#I think I did pretty well XD

[paintedkinzy-88]

I'm curious, what would NM and Dream look like if they had wings? (Dragon balance au)

Also, Hi :D

(Hi!! (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧)

You gave me many many thoughts thank you very much. Sorry for the wait but here’s my info dump—

For Nightmare, I’d have changed his design a little bit. Three sets of front legs AND wings is a lot, so off with one pair. He’d obviously have webbed wings, and Passive wise, doesn’t do much to the design itself. But CORRUPTED Noots…

I imagine they’d not only have no webbing, but also just… be very sticky. The fingers get gooped together a lot, and he always has to stretch em out to make them less irritating. Not that it lasts long, but he does his best to keep ‘em from globbing together again!

Dream, meanwhile, he’s honestly a lot like Winged!Dream. Not a lot changes, aside from maybe throwing in a few feathers here and there for funsies, like on his chest. (I also put some on his elbows/wrist as a fun nod to my next point…)

There… technically already IS a winged version of Dream ehehehe. I think I’ve talked about Dreamswap once before in an ask?? But I’ve never nailed down his design, and I really wanted to do that, so! Bonus!

Boi’s got two pairs of wings, with one set that’s connected to his paws and the other just on their own (which he got after eating the golden apple). Think Stormcutter in HTTYD. He’s bigger than TTS!Dream, has longer, more tree like horns he constantly has to trim down, can stand tall, and no, I did not desperately want this design to work out purely so DS!Nightmare and his crew (and probably Blue) can call him a duel-winged-cockatrice absolutely not I am FAR more mature than that—

[letsmcfreackingloseit]

So yes I have OF COURSE read @naffeclipse new fic Apex Polarity and yes, I AM OBSESSED!

So I decided to make a little comic of how I think their "first encounter" might have looked like from Eclipse's perspective.

I can't help but think about how alien and scary we most look to him (especially if there is a history of fasco hunting polar sirens in the past). With all that gear we look like emotionless beings, just observing and uncaring of this ice world. But then when y/n shows up and probably exudes this joy and wonder for his world + shows respect for the creatures and the environment??? Mmh yeah, I can see Eclipse falling for y/n, especially considering how alone he might be...

So yes, that's what I have for today! If you want to read the fic I'll link it right here. I can't recommend it enough, but as always, read the tags so you know what you're getting into! And lastly I also want to @themeeplord beacuse Eclipse's design is basically their design in my style (god I love their design so much, their character/creature designs are the BEST) so all the credit goes to them! Polar!Y/N is my design thou! ;P

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go read the two latest chapters-

YIPPEE!!!

[desultory-novice]

!! Sempai noticed me. Suddenly, hundreds of strangers have been exposed to MY art and my overwhelming feelings are, "I really should have spent some extra minutes on cleaning up the flat colors and adding more line weight" and "What if some of those strangers follow me home only to find out the majority of my recent output has been for my edgy, pretty-boy-ification of a retro Kirby last boss?!"

...Though that last one isn't that different from Montauban-chan XD

[prototypelq]

Okay so, yesterday I've been on my worst DRG mission yet xD

I am a very green-greenbeard (barely over 10 hours playtime), my fav mission type is Liquid Morkite mining (space oil mining, you need to build a system of pipelines leading to each morkite rift, which requires a lot of fun terrain-conquering problem-solving), because building pipelines is addictively fun. So, as a complete idiot, I see a mission with modifiers (this was a decision I would later regret-but not really) and get on it on a public server (meaning any player can join in, which normally doesn't take too much time at all).

The modifiers on that mission? Low oxygen and Cave Leeches (Cave leeches are enemy type that grab you and drain your health to zero unless somebody else saves you, Low Oxygen means precisely what the name implies, and you need to regularly come back to the mining station to refill your oxygen tanks.) Oh, and the Cave Complexity was 3 (which means, as I've intimately learned on that mission, that the map becomes much bigger, and more obstacles will get in your way, this pairs very badly with low oxygen modifier, as your mission objectives are placed further, but you constantly need to route back to be able to breathe)

So, there my lonely Engineer was, with my best boi Bosco (robot-companion while you play solo, he actually does what you ask him to so he is more useful than actual players xD yes but not really but yes), terrified of the amount of lootbug mess I just stepped into, once I logged in and realised what exactly all those modifiers meant.

