#I'm delighted all this exists. wonderful. amazing.

[notbecauseofvictories]

the best websites are deeply specific, such as this chemically mutated hellscape (affectionate) or amazingribs.com which features recipes and guidance but also a quote from G.K. Chesterton about how the curves of a pig are "swift and yet heavy....[like] rushing water or in a rolling cloud." I will also accept this one California scuba diving BBS site (bulletin board system, an acronym I haven't needed for 20 years) specifically because it hosts wonderful articles about squids.

[glow-in-the-dark-death]

Creations Dance

Danny likes to dance in the night sky while flying in his new ghostly form which is very ethereal holding glimpses of different parts of space and creations unknown, this continues even after he moves to Gotham.

The sky around him becomes his stage,

A stage that matches him and follows his lead.

Gotham has never had such clear skies, able to see each and every star shining brightly.

Twinkling in many colours almost seeming to dance alongside Danny,

Sharing his joy in their existence.

~

Duke had seen the new phenomenon that was Gotham's skies, who hadn't it was all he would hear people talking around him anytime he left the house, speaking of which were also discussing the same.

Bruce, Tim, and Barbara all researching to see what had caused the change, their bet so far was on magic but not sure who or what was causing it or the reason why.

He had seen the others also poking around seeing if they could find a lead.

But the most curious of all being Jason's new demeanor, ever since the night skies had changed he seemed to calm down almost seeming peaceful.

Which don't get him wrong was a great thing to happen but the timing of it all was too weird, honestly even Bruce was tense about the sudden turn around in demeanor.

So with everyone else occupied he decided he might as well go and enjoy the night sky, it was a very amazing view to miss out on.

He had discovered a new spot a bit far from home but it was quiet and private and would make the perfect spot to stargaze comfortably without being interrupted.

~

He had fallen asleep accidentally but something had woken him up.

He noticed that it was cold, cold enough that he could just barely see his breath in the air in front of him which should not be possible since it was almost summer, had Mr.Freeze escaped?

Looking around now alert he caught a flash of something up above his head.

Looking up he saw..light and darkness and so many things that his mind couldn't comprehend rather less describe.

His eyes shifted trying to make out what he was seeing, in the center was a being..dancing?

The being seemed to feel his eyes on them because in the next moment they turned to stare at him.

He could feel the weight of their eyes on him their entire presence focused around him radiating power and joy.

Continuing to stare at each other the only thing Duke could think of was,

"You're gorgeous.."

Duke snapped back realizing he had said that out loud his face warming, but the being in front of him seemed delighted.

"Thank you! I'm surprised you're able to see me."

"It's hard not to, you were dancing so happily I could feel it in my chest."

They-he? floated closer

"If you liked my dancing so much you could continue to visit me here to see."

" If you're okay with it then I would really like that, my name is Duke."

"It's a date then Duke! You can call me Danny."

~

God what was he going to tell the others? He found the cause for the change in Gotham but Danny seemed to be good, not a villain.

Well he'll keep it a secret for a while more right now he had to prepare for his date!

~

Duke sees Danny dancing around in the sky: "We'll have a winter wedding."

~

Duke seeing the Bats stressing and losing sleep trying to figure what's going on: "Should I say something? Hm nah."

~

Danny Dancing around in the sky while Duke is in the background being a supporting bf cheering him on with pom poms: "That's my boyfriend woo~!"

~

The bats for some reason arguing about each other's past relationships and crushes

Steph pointing at Dick: You're the one with the strangest taste seriously out of everyone in this family Duke and I are the only ones with normal taste! Right Duke!"

Duke " My Boyfriend is a Being/Ancient Ghost of Space That Most of the Time Doesn't Look Human/Humanoid" Thomas: * face sweating while he tries to sneak out of the room* "Umm..*voice crack* y-yeah."

~

I really enjoyed writing this one, I don't see a lot of Duke/Danny, but the works I've read are all so wonderful ♡

~

Just an Idea

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Madhubala (Mughal-e-Azam, Barsaat Ki Raat, Mr. & Mrs. '55)—The Venus of India; heart-throb of all who saw her; responsible for the sexual awakening of every single desi lesbian I know (including me!) And my god, she is breathtakingly beautiful. Look at the subtle grace with which she moves, and that smile - the kind of radiant smile that can make you laugh with sheer delight, or cry because of its hidden pain. Those wild curls! That Cupid's bow! The way she tilts back her head and smiles at you with mischief dancing in her eyes! She has a way of looking at the camera that makes you feel she's sharing a private joke just with you; it's something about that quizzical twist of the lips and eyebrows. As an actress, she is inimitable; she seems to effortlessly inhabit roles ranging from a heart-broken courtesan to a laughter-loving socialite. Fun fact : she's had quite the fan following in Greece! Stelios Kazantidis even wrote a song as a tribute to her.

Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight, Casablanca, Notorious)—Where do I even begin with Ingrid Bergman? I fell in love with her with her astounding performance in the 1956 version of Anastasia -- the best Anastasia movie in large part due to her wonderful and touching performance. She's got this amazing, fascinating intensity to her in whatever role she's in. She commits 100%, and she's got this light in whatever she's in that's stunning. She's utterly convincing no matter what she plays, from an amnesiac possible lost princess, from a nun, from a woman taking her revenge on the town that wronged her, to light romantic comedy. She's never missed in any role I've seen her in! Also she became quite the MILF.

This is round 5 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Madhubala:

An icon of Bollywood, who was well known for her beauty and has continued to inspire performances and songs into the 21st century. She was at times described as "the number one beauty of the Indian screen" and "the biggest star in the world".

SHE IS EVERYTHING AHHH. JUST LOOK AT HER SMILE-

She's been nicknamed the Marilyn Monroe of India and was one of the highest paid actresses in the Hindi film industry (the term Bollywood did not exist yet) during the 1950s. Also an extremely talented dancer and singer

SHE'S JUST SO STUNNING, like seeing her eyes IMMEDIATELY CAPTIVATES YOU, THE DANCING, THE BEAUTY!!!!!!!!! She worked in Bollywood for over 20 years and passed away at a sad early age of 36, BUT THE IMPACT SHE HAD WAS UNMATCHED!!!!!

That sassy sideways glance she does always has me WEAK AT THE KNEES. And when she's making silly faces at the camera to mimic someone ahhhh my gay little heart <3

Ingrid Bergman:

God, she's fantastic. She's both beautiful and a compelling actor who's more than capable of putting the whole movie on her shoulders if necessary. It's worth noting that while her beauty is conventional, she was seen as refreshingly "natural" with more eyebrows and less makeup than many other leading ladies of the time. She's well known for her role in Casablanca, but in Notorious, Spellbound, (both available on archive.org ) and Gaslight (1944) she shows how immensely capable she is.

I mean...she's Ingrid Bergman. I feel like that should be enough, you know? She's physically beautiful (her eyes!) but watching her is like a transcendent experience. Her voice, her expressions... beautiful woman, beautiful actor.

I'm a gay man but even I understand her appeal. I'll watch any movie she shows up in. Gorgeous woman.

Just try and watch her movies without sighing wistfully, then get back to me!

Choosing 1-3 movies where Bergman was at her hottest was agony because, of course, she was always at her hottest. Not just because she was beautiful but because she was absolutely willing to go up against the bs women in Hollywood were constantly dealing with. When exiled from Hollywood for having an affair with Roberto Rossellini, not only did she refuse to apologize at any point, but she went on to say that Hollywood's films had grown stagnant and boring to her. Though she said she appreciated her time working there, she wanted to try new, different techniques (hence starring in Italian neorealist films, working on stage, and acting under directors like Ingmar Bergman). She was not afraid to chase after her artistic ideals and go outside the box regardless of what society had to say about it. From her first movie to her last she killed it. There's so much more to say about Bergman's career and life, but I've already written five million words so I'll stop at that.

ion words so I'll stop at that.

One of the most incredible actors I've ever seen on film. Her facial expressions are so intricate and poignant that I cannot look away. I'm either ace or straight, but damn she made me question that.

SEVEN TIME OSCAR NOMINEE QUEEN. Girl also PULLED, having affairs with famously hot men Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck IN ADDITION to her three marriages...sexy

She has a very natural beauty to her, and she's from Sweden!

She left Hollywood and only became more beautiful. You could drown in her eyes. She can look innocent AND like she's seen it all. She is effortlessly elegant. She's played Joan of Arc (automatically hot) AND was in the movie that coined gaslight as a term. And where would we be without that!

She was known for being a breath of fresh air on the movie scene at the time with her windswept hair, dreamy smile and soulful eyes. I have loved her in every movie I have seen her in - she was just magnetic!

Where do I even start. There's a neighborly quality to this beautiful, talented actress that makes her hotness one of a kind and her looks impossible to forget

With a career spanning five decades, Bergman is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cinematic history. Known for her naturally luminous beauty, Bergman spoke five languages – Swedish, English, German, Italian and French – and acted in each.

She's hot, don't get me wrong, but I've always found her very approachable, like she could easily be a member of my friend group

A lot of the time hotness in a movie is just about words and framing. "You're the most beautiful person here" [vaseline lens] well I sure hope so because that's who you cast. But when, in Casablanca, they call Ingrid Bergman the most beautiful woman in the world... they were not fucking lying. And such a dynamite actor too!! I'd only seen Casablanca up until last year, and there she's confined to love interest. But in Gaslight she was maybe one of the most incredible actors I've ever seen!!!! Goddddd shes so fucking hot and cool.

[neil-gaiman]

Hi,

My name is Hayden and this is less an ask, more a rhetorical “how did you do this?!” and "this is really weird and cool please listen!" I'm not sure if you'll be interested but it's a very strange, very real story of coincidences melting my brain. I hope you find it as wonderful as it felt.

So last winter/spring I was in the last year of my undergrad degree in Twickenham. On the weekends I worked at a cocktail bar in the area -the Richmond, London area to be specific. During this time I started listening to The Sandman Audiobook on Audible. I’ve always wanted to read the graphic novel, I knew I’d like it, it’s exactly my type of fiction but something always stopped me a few pages in, I was enjoying it but it just wasn't going in (maybe it was my dyslexia or ADHD or the stress of 3rd year Uni). So I started listening to the Audiobook. It was amazing. It pulled me into the world immediately and I could listen when I while doing other things and still be engrossed. As a Creative Writing/Film student it inspired me, motivating me to write my dissertation, fueling my creativity. I would listen every spear chance I could, when I cleaned my room, as I did laundry, on my walks to lectures, on the bus to work...

I would even get to Richmond 30 minutes early so I could sit on the Green and listen for a little longer. On my breaks I would sit in the little office at the top of the building, eating my dinner at 11pm and listening to the tales of Dream of the endless. The bar was (and still is) on Brewers Lane, a narrow little cobbled-Alley that goes between Richmond Green and the high street. It's a beautiful, old bar, definitely haunted and full of memories, full of stories.

A few months later, I had finished the Audiobooks (the 2 that were out at the time), I no longer worked at the bar, I had graduated with a First Class Joint Honours. This is when The Sandman Series came out. I watch it and to my delight when it's good, more than good. The acting, production and characterisation were everything I could have wanted. I then get to Episode 6, The Sound of Her Wings. Adapted beautifully from the graphic novel. While I watch I start to recognise the environment Dream and Death were in, the park bench seemed familiar. I think "that's just London parks, they're all pretty much the same". Then the siblings start walking, and I start to recognise some landmarks of Twickenham, pubs by the river that were too expensive for me and my friends, old wisteria-covered streets I walked down with people I no longer talk to. I'm already thinking this is so cool, seeing Dream and Death walk around these places I spent the last 3 years of my life around.

Then they're back in the park. And I see it. no doubt. It's Richmond Green! The same place I would sit and listen to the audiobooks! the exact place I sat! daydreaming, people-watching and listening. Where I pictured these exact characters in my mind's eye. The embodiment of story and imagination was standing on the Green that I had imagined him on.

Dream and death say their goodbyes and I am full of wonder, disbelief and some other hard-to-define emotion. Dream walks away from his older sister. He enters an alley. No, a lane. He's walking down Brewers Lane. The Lane I worked on for a year. The Lane I sat above listening to Lord Morpheus in existential angst and now he was walking below it. Waking among the people. Walking past the shops I passed. At that moment I felt like I had willed him into existence. At this point, my mind was well and truly blown. Then he came to just outside the Bar, my Bar, and the scene ends. The scene ends at the very same place I would stand, at 2am, smoking with my friends after a hard shift, before we'd go back inside, and make each other the most extravagant drinks we could come up with and talk til 5am. Then stumble back to that spot, say our goodbyes and make our way home. And I had just seen Dream stand there.

I know this is all a coincidence, that Tom and Kirby aren't actually Dream and Death. I didn't actually will the TV series into the world. Lots of stuff is filmed in Richmond, it was probably filmed before I even worked there and I could have been listening to any audiobook at the time. It's not a magical occurrence, it's scratches on shiny metal, random and without meaning. But for that moment, watching that episode, You (and 50+ other people) held up a flame to the scratches, letting me see all the meaning and purposeful patterns I could ever want. And that's just a bit magical I think.

But yeah, I think it's pretty clear you've somehow gotten directly into my brain, Netflix knows something and the show was made specifically for me!

That's magic.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Buboo

Debut: Kirby: Squeak Squad

Bubbles! Heehee! Hoohoo! What fun! I love bubbles a lot. They are not only fun, but really amazing things! Perfect wobbly orbs of gas, encased in a beautiful shine, sometimes flying around, sometimes just descending, sometimes even landing on the grass or your finger without popping, and it's like a magical moment of connection with an entity so different from you!

Sometimes they pop. This fragile and beautiful marvel of science, suddenly eliminated forever from existence. And that's ok! It's part of the fun! The world will never run out of bubbles, so feel free to obliterate them as you please! You can always make more, whether it's with a bubble wand, your own lips and saliva, or even by a happy little accident, squeezing a bottle of dish soap in just the right way to release a little tiny hovering wonder.

