#Given 09

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[ribbonsfallaway]

ROBBY: And get this, his suicide note was stuck to the fridge with a Cookie Monster magnet. All he wrote on it “Robby’s fault.” I’m Robby by the way, hi! What the fuck did I do to him?!?!

[good-beanswrites]

legally blonde mahiru... cause like. finding validation thruogh achievement and not from love ehe

also following her ex to a college is smth she'd do 100%

SO TRUE!! When I sat down to watch the musical with my sister last summer I got wicked emotional about Mappi during What You Want, so I wrote some snapshot scenes incorporating those lyrics here :3 (And I added some indulgent au headcanons for the overall story at the end hehe)

“Law school?” Mahiru’s coworker raised her eyebrows. She finished wrapping a bouquet and added it to the finished ones. Though she spoke politely, Mahiru wasn’t stupid. Doubt lurked just beneath the surface of the carefully-asked questions. “That’s a pretty big change, huh? And for some boy?”

“Not ‘for some boy’ – Love! I’m doing this for love.” There was a big difference. She didn’t know why so many people didn’t understand. The actual feeling was something much bigger than either of the individuals involved. “And love will see me through.”

They worked at a florist’s, after all; their whole livelihood relied on love. They’d seen its power firsthand, through the successful dates and reunions that blossom into marriages, funeral arrangements for spouses devoted past lifetimes, apology gifts after turning one’s life around, and promise arrangements with the desire to do so. The shop had taken countless requests from clients hoping to shape their bouquet into something perfectly suited to their lover. Why couldn’t she do that very same work of molding to perfection?

Yes, there was no more righteous reason to do anything. She smiled to herself. “Yes, with love on my side, Mahiru can't lose~ They can't refuse a love so pure and true.” 

“Well, they can…” The other woman returned her smile with a nervous one. It was alright that she was a bit pessimistic. Most people were, but it only made the truly devoted couples stand out even brighter against the crowd. 

Mahiru picked up her own finished bouquet, taking a deep inhale of the fragrance. She giggled. “Oh come on, don't lawyers feel love too?”

—

“Miss Shiina. This is a very flashy presentation, but I still don't see one reason to admit you.”

She thought there were plenty of good reasons on the resume in the man’s hands, each one framed on the shimmery, sunflower-bordered stationary. Her personal essay and video essay had just as much flair, but if he was still reluctant to accept those, she did have one last ace up her sleeve. Honesty was the best policy – that’s what all the relationship columns and wellness blogs she followed always said. She took a deep breath.

“How about love?”

“Ah.” His eyes flicked down at her personal essay, placing the resume down beside it. He must have been recalling her beautifully eloquent recounting of her relationship. She could still feel the thrill of writing it all down, of laying out the events and gestures, the fights and reunions, the hopes and dreams. It was all there, a perfect record of the meaning of life, and the meaning of her future. “The thing is –”

“You ever been in love?”

He paused, caught off-guard by the question. Mahiru recognized the look on his face. He had indeed. 

She went on, “because if you have, you'll know that love never accepts a defeat.” She thought of the many times she and her boyfriend had fought, or cancelled on each other, or even tried to break up. She’d always been able to reach back out, take hold of him, and save both of them from losing each other. “There’s no challenge it can't meet, no place it cannot go.”

“I admit, that’s a very nice sentiment, but we’re all adults here. I can tell you –”

Mahiru reached across the table to take his hands. “Don't say no to a woman in love!”

“Miss Shiina.” He yanked his hands back, entirely unamused by her sudden bout of excitement. 

Had she overdone it again? Why did people think she was so crazy for this? It was only natural – only admirable – to put your whole self into a relationship you’re passionate about. She bowed her head. Her voice returned to its most earnest, sounding hushed and hopeful.

“Don't laugh when I say love. Don't think that I'm naive.” She’d heard that enough in her lifetime. She hadn’t let it stop her before, and she sure as hell wouldn’t let it stop her now. “Even a person who's smart can listen to their heart. They can listen and believe.”

“I… I see.” And he did. His eyes moved over her submissions again – full of passion and character and joy. Didn’t the world need a little more of that? Didn’t it need a lot more of that?