I was terrified to explore, as it would be extremely easy to get caught by leeches and Bosco can only revive me two times, and this was only the prep step of the actual mission. Very carefully, I was able to find the first morkite well, and then the real issue arose. While, I am really glad I picked Engie for this mission, as his ability to create platforms is extremely useful when building pipelines, he also is one of the classes that doesn't have innate fast mobility options. In the context of a big map and pipeline building this meant that I had to: imagine the route I can build the pipeline to that particular morkite well, figure out how to mold terrain so the pipeline route would be actually possible to build, go out and mold terrain, then immediately route back because I have no oxygen left, rinse repeat, but switch 'terrain mold' to 'pipeline construction'. Very soon the time I spent getting to the construction point and back took most of my oxygen, so I could work like 30 seconds maybe on a pipeline, before heading back, otherwise my dwarf would suffocate. Also, somehow, Nobody would join. I think I spent around 30, maybe a bit more minutes just trying to build the first pipeline. I was terrified of going outside the tried and true routes because of the cave leeches, so I didn't even have any nitra for a resupply when my platform gun ran out of ammo. I started manually digging through the rock to build the second pipeline. I mean, I started digging for 2 seconds at best, then had to run back because of low oxygen, then back to mining for my two limited seconds.

For some reason, I persisted through this, and built two out of three pipelines. Thankfully, the best route I found for the last line went parallel to my first built line for a long time, so that eased the process a little, and the middle morkite well turned out to be closer than the others, so that was a break. I only had the longest pipeline to build, the one where I had to manually dig a tunnel to place, when, THANK GOD, another player joined in. It was a Gunner, he clearly didn't feel nearly as terrified as I was of the cave leech ambushes, was I bravery or stupidity I know not, but he found us nitra, and I was finally able to order a resupply. Things went easier after I figured out that his ziplines took less time to go up the cliff that pipeline surfing, and with my reloaded platform gun things got much easier. Then another player joined in, a scout this time, and it all went pretty smooth after that. The entire mission took me an hour and a half to complete, and for the most of it I was on my own.

Bosco, I will never forget the bond we built on that mission, robot-buddy my dear,

and the joined guys really saved my ass there,

I would never have finished the mission without them. Remember, if you Rock and Stone, you're never alone!

[heliosynchronisity]

ok @ ppl who are shidding their pants at all the ai garbage in google image searches, well first of all use duck duck go for most things anyway BUT their image indexing is kinda mid so if you have to use google, just slap 'before:2020' (or any other previous year) after your search. no ai images, nilch. no half working adblock datalist just one parameter. I did a quick test to see if it can also help me find old school digital art and dude... the fuckign difference

[brown-little-robin]

.

[mrs-luigi-vargas]

A Burning Secret

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Characters: Bowser Jr, Rosalina, Luma, Bowser Relationship: Bowser Jr & Rosalina, Bowser Jr & Luma, Bowser Jr & Bowser, Bowser & Rosalina Tags: Implied/Referenced Character Death, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Summary: Almost half a year after the universe was reborn, Bowser Junior lets Rosalina in on a secret. Word Count: 1,995 words A/N: Inspired by this post!