This all being said, I do not love bubbles as much as Buboo does. Buboo may be the number one bubbles fan. With the ability to create spit bubbles, I may be a Bubble Elemental, but even I cannot create enough bubbles to encase myself, and fly! I would if I could! Buboo literally lives at bubbles.

You will notice, however, that I cannot say Buboo IS bubbles. It is among bubbles, but it is not one of them! Like some kind of impostor. But who could this be? Who is red, and has eyes? A scarlet macaw? An angry sunburned dad? Red Jumbo Josh With Four Arms Plush? There are so many things that are red and have eyes! It's going to take me forever to dig through this pile of things that are red and have eyes. I can't eat them all by myself! I'm worried we'll never find out what Buboo's true form is after all...

Hi. I'm just playing around with you here. I know what it is.

It's a little crab! Isn't that a wonderful result? Once its bubbles are all popped, Buboo will fall to the ground and run around, continuing to blow bubbles as a final attack until defeated. I think Squeak Squad, which was my first Kirby game, may have been my first exposure to crabs blowing bubbles in media. I don't think I made the connection, and thought it was just an "elemental animal" without much deeper meaning (besides being really cool and cute, of course). But crabs and bubbles are best friends in real life!

You probably know that some crabs blow bubbles on land! But do you know why? They're not in distress or trying to intimidate another creature or anything. They're just breathing! When a crab breathes out through wet gills, it often comes out as bubbles. It doesn't serve any real purpose, but nothing wrong with bubbles! Also, I like to imagine an exhausted crab sighing, but only bubbles come out, and the sigh is only heard once the bubbles pop. Imagine it. It's whimsical.

Obviously, there is no actual crab that uses bubbles for locomotion... but there is a really awesome snail that does!

This is the violet sea snail! It creates bubbles using its slime, and makes an entire raft out of them, which it spends its whole life attached to upside-down, drifting at the ocean's surface! If you are stranded on an island in an ocean, as a human, you should absolutely not set off on nothing but a raft. But snails are different, and this snail eats Portuguese Men O' War, so clearly it knows what it's doing.

In conclusion, bubbles are so epic and awesome! They are delights and pockets of whimsy to us humans, and to some creature, they are an entire livelihood! I didn't even mention spittlebugs on this post. If you don't know spittlebugs, you should go learn about them! That is your homework. You get a passing grade if you smile at the thought of a spittlebug. Have fun!

[starleska]

so 'The Amazing Digital Circus' has all kinds of fun references and wears its inspiration on its sleeve...

from Popee the Performer (the environment, slapstick, and especially Gangle's masks resembling Kedamono's), to Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach (the inside of The Tent looking very much like the Daycare), to Deltarune (Caine's eye-glitching looking very similar to Spamton's, and of course them casting Alex Rochon as Caine, who is known for his Spamton voice!). but there's also another neat little set of references which may or may not be deliberate: the nods to Toontown Online!

Toontown Online was an MMORPG where you play as Toons (slapstick-using, brightly coloured, animal cartoon characters) fighting Cogs (evil fun-hating robots based on corporate businesspeople). the game still exists now in fan servers such as Toontown Rewritten and Toontown: Corporate Clash, with a thriving community contributing to new stories and preserving the original game. i noticed a few similarities between Toontown and TADC:

the name generator! when you first enter Toontown, you have the option to choose your name via a random generator. although you can type in your own name, and the names are comprised of separate words rather than letters, the silliness and randomness of it seems very similar to Caine's name generator...additionally, if you typed your own name, you would have to wait to have it approved (ensuring that the name wasn't offensive), much like Caine's quickly-spouted rules about naming!

2. portal travel! one of the big gimmicks of Toontown is that you're able to move between areas by jumping through a portable hole, also known as 'teleporting'. this looks quite similar to the one Gangle and Kinger are pushed through/Jax jumps through to find the Queen of the Gloinks!

3. Jax's appearance! in Toontown, you create your own Toon by selecting from one of the available species, and then changing their colour, height, clothes, and more. a tall purple rabbit is definitely a type of Toon which could be created in the original Toontown game, and his whole playful nature reminds me so much of the game!

as an old fan of Toontown i'm delighted to see these references, and am sure they're on purpose. given that this is The Amazing Digital Circus, i think we're going to see a loooot of references to older online culture, like games and videos 🥰💖 everyone, please do go watch The Amazing Digital Circus pilot and support them if you can. they deserve to be funded to create even more wonderful episodes!! and i'd love to hear people's thoughts on this. were there any references you spotted? 👀

[headspace-hotel]

So. I saw your post about plants that so many people don't know exist, and I 100% agree- it's so sad that so many don't even realize their native plants exist. Or animals. The world wasn't made to be concrete and steel.

That said, I might be half decent at recognizing native plants, but I don't know a thing about the more obscure and less well known types. Like, edible fruits people don't eat? What are they called? What do they taste like? What wild and wacky flowers do I not know exist? What about rare plants, or ones that look similar to what we know but are completely different? What about stange animals?

Anyways, if/when you're in the mood to ramble I would love to hear about all the different plants.

Well, native plants will of course be unique to where you live, so I can only speak to my own area...but where I live, there is a little known fruit called a Pawpaw (not to be confused with Papaya, which is a different thing).

I think lots of people know about pawpaw, but despite a great deal of interest in commercializing it, this fruit is never found in stores due to being very fragile and spoiling soon after ripening.

You have to eat the pawpaw right after it falls from the tree and not a minute too late. It has a wonderfully soft, smooth texture and tastes like a mixture of banana and mango. The flesh literally melts in your mouth. I came upon a windfall of perfectly ripe pawpaws in the woods one day last fall, and it was a transcendent experience; I'm still haunted by how delicious they were. God's perfect food.

The thing is, when you go driving around in my area, you will see wild pawpaw trees everywhere there are streams and low-lying areas. You'd have to watch them closely because the possums love pawpaw, but I wonder how many people know to...

Flowers! I'd love to talk about flowers. You see, the plants that end up on lists of native wildflowers for butterfly gardens are a small selection that have been bred and cultivated by nurseries...but there are so many more.

For example, look at the Redwhisker Clammyweed:

Delightful. And I didn't even know it was a thing. 

I'll add some of my own photos now. Here is a flower that popped up on its own in my back yard:

Purple passion flower! Its fruit is also edible.

Here is a native Ruellia I found in the pavement:

Spring Blue-Eyed Mary at a nature preserve

Wingstem:

Citronella Horse Balm:

An Ironweed that popped up randomly at the base of a tree in my back yard. Amazing things happen when you strategically identify areas to not mow.

This past summer I kept a big horseshoe-shaped patch of the back yard (where we used to have a garden patch) from being mowed, and by the time it was fall, this goldenrod and Frost Aster came all on its own! Literal clouds of butterflies and bees constantly hovered around it.

We call that spot the Meadow now. My mom complained for most of the summer about the "weeds," until one day I came home from work and she and my sister were in the meadow on a picnic blanket, staring at the butterflies and bees. "There are tiny bees!" my mom said, indicating a Melissodes longhorn bee. "I didn't know there were bees like that!"

A lot of my work these days has to do with introducing experiences with nature to people, because I've seen how it completely changes their perspective. The Meadow is going to be amazing in the spring...

[deep-fried-egg]

For anyone wondering I AM deep-fried-egg. That account is deactivated though.

What just happened?

Warnings: oral, smut, lesbians, gxg relationship, real people, celebrity stuff idk, r squirts. That isn't a warning but yk man.

SMUT BELOW THE CUT

Jenna lightly trailed kisses down my stomach "You're so gorgeous," she mumbled into my skin, 'You know how I feel about you right?' She trailed her fingertips over my body, "Your curves are perfect." Her soft lips met mine and the kiss was as sensuous as her touch.

She moved to my neck, "Do I still have your permission?" She asked as her fingers teased the bottom of my bra. Jenna's hands never stopped moving, she seemed intent on finding a new erogenous zone.

My head fell back, my eyes closed. I could feel myself getting wetter by the second. I loved when she was like this, when she took control, made me do what she wanted. It gave me a rush that felt more than sexual.

"Yes, yes Jenna, please, do it... Please." I whispered breathlessly. My hips jerked involuntarily. While her mouth found its way back to my breasts.

I moaned in relief at the feeling of Jenna's mouth on me. It was so good to be worshipped. It was so good to be the center of attention. To receive worship from the most beautiful person alive. My Jenna was the only person who knew how to make me feel good, how to make me come hard and fast.

I opened my eyes and watched as her lips continued their exploration down my body. When she finally reached where I wanted her most.

A small smile curled at her lips as she slid my underwear aside. "Beautiful, perfect." She murmured before licking up all of my slick.Jenna's long nails traced patterns on my thigh with each pass of her tongue. A pleasurable shiver ran through me at the sensation. "How can someone so beautiful exist?" She mumbled as her tongue lapped at her finger tips. Then she pulled off my underwear in one fluid motion. "You're my woman." She said while sliding two fingers deep inside me.

I bit back moans as pleasure pulsed throughout my body and I felt myself tightening around Jenna's fingers.

My hand tangled in her short hair. "Please," I begged, "Please I'm so close..." My breath came out in pants as waves of euphoria rolled through me. My entire body shook. The sensation had me gasping for breath. All I could hear was my pulse in my ears as Jenna started sucking at my clit with such fervor. I was almost there, almost ready to explode...

Then it happened, It just felt like everything left my body, I feel so light. But Jenna on the other hand quickly pulled away from me withthe lower half of her face covered in my cum.

"What...what just happened?" Jenna managed as she stared wide eyed at her dripping fingers. The fear in her expression quickly faded and replaced by pure excitement.

"Oh my god I thought something bad happened! Fuck I didn't realize that I made you squirt!" Jenna grabbed her shirt off the floor and she wiped her face and hands off with it.  She threw it down with a loud thump.  "This is so fucking amazing.”  Jenna gushed in delight.  She jumped onto me and kissed me again and again.  After the third one she looked at me, "What are you staring at? Aren't you happy I just made you cum?"   Jenna playfully swiped at me with one last sloppy kiss.     “Are you ok?"  She leaned forward, "Did I hurt you?"  She looked worried.

"Um no, it's just.. I don't think I've ever seen you this excited."  I smiled at her.  "That was amazing!" I said.  "But I need water now."     She stood up and put my clothes back on.  "Thank you.”  I said while taking her hand and giving it a quick squeeze.

"Let's get you something to drink," She said then turned around and walked towards the kitchen.

[animationmovieshipps]

Goodbye Gift (OPLA Luffy x Reader) Part - 2/3 +18

"Where are we going?" Luffy asked, the two of you running excitedly along the path laughing like two children who had just done something mischievous and managed to escape from the consequences.

"It's my secret hideout." You said between giggles, making him even more curious than he already was. "I hardly bring anyone here. Feel lucky."

"I feel honored." He joked and you laughed again.

As he passed with some difficulty through the bush full of leaves, he was surprised to see that that place existed. Never in a million years would he guess that there was a lake there on that island.

You turned around and laughed when you saw that there were leaves stuck in his hair.

"What is it?" He asked, before checking to see if his armpit smelled bad.

"I got this." You said, approaching him and carefully removed each of the leaves from his hair, taking the opportunity to do something you wanted to do since you laid eyes on him for the first time.

Well, one of them.

His hair was so silky, you felt like you could spend your whole life running your fingers through it.

"Alright, I've taken them all off."

"Thanks." Luffy smiled, before looking around where he was. "So this is your famous secret hideout?"

"Yeah, tourists prefer the beach, so I have this place all to myself." You explained, untying the strap that held up your dress and stripped of it, leaving you in just your panties and bra. It was the first time you were half-naked in front of a man, but for some reason, you felt at ease when you were with him. "Do you feel like swimming in the lake?"

When he tried to speak, he ended up stuttering, still stunned by the sight of your body.

"I-I mean, I would." He confessed, as he sat on the floor. "But I can't swim. You can go swimming if you like."

Altough you were curious, you decided not to question why he didn't want to swim and sat down next to him.

"No, I'd rather stay here with you." You said, resting your head on his shoulder. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"No, my crew and I are just passing through to get more supplies." Luffy explained. "I'm a pirate so I never stop at just one island for a long time."

Upon hearing that, you immediately raised your head again and looked at him, wondering if you had misunderstood the words he said.

"Are you a pirate??" You asked to make sure, which Luffy replied with a enthusiastic nod of his head. "You don't look like a pirate."

"It's not the first time someone has said that to me." He laughed. "I'm a different kind of pirate, you know?"

"I see." You smiled. "You must have seen many different places."

"Yes I did. Like the place where I met my crew's cook, the Baratie is a restaurant in the middle of the sea, it wasn’t built on any island."

"No way." You said in amazement, not believing that it was really possible to build an establishment in the middle of the sea.

"It's truth." He laughed at your reaction. "Oh, I wanted to say this before, but you did great there at the restaurant, kicking the bad guys' asses."

You looked away, embarrassed by his compliment.

"Thanks."

"Who taught you to fight like that?" He asked, eyes looking at you full of curiosity.

"My mom." You replied, smiling as you remembered her. "She said that when I finally started traveling around the world, I had to learn how to defend myself from all the dangers"

Luffy was quickly surprised by what you said. That tide was really coming in his favor.

"Traveling around the world?" He asked, wanting you to talk more.

You hesitated for an instant, but in the end you agreed to tell him about the dream you had to give up on.

"It's just that since I was little, I've always had the dream of traveling the world, knowing more about the oceans, see new islands, new cities, things that I only saw through my books. I wanted to be able to see it with my own eyes." You explained, delighted by how he was looking at you when he listened to you talk about your dream.

"If it's what you want, why didn't you go on sail until today?" He asked again. "If you want, you can join my crew, I always look for brave fighters like you to be a part of it. You won't regret it, the pirate life is amazing and you'll get to visit and explore all the places you've ever wanted."