Even before she spoke, she could see that something had changed. She’d won him over. “So believe in what love can achieve~”

—

Au thoughts! I wasn’t able to feature everyone but I got a few of the cast here :3

Mahiru is bubbly and girly and enjoys her hobbies of literature/cosmetology/flowers – the major difference between her and Elle is that even while her positivity can immediately charm people, she doesn’t have as many close friends/family to support her. She really clings to her boyfriend, always obsessing over and returning to the relationship no matter what.

They have a rocky relationship that he finally decides to end for good. He says he needs to meet someone serious, and find some fulfillment in his life instead of going in depressive circles with her – he’ll accomplish all this by attending the famous Milgram School of Law (lol)

She, of course, takes this as an invitation to join him. She throws everything else away, pouring herself into this new personality and lifestyle for love. As someone already committed to her studies and good with language (as a literature major) she succeeds in getting in. “What, like it’s hard~?”

Once there, she’s horrified to find her boyfriend associating with another law student – one Kotoko Yuzuriha who’s the very image of “someone serious” he was looking for. (I don’t know if either of them would want to get romantically involved, but they definitely get close enough to cause a lot of jealousy.) Kotoko looks down on Mahiru’s lighthearted attitude in the face of the weighty cases they dealt with in class, and constantly one-ups her with her strength and toughness.

She also meets law-prodigy Es, and the two become close friends and study buddies. Es takes the time to listen to Mahiru’s story and loving and losing her boyfriend, feeling responsible but not quite sure how. As they understand her situation more, they manage to get Mahiru to believe she doesn’t need to do all this for some guy – she can live for herself. She gets the legal internship, and starts working with the others.

Meanwhile, Mahiru is meeting with her hairdresser, Kazui. He had a rough breakup in the past (his own fault, but still), and fears he’ll never be able to find that same sort of romance again, even as he’s crushing on the cute delivery guy (Mikoto. Shidou?) Mahiru helps him return to Hinako’s house to make amends and get some closure, then imparts her bending and snapping wisdom upon him to get his man 👏

Which brings her to the big case. Their team is defending Yuno Kashiki on an impossible murder trial. She begs Mahiru not to tell her alibi – that she was with a client on her private job. She felt real warmth with him, and doesn’t want to implicate him in both her work and the trial. Mahiru agrees in the name of protecting their love, much to the rest of the lawyers’ dismay.

(If anyone would fit the Callahan role it would be Jackalope lol, but I feel like we don’t even need that plotline since her themes are a bit different than the dumb-blonde ones.)

Callahan plot or not, Mahiru gets discouraged about the whole thing as everyone loses faith in her for not revealing Yuno’s secret. Other students at the school are caught whispering about her, calling her crazy, clingy, too emotional, selfish, and some even saying she’s a stalker for still keeping tabs on her boyfriend. She’s ready to leave the whole university and career behind when Kotoko stops her. She tells Mahiru that she was wrong about her, and encourages her to stick to her guns. And so, (after a Muu-focused rendition of Lesbian or European,) Mahiru is able to use her “girly” interests to catch the real criminal.

She graduates at the top of her class, finding fulfillment through this job of helping others and confidence in herself and her own interests. She’s content not to get back with her boyfriend (though, maybe over the years of working together, she and Kotoko end up spending some extra time together…) 

[tls123]

new new post so that the other one doesn't get too long! as always here are the links:

novel updates, carrd, raws, translation <3

last update: 01/09/24

testimonial by: @annagrzinskys find it here !

from now on i will simply update the main image (counter) and only do so for those who have finished the novel. the latest testimonial from the most recent satisfied customer will be either linked (for sent-in messages) or added as a screenshot (for tags) just above the read more and then moved under the cut with the rest.

older testimonials:

update #1

update #2

update #3

update #4

update #5 — the first from this post!

extra testimonial

update #6 -> @/shizunfuckers sent it in as a message, find and read it here

update #7 -> @/kimdokjas also sent in a message, here's a link

update #8 -> @/waterlilyvioletfog 's sent something, find it here !

[simphic]

King Magazine realness... #wait.

