a kiss to her cheek and stepping back, just enough to take in the way she looked.

Her cheeks were red, her eyes blown with lust and her chest was rising and falling fast, her breathing just a little out of sync.

“Come with me to my room?” Again, she just nodded before Baron took her hand, before grabbing her suitcase, hoodie and his pants with the other. “I promise, when I’m done with you, the only thing on your mind will be just how beautiful I think you are.” The fire in his eyes told her he was telling the truth and the shiver that ran through her was almost violent, heat pooling in her belly.

The ride to the hotel was spent in silence, the tension in the air almost palpable. She wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words. Baron didn’t seem to mind, sending her sideways glances as they drove to the hotel. When he parked, he reached over and pulled her over the console to him, before placing a searing kiss to her lips.

When he pulled away they were both smiling. “What was that for?” She licked her lips, his stubble leaving them tingling.

“I just remembered I hadn’t kissed you yet. Now come on. I think I made you a promise.” They left everything in the rental in their hurry to get to his room. She knew she’d regret that decision later but the look he kept giving her, she knew there was no time to think about that right now. All she could think about was Baron’s promise, and the look in his eyes, she knew he was determined to keep it.

[kitty-does-stuff]

you like homestuck? why not try ___

(reblogs > likes, if you read this all and think to yourself that you should check out one of the things i talked about then why not reblog and share with others?)

hiya so ain’t a normal post for this blog, think of it like a youtube video but text (i’d make this a video but i don’t have a good mic & idk how to edit), anyways this is a start to a series of posts i’ll sometimes make, the point of this series is to point some fandoms at other pieces of work like the thing that fandom likes, so like in this post i’ll talk about other pieces of work that homestuck fans might like

anyways most of the post is under the cut cause it might be a long but i’ll show the 1st 2 that way you can see if you like my reasoning, also i haven’t seen every piece of media ever so i might miss some things so feel to add in a reblog

(also the numbers i use aren’t to show the quality, it’s just what came to mind 1st)

1: borderlands

ok tbh this game is why i made this post, this game series has a lot of the same kinds of humour (though borderlands doesn’t to what i can recall have any ablest jokes or the stuff like that), it’s a very fun game  series even for those who most of the time don’t like shooters as it’s kinda like what would happen if overwatch’s fun shooting mechanics had a baby with diablo 2‘s skill trees

the story is really great, taking a lot of cues(and names) from greek legends, also a hot tip, you really don’t need to play the 1st game, just start at borderlands 2 then go to pre sequel and then tales from the borderlands and you should be fine

also there are quite a few lgbtq+ characters (including a canon lesbian relationship that can end in marriage, i say can as it’s a part of a game where what you say and do can have things end in other ways), and there is also a lot of room for oc making as it takes place in it;s very own world that has a lot of things no other story really has

2: Undertale/Deltarune

ok you most likely know about at least Undertale but hey this is my post and i get to add what i want. anyways Undertale’s story is this: once a upon a time monsters and humans both lived above the ground but one day a war started, humans with their determination sealed the monsters deep beneath Mount Ebott, creating a barrier only a human soul could pass, one day a child climbs Mount Ebott and falls into the undergrond, the way this tale ends is up to the player

ok so there are quite a few characters that you get to know well, they all have backstorys that are quite the tales, there is canon lgbtq+ characters (including a canon relationship with two of the woman characters, a non binary protag and trans coded characters),

it’s also a very funny game and the story is one of the best story's i’ve ever heard, also if you like the music of homestuck then you’re gonna love this game’s music as it was made by toby fox (some of his songs from homestuck are: Black, Descend, Savior of the Waking World, MeGaLoVania, ect)

now Deltarune isn’t a full game yet and only chapter 1 is out rn but if you’ve already played Undertale then give this a go

3: My Hero Academia

ok so a lot of you already know about this anime but i still feel i should about it. So the show’s plot is about a world where most people have superpowers called Quirks, the main character (named Izuku Midoriya) has the dream of be coming a superhero like his role model All Might but he has a problem: he was born without a Quirk, the show has him slowly learn how to be a hero, make new friends and fight evil

there are a lot of characters so if you liked the bigger cast size of homestuck then this will be great. the fights are very well done and the super powers are well done, there is also a lot of room to make oc’s so if you liked making oc’s this show should be great for you

you can find this wherever you stream/watch anime

4: danganronpa

did you like the murder in homestuck? wish there was more and it was somehow more nuts? well then these games (plus anime and book or two) are for you!