[AO3 Link]

~~~

Rosalina’s afternoon was proving to be peaceful so far.

Shortly after lunch, she’d taken to walking in a nearby park with one of her Lumas as company, enjoying the time before she needed to get ready for the next scheduled kart race. She’d run into Mario and Peach, who’d evidently had a similar idea. Mario had even given her a spare bag of birdseed before they’d parted, which she was sitting on a bench near an empty playground and using now to feed an eclectic variety of local birds.

Or at least she had been doing that, until a green and yellow blur sped into the cluster of gathered birds with a yell, sending them all squawking and flapping their wings to flee, which likewise sent her Luma into a giggle fit. When Rosalina lowered her arms after the cacophony had ended, someone was standing in the middle of the space the birds just left, laughing triumphantly about their departure.

“Bowser Junior, was it?” Rosalina asked, and he turned to grin broadly at her.

“Yeah, that’s me!” He puffed up his chest, looking every inch his father’s son. “Prince Bowser Junior! Hey, you’re that Star Lady from space!”

“Princess Rosalina,” she corrected, but Bowser Junior was only half-listening, looking for more birds to scare.

His search, despite bearing little fruit after the ruckus he’d caused earlier, only extended a certain distance away from Rosalina’s bench. “Dad got lost,” he told Rosalina when she asked why that was, “and this is where I’m supposed to wait for him if either of us gets lost.”

“...I see.”

Bored with searching for birds, Bowser Junior cambered onto the bench next to Rosalina. Eventually, now that everything was still, some birds came back to eat the remaining birdseed on the ground. Rosalina tossed them some more to snack on.

Floating above them, their Luma companion mused about the birds they were feeding, and how tiny and insignificant their lives were. Like theirs, it supposed, small stitches in the vast fabric of the universe. Stitches that affected the fabric the most when cut. It giggled. “Ah, to have my string cut someday...” it mused, bobbing and twirling in the air. “To leave behind a void that will never be the same, even if it’s filled...”

“Cut...like dying?” Bowser Junior furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Of course! The string of fate, sliced clean by the blades of the unturnable~!”

“...You’re weird,” Bowser Junior said. The Luma giggled again.

Rosalina’s eyes slid from the regrowing crowd of birds to the child sitting next to her. She considered giving him her bag of birdseed, so he could have a go at feeding the birds and perhaps deem that a better way to interact with them than scaring them off, but he looked too deep in thought to be bothered. And sure, almost half this planet’s orbit ago he had been a whole lot of trouble as part of Bowser’s attempt to take over the universe, but that was more his father, not him. Which was why she felt the need to ask him if there was something wrong. “Sorry about my Luma,” she added, thinking something it said had upset him. “Its demeanor can be...off-putting to most.”

Said Luma pouted at her. Bowser Junior huffed a laugh. But he still looked rather troubled for someone so young, fiddling with his bandanna and staring off into the distance. Rosalina decided not to push him, being patient. And that patience paid off, as with a final look between her and her Luma, he asked, “Can I tell you a secret?” in a small voice.

The Luma floated toward him, curiously. Rosalina leaned in, subtly.

“I died once,” Bowser Junior quietly told them.

“You did?!” The Luma gasped, an outward echo of Rosalina’s own surprise that exchanged her muted horror for amazed delight.

“Shh!” Bowser Junior covered its mouth, looking around furtively. “Quiet! It’s a secret!”

Whatever the Luma wanted to say next was muffled under Bowser Junior’s hands. “When?!” it asked when Bowser Junior removed them, obediently dropping its voice to a hushed whisper.

“Uh...a couple months ago, I think?”

Ah, Rosalina thought. “That supernova...you were sucked in by its black hole.”

“Huh? Black hole...?” Bowser Junior looked confused, as if he had no idea of the event that almost had the entire universe destroyed, despite being near the epicenter of it. But his face quickly cleared, and he shook his head. Rosalina’s stomach sank. It was something else...?

“What was it like, what was it like?!” the Luma asked, vibrating in excitement.

“Um.” Bowser Junior backed away from the Luma’s enthusiasm, bumping into Rosalina. Looking down at him in concern, she was about to tell him he absolutely did not have to indulge the Luma’s curiosity in the slightest, but then he took a breath and began speaking, each word carefully considered.

“I fell,” he began, frowning. The Luma leaned forward in anticipation. “And the ship fell, too. And then...and then...” His voice trailed off.

“You don't have to discuss it,” Rosalina interrupted firmly, with a stern glance at her Luma. “Not if the memories are too much to bear for you.”

But to her surprise, her words had the opposite intended effect; Bowser Junior’s vulnerable expression was joined by a stubborn glint in his eye, and he barreled on.