[gr8ntaire]

sometimes I think abt the fact the first thing abt motogp I ever reblogged on here was that girl so confusing Valentino + Lorenzo edit and upon consideration I rlly think I started in the best way possible LMFAO

[batsplat]

from the stuff i’ve heard marc’s former honda teammates (dani jorge and pol in their media careers but joan also i guess) say about him now that they’re racing is generally quite positive, both on a professional/riding level but also seemingly on a personal level? i’m wondering what you make of that given that, yeah, marc doesn’t seem like a very good teammate (unless you’re alex who i’ve left off this list). like MARC wants to separate on and off track stuff and it seems like all of these guys are willing too at least in retrospect, so he can’t have truly burned bridges with them. do you have any thoughts on that

(x, x) most riders are quite good at not burning bridges with each other! it's not like marc's competitors don't know that this stuff is kinda part of the game. I mean, all of marc's past teammates were also trying to assert themselves within the internal hierarchy... you can say that certain teammates engage in 'worse' behaviour than others, but, like, these people do understand they're supposed to be fighting each other! a baseline degree of nastiness is factored in and will be accepted to a greater or lesser extent by your rivals - especially when it comes to asserting yourself in intra-team power struggles. you might hate the other guy in the moment, but generally speaking once the active part of the rivalry is done with... you will probably get over it. marc's fellow riders are aware of how ultra-competitive marc is - and to a certain point they do respect it, not least because they're aware that this is part of the reason why marc has ended up with all those titles. it's like dani said, right, it's marc's strong suit. and in general, you do have to say that there's relatively few teammate pairings that devolve to the level of toxicity that it completely destroys the interpersonal relationship. you might need some level of preexisting animosity... most of the purely competitive sins can be healed with a little time

on the 'separating on-track and off-track' thing... well. this is kind of a question of how you define these things, you can say that marc generally speaking isn't going to massively hold grudges over isolated on-track incidents or whatever... but he doesn't just leave his fighting to the track, and personally I've also never felt he can entirely separate these things out in his mind. can you really say his professional and private relationships with other riders are completely detached from one another? mostly, he's opted to be pretty disengaged from his fellow riders as a collective, and obviously that's a good way to not take things too personally... it's all part of the game, isn't it? sometimes it's good to go with the straightforward approach: marc tells you he will make your life hell, he does indeed make your life hell, and then you both move on with your lives and can maybe actually have a pretty amiable relationship with him in years to come. he's not really defying your expectations at any point here, is he now? it's still a question for each of them as individuals as to whether they think that kind of behaviour is above board and acceptable or not... but everyone by now knows that marc plays these games, so it's not like they're going in blind

and it's not like other former teammates are constantly badmouthing each other. I mean... look, let's just cut to the chase here and bring in valentino as our reference point (as he is for the sport as a whole, which by the way does also help create a certain baseline of acceptability for marc's antics - maybe goated riders are just supposed to be dicks who knows). vale's premier class teammates were 1) nobody (2000-01), 2) tohru ukawa (2002), 3) nicky hayden (2003; 2011-12), 4) carlos checa (2004), 5) colin edwards (2005-2007), 6) jorge lorenzo (2008-10; 2013-16), 7) maverick vinales (2017-20), 8) franco morbidelli (2021), and 9) andrea dovizioso (2021). of these eight men (let's just exclude 'nobody' for now), do you know how many had serious complaints at any point about valentino as a teammate? that's right, it's one guy. one. some of valentino's other teammates, like hayden, checa and edwards, were even quite actively positive about their whole experience. this is the thing - you do need some specific circumstances for teammate rivalries to escalate from 'being kinda bitchy every other month' to 'actively fantasising about stabbing each other'. not accounting for natural interpersonal animosity, let's list some circumstantial factors that you need to get a bridge-burning-worthy level of feud:

you need a competitive bike. it is possible to beef about development direction when you're in the trenches (cf late 2010's yamaha, 2020's honda)... but generally speaking this is going to be quite low-level petty stuff, not actual war