the 1st game story is this: you are Makoto Naegi, a student of Hope's Peak Academy, who finds himself trapped in a game of mutual killing among his peers, in Hope's Peak Academy everyone is some kind of Ultimate (of skills or things like being a robot), Makoto Naegi is the Ultimate Lucky Student witch is a Ultimate given out in a lottery

the games have a lot of unique characters and a story about as messed up as homestuck, there are also canon lgbtq+ characters but for the most part most are only coded (and the ones that are canon don’t uh really get any happy endings), also due the whole Ultimate thing there’s a lot of room for oc making

here’s the order that you’ll wanna use (bolded means you need to see or else later things won’t make sense anything else is just a plus): Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc > Makoto Naegi Secret File > Danganronpa Kirigiri (may not be canon) >  Danganronpa: Togami (not canon, also just save yourself from wasting time and don’t read it, it sucks) > Danganronpa 2: Goodby Dispair >  Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF (non canon) >  Danganronpa Zero >  Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls > Ultra Despair Hagakure > Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy (there are two different complimentary series. The idea is that you alternate between the two of them starting with Side Future, then Side Despair so your order would be F1, D1, F2, D2, etc...)  > Super Danganronpa 2.5 > Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer > anything else to do with the main danganronpa universe > Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (not canon to the rest of the games, it is it’s own verse)

5: steven universe

so i’m sure most of you have heard of this but it’s really good so it’s worth sharing, here’s the plot: The Crystal Gems are a team of magical beings who are the self-appointed guardians of the universe. Half-human, half-Gem hero Steven is the "little brother" of the group. The goofball is learning to save the world using the magical powers that come from his bellybutton and he goes on magical adventures with the rest of the Crystal Gems, even though he's not as powerful -- or smart -- as fellow group members Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. Despite his shortcomings, Steven usually finds a surprising way to save the day.

this show has so many lgbtq+ characters that if i tried i wouldn’t be able to list them all, there is so much room to make oc’s if you can think of a type of gem then you got a gemsona idea buddy cuz any gem can be a character and the story is really great

6: the adventure zone

ok so this one is a tabletop rpg podcast, so far there has been two main campaigns though one is still on going, the 1st one is called The Balance Arc it’s the campaign that was for d&d and so far is the only main campaign to be over as it has a ending (though they sometimes still do live shows set in the campaign), it’s also the one you should must likely start with, then the  2nd main campaign is called: Amnesty it uses the monster of the week rpg and is on going, this podcast is hosted by the McElroys

here’s what campaign 1 can be summed up as: The story of four idiots that played DnD so hard that they made themselves cry. 

here’s a fan-made trailer for The Balance Arc 

7: critical role

another d&d show! yeah i know but this one and the last one are very very different, for one everyone in this show knows how to play d&d, anyways this is a web series in which a group of professional voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons, that is played live every Thursday. There are two campaigns, one of them is over while the other is on going, both are already very long so you better have some free time on your hands

if you do watch then be ready to cry at least once

8: 17776

ok so uh this one is a bit odd, it’s on the shorter side os things and is a serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative by Jon Bois published online through SB Nation, it’s odd but from what i know it’s good

9: paranatural

a webcomic that is made by the same person that made summerteen romance (y’know from Paradox Space?) anyways the comic follows the story of Max, the new kid at school, and the other members of the Activity Club as they fight ghosts, investigate the secrets of Mayview, and interact with their fellow middle school students

it’s a fun webcomic that has characters that you end up really wanting to learn more about

10: young justice

so this show is a pertty good way to get into the dc fandom, you don’t need to know much of the lore of the main dc verse as a lot of the stuff isn’t quite the same in the show so need to worry if your not the must into comics, the story is about the the teenage team of superheroes as they save the world as well as deal with normal daily life issues

it’s a fun show that can make you cry really fast, that goes from light hearted to dark very quick and isn’t afraid to kill off a characters

[veryangryhedgehog]

“The Man Who died Twice,” An Ede Valley story by Hedgehog.

The Man who died Twice

(Just in this one Scene)

Ace didn’t know what he was doing in a suburb like Ede Valley. He was used to the hustle and bustle—and general violence and mayhem—of the city. Back there, he was somebody; he’d started from nothing, built his livelihood, his business. People scattered when they saw him approach.

That was true here as well, but he didn’t get quite the same high from soccer moms trundling little Timmy away from the strange man with the funny sunglasses.

Yep, he certainly missed the city, but he’d be back there soon enough, just as soon as he got this whole “deal” mess sorted out. He didn’t know why he was coming here now of all times. His business was booming, the world was in the palm of his hand. Maybe that was exactly why: he’d done everything he’d set out to do. It was time to reclaim his collateral.