Your eyes lit up with that possibility for a fraction of a second, it would be incredible to be able to explore the world alongside him.

But you soon became discouraged again when you remembered that you had to stay on that island, not because you wanted to, but you needed to.

"I wanted it so bad, you don't know how much. But I can't." You replied. Even though you tried not to cry, you couldn't contain a single tear that escaped your right eye and ran down your cheek.

"But why?" Luffy asked, the smile on his face fading. "What holds you to this place?"

"My father." You said. "He already lost my mother and we suffered her loss so much. I can't leave him too, I just can't."

He was better with gestures than words, so he held out his hand and caressed your cheek, drying the tear you shed with his thumb. He had no idea you had that huge weight on top of you.

"To be honest with you, I don't think that going after your dream would mean leaving him behind." He muttered. "If he loves you like I think he does, he'll understand that letting you free to do what you want is the only thing that will make you happy."

You sighed.

You knew he wouldn't understand your reasons and you didn't expect him to understand, if you were in his shoes you wouldn't be able to either.

But before he left that island to continue his journey with his crew, you wanted him to leave with a memory of you that he would never forget.

You reached out with both your arms and slowly wrapped them around his neck, your eyes staring into his the entire time.

Luffy didn't react badly to your gesture, which you took as a sign that he could continue with what you intended to do.

Without saying anything, you leaned forward and pressed your lips together, trying to imprint the sensation in your mind as you knew you would never feel it again.

A few seconds later, you pulled away to look into his face again.

From his expression, you could see that he was elated, but at the same time in disbelief that it had actually happened.

"... Did we just kissed? On the mouth?" He asked softly.

"Do you want to try again and see for yourself?" You mumbled, your hands lowering until they rested on his chest. His heart was beating so hard.

You felt one of his hands enter your hair and hold the back of your neck, pulling you and pressing his lips to yours again.

It was evident that he had never kissed anyone before you, as he seemed afraid to move his lips and actually kiss you. But you didn't mind teaching him how to do it.

You tilted your head to the side a little and slid your lips against his, encouraging him to do the same. However, he broke the kiss, looking confused at what you had done.

The two of you looked at each other in silence for a brief moment, you tried to apologize in case he felt uncomfortable, but your words were drowned out when Luffy kissed you again.

You let out a small squeak as you felt his arms wrap around your torso and roughly pulled you closer to him.

Apparently, he was a very fast learner.

You quickly melted in his arms and kissed him back, your hands went to his head and your fingers buried themselves in his curls.

Feeling his tongue poke your lips, you opened your mouth and let it in, trying to keep up with the voracious pace at which he was kissing you.

When it was summer, the nights were always very hot where you lived, so much so that if it wasn't a crime of indecent exposure, you would walk around naked.

But as incredible as it seemed, none of those summer nights could be compared to the heat that emanated from your body at that moment, it was as if you were burning with fever, but instead of getting cold, you just got even hotter.

Good thing you had gotten rid of that dress.

Your fingertips felt down his chest, until you finally found the buttons on his shirt, refusing to stop kissing him to look.

You patiently unbuttoned them one by one and stripped him of his shirt, imagining he was feeling just as hot as you were.

Your lips only separated from each other when you ran out of air, if you two took longer you might faint.

You looked at him tenderly as you caught the air that escaped your lungs. The moonlight reflected in his eyes only made them even more beautiful than they already were.

"You're so beautiful." You mumbled.

Luffy smiled, no one had ever said that to him before.

You noticed he was going to say something, but when he opened his mouth, a soft groan came out as he felt his erection being stroked through his pants.

He knew it wasn't him touching himself, it could only be you. Your heart fluttered when you saw the expression on his face when he realized what was happening. He was the cutest thing ever.

"Will you let me take a look at it?" You asked softly. "I want to make you feel good. I mean, if you want to."

You heard him swallow hard before he nodded in response, making your smile widen.

You unbuttoned his pants and undid the zipper as far as it went. Your eyes widened when you realized he wasn't wearing any underwear and his cock popped out.

You bit your lip as you felt your intimacy pulsate, seeming to beg to be penetrated. But it wasn't the time yet, you were still a little nervous, even more so after seeing that with that size he could break you in two when he entered you.

For some reason, that thought also turned you on even more.

"Spit in my hand." You asked, but it sounded more like an order.

"What?"

He asked confused. "Why?"

"Just do as I ask, I promise you'll like it." You insisted, bringing your hand closer to his face.

Without further questioning, Luffy spat into your hand.

In a quick gesture, you held his length in your hand. He was already so hard and you had barely started touching him.

You began to move your hand up and down on his dick at a slow pace, his saliva making it easier to slide.

You were focused like never before in your life on what you were doing, but at the same time looking at his face, not wanting to miss any expression he made while you pleasured him.

You watched as his breathing grew heavier and heavier, his bright eyes now clouded with lust closed as he moaned again. His shaking hands rested on your shoulders, looking like he would fall if he didn't grab something for support.

He had never felt anything like that in his life, it would be impossible to describe with words, but it felt so good that he didn't want it to stop.

You leaned forward and kissed him on the lips again.

"You're enjoying this, are you?" You asked hoarsely, now using both of your hands to do it. "Talk to me, baby..."

He licked his lips before opening his eyes to look at you again.

"Y-yes- oh my God, yes..." He said between breathless moans.

"Good. Just one thing." You muttered, starting to increase the speed of your strokes. "Don't swear to God. Swear to me, okay?"

Hearing him moan as he said your name seemed to stir something deep in your core. You couldn't go without being touched for another second.

You gently took one of his hands that was still resting on your shoulder and guided it between your legs.

"Touch me here." You asked, feeling his fingers enter your panties.

He obeyed and stuck his hand further inside, eliciting a satisfied moan from you when he touched a specific place and rubbed slowly.

You were soaked, it felt like you had an 'accident'. But at the same time it was pleasantly warm to touch.

"Hah, it's wet down there..." Luffy said, trying hard to keep touching you and making you feel good too.

"Yes." You said. "It's because of you."

Not long after, you felt his entire body shudder, as he began to instinctively push himself into your hands to increase the friction.

"S-something's happening..." He stuttered, you felt his fingers holds your shoulder tightly. "I- I think I'm gonna... Damnit..."

The thought of seeing him ejaculating in your hands and hearing his noises of pleasure so close to your ear was too much for you, you couldn't see anything else in front of your eyes, the growing sensation in your groin seemed to spread to every part of your body and you came on his fingers.

You had touched yourself countless times before, but it was something else when you had an orgasm while being touched by someone you were very attracted to, your body and soul seemed to align.

Your moans also ended up stimulating him even more than he already was. Grunting and growling like a wild animal, his jets of sperm gushed out and fell down on one of your arms.

"Does it taste good?" Luffy asked between heavy breaths when he saw you licking the drops of cum from your arm.

"Not a lot." You replied, sitting on his lap and wrapping your arms around his neck again. "I like the taste of your mouth better."

You kissed him again. He quickly wrapped his arms around your body and kissed you back.

"It was kind of fun." He said between chuckles.

You smiled and took his hat, which had been on his back the entire time, and placed it next to you.

Despite how little time the two of you had known each other, you could see that the hat was very important to Luffy, so you weren't going to do anything to damage it.

Soon after, you placed your hands on his shoulders, slowly laying him down on the sandy ground. He allowed it without question.

"What if I told you it could get even better?" You asked.

He lifted his head a little to look at you as he spoke, resting his elbows on the ground.

"Can it really be better than that?" He asked, sounding genuinely surprised, which made you laugh.

"Yes." You replied, moving the fabric of your panties to the side and leaving your cunt exposed. You were surprised for a brief second, but smiled when you felt his cock harden again beneath you. "I-if you want..."

"I want." He quickly said, interrupting you. "I mean, do whatever you want with me."

It wasn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but you were happy all the same.

Placing your knees on the floor on either side of his body, you lifted yourself up a little, just enough so that you could align the tip of his dick with your entrance.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm your nerves so it wouldn't hurt any more than it probably would, you slowly lowered yourself down, unable to hold back a hiss of pain as you felt your walls being stretched and him going deeper inside you.

He tried not to show it, maybe because he saw that you were in pain, but you could see on his face that he was holding himself back from groaning at the sensation.

"D-does it hurt?" He asked.

"It's okay, I can handle it." You assured him, bringing your hands to his and intertwining your fingers together.

Not bothering to start slow, you began to move back and forth at a steady pace, moaning softly as you felt him throbbing inside you and reaching places you couldn't reach with your fingers.

You were so wet that he slid in and out of you with no problem.

You proudly watched his face contort in pleasure and he let out a loud moan. You didn't lie when you said it felt even better, but he started to get worried, if you continued at that pace he would cum too quickly.

"A-ah, wait, slow down, slow down, ah..." He whimpered, his mouth was open and what felt like a liter of drool was running from the corners and down his chin.

You didn't want to be mean with him, but the expression on his face and his pleading eyes looking at you did something to you, you wanted to look a little longer.

"Aw, are you close again yet?" You asked in a sweet tone of voice, not stopping violently slamming your hips against him for even a second. "If you want, ask again, maybe I'll do it?"

He looked at you with wide eyes, seeing that he didn't have much to do other than hope that you would slow down when he asked you again.

"P-please, slow- slow down a little, please. Gosh, this is too much..."

You decided to slow down your hips, just because you didn't want him to come too fast either.

"Ngh... Is this pace okay for you?" You asked, seeing him sigh in relief that you were finally going easy on him.

"Y-yes, just like that." He replied, mesmerized by how your breasts bounced as you ride him. "Shit, it feels like I'm gonna melt..."

You pulled his hands up and lifted his torso off the ground, your hands let go of his and you buried your fingers in his curls again, this time pulling his hair. His hands quickly grabbed your waist, following your movements.

"Ah! Fuck, you feel so good inside me I think I'm going crazy..." You cooed, feeling that another orgasm was approaching.

You continued to ride him as if it was the last time you would do so, drawing energy from you didn't know where after you eventually started to feel tired from all the effort you were putting in.

Until suddenly, you were startled for a brief moment when you felt one of his arms wrap around your waist and use all the strength he had to make you stop moving.

You couldn't help but be surprised. For such a thin boy he had a lot of strength in his arms.

You were about to ask Luffy why he made you stop, but all that came out of your mouth when you opened it was a loud gasp that turned into uncontrolled screams when you felt him push his hips up and fuck you relentlessly.

You didn't believe it was possible for his dick to go even deeper inside you, it was too good for you to worry about whether it would hurt any of your internal organs. You could feel his thrusts on the back of your neck.

With his free hand, he grabbed your hair and pulled, making your head bow back, while you also pulled his hair even harder.

"Holy shit, that's so- so... Nngh..." He moaned, the noise of your sweaty skin colliding together becoming even louder.

Hearing Luffy's voice become shaky again, that's when you knew he was close to his release, which put you on alert.

There was no way you could risk him cumming inside you, you were too young to be a mother.

You knew he wouldn't stop even if you asked him to and you understood perfectly, when primal desires went to someone's head there was nothing in the world that could stop them from getting what they wanted.

He probably was stronger than you, but you still had to try.

You grabbed the wrist of the hand that was holding you in place. It seemed like he would never let go of you. Using all your strength, you somehow managed to wrench his arm away and stood up.

Just in time, his back rested on the floor again as he came once more, giving one last breathless moan that turned into small, low moans.

As he recovered from his orgasm, you sat on his lap again and rested your hands on his chest, this time rubbing your private parts together.

The friction was enough for you to orgasm too, your eyes rolled back and you moaned his name to the heavens as you arched your back.

Definitely neither of you would forget that moment.

You cautiously got off his lap and lay down next to him, brushing away some messy strands that accidentally fell into your face.

"Why didn't you let me finish inside of you?" He asked, which made you turn your face to look at him.

"Oh look at this ungrateful little boy." You joked, feigning indignation.

"But I liked it anyway." He laughed, slapping your arm lightly. "You did well."

"Just well?" You asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Okay, okay, you were amazing." He reformulated it.

"It's gotten better. A little." You laughed.

"Okay, what can I do to make it better?" He asked.

You smiled.

"Well, the night isn't over yet." You said, hoping he understood what you meant.

"Yeah, sometimes the night is too long." He commented. "If it were up to me, it would be daytime all the time, so I wouldn't have to go to sleep..."

"I want to do it again." You said, which immediately made him shut up. "Do you think you can take it?"

"Umm, I guess so." He replied, giggling nervously.

You giggled and lay down on top of him, joining your lips in another kiss.

Going out that night and getting laid with someone you hadn't met in a day was definitely the craziest thing you'd ever done in your life.

And you didn't regret it for a second.

[materassassino]

The Old Guard Dæmon AU

Probably done before, but I wanted to write one myself, so I thought I'd make a guide to the Guard and their respective dæmons, to go with the fic I just posted for it.

Andy: Hwehnto (Przewalski's horse)

Yeah, a wolf or some other predator might fit, but let's face it, the supreme horse girl should have a horse for a dæmon. *h₂weh₁n̥to- is Proto-Indo-European for "wind", butchered into a modernly comprehensible Hwehnto/Hwento. He is a very serious and stoic dæmon, much like Andy, but his outbursts of emotion are striking. He is vicious in battle and will not hesitate to attack both human and dæmon, if necessary.

I did also consider a tarpan for Andy, but there is literally one photo in existence of one. I generally assume that actually it would be some European wild horse so old it doesn't exist anymore, and we've lost all modern knowledge of it. So Przewalski's horse will do.

Quynh: Minh Nhat (white-lipped pit viper)

Of course our viper would have a viper! Small, quick and venomous. He doesn't have a name yet because, frankly, I don't speak Vietnamese and I want him to have a cool name like most dæmons have. His name is Minh Nhat, which means "bright sunlight", in contrast with Quynh's name. More outgoing than most dæmons, will talk casually with other humans, and is prone to little acts of thievery (thimbles, small nuts, little trinkets), mostly out of delight with the object than any malice. Very tiny! Likes spending his time tucked up Quynh's sleeve. Will not hesitate to bite a human should the need arise, but tucks himself in Quynh's collar or scarf when in battle.