you also need something that approaches competitiveness between teammates. if one teammate is unquestionably stronger than the other one, then it is very unlikely that you are going to get any open hostilities. the tension comes when the two sides are close enough to each other for the internal hierarchy to actually be a contentious issue (this is also basic self preservation... if you're the far weaker teammate then you do not want to make the situation troublesome, because then you will be the one to be fired)

following on from those first two things... well, it doesn't hurt to have a title fight in the mix. there are also other ways you can generate competitive stakes, like, for instance, if you and your teammate know that one of you will be out of a job soon. basically, it helps to have something to squabble over

it is maybe easy to forget how rare it is this century for teammates to be fighting directly for a title, let alone over the course of multiple seasons. only two 1-2's since the year 2000 and they're both for the factory yamaha's (though 2006, 2011-13 and 2017 did all prominently feature two factory hondas). which means that for valentino, the prerequisites were met just the once in his premier class career... and yes, the results were pretty memorable, but (topic! for! another! post!) it's worth pointing out that even that relationship was pretty much 'fine' whenever there was a sizeable disparity between the two of them performance-wise (2008 and 2013 are the most clear cut examples). I think the way I'd frame it with marc is that he has a bunch of mildly dubious strategies up his sleeve to assert himself within the team, which don't really deviate that far from what you'd expect from a rider of marc's calibre and only need to be escalated under specific circumstances. that doesn't mean he doesn't have the potential to be ruthless, but up until now it's mostly been a fairly 'acceptable' level of ruthlessness on the intra-team level... and not something that is likely to make other riders actually hate him

taking marc's teammates one by one... dani was the closest to meeting the bridge-burning prerequisites, though he was only a title rival in marc's rookie season. and marc did go further with him than he did with anyone else, and dani has made some pointed comments about marc's style as a teammate... but yes, he is fonder of marc these days. partly I'd just emphasise again that this is a fairly natural progression when you've stopped directly competing for long enough, and partly it's also just a question of individual personality - dani's not massively into holding grudges. then there's jorge, who... I mean, they might as well not have been teammates, given that jorge was either too slow or too injured to even be sharing any track space with marc. you have to put that one down primarily to circumstance, seeing as jorge's own track record on the teammate front isn't exactly spotless. marc and jorge beefing in 2019 would have been pretty dumb and also a massive waste of everyone's time in a year in which marc singlehandedly won the team's championship. even those two needed more to get things going

moving on to the dark years, pol and marc had an extremely stop-and-start partnership on a honda that was generally pretty uncompetitive... so the only stuff they could get ever so mildly irritable about were riveting incidents like 'marc saying pol wasn't the biggest championship threat' (neither of them were) or 'pol saying he'd copy marc's set up' (which proved entirely useless). not exactly title decider territory, is it now, and marc very much had pol covered as a challenger throughout their partnership. also, those two do have a longer history! they've known each other since they were kids and hold a pretty significant place in each other's careers. now that pol's more or less retired, it's natural there'll be quite a lot of sentimentality there - which will paper over any small cracks that appeared during those two years. and joan was a one year teammate at a time in which the bike was consistently close to offing them both. they only managed to start a sunday race together as teammates on thirteen occasions. it would take some serious effort to engineer a feud with that little opportunity, and, really, why on earth would you bother. maybe if honda had gone for rinsy rather than joan for the factory seat, it could've been a bit more prickly, but it's unlikely that it would have escalated beyond that

this is the thing, right, the only one of these partnerships that would have been worth burning bridges over was dani, and even there marc pretty much had him handled after the first season. in general, marc has been pretty clear on how he's not interested in making friends with the other side of the garage while the teammate relationship is ongoing... which is fine! there's some prominent-ish teammate pairings that are actually good friends, some teammate pairings where one of them is actively helping out and advising the other one, but some riders prefer to just keep their distance. it would have been a little silly of marc to start a feud with a teammate who is galaxies away from being a competitive threat, let alone a title rival, but generally it is possible to toe the line between 'attempting to suppress your internal rivals enough to stop them from becoming a problem for you' and 'taking radical enough action to make your internal rivals despise you'

especially in the post-dani era, marc never really had any need to push things too far... and, let's face it, how many of your teammate relationships end up with burnt bridges is also quite frankly a question of luck and circumstance. do you want to guess which top rider on paper has the worst track record this century with premier class teammate feuds, in terms of a) how many they've had, and b) how little public reconciliation there has been since the end of the rivalry?