Of course, that hadn’t been the terms of the original agreement, but did Ace look like he gave a flying fuck about the fine print?

Actually, don’t answer that. You don’t even know what Ace looks like. Yet.

See him here now, in his dark suit and omnipresent mirrored sunglasses, sitting at the counter of a smoky, quiet British pub. He could tell that this was a suburb because even here, in the shadiest part of town, people merely snuck glances at him over their pints and muttered to each other.

The bartender, he noticed, was new, a young kid with near-dreads and a frankly ludicrous number of tattoos. Probably one of those new-age hipsters or something. He sincerely hoped the pub hadn’t changed hands. But considering that from the neon sign to the dark interior, it for all intents and purposes appeared that no time had passed since he’d last stepped foot through that door all those years ago, he sincerely doubted that was the case.

“Hey, kid,” he called to the bartender, who was currently taking stock of the fine liquor selection displayed with an unmatched flair behind the bar.

The kid looked up. “Can I get you another?”

He swore, kids these days just had no manners. “That’s ‘can I get you another, sir’ and no. I’m here to speak to your boss. Probably.”

Sighing, the kid didn’t move. “Seems like everyone is. He’s in the back with a… client right now. You’ll have to wait a minute… sir.”

The kid had some spunk, Ace had to admit. It was truly difficult to fit that much sarcasm in one syllable. He made a note to himself to tip the cheeky brat later.

Ace was just about to order another drink while he waited, when with that unnaturally uncanny timing of his, the owner of The Smiling Goat strode through the back curtain, directly after a pale man in a truly fugly sweater vest.

“I’m sorry, Marcell,” Cowell was saying, “but for all your years and power there’s nothing you can do for either of them. Inconvenient as it is, both little miss Sabrina and the scary dragon lady made their deals fair and square.”

The pale man took a deep, clenched breath, briefly revealing unnaturally white teeth. “You know, Cowell, someday you’re gonna get exactly what’s coming to you.”

“And lucky you will no doubt still be around to witness the glorious event first hand.” Cowell grinned as the pale man nearly growled. “Now if you’ll excuse me, unless you’d like to stick around and have a pint, it appears I have other business to attend to.”

He gestured the pale man out onto the street and turned back to the bar. He blinked once, as his owl-like eyes fell on Ace, and shook his head. “Ace, is that you? My god, it must be… bloody years since I’ve seen you last.”

“I’d hoped it was the last,” Ace stood and shook Cowell’s hand. Slimy stick of a man though he was, Cowell had a firm handshake. Ace had to respect that.

“Doesn’t everyone,” Cowell recovered effortlessly. “Now, if you’ll just follow me to my office we can—”

But he didn’t get a chance to finish, for just then the door was kicked open, and the pub went silent. Ace instinctively reached for the gun under his jacket as he saw several vaguely familiar faces enter the dark bar. For a second, however, he thought he must be dreaming, because he never thought in a million years that he would see this assortment of faces together. Half of them were the pinched, Italian faces of the Mirelli’s, and half were the pasty, Russian faces of the Borozovs.

“What in the ever-loving fuck…” Ace began.

“I agree!” Cowell cut in. “Why on earth would anyone kick in that door? I had to pay a specialist to get it to stick like that.”

“N-no, that’s not…” Ace shook his head. “Never mind. This might be my fault. These chucklefucks clearly tailed me.”

The four men stepped through the doorway, and still with the utmost calm, Cowell motioned for the patrons to leave. The men let them go. Clearly they wanted to handle whatever it was they were here for quietly.

“Hands where I can see ‘em,” said the short one, waving a pistol nonchalantly through the air. Cowell and the bartender stuck their hands up, the latter looking slightly on edge, and after gesturing to the tall one to watch them, the short one turned to Ace.

“You really didn’t think we wouldn’t catch onto you playing both of us?” he asked. “We’re not stupid. Once we all realized you’d been uh… consortin’ with our greatest enemy, well, loyalties run deep, so now you’s gotta die.”

Ace rolled his eyes. “Look like it matters to me? Go on, do it. I dare you.”

The short one looked a little unnerved, but thinking he’d called his bluff, straightened up again, and fired. Once, twice—always doubletap—and Ace fell to the floor with a small thump.

All present looked at his corpse for a second, including Ace himself, from over the short one’s shoulder. He would say that he hated dying, but usually he was already gone before the pain really hit. That didn’t mean he wasn’t still absolutely pissed.