I was torn between this and a red-headed krait, but ultimately went to an actual viper (well, pit viper, close enough).

Joe: Tayyib (scimitar oryx)

(Oddly difficult to find a photo of one alone, with no radio collar, that hasn't been shot by some bastard trophy hunter).

Tayyib (named that way for obvious reasons and chosen by Joe's mother's dæmon) represents everything poetic and artistic about Joe, and is calm and wise. Dislikes fighting, but will if he must: watch out for those horns! Yes, he is a male dæmon, a rarity, another commonality Joe shares with Nicky. I wonder why? A very good listener who gives good advice.

I don't know why I decided on another ungulate for this hapless team (can they even go anywhere?), but I did. I figured a desert antelope of some kind would be good for Joe, and it was a toss-up between this and an addax. I admit I chose it just for the name.

Nicky: Bonamico (Luzon bleeding-heart dove)

Geographically, it doesn't make sense. Symbolically? I had to. Bonamico is quiet, contemplative and kind, barely speaks except to Nicky, Joe or Tayyib, but is always concerned for those about him. He is far more nervous than Nicky, but stores a lot of knowledge, a trait he does share with Nicky. His favourite place to perch, other than Nicky's shoulder, is between Tayyib's horns (although occasionally he likes to sit on Joe's head). He does the scouting for the group, as the only bird dæmon.

This bird is the entire reason I made this damn AU. It's just too perfect. Look at this Catholic-ass bird!

Booker: Amandine (black rat)

*wheezing* I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm not sorry.

Now, the problem with dæmons is that we have rat symbolism, which is of rats as dirty and sneaky, but we're also modern human beings that know perfectly well rats are cute, intelligent and affectionate creatures that make amazing pets. Amandine herself is mostly just shy and quiet, although she does like it when she gets the chance to roast Booker, but then again, who doesn't? She is their little reconnaissance expert, being sent in to buildings and small places to chew through wires and spy. She, unlike Booker, is always supremely well-groomed.

I did consider a ferret or stoat, something a little more noble, but I personally do love rats so much and so I wanted a positive rat dæmon, for once.

Nile: Dakarai (red wolf)

I wanted to give Nile something supremely American, but she was in the Marines, and soldiers of most kinds tend to have dog dæmons, so no stereotypical birds. But Nile is also smart and quick-thinking, and family-oriented, so the red wolf made sense to me. Dakarai is loyal and far more serious than his human, a bit more cynical. Having been trained in a modern Armed Force, post-Geneva Convention, he's never touched another human being and has exclusively fought other dæmons. He is, of course, a good tracker.

Someone had to have a canine in this group. Might as well be Nile!

Bonus (under the cut for cockroach reasons):

James Copley: Vindemiatrix (common raven)

The Odin symbolism of the knowledge-seeker raven, honestly. She perches in odd places, watches everything, and reports back. She is a secret-keeper and prone to keeping her own counsel, not interacting much with other dæmons. She, like Copley, misses his wife and her Pallas's cat dæmon something fierce.

Stephen Merrick: Unnamed (American cockroach)

Need I say more? He deserves it.

Dr Meta Kozak: Unnamed (hagfish)

A disgusting dæmon for a disgusting woman, who burrows into people's bodies and eats them from the inside out. She carries the horrid thing in a lightweight tank backpack, one of the many modern accomodations for people with water-dwelling dæmons.

Keane: Unnamed (Eastern black rhino)

A beautifully noble dæmon, unfortunately wasted on a bastard.

Lykon: Unnamed (melanistic leopard)

She was graceful, majestic and courteous, and absolutely breathtaking in battle. She would dispense affection to daemon and human alike, much like Lykon himself.

[iguana-eyanna]

We'll Be Fine

Summary: You get nervous when you try to announce a big surprise to your friends with the help of your husband, Damien.

a/n: I've been watching Smosh a lot and decided to write about Damien cause i love him

You were all on set, getting ready for shooting the next episode for Eat it or Yeet it. You were a part of the cast, joining Smosh at the same time as Damien. Shayne could clearly see how both of you and his friend hit it off. So, Shayne became your personal cupid and set you guys up on your first date. You guys had amazing chemistry, and later became engaged in 2022.

Now you were pacing back and forth, fiddling with your fingers. You were currently hiding in the office as everyone was getting ready in the studio. You hear someone come out and see Damien.

He gives you a nervous smile as he races towards you.

"Hey, we're about to shoot soon. Everyone was wondering where you went." He says.

"I had to step for a second, I was getting nausaus." You said, rubbing your non existing bump.

Today was going to be a special episode as most of the cast members will be doing the episode, but also the announcement that you were pregnant.

You and Damian found out you were three months along when you went to the clinic. You two thought what would be a great way to tell your Smosh family of your news and you knew what to do. You called Garret in secret and helped you cook the whole menu, but catered the big bite.

Now, you felt like your insides were flipping around.

"Hey, don't worry! They're going to love it and they'll be happy for us." He says, hugging you.

You started tearing up and wiped your tears.

"You'd think the hormones would be coming later on." You said.

Damian chuckles and kisses your head.

"You're going to do amazing, We'll be fine. Ready?" He asks.

You nod your head and you two walk in hand to the shooting.

Everyone gets their mic and you talk amongst yourselves till they were ready to film. You take a deep breath and stared at the camera.

"Hey, y'all! Welcome to Eat it or Yeet it. I'm not your regular host as you can see here that Courtney here will be eating instead!"

Courtney waves at the camera eagerly. In order, she sat with Kimmy, Damian, Shayne, Jackie, Noah, Keith, Olivia, Angela, Chanse, Ian, Amanda, Spencer, and Tommy.

You were getting nervous as this was one of the biggest table yet.

"So, today we're doing something a bit different. Today, the contestants must figure out the theme before the big bite! Due to all of us being packed on this table, they must buzz their buzzer first to get the dish they want."

"Because this particular episode is very different from the last, I just know every dish will make us crap out our minds." Noah said.

"I don't why I'm even here, I purposely made sure I had my day off today." Shayne acclaimed.

Damien shares a nervous laugh but no one makes of it.

You then bring over the first dish covered and placed it in the middle of the table.

"Hope you guys are ready for our first dish!" You said, revealing a plate of what appeared to be dyed blue and pink deviled eggs.

Everyone gasps at how vibrant the color is, but you all started the countdown and Chanse buzzed first.

"I need to eat this now cause I can't eat whatever monstrosity there is next." Chanse exaggerated.

You all laugh and count down for him to eat it, and surprisingly he hums in delight.

"Not really a fan of eggs, but it tastes good!" He says.

"The dish is called blue and pink devil eggs! It is pickled egg filling and eggs that have food coloring!"

The next dish, you brought out pigs in a blanket with jelly filling and Kimmy buzzed it. She liked it as she was cheering, saying how it complements the salty taste.

Everyone tries guessing along the way, saying the theme is probably cartoon characters or something relating to their past try not to laugh bits. Oh, how they're all wrong.

Some dishes that you served was a casserole with marshmallows and chocolate but baby corn and baby carrots were buried underneath. Amanda got the dish and yeeted, not liking the combo.

Then the last dish before the big bite was lamb chops, and Shayne and Courtney tied buzzing. Once you all saw the footage again, Courtney was a second ahead by Shayne and got the dish.

The camera pans to Shayne as Courtney indulges on the lamb.

"I just- I'm just going to accept my defeat." Shayne said, as he looks like he's giving up.

Everyone aws as they know that Shayne always gets the worst dishes. You were kinda hoping that Shayne would get the last dish and you had something in mind.

"Okay, this one is a bit heavy so I need Damien to help me." You said since he ate one of the other dishes.

Damian looks up at you, surprised but he surpresses his joy as he follows you to the back.

"They're bringing in a live squid!" Ian screams and everyone shouts out what they think theyre bringing.

Soon, you two walk out with a white box, trying so hard not to smile so much.

"Ready Shayne?" You ask.

Shayne gives an exaggerated sigh and holds out a fork.

"Bring on the pirahna" Shayne says.

Damian places the box on the table in front of his friend and you count down, lifting up the top.

Shayne closes his eyes, thinking that it will jump out. But, he opens one eye and leans over. Both his eyes widen as he sees a cake, but more at what the cake was written with frosting.

"Shayne?" Jackie asks as she looks over his shoulder, reading the cake. She screams out loud and looks up at you and Damian, now close to each other.

"No, you're not!" She says, but smiling as her hands fly up to her cheeks.

Everyone gets up at their seats and look down to why they were acting weird, but saw the pastel rainbow cake with white frosting writing that read:

Baby Haas Coming Soon!

"You're pregnant?!" Kimmy and Courtney screamed.

You nod your head eagerly as Damien hugs you from behind.

"Yep! I'm three months along." You said.

Everyone cheered on and off camera. They all got up and hugged you and Damien, saying congrats.

Shayne was the only one who was in his seat, still shocked.

"Shayne buddy, you okay?" Damien asks, worried what his best friend would say.

He looks up with tears in his eyes.

"You guys are having a baby?" he asks.

Damien nods his head.

"Yeah, man. We are." Damien says, smiling as he finally gets to tell the news to his best friend.

Shayne gets out of his seat and hugs Damien, crying.

"I'm so happy for you two!" Shayne acclaims.

He looks at you and open his arms.

You join the hug and everyone joins in. Courtney turns to the camera.

"We're so happy for our friends starting their family. Like and subscribe and we'll see you all soon!" Courtney said.

You and Damien shared the cake with the cast and crew, as everyone can't wait to see your baby. You and Damien sat next to each other, cuddling on the office couch.

"You see? Everything turned out perfectly." Damien says.

You smile as you lean in and kiss him.

"I'm glad it's off my chest. I couldn't have done this without you." You said, beaming. As you try leaning in for another kiss, your friends disrupt you, fighting over who will be god parents.

Chaos ensued, but you knew you both wouldn’t have it any other way.

[uravitypng]

𝐈 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐓𝐎𝐎 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇: 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎

pairing: kaminari denki x reader, (hanta sero x reader)

word count: 3.8k

content warnings/things in part two: gardening bashing, pet names, fluff, it's a mystery trying to figure out what's going on inside your best friend's heads, i use the words sofa and couch interchangeably, written with a chubby reader in mind (smut in later chapters/+18)

a/n: i hope you all enjoy part two!! i'm really excited for you all to read it and i hope you like it!! let me know what you think of this chapter ♡

i talk too much summery: it's terrible when you're in love with your best friend. it's terrible that he's in love with someone else.

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Having the morning off is great for many reasons, sleeping in, spending time getting ready, maybe meeting with your friends and sleeping in again. Today is one of those days, where you can relax for the morning and not be in a rush to go out the door. You love being a hero but early morning patrols are the bane of your existence, so you start the morning of by waking up late and getting breakfast. Denki's already patrolling right now so you can't spend the morning with him, although lounging about on the sofa sounds like a good idea.

That's when you get a message come through and you know straight away it's from Hanta, he has a custom ringtone on your phone. One night when you both just graduated you went down to the beach together and played each other music until dawn. That was the first time he played you the song heat waves and now you always think of him when you hear it. That night he grabbed your phone and took a photo of you together, before changing his ringtone sound, pressing the record button and using the sound from the speaker. You still use that exact sound now where you can hear the waves and the sound of you laughing in the audio so as you hear the familiar notes of by glass animal and waves you open up your messages. 'Hey you're not patrolling right now, right? You've got the morning off?'

You briefly wonder how he know's your schedule but maybe you mentioned it earlier in the week. 'Yeah, have the whole morning off.'

'Cool, you wanna hang out?'

'Definitely. It'll be so much better than watching day time tv and napping throughout the morning.'

'Don't disrespect day time tv like that.' That gets a laugh out of you before you're arranging somewhere to meet and start getting ready.

You end up in a small cafe not too far a walk from yours, where you see Hanta is already there waiting and sitting at the back where you typically sit. It's not a very well known place as it looks fairly small on the outside but it's looks deceive because the inside is beautifully decorated. You've been told the owners daughter wants to be an artist when she's older, there's pretty little paintings in the corners or the walls and everything about the place just fits. It's delightful and you can't knock the food and drinks either.

Because it's so quiet you're less likely to be recognised which is also a big reason as to why you like this place. Fans coming up to you and asking to take photos or have signatures is part of the job but every hero deserves respite and you in particular are not the most charismatic, just wanting to do hero work and finding all the extra PR stuff boring and tedious. Most of your friends are more accepting to that side of hero work, but you lack the patience and charm for it, maybe Bakugou has rubbed off on you. You're just not good at it.

You are sitting across to one of your friends who is good at it and you're not confused to why. Hanta is one hero that people never have criticism for, he works hard, he's good at hero work, he's outgoing, approachable and magnetic, you're often in awe with him in general and how you have such amazing friends.

"Are you even listening?" You're thoughts get interrupted as you realise Hanta is grinning at you with this all knowing look on his face. Your silence answers him causing him to snicker at you. "Am I boring you or something?" In that moment you wish you were equally as quick-witted as him and be able to say something that would wipe that cheeky grin of his face, but alas you're not.

Sticking your tongue out at him, "yes." he laughs again which causes you to smile, all attention focused back onto him and your conversation. The next few hours are spent in the cafe immersed in one another's company, enjoying your time together. He's been on another failed date and every time there's an entertaining story to go along with it. This time he swears that the women he went on a date with must have been over ten years older than him and the only thing she seemed interested in talking about was gardening.