yes, that's right, it's the first name that comes to mind when you're thinking of toxic and conflict-prone riders: andrea dovizioso. that old devil, constantly causing trouble. just couldn't stop undermining his poor, innocent teammates. can somebody please stop this ruthless bully before it's too late

I think you get the point. I would personally suggest that dovi is not in fact the worst teammate it is possible to have in a motogp top team. he just happened to find himself in a situation where he was teammates with two separate guys he did not click with at all, in situations that involved a pairing of riders who were (or had the potential to be) competitive with each other, as well as some proper stakes attached to the rivalry. in general, situational factors are going to determine this stuff more than anything else... and marc more often than not does have a reasonably good feel for picking his battles. he's flirted with the line, but he's mostly avoided crossing it. he hasn't had to

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]

[into-the-milgramverse]

Do you ever think about how Amane's warnings were either seen as threats (by Mahiru and audience) or as just test of patience (by Shidou)? Do you ever think about how Amane likely was just trying to protect the ones she cares about? Do you think she didn't actually want to kill Shidou, but felt like she had to to save Mahiru? Do you think that's why she's mad at us for not stopping him?

First MV, shows her helping a (cartoon) cat, getting punished, then promising to be good. Gets voted guilty and punished, giving a message that practicing medicine is bad and deserves punishment.

Second MV, shows what the punishment was and that the cartoon cat was real cat.

Do you think after that first vote result, she started to think of Milgram as the same as her mom? That Milgram has the same rules against medicine? That if Shidou continues to practice it, Milgram will punish both him and kill Mahiru?

Do you think Amane killed Shidou immediately after knowing that he was voted Innocent? Do you think she felt like that was a huge risk and that she'd get punished again, this time for ending a life too early before it was supposed to, but that she thought it was worth it to protect Mahiru from same fate that the cat she took care of faced? Or do you think she waited until she was voted Innocent as well, to get confirmation that it's acceptable to punish someone for breaking the rules? Do you think even then it felt like a risk given how close she was to being voted Guilty again? Do you think she's currently scared of what we'll do now?

Do you think she regrets the decision? Do you think she too blames herself now for Mahiru's death, along with millions of voices that blame her for it?

[femmikoto]

lyrics for the new deco song are soooooo johncore

[phantastragoria]

do you have a favourite portrayal of a character in the gotg game!! who is it and why <3

Oh I think they're all great honestly!!! Part of why I love the game so much is that genuinely, the whole team + supporting characters are written with such obvious love of the source material and equal attention between them all. When I see comments of people saying who their favorite character was from the game and the answer always being different from each person I'm like!! That's how it SHOULD be!!! They're the Guardians of the Galaxy (plural) the focus shouldn't all fall on a singular character like most other GotG media usually ends up as 😭

The two (sorry I can't pick just one) whom I think benefit the most from the game though are Drax and Gamora because they're almost always sidelined both in-and-out of universe by most of the various writers (especially as of late) and in turn the viewers/readers. I've been told plenty of times that they're the most boring members of the "main" team, BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY! The amount of love the game versions get (by the few who've played it at least) proves that 🥺

I've never really liked 616 Drax shifting to being a complete clown during the 90s and such (and even less so when the MCU followed along 💀) So I appreciate the game taking a bit of his seriousness from the DnA run and just making him struggle with nuance and context clues in a less exaggerated way (autistic Drax I still believe in u) and I feel the focus put on him and how losing his original family + the aftermath deeply affected him hits pretty hard here because it's treated very seriously and shown in depth, especially with how his family (wife) gets actual focus. I cannot tell you anything about Yvette in comparison to Hovat, who actually seemed to have had a personality lol (AND she was on their village's council like omg imagine having more to you than just being The Housewife) Though I will say I flip and flop on my thoughts about Heather being disconnected from Drax's life in this universe... The TLDR is that I think his arc here specifically works stronger when he has to come to terms with losing his entire family and accepting the life he currently has with the Guardians. BUT!!! I very much appreciate that Heather is still confirmed to exist within this universe, even if that means her dad issues would have to be dealt with in a different context if we ever get to see her.