“I fell and it got hot,” he said in a rush. “And bright,” he added. “And really hot. And then...” The resolve faded. He searched for what to say next. He swallowed, thickly. “I woke up,” he finished simply, head bowed and shoulders hunched.

Though his description was vague, the Luma practically had stars in its eyes hearing it. “...Did it hurt?” it breathed, enraptured.

“.........Yeah.”

“Woah...”

“I’m sorry,” Rosalina said, heart heavy.

“It's okay, I think...you didn't do anything,” Bowser Junior reassured her, as if that wasn't the entire problem with this situation. But she'd been too far away to even see most of what was going on in Bowser’s galaxy back then, let alone do anything to help. And there was no way Mario and Peach knew either, Rosalina realized abruptly, though they'd been closer to the action. They'd be beating themselves up about it endlessly if they did. But what about — ?

“Does your father know?”

“No!” Wide-eyed, Bowser Junior grabbed at her dress. “Don't tell him! Or he won't let me go fight Mario with him anymore...! He already barely lets me help, now...!”

...She should probably tell his father. But Bowser Junior had started tearing up some, so...

“Alright, I won't tell,” Rosalina promised. Bowser Junior sighed in relief. “But,” she continued, “only as long as you promise to tell your family about what happened soon.”

“Yes, you should tell them!” the Luma cheered, twirling around the pair. “The knowledge of what's after death! It deserves to be treasured and shared~!”

“...You’re weird,” Bowser Junior told the Luma, but there was the faintest of smiles on his face as he wiped at his cheeks. “Okay,” he said next, and Rosalina gave him a starbit to munch on for it. And then a couple more when he started pestering her for them, and then a few more after that.

Not long after, Bowser walked down the path towards them, face pinched in worry and clearly in search of his son. “Dad!” Bowser Junior exclaimed, hopping off the bench and running up to meet him.

“There you are!” Bowser knelt to ruffle his son’s hair. “Didn't I tell you to stay with me so you wouldn't get lost?”

“I wasn't lost,” Bowser Junior grumbled. “You’re the one that disappeared.”

Bowser chuckled indulgently. But then Bowser Junior’s exasperated expression became overshadowed by uncertainty, and Bowser’s grin dimmed to match. “What’s up, son?” Bowser asked, voice softening.

“Um,” Bowser Junior said, and then quieted. His eyes flicked to the ground, to his father, to the Luma who had floated into his periphery, to a different spot on the ground. He shook his head. “Nevermind.”

Bowser bent down further to better meet his son’s eyes. “You sure?”

Bowser Junior nodded.

“Oh.” Bowser straightened, putting a hand on Bowser Junior’s shoulder. “Okay. Uh, you know you can tell me anything, right?”

“I know!” Bowser Junior chirped. He smiled at Bowser, small yet light. “Maybe later. I’m going to go play over there now.” he pointed at the nearby playground.

Though he still looked worried, Bowser met his son’s smile with his own, similarly warm. “Go for it,” he said. “Just don't wander off again, yeah?”

“You wandered off,” Bowser Junior insisted with a sigh. Nonetheless, he ran to the playground. The Luma followed him, sprinkling stardust as it floated about his head, stardust that caused Bowser Junior to sneeze. The Luma laughed, and when Bowser Junior began chasing it around in indignation for doing so it flew off to a hiding place underneath the slide with a wide grin. Bowser watched them go with a thoughtful look, but he seemed to accept his son’s new friend in the end.

But then he noticed his son’s new friend’s guardian, and he flinched at her cool stare. Rosalina kept it up even as he worked up the nerve to say something, perhaps because their charges were getting along mere yards away.

“So, uh.” He tried to meet her eyes. He didn't succeed. “He didn't bother you too much, did he...?”

“...He was fine,” Rosalina replied tersely. Bowser huffed at her answer.

“No, he was definitely a handful," he said. "He’s always a handful.”

Despite the complaint, he sounded fond. Rosalina understood that feeling intimately. So she decided to throw him a bone. “No more than any of my Lumas can be,” she offered, and Bowser laughed a little, relaxing slightly.

“Yeah, I guess you’d know about that.” He grinned at her like she was just a fellow parent, and not like he was the monster who had attacked her home, scared her children, and almost destroyed the universe months prior. There was really no reason he couldn't be both, Rosalina mused. But as a fellow parent, Rosalina should probably tell Bowser something about what his son had told her. She’d promised not to, though, so she didn’t. Instead, “After the universe was reborn,” she said, “how did your son fare?”

Bowser looked surprised at the question. “He, uh, fared fine. He’s lucky he didn't get hurt, from what I heard. Though” — Bowser frowned — “there’ve been nightmares. And some art. Of vents or somethin’, I dunno; he won't let me see any of it. Don't blame him, though; I shouldn't have lost track of him near the end of all that. ” Bowser’s face twisted into something guilty. “Gonna be keeping a better eye on him from now on, for sure,” he muttered, crossing his arms and looking off in the direction of the playground, where the Luma was cheering as Bowser Junior scaled the jungle gym. “We’ll get through this, and then I’m not losing him like that ever again.”