"I swear it's true! I don't know where Mina finds these girls who she swears are 'perfect for me'." The thought crosses your mind that maybe he should stop going on dates picked by Mina, they never end well but you think not to as the stories always make you laugh and Hanta has never told you throughout all of you knowing him if he even wants a committed relationship or similarly what his type is. For now you'll enjoy listening to his stories and maybe you'll have to ask Kiri at some point if he knows more about it than you. You know he has one night stands, you've seen people leave his flat and people leave with him after nights out at the club but he's never introduced a partner to you. "There's no way that she's our age, she's got to be like 40 AND then the gardening thing. The whole time she was talking about how often you have to water orchids and that you should put ice cubes on them. I'm telling you that just isn't true."

"How do you know it isn't true?" you interrupt, chuckling.

He pauses for a second before replying, "if it is true I don't want to go on a second date with someone who knows that fact." You laugh more, knowing that he is a hundred percent serious and that makes it all the more funnier.

You quickly glance at the clock hanging up on the wall opposite you, you're going to be in serious trouble if you don't get a move on. You've been so engaged talking to Hanta that time flew by. "Shit, I wasn't looking at the time, fuck." You grab your phone and throw it into your bag.

"Patrol?" Sero asks after checking the time.

"Yeah, I'm going to be late if I don't hurry," you respond, as you're getting up, starting to make your way to the door.

He gathers his things and slides his way next to you, "I'll walk with you."

With you walking as fast as you can and Hanta's long limbs you're bound to make it in time. Worrying less, you take a deep breath and remind yourself that you're not going to be late. If it's necessary you'll just get him to swing you there with his quirk.

You're both a couple minutes away from the agency when you're about to be heading your separate ways. You, on your way to the agency to get your hero gear on and Hanta across the road next to the agency to get back home. "See ya, I'll text you after work," you tell Hanta. Before you know what's happening he holds onto your wrist and quickly places a chaste kiss on your lips, "have a good shift, I'll see you soon. Yeah?" He says just as quickly as the kiss and he turns and heads down the road. That's never happened before but processing that can wait until after work.

It didn't wait until after work. During patrol your mind couldn't help but wander. You think maybe it was so fast you could have imagined it, or maybe it's likely that you're overreacting and thinking to much about it. It was just a quick kiss, a peck. Sure, Hanta's never done that before but you've been friends with Mina for years and she's surprised you more than you can count by kissing you quickly, unexpectedly grabbing onto your face making you keep eye contact as she swiftly swoops in and kisses you before saying she's about to leave whatever convention you're at.

Also every Christmas you and Kiri find yourself under the mistletoe together. The first time it happened it was awkward and you felt kind of shy however every Christmas after that it happened without fail, both of you gained confidence and took the kiss in stride and would find the whole ordeal amusing. It would feel strange if you didn't end up under the mistletoe with Kiri one Christmas, that does make it an odd pattern and a weird thing to happen but there are certainly plenty of worse people to be stuck having to kiss every year.

Like having to kiss Mineta, feeling his eyes staring at every inch of your body or Iida whose kiss you know would be to such a level of discomfort you wouldn't be able to look each other in the eye for days when seeing each other again. Or heaven forbid Denki, the man you love but know you can't have, you know that kiss would kill you. Stuck under there, with you feeling like he's being forced to kiss you while wishing it was someone else.

Maybe the kiss is like that, like it is with all your other friends. Simple. Either way it was a great kiss and though it was only a second it was a good second. His lips were soft and smooth and you could smell his pine and sandalwood cologne.

Your patrol feels quicker than normal, with you thinking about Hanta for most of it, either way you're going home and you're going to try not to think about it anymore, it's a waste of brain power. Luckily you remember what you said to Hanta before you left, shooting him a text while walking home saying how your shift was and you thanking him for a lovely morning, you can't remember who paid for drinks so you leave that bit out.

You make it home on time, to you there wasn't a time to make it on but Denki had a time. You and Denki haven't spent a lot of alone time together in the past couple of weeks and you've both noticed. It can't be helped you're both busy with patrols and work different times and different schedules and then when you have had time together it's typically with Kirishima and Sero so it's made him antsy, he misses you. He checked your patrol times for the week and made sure he was free, clearing his schedule for the time you finished work. He wanted to see you and make you dinner, just be with you.

You opened the door and five minutes later dinner would be served. Denki silently congratulates you and himself, even without knowing so your teamwork is impeccable. "I'm home!" You call out like every time. At first you didn't know if Denki was home or not but after a second you heard a clatter of pans and Denki distinctly say 'shit', you giggle before making your way into the kitchen. He must be concentrating pretty hard not to call back as loud as possible like normal.

Before you can even tease him about dropping things and being clumsy Denki turns around with a huge grin, "I'm making your favourite, go sit down." Walking behind him, and peering over his shoulder to see what he was doing exactly, your heart bursts out of chest due to the gesture.

"I can see that Denks. It smells really nice. Is it a special occasion or are you just trying to distract me and butter me up before telling me you broke the toaster again?" You ask half joking and half being genuine.

He laughs before telling you, "no, I just wanted to something nice for you, that's all." You heart warms and you try not to let it show, even though if Denki turned around he would clearly see you bashfully smiling and suddenly finding the floor very interesting looking down. "Go sit down or you're not getting any."

That gets you to move but not before you get a couple of glasses for you both and take them with you, replying a little snarky with, "yes boss." If it was anyone else you might have regretted doing that, people don't always respond well to the mocking or teasing comments you make but you know that Denki doesn't mind. In fact he always finds them humorous, every time getting a smile or chuckle out of him and pretending to be hurt by what you said so he gets you to make up for it in various ways. Even if he'll only be 'hurt' when it's his turn to do the hoovering or when he's feeling particularly tenacious and wants your attention, dragging you along with him to everywhere he needs to be that day.

You're on your way to the couch to sit down, most of the time after work if you're home late you'll eat on the couch, taking comfort over conventional seating but you're reconsidering tonight, it's not everyday you get to eat homemade food especially Denki's. Choosing the table you go over and you see that Denki has already made that decision with the table set. Not only is it set but he's put out your specific cutlery you use, you don't like using the bigger knives, forks and spoons so you have a couple of your own sets, he brought you one one day, you had only one but he brought the second set after moving in together in case the other set hadn't been cleaned yet. There's also glasses already on the table with a couple of options of both your favourite drinks. 'He really did think of everything tonight, huh.'

You sit down and place the glasses you carried to the side table so they won't get in your way as you hear, "foods coming, babydoll". You light up at use of the nickname, it's been a little while since you've heard it. He used to call you it all the time but hasn't for a little while, you would never admit it but you're glad he's called you it again, whenever you hear it you get butterflies.

The food really is delicious, neither of you are particularly good cooks but after you put your mind to something it's fantastic and this food really is. He went through all this for you and you'll love and saviour every bite. Even if it were burnt you'd still love it because of the time Denki put into it, you might've poked fun at him a bit though. You tell him how good it is and how your day has been while he tells you his. "I was kind of distracted during patrol if I'm honest." You say in between bites. "I was still on the top of my game though!" you rush out, tacked on at the end.

"I'm sure you were, you always are but what were you distracted about though?"

"It's nothing. not really."

Denki looks at you, not believing you for a second. "You may think I'll think it's nothing but that's not the case. If it's not nothing to you then it's not nothing to me as well. If you were distracted by something you've got to tell me, I've just made you dinner." He has got you there, it really isn't a big thing so there isn't any harm in telling him.

He's looking at you waiting for you to tell him, he's knows with you it could be anything. Maybe something like a philosophical question that you haven't gotten out of your head or a strange thing you saw while walking down the street, one day you came home rambling about a riddle that had you puzzled.

"I had lunch with Hanta, like I said I did, and before saying bye he kissed me. Like one of those kisses Mina gives everyone or when me and Kiri catch each other under the mistletoe."

He didn't know what he was expecting but it certainly wasn't this. You don't see Denki when you say you kissed Hanta, you're looking down at your plate getting ready to take another bite. You miss Denki's furrowed brows and his deep frown, it doesn't suit him. He tried to school his expression but that didn't stop his mouth moving, "he what?" You look up to see him and there's something about the way he said it that seems familiar. You can't exactly place what's strange about the way he said it or where you've heard him speak like that to you before but you chalk it up to confusion.

"Yeah, he kissed me. It just shocked me that's all, I didn't expect it," you explain.

"No wonder you were distracted during patrol! I can't believe he did that. You'll have to make him apologise." Denki says back automatically like it's the most urgent matter in the world, and to Denki right now it is. He can't believe Sero would just kiss you randomly like that, it's made you uncomfortable. The gall of him to put you in a situation like that!

"It's really not a big thing Denki! He doesn't need to apologise or anything." You give him the biggest smile like it's suppose to be obvious to him, that it's not a big deal but it doesn't stop him from thinking and just as he was about to say something else you start speaking again. "I'm so lucky to have you as my best friend Denki, you always look at for me but I swear this time you don't have to. It's just Hanta. It's not like I want him to apologise, it wasn't bad or anything, it was just surprising." Denki stays silent after that, you know he's protective of you, you just hope that doesn't lead him to talking to hanta about it and getting into an argument with each other.

"Dinner really was lovely Denks, thank you." You reach over to his plate and make your way into the kitchen. Just when you're about to wash up he comes up to you.

"I'll clean up tomorrow." Before you can object and tell him it's only fair for you to do it since he made dinner he's clutching onto your wrist and pulling you out of the kitchen.

"Denki what are you doing?"

"We're sitting down and we are going to watch a film."

"Can't that wait until after I clean up?"

"No." He picks up a blanket as he brings you both on the sofa and hands you the remote. Normally you sit close together or you end up next to one another because you're cold but as soon as you sit down Denki's dragging you next to him so your thighs are touching his and you're leaning against him as he pulls the blanket over you. "Put something good on babydoll."

You clear your throat, "oh, um yeah, I'll pick something now." You flick through what to watch seeing if anything in particular catches your eye. "How about wall-e? It's way better than any of the star wars films."

Denki chuckles and agrees with your pick, "it's still not better than star wars though."

"I beg to differ, it's the best space film there is."

"I don't know about that, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy exists and there's alien too."

"Hush, wall-e is the best film that's ever been made." He's about to rebuttal but the words die on his tongue as he sees you look up at him pouting.

He pulls you even closer to him, where you're practically laying on his chest, "whatever you say doll." You play the film as you move to get comfier and pull the blanket more so it's covering your whole body.

You watch together as he cracks jokes and asks you questions and your opinions about specific scenes. It's so warm and cosy next to Denki. You can smell the citrus shower gel he uses and the faint dark chocolate smelling fragrance from his cologne that Todoroki gave him one year as secret santa, it was incredibly obvious it was from him, he basically told him. Denki now buys it whenever it runs out, he fell in love with it, he must be on his tenth bottle by now, but you're not entirely sure though.

You hear his breathing and it just all feels right, it's so cosy that halfway through wall-e you've fallen asleep. Denki realises you've fallen asleep nearly instantly by the way you didn't respond to his last joke, he looks at you and see's that your eyes are closed and fluttering occasionally, he wonders what you're dreaming about. Denki holds you tighter, wrapping his arm around your plush waist, making sure that you're comfortable and that you're warm enough. You get cold so easily. He watches the film with you in his arms and he's so thankful that neither of you were busy tonight.

Thinking about being busy he pulls out his phone, careful not to wake you, and reluctantly checks his phone, hoping that nothing important comes up. He sees a few messages from the group chat and a couple sent to him directly but nothing that demands his attention more than tonight with you so he puts his phone back down.

You wake when you feel Denki shoving his phone back in his pocket, blinking your bleary eyes trying to wake up. Hopefully Denki is unaware that you've been asleep but you know that isn't the case as you pretend you've been awake the whole time and he laughs. "I really was awake."

"Sure, I totally believe you."

"It's not my fault, I was relaxed and comfy. Sleep is important."

"Awe, ' you saying I'm cosy?"

"Go away Denki."

He chuckles as the credits roll. "Sleep is important, and that's why i'm telling you to go to bed. It's late and after the best dinner of your life I'm sure you're tired." you giggle but don't disagree or argue. "I know I'm better to sleep on than the bed but you've got to." he grins at you. you wish he wouldn't say things like that, you're tired brain can't help but imagine you asleep on him again, only this time you're in your own bed.

" 'kay i'll go to bed, but my bed is the best to sleep on," you respond tiredly.

"What else have you slept on?"

You ignore this but it still makes a sleepy smile creep on your face, "night Denks."

"Yeah night 'doll."

You waddle into your room and close the door and drift off to sleep thinking about sleeping next to Denki, while Denki's in the kitchen washing up the dishes just in case you wake up before him and do it yourself, he highly doubts that he would sleep in or that you would wake up early, but just in case.

[swaps55]

Okay, how to phrase this question haha. I really love your Opus multiverse works, especially What We Choose (the hand holding scenes absolutely kill me in those) and The Things We’ve Done. I suppose what I mean to ask is, in these universes, what’s Sam’s thought process or the deciding factor that makes Sam act on his feelings for Kaidan, as most of them end up with them getting together as a result of Sam’s actions? Reading Opus, Sam doesn’t seem to really properly register his feelings for Kaidan in a blatant way until Sonata, so I wondered what pushes him to make a move in these multiverse scenarios. Obviously they’re AU’s so they’re just for funsies and just exploring what could be, but I’m always so immersed in everything you write!

This is an AMAZING question, and thank you so much for asking it!

The Opus Multiverse, the first kisses in particular, are a great excuse for me to do all kinds of stuff. When it comes to the first kiss AUs, in addition to getting some much needed release from the unrealized romantic and sexual tension, I get to poke Sam with a stick and see what happens. I LOVE exploring what flips his switch in different situations, because the answer is always interesting (to me, anyway).

My conclusion after lots of poking is that, in general, the way to get Sam to fucking figure it out is one of two things, sometimes both put together:

Put him in a situation where he is forced in some way to sit and stew about what Kaidan means to him, and I mean examine it, not just exist with it, like he does on the porch swing.