Also? Shoutout to the writers actually bringing up the intense paranoia that always kneecapped 616 Drax but having that be a turning point in his backstory here, with that conversation he has with Peter where he talks about how he was becoming so paranoid of everyone being a chitauri/Thanos conspirator to the point of literally turning into an obsessed maniac like Thanos, and realizing that he desperately needed to turn his life around, it's so ough.

Out of the already many great conversations throughout the game, I think the ones with him are the most poignant. My favorite scene in the whole game is Drax and Pete's little moment on Knowhere... makes me go wahhh

(l also love that out of everyone on the team, it's his headspace that we quite literally get to go into. You KNOW that if this was any other media it'd be going into Rocket or Groot's head and likely treated as a joke.)

And oh my god, Gamora...

I find it so extremely refreshing that her role in the plot doesn't revolve purely around the men in her life, and instead, it's nearly exclusively her connection with other women. Or in the most direct obstacle she has to deal with, being how she starts projecting to the millionth degree on Nikki's situation for reminding her of what happened to her and Nebula. I find that infinitely more fascinating as a reading of her character rather than just dating drama or her arc getting completely overtaken by a man's instead.

And especially in her friendship with Mantis, who, despite having all these futures she's constantly seeing and having to navigate, still makes time to do her best to help her 🥺 From saving her life and being the one who put her on the path to healing on Lamentis, to getting her to join the Guardians and still checking in on her when she's able 😭 Friendship between women can be so powerful... u love to see it (🏳️‍🌈)

I also find it nice that there's this emphasis on her recovering mentally, and the comparison between Thanos essentially teaching her to just Deal with the shit in her life through very simplistic meditation versus the priests of Pama actually teaching her something to help soothe the mind :^( and that she still has moments of relapsing essentially. I find that to be a realistic take on recovery because that's just part of the journey since healing is not linear... and I think it's very sweet that she finds comfort in collecting something ---girly--- like dolls. Love to see a person reclaim a part of their childhood that they weren't allowed to experience. And how she's allowed to make BAD JOKES?? Imagine a woman being written to have multiple dimensions, crazy and absolutely unthinkable, I know.

There's this extremely specific theme in relation to Gamora across media that's been rattling around in my brain since first playing the game. When near the end during the revisit to Knowhere, she's about to completely lose it when Peter tries talking -for- her on what she's so upset about before immediately shooting him down, and she explains what happened between her and Nebula and she starts crying. It really struck me right then that she's never given a moment to cry elsewhere (or in the 616's case, the quite literal inability to.) aside from her shedding a Single Manly Tear (Original Sin) or a single moment out of legit fear (MCU 💀) because she's a hashtag Strong Independant Woman who can't be vulnerable etc etc. But for her to cry in front of the people she's come to care about, It gives her a moment of true vulnerability that I don't think she's allowed ever in most other media.

That and all of the above hits hard and is what makes me genuinely believe that the writers cared about her in the narrative and tried to do right by her when every other bit of media really hasn't nor cared to the majority of the time since the 90s :'^/ Brings a tear to my eye that she's allowed to just... exist in the narrative on her own merits and not on what she can provide to someone else's story.

[nicoscheer]

The fact that THIS is his go to relaxed talking pose is killing me 🏳️‍🌈 💅 literal model

🥹🥹🥺🥺 kids 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫠🫠❤️

Also the person might be scum but the username is accurate

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ✨Jungle Electric Coffee Shop✨ (@jungle.electric)

[orangetintedglasses]

Vash watched with wide eyes as the stray bullets zipped by and gave the undertaker's mop a partial trim. At least none of them actually landed, but that was definitely a little too close for comfort! The total amount of people who were still left in this place could be counted on one hand, and they all knew the others were around, too; who out of that group would shoot at them like that...?!