Rosalina hummed. She hadn't been sure about what Bowser’s answer would be, but the one she heard at least assured her that Bowser Junior was in good hands, and would continue to be so after he fulfilled his end of their promise.

“Dad!” Bowser Junior called from atop the jungle gym. When Bowser didn't move within milliseconds, he called for him again. And again. And —

“Alright, alright, I'm coming!” Bowser yelled back, amused. Without a second glance to Rosalina he ambled toward the playground with large steps. When Bowser Junior shouted at him to hurry up, Bowser smirked and all but stopped moving. He laughed at the resulting groaning about it, grin widening as said groaning turned into laughter of its own. As he walked further away, Rosalina tuned out the rest of his and his son’s exchange. With one eye kept on the playground, Rosalina sat back and resumed feeding her birds.

[victorluvsalice]

Welcome back to the Chill Valicer Save Honeymoon trip! We have reached Fall Monday, where, as you can see, it started fucking raining again. -.- I really did pick the absolute worst time of year for them to have their honeymoon in Sulani, didn't I?

Well, nothing to do but suck it up and try to make the best of things, at least for a little while! Smiler kept up their new foray into base game social media nonsense, checking through their timeline, while Victor and Alice had a little slow dance in the kitchen after waking up from their snooze. :) I decided Smiler should get in on this cuteness and had them get up to give Victor a nice embrace from behind -- haven't done that in a while! Victor and Alice then decamped to the living room, where, after a bit more flirting, Victor took a picture of Alice scratching herself as her werewolf instincts took over and painted it on his digital sketchpad. XD Look, I wanted him to do a portrait of her and accidentally clicked "paint from reference" at precisely the wrong moment, okay? :p Anyway, he finished that up and moved onto practicing some Untamed magic (almost immediately learning the "Dedeathify" spell that allows you to resurrect ghosts, nice), while Alice, starting to feel a bit of the Fury from said werewolf instincts, went to go calm herself down in the bedroom mirror before taking a nap on the floor --

And Smiler, of course, went outside and started showering in the rain. *sigh* Though, at least this time they did actually need the bath, so I let them finish up before directing them to do something a little more wholesome -- start another puzzle! A 250-piecer sci-fi "alien party"-themed one! Felt like that would kill a good amount of time!

They sat down to start still naked. *facepalm* Right, yes, Sims don't always immediately change back into their clothes when they shower in the rain... I corrected this situation, putting them in their Smiler hoodie outfit as it was actually a touch chilly outside, then -- once Alice woke up and got properly dressed herself -- sent her outside to help while I had Victor buy and read "Broomies," one of the new books that came with Realm Of Magic, so he could try and get some Spellcaster XP out of it. That didn't really seem to give him much, though, so I decided "hell with it, puzzling is a group activity with this lot" and sent him out to help as well. They all had a lovely time assembling the puzzle together (which appears to be of an alien with two lovely alien ladies on their arms), and Smiler even managed to get Logic level 5 out of it! Good for you, Smiler! :)

[nothingweirdhere]

been awake for 36 hours….. now i sleep

[softgrungeprophet]

skimming some asm (650-651, 658 etc) as reference for a suit

and god

there's a reason dan slott is one of my least favorite marvel writers lmfao

650-651 were okay.

658 is not even okay. It just sucks. And it's a great precursor example of the exact same shit that plagued his Fantastic Four run. Just, completely unfunny, uncaring, and shallow. Reading this, how can I be surprised he whiffed Johnny so badly in vol. 6? The night and day difference between these, and his Spider-Man/Human Torch comic, is baffling to behold. ASM 658 is dogshit by comparison lmao (and most of Johnny's treatment in Slott's F4 run is just as bad.)

[blindedguilt]

//So that essay I did. I ended up writing VERY VERY thinly veiled DOD fanfiction for the prompt which was basically “Write a first-person initiation into adulthood based off one of the stories in the textbook and a comparative essay between the two after” and so I ended up bullshitting the essay only reading the stories after I made the narrative lol i got a 96/100 anyways //I figured as it was about everyone’s favourite bilf of the bog that I’d post it here, but... //Reminder: This is my first time really solidly writing in first person since I was like nine, so it may be a bit rocky. First person is NOT my area of expertise lol //And ofc obvious trigger warnings for mentions of paedophilia and stuff (Nothing explicit though, of course!) //Enjoy!