Touch.

Secret third thing: Put Kaidan in mylar.

Touch is a big one. Initially I really wanted to push the queerplatonic nature of their relationship - have them be a lot more physically affectionate with each other, but Sam is really keen on physical touch once you give it to him, and the slow burn would have gotten a lot faster, lol.

So, for example, in Yours, Sam had the double whammy of being forced to think about why the beacon visions upset him so much while lying in the same bed with Kaidan. The urge to touch him, for the reassurance he needs so badly, gets the better of him and he's toast.

What you can't do: spring it on him. Sam is an asshole when you back him into a corner. In The Hand and the Heart, his heart overrode his brain and surprised the hell out of him, and he reacted like an asshole. Sam almost pulled his asshole card on The Things We've done for similar reasons, but...he'd been forced to sit and stew a few days about some pretty serious shit, which made the difference.

(The Things We've Done is also a little bit different, because it's one of the few where I didn't change anything to flip Sam's switch - he just...kissed him, and I honestly don't think canon!Sam would ever do that, because he just isn't there yet. I think at that point in the story it's hard enough for him to grapple with the fact that Kaidan has become so important to him at all, and he just...isn't ready to go beyond that. But I REALLY WANTED HIM to, so he did.)

I tried to write a first kiss AU on Noveria in which Ashley ribs Sam about his feelings for Kaidan, but Sam lashed out so hard I not only couldn't get a first kiss out of it, it might have added a few years to the slow burn. XD.

Sam usually has to initiate, because for him to take it well he has to have space to think about things and get comfortable with it, and also, Kaidan is so good about suppressing how he feels and so unwilling to force anything on Sam that he doesn't think Sam wants that he won't make the move. (Exception: when you're on a midnight walk with the love of your life and you kiss him under the stars.)

It's also just fun to see that switch flip, because he basically goes from, "he's the closest friend I have," to, "if we don't get married right now I'm gonna start biting people," in the space of an eyeblink and it's delightful.

[laugtherhyena]

Out of curiosity, Are you able to talk about all the characters in Danganronpa Another and what you do and don't like about them?

And out of curiosity, what is your opinion on the creator?

Be ready for a lot of rambling anon because you just opened the floodgates here.

Ok so first and foremost, I don't really feel much towards Linuj himself? That's sorta of a me thing where i tend to not care much about the creators of stuff i like so you'll never see me go like "wow i love this person they're fucking awesome" or "Goddamn that guy sucks" (unless said creator has done something genuinely awful, in that case obviously I'd dislike them) at most you see me go "that's wild" or complain about writing decisions and that's about it, none of that makes me inclined towards liking or disliking Linuj as a person. Tho as much as i rant about his games i gotta give credit where credit is due, the dude manages to make two whole games prey much all by himself and I respect that honestly.

Onto the opinions on the charcters, I'll just be doing the Dra folks because it's been years since i last went through Sdra2 and since I don't like that game nearly as much as a the first one i feel like whatever I've got to say about the characters would be really shallow in comparison to the first game's cast and that's like,, not fair? In my head?So yeah, sorry Sdra2 fans, maybe some other time.

Kiyoka Maki

Kiyoka is a character i genuinely love a lot because she feels like the most perfect execution of a first victim character in a Danganronpa type game, so much so that i am genuinely appalled that Linuj just randomly decided to pick her as the first victim like, what?? She fits that role so perfect that it genuinely feels as if she was created with the idea of being the first victim in mind rather than creating the character and only assigning the role later, from her personality, to character traits and even down to her design, everything works so well together that it's insane for me to think that he created the pinnacle of first victim characters pretty much accidentally.

Regardless, the way she was written and inserted into the story never fails to amaze me but i already went into more details about that here so go check that out cuz now i wanna take this time to talk about her as a standalone character instead of just her role in the story.

Because really, Kiyoka is such a funny character! She's just this silly girl that wants to chill out and hang out with her besties but she could also shoot you square in the face from several feet away. That immense discrepancy between her talent and personality is something i always found absolutely hilarious, tho if there's one thing i dislike about her is that i wish Linuj would have explained how she got into spining in the first place? Since it's such an out there talent that Kiyoka herself doesn't even like that I can't help but wonder how that happened. Not in a "the character NEEDED this" way, I'm just genuinely curious and I'd love to know how she got herself into that pickle.

Her interaction with everyone else in the cast are delight too, i love thinking about her and the sunshine trio going around and getting into stupid shenanigans and i think Linuj did a fantastic job writtring her and Ryutaro's relationship, it's a very realistic portrayal of sibling relationship which makes me really sad whenever i think back to ch6.5 and how Ryutaro will never be able to apologize to his sister. Fun fact! The ending segment of that chapter where we see him at Kiyoka's grave was the first time I've ever cried over anything that happened in these games.

Mitsuhiro Higa

Higa is in this weird spot where I don't dislike him but I don't like like him either, it's this limbo area where I'm way too indifferent to actively dislike him so he just exists there and I don't think about him like ever and that's pretty much it.

Seriously, it's hard for me to even think about way to say in terms of likes and dislikes when it comes to him because i just. Don't think about Higa-

One thing that sorta bothers me about him is how Linuj tried to make him a bit "heroic" in that one flashbacks sequence we see in Ch6 that shows how the class was captured. It's just comes out of nowhere and it's so jarring considering not even his FTEs try to paint Higa in a nicer light. It's also really weird to me how Kizuna, the other awful person in a similar vein as Higa, didn't got any of that treatment which is just,, off.

Kizuna Tomori

And speak of the devil! Kizuna Tomori my beloved, they could never make me hate you❤️

I actually got this question about Kizuna specifically a while ago, so go read that post so that I won have to repeat myself here.

Ayame Hatano

Do you guys know Dungeon meshi? Have you ever seen people talk about how they've improved their eating habits or are generally eating and cooking more often because of how much they like Senshi, whose main character traits revolve around proper nutrition and cooking? That's literally me but exercising frequently out of how much i love Ayame.

Honestly? I feel a little embarrassed getting to talk about my liking for her like this because this is a character that's only around for like 1/3 of the game at most? If you count flashbacks scenes and extra materials like the FTEs and the IF chapter. At the end of the day Ayame is by no means an incredibly complex character so I'm not here to ramble about how she's actually really a deep and intricately constructed character and you guys just don't see it because ultimately, she isn't.

The older i get the more i realize that this is the sort of character i tend to gravitate towards in any media i consume. Very rarely do i ever become this attached to characters who are super intricate and complex, let alone main characters, i feel like even simpler characters like Ayame who has pretty normal life in comparison to others from the cast and not a lot of crazy stuff going on in her backstory have things going for that the casual fan may not notice but are absolutely worth looking into.

And it's crazy because i like quite literally everything about Ayame from her character to her design, in fact, it was her design that initially brought my attention to her because Ayame's hair is one of my favorite hairstyles to see in any character design ever (specifically the little spiky parts on the side that stick up a little) so that immediately made me like this character a bit before i even knew anything about the game other than the death order and that it came before Sdra2. And for real, i think Ayame's design is really good, simple yet solid much like the character herself honestly.

While Ayame was always amongst one of my favorites characters from Dra, I was much more into Sdra2 back when i first got into the series so for a good while my liking for her wasn't as imense as it is nowadays, but it was definitely more than i liked any other character in the first game though i could never quite place my finger on why i liked her so damn much. It was only when i got back into the another series years later that i was hit with a wave of emotions as i remembered how much i adored this character and looking into her again with a better understanding of things made me finally piece together what made me love her so dearly. Spoiler alert, it went much beyond my dumb teenage self pointing at the phone screen and going like “she's just like me fr‼️” to the point that nowadays i really don't relate to Ayame as much as i used to back then, i guess a good term to describe her would be a comfort character of mine but that doesn't feel that right to me either? I think this level of attachment to a fictional character goes beyond that like she has a special place in my heart and I think by now I've rewatched Ch2 more than any other person in this fandom-

I think what i love the most about this character is the inherent contrast within her, one so prominent that it goes as far as blending into her sprites and expressions, she appears as a serious and maybe even a little intimidating person upon first impressions with Yuki and while those are indeed parts of her Ayame is also a caring girl with a huge heart she's just a little awkward.

She struggles quite often when it comes to communicating and socializing with her peers but i cannot stress enough just how much Ayame cares for her classmates even though she's not the best at showing that, and don't mean just Akane (though she's by far the person she was the closest to). In the Ch2 post trial we learn that Ayame had actually been affected pretty heavily by the first motive video the cast was given yet she kept it to herself which when taking into account how she wishes for the rest of the class to get along as she's leaving for her execution reads to me as Ayame genuinely caring for the others as well to the point she wanted them to see her as strong so that they could also remain strong amidst the despair, and if that isn't enough to show her care then just look at the fact that this girl went as far as reopening an old wound on her leg, one that brought her so much pain and despair in the past, as a means of apology to all of them in case she managed to win the class trial (+ i personally believe this was also a self inflicted punishment for killing Kizuna since Ayame is well aware that she could have tried to save her instead of leaving her to bleed out with a knife on her neck, but that's more on the interpretation side than in-game implications.)

And this is where the nuance of this character comes in because while Ayame is a good person at heart, and a courageous and determined one at that, she's not beyond being cruel and getting her hands dirty in order to protect those she loves, but amidst this desire there's also a heap of selfishness in her acts that Ayame herself admits in the post trial as being the reason why she didn't just admit she was the killer from the start. She killed to spare Akane's life from an unavoidable execution but at the same time she wasn't free from the urge to take that as a chance to leave hope's peak academy herself and that's just,, ough man i love when characters can be brutal yet kind, selfless and selfish at the same time and i think this conflicting aspect of hers is what truly makes this character special.

So much so that i feel like if you just look at chapter 2’s case purely from a “clean” perspective where Ayame wanted to save Akane and there's not much more to that then you're missing out on the most interesting aspect of both the trial and her character and if that's as deep as most viewers tend to interpret her actions then it's no wonder why she's commonly deemed not very memorable and tends to be reduced to her relationship with Akane.

Yes, what she did was noble and it truly showed just how much she cared for Akane when she was willing to give up her own life and dreams for the future if it meant sparing her from a terrible fate, but you can't just gloss over the fact that at the same time Ayame had the selfish desire to use that as an opportunity to escape, and most importantly in my opinion we shouldn't ignore the fact that this sacrifice came in the form or brutally murdering someone she had the opportunity to try saving. It's just as cruel as it is noble yet simultaneously intertwined with Ayame's own selfish desires and wow! This character makes me unwell❤️

So yeah, in conclusion i like Ayame a whole lot and i wish more people would acknowledge the fact that she's kinda of a little freak too.

Kakeru Yamaguchi

So Kakeru is a weird one, in concept i like him quite a bit! I love the gentle giant archetype and i think the idea of him switching into a more assertive and loud personality in trials is really cool, but much like Kakeru as a whole, that is pretty underutilized and results in a character that could have been so much better than what we actually got in game.

I get the feeling that Linuj didn't really know what to do with Kakeru, he had a handfuls of ideas but there was no proper execution for them and he so he was sorta just,, there for the ride. I think what bothers me the most is how dumb he is in the trials, sure, DR trials aren't at all similar to the real life ones he would have been used to going to due to his talent, but that doesn't excuse the fact that Kakeru is surprisingly dumb in both the trials he's in when he should at least be able to argue and bring more to the table than just be another one of the characters that goes "i don't get it" or says something blantantly wrong for Maeda to refute. + If he smarter than that then maybe he could have been one of the characters to oppose Tsurugi more directly, since he is a lawyer and Kinjo has his "all criminals are scum" mentality. It would have fit well in with the characters and storyline but because Kakeru is such a nothing burger that role ended up being passed to Kinji since he's one of the few smart characters in Dra.

Still, none of that makes me dislike him it's just a little disappointing and ultimately makes him one of the people I don't think about very often but he's still a pretty sweet dude who i think it's pretty silly and funny in his interaction with the others from the cast so yeah, he's neat :]

Kanata Inori

You know, Kanata wasn't a character i originally thought much about but the more i looked into her the more i started loving this character, simultaneously, i felt disapointed of how underutilized she was in the story, but I'll get into that later.

Kanata is just such a sweetheart and you can really feel how much she cares for everyone during her interactions with the cast during the storyline, she's also quite useful in the trials she was in seeing as she was able to perform autopsies and give Yuki information that he probably wouldn't have known otherwise which more often than not ends up being pretty decisive in figuring out who the culprit is. I also really enjoy her backstory and how Ando's kindness in working to save her life despite the borderline nonexistent chances of her making out alive inspired her in such a way that Kanata decided to pursue a medical career so she could bravely save people just like he saved her! They're one of the sweetest family relationships in this series in my opinion so much so i get so sad whenever i rewatch ch6.5 and get to the part where Ando talks about Kanata and how she's an amazing kid :(

Much like Kakeru, the one thing i dislike about this character is that she was ultimately underutilized in the story, but whereas Kakeru's came from the fact that his character is an unorganized mess of ideas, Kanata had things going for her, they just weren't shown through most of the time she was on screen for whatever reason. Seriously, why was she reduced to the emotional character who cries all the time? I get that she's very nice and cares a lot for her classmates but c'mon, she worked at a hospital she should be able to deal with the situation at least a little better instead of bawling her eyes out whenever something bad happened.

Kanata hit a yakuza member on the head in the middle of a gang fight so that she could treat him properly once, she can be fierce and assertive when the situation calls for it, so why did she never do that in the main story?? This is absolutely baffling to me because it genuinely does such a disservice to the character and can end up driving people away from learning more about, like if i wasn't writing for an AU where she was a major character during the time she was alive I don't think i would have looked deeper into this character and learned how incredible she is because the main story made me think of her as just "the emotional one who cries all the time".

I also feel like it was a missed opportunity to not have her being the one who died trying to save the other ch3 victim. Like c'mon, her backstory shows us how she can often put other's safety before her own, that would have fit so well.