“That… was a really nice suit.” All four of the men turned towards him with looks of abject horror on their faces. A gentleman might have given them a few seconds to react, but Ace was no gentleman. He punched the short one right in the face, and all hell broke loose.

Even with his ability to not die backing him up, Ace was no slouch at hand-to-hand combat. The short one was nearly down after that one punch, and the butt of Ace’s gun against his forehead knocked him out of the fight for good.

By then, the three others had recovered from their surprise and had begun to advance on him, guns gleaming in the dim lamplight. But Ace was ready for them.

“What do we do?” the bartender kid turned to Cowell, who merely looked vaguely amused at the scene. Just then, a bullet zinged directly over their heads and hit the old wood crossbeam.

“This, Tommy, is the part where we duck behind the bar to minimize the risk of a bullet ricocheting and hitting us.” When the kid looked about ready to resist, Cowell simply grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him down with him. “You see, I could easily come back from something as simple as a bullet, but you on the other hand,” he made a hissing sound between his teeth,” not so much. And I’d not like to see your rather pretty face marred by blood today.”

The kid blushed slightly, and opened his mouth to comment on this, but was interrupted by a body being dragged across the bar directly over their heads, bits of broken glass from smashed pints rained down on them.

“Ooo, I’m going to have to replace those,” Cowell muttered.

“Sorry about the mess,” Ace shouted over the sound of someone’s jaw breaking. “I’m trying to minimize the damage but you know how these things go.”

“Well, you’re trying your best, and that’s all that matters.”

The last man standing, one of the Russians, ran at Ace with a pool cue he’d found lying around, but Ace shot him clear through the forehead before he ever reached him. He barely even had to look.

When all was said and done, there were six bodies on the ground. Two of them were Ace. After tapping them lightly to make sure none of them were getting up anytime soon, he sat back down at the bar and wrapped on the counter. “Hey kid, how about that drink?”

The kid and Cowell appeared from behind the bar, and after a second of taking in the scene, the kid blinked and mumbled, “Um, yeah, sure.”

Miraculously, the liquor display had not been harmed in the slightest.

“So, why are you really here, Ace?” Cowell leaned against the bar. “I hope it wasn’t just to trash the place.”

“I think you know what I came for,” Ace sighed wearily, and took a hard swig from the bottle of whiskey that the kid had just passed him. “My deal.”

It was clear that Cowell already knew the answer, but he asked anyway. “What about it?”

“You know, all those years ago, I thought I had outfoxed you. Hell, you gave me the ability to not die for nothing in return.” He stared off into nothing for a minute. “But I misunderstood, didn’t I?”

“They always do,” Cowell grinned a little, pleased with himself.

Ace continued as if he hadn’t heard him. “But it wasn’t for free, was it? Cuz while you gave me the ability to not die, that also means… that I can’t die.”

“You’re lucky,” Cowell said. “Most people don’t live long enough to realize what their deals truly mean.” He straightened up abruptly. “So, good for you, well done, a pat on the back, nice to see you.”

“Is that it?” Ace asked. “I was just hopin that since I’d figured it out, you know, learned my lesson and all, that you could…”

“Remove it? No can do, I’m afraid,” Cowell chuckled beginning to turn away.

“You mean you won’t do it?”

“Not won’t, can’t,” Cowell shrugged. “Once a deal is made nothing can be done.”

Frowning, Ace processed this for a second. He gazed down at the bottle in front of him. “Then make a new deal with me.” He gazed, stony-eyed, behind his sunglasses. “I’ll give you my ability to not die, and in exchange, you allow me to die.”

Cowell opened his mouth, and then closed it again. He did it again. Finally he frowned. “That… is a loophole that I had not considered. I sincerely hope no one else finds out about this.” He turned back to Ace. “Normally, I wouldn’t allow it. But I like you, and you’ve provided me with entertainment for the afternoon, so I’ll allow it just this one time.”

They sealed the deal with a firm handshake, and that was that. Ace took one last swig from the bottle, stood, and put a twenty on the counter. “That’s for the kid,” he glared pointedly at Cowell.

The daemon waved pleasantly as Ace made for the now broken door. “See you around.”

“No offence,” Ace paused, “but I certainly hope not.”

He walked out onto the sunny street and blinked for a second, even with the sunglasses. As he started walking, he happened to see a woman across the street, watching him. She had been watching him for years.

“Not yet,” he muttered and kept walking. There were still a few things he needed to take care of first. But once those were done, he’d be ready to step into her cold, loving embrace with open arms.