The answer, somewhat thankfully, would come from someone familiar... just... probably not who either of them were necessarily hoping for. Ashton's shaking voice rang out, sharp and loud from the dark-- definitely running off of emotional adrenalin as he barked at them to-- "S-STAY OUT...!"

Which was... pretty bad. Disappointing-- the blond shut his eyes with a deep frown and let his head slump, thudding lightly against the wall like he'd really, really been hoping that this wouldn't be the outcome --but very, very bad, because a gun was a lot more dangerous in the hands of someone who had no idea how to use it than in the hands of someone who did.

"You are such a shit shot..." wheezed another familiar voice just as Vash opened his mouth to speak, though it was softer and hoarse with strain. The Captain's goading just worked Ashton up further; from where he was standing, Wolfwood might've been able to see the rifle swing down, the lights of the sleeping screens and keyboards just barely bouncing off of the metal.

There isn't even enough light in there to read by... so Ashton is either a terrible shot or firing blind in a suboptimal environment. Or both.

"SH-- SHUT UP!"

"Point blank in front of him, a-and he still only hits me in the side... you two have nothing to worry about..."

... which was something Vash seemed to take as express permission to enter. He looked at Wolfwood for a split second-- that 'I'm about to do something you're not going to approve of' look --before he shouted into the dark room, "Ashton! I'm coming in! Please don't shoot!"

"NO! N-no, stay away, I'm warning you--!!"

But the Plant wouldn't listen, rolling against the doorframe so he would be facing forward immediately upon passing the threshold, gun up and ready to fire.

Ashton yelped and fired first, but the gun clicked. Out of ammo.

Any sentimental awe Wolfwood experiences while watching Vash ponder the future of this brutalist example of an Eye of Michael facility is shattered as soon as shots ring out. As expected, he follows Vash like a loyal hound, noticing something similar about the doors' lights. He'd seen lights like these before, where they kept him locked up and on a medical table for all those years in Julai. One in particular that he was familiar with was the one in front of the medical ward.

A green light was usually accompanied by muffled screams, depending on the 'subject'. At some point, you just stop feeling things. You stop screaming, because you're told to. Newer 'subjects' weren't yet accustomed to that.

Laboratories and Medical Wards practically go hand in hand. Lo and behold, the gunfire is coming from the lab. Great.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Wolfwood asks, not really to anyone in particular as he nudges Vash to stand on one side of the door while he takes the other. The door slides open to bullets that just about graze his head as he peeks in. He hisses through his teeth, mourning the loss of a few hairs. All they can do is hope whoever that is stops firing at them or needs to reload soon.

Or their gun jams, since it sounds like whoever's using it has no clue what they're doing.

"HEY!!," he shouts inside, hoping that he hears the bandit guy and not an unfamiliar voice, "What the hell are you shooting at?! You got a deathwish or somethin'?!"

[salem-s]

18+ mdni.

PLAYING THE PART UNDER THE SICILIAN SUN ── RAFE CAMERON

SERIES MASTERLIST

𓇼 ⋆.˚ SYNOPSIS ── When your image-obsessed mother catches you and Rafe Cameron (your friend-with-benefits) in a compromising situation, you must lie and say you're dating. It spirals out of control when your mother invites him to your cousin’s upcoming wedding in Italy, and even more out of control when he says yes. ── fake dating, friends with benefits, she fell first but he fell harder, college au. ── contains fluff, angst, smut (chapters marked*).

𓆉 ⋆.˚ CHAPTERS

01 ─ 02* ─ 03* ─ 04* ─ 05 ─ 06 ─ 07* ─ 08 ─ 09* ─ 10 ─ 11 ─ FINAL* | WORD COUNT 101.6k

𓆉 ⋆.˚ BLURBS ── FEELING EACH OTHER | more coming soon…

𓆡 ⋆.˚ NOTES ── This is a Rafe x fem!reader story. No use of Y/N. ── The only OC-leaning detail is that she has an Italian speaking grandmother (or grandmother-like figure) and can speak the language. ── This story is 18+. Do not interact if less than.

© 2025 salem-s please do not copy or replicate work unless given permission from me. mdni.

[emberglowfox]

scribbles from the past few nights

[hikikomoriheadphonegirl]