Kinji Uehara

Just like Kakeru, he's also a character I don't think much about but that comes from personal preference rather than feeling as if he was underutilized in story. Kinji just isn't the kind of character i tend to pay much mind to and that's ok! I do think he's a pretty interesting character, with his deal with the orphanage and also being the traitor in the game, i also enjoy how he always made his opinions clear to everyone like when he left the group because he didn't agree with Tsurugi's way of going about things and how he stood up against him and called him out in his hypocrisy in the Ch3 post trial.

If there's one thing I don't like about Kinji's is how linuj structured his murder plan, his method are SO violent for a character who had a noble motive and wasn't just some kind of crazy serial killer. Kakeru's make sense, since he was trying to stop him as fast as he could but i just don't understand why he still went on to kill Kanata when he had already killed someone (which was all he needed to do according to his deal with Monokuma), we're never told that Kanata saw it was him who attacked her, so why did ge insist on killing her anyway? Just because he had the plan set already? A plan that was also uncharacteristically brutal for a guy like Kinji. Seriously, when i first spoiled myself of all deaths in this game i got to Ch3 and thought "oh so he's the token crazy serial killer character" and while i was happy that he wasn't that, it's jarring that he got so violent out of nowhere + his breakdown in trial also feels pretty out of character in my eyes.

Haruhiko Kobashikawa

See, Haru is a cool guy, him Satsuki and Teruya (for a good part of the game) are essentially DRA's comedic relief characters and I've always had a big soft spot for those in DR games, when my faves inevitably die really early it's there character's inclusion that keep me watching the rest of the game!.. And then they die and struggle to get myself to watch the final chapters because most of the remaining characters are people I don't care nearly as much for- (thank god Ch5 has Mikako and Teruya survived the whole game)

But the thing is, when it comes to Haru himself I don't actually have much to say about him? He reminds me a lot of Kiyoka in the sense that he's a pretty normal guy for his age with a really out there talent that he's crazy good at. I think where Haruhiko really shines is not in his actions during Ch4 (tho that was amazing too, i can totally see why this is so many people's favorite chapter/case in Dra), but in his interactions with the other character because pretty much every single one of them are just so endearing to watch, regardless he's just being a dumbass or getting into trouble, in fact! I quite enjoy how he's a little hot headed (not sure if that's the right term)? The dude stands his ground and is not afraid of getting into fights if something's bothering him a lot, tho his own shortcomings and paranoia can often get the best out of him and he'll be sorta of an asshole and makes him feel so real to me, like he's just some dumb teen bound to make mistakes in a dangerous situation like the killing game and i really like that.

If i had to think of one thing i dislike about him I'd say is how he was characterized in the Ch6 flashback segment, like, by that point him and Satsuki are a couple right? So why was he trying to hit on the random Kisaragi fundation worker? That's not necessary out of character for him, but it's really weird that he's doing that despite havinya girlfriend of her own (smh Haru, i expected better from you).

Satsuki Iranami

Satsuki isn't a character i talk about a lot but i like her a lot! Not only is she a genuinly funny character who i love seeing her interactions with pretty much anyone in the cast, but i find her relationship with her family and the way she goes about it really interesting. I think anyone who've seen Satsuki's FTEs can tell that her family is insanely abusive, creating an environment of making their kids compete and compare themselves to one another on who's the best clown and treating Satsuki like absolutely garbage since she's considered the worst of them. Hell, I'm pretty sure they only sent her to hope's peak so they could get rid of her since she was of age to attend which is just,, damn. This is a fucking awful place to grow up in.

Yet Satsuki herself isn't a sad person nor do we ever see her get really depressed and upset when talking about her family, at most she looks a little sad and, unfortunately, agrees with them that she's the worst of the clows while sticking to not crying or sulking about it, instead she goes on to keep being silly and joking around which has always striked me more as a coping mechanism instead of "Satsuki it's too stupid to realize how terrible her family situation is" because as goofy as she is i do get the feeling that she knows her situation is absolutely awful but doesn't know a great way to cope with it other than what she's already doing.

And this seeing this strange coping mechanism explains so much about the way she acts in the killing game, she keeps joking around even during trials or when faces with murder motives because she just wants to remain happy and tries to see if maybe doing so will lift up the spirits of her classmates as well. Not saying that this is by any means a healthy coping mechanism, like, no, Satsuki girl it's okay to cry and be upset over terrible things, be it her family situation or the killing game, but this is nevertheless the most fascinating aspect of this character to me.

And once you take that into accound, it makes perfect sense why she was choosen to be sorta the "hope beacon" of the cast in Ch4 because really, that's just what Satsuki's Been doing the whole game. Tho i do wish this aspect was given more of a spotlight even in Ch4 itself because on first watch (without going through her FTEs) it felt a little jarring to me how Satsuki "randomly" became really important, but i consider that more of a nippick in comparison to other things I've complained about here.

Yamato Kisaragi

Oh right, this guy! He exists in the same indifference limbo as Higa but only because I don't think about him that often (so much so i forget he exists sometimes) because whenever i do think about him he gets violently pushed onto the active dislike section. Which is really funny to me considering Yamato is the perfect and super cool genius guy of the first another game, and that's a big point on my lack of care for him. The game insists in telling us how awesome Yamato is, how all of his classmates like him and how much of a hero he was for try to save them both in the Ch6 flashback and in the IF chapter, and i think that's exactly what made me feel such insane annoyance/repulse towards this character to the point that I'll see him and just groan and roll my eyes.

He's a character the story actively wants us to like but he's just so bland and generic that this push just annoys me and i feel nothing towards him as a person, the fact that we barely see him be himself in the game doesn't help either since he died almost as soon as he's introduced and all we have are flashbacks, the other character's opinions/memories of the guy and his Ai version. And even when we do see Kisaragi be himself in the IF chapter, his role there is like,, textbook generic anime nice guy protag and i just feel?? Insane???

His bland ass is like a piece of wet cardboard to me that i see people point at and act like it's the coolest thing ever and i just look down at it in my hands and think, i don't get it. I don't see it.

And don't even get me started on how Linuj fucking side lined Mikako's role and character in favor of giving this guy the spotlight by having him come in as if he's the goddamn saving grace of the killing game and solve all the mysteries that were set and build up BY ANOTHER CHARACTER, because nooooooooooo we can't have Mikako do that, it has to be Kisaragi because he's THE. GUY. EVER. ISN'T HE JUST SO FUCKING AMAZING EVERYONE????????

This makes me. Genuinely so mad and since I'd rather not pop a vein while raging as i write this go look at this post if you wanted to see me ramble a little more on this part.

Wow, after this it's tricky for me to even think of a positive to say, uhm.. I guess his relationship with Mikako is nice? I do like how it genuinely seems like they care a lot for one another tho sometimes this care can come off the wrong way and lead to arguments between the two, like how Yamato was avoiding and being rude to Mikako during that flashback sequence i keep mentioning over and over even tho she could tell there was something wrong with him and just wanted to help. They're sweet and tragic when thinking about how they met their ends but I can't feel much on that regard seeing how many,, feelings. I have towards Yamato.

Mikako Kurokawa

You know i feel like we as a fandom don't talk enough about the horror that Mikako goes through during the killing game. She never lost her memories, she remembers these people being friends and having strong bonds with other another and she's just forced to sit there and watch as they forget everything and murder each other without knowing of what she knows, and if Mikako does as much as try to say a few words regarding what she knows her head already starts splitting into two and she'll have headaches so bad they'll make her pass out and puke blood. And that's without counting the fact that she's left completely in the dark about her brother's whereabouts through most of the game and when she does reunite with him is in the worst way possible because Yamato’s mental state is even worse than hers and he dies not long after with her being blamed for his murder. She had the worst time ever in that game and i feel like it really isn't an understatement to say she suffered through the whole thing.

And that's where Mikako's spirit really shines because despite all the pain she went through, both physical and mental, she always held onto hope and wanted to help her friends even if her options were incredibly limited. She cared for each and every single one of them to the point she even wanted to try and save Yuki and Akane even though she knew they were the masterminds because she thought that with their memories erased they could embrace hope as well and come out of that as better people, and in her very last moments she still wished to help the remaining characters and kept talking even though she knew it would kill her. That's such an insane level of courage and determination from her part that it never fails to impress me.

She's such an insane character I can't help but feel like we were robbed when she died, especially when it happened before she could unravel all the mysteries Mikako had help build up through the entirety of the game and instead we get her amazing and so cool brother doing that and getting all the spotlight instead of Mikako herself.. How nice.

But i think what bothers me the most about her death is that it was so?? Unnecessary?? Like, what did it do for her character arc? It feels like she died more because Linuj wanted her to die than because it felt fitting for the character’s journey to end where it did, and you can't tell me it wouldn't have been awesome to see her in Sdra2 and how she'd react learning that her shitty mother was one of the reason why that second killing game happened in the first place.

I explained my thoughts on Mikako's death in a nicer manner in this other post so please go check that out because I will never not be upset over her death in this game, especially when her execution ends in a way that she would have survived if she wasn't already dead by the time started.. that just felt like an unnecessary fuck you from Linuj’s part-

Akane Taira

Another character I've rambled about in the past and so don't feel like reiterating it all here (this post is getting REALLY long), so yeah, check it out but tldr, I think Akane is a really cool character and i think writing her so frequently in -2+2 has made me not only get a better understanding of her character but also like her a lot more too!

Yuki Maeda

As y'all know, Dra Yuki>>>>>>>>Sdra2 Yuki always and forever in my heart ❤️

Seriously, for someone who tends to really not give a fuck about the protagonists in DR games it genuinely surprised me how much i grew to enjoy Dra Yuki after i went through the game's full translation and realized “Woah! He isn't the same universal punching back as the Sdra2 one!” Because prior to that i was under the impression that both Yuki acted and were treated the exact same by the game's storyline and as you can probably tell I don't like Sdra2 Yuki all that much.

Dra Yuki differs because not only does the game not try to force the horrors upon him constantly but he feels very human in his actions, he's just some guy not the embodiment of good or a hope hype man so he's bound to get a little sick of this shit sometimes and make mistakes. We see this during Ch4 in his argument with Akane and also in Ch2 where he decides to break the groups trust by reading the secret note anyway which later comes back to bite him when the cast finds out, and this really stood out to me and made him instantly more interesting than other protags in my eyes, although I'm pretty sure this nuance of his character was done as a way to foreshadow his reveal as Utsuro/The mastermind.

Either ways, it ended up creating one of my favorite protags of any DR type game + i do really like the twist of the protagonists being the mastermind at the end of the day, it was something super unique by the time Dra first came out and it's still something i haven't seen be done in any other fangan (tho to be fair I don't look much into those anymore nowadays-)

It's hard for me to pick something i dislike about him since he's overall just a neat guy in my eyes but if i had to pull something I'd say he constantly taking Tsurugi's side feels kinda annoying at times? Sometimes it feels like he just glosses over some of the nasty stuff Kinjo says, like when he questioned why the group for kicking out Kinjo in Ch3 as if he hadn't just told Akane to kill herself right after she saw her best friend be grinded into minced meat. Like okay buddy i get that you see good in Kinjo and you wanna help him, but he really deserves to get a good slap in the face sometimes and the others are rightfully mad at him.

Utsuro

Not much to say here honestly, i feel like i like the idea of Utsuro and what he brings to the table in terms of world building, how his presence and powers affect the others around him and even the story itself. The idea of someone with insane luck powers he can't control that made his life miserable since he could achive literally anything with no effort and everyone he met only wanted to exploit said powers which led to him falling into the despair ideology since by that point it was the one thing that made him feel something it's just so,, wow man, thats some crazy angst and such an unique way to explore the borderline magical luck that exist in the DR franchise.

I love thinking about him in that vein but as a character?.. Erh, i really don't care nor think much about Utsuro at all. Which in a way, i suppose isn't all that different from how the world saw him in universe? How ironic.

Teruya Otori

By far my favorite out of the survious though I'm not sure how to explain why i like Teruya so much? I feel like part of it comes from the soft spot for comedic relief characters i talked about earlier and the rest from the way he was written in the story.

It's crazy because i feel like Teruya's writing in itself really highlights the changes in the way Linuj viewed and went about characters by the time he started working on Sdra2, i feel like if Teruya was a character that originated from that game he would be portrayed as a bad person who you shouldn't sympathize for even though he has his reasonings for acting the way he does sometimes, sorta like how Linuj tends to punish Hibiki even tho she was the bigger victim at the end of the way.

Just like Haruhiko he feels very real to me and his character arc through Dra has gotta be one of my favorites. Teruya is not a bad person, he's a good kid at heart but the severity of the situation they're in and the stuff that gets forced upon him gets to him a lot which leads to Teruya lashing out at his friends and doing some pretty bad things here and there, yet he's never portrayed as an awful person that shouldn't be forgiven or shit and he does change for the better at the end of the day. He went through a lot and came out bigger and stronger on the other side and is a shame this kind of character arc isn't properly used in Sdra2 since Linuj's mentality became so black and white out of nowhere.

I love this little guy, I'm so glad he survived the killing game though unfortunately the same can't be said for the second one but honestly? Teruya's entire role in that story was such a mess, and sometimes even a detriment to his character in my opinion, that nowadays I can't even feel that sad over his death anymore. While there are a handful of things that bother me a lot about it, like the amnesia plot just because Linuj seems to hate actually building up to things in that game and his entire role in ch4 (seriously. What was that. Why.), i think what i dislike the most is the fact that he ended up being permadead while Rei escaped the killing game fine.

I know Linuj actually gave a good explanation to why it happened (unlike Mikako's barely explained sudden brain explosion), but still, it feels like such a mean thing to do to someone who's been through so much and still tried his hardest while being in a dangerous and unpredictable situation. My guy was done dirty in that game.