“...And we’ll be married. You’ll see.” “I never saw you speak to each other.” “I said, you’ll see.”

So the banter had gone by so frequently then, and now stood I alongside his wife and his child, and mother on the other side, staring at the curves of his face and how it had thinned, still soft and child-like yet aged and grown in such a way none could have explained by any normal means. Perhaps, then, it was in the sight of those definitively unchanging eyes and how they gleamed the same way under the sun that had caught my attention, and in turn, his, and he turned to look back with some strange sadness that I had averted my gaze in some feeling between either abashedness or fear of any hint of understanding to be held. “...Why her?” “Her? Leonard, look at her.” “I do see her.” “Don’t you? You hardly even looked. Well…” “She… Is kind, isn’t she?” “Yes! And one day, I will make her my bride.” And so the village men had gone and lined up near the forest break on the army’s cart, the showing of the backs of their unnaturally cut hair settling an odd knot in the stomachs of I and who I was certain, the other few men who stayed behind. Orbas’s hair had been a similar length of the day I met him, so I had recalled, though the ends were splayed and framed that once pale neck in such a way that reminded me of the small leaves of a flaxen bush or perhaps a spring tree, though there was one small, favorite piece that strayed off the side of his face — His son, such a small child, had already inherited it — And so he had frequently kept tied and twined with the same strip of leather worn by men and women here. For Orbas, it was no more. I had thought to pick up his son at that moment; for his sake, his father’s sake, and as well my own. Near four and almost the same image as his father, that I had at times troubled myself in remembering his mother, and to see and grant his father’s own personal wishes of caring for that stray hair in his place (So as I had when we were mere boys), tying the silk strands in place, to have “him” so completely and totally reliant on me, it was comforting. The feel of the warmth from such a small body, held in my arms and placed against my own, the grip of small hands pulling against my cloak, was comforting. It was wish fulfillment, in a way. The circumstances in which we had met were entirely on Orbas’s own will. How he darted so confidently up to the smithing corner with frail legs that seemed ready to snap under his own weight, and I, feeble and feminine in mind as he was in body, having apparently gained some semblance leaning towards haughty self-bravado thought, ‘What does this mad fool think he’s doing? Who does he think he is?’ and was only further driven in such convictions when he spoke as if we had never once been strangers before. For Orbas, all it took was a single conversation —  And still, for all the good I’ve come to speak and feel for him, I think not once have I changed in my belief that he was completely mad that day in having tossed all pride aside to speak to the mollified mute of Atheren. 

He had dragged me from my crafts, introduced me to friends who would soon become my own, and had not once ceased for a day after to visit me in my practice there. Father was pleased at first, until he wasn’t, as I had gone from smithing and not speaking to speaking and not smithing, and following his harsh, booming rebuke towards the shaken lad as I could only offer my embarrassed gaze lowered towards the dirt, and bits of green with hints of metal in-between, he would come every other day instead. When we went out, with others or by ourselves as we later had, it had always been Orbas there to lead the way, the conversation, to give directions and warnings unless I knew better in my caution, to where I would try to speak — But I was merely a follower. I have always been, a fact with no shame in admitting and a fate I would think to show no more than indifferent contentment towards. “Why me?” I had asked. Another walk. “We never spoke before.” “Can you keep a secret?” I nodded. Something in my heart fluttered and leapt with those words. “Well… Haven’t you seen yourself?” Something must have been spoken in my silence as confusion or hurt in a way he didn’t need to look over his shoulder to see, prompting him to explain. “You never spoke to the adults or children your age, but only the animals and infants lost by their mothers. You panicked, but always found them home. We saw it. We all did, then, you know.” “...” “When you saw a fly being eaten by a spider, you would take a stick to it and try to ward it off. If you couldn’t reach, you’d find somewhere else to go that you didn’t have to hear it. Your father yelled at you because you had trouble baiting a fish hook. Other children… Normal boys, at least, we saw it and laughed. You, already bigger than the rest of us and yet hardly able to look anyone in the eyes. The girls fancied it, though, called you a gentleman and all, and so one day I thought, ‘I wonder if there’s someone he’s trying to impress with all this?’ and I began to get curious.” “No. I… I’m not trying to impress anyone.” “Well you certainly are when you follow every stupid order I give you.” I stared at the back of his head. A few more steps, and he peered over his shoulder at me, whatever look I wore causing those soft lips to curl up into a laugh. “There has to be someone.” “... There isn’t, honest.” “Say who. We can help you, Leonard, and you’re set to be wed before any of us. Haven’t you always spoken about wanting children? Yours and mine can be friends, and your sons will be older and teach my sons all about everything, just like us!” Something in those words had risen and tightened the back of my throat, and I spoke as I did back then, before I met him — Unable to look him in the eye, look at him at all, and my voice had grown so faint the sound had barely reached my own ears. “It is a secret. That is all.” … And as the years passed, that secret and I grew up and spent our years together, the “Secret” got married at fifteen, and I was sixteen, except he had grown out of being a “Secret”, and once I did, I thought to myself, “I am free” —  But I never did find a wife. When the friends of my childhood pointed them out, “That one’s pretty”, “I spoke to her, she is interested in you”, I only could only ever offer another soulless nod along to the increasingly agitated and growing band of married men, all who later had their sons I loved and adored just as I would have my own, and some had daughters, too. In that same year Orbas had gotten married, I moved on to another secret picking berries in the woods, another fixation skinning their knee on the ground, but after him, I never knew it as I did then — “Such a thing would be impossible,” I always told myself — And I continued life as a blacksmith’s son, a follower, and a coward to the war that brought itself to our town in search of new hands for slaughter. “Security” had been the word spoken to me that day, who chose to stay behind (The child incapable of baiting a fish hook or accepting nature in near all its form), in contrast to him, whose bravery sought the peace of the world, the heads of red-eyed monsters, all the glory and fame reflected back the small village of Atheren, even at risk of his own family, foraged and built. A family, one woman and her four year-old son, unable to fend for themselves. Once again he acted in a way that any madman might, entrusting his sole unmarried friend to care for a wife and son in his absence, and then again, perhaps not mad — Explicitly had he stated his trust with a laugh in that I had come “This far” without any luck, and furthermore went to cite our own, personal trust we had built in each other — He knew they would be fine because he simply knew me. Always the protector, and where I never did find a wife, I made my home among the children of the village. And as the cart started away through the woods with a forward jerk, and Obros, the sweetness grown out of his face, looked over his shoulder at me, his tiny son held in my arms, and smiled with that worried look, I smiled back. I gave him a nod in reassurance, and he slipped through that canopy of pine and birch and away towards war beyond. It’s alright now. Now, I am fine. He’ll be alright. He’ll be alright. It’s okay, because now, I’ve finally found someone. Someone I love, just as I loved you. It was a secret.

[count-v-dracula]

{ meme } | accepting ;••••; @himbohotel​​ asked▬

❛   if i could make a deal with god, and i’d get him to swap our places.  ❜  [[captive!jonny is not a happy camper]]

Keeping the Englishman this long had now proved itself futile. He had noticed the irregularities of the Dracula household (or lack of household), the seemingly innocent requests that the Count had Jonathan fulfill -- everything had been undone by the young man having too much time alone during the day and by having taken advantage of the Count’s graciousness.

Standing in the room he had kept Jonathan locked in, he stared -- his red eyes blazing as the Englishman had the nerve, the impropriety, to suggest such a thing. He hissed, his face contorted into a bestial snarl and his white, sharp teeth protruded out from his ruddied lips. He seethed at the very mention of the Christian God, his hands clutching at the hem of his cape. “Do not speak of Him in my house! He has long since abandoned it!” Dracula walked to Jonathan, his stride long and commanding. “You would want that then?” The Count inquired, not taking the sentiment as an insult, or valuing it as the passive aggressive parry that was perfected by the English and used like any weapon. “Do you not think that I am a captive? A hungered soul forever trapped in these bones! These very walls are my tomb! I...I can give you what I am, Mr. Harker. There would be no need to swap, as you say....” he drifted for a moment and moved in closer to Jonathan.

“Your place would be beside me.”

[amethysttribble]

I’m not ungrateful, I promise im not, but it is funny to me how people will read and kudos nearly every Silm fic I have on ao3 over the course of a day and still avoid Into the Heart of a Fey Thing like the PLAGUE asdfkgk

[lovecrazedpup]

do you ever find yourself over analysing a comment he made off handedly

[fragmentedblade]

The fact his son's way of making Mr. Xiao pay attention to us is having us work for him so that we'd get on his nerves... hilarious, and so real

[amehlee]

dance with me