Rei Mekaru and Tsurugi Kinjo

Grouping these two together because i feel like my opinions on both of them are not only pretty much the same but they also stem from the same place, so yeah-

Don't get me wrong, these two are very interesting characters and I'd argue they're one of the more complex ones in the cast as well, not only because they make it through both games but also because of their own personal backgrounds and how that shaky upbringing affected the kind of person they became as they grew older. With Tsurugi living under his father's black and white ideologies of criminals being deserving of death no matter what and falling deeper and deeper into that the more friends he loses during his life and Rei being abandoned (albeit unintentionally?) by her parents at an young age which led to her working hard to get where she's at now which not only made her quite used to being on her own but also loathe those who "take the easy" way and want all awnsers handed to them on a silver platter, which explains why she's so rude to the rest of the cast since she wants them to figure out stuff on their own too.

There's a lot to look into these characters and it makes sense why so many people like them a lot, I'm however not the biggest fan of this type of character (tho i feel like that lies more in their personality than anything else?) so i never looked much into them before i started writing DRA -2+2 and decided to look into everyone in the cast to get a better grip on their characters. And man, writing these two really did give me a newfound appreciation and love for them! They're such fun characters to write and have interacting with the rest of the cast. Tho i wouldn't by any means say i have a proper understanding of them, i feel like that's a bit out of my league still.

If there's one thing I'm not a big fan if is that i wish we would have seen more of those two in Sdra2 instead of them just having a major role in Ch6, AKA; the messiest chapter in this entire series. Like, would it have hurt that badly to not have the Void theather segments and instead cut to small scenes at the Kisaragi foundation showing what the characters are doing and how they're reacting and planing to go about interfering with Mikado's killing game? I feel like that would have been so much more interesting than watching Emma bother Hajime with bad puns while Nikei and Iroha continue being the same assholes they've always been + it would have made Tsurugi's backwards development less of a shock to see whenever Ch6 actually rolls around.

Anyways, to wrap up this massive post here's what i hope will be the definitive Carol Dra cast tierlist

[winchestersheaven]

Smowkie recs McShep

i've been reading a lot of McShep fics lately and a while back i mentioned that i had plans to make a couple of fic rec posts. they're taking me forever to make, but here's the first one, finally!

@wonkyelk was one of the first authors i found, and i've read and loved SO MANY of their fics! wonderful author that made me fall head over heels for the pining!John and oblivious!Rodney trope! 💖

this is by no means an exhaustive list of the fics i loved from them, it's just a small number of the ones i read and enjoyed. my biggest recommendation with this author is to just go read their fics, it's great stuff and their language is delightful.

so here goes, in no particular order:

19 McShep fics by WonkyElk (under the cut, because this got long)

Of Sealing Wax and String 3562 words | Teen author's tags: First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, POV Rodney McKay summary:

Rodney had never had so much love in his life that he wasn't desperate to catch all the drops that he could.

Smowkie: there are too many things that i love in this to mention them all, so i'll just add my favorite quote from the fic: "[...] a thoughtful look, albeit one squarely aimed at the floor, which was hardly likely to appreciate it." 💖

You’re the Book That I Have Opened 1834 words | Teen author's tags: Pining John Sheppard, Oblivious Rodney McKay, Character Study, Angst with a Happy Ending, Short, Internalized Homophobia summary:

At eighteen, John Sheppard had known a lot of things. He knew how to dance, with exactly the right level of polite formality. He knew how to ride well and the proper care of a horse. He knew everything about the theory and mathematics of flight. He knew that being a fighter pilot was the absolute dream of his life. And he knew - knew - that he wasn't into guys.

Smowkie: lovely thing, chock-full of John feels, and with this quote: "They sat in silence for a while. Silence was something John could do. It never came out awkward or wrong, you could never blurt out unintentional silence, or get your bits of silence all mixed up and taken out of context." brb, crying about John Sheppard.

How to Disappear Completely 7276 words | Teen author's tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Temporary Character Death, Feelings Realization, POV Alternating summary:

"Look, I know you don’t know me and you’re not aware of the fact that, if you knew I was missing - which you don’t, because I never existed and, even if I did, you wouldn’t have met me yet - then you’d be very, very upset about it … but I really need your help. And, actually, so does the universe."

Smowkie: this one is amazing! mild horror warning for the creepiness in the beginning, that was some well written discomfort! also, so much love the fantastic way WonkyElk chose to show Rodney's mood and vulnerability 💖

New Every Day 2047 words | Gen author's tags: Pining John Sheppard, Oblivious Rodney McKay, Angst, Short, POV John Sheppard, Character Study summary:

Sometimes it seemed like he had to relearn emotions, over and over again.

Smowkie: this one! what a lovely thing. all the John feels. i want to add a couple of quotes here too, but they're right at the end so i'm not doing that, sadly. i can quote "Especially Rodney" though, because especially Rodney 💖

Some Misunderstanding 6193 words | Teen author's tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Human Experimentation, First Kiss, POV Alternating summary:

The path to Ascension was not a smooth one.

Smowkie: this one! UNCOMFY. really really good with a very interesting style, but oof, uncomfy! love it!

All You Need is … 1830 words | Teen author's tags: Short, Feelings Realization, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst summary:

The thing about love was, that it wasn't enough. It might fill you up and set you alight and hug you close and tear your heart out and pet you gently and hang like a slow-dragging weight around your neck: but, for all of its bullying and grandstanding, it skipped right over all the practical things and let you scramble around to fix those up - or not - as best you might; but definitely with none of its assistance.

Smowkie: this made me all mushy inside, it was great 💖

Flowers and Other Ambiguities 1289 words | Gen author's tags: Pre-Slash, Character Study, POV John Sheppard, Short, Pining John Sheppard, Oblivious Rodney McKay summary:

The field was blossoming in such rich dark blues and purples, with an underlying green, that John was irresistibly put in mind of the ocean, his feet lightly stepping over the water, mindful of the lurking creatures of the deep.

Smowkie: this one holds a special place in my heart. it was one of the first McShep fics i read and it's what really sold me on the pining!John and oblivious!Rodney trope. it's such a wonderful fic, and the pining, man the pining 💖

But Soft … 1645 words | Teen author's tags: Fluff, Alternate Universe - College/University, Theatre, Short summary:

"I'm just suggesting, John, that, perhaps your speeches about Juliet, should not be notably less impassioned than your banter with Mercutio."

Smowkie: i’m generally not interested in AUs for McShep, but i had enjoyed so much from WonkyElk that i read this anyway, and BOY am i glad i did, because i adored this!

Not Early, But Not Too Late 810 words | Teen author's tags: Short, Realisations, Getting Together, First Kiss summary: 

Rodney finally learns the language.

Smowkie: this is just lovely 💖

A Matter of Mugs 2959 words | Teen author's tags: Post-Canon, Break Up, Light Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Oblivious Rodney McKay summary:

Rodney's emotional levels were generally at critical, but, right now, they were straining the banks and spoiling for a flood of world-drowning proportions. This wasn't because of a crisis, nor even anything so petty and ordinary as a mid-life crisis - not that Rodney was old enough for that, slap bang in the very prime of life as he was and intended to remain - but more of a build up of small things and not-so small things, stacking up awkwardly on top of each other and wobbling under the pressure and the terrible engineering choices.

Smowkie: this is a wonderful read, and i love how John comes first for Rodney long before he realizes his feelings for him. also Rodney and Jeannie bonding 💖 (to clarify the break-up tag: i've chosen not to add relationship tags in this post since all fics are McShep, but this fic has both the John/Rodney and the Jennifer/Rodney relationship tags, and the break-up tag is for Jennifer/Rodney)

One Stroke of The Moon 1378 words | Gen author's tags: Short, Episode: s05e06 The Shrine, Light Angst, Team as Family summary:

When the Avarro moon hangs lowest in the sky, ripe and full - so bright and summoning that your head becomes full of it and nothing else exists - then it is, that some climb to the very top of the trees, stretch out their hands and their hopes and touch her on the belly, with a reverent stroke. Those that touch the moon in this way are never the same afterwards. Nor would they want to be.

Smowkie: this is such a lovely thing. the team’s loyalty and love to Rodney is just 💖

A Staff, A Spear 2179 words | Teen author's tags: Character Study, Angst, Pining John Sheppard, Oblivious Rodney McKay, Short, POV John Sheppard summary:

For a time, he had no memory, no self; no pain. Until the sunshine cooled in his blood and the wine left him with a sigh, like a ghost, and his whole personality fell back inside him, with a thump. It was so heavy, being himself again, he could almost have cried.

Smowkie: the fic that made me make this post. this one really hits you smack in the face with John feels. it's heartbreaking and painful in the best of ways. 💖

Setting Parameters 4545 words | Teen author's tags: Hurt/Comfort, Action/Adventure, Virtual Reality, POV Alternating summary:

It absolutely wasn’t a holodeck.

Smowkie: i love a good holodeck disaster story, but this is so much more than just that, and i adore it. the McShep relationship especially, but also Teyla (and Ford too) 💖 much love! and my favorite quote: They rested against each other when they were done, in a way which, to the laymen’s mind, might very easily be confused with snuggling. guys, come on... xD 💖

A Pair of Shadows 2090 words | Teen author's tags: POV Outsider, Rodney and John are Stuck Together, Fluff summary: 

John and Rodney become joined at the hip. This is not metaphorical.

Smowkie: glorious outsider POV fic 💖

Opposite to Blue 1459 words | Teen author's tags: Short, Character Study, References to Depression, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Sheppard summary:

The first time that John had met Rodney McKay he had been brightly, regrettably, orange.

Smowkie: more John feels 💖 Rodney is such a sweetheart in this, and he pretty much killed me with the quote "the wiggly thing your voice did when you called me" 💖

A Sufficiency of Freedom 1342 words | Teen author's tags: Character Study, Short, Light Angst, Pining John Sheppard, Oblivious Rodney McKay, POV John Sheppard summary:

From time to time, people had asked John why he loved to fly.

Smowkie: this has such great imagery, a beautiful insight in John's mind 💖

An Anchor in the Mist 1620 words | Teen author's tags: Short, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, First Kiss, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Sheppard summary:

Sometimes, when he was back on Earth, John would look around at the colours, the brightness, the busyness - the sheer number of people, the surrealism of it all - and wonder if it was actually real.

Smowkie: THIS ONE! i adore this one. it's John feels again, and it's hurt/comforty and angsty and sweet and loving and painful and happy and just beautiful. i want to live in this one 💖

To silent ash 1529 words | Teen author's tags: Angst and Feels, Post-Canon, Sad summary:

Dear Jeannie…

Smowkie: ah, pain. it's beautiful and so very sad. read the author's note before the fic and decide if you want the spoilers or not, but either way it's worth it imo, i loved it

Accepting a Complement 1433 words | Gen author's tags: Short, Feelings, working out a relationship summary:

He wasn't sure exactly when he and Sheppard had become 'those two' or 'you two' or 'that pair' to so many people. But, now that the phrase had jumped up and bit him, so to speak, he was very aware that he had heard it too many times to count.

Smowkie: this fic made me feel in love with McShep. i mean, i guess i am in love with McShep, that's sorta how i ship, i see something and fall in love. but this fic, yeah, it brought it out so much that i was just a mess reading it, the whole thing; giddy, grinning, the stomach thing that feels a lot like anxiety but isn't. yeah, i love this one, it made me so happy 💖

[roseshower]

Who Would've Thought A Crack Pairing

—would have me in a chokehold like this??? Seriously, in what world (this one) would I have ever come across a Damian Wayne x Marinette Dupain-Cheng fanfic and loved it to the point where I'M writing about them??? Dear God.

Alright so. Hey. Shameless call out for a ficlet I'm writing about (okay so I KNOW I haven't been updating my other ones...). Wait before I continue—look. My favorite of all the Batfam is Damian Wayne. He's like. My kid. My child. Sure he stabs the shit out of his family at first but he ain't do nothing wrong bruh he's just misunderstood fr. And then there's Marinette. My favorite character from back when I was in middle school. I thought it would be silly to look up some MLB x Batman Fics and. Jesus Christ. I found MANY. (Not enough.) And then I saw "Damian Wayne/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug" and I thought??? No fucking way??? IS THIS REAL

I read the fic. Which fic? I won't gatekeep. "No, Mr. Wayne, You Can't Adopt Me!" by ggomoz (ggomo_springtime) on Ao3 is a FUCKING BANGER I read it for shits and giggles because I was like "hah???? NO WAY" and my god. My GODDDD it was AMAZING. I know I sound like I'm glazing rn but my god y'all have to read it if you guys like Damian x Marinette shit. And also Marinette having great interactions with the BatFam. Primarily Bruce Wayne, as you can see by the title.

But yeah. Holyyyy hell. That was one of the fics that inspired mine. The other was "the reports associated with my existence have been significantly misconstrued" by davidstennant on Ao3 and ANOTHER was "for us to collide" by LadyLiterature on Ao3.

ANYWAY. Enough rambling. The whole reason for this post was to present to you the fic I've been working on...

Help! My Boss Is In Love With Me!

Synopsis:

Rumors say that the youngest son of Bruce Wayne is in love with his assistant. Marinette immediately debunks these rumors—her grouchy boss has no love in his body for anyone, let alone for her. So then, if it's just a rumor, why does she keep catching him staring at her like she's just hung the moon?

Or, Damian Wayne accidentally acquires feelings for his lovely assistant Marinette, much to his frustrations and everyone else's delight.

Now... I know what you're thinking... "Ana what the fuck is this" and to tell you the truth I DONT KNOW??? DAMIAN X MARINETTE IS BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF ME

but yeah if you guys want a lil taste for what you may be reading, I'll throw a crumb rn

Internally, he wilts at the sight of her perfection.

The feelings have grown more over the years he's had the luck of having her working for him, and they came to a head months ago in the middle of a cumbersome night of dealings he wonders how his father dealt with all on his own.

And it's because he saw her run into the damn glass door of